Did Paul forbid women to prophesy?

No. Paul does not forbid it — he assumes it is happening. The key text is 1 Corinthians 11:5, where Paul is working through a question about head coverings in the assembly. He writes:

"But every woman who prays or prophesies with her head uncovered dishonors her head." — 1 Corinthians 11:5

Look at the grammatical form. The phrase is pasa de gyne proseuchomene e propheteuousa (πᾶσα δὲ γυνὴ προσευχομένη ἢ προφητεύουσα) — "every woman praying or prophesying." Both verbs are present active participles, feminine singular. In Greek, the present participle describes a continuous, ongoing activity. Paul is not hypothesizing about something that might happen. He is describing what women in Corinth are already doing — publicly, in the gathered church — and giving them instructions about how to do it.

If Paul wanted to prohibit women from prophesying, this was the moment to do it. He could simply have said, "Women should not prophesy." Instead, he addresses only the head-covering question. The prophesying he takes as given.

The verb propheteuo (προφητεύω, G4395) appears 28 times in the New Testament. Eleven of those occurrences are in 1 Corinthians — and chapters 11 and 14 regulate prophetic speech, they do not prohibit it for women. Paul's concern is that prophecy in the assembly be orderly, intelligible, and edifying.

This fits seamlessly with what Peter had already declared at Pentecost. Peter quoted Joel 2 as the scriptural ground for what was happening:

"And your sons and your daughters shall prophesy ... even on my male servants and on my female servants in those days I will pour out my Spirit, and they shall prophesy." — Acts 2:17–18

Peter emphasizes the pattern by adding a second "and they shall prophesy" at the end of verse 18 — reinforcing that the female servants are included. Luke then confirms the pattern a decade later. When Paul and his companions stop at Caesarea in Philip's house, Luke notes in passing that Philip had "four unmarried daughters who were prophesying" (Acts 21:9). Luke uses the same verb propheteuo as a present active participle, feminine plural — the same form Paul uses for the women of Corinth.

Four daughters prophesying. Paul stays in the house. Luke reports it without apology, without explanation, without a comment that this is unusual. It is what the Spirit poured out at Pentecost does.

So when Paul writes about women praying and prophesying in the assembly, he is not reversing Pentecost. He is regulating an established practice that traces back to Joel's prophecy and forward through the apostolic church.

For the full Joel–Acts–Paul citation chain and how it connects to Miriam, Deborah, and Huldah, see Deborah, Huldah, and the Women Who Led.