The life and work of St. Paul

CONDITION OF THK CHURCH AT COBINTH. 391
when regarded from the spiritual standpoint. 1 As to virgins he could only
give his opinion that, considering the present distress, and the nearness of the end,
and the affliction which marriage at such a period brought inevitably in its train, it
was better for them not to marry. Marriage, indeed, he told them distinctly, waa
no sin, but he wished to spare them the tribulation it involved ; he did not wish
them, now that the time was contracted, 3 and the fleeting show of the world waa
passing away, to bear the distracting burden of transient earthly ani human cares,
or to use the world to the full,* but to let their sole care be fixed on God.* If then
a father determined not to give his maiden daughter in marriage, he did well ; but
if a lover sought her hand, and circumstances pointed that way, he was not doing
wrong in letting them marry." Widows might re-marry if they liked, but in accordance
with the principles which he had been laying down, he thought they would
be happier if they did not. It was but his wish and advice he asserted no Divine
;
authority for it ; yet in giving it he thought that he too had as other teachers had
claimed to have the spirit of God. 8
10. As to the pressing question a question which bore on their daily life 7 about
meats offered to idols, he quotes, but only by way of refutation, their self-satisfied
remark that they "all had knowledge" knowledge at the best was a much smaller
thing than charity, and the very claim to possess it was a proof of spiritual pride
and ignorance. If they knew that an idol was nothing in the world, and their
conscience as to this matter was quite clear and strong, it was no sin for them
personally to eat of these sacrifices ; but if others, whose consciences were weak,
saw them feasting in idol temples, and were led by this ostentatious display of
8 absence of scruple to do by way of imitation what they themselves thought wrong,
then this knowledge and liberty of theirs became a stumbling-block, an edification
9
of ruin, a source of death to the conscience of a brother and since thus to smite
;
the sick conscience of a brother was a sin against Christ, he for one would never
touch flesh again while the world lasted rather than be guilty of putting a fatal
difficulty in a brother's path. 10
be not hurtful to faith and morals" (Aug. ad Gal. H. 11); but that could hardly be said of slavery.
" "
Impudicitia ... in servo uccessifcis" (Sen. Uontrov. iv., I'raef.). Enfants, ils grandissaient en
"
ils mouraient souvent ). bhe niyJU even
be married while yet a kttanal i.e., not yet twelve. When she reached that age she was called
naarah (mrj), and six months later was held to have reached her full maturity, and become a bagroth,
rvnj}- See the Talmndic authorities in Rabbinowicz, Trad, des Traitfs Synhedrin, u." (-#. vii. 174J
Cf. Hdt. 1. 81 ; Judg. IT. 27 2 ; Kings xix. 37.
Tert. De Pratscr. Haer. 8.
10
viii. 1 13. Here, as usual, St. Paul shows himself transcendently superior to the Rabbis.
In Alhoda Za.ro. t. 8, 1, R. Ishmael lays down the rule that if Israelites " outside the. land " are