1 Corinthians 7

PAUL’S THIRD RESPONSE: TO THE QUESTIONS CONCERNING MARRIAGE, 1 Corinthians 7:1-40.

Meyer here enters into a prolix discussion as to which party among the Corinthians raised this question. He decided that, as Peter was married, it could not be the Petrines; and as the Christines appear not to have cherished any idealisms, it was not they; but as Paul was not then in the married state, and the chapter favours celibacy, (1 Corinthians 7:7,) it was probably the Paulines. We suppose that the epistolary inquiry was the result of a conflict of opinions.

There were probably three tendencies of thought among the Corinthians on the subject of marriage. 1. The Jewish view regarded marriage as a duty, so that the celibacy of a man beyond twenty was a sin. 2. The Roman opinion, in whose schools of philosophy it was a standing topic of debate whether a wise man should marry. Those who decided from self-interest, arguing from the temper of women, the cares of living, and the responsibility for children, took the negative. Those who argued from the public good, the order of society, the restraint from licentiousness, and the need of posterity, maintained the affirmative. 3. Ascetics, who held all sin to lie in matter, who condemned all bodily indulgences, forbade meats, denied our bodily resurrection, and some of whom even questioned the corporeity of Christ. See our note on Acts 8:9. No wonder, then, that Paul’s converts resorted to him by letter for decision between the three.