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§21 Issues and Eschatology (1 Cor. 7:25–40)

These verses are an alternating series of statements about virginity and marriage, the eschatological nature of the time, and the death of a spouse and remarriage. An amazing variety of issues is treated in rapid succession. Verses 25–28 are difficult, in part, because of the uncertain (for later readers) specific identity of the virgins. The virgin is an unmarried young woman, but other details of her status remain unclear. Paul’s eschatology becomes explicit in verses 29–31, so that all of human existence is relativized in light of the conviction that God’s work is bringing this world to its end. In turn, verses 32–35 are well-intended (v. 35) but one-sided advice. Then, the issue of the virgins comes around again in verses 36–38. Finally, Paul’s logic extends itself to the matter of a woman losing her husband and the possibility of remarrying in verses 39–40, and his thought remains consistent to the end of the section.

7:25 / Paul clearly states that he is offering his own opinion, not a word from the Lord, but he suggests that his opinion is informed and valuable. Paul’s thinking is determined both by the presence and power of the Spirit at work in his life and by his apocalyptically formed eschatological conviction that the future of the world as it now exists is to be but a brief span of time (see vv. 26, 31).

7:26 / Paul refers explicitly to the present crisis, using a Greek word that usually connotes “necessity” (anagkē), indicating that he is advising the Corinthians concerning what seems necessary under the circumstances. Therefore, Paul advises the virgins (the unmarried women) to stay as they are, unmarried—as should everyone, whatever their condition.

7:27 / Paul delineates the possible groups: married and unmarried. The rhetorical cast of his writing becomes pointed as he addresses the Corinthians with singular “you” forms, so that each one would feel addressed personally. Paul tells one group, first, not to seek a divorce; then, he instructs the other group not to look for a wife. The advice is male-dominant, as was the cultural setting of that day. Since the men were normally the initiators of the marital relationship, Paul naturally speaks to them at this point, advising against pursuing marriage or divorce.

7:28 / Nevertheless, having advised the Corinthians to remain as they were in terms of marriage, Paul adds that if someone marries—be that a single man (you) or a single woman (a virgin)—that person does not sin. The move to inclusivity is remarkable, especially given the cultural setting. Even having added this qualification and explanation, Paul offers further reinforcement for his original admonition, “Do not seek [to divorce or to marry].” Paul’s motivation is to spare persons from the normal, natural, necessary concerns of marriage, which would distract them from devoting themselves to developing a deeper relationship to God.

Of course, commentators regularly note that Paul’s perspective on marriage is slanted. He does say that avoiding marriage is a good way to avoid certain stress, and he does not ponder the positive dimensions of marriage that bring the partners in marriage to fulfillment and often make them better persons and stewards of God’s grace. One should not be surprised by Paul’s thinking. He is not necessarily antimarriage or negative about the value of such a relationship; he is merely unsympathetic and partially informed. Paul was not omniscient, although he was gifted with a capacity for celibacy, which gave him a particular point of view. Since he had no desire or need to marry, he could not fully appreciate the importance of such a life for those who are gifted for so living. Marriage would have been a second-best arrangement for Paul (perhaps worse for his wife!), but he musters empathy and compassion as best he can by saying, if you do marry, you have not sinned … I want to spare you [many troubles in this life].

7:29–31 / Paul explains his reasoning in one long complex, compound sentence that makes up verses 29–31: What I mean … He explicates and illustrates by naming several groups: those who have wives, those who mourn, those who are happy, those who buy, and those who use the things of the world. The groups named are self-evident, although Paul attempts to create some pairs of contrasting groups as he uses rhetorical illustrations to speak to anyone and everyone at one level or another. Paul’s point of view is unmitigatedly eschatological. All of human existence is relativized in light of the conviction that God’s work is bringing this world to its end (this world in its present form is passing away)—an old world, infected with evil and disobedience, was dying, and in the power of the cross and resurrection of Jesus God was at work bringing a new world into existence through judgment and grace. Paul’s words have been anticipated by many of his preceding remarks about Christian freedom and the aim of Christian life. His point is fairly simple: The time left is short (or, limited by God’s current actions), so the believers are to live life fully for God. The passion of Paul’s confidence in God and the urgency of his appeal for full devotion are still pertinent, even if one does not anticipate the imminent demise of this world.

7:32 / Paul’s tone becomes more leisurely, and his sentence are briefer and at ease. He reiterates his motivation for advising the Corinthians, I would like you to be free from concern (as in v. 28); and then he adds his own positive, even optimistic position, an unmarried man is concerned about the Lord’s affairs. Paul might have clarified himself even further had he added that “unmarried men gifted with chastity and devoted to God may be (or should be) concerned about the Lord’s affairs.” Failure is never in view in this motivational address.

7:33–34a / The focus shifts again to the married man and the reality that he will face in marriage (from Paul’s point of view and in terms of his previously expressed understanding of the complexity of marriage—v. 28). Paul is concerned to warn those in Corinth away from unnecessary distraction in doing God’s will. He might here have elaborated, however, “married men will (or should) be necessarily concerned about affairs of this world that are related to marriage.” The issues with which Paul concerns himself in these lines and in the immediately preceding verses are focus, priorities, relationships—that is, putting the affairs or mission of God above all else.

7:34b / At last in this shifting discussion Paul turns to the unmarried woman or virgin. He comments on the advantage of her singleness in much the way he spoke to the unmarried man, and again his concern is that should she marry, she will be necessarily distracted from God’s work by being concerned with the affairs of this world. This statement is remarkably balanced in terms of form, language, and concern in comparison with the foregoing words to unmarried men, so one sees that Paul’s uniform concern is that the believer’s first priority be the devoting of himself or herself to God’s work. The explicit references to the unmarried woman’s or virgin’s body and spirit may reflect the concerns of those in Corinth, or these anthropological terms may result from the reality that in marriage, especially in giving birth to and rearing a family, the woman is subject to specific physical and spiritual demands.

7:35 / Paul reiterates his central concern with full devotion and a fulfilling relationship to God. The perspective is still apocalyptic-eschatologically formed: Christians either live for God or they don’t. The ultimate importance of the call to devotion and mission is foremost in Paul’s mind as he exhorts and pleads with those to whom he was writing. Still, Paul’s attitude and understanding are ascetic, and there is a range of possibilities that do not seem to occur to Paul in this vigorous discussion. Paul seems capable of understanding marriage only as a responsibility that has the potential (or, certainty) of creating obligations. As he writes from his own Spirit-endowed gift of singleness with little understanding of the broad range of possible relationships in marriage, the idea that love and mutual support in a marriage might foster more effective Christian living does not appear to cross his eschatologically riveted thinking. Paul has said, however, and will repeat, that the advice here is his own as one devoted to and gifted with the presence and power of God’s Spirit.

7:36–38 / These verses are remarkably obscure, a notorious problem for both translation and interpretation. Paul addresses a potential complication for those who may attempt to follow his advice to remain unmarried. His syntax is awkward, even clumsy, as generations of interpreters have noted. The translation in the NIV offers a resolution that reaches back at least to the KJV but that many recent commentators and translations have abandoned. The NIV does recognize the acute complexity of the verses and even offers an alternative translation to the difficult passage in the footnotes to the main text (see Additional Notes). Unfortunately, this other rendering does not fully expose and deal with several issues in the text any better than does the primary translation.

The basic problem for understanding these verses is that Paul seems to change the subject of his discussion (literally the subject of the verbs) from one sentence to another. Read in simplest, most straightforward fashion, verse 36 seems to refer to the man who is engaged to a virgin; whereas verse 38 seems to refer to the father of the virgin, although the reference to the virgin (lit. “your virgin”) in verse 38 is an odd manner of referring to someone’s daughter. Verse 37 is ambiguous as to its subject. Problems arise when translations, like the NIV, attempt to make Paul’s words deal with a single subject, be that either the fiancé or the father of the virgin. Indeed, the attempt to read the lines as discussing the situation of a single subject (fiancé or father) produces strange, comical, possibly absurd results.

In any reading of the verses the virgin is to be understood as a young, unmarried woman. The NIV rendering in verse 36 suggests that the virgin is getting along in years, similar to the way the KJV translated the sentence; but this manner of translation ignores the syntax and the problem of the subject, for the words translated “is getting along in years” more likely means “is of strong passion” and almost certainly refers to the fiancé of the virgin rather than to the virgin herself. Thus, verse 36 seems to refer to an engaged man who had marked passion for relations with his fiancée.

Verse 37 is ambiguous and jumbled. Perhaps, even before this verse, Paul had created a significant twist with the words “let them marry” at the end of verse 36 (translated in the NIV as They should get married, a misreading of an impersonal verb). By saying “let them marry,” Paul seems to begin to address the father of the virgin bride-to-be. Then, in verse 37, Paul may assume that he is reasoning with the father of the young woman, assuring him that in the correct circumstances discouraging or refusing marriage of his daughter is all right. Then in verse 38 Paul states the balance of the situation, again in relation to the father’s point of view, “So that both the one marrying off his virgin does well, and the one not marrying does better.”

Readers of this portion of 1 Corinthians may never know exactly what Paul intended to say and the issues he intended to address at this point. Was Paul addressing the fiancé, the father, both? All solutions have difficulties, although despite the obscure character of this text certain conclusions are beyond debate. First, Paul is once again speaking of the situation of persons who are unmarried, in this instance, those not previously married His basic advice is that if they can refrain from marriage then they should, but if they cannot—having not been endowed with chastity, as a passionate desire reveals—then they are at liberty to marry. Second, Paul prefers the state of singleness, since he assumes it frees persons from marital and family matters that might distract them from fully attending to God’s work. Third, Paul’s ultimate concern is that God’s mission be carried out faithfully and decently through the lives of men and women in the church. For Paul mission is more important than marriage, and marrying or refraining from marriage should facilitate God’s purposes, not hinder the doing of God’s will.

7:39 / With this verse Paul seems to shift back to the subject he originally addressed in 7:1–24, the situation of the married women and the nature of the marital bond for those who are already married. The position that Paul stakes out at the outset of the discussion, A woman is bound to her husband as long as he lives, is contrary to both pagan and Jewish practices in antiquity. This declaration is, however, consistent with the word of the Lord that Paul reported earlier in 7:10. Paul has already discussed the issues of divorce and remarriage, and here he does not elaborate that particular set of dynamics. Rather, Paul assumes the permanence of marriage (and the prohibition of divorce, although it may occur anyway) and in turn reflects on the situation of a woman whose husband dies. In such a situation, Paul’s advice is clear: she is free to marry anyone she wishes, but he must belong to the Lord. In other words, Christian widows may remarry, but they are to marry Christian men. The further complication of a mixed marriage between believer and non-believer is not to be introduced into the life of the believer after the death of a spouse. The NIV once again gives an overly heavy tone to Paul’s words, which literally say, “A wife is bound as long as her husband lives; but if he may sleep [a euphemism for dies], she is free to be married to the one she wishes—only in the Lord.” Paul’s admonition at this point assumes the word of the Lord and offers a common-sense reasoning to a related situation.

7:40 / What Paul says here comes as no surprise: He prefers the condition of singleness because it offers the potential for the believer to devote full energy and attention to the mission of God. Thus, if a Christian woman who becomes a widow can remain unmarried, Paul regards that as the best option. In the context of Greco-Roman antiquity, where women were often more vulnerable than men and dependent on others, some unmarried widows were in peril. Paul does not offer psychological or sociological analysis but once more demonstrates his conviction that the believers should avoid undue complications that might hamper their attention to God’s will for their lives.

Paul’s final word may be utterly serious or mildly sarcastic, and readers in Corinth might have heard him in different ways: and I think that I too have the Spirit of God. Those who recognized Paul’s apostolic responsibilities would be comforted, while those who doubted Paul’s spiritual gifts might feel confronted. In either case, Paul recognizes that his opinion and advice were formed in a theological matrix and not given off the top of his head or even from the bottom of his human heart.