It is good for a man not to TOUCH a woman (1 Cor. 7:1)
Carl W. Conrad
cwconrad at artsci.wustl.edu
Mon Jun 17 09:53:19 EDT 2002
At 8:42 AM -0400 6/17/02, Hartzell, Brooks (LNG) wrote:
>TOUCH here is a present middle infinitive. I would have expected the aorist
>tense. What do you suppose is the significance of the present tense here?
The text: KALON ANQRWPWi GUNAIKOS MH hAPTESQAI.
You might note that what follows is also in the present tense: (2) DIA DE
TAS PORNEIAS hEKAASTOS THN hEAUTOU GUNAIKA ECETW KAI hEKASTH TON IDION
ANDRA ECETW.
My own reading of this text is that the sense of hAPTESQAI is not so much
"put one's hands to" so much as "hold on to" or "cling to" or even better
in this context, "be attached to" or "become attached to" (and that's still
middle voice, not passive). I think Paul's intended point is that sexuality
is such a powerful drive (cf. vs. 8) that, if it's a problem, one really
ought to have a married sexual partner. He does state clearly that he
wishes everybody could be like himself, but he advises widows and unmarried
men, (9) EI DE OUK EGKRATEUONTAI, GAMHSATWSAN. It is a matter of the extent
of one's control over his/her own sexuality.
--
Carl W. Conrad
Department of Classics, Washington University (Emeritus)
Most months:: 1647 Grindstaff Road/Burnsville, NC 28714/(828) 675-4243
cwconrad at artsci.wustl.edu OR cwconrad at ioa.com
WWW: http://www.artsci.wustl.edu/~cwconrad/
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