Vincent Word Studies - 1 Corinthians 7:34 - 7:34

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Vincent Word Studies - 1 Corinthians 7:34 - 7:34


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This Chapter Verse Commentaries:

There is a difference

The textual question here is very perplexing, and it is well-nigh impossible to explain the differences to the English reader. He must observe, 1st. That γυνὴ wife is also the general term for woman, whether virgin, married, or widow. 2nd. That μεμέρισται A.V., there is a difference, literally means, is divided, so that the literal rendering of the A.V., would be, the wife and the virgin are divided. Some of the best texts insert καὶ and both before and after is divided, and join that verb with the close of 1Co 7:33, so that it reads: careth for the things of the world how he may please his wife, and he is distracted. This makes γυνὴ and παρθένος (A.V., wife and virgin) begin a new sentence connected with the preceding by καὶ and Γυνὴ is rendered woman, and the words η αγαμος the unmarried, instead of beginning a sentence as A.V., are placed directly after woman as a qualifying phrase, so that the reading is ἡ γυνὴ ἡ ἄγαμος the unmarried woman, and both this and ἡ παρθένος the virgin are nominative to μεριμνᾷ careth. The whole, then, from the beginning of 1Co 7:33, will read: But he who is married careth for the things of the world how he may please his wife, and he is distracted; and the unmarried woman and the virgin care for the things of the Lord.