P
pablope
Guest
Pablope,
If you look at an online Greek English transliteration of verse 7, you will find that the transliteration should be “I say therefore to the unmarried even widows”–or a comma could be added for better English sense: “I say therefore to the unmarried, even widows,” or in other words, “to the widows who are unmarried”.
So Paul is not saying he was never married. He most likely seems to be saying that widows who haven’t remarried are doing a “good thing” if they abide “even as Paul” and not remarry as long as they remain chaste.
I think Paul’s wife had died by this point in time. The ECF wrote about Paul as having been a married man during his life.
Could you cite the particular ecf and his statement that said Paul was a married man.
1 Corinthians 7:7-8 (The Message)
7Sometimes I wish everyone were single like me—a simpler life in many ways! But celibacy is not for everyone any more than marriage is. God gives the gift of the single life to some, the gift of the married life to others.
8-9I do, though, tell the unmarried and widows that singleness might well be the best thing for them, as it has been for me. But if they can’t manage their desires and emotions, they should by all means go ahead and get married. The difficulties of marriage are preferable by far to a sexually tortured life as a single.
I do know why inserting “even” will do to the verse or meaning. It does not make sense. Will it change the meaning of the verse? I do not think it does.