It is good for a man not to TOUCH a woman (1 Cor. 7:1)
B. Ward Powers
bwpowers at optusnet.com.au
Thu Jun 20 03:21:06 EDT 2002
B-greekers all:
In response to several comments:
Reading 1 Corinthians is like listening to one side of a telephone
conversation. To understand Paul's meaning fully I guess you just had to be
there. To see what he means in any particular passage we have to set it
carefully into its context. This is true of course of any part of the
Bible, but none more so than 1 Corinthians.
So we note:
(a) In chapter 6 he deals with every type of human-to-human sexual
behaviour except in marriage.
(b) In 7:2-5 he discusses the question of sex in marriage.
(c) In 7:1a he says he is turning to a new matter (i.e. something different
from what he has just been covering), something that they had written to
him about.
(d) Again and again in 1 Corinthians he shows he knows what is being said
at Corinth, and refers to what is being said or indeed cites it in
responding to it, to correct or repudiate it.
(e) In 7:1 he says it is better for a man not to have sex with a GUNH. In
7:2-5 he says each man should "have" his own GUNH (and vice versa), and
maintain an ongoing sexual relationship with her (any interruptions being
temporary and by agreement).
I submit that these are facts in the context of 7:1 and that they add up to
this explanation of that verse:
That some at Corinth are saying that a man is better off not continuing to
have sex with his own wife, that Paul quotes what they are saying (7:1b)
and then disagrees with it (7:2-5), explaining that (in God's plan and
intention) a husband and wife should have an ongoing sexual relationship.
To think that 7:1 is referring to a man having sex with a woman not his
wife is to think he is going back to an issue he has already covered,
contrary to his PERI DE hWN EGRAYATE.
To think that hAPTOMAI here means "to marry" is to attribute to this word a
unique meaning, one out of tune with what he then discusses (the issue of
sex in marriage).
To think that it is Paul who says that it is better not to hAPTOMAI a GUNH
has him then immediately contradicting himself in saying that a husband and
his GUNH should have an ongoing sexual relationship. (It has to be the
ascetic party at Corinth saying this in 7:1b, not Paul.)
I submit that the above understanding of 7:1 does full justice to the
wording of the Greek and the context, and is not a reading-in of
unjustified ideas, but a drawing-out of what is implied there.
Each person will make his own judgement about this of course. But it is (in
my judgement) a grievous error to interpret Paul to be saying in 7:1 that
he is opposed to marriage, and that celibacy is better (a view of Paul's
teaching for which there is no evidence).
Regards,
Ward
http://www.netspace.net.au/~bwpowers
Rev Dr B. Ward Powers Phone (International): 61-2-8714-7255
259A Trafalgar Street Phone (Australia): (02) 8714-7255
PETERSHAM NSW 2049 email: bwpowers at optusnet.com.au
AUSTRALIA. Director, Tyndale College
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