Full Text - Analele Universitatii din Craiova. Istorie

Analele Universităţii din Craiova, Seria Istorie, Anul XV, Nr. 2(18)/2010
But how exactly should a man treat his wife? How should they dedicate their
love towards each other, and staying in Christ at the same time? What is the
significance of manhood and womanhood inside the Christian family? Saint
Paul addresses all these complicated matters in his letter to the Corinthians. His
testimony became not only a concrete message for the Christian communities of
his time, but for all manking present and future, till Christ’s second coming.
“Nevertheless, because of sexual immoral ity, let each man have his own wife,
and let each woman have her own husband./ Let the husband render to his wife
the affection due her, and likewise also the wife to her husband./ The wife does
not have authority over her own body, but the husband does. And likewise the
husband does not have authority over his own body, but the wife does./ Do not
deprive one another except with consent for a time, that you may give
yourselves to fasting and prayer; and come together again so that Satan does
not tempt you because of your lack of self-control. But I say this as a
concession, not as a commandment” (1 Cor. 7, 2-7). This was the case in the
ancient world as it should be nowadays. All the people who would get married
must have acknowledged the responsibility toward his/her spouse, and toward
God 1 .
There are some who have argued that Saint Paul takes a very “low”
approach toward marriage as a means of escaping fornication, because of the
many forms of impurity present in his times. The reasons for this lies in three
directions. Firstly marriage was regarded as a safeguard from fornication in
relation to the masses of people, bound to original sin and craving for earthly
desires. Thus marriage was later regarded by the Church as a Holy Sacrament,
not only because it sanctifies the bodily and spiritual union between man and
his woman, but also for the fact that it justifies the fleshy cravings of the
husbands in front of God. Secondly, Paul is addressing the corrupt and
semi-heathen atmosphere in the ancient world, so that they understand the holy
message brought by Jesus Christ, that in Him the man and the woman become
one. Thirdly, “He is not here speaking of the idealized and spiritual aspect of
marriage, but only of large practical necessities” 2 .
The sacrament of marriage represents the definitive consolidation of the
family, in the light of Jesus Christ’s redemptive act. So for Paul, it became
mandatory to explain the heathens and non-christians alike this profound
mistery, how can the family communion in Christ can bring salvation. For the
pagan communities in ancient Greece, this was a difficult question, and Paul
1 “What is striking is that Paul addresses the wife as directly as the husband, contrary to the
usual pattern in the ancient world of addressing men and instructing women indirectly”, D.E.
Garland, 1 Corinthians. Baker exegetical commentary on the New Testament, Grand Rapids,
Mich.: Baker Academic, 2003, p. 258.
2 The Pulpit Commentary, op. cit., p. 224.
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