[B-Greek] 1 Cor. 7:1,2

Harold R. Holmyard III hholmyard at ont.com
Fri Oct 29 21:29:22 EDT 2004


Dear Jeffrey,

>  > >It actually just means to have a woman, not necessarily a wife (we have to
>>  >be careful not to impose our own cultural viewpoint on western marriage
>>  >today back into marriage in first century Palestine), and the current
>>  >scholarship certainly is precisely as Joe Weaks stated it.
>>
>>  HH: What point are you trying to make? Do you think Paul would not go
>>  along with God's idea of marriage?
>
>The issue isn't what Paul would or would not go along with (even if it doesn't
>beg all sorts of off topic questions to assert, as you do, that 
>there is such a
>thing as  "God's idea of marriage"), is it?.  It's what the expression in
>question meant in Koine.

HH:  Paul was the one who used the phrase, so it is right to ask what 
Paul would have meant by it. Are you saying that some current theory 
makes verse 2 a quote from the Corinthians earlier letter as well? Of 
course, we know God's idea of marriage. Jesus gives us God's idea of 
marriage in Matthew 19:4-12 and other places, as does the rest of 
Scripture. I had two other questions that you cut out of your post:

Or are you saying we shouldn't use the word "wife"? That's the word 
we use in our culture, even if GUNH could cover both "woman" and 
"wife." Are you suggesting Paul just means a man should have a woman 
and not a wife?

HH: Together those questions provide a good understanding of the sort 
of information I was looking for. The word GUNH means both woman and 
wife in Koine. You see, from Ann's words it's not clear whether she's 
focusing on GUNH alone or adding in ECW. That's why a person asks 
questions. The expression ECW GUNH must be what you have in mind. 
That's why I gave Mitch numerous verses that show this phrase to mean 
"have a wife" in the sense of be married. That's the only meaning 
that the expression has in biblical materials. If you have evidence 
of some other meaning for the expression ECW GUNH, and have a reason 
why it's relevant, I would be glad to read about it.

					Yours,
					Harold Holmyard





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