  Their point is that the Bible endorses a woman’s capacity for equal spiritual authority and her entitlement to speak in church and to prophesy. In light of these endorsements, they say, a different interpretation must be given to those injunctions that suggest women must not speak. Instead we must interpret “woman” to mean “weakness”, and accept that womanliness can be a property of both males and females. As an example, they highlight 1 Corinthians 11:4–5, the warning that “Every man praying or prophesying, having his head covered, dishonoureth his head. But every woman that prayeth or prophesieth with her head uncovered, dishonoureth her head”. According to Cotton and Cole, this passage might be re-interpreted in a positive light. Both males and females may speak in church, but if they speak then they “must be covered with the covering of the Spirit”—they must be in the light, as it were. If they are not in the light, then they speak as “women” regardless of their actual gender: they speak, that is, with a lack of authority or with carnal weakness rather than spiritual strength.