Paul on marriage and celibacy : the hellenistic background of 1 Corinthians 7 / Will Deming.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Deming, Will, 1956-

Contributor:

Allan and Philip Carlson Memorial Fund.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Bible. Corinthians, 1st, VII--Criticism, interpretation, etc.

Bible.

Marriage--Biblical teaching.

Marriage.

Celibacy--Biblical teaching.

Celibacy.

Cynics (Greek philosophy).

Stoics.

Physical Description:

xxii, 271 pages ; 24 cm

Edition:

Second edition.

Place of Publication:

Grand Rapids, Mich. : William B. Eerdmans Pub., 2003.

Summary:

Paul is traditionally seen as one of the founders of Christian sexual asceticism. As early as the second century C.E. church leaders looked to him as a model for their lives of abstinence. But is this a correct reading of Paul? What exactly did Paul teach on the subjects of marriage and celibacy? Will Deming here answers these questions - often in provocative new ways. By placing Paul's statements on marriage and celibacy against the backdrop of ancient Hellenistic society, Deming constructs a coherent picture of Paul's views. He shows that the conceptual world in which Paul lived and wrote had substantially vanished by 100 C.E., and terms like "sin," "body," "sex," and "holiness" began to acquire moral implications quite unlike those Paul knew. Paul conceived of marriage as a social obligation that had the potential of distracting Christians from Christ. For him, celibacy was the single life, free from such distraction, not a life of saintly denial. Sex, in turn, was not sinful but natural, and sex within marriage was both proper and necessary.

Contents:

1. The Motivation for Celibacy in 1 Corinthians 7: A Review of Scholarly Opinion 1

Paul in the Light of Stoic and Cynic Materials 2

Motivations for Celibacy from Hellenistic Judaism 6

Asceticism and Revelation 6

Asceticism as Marriage to Sophia 8

Motivations for Celibacy from First-Century Christianity 12

A Sociological Approach 12

Fear and Confusion as the Cause of Celibacy 12

Secondary Christological Motivations 15

Enthusiasm and Realized Eschatology 17

The Use of Second-, Third-, and Fourth-Century Sources 28

General Considerations 28

1 Corinthians 7 as a Case of Gnostic Asceticism 30

Spiritual Marriages 35

2. The Stoic-Cynic Marriage Debate 47

Issues and Dynamics in the Stoic-Cynic Marriage Debate 48

The Fifth to the Third Century B.C.E. 58

Anaxagoras, Antiphon, Democritus 58

Xenophon 59

Early Cynics 60

The Academy, the Peripatetics, and Epicurus 61

Early Stoics 64

The Second to the First Century B.C.E. 66

Antipater of Tarsus and Ocellus Lucanus 66

Cynic Epistles 67

Arius and Cicero 70

The First to the Middle of the Second Century C.E. 73

Seneca 73

Musonius Rufus 75

Quintilian, Theon, and Dio Chrysostom 76

Hierocles the Stoic and Epictetus 78

The Middle of the Second Century and Beyond 84

First-Century Judaism and Early Christianity 86

Philo of Alexandria 87

Pseudo-Phocylides and Josephus 93

The New Testament 94

Second- and Third-Century Christian Apologists 97

Clement of Alexandria 98

Tertullian 101

Jerome and Beyond 102

3. Stoic and Cynic Elements in 1 Corinthians 7 105

A "Cynic" Position for Married Christians: 7:1-7 107

Marriage out of Passion: 7:8-9 128

Marriage as Slavery to an Outside Influence: 7:10-24 129

The Unholiness of a Non-Christian Spouse as Grounds for Divorce (7:10-15a) 129

Marriage to an Unbeliever as a Form of Slavery (7:15b-24) 145

Paul's Argument against Marriage by Reason of Adverse Circumstances: 7:25-28 169

Apocalyptic "Circumstances": 7:29-31 174

The Commitments of Married Life and Finding Time for the Lord: 7:32-35 193

Good and Better, Sin and Blessedness: 7:36-40 202

4. A Nonascetic Interpretation of Paul 207

Paul's Audience in 1 Corinthians 7 208

Paul's Understanding of Marriage and Celibacy 210

Marriage and Celibacy for Married Christians 213

Marriage and Celibacy for Single Christians 214

Paul in the History of Christian Asceticism 216

Appendix A Antipater of Tarsus, from His On Marriage, SVF 3.254.23-257.10 (Stobaeis 4.507.6-512.7 W.-H.) 221

Appendix B Ocellus Lucanus: On the Nature of the Universe [Spurious] 43b-51 231.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and indexes.

Local Notes:

Acquired for the Penn Libraries with assistance from the Allan and Philip Carlson Memorial Fund.

ISBN:

0802839894

OCLC:

167255097