7 - Findings and Conclusions

Summary

The overall aim of the present study has been to advance the understanding of Paul’s discussion of singleness and marriage in 1 Corinthians 7 by offering a fresh reconstruction of the Corinthian context in light of secular Graeco-Roman singleness. The intent of this project has been to develop further the proposal advocated by Will Deming that the fundamental basis for discussion between Paul and the Corinthians was the secular Graeco-Roman marriage question apart from ascetic motivations. We have done so first by extending the literary discussion to examine the Greek marriage debate beyond a strictly Stoic-Cynic caricature. We have also examined literary and non-literary evidence in support of the likelihood that a non-trivial unmarried population existed at Corinth generally. As a framework for considering factors that likely would have motivated first-century secular singleness, we have employed Ruth Dixon’s three variables for analysing the timing and quantity of nuptiality among various populations: the desirability of marriage, the availability of mates, and the feasibility of marriage. Based on the findings of the sources, we have proposed a non-ascetic reading of the text that resolves the lynchpin exegetical difficulty that primarily accounts for why interpreters have continued to ascribe ascetic motivations to the Corinthians – the statement in 7:1b, ‘it is good for a man not to touch a woman’.