Lessons #243 and 244
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+ 1. It is best to use this note after you have listened to the lessons because there are +
+ comments given in the actual delivery not in the note. +
+ 2. The Bible abbreviations are as follows: CEV =Contemporary English version, +
+ CEB = Common English Bible, ESV= English Standard Version, +
+ GW = God’s Word Translation, ISV = International Standard Version, +
+ NAB=New English Bible, NASB= New American Standard Bible, +
+ NEB= New English Bible, NET = New English Translation, +
+ NLT = New Living Translations NJB = New Jerusalem Bible, +
+ NJV = New Jewish Bible, TEV = Today’s English Version. +
+AMP = Amplified Bible, UBS = United Bible Society +
+ 3. Notes have not been edited for grammatical errors. +
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Freedom of marriage of virgins (1 Cor 7:36-38)
36 If anyone thinks he is acting improperly toward the virgin he is engaged to, and if she is getting along in years and he feels he ought to marry, he should do as he wants. He is not sinning. They should get married. 37 But the man who has settled the matter in his own mind, who is under no compulsion but has control over his own will, and who has made up his mind not to marry the virgin—this man also does the right thing. 38 So then, he who marries the virgin does right, but he who does not marry her does even better.
This section of 1 Corinthians 7:36-38 must be understood within the context of situational advice the apostle gave in verse 26 regarding not marrying in time of crisis or when there is upheaval that may make it difficult to be in a marriage relationship. The importance of understanding the context is that it will keep the reader from thinking that the Holy Spirit through the apostle is giving a teaching that applies to marriage in general instead of specific conditions. The Holy Spirit through Apostle Paul indicates that there are conditions that may lead to getting married even in a period of crisis or suffering believers may face. This being the case, the Holy Spirit speaks through the apostle regarding the freedom to marry for virgins and widows in verses 36 to 40. However, in our present section of verses 36 to 38 the apostle dealt with virgins.
The main point the Holy Spirit through Apostle Paul conveyed to the Corinthians and so to the church at large is that engaged couples may be free to marry even in time of crisis or suffering. The implication is that a person who marries in time of crisis or suffering despite the situational advice of the Holy Spirit not to marry in time of crisis or suffering for a person’s benefit has not sinned. By the way, we used the word “couples” when our passage used the word “virgin” because a virgin would be married to a man so to convey this fact, we substituted the word “couples” for “virgin” used in our passage. Our approach is reflected in the translation of the TEV of verse 36 that used the phrase an engaged couple. Anyway, the passage is concerned to convey that engaged couples are free to marry based on the conditions stipulated in our passage that we will consider at the appropriate time. However, it is important that we derive a message from this passage that is applicable to believers in general although the focus is on marriage in time of crisis or suffering. I mean that if you are married or are single but not engaged, you may say to yourself that this passage has no message to communicate to you. This may lead you to tune off your ears and do not pay close attention to what we are studying. Therefore, we believe that there is a message derived from this passage that is applicable to all believers. This message is this: You should not allow crisis or suffering to cause you to break your promise although you may delay its fulfillment with adequate explanation to the one you made the promise.
How is this message related to the passage we are considering, you may ask? It is in the sense that marriage engagement is a promise to be married to a person. This being the case and the passage we are about to study is concerned with the freedom to marry in time of crisis or suffering then the passage implies that believers should be careful to keep their promises despite crisis or suffering. This requirement is one that makes sense if we understand the section we are about to consider, does not advocate a person to call off a proposed marriage but to delay it in time of crisis or suffering. A believer who makes a promise should endeavor to keep it even in time of crisis. Realistically, a believer may intend to keep a promise, but crisis or suffering may cause problem in fulfilling the promise. When that is the case, the one who made the promise should explain to the one promised that the individual intends to keep the promise as soon as the person is able to do so. Keeping our promise is certainly an indication that we are spiritually sound or vibrant. The Holy Spirit will not give us a pass when we fail to keep our promise because of crisis or suffering. We say this because, the Holy Spirit has made clear to us that a true worshipper of God keeps to his/her promise even if it hurts to do so, as we read in Psalm 15:4:
who despises a vile man but honors those who fear the LORD, who keeps his oath even when it hurts,
The clause those who fear the LORD describes true worshippers of God. So, if you claim to be a true worshipper of God then it is incumbent upon you to keep your word. Not breaking off a marriage engagement because of crisis means that a person keeps to the individual’s word. The marriage may be postponed until things get better but not called off or the person may go ahead with the marriage if the individual could handle the pressure of marriage in time of crisis.
The idea of freedom to marry in time of crisis that we have indicated is given in verse 36 that we will get to shortly. But before we get to the verse, let me state that verse 36 is problematic. This has led to a commentator labeling it “one of the most difficult and controversial in the NT.”[1] That notwithstanding there are problems that make the verse quite challenging to interpret as we will consider at the appropriate time. For example, there is the question of who the apostle addressed in the verse and whose virgin is in view and other related issues that we will deal with later in our exposition of the verse.
Anyway, the first thing we notice about 1 Corinthians 7:36 in the NIV is that there is no connective that begins it. However, the Greek contains a connective (de) that is not translated in the NIV, implying perhaps that the translators considered it as serving simply as continuing what preceded or that the apostle was addressing a new point in his teaching and so did not see any need to translate it. This notwithstanding, it seems the apostle used it as a marker of contrast so that it may be translated “but, on the other hand,” as reflected in a handful of English versions, to indicate that what the apostle states next is contrary to his advice on singleness in time of crisis or suffering.
The freedom of marriage of a virgin or a couple is premised on certain conditions taking place. Hence, the apostle introduced the conditions using a Greek word (ei) that is used in different ways in the Greek. For example, the Greek word is used as a marker of condition that exists in fact or hypothetical so that it is translated “if” as Apostle Paul used it in describing the spiritually minded believer in Romans 8:9:
You, however, are controlled not by the sinful nature but by the Spirit, if the Spirit of God lives in you. And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Christ
The conditional clause if the Spirit of God lives in you should be understood as stating what is factual. This is because no one is a believer in Christ without the Holy Spirit resident in that person, so the apostle is not stating something hypothetical but what is real or what has happened to believers in Rome in that the Holy Spirit lives in them. To read the clause as hypothetical will imply that the Romans that received the epistle to them were not believers but that is not in keeping with the thought of the apostle who wrote to believers in Rome. In our passage of 1 Corinthians 7:36, the Greek word is used to introduce conditions that must be true for the freedom of marriage of engaged couple in time of crisis to be applicable.
The condition that must be true for the freedom of marriage of engaged couple in time of crisis to be applicable is given in the clause of 1 Corinthians 7:36 If anyone thinks he is acting improperly toward the virgin he is engaged to. The literal Greek reads if anyone thinks he behaves indecently towards his virgin. The literal translation raises the question of the person the apostle had in mind in the use of the word anyone and therefore how to interpret the relationship of this person to the woman in the literal phrase his virgin.
The identity of the person the apostle had in mind in the use of the word anyone and so his relationship to the phrase his virgin has been variously interpreted but we will consider three of the most popular interpretations reflected in our English versions. The first view that can be traced to many of the church fathers is that anyone refers to an unnamed father and the phrase his virgin refers to his daughter. In effect, this interpretation implies that the apostle addressed a father who was contemplating whether or not to give his daughter to marriage probably because of the crisis the Corinthians faced or because the father now questions the proposed marriage of the daughter to a man who may be sexually immoral in view of the apostle’s teaching about not associating with sexually immoral persons in the ninth verse of the fifth chapter of 1 Corinthians. This first interpretation is reflected in the NASB that translates the first clause of 1 Corinthians 7:36 as if any man thinks that he is acting unbecomingly toward his virgin daughter. The GW is more specific in that its first sentence of the verse reads No father would want to do the wrong thing when his virgin daughter is old enough to get married. The major support for this interpretation is that the apostle switched to a different Greek verb in verse 38 that usually means “to give in marriage” instead of the more common Greek verb that means “to marry” that he used in seven verses in this seventh chapter of 1 Corinthians (vv. 9, 10, 28, 33, 34, 36, 39). There are at least three problems with this interpretation. First, the Greek verb used in verse 38 need not be translated “give in marriage” as in the NASB since the NIV translated the same Greek verb with “marries.” Second, the context does not support it since there is nowhere in chapter 7 of 1 Corinthians that the apostle explicitly introduced the concept of father-daughter relationship. Therefore, it would seem strange that the apostle would be thinking of something in his mind that he has not mentioned in the chapter or mentions after he wrote down verse 36. Third, to refer to the daughter of a man as his virgin, to say the least, is awkward. This is particularly strange because we have a description of the daughters of Philip the evangelists described as virgins, but they were not described as his virgin as we read in Acts 21:9:
He had four unmarried daughters who prophesied.
The sentence He had four unmarried daughters who prophesied is literally Now to this man were four virgin daughters who prophesied. Philip’s daughters were virgins, but they were not described as “his virgins.” Based on these problems, it is unlikely that this first interpretation was in the mind of Apostle Paul when he wrote the literal clause of 1 Corinthians 7:36 if anyone thinks he behaves indecently towards his virgin.
A second interpretation is that anyone as used in the literal translation refers to a man who has determined to live with a woman without having sexual relations. In effect, that the apostle addressed the man who is in what is called “spiritual marriage,” that is, a marriage without sexual relations because the couple consider sex sinful or because they consider abstinence a superior spiritual life. In this interpretation his virgin would refer to the man’s wife. This interpretation is reflected in the NEB that reads if a man has a partner in celibacy. A drawback of this interpretation is that it is based on a custom for which there is no evidence of its existence in the first century, that is, the custom of “spiritual marriage.” Another drawback to this interpretation is that it is unlikely the apostle would dignify a position that is contrary to what he had already instructed against. The apostle had already taught it is improper for husbands and wives to abstain from sexual relationship for any extended period in 1 Corinthians 7:3-5. This being the case, he would not be thinking of a position that he has already written against. Additionally, the implication of this interpretation, as we stated previously, is that the phrase his virgin then refers to a wife, something that has no support in the Scripture. In other words, there is nowhere in the Scripture that a man’s wife is referred as his virgin.
A third interpretation is that anyone as used in the literal translation refers to a man who is betrothed to a woman or in modern terms one that is engaged to a woman. The situation would be the case of a man that has marriage pending but may wonder what to do because of the apostle’s situational advice not to marry in time of crisis or the man may also be wavering in his commitment to the woman because there were those in Corinth that teach it is better to remain single and not be involved in sexual relationship that is part of married life. It is this interpretation that is reflected in the NIV and many of our English versions. This third interpretation is the one we believe the apostle had in mind. This is because it is more fitting to the context of what the apostle stated in the final instruction of letting the man and the virgin marry each other at the end of verse 36. If the father of the woman, for example, were in the mind of the apostle, he would have said that the one described as “anyone” should let the virgin be married but that is not what we have in the Greek. Instead, we have a Greek word, that we will get to later, that indicates the man described as anyone would be married to the virgin.
By the way although some English versions used the phrase his betrothed or his fiancée for the literal phrase his virgin, it is important that we do not lose sight that the woman that is described as a virgin is the one that is to be married. For after all, the word “virgin” is translated from a Greek word (parthenos) that means a person who has never engaged in sexual intercourse hence means “a virgin, a chaste person.” It is used for a female virgin in the Lord’s Parable of Ten Virgins, as we read in Matthew 25:1:
“At that time the kingdom of heaven will be like ten virgins who took their lamps and went out to meet the bridegroom.
The word is used for a chaste man or a male virgin in Revelation 14:4:
These are those who did not defile themselves with women, for they kept themselves pure. They follow the Lamb wherever he goes. They were purchased from among men and offered as firstfruits to God and the Lamb.
In our passage of 1 Corinthians 7:36, it is used in sense of a woman that has never had sexual relationship with a man and so such a person could not have been married.
There is another problem with the clause of 1 Corinthians 7:36 If anyone thinks he is acting improperly toward the virgin he is engaged to that literally reads if anyone thinks he behaves indecently towards his virgin. It is how to understand the expression thinks he is acting improperly toward the virgin or literally thinks he behaves indecently towards his virgin. To begin with the word “thinks” is translated from a Greek verb (nomizō) that may mean “to suppose” as it is used in Jesus’ explanation of possible misconception about an impact of His mission regarding peace among people in Matthew 10:34:
“Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword.
The word may mean “to assume” as it is used to describe the erroneous assumption of the Jews in Jerusalem who thought Apostle Paul brought a Gentile into the temple area as Luke recorded for us in Acts 21:29:
(They had previously seen Trophimus the Ephesian in the city with Paul and assumed that Paul had brought him into the temple area.)
The word may mean “to think” as it is used by Apostle Paul to describe the misconception of some regarding the spiritual life as he wrote in 1 Timothy 6:5:
and constant friction between men of corrupt mind, who have been robbed of the truth and who think that godliness is a means to financial gain.
It is in the sense of “to think or believe (something) without being fully settled in mind or opinion” that the word is used in our passage of 1 Corinthians 7:36.
The expression “acting improperly” is translated from a Greek word (aschēmoneō) that pertains to acting in defiance of social and moral standards that the public considers commendable, with resulting disgrace, embarrassment, and shame, hence means “to behave disgracefully, dishonorably, indecently.” It appears only twice in the Greek NT; its other occurrence is the apostle’s description of love in 1 Corinthians 13:5:
It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs.
The sentence It is not rude is literally it does not behave dishonorably. In our passage of 1 Corinthians 7:36, the word means “to behave unbecomingly,” that is, “to not behave in keeping with accepted standards of what is right or proper in certain social groups.” Our Greek word is related to a Greek noun and a Greek adjective that would help in understanding what the apostle could have meant in our verse. The noun form is a Greek word (aschēmosynē) that is used in three ways in the Scripture. It is used for “indecent behavior” such as sexual acts forbidden and that cause dishonor and shame as it is used to describe homosexuality in Romans 1:27:
In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed indecent acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their perversion.
Interestingly, the word is used in Apocryphal book of Sirach to describe the shame of a wife that gets drunk as in book of Sirach 26:8:
A drunken wife arouses great anger; she cannot hide her shame. (NRSV)
Another meaning of the Greek noun refers to a state of disgrace associated with nakedness as it is used in Revelation 3:18:
I counsel you to buy from me gold refined in the fire, so you can become rich; and white clothes to wear, so you can cover your shameful nakedness; and salve to put on your eyes, so you can see.
Still another meaning of the Greek noun pertains to something considered too private for public exposure hence “nakedness” and so becomes euphemism for the genitals. This is the way the word is used in the Septuagint of Exodus 20:26:
And do not go up to my altar on steps, lest your nakedness be exposed on it.’
It is in the same sense of the genital that the word is used in Revelation 16:15:
“Behold, I come like a thief! Blessed is he who stays awake and keeps his clothes with him, so that he may not go naked and be shamefully exposed.”
The adjective related to our Greek verb that means “to behave unbecomingly” is a Greek word (aschēmōn) that is used in Greek literature frequently for something that is not openly done, displayed, or discussed in reserved society because it is considered “shameful, unpresentable, indecent”, or “unmentionable.” The word is applied especially to sexual matters. Thus, the word is used in the Septuagint to describe the rape of Dinah, Jacob’s daughter as that which is shameful or disgraceful in Genesis 34:7:
Now Jacob’s sons had come in from the fields as soon as they heard what had happened. They were filled with grief and fury, because Shechem had done a disgraceful thing in Israel by lying with Jacob’s daughter—a thing that should not be done.
The noun and adjective related to our Greek word that means “to behave unbecomingly,” implies that the verb may refer to a behavior that is not expected as it relates to sexual concept which becomes important in interpreting what the apostle had in mind.
Another concept that helps to interpret what the apostle meant by “acting improperly” in the words of the NIV of 1 Corinthians 7:36 is betrothal. So, we will briefly review what we studied previously with this concept with an additional information. We should understand that being betrothed or being pledged to marry a woman at Bible times is not the same as our modern day “engagement” in several respects. At that time, when a man betroths a woman, from that time onwards the two were regarded as husband and wife although their marriage has not been consummated. It is for this reason that Jacob referred to Rachel as his wife in his request to Laban, his father-in-law, to consummate his marriage, as recorded in Genesis 29:21:
Then Jacob said to Laban, “Give me my wife. My time is completed, and I want to lie with her.”
The request of Jacob conveys that betrothal does not give the right to sexual intercourse, contrary to what many do today in that once they are engaged to each other they have sexual intercourse. Although those betrothed to each other in Bible times were regarded as husbands and wives but there was no sexual intercourse between them until the formal ceremony of marriage is conducted. That those betrothed to each other at that time were considered husbands and wives is conveyed in the fact that if a lady who is betrothed is involved in sexual intercourse with another man, she was considered guilty of adultery and so the death penalty is to be applied to her unless, it can be shown that she was raped in such a situation that she could not call for help as we may gather from the instruction concerning raping a virgin given in Deuteronomy 22:23–29:
23 If a man happens to meet in a town a virgin pledged to be married and he sleeps with her, 24 you shall take both of them to the gate of that town and stone them to death—the girl because she was in a town and did not scream for help, and the man because he violated another man’s wife. You must purge the evil from among you. 25 But if out in the country a man happens to meet a girl pledged to be married and rapes her, only the man who has done this shall die. 26 Do nothing to the girl; she has committed no sin deserving death. This case is like that of someone who attacks and murders his neighbor, 27 for the man found the girl out in the country, and though the betrothed girl screamed, there was no one to rescue her. 28 If a man happens to meet a virgin who is not pledged to be married and rapes her and they are discovered, 29 he shall pay the girl’s father fifty shekels of silver. He must marry the girl, for he has violated her. He can never divorce her as long as he lives.
Betrothal in Bible times is different from modern day engagement in that in the NT times such event involved oral declaration of commitment to the one betrothed in the presence of witnesses that was binding as marriage itself. This is followed by either a pledge of a piece of money or a written pledge and the entire process is concluded with a benediction. Another difference between modern engagement and betrothal is that unlike the modern engagement that may be easily broken off by one of the parties notifying the other, the breaking off a betrothal involved a formal divorce so that to break such betrothal is viewed as divorcing a woman as we may learn from what Joseph contemplated doing when he realized Mary he was betrothed to was pregnant but not by him, as recorded in Matthew 1:19:
Because Joseph her husband was a righteous man and did not want to expose her to public disgrace, he had in mind to divorce her quietly.
The practice of no sexual relationship between those who are betrothed is part of the morals of God’s people but that is not necessarily the case with Gentiles that did not have God’s law. Therefore, there was another kind of betrothal that involved cohabitation. This, of course, was strongly disapproved by the rabbis. This being the case, we can be certain that Apostle Paul would have also disapproved of that kind of betrothal. That aside, it was expected that marriage should take place not too long after the betrothal process. The Mishnah (Ket. v. 2) stipulates that the actual marriage should take place after twelve months for a virgin and thirty days in case the bride was a widow or the groom a widower. The Greeks and the Romans probably had a shorter time between betrothal and actual marriage that involves taking the bride to the man’s house. This fact is important in our interpretation of what Apostle Paul meant in the sentence of 1 Corinthians 7:36 he is acting improperly toward the virgin he is engaged to.
The background information we have given from the Greek word used and the practice of betrothal of the time of the Bible imply that there are two possible interpretations to what the apostle intended to convey in the sentence of 1 Corinthians 7:36 he is acting improperly toward the virgin he is engaged to. The apostle could mean that the man was having sexual relationship with the betrothed woman, something that was shameful and unacceptable or that the man was taking too long to complete the marriage process which would also be contrary to what the public expected. Since the apostle had already indicated that believers should not be involved in sexual immorality, it is unlikely he would have been thinking of sexual relationship between the betrothed individuals. For one thing, if there was sexual relationship already in existence then the apostle would not have used the Greek word that described the bride as a virgin. Therefore, we believe that it is the second interpretation that the apostle had in mind. Thus, the first condition that must be true for the freedom of marriage of a virgin to exists in time of crisis is that there has been an unusual elapse of time since the betrothal process was completed. This condition makes sense in view of the second condition that apostle stated that we will consider next.
A second condition that must be true for the freedom of marriage of engaged couple in time of crisis to be applicable is that the bride is advancing in age. It is this condition that is stated in the next clause of 1 Corinthians 7:36 and if she is getting along in years. It is true we are following the translation of the NIV, but you should be aware that the Greek presents translation difficulty. This difficulty is reflected in the alternative translation found in some of our English versions such as the ESV, the NRSV or the TEV that gives the reading if his passions are strong. The difference in the English translations is primarily due to three reasons in the Greek. First, the Greek is not clear as to the subject of the word “is” in the NIV although the NIV uses the subject as “she.” Nonetheless, it could refer to the man in view in the literal translation anyone we referred to previously, leading to the translation of the Greek verb uses as “he is” or it could refer to the woman described in the phrase his virgin so that the Greek verb used may be translated “she is.” Second, the Greek adjective is of a common gender so that it could be construed as either masculine or feminine which is of no help in resolving the first problem. Third, the Greek adjective (hyperakmos) used that appears only here in the Greek NT is subject to two interpretations. It is interpreted in a temporal sense as a status term applied to a woman and so means “past one’s prime” or “past marriageable age” or “past the bloom of youth.” It is this meaning that is adopted in the NIV and many of our English versions. This interpretation makes sense in that a woman’s age is certainly a factor that should drive marriage decision. We hear of biological clock of women and that is what is involved in this first interpretation. Thus, the condition would be that if a man recognizes that the fiancée is getting too close to a time that it may be difficult to have a child that the man should disregard the situational advice. Another interpretation of the Greek adjective used is in an intensive sense with the meaning “oversexed,” or “straining at one’s sexual peak” or “full of passion.” It is this translation that is reflected in the ESV, the NRSV and the TEV. This interpretation indicates that if a man who is engaged to be married is consumed with sexual passion that he should disregard the situational advice of not marrying in time of crisis. This reason is indeed in keeping with the reason the apostle gave in 1 Corinthians 7:2 for a man to marry to keep from sexual sin. Thus, you see both interpretations are possible and so that it is difficult to be certain of the meaning the apostle intended. It is probably that the Holy Spirit intended for the apostle to convey both meanings that the apostle wrote in such a manner that there was no definite clarity in the Greek of what he meant. This being the case, it is probably that the Holy Spirit gave the second condition for the freedom of marriage of engaged couple in time of crisis in twofold manner: the man’s passion for sexual intercourse with his fiancée and her advancing age.
A third condition that must be true for the freedom of marriage of engaged couple in time of crisis to be applicable is that the bridegroom has strong desire to do so. This condition, of course, is based on our interpretation that anyone in the literal translation refers to the man that is engaged to be married. It is this condition that is given in the clause of 1 Corinthians 7:36 and he feels he ought to marry. The word “ought” is translated from a Greek verb (opheilō) that basically means “to owe.” To owe, could mean to be indebted to someone financially, as the word is used in the Parable of the Shrewd Manager recorded in Luke 16:7:
“Then he asked the second, ‘And how much do you owe?’ “‘A thousand bushels of wheat,’ he replied. “He told him, ‘Take your bill and make it eight hundred.’
To owe could mean to be under obligation to meet certain social or moral expectations. It is in this sense that Apostle Paul used the word to indicate believers should love others in Romans 13:8:
Let no debt remain outstanding, except the continuing debt to love one another, for he who loves his fellowman has fulfilled the law.
The instruction Let no debt remain outstanding, except the continuing debt to love one another in the NIV is more literally Owe nothing to anyone, except to love one another. The sense of obligation is best conveyed with the word “ought”, especially when our word is followed by an infinitive, as it is used in our passage of 1 Corinthians 7:36. Thus, the apostle used the word to convey the obligation the more spiritually matured (strong) believers have over less matured (weaker) believers in Romans 15:1:
We who are strong ought to bear with the failings of the weak and not to please ourselves.
Our word could mean “ought, have to” to convey the sense of being constrained by circumstance. It is the meaning “have to” that best fits the text where the apostle corrected any misconception the Corinthians had regard not associating with people who are immoral in that the apostle indicated he meant believers who are immoral are to be avoided since failure to understand this means that believers would then be constrained to leave this world, as we read in 1 Corinthians 5:10:
not at all meaning the people of this world who are immoral, or the greedy and swindlers, or idolaters. In that case you would have to leave this world.
It is in the sense of “one must” or “to be necessary,” that is, “to be unavoidably determined by prior circumstances” that the word is used in 1 Corinthians 7:36. So the engaged man is under pressure or obligation to act.
The thing that the man in question senses he must or that it is a necessity to do is to marry the woman he is betrothed or engaged as in the sentence and he feels he ought to marry. The Greek at this point does not have the word “marry” since literally the Greek reads and it ought to be thus. This is because we have in the Greek first, a Greek verb (ginomai) that has several meanings. For example, it may mean “to happen” of an event as it is used to describe the events that led the centurion to confess that the Lord Jesus is the Son of God in Matthew 27:54:
When the centurion and those with him who were guarding Jesus saw the earthquake and all that had happened, they were terrified, and exclaimed, “Surely he was the Son of God!”
In our passage of 1 Corinthians 7:36, it is used in the sense of “to become” that is, “to enter a state” of matrimony as implied by the expression of the verse. Second, we have a Greek adverb (houtōs) that may mean “in this way, as follows” or “in this manner, thus.” In our passage, it is used with the meaning “thus,” that is, in the way indicated. The idea being that the man sees the necessity to be married and so to carry out his desire to be married.
It is true that the third condition we have considered is joined to the preceding two conditions with a Greek conjunction (kai) translated “and” but it does not seem to be that the apostle implies that all the three conditions we have considered should be fulfilled for the man to get married. You see, the Greek conjunction used could be translated “or” giving the sense of alternatively. Hence, any of these conditions we have considered is sufficient for the man to go ahead and marry according to his desire as stated in the sentence of 1 Corinthians 7:36 he should do as he wants. The word “wants” is translated from a Greek word (thelō) with a range of meanings. For example, the word may mean “to wish” as the apostle used in addressing a widow in 1 Corinthians 7:39:
A woman is bound to her husband as long as he lives. But if her husband dies, she is free to marry anyone she wishes, but he must belong to the Lord.
Another meaning of the word is “to delight” as that is the sense Apostle Paul used it in cautioning against false humility that leads to idolatry as in Colossians 2:18:
Do not let anyone who delights in false humility and the worship of angels disqualify you for the prize. Such a person goes into great detail about what he has seen, and his unspiritual mind puffs him up with idle notions.
In our passage of 1 Corinthians 7:36, the word is used in the sense of “to desire” or “to want something so strongly.” Hence, the apostle instructs the man who desires or wants strongly to marry under any of the conditions we have considered, to go ahead and marry. Then the apostle adds He is not sinning.
There is a question as to what the apostle meant when he wrote He is not sinning. In other words, what is it that the apostle says is not a sin? Is it the desire of the man who wants to be married or is marriage itself? Really, there is no significant difference between the two so that the apostle meant that the desire to marry or marriage in and of itself is not a sin. The more interesting thing is why the apostle should write He is not sinning since marriage or desire to marry is not a sin. The reason the apostle had to do so is because he had already given a situational advice against marriage in a crisis or suffering situation. Therefore, since he wrote under the guidance of the Holy Spirit anyone that reads what he wrote would be obligated to do what the apostle wrote. However, to ensure that the advice of the Holy Spirit is situational and for the benefit of believers in crisis or suffering situation, he had to clarify that it is not a sin to marry even under crisis.
The apostle followed his explanation with the last sentence of 1 Corinthians 7:36 They should get married. The word “married” is translated from a Greek verb (gameō) that means “to marry” in the sense of to take another person as a spouse. It is used of a man taking a woman as a wife in Luke 16:18:
“Anyone who divorces his wife and marries another woman commits adultery, and the man who marries a divorced woman commits adultery.
It is used of a woman marrying a man as in the instruction against considering young widows as those that the church would support as in case of older widows as we read in 1 Timothy 5:11:
As for younger widows, do not put them on such a list. For when their sensual desires overcome their dedication to Christ, they want to marry.
The word may be used of both sexes getting married as in the forbidding of marriage as part of doctrine of demons in 1 Timothy 4:3:
They forbid people to marry and order them to abstain from certain foods, which God created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and who know the truth.
It is in the sense of both sexes getting married that it is used in our passage of 1 Corinthians 7:36. The sentence They should get married implies that a man and a woman marry each other. This is the reason we argued previously that the virgin in our verse is one that is betrothed to a man and not a daughter of a father or a guardian that has the right to let a daughter get married. The Greek word used in our passage clearly indicates that the man and the virgin mentioned in our verse should be married to each other. Hence, it is difficult to sustain that the man implied at the beginning of the verse could be anyone but a suitor. There is more to say about what we have considered regarding the freedom to marry in time of crisis as to how it applies in our time but we are out of time so we pick that up in our next study. Nonetheless, let me remind you of an important lesson that we have stated based on the instruction of the section that we are considering which again is: You should not allow crisis or suffering to cause you to break your promise although you may delay its fulfillment with adequate explanation to the one you made the promise.
07/31/20