It is good for a man not to TOUCH a woman (1 Cor. 7:1)

Iver Larsen iver_larsen at sil.org
Thu Jun 20 06:34:26 EDT 2002


(snip)

> (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).

It is questionable to translate KALON here as "better". The word can be
translated as "better" if there is a clear and explicit comparison in the
text, and that is not the case in 7:1. Just looking at a glossed NT, I found
87 times where KALOS was translated "good" and 9 where it was translated
"better". In these nine cases there was either a following MALLON and/or H
or a similar explicit comparison. Only one of these was in Paul, that is 1
Cor 9:15 which has both MALLON and H.
Of the 87 times where KALOS means "good" as a description of a situation or
a thing, five of them occur in 1 Cor and no less than four of these are in
this very chapter:

7:1 *KALON* ANQRWPWi GUNAIKOS MH hAPTESQAI

7:8 LEGW DE TOIS AGAMOIS (widowers here, I assume, since Greek has no
specific word for widower) KAI TAIS CHRAIS: *KALON* AUTOIS EAN MEINWSIN hWS
KAGW

7:25-6 PERI DE TWN PARTENWN (in contrast to the widowers and widows above,
this word refers to those men who have never had/touched a woman, and those
women who have never had a man)... NOMIZW OUN TOUTO *KALON* hUPARCEIN DIA
THN ENESTWSAN ANAGKHN hOTI *KALON* ANQRWPWi TO hOUTWS EINAI.

Probably TO hOUTWS refers to what he has been saying about the advantages of
not marrying, unless one cannot live in an unmarried state. He goes on to
say that if one is in the married state, one should not dissolve it, but if
one is in the unmarried state, it is good to stay in that state as Paul
himself has done. (From the KAGW of v. 8, I assume Paul was a widower and
knew from experience what is was to be married, but that is not important
for the argument.) Paul further says that it is not a sin to marry, but for
various reasons he thinks at that time that it was advantageous not to do
so.

Concerning the structure of the chapter, 1-7 is a general statement about
two things:
1) It is good not to marry and it is good to stay unmarried like Paul, but
it is not a command. (1 and 6-7)
2) Married people need to live as married people. (2-5)
An parallel theme is that sexual immorality is a temptation for both the
married and the unmarried (v. 2 and 5 and further in 8-9)

Then Paul gives advice about entering or dissolving marriages to four
groups:
1) Those who have been married but have lost their spouse (8-9)
2) Those who are married and both spouses are Christians (10-11)
3) Those Christians who have a non-Christian spouse (12-16)
4) Those young Christians who have never tasted married life (25-28)

I assume that no one would claim that Paul is quoting the Corinthians in 7:8
when Paul clearly says LEGW. Nor in 7:26 where he says NOMIZW.
To claim that Paul quotes the Corinthians in 7:1 is IMO a result of ignoring
what Paul is saying other places in this chapter.

Iver Larsen




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