Translating παρθένοσ in 1Cor. 7:25-38

2015

This paper employs socio-rhetorical interpretation in order to analyze Paul’s argument in 1 Cor 7:1-5 regarding the role of connubial sex in Christian marriage. The paper shows that Paul engages in Christian wisdom discourse, introducing his argument in 1 Cor 7:1 with a maxim, probably drawn from a communication from the Corinthians themselves. He then creates an argument from the contrary to repudiate the maxim on the grounds of the requirements of Christian sexual morality in v. 2. The paper shows that Paul elaborates his argument in vv. 3-4 before constructing an argument allowing for a very specific and limited exception to his own rule regarding the necessity of connubial sex for Christians. Paul’s argument is analyzed with the help of insights derived from ancient rhetoric as well as cultural information regarding sexual practices from Greco-Roman authors.

Scriptura, 2012

This paper employs socio-rhetorical interpretation in order to analyze Paul's argument in 1 Cor 7:1-5 regarding the role of connubial sex in Christian marriage. The paper shows that Paul engages in Christian wisdom discourse, introducing his argument in 1 Cor 7:1 with a maxim, probably drawn from a communication from the Corinthians themselves. He then creates an argument from the contrary to repudiate the maxim on the grounds of the requirements of Christian sexual morality in v. 2. The paper shows that Paul elaborates his argument in vv. 3-4 before constructing an argument allowing for a very specific and limited exception to his own rule regarding the necessity of connubial sex for Christians. Paul's argument is analyzed with the help of insights derived from ancient rhetoric as well as cultural information regarding sexual practices from Greco-Roman authors.

2015

With the use of SRI as an interpretive analytics combined with a gender-critical hermeneutical optic I have traced out some of the ways in which gender is constituted and performed in the discourse of 1 Corinthians. I demonstrate that normative and normalising engendering is operative in the text and that the discourse replicates hegemonic gendered structurings and machinations from the broader social and cultural environment of that milieu. As a result Christian bodies are scripted to perform according to the dominant cultural protocols and engendering praxes. Because Paul is structured by and functions within the larger discourses of the ancient Mediterranean sex and gender system(s), one cannot comprehend the gendered rhetoric of 1 Corinthians without recourse to its interconnections with ancient gender discourses in general. Furthermore, when Paul is engaged in persuasion through the discourse of 1 Corinthians, gender construction(s) and representation(s), because of the nature ...

In Paul's time Corinth was religious and commercial hub. The Geographical location paved way for religious diversity at Corinth. Sailors and travelers brought with them their religions and planted them so firmly in Corinth. Religious syncretism might have being the factor for religious freedom thus let to rampant sexual immorality in the city and inside the church. Quite clearly the gospels make abundantly plain, but they liberally enjoyed regardless of the moral and religious standards sanction by the nation. In this context, Paul with the word porneia gave clear explanation of moral laxity and sexual sin. Paul instructs to abstain from immorality and temptation of sex. Paul insisted that sexual relation outside marriages is not justifiable. Thus the research is an attempt to explore dimensions of the word porneia to the social reality of the Corinthians and indicate how Paul used this word in his exhortation.

Priscilla Papers, 2009

Author: Ronald W. Pierce Publisher: CBE International One searches in vain for a focused study of 1 Corinthians 7:1–40 by an evangelical addressing Paul’s extensive call for mutuality in marriage and singleness as it relates to the contemporary gender debate.1 Instead, individual sections of this passage are referenced on occasion by both sides, usually in isolation from their larger context, and generally as peripheral to the debate.

In the time that Paul wrote Corinthians, sexual immorality was fueled by the abundance of pagan temples and pagan worshiping rituals. In this assignment I will discuss Paul’s answers on ethical questions about marriage, sex and divorce, and how these issues were complicated by the pagan influences.

2020

Sex and gender ethical norms, especially those found in Pauline texts, continue to inform sexual and reproductive choices of contemporary Christians because Christians understand Scripture to be regulative for their day-to-day living in the present-day society, despite the temporal and cultural separation of our world from the world of the New Testament. To avoid the impasse created by the temporal and cultural separation, people often resort to “but it was a different time and context” argument. However, what if Paul was actually being counter-cultural and counter-temporal, offering more radical perspectives than those that have been promoted as the norm through simple and face-value interpretations. This essay suggests precisely that – that a deeper investigation of the rhetorical performance of Paul’s instructions to, and his relationship with the Corinthians, could produce transgressive and possibly transforming interpretations. What seems on the surface to be Paul’s views on se...

NTS, 2022

This article, originally presented as the presidential address at the 2021 SNTS meeting, held virtually via Leuven due to Covid-19 conditions, investigates the nature of Pauline interpretation, past and present. It brings into the scholarly conversation a neglected ancient source, John Chrysostom's occasional homily on 1 Cor 7.2-4 (Hom. 1 Cor. 7-4 (CPG 4377)), and provides an analysis of key passages showing how the late antique orator-bishop seeks to turn Paul's words from the fifties to Corinth into a magical incantation, and, as inscribed on various materials, a talisman against the evils associated with porneia. The article concludes with defence of the category 'Christian love magic' and an argument that New Testament studies constitutes a unified field which should unite (rather than separate out) the work of philology, historical contextualisation, literary criticism, humanistic commitments and hermeneutical sophistication as we trace and analyse the ways human agents construct meanings with New Testament texts, then and now.

The miniseries version of The Bible now airing on the History channel raises a fascinating problem for those who would like to read, interpret, and teach the Bible in contemporary society: