1 Corinthians 7:34

“The married woman also is divided. The unmarried virgin careth for the things of the Lord, that she may be holy both in body and in spirit; but she that is married careth for the things of the world, [seeking] how she may please her husband.”

The text, at the beginning of 1 Corinthians 7:34, has been extraordinarily handled and re-handled. This arises, no doubt, from the uncertainty which copyists felt in regard to the verb μεμέρισται, is divided. Should it be made the end of 1 Corinthians 7:33, or the beginning of 1 Corinthians 7:34 ? On this there depended also in part the question of the καί (and) before the verb. The verb may certainly be connected with the preceding sentence; in this case it ought to be preceded by καί : “He who is married cares for the things of the world, how he may please his wife; and he is divided (in himself).” It will be objected that such an addition destroys the parallelism with 1 Corinthians 7:32; but there was no observation to be made on the result of the harmony between the will of the celibate and that of the Lord, whereas it is otherwise in the case of 1 Corinthians 7:33. This meaning is that adopted by Neander, Hofmann, Edwards, Lachmann, Westcott, and Hort. Only one cannot help asking why the apostle did not likewise add an analogous reflection when concluding the case of the married woman in 1 Corinthians 7:34. The parallelism between the two members of the sentence is rigorous, and seemed to demand it. It is better, therefore, to join the verb μεμέρισται (with or without the καί) to 1 Corinthians 7:34. But in this case, what is the subject of the verb is divided? And how are we to read and punctuate the following words? One reading gives the epithet ἡ ἄγαμος, unmarried, twice, first after the word ἡ γυνή, the woman, and then after the word ἡ παρθένος, the virgin; another, only after the first of these words; a third, only after the second. Not only does the majority of the documents support this third reading; but its representatives are found in the three families of Mjj., and the two oldest versions testify in its favour, so that we ought to receive it as the most probable. The true text seems to us to be: Μεμέρισται καὶ ἡ γυνὴ [καὶ b ἡ παρθένος ἡ ἄγαμος μεριμνᾷ...But the question is, how far we are to extend the subject of μεμέρισται, is divided. Many think that the subject is double: Both the wife and the virgin are divided. Then the new sentence would begin with ἡ ἄγαμος, the unmarried. We should require to take the verb is divided in the sense of is different (so Chrysostom, Luther, Mosheim, etc.), or, what comes to nearly the same thing, in the sense of going in opposite directions (Theodoret, Meyer, Beet): “There is a difference between the wife and the unmarried woman.” But after the idea of a division of the same person by opposite cares had been so forcibly advanced in 1 Corinthians 7:33, it is unnatural to give to the verb μερίζεσθαι, to be divided, the sense of to differ, all the more that the verb is in the singular, and that, notwithstanding all Meyer's subtle explanations, one would expect the plural (μερίζονται), as is shown by the paraphrase of Theodoret, who instinctively falls into the plural (μεμερισμέναι εἰσὶ ταῖς σπουδαῖς). This verb in the singular can only apply to one whole divided into several parts (comp. 1 Corinthians 1:13; Mark 3:25-26, etc.). Although, then, the Latin and Syriac versions, and almost all the Latin Fathers give this meaning, it appears to me difficult to accept it.

There remains, as it seems to me, only one possible explanation: that which assigns to μεμέρισται as its subject the following term only: the woman, ἡ γυνή, reading the καί : The woman also is divided (evidently the married woman). 1 Corinthians 7:33 had just shown the married man divided within himself by different anxieties. It is absolutely the same with the married woman, adds the apostle; and he establishes it in the sequel of the verse, presenting first by way of contrast the description of the virgin who consents to remain so. The beginning of the following proposition is therefore ἡ παρθένος, the virgin. The καί before this word ought either to be understood in the sense of also (like the bachelor, 1 Corinthians 7:17), or rejected. It may easily have been added under the influence of the widespread interpretation which made the following substantive a second subject of μεμέρισται.

The apostle forcibly brings out the contrast between the married woman who is inwardly divided, and the virgin whose happy inward harmony the apostle proceeds to point out. The apposition ἡ ἄγαμος, the unmarried, is not a pleonasm; it signifies: “the virgin who remains unmarried.” She takes counsel only of the will of the Lord, without being obliged to put herself at one with the will of a human master; she has consequently only one perfectly simple aim to pursue, that which is indicated by the ἵνα, in order that, which follows. The word ἁγία, holy, is equivalent here to the term consecrated, that is to say, entirely devoted in her body and spirit to the service of the Lord. As to the words: in her body, we must compare 1 Corinthians 7:4, where it is said of the married woman that she has not power over her own body. As to the spirit, compare what follows, where it is said of the married woman that she is under obligation to take account of her husband's will, as well as of earthly necessities. It is an ideal full of nobleness and purity which floats before the eyes of the apostle, when he thus describes the life of the Christian virgin being able to give herself up, without the least distraction, to the task which the Lord assigns her. He will give scope to this impression still more fully in 1 Corinthians 7:35. In the last proposition of the verse, the apostle returns to the other alternative, that of marriage, and develops the first words of the verse: The woman is divided. The aor. γαμήσασα signifies: from the moment when she did the act of marrying. In English we should rather join these two propositions by a conjunction: “While the virgin cares for...the married woman cares for...”