WWUTT 1533 Betrothed Virgin or Virgin Daughter (1 Corinthians 7:36-40)

Understanding the Different Translations of 1 Corinthians 7:36-40

In the last portion of 1 Corinthians chapter 7, different translations translate these verses in very different ways. But that doesn't mean we should be confused over what is being talked about here when we understand the text.

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Here's your teacher, Pastor Gate.

Thank you, Becky. We come back to our study of 1 Corinthians chapter 7, and we'll finish up the chapter today. To keep things in context, I'm going to begin in verse 35. We'll read through verse 40 out of the Legacy Standard Bible the Apostle Paul wrote to the church in Corinth.

Now this I say for your own benefit, not to put a restraint upon you, but to promote propriety and undistracted devotion to the Lord. But if any man thinks that he is acting unbecomingly toward his virgin daughter, if she is past her youth, and if it must be so, let him do what he wishes.

He does not sin. Let her marry. But he who stands firm in his heart, being under no compulsion, but has authority over his own will, and has decided this in his own heart, to keep his own virgin daughter, he will do well.

So then both he who gives his own virgin daughter in marriage does well, and he who does not give her in marriage will do better. A wife is bound as long as her husband lives, but if her husband has fallen asleep, she is free to be married to whom she wishes, only in the Lord.

But in my opinion, she is happier if she remains as she is. And I think that I also have the Spirit of God. Now in this particular section, there is something kind of tricky going on here, because there are multiple translations that read different ways, beginning in verse 36.

What did we read there? Once again, let me come back to that. If any man thinks that he is acting unbecomingly toward his virgin daughter, if she is past her youth, and if it must be so, let him do what he wishes.

He does not sin. Let her marry. Now again, I'm reading out of the Legacy Standard Bible, and where there is a word in English that does not appear in the original Greek, it's italicized to let the reader know that this word has been added in to better kind of fill out the flow of the text, or to expound upon the context.

But it's understood that that word is not there in the Greek. It's been added in English, but it isn't in the Greek. In this case, the word is daughter. If you're reading out of the Legacy Standard Bible, daughter is italicized.

If you go to the New American Standard Bible, 1995, it's the same thing. In the 1995 version, it reads like this. If any man thinks that he is acting unbecomingly toward his virgin daughter, if she is past her youth, and if it must be so, let him do what he wishes.

He does not sin. Let her marry. So it's reading exactly the same way. And daughter would be italicized there because it does not appear in the original Greek. Because the word daughter is not there in the Greek, this has caused some confusion even among translators in how we're supposed to understand this particular passage.

Let me read to you what 736 says in the New International Version. If anyone is worried that he might not be acting honorably toward the virgin he is engaged to, and if his passions are too strong and he feels he ought to marry, he should do as he wants.

He is not sinning. They should get married. Wow, that's totally different. Daughter's not even mentioned there. In fact, it sounds like you're talking to a young man who's engaged to a young woman, and he's thinking to himself, well, based on these instructions that Paul has given here, maybe we shouldn't get married.

And then Paul is saying, no, if they do get married, then they do a good thing. But if they decide not to get married, they do even better. That seems to be the way that the New International Version is translated.

The English Standard Version is pretty close to that. Here's what it reads in the ESV. If anyone thinks that he is not behaving properly toward his betrothed... Okay, remember when we started this section on Monday, in verse 25, it says, now concerning virgins I have no command of the Lord, but I give an opinion as one who by the mercy of the Lord is trustworthy.

Yesterday I said that in the English Standard Version, virgins there in verse 25 is actually betrothed. Did I say English Standard Version or English Standard Virgin? Suddenly I'm second-guessing what I just said.

Anyway, so yeah, in the ESV the word betrothed is there. In the Legacy Standard and in the New American Standard it's the word virgin. So clearly the ESV translators were kind of going a different way with how they were understanding the Greek here.

Then the Lachman Foundation went with the New American Standard and with the Legacy Standard Bible. Let's look at a couple of other translations. So the New Living Translation, which is definitely more of a paraphrase, it says, but if a man thinks that he's treating his fiancée improperly and will inevitably give in to his passion, let him marry her as he wishes, it is not a sin.

That almost makes it look like it goes back to earlier in the chapter where Paul says that because of sexual immoralities, because of temptation, each man is to have his own wife and each woman is to have her own husband.

That was back in verse 2. So it almost looks like the New Living Translation went in the way of what Paul said back at the beginning of the chapter and then combined that with understanding virgins as betrothed.

Let me look at King James. Let's see what it says in the King James Bible. But if any man think that he is 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.

Well, now we're thoroughly confused, right? That almost seems like it could go either way. It could go toward the New American Standard way or the Legacy Standard way. It could go toward the ESV and NIV and NLT way.

You could go either direction with the King James Bible. Here's New King James. But if any man thinks he is behaving improperly toward his virgin, if she has passed the flower of youth and thus it must be, let him do what he wishes, he does not sin, let them marry.

Now, pass the flower of her youth, as it says in the King James and the New King James, doesn't mean that she's beyond childbearing years. It actually means she's in her childbearing years. So she's now come into of an age that she can get married and therefore have a family, produce children.

So once a young woman was able to have children or once a girl, once a female was able to have kids, she reached the age where she could have kids. There were cultures back then that were marrying girls that young.

So she begins her period at age 12 or age 13. She could get married at that age. There were fathers that were giving their daughters that early. Now, in the Jewish culture in particular, she might be promised at 12 or 13, and then for several years she's preparing for marriage and won't actually get married until she's maybe 15 or 16.

That might be more common in a Jewish context. We're talking here, though, about a very pagan city. We're talking about Corinth, and we know how sexually promiscuous things were in Corinth. However, the church in Corinth was not that sexually promiscuous.

This is often a it's a mischaracterization of the church in Corinth. Because there was an issue of a man who was sleeping with his father's wife, his stepmother, in other words. We read about that when we were back in Chapter 5.

Because that incident was going on and because Paul makes such an impassioned plea in Chapter 6 to flee from sexual immorality, we tend to have this idea about the Corinthians that they were a sexually promiscuous church.

And that's actually not true. Something that was going on here in the church in Corinth is that some were believing that they needed to abstain from sex, even in their own marriages, in order to be holy.

And it's because of how sexually promiscuous the city of Corinth was, how it was known for sexual immorality. People had come out of that lifestyle. They'd become Christians. They were filled with the Holy Spirit.

So they felt like they needed to get as far away from it as possible. And so now, even in my marriage, I feel like I can't have sex because that would be something unholy. If I'm supposed to be giving my body unto the Lord as holy, it would be better to not even have sex in my marriage.

And that was why Paul started Chapter 7 the way that he did. That a husband's body does not belong to himself. It belongs to his wife. A wife's body does not belong to herself. It belongs to her husband.

Thus, Paul says in verse 3, the husband must fulfill his duty to his wife and likewise also the wife to her husband. Stop depriving one another, except by agreement for a time, so that you may devote yourself to prayer and come together again, so that Satan will not tempt you because of your lack of self-control.

So a husband and a wife were to enjoy each other. They were to be intimate in marriage, and they even provide a safeguard for one another, being able to satisfy our fleshly appetites, which is good in marriage, but is not to be done outside of marriage.

Hence why Paul also says, if a man finds it very difficult for him to control himself, then he should go ahead and get married. And it's that instruction in some translations that gets brought into this latter section of 1 Corinthians 7.

But I don't think that it is accurate to translate verse 36 as betrothed rather than virgin. So once again, reading out of the LSB, if any man thinks that he is acting unbecomingly toward his virgin daughter, if she is past her youth, and if it must be so, let him do what he wishes he does not sin, let her marry.

So who are we talking about here? We're talking about this virgin daughter's father giving his daughter in marriage. So just like there were some in Corinth who thought that I need to stay away from sex as much as possible in order to be holy, there were also fathers who were keeping their daughters from getting married because he thought he was keeping his daughter holy in this way.

Again, trying to save her from all the sexual promiscuity that was going on in the city of Corinth. Listen to the note that John MacArthur writes here in the John MacArthur Study Bible. And I'm reading from the ESV Study Bible.

If you read the John MacArthur note in the New American Standard, the John MacArthur Study Bible New American Standard would actually be a slightly different note because it doesn't have to account for the rendering of the English Standard Version.

So I'm reading you the John MacArthur note here in the ESV under First Corinthians 736. He says the following. It is better to understand the subject as the father, not a young man. I'm breaking away from MacArthur's note here, not a young man who is wanting to marry his virgin betrothed, right, but rather a father who is giving away his virgin daughter.

So not the intended husband, but the subject here is the father who is saving his virgin daughter. Okay. Continuing with MacArthur's note, apparently in Corinth, some of the fathers intending devotion to the Lord had dedicated their young daughters to the Lord as permanent virgins.

When daughters became of marriageable age and insisted on being married, their fathers were free to break the vow and let them marry. So this also is not the sort of a situation where a father has ownership over his daughter and his daughter is unable to do anything outside of her father's wishes.

Because Paul had previously talked about in this particular chapter, he had talked about women devoting themselves to the service of the Lord. So even women remaining single, they're not remaining under their father's care.

They are independent women who may live with each other. It was not really safe for a woman to be by herself. So if a woman was single and not married, she might actually be living with other women. In the case of a daughter, a virgin daughter, whose father has devoted her to being a perpetual virgin, she would have remained with the family.

So she would have stayed living with her father. But she's still independent enough, especially in the culture that Corinth was, that she could get married if she wants. And the father should not feel like he has therefore sinned by letting her get married, as though he's broken a vow of some kind.

That's what Paul is saying here. That she can marry, he does not sin. That's in verse 36. He's not the one that sinned, nor has she sinned. Let her get married. Okay? So now verse 37. But he who stands firm in his heart, being under no compulsion, but has authority over his own will, and has decided this in his own heart to keep his own virgin daughter, he will do well.

And this would likely be in agreement by the daughter, not necessarily keeping her against her own will. That doesn't seem to be in view here, according to what Paul is saying. Now let's look at that verse in particular that I just read.

Let's look at that in the English Standard Version. So it says, but whoever is firmly established in his heart, being under no necessity, but having his desire under control, and has determined this in his heart to keep her as his betrothed, he will do well.

So what's the context there? Again, it looks like the English Standard translators read this as a young man engaged to a young woman. And he's going to remain true to his engagement commitment, and he's going to marry the woman.

If he has determined this in his heart to keep her as his betrothed, to keep her as a fiancée, to go ahead and marry the woman, he will do well. That's how it comes out in the ESV. Now, there's just something in the Greek that gets lost in translation here, which is why you have the LSB comes out one way and the ESV comes out another way.

But keep in mind, as we're reading this here, someone might be tempted to go, well, goodness, how can we trust that anything translated in the Word of God is accurate now if you can have differences that broad in the ESV and in the LSB?

We'll remember once again that back in verse 25, and this reads in the ESV the same way it does in the Legacy or in the New American Standard, in verse 25, Paul says, I have no command of the Lord, but I give an opinion as one who by the mercy of the Lord is trustworthy.

So we're even reading an opinion here, not an explicit command. So it's very unlikely that anybody's going to get something wrong no matter the translation they read, whether they're reading the English Standard Version, which seems to be talking about a guy with his fiancée, or the NASB and the LSB, which is clearly talking about a father in how he gives his daughter in marriage.

No matter which translation you're reading, if you follow those instructions in the ESV, you do well. If you follow those instructions in the LSB, you also do well. No one's doing anything wrong by reading from either translation.

You understand what I mean here? It's still good, pertinent wisdom, whichever translation it is that you are picking up. But the most accurate translation, the most accurate understanding here is most likely the one that we have in the New American Standard and in the Legacy Standard.

So I read once again, verse 37. But he who stands firm in his heart, being under no compulsion, but has authority over his own will and has decided this in his own heart to keep his own virgin daughter, he will do well.

Now, verse 38. So then both he who gives his own virgin daughter in marriage does well, and he who does not give her in marriage will do better. How does that read in the English Standard Version? Well, obviously, we're still going back to betrothed with a fiancée once again.

So then he who marries his betrothed does well, and he who refrains from marriage will do even better. Now, again, that's not necessarily wrong because it does follow the flow with the instructions or it follows the flow of instructions that Paul had given previously here in this particular chapter.

It may just be that the rendering of the Greek did not come out as accurate in the ESV as it came out in the New American Standard and the Legacy Standard. Verse 39, reading out of the Legacy Standard Bible again.

A wife is bound as long as her husband lives, but if her husband has fallen asleep, she is free to be married to whom she wishes only in the Lord. So a pattern that we've seen over Chapter 7 here has been instructions about men, instructions about women.

Right here, verses 36 to 38, 36, 37, and 38, that's been with regards to a man in how he gives his virgin daughter in marriage. I almost said virgin daughter. Virgin and virgin, those two words have not done well for me in this particular lesson, having to interchange between those two.

Anyway, so we've been talking about a man giving his virgin daughter in marriage, and now we get to instructions that might be for an older woman. So that's an older man. Here are instructions for an older woman, verse 39.

A wife is bound as long as her husband lives, so she should remain committed to her marriage as long as he's alive, but if her husband has fallen asleep, she is free to be married to whom she wishes. The covenant is done.

It has come to an end because her husband has died, so there's no marriage covenant between her and her husband anymore. She is released from that covenant, and now she can get married to someone else, but only in the Lord, Paul says.

End of verse 39, that means that the marriage must be to another believer. This must be a Christian marriage in honor of Christ, not simply because she found another man attractive or rich. That might be the other temptation as well.

Well, he's got money, I'm getting older, so let me marry that guy. It should be in the Lord that these things are done. Do not be yoked to unbelievers, as Paul will say to the Corinthians in the next letter, in 2 Corinthians.

Verse 40, as we close out this chapter, but in my opinion, so once again, Paul bookending this section by sharing his own opinion. That was in verse 25, and now he concludes in verse 40 the same way. In my opinion, she is happier.

The woman who is released from her marriage because her husband has died, she's happier to remain as she is. And then he shares, and I think that I also have the Spirit of God. So even though he's been giving something that is an opinion, it's been done in the Spirit of God.

These are words that have come from God. They aren't imperatives. It's not a commandment that's being given here. It is wisdom for the present time and for the present days, and it's wisdom that we can likewise apply to today, even though we may have considered this in the context of a present distress that Paul talked about in verse 26.

Nevertheless, you may decide that you want to devote yourself more fully unto the Lord and be able to make those decisions without having to think about how this would affect a wife or children. Therefore, commit yourself unto Christ and do that work without getting married or having children.

Maybe that needs to be the commitment that you make. Or perhaps you decide, I want to be married and I want to have kids. Now, that was me. I can say even from high school and probably even before that, I wanted to get married.

I wanted to be able to have a wife and children, and God has blessed me with a wonderful wife and five terrific kids. It has been such a blessing to be a husband and a father, and I wouldn't want it any other way.

There are some that God has given that to, that desire to do it, but there are others to whom God has given a desire to remain single and devote themselves more fully to the Lord. Do that as well. I think it would be wise for a young man or even a young woman in their youth, age 18 to 24, somewhere in there, to commit themselves to doing some kind of ministry work, to learn heavily in the ministry.

Now, that doesn't mean I'm saying go be a missionary, because I believe, as Paul Washer does, that you need to have certain qualifications in order to be a missionary, and we send many missionaries out who are completely unqualified for that particular work.

But you should devote yourself to some kind of ministry work, learning from somebody else, maybe not heading a charge, but you're following somebody else and learning ministry. It could be overseas. It doesn't necessarily have to be something domestic, but you, without spouse and without children, are able to devote yourself to that work early, before it starts to get hard with a spouse and kids.

That doesn't mean that even though you have a spouse and kids, you can't go do missionary work. I have an aunt and uncle who were missionaries in Ghana, and three kids they had with them when they went over to Ghana, Africa, even adopted two more while they were there.

And my uncle speaks like six different languages or something like that. A lot of the more primitive languages in that particular part of Africa, he's one of few people on earth that happens to know those particular languages and can minister to that people.

He did all of that with a family, and you certainly could do that as well. But maybe thinking about devoting yourself unto ministry work before you get into marriage, when something like that might be a little bit harder.

No matter what we do, as I mentioned yesterday, whether it is in singleness or in marriage, let all things be done unto the Lord Jesus Christ. As Paul is even later going to share here with the Corinthians, whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it to the glory of God.

Do all to the glory of God. That's 1 Corinthians 10 .31. Heavenly Father, thank you for the good things that you have bestowed upon us. May we give you praise for all of this that you have granted to us, and do all things to the praise of your great name.

It's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen.

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