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The Ancient World Behind the Text: Ideas
The customs, offices and ideas a first reader knew without being told, what each meant then, and the nearest thing you already know.
Celibacy and self-denial
Nearly everyone in the ancient world thought people should marry and have children. A few, from Cynic philosophers to some Essenes, refused marriage for a higher calling, and some in Corinth thought holiness meant giving up sex even within marriage.
His family kept asking when he would settle down, and they did not think of staying single as a calling. In Paul's world nearly everyone expected to marry and raise children, and Jews counted it a command of God. A few groups thought otherwise. Some philosophers, the Cynics above all, avoided marriage as a distraction from the wise life, though not always sex, and many Essenes lived without wives. In Corinth some believers seem to have gone further and decided that married couples should stop sleeping together to be more spiritual.
Keener says most ancient writers condemned celibacy. Many Jewish teachers thought it sinful, since filling the earth was a commandment and marriage the proper guard against sexual sin. He sorts the views roughly three ways. The majority held that all who were able should marry and have children. The Cynics saw marriage as a distraction the wise man should avoid unless he found a wife equally devoted to philosophy; their one recorded exception was Hipparchia, wife of Crates. An early second-century rabbi held marriage right for most, with exceptions for those absorbed in other spiritual pursuits. Paul, Keener judges, combines the second and third. Some philosophical groups and many Essenes advocated celibacy, as did the Therapeutae. A few sages, mostly Cynics, rejected marriage while allowing prostitutes, and Augustus offered tax incentives to marry. Cynics feared marriage would pull them from a life without possessions or duties. Wandering sages normally could not marry, though most apostles by Paul's time were married and traveled with their wives. Bailey reads 1 Corinthians 7:1 as the Corinthians' question about the ascetic life. Wright describes teachers in Corinth urging celibacy, or abstinence within marriage, as the road to holiness. Jewish people expected great suffering just before the end, when marriage would be of little value (Keener). Wright ties Paul's present distress to a grain shortage across the Greek world in the years after he left Corinth. Asceticism was growing in Greco-Roman paganism in Paul's day. Josephus says of the Essenes, "They neglect wedlock, but choose out other persons children," though they did not reject marriage outright. Drinking only water often marked an ascetic.
An analogy: a missionary who stays single for the work. Most people around him think it admirable in a few and strange as a rule, and some think it unnatural.
Because nearly everyone expected to marry, praise of staying single, as in 1 Corinthians 7:7-8, was unusual, and the same chapter answers the opposite pressure by telling married couples not to deprive each other. Jesus speaks of some who make themselves eunuchs for the kingdom in Matthew 19:12, and 1 Timothy 4:3 condemns teachers who forbid marriage.
Not a practical career choice. The missionary stays single to travel light. In Corinth some urged celibacy, even abstinence inside marriage, as the road to holiness, and Paul ties his advice to a present distress; most apostles of his day were married.
Whose words open 1 Corinthians 7:1, with its saying against a man touching a woman. Keener and the cultural backgrounds notes take it as a line from the Corinthians' letter that Paul answers. Bailey reports that most of the Syriac, Arabic and Hebrew versions he assembled read it as a statement, and two ninth-century Arabic versions as a question; he takes it as the Corinthians' question. Why Paul counsels staying single also divides the sources. Keener and his notes point to the Jewish expectation of suffering before the end, Wright to a famine in the years after Paul left Corinth. A third question is whether the foods of 1 Timothy 4:3 were those of the Jewish food laws, as Keener thinks, or an ascetic diet in general, which his notes leave open.
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- Craig S. Keener, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament, introduction to 1 Corinthians 7:1-7, and on 7:1, 7:5, 7:26, 7:32-35 and 7:36-38
- NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible, notes on 1 Corinthians 7:1, 7:3, 7:32-34 and 9:5
- Kenneth E. Bailey, Paul Through Mediterranean Eyes, section 2.5
- N. T. Wright, Paul for Everyone: 1 Corinthians, comments on 1 Corinthians 7:1-7, 7:8-16 and 7:25-31
- Craig S. Keener, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament, on 1 Timothy 4:3 and 5:23
- NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible, notes on 1 Timothy 4:3 and 5:23
- ESV Study Bible, study note on 1 Timothy 5:23
- Josephus, The Wars of the Jews 2.8.2, trans. William Whiston
- NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible, article Celibacy in Antiquity
