1 Corinthians 7:9

1Co 7:9. Κρεῖσσον, better) This comparative does not nullify the positive in 1Co 7:38.—ἢ πυροῦσθαι, than to be inflamed) A very strong word. A man, who maintains continence, may have that, with which he has to struggle, although he may not be inflamed. Thomas Aquinas on this passage says, to be inflamed [to burn], that is to be overcome by concupiscence; for concupiscence is a certain noxious heat. He, then, who is assailed by it, becomes warm indeed, but he does not burn, unless, overcome by concupiscence, he loses the dew of God’s grace. This burning thrusts men at last into hell-fire.

Bengel's Gnomon of the New Testament — English translation (T&T Clark, Edinburgh, 1860) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

1Co_7:8, 1Co_7:9

I say therefore to the unmarried and widows, It is good for them if they abide even as I. But if they cannot contain, let them marry: for it is better to marry than to burn.

This is the application of the principle laid down in 1Co_7:1 to the Corinthians. I say to the unmarried and to the widows among you, it is well not to marry. The unmarried is not to be limited to widowers, as is commonly done on account of the word widows following, because the word does not admit of that limitation; and because the word married in the following verse includes all classes. To the unmarried, and specially to widows, I say so; to the married I say so.

If these verses and others of like import, are to be understood of men generally, and not of men in the peculiar circumstances of the early Christians, then it must be admitted that Paul depreciates marriage, and that he represents it as scarcely having any higher end than the sexual intercourse of brutes. This cannot be his meaning; not only because it is contrary to Scripture, but also because Paul elsewhere, Eph_5:22-33, represents marriage as a most ennobling spiritual union; which raises a man out of himself and makes him live for another; a union so elevated and refining as to render it the fit symbol of that bond between Christ and his people, by which they are exalted to the full perfection of their being. Marriage, according to Paul, does for man in the sphere of nature, what union with Christ does for him in the sphere of grace. The truth is that the apostle writes to the Corinthians as he would do to an army about to enter on a most unequal conflict in an enemys country, and for a protracted period. He tells them, This is no time for you to think of marriage. You have a right to marry. And in general it is best that all men should marry. But in your circumstances marriage can only lead to embarrassment and increase of suffering. This is the only view of the matter by which we can reconcile the apostle with himself, or with the truth of Scripture and of fact. This must therefore be borne in mind in the interpretation of this whole chapter.

Charles Hodge — Commentary on Romans (1835), First Corinthians (1857), and Ephesians (1856) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

So to burn with lust, that either the will yieldeth to the temptation, or else we cannot call upon God with a quiet conscience.

Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain. Text via Bolls.life.

if they cannot contain--that is, "have not continency."

burn--with the secret flame of lust, which lays waste the whole inner man. (Compare AUGUSTINE [Holy Virginity]). The dew of God's grace is needed to stifle the flame, which otherwise would thrust men at last into hell-fire.

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Verse 9. But if they cannot contain] If they find it inconvenient and uncomfortable to continue as widowers and widows, let them remarry.

It is better to marry than to burn.] Bishop Pearce translates the original thus: For it is better to marry than to be made uneasy. πυρουσθαι, says he, "signifies primarily to burn; but in a metaphorical sense, to be troubled, vexed, or made uneasy. So in 2Co 11:29: Who is offended and I burn not, και ουκ εγω πυρουμαι, and I am not troubled. So in Terence, Uro hominem, is I vex him." It would be well to soften the sense of this word in reference to the subject of which the apostle speaks. He cannot mean burning with lust, no more than Virgil means so when he says, AEn. iv. ver. 68: Uritur infelix Dido, the unfortunate Dido is tormented; and in Eccl. ii. 68: Me tamen urit amor, love torments me. All this may be said with the strictest truth in such cases where the impure fire referred to above has no existence.

A curious story, which certainly casts light on the phraseology of this place, is related by Dr. Lightfoot, from the tract Kiddushin, fol. 81. "Some captive women were brought to Nehardea, and disposed in the house and the upper room of Rabbi Amram. They took away the ladder [that the women might not get down, but stay there till they were ransomed.] As one of these captives passed by the window, the light of her great beauty shined into the house. Amram [captivated] set up the ladder; and when he was got to the middle of the steps [checked by his conscience] he stopped short, and with a loud voice cried out FIRE! FIRE! in the house of Amram! [This he did that, the neighbours flocking in, he might be obliged to desist from the evil affection which now prevailed in him.] The rabbins ran to him, and [seeing no fire] they said, Thou hast disgraced us. To which he replied: It is better that ye be disgraced in the house of Amram in this world, then that ye be disgraced by me in the world to come. He then adjured that evil affection to go out of him, and it went out as a pillar of FIRE. Amram said: Thou art FIRE, and I am FLESH; yet for all that I have prevailed against thee." From this story much instruction may be derived.

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

9. But if they cannot contain While he advises to abstain from marriage, he always speaks conditionally — if it can be done, if there is ability; but where the infirmity of the flesh does not allow of that liberty, he expressly enjoins marriage as a thing that is not in the least doubtful. For this is said by way of commandment, that no one may look upon it as mere advice. Nor is it merely fornicators that he restrains, but those also who are defiled in the sight of God by inward lust; and assuredly he that cannot contain tempts God, if he neglects the remedy of marriage. This matter requires — not advice, but strict prohibition.

For it is better There is not strictly a comparison here, inasmuch as lawful marriage is honorable in all things, (Hebrews 13:4,) but, on the other hand, to burn is a thing that is exceedingly wrong. The Apostle, however, has made use of a customary form of expression, though not strictly accurate, as we commonly say: “It is better to renounce this world that we may, along with Christ, enjoy the inheritance of the heavenly kingdom, than to perish miserably in carnal delights.” I mention this, because Jerome constructs upon this passage a childish sophism — that marriage is good, inasmuch as it is not so great an evil as to burn I would say, if it were a matter of sport, that he foolishly amuses himself, but in a matter so weighty and serious, it is an impious scoff, unworthy of a man of judgment. Let it then be understood, that marriage is a good and salutary remedy, because to burn is a most base abomination in the sight of God. We must, however, define what is meant by burning; for many are stung with fleshly desires, who, nevertheless, do not require forthwith to have recourse to marriage. And to retain Paul’s metaphor, it is one thing to burn and another to feel heat. Hence what Paul here calls burning, is not a mere slight feeling, but a boiling with lust, so that you cannot resist. As, however, some flatter themselves in vain, by imagining that they are entirely free from blame, if they do not yield assent to impure desire, observe that there are three successive steps of temptation. For in some cases the assaults of impure desire have so much power that the will is overcome: that is the worst kind of burning, when the heart is inflamed with lust. In some instances, while we are stung with the darts of the flesh, it is in such a manner that we make a stout resistance, and do not allow ourselves to be divested of the true love of chastity, but on the contrary, abhor all base and filthy affections.

Hence all must be admonished, but especially the young, that whenever they are assailed by their fleshly inclinations, they should place the fear of God in opposition to a temptation of this sort, cut off all inlets to unchaste thoughts, entreat the Lord to give them strength to resist, and set themselves with all their might to extinguish the flames of lust. If they succeed in this struggle, let them render thanks unto the Lord, for where shall we find the man who does not experience some molestation from his flesh? but if we bridle its violence, before it has acquired the mastery, it is well. For we do not burn, though we should feel a disagreeable heat — not that there is nothing wrong in that feeling of heat, but acknowledging before the Lord, with humility and sighing, our weakness, we are meanwhile, nevertheless, of good courage. To sum up all, so long as we come off victorious in the conflict, through the Lord’s grace, and Satan’s darts do not make their way within, but are valiantly repelled by us, let us not become weary of the conflict.

There is an intermediate kind of temptation — when a man does not indeed admit impure desire with the full assent of his mind, but at the same time is inflamed with a blind impetuosity, and is harassed in such a manner that he cannot with peace of conscience call upon God. A temptation, then, of such a kind as hinders one from calling upon God in purity, and disturbs peace of conscience, is burning, such as cannot be extinguished except by marriage. We now see, that in deliberating as to this, one must not merely consider whether he can preserve his body free from pollution: the mind also must be looked to, as we shall see in a little.

John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.

(9) It is better . . .—Because to be influenced with unlawful desire is a sin, and to marry is no sin.

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

But if they cannot contain, &c. Or "if they do not contain", as the words may be rendered, and as almost all versions do render them; if they have not the gift of continency; if they are not willing, and do not think fit to contain, for none are to be compelled; if either therefore they want a will or power to contain, let them marry; it is not only lawful for them to marry, but it is right and best for them; hence it appears that second marriages are lawful, which were condemned by some of the ancients: for it is better to marry than to burn; or be burnt; not with material fire, as Judah ordered Tamar to be brought forth and burnt with, for whoredom; nor with hell fire, the just demerit of uncleanness; but with the fire of lust itself; and so the Syriac version reads it, "it is better to marry than to be burnt" "with lust"; when persons not only find in them some lustful motions and desires, and a glowing heat of concupiscence; but are as it were all on fire with the lusts of the flesh, and in great danger of being drawn into the commission of fornication, adultery, or other pollutions, and even unnatural lusts; it is much better to enter into a marriage state, though it may have its cares, inconveniences, and difficulties, than to be under temptations and inclinations to such defilements: so the Jews often express the lust of concupiscence by fire; they tell (g) us a

"story of R. Amram, that he redeemed all the captives, men and women; and the women and the virgins dwelt in a chamber in his house alone; one time, Satan kindled in him, , "the fire of lust", and he set a ladder to go up to them, and when he came upon the steps of the ladder, he began to cry with a loud voice, , "fire in the house of Amram, fire in the house of Amram": and the men came to quench the fire, and found nothing burning; for it was only his intention to cause to cease from him the fire of lust; and his thought ceased and his mind grew cool; and they asked him, why he mocked them? he replied, for this is a greater "fire" than all the fires in the world, for it is the fire of hell:''

This story is also told in the Talmud (h), with some little variation: so we read of one that is , "inflamed" (i), or all on fire "with the corruption of nature", who does not direct his heart to God: and such a man that finds his corruptions prevail over him, he ought to marry, they say (k), as a proper remedy against it:

"he whose mind is intent upon the law continually, and learns it as Ben Azzai, and cleaves to it all his days, and does not marry a wife, there is no iniquity in his hands, and that because his corruption does not prevail over him; but if his corruption prevails over him, , "he ought to marry a wife":''

and that for the very reason the apostle here gives. The Ethiopic version reads, "it is better to marry than to commit fornication"; that and adultery both are expressed by fire and burning, with the Jews, as they prove from Hos 7:4 (l).

(g) Caphtor, fol. 62. 1. (h) T. Bab. Kiddushin, fol. 81. 1. (i) Zohar in Lev. fol. 21. 1. (k) Maimon. Hilch. Ishot, c. 15. sect. 3. (l) Vet. Nizzachon, p. 43, 44.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

9 But if they cannot contain, let them marry: for it is better to marry than to burn.

Ver. 9. Let them marry] There is no lust so hot and violent, but God’s medicines rightly applied will cool and heal. Only remember that it is not the having, but the loving of a wife that keepeth a man chaste and clean. And that God doth use to correct excess and dalliance between married couples, with strong temptations after strange flesh.

Better to marry than burn] As an oven heated by the baker, Hos 7:4. As those pagans were scalded, Rom 1:27, and these papagans {a} still are, that are forbidden to marry, and yet cannot contain.

{a} Papist, Popish (with allusion to pagan). ŒD

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

But if they cannot contain - If they have not the gift of continence; if they cannot be secure against temptation; if they have not strength of virtue enough to preserve them from the danger of sin, and of bringing reproach and scandal on the church.

It is better - It is to be preferred.

Than to burn - The passion here referred to is often compared to a fire; see Virgil, Aeneas 4:68. It is better to marry, even with all the inconveniences attending the marriage life in a time of distress and persecution in the church 1Co 7:26, than to be the prey of raging, consuming, and exciting passions.

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

If they do not contain. This is spoken of such as are free; and not of such as by vow have given their first faith to God; to whom, if they will use proper means to obtain it, God will never refuse the gift of continency. Some translators have corrupted this text, by rendering it, if they cannot contain. (Challoner)

George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).

That St. Paul’s saying: It is good, & c. did not signify, it is the will of God, or, (as the papists would have it), it is my counsel in order to your further perfection, is plain by his precept for them to marry if they could not contain; and this likewise lets us see that second marriages are not only lawful, but may be an incumbent duty, that is, if they who are concerned as to them cannot contain themselves within the bounds and rule of chastity, which must not only be interpreted with reference to acts of uncleanness. This is contradicted by the reason given by the apostle, determining that marriage was much more eligible than burning, which term signifies the inward fervour and eager inclinations of the mind, not the acts only of the outward man.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

9. Cannot—The cannot is not in the apostle’s Greek. The true rendering is, If they do not be continent—if experience shows the certainty of failure.

Burn—An ordinary figure, expressing both the intensity and consuming power of lust. Relief from the burning impulse allows the soul, by cultivating the other virtues, to attain as high a piety as celibacy would afford. The very exaggeration of the virtue of celibacy in the post apostolic age of the Church had, no doubt, the good effect of almost recreating the lost virtue of chastity in the Roman empire. It was the restoration of the balance of the virtues, as presented here by Paul, since the Reformation, that has, as it were, brought the family virtues to a lustre of development unknown to former ages.

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

If they cannot contain; rather, if they have not continency. Let them marry. In 1Ti_5:14 he lays down and justifies the same rule with reference to young widows. It is better to marry than to burn. The original tenses give greater force and beauty to this obvious rule of Christian common sense and morality. The "marry" is in the aorist marry once for all," and live in holy married union; the "burn" is in the present be on fire with concupiscence." Marriage once for all is better than continuous lust; the former is permitted, the latter sinful.

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

But if they have not continency, let them marry: for it is better to marry than to burn . [In contrast with the enforced indulgence of matrimony, Paul sets up his own life of abstinence as preferable, but only to such as have with him a gift of absolute self-control. But all have not this gift, for God's gifts are infinitely various. He therefore advises the unmarried who have the gift of self-control to remain unmarried, but those lacking it should avoid unlawful lusts by marriage. In short, then, the single state is preferable in troublous times to such as have Paul's continence. Second question: Is marriage to be dissolved when one party believes, and the other does not? It is likely that this question was raised by the Judaizers, for while the original law given by Moses only forbade marriage with the seven Canaanitish nations ( Deu_7:1-3 ), yet the prophets and rulers so interpreted the law as to make it include Egyptians and Edomites ( 1Ki_11:1-2 ; Ezr_9:1-2 ), and at last it came to be understood that Jews were forbidden to marry outside their own nation (Josephus Ant. VIII. 7:5; XI. 5:4; XI. 7:2; XI. 8:2; XII. 4:6), and the children of such marriages were regarded as illegitimate-- Ezr_10:3 ]

J. W. McGarvey (with Philip Y. Pendleton), Commentaries on the New Testament (The Fourfold Gospel, 1914; Acts; and the epistles) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

9. If they cannot contain. If they cannot control their desires, it is best to marry.

B. W. Johnson's The People's New Testament with Notes (1889–1891) — public domain. Electronic text from the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (CCEL) ThML edition.

9.] Advice to the unmarried, that it is best so to remain, but better to marry than be inflamed with lust.

9.] but if they are incontinent … οὐκ must be joined not with εἰ, which would require μή, but with the verb. So reff. and Soph. Aj. 1131, εἰ τοὺς θανόντας οὐκ ἐᾷς θάπτειν παρών, ‘vetas.’ See other examples in Hartung, Partikellehre, ii. 122 f.

ἐγκρατεύω is said by Lobeck, ad Phryn. p. 44, not to be found except in the LXX and N. T. But both Phrynichus and Thom. Mag. say ἀκρατεύεσθαι μηδαμῶς εἴπῃς, ἀλλὰ οὐκ ἐγκρατεύεσθαι. See in Wetst.

γαμησάτ.] Lobeck, in Phrynichus, p. 742, says, “post ἔγημα (ut ἔγηρα) ἐγάμησα invaluit quod non solum in N. T. libris, ut quidam putaverunt, sed etiam in ipsa Græcia reperitur, auctore, ut videtur, Menandro: ἐγάμησεν ἣν ἐβουλόμην ἐγώ, nihil impediente pedum modulatione quominus usitato uteretur aoristo.”

ποροῦσθαι] “melius nuberent quam urerentur, id est, quam occulta flamma concupiscentiæs in ipsa conscientia vastarentur.” de sancta Virginitate, 34, vol. vi. p. 415.

10,

Henry Alford, The Greek Testament (1849–1861) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

9. εἰ δὲ οὐκ ἐγκρατεύονται. ‘But if they have not power over themselves’ (midd.). It is doubtful whether the negative coalesces with the verb so as to express only one idea. In N.T. we more often have εἰ οὐ for ‘if not’ than εἰ μή, which means ‘unless.’ “Where a fact has sharply to be brought out and sharply to be negatived, there εἰ οὐ seems to be not only permissible, but logically correct” (Ellicott). See Burton, Moods and Tenses, §§ 242, 261, 469; and compare Rom 8:9; 2Th 3:10, 2Th 3:14, etc.

What is meant by this failure to have power over themselves is partly explained by πυροῦσθαι (present tense in both verbs). A prolonged and painful struggle seems to be intended, a condition quite fatal to spiritual peace and growth: cf. 9:25; Gen 43:30; 1Sa 13:12. Elsewhere we have πυροῦσθαι of burning with grief and indignation (2Co 11:29).† The advice given here is similar to that given in v. 5, διὰ τὴν ἀκρασίαν ὑμῶν, and to the younger widows in 1Ti 5:11-15.

κρεῖττον (א B D E) is here the better reading, κρεῖσσον in 11:17, where see note. It is not easy to decide between γαμεῖν (א* A C* 17) and γαμῆσαι (א3 B C2 D E F, etc.). Editors are divided. Perhaps γαμῆσαι was changed to γαμεῖν to conform to πυροῦσθαι. But the change of tense is intelligible; ‘better to marry once for all than to go on being on fire.’ In this Epistle, as elsewhere in N.T., the later form of the aor. (ἐγάμησα) is more common (vv. 33, 34) than the earlier (ἔγημα; in v. 28 both forms occur.

International Critical Commentary — older volumes (1896–1929), various authors — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Cannot contain [ουκ εγκρατευονται] . Rev., have not continence. Only here, and ch. 9 25, of athletes abstaining from sensual indulgences when preparing for the games.

To burn. Continuous present, to burn on : continuance in unsatisfied desire.

Marvin R. Vincent, Word Studies in the New Testament (1887–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

Vv. 9. It is a good thing (καλόν) to remain free from every bond, if one can do so without sinning; but if sin is to be the result, it is better to marry; for sin is an evil, while marriage is not. — The compound word ἐγκρατεύεσθαι includes three ideas: to possess in oneself (ἐν) the power of (κρατεῖν) controlling oneself (the middle form). It is the opposite of the ἀκρασία of 1Co 7:5.

The aor. imper. γαμησάτωσαν, let them marry, has something about it abrupt and dry: “Let them marry and have done with it!” The aor. ἐγάμησα in later Greek sometimes takes the place of the primitive aor. ἔγημα, which is found Luk 14:20.

The term πυροῦσθαι, to burn, does not at all apply to the torments of hell, as Tertullian and Pelagius thought. Paul by this word denotes every painful exercise of soul; comp. 2Co 11:29; here: the fire of inward lusts in conflict with conscience. Comp. the ἐξεκαύθησαν of Rom 1:27, not-withstanding the difference of situation.

The fundamental question regarding the formation of the marriage bond is resolved. The apostle now examines the questions relating to the maintenance or breach of this bond. He here encounters two different positions. The first is that of the married who both belong to the Church (1Co 7:10-11); the second, that of the married of whom one only is a Christian (1Co 7:12-16). There follows an appendix relating to some analogous questions (1Co 7:17-24).

Frédéric Louis Godet — Commentaries on Luke, John, Romans, and 1 Corinthians — English translation (T&T Clark, Edinburgh, 1870s–1890s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.