The life and work of St. Paul

SAUL THE FHAKISEE. 45
It is, then, only indirectly that we can expect to find an answer to the
question as to his marriage. If, indeed, be was a member of the Sanhedrin,
it follows that, by the Jewish requirements for that position, he must hav
been a married man. His official position will be examined hereafter ; but,
meanwhile, his marriage may be inferred as probable from passages in his
Epistles. In 1 Cor. ix. 5 he asks the Corinthians, " Have we not power to
lead about a sister, a wife, as well as other Apostles, and as the brethren of
the Lord, and Keplias P "
This passage is inconclusive, though it asserts his
right both to marry, and to take a wife with him in his missionary journeys
if he thought it expedient. 1 But from 1 Cor. vii. 8 it seems a distinct inference
that he classed himself among widowers ; for, he says, " I say, therefore, to
the unmarried and widows, it is good for them if they abide (pttvufftr) even
as I." That by " the unmarried " he here means " widowers "
for which
there is no special Greek word seems clear, because he has been already
speaking, in the first seven verses of the chapter, to those who have never
been married. 2 To them he concedes, far more freely than to the others, the
privilege of marrying if they considered it conducive to godliness, though,
in the present state of things, he mentions his own personal predilection for
celibacy, in the case of all who had the grace of inward purity. And even
apart from the interpretation of this passage, the deep and fine insight of
Luther had drawn the conclusion that Paul knew by experience what marriage
was, from the wisdom and tenderness which characterise his remarks respecting
it. One who had never been married could hardly have written on the
subject as he has done, nor could he have shown the same profound sympathy
with the needs of all, and received from all the same ready confidence. To
derive any inference from the loving metaphors which ho draws from the
nurture of little children 3 would be more precarious. It is hardly possible
that Paul ever had a child who lived. Had this been the case, his natural
affection could hardly have denied itself some expression of the tender love
which flows out so freely towards his spiritual children. Timothy would not
have been
" "
so exclusively his own true child in the faith if he had had son
or daughter of his own. If we are right in the assumption that he was
married, it seems probable that it was for a short time only, and that his wife
had died.
But there is one more ground which has not, I think, been noticed, which
seems to me to render it extremely probable that Saul, before the time of his
1 The notion that the " true yokefellow M ( yvtjate (rv