by Leslie » March 23rd, 2007, 1:00 am
Paul begins I Cor 7 with "Now for the matters you wrote about ..." He was apparently responding to questions the Corinthians had about marriage. As has been already pointed out, everyone thought the end was near, and it seems to me that some people were confused about the place of marriage in the end times -- why get married and have children if the world is about to end?
The impression I get from Paul's remarks about "mixed" marriages is that some thought that if only one partner in a marriage had become a Christian, the marriage was void, and the believing spouse must leave the non-believing spouse. Paul was correcting this belief by saying, no, the marriage is still valid and the children legitimate -- I don't know the Greek -- is "illegitimate' a possible gloss of the word translated as "unclean?" And I think in verses 10-11, he was saying that the standards governing marriage and divorce still apply. [/i]
"What are you laughing at?"
"At myself. My little puny self," said Phillipa.
--Rumer Godden, In This House of Brede
