1 Corinthians 7:36

“But if any man think that he behaveth himself uncomely toward his virgin, if she pass the flower of her age, and need so require, let him do what he will; he sinneth not; let them marry.”

Paul introduces his advice by δέ, but, because this counsel is in contrast to the thought expressed, 1 Corinthians 7:35. The antithesis of ἀσχημονεῖν to τὸ εὔσχημον is manifest.

The verb ἀσχημονεῖν may have the active or passive sense: to behave uncomely toward any one, or: to be the object of unsuitable treatment. Of these two meanings the first only agrees with the preposition ἐπί which follows, and which indicates the object of the action; comp. also 1 Corinthians 13:5. But it might be a question whether the verb should not be taken here in an impersonal sense: “that there is no uncomeliness for his virgin.” I know no example of this usage; but the if she pass the age, which has embarrassed Hofmann, would fall in better with this meaning than with the active sense. The proposition ἐὰν ᾖ would then be the logical subject of ἀσχημονεῖν. Several commentators (de Wette, Meyer, Edwards even) think that the dishonour of which Paul speaks is that which the virgin contracts by allowing herself to be drawn into evil. But the apostle's thought is far removed from such a supposition; and he would have expressed it by saying: “if any one fears,” and not: “if any one thinks. ” He is speaking solely of that sort of shame which attached to the position of spinster, still more among the ancients than among us; comp. Psalms 78:63, and a passage quoted by Heinrici (p. 213).

With the words: “If she pass the flower of her age” (ὑπέρακμος), we must, of course, understand without marrying.

The meaning of the word οὕτως, thus, so, is explained by the beginning of the verse and by the contrast to 1 Corinthians 7:26; it is the state of marriage, whereas in 1 Corinthians 7:26 the context would show that it was the state of celibacy. Hofmann, after Theophylact, makes the proposition καὶ οὕτως the principal one: “If any one..., well! so it must be.” But there would be a glaring tautology with the three following propositions, and there would be no ground for the καί. The καί here signifies, and consequently. The ὀφείλει, it must be, follows first from the father's judgment, determined by the general prejudice, and next from the circumstances (the desire of the daughter and mother) which press in favour of a consent, which nothing but the firmly opposed conviction of the father could prevent. Under these conditions, things must take their course.

In what follows the apostle means: “He might, no doubt, have done better for his child's happiness; but he has not made himself liable to any reproach.” Holsten thinks that the subject of ἁμαρτάνει is the virgin; but it is the father who is regarded as acting throughout the whole passage.

The subject of γαμείτωσαν, let them marry, is, quite naturally, the virgin and the young man who asks her in marriage. For there is no reason to suppose that the apostle is alluding, as Rückert has thought, to a definite couple, about whom the Corinthians had addressed a question to him.

The second case: