Marriage, Singleness, and a Calling Larger Than Either

“Now concerning” is peri de, the formula that marks each topic raised in the Corinthians’ own letter; it recurs at 7:25, 8:1, 12:1, 16:1 and 16:12. “Touch” is a polite idiom for sexual relations, as when God tells Abimelech, “suffered I thee not to touch her” (Genesis 20:6).

“Have” is another idiom for sexual union, the verb used in 5:1 of the man who “should have his father’s wife”. The Greek says “because of the fornications”, plural, the actual cases in Corinth rather than an abstract danger. Each clause gives the man and the woman the same wording.

The oldest manuscripts read simply “the debt”, what is owed; “benevolence” comes from later copies that softened the word. “Render” is apodidomi, to pay what is due, the verb of Romans 13:7, “Render therefore to all their dues.”

“Hath not power” is exousiazo, the verb of 6:12, “I will not be brought under the power of any.” Paul refused to be mastered by appetite; here he places each spouse willingly under the other’s authority. The word “likewise” turns a familiar claim of husbands into a claim of wives as well.

“Defraud” is apostereo, the verb of 6:8. “Give yourselves” is scholazo, to have leisure for, the root of “school”. Early copies speak of prayer alone; “fasting” was added later. “Incontinency” is akrasia, lack of self-mastery, the philosophers’ word for knowing what is right and failing to do it.

“Permission” is syngnome, a concession or allowance, found only here in the New Testament. What “this” refers to is disputed: the brief abstinence of verse 5, or the whole instruction to marry in verse 2. Either way, Paul marks the difference between allowing and requiring.

“Gift” is charisma, the word for the Spirit’s gifts in chapter 12, so marriage and singleness are both called gifts. Whether Paul had never married or was a widower is unknown. If his “I gave my voice” in Acts 26:10 means a vote in a council, marriage would have been expected of him, an inference only.

“Unmarried” is masculine and set beside “widows”, so some think Paul means widowers in particular; Greek had little use for a separate word. “Abide” is meno, to stay as one is, the verb that returns as the chapter’s refrain in verses 20 and 24.

“Contain” is enkrateuomai, to exercise self-control, the athlete’s word of 9:25: “every man that striveth for the mastery is temperate in all things.” “Burn” is present tense, a continual burning. Not everyone is built for the discipline of the games.

One of the few places Paul cites a command of Jesus explicitly; Mark 10:9–12 and Matthew 19:6 give the saying. “Depart” is chorizo, to separate, a common term for divorce in the Greek papyri. The wife is addressed first.

Mark 10:12, alone among the gospels, has Jesus speak of a woman who “shall put away her husband”, a case that fitted the Roman world better than Jewish law. “Put away” is aphiemi, to send off or dismiss, the ordinary verb of a divorcing husband.

When Ezra found Jewish men married to foreign wives, the community resolved to “put away all the wives” (Ezra 10:3). Paul rules the opposite for a believer married to an unbeliever: if she consents to stay, he must not send her away. “Be pleased” is syneudokeo, to agree together.

Roman law let a wife end a marriage as readily as a husband, and Paul addresses her directly with the same verb he used for the husband. The unbelieving husband might well be the head of a household with its own gods, which made such a marriage harder for her than for him.

“Is sanctified” is perfect tense, has been made holy. Haggai 2:11–13 asked the priests whether holiness passes by touch; they answered no, though uncleanness does. Paul describes a household where holiness travels through the believing spouse, and he offers the children as the proof.

“Not under bondage” is douloo, to be enslaved. The Mishnah (Gittin 9:3) gives the essential words of a Jewish bill of divorce as “you are free to marry any man”, a formula some bring to this verse, though Paul does not use it. In the earliest copies the last clause says “you”, not “us”.

Each spouse is addressed by name in turn, “O wife... O man”, like two voices in a dialogue. 1 Peter 3:1 hopes that believing wives may win husbands “without the word”, by their conduct. “Save” is sozo, the ordinary word for salvation, and the question is left without an answer.

“Distributed” is merizo, the verb of 1:13, “Is Christ divided?”: God has dealt each person a portion. “Ordain” is diatasso, to give orders, used of arranging troops. The appeal to “all churches” recurs in 4:17, 11:16 and 14:33, so Corinth is not a special case.

“Become uncircumcised” is epispaomai, a medical term for a surgical procedure that disguised circumcision. 1 Maccabees 1:15 says Hellenizing Jews in Jerusalem “made themselves uncircumcised” to join the gymnasium, where men exercised naked.

The sentence is a paradox, since circumcision was itself one of God’s commandments (Genesis 17:10). Galatians says the same twice with different endings: what counts is “faith which worketh by love” (5:6) or “a new creature” (6:15). Here it is keeping God’s commandments.

“Calling” is klesis, the situation in which a person was called, not a trade. Luther’s translation of verses like this helped give the German Beruf, calling, its later sense of a worldly occupation. The verse states the chapter’s rule a second time.

“Servant” is doulos, a slave; the King James softens it throughout. “Care not for it” means do not let it weigh on you. Roman slaves could sometimes buy their freedom from their own savings, and many of Corinth’s first settlers were former slaves, so the question was close to home.

“Freeman” is apeleutheros, a freedman, the legal term for a former slave who still owed duties and loyalty to his former owner as patron. The believing slave has Christ for that patron, and the free believer is Christ’s slave. Each status is turned inside out.

The words of 6:20 return, “Ye are bought with a price”, now with a new consequence. Around AD 96, 1 Clement 55 says some believers sold themselves into slavery to ransom others, so becoming a slave of men was not only a figure of speech.

The rule appears for the third time (verses 17, 20 and 24), framing the section like a refrain. This time it adds “with God”, para theo, beside God, in his presence: whatever one’s station, it is held in company with God.

“Virgins” is parthenoi, which can include unmarried men; Revelation 14:4 uses it of men. “Judgment” is gnome, an opinion or counsel, as in 2 Corinthians 8:10, “herein I give my advice”. “To be faithful” means trustworthy: Paul offers himself as a reliable adviser, not a lawgiver.

“I suppose” is nomizo, I think, a cautious verb. “Distress” is anagke, necessity or constraint, the word Jesus uses of the “great distress in the land” in Luke 21:23. “So to be” means to stay as one is.

“Bound” and “loosed” are the language of legal ties, as in Romans 7:2, where a wife “is bound by the law to her husband” while he lives. “Loosed” could include the widowed and the divorced. The two short questions mirror each other.

“Trouble” is thlipsis, pressure or affliction. “I spare you” is pheidomai, the verb of Romans 8:32, “He that spared not his own Son”. Paul speaks to the woman directly as well: if a virgin marries, she has not sinned.

“Is short” is synestalmenos, drawn together, contracted. The verb was used for furling a sail, and Acts 5:6 uses it of the young men who “wound up” Ananias’s body. Time has been gathered in. “It remaineth” is to loipon, from now on.

The pattern “as though not” runs through five clauses. Epictetus gave similar counsel (Enchiridion 11): never say of anything, “I have lost it”, but “I have given it back.” “Possessed” is katecho, to hold fast, the grip that buying tends to become.

“Abusing” is katachraomai, to use to the full, to use up, not to misuse. “Fashion” is schema, outward form, and some hear the image of a stage set being changed between scenes, a reading the word allows. The world’s present arrangement is on its way out.

“Without carefulness” is amerimnos, free from anxiety. “Careth” is merimnao, the verb of Matthew 6:25, “Take no thought for your life”, and Mark 4:19 names “the cares of this world” as thorns. The same verb runs through verses 32 to 34, used both well and badly.

The oldest manuscripts end this sentence with three more words, “and he is divided”, memeristai, the verb of 1:13, “Is Christ divided?” The King James instead attaches the idea of difference to the next verse. The married man pulled two ways is simply described, not blamed.

Two categories stand side by side: the unmarried woman, agamos, which in verse 11 included a separated wife, and the virgin who has never married. “Holy both in body and in spirit” may echo a Corinthian ideal, since Paul has just said the married wife’s concerns are legitimate.

“Snare” is brochos, a noose or halter thrown over an animal, found only here. “Without distraction” is aperispastos, from the verb used of Martha, “cumbered about much serving” in Luke 10:40, while Mary sat at the Lord’s feet. Paul’s picture of undistracted service is Mary’s.

“Pass the flower of her age” is hyperakmos, past the peak. If it describes the woman, she is getting older; if the man, the word can mean over-strong in passion. The Greek allows either, and the choice follows from how the whole case is read.

Four conditions are stacked: standing firm in his heart, under no necessity, having authority over his own will, and having decided. “Power” is exousia again, as in verse 4. “Keep” is tereo, to guard or preserve.

“Giveth in marriage” is gamizo, which normally means to give a daughter in marriage, as in Mark 12:25, “nor are given in marriage”. Some argue that in later Greek it could simply mean to marry. The final comparison, well and better, ranks without condemning.

The oldest manuscripts lack “by the law”, but Romans 7:2–3 states the same principle. “Be dead” is koimaomai, to fall asleep, the letter’s usual word for believers who have died (15:6, 18, 20). “Only in the Lord” limits the choice to a fellow believer.

“Happier” is makarioteros, more blessed. “I think also that I have the Spirit” may be pointed, since some in Corinth considered themselves the spiritual ones; 14:37 addresses anyone who “think himself to be a prophet, or spiritual”. Paul’s claim is modest in form and firm in substance.