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4. εἰδέναι ἕκαστον ὑμῶν τὸ ἑαυτοῦ σκεῦος κτᾶσθαι ἐν ἁγιασμῷ καὶ τιμῇ—the positive παραγγελία completing the negative (ἀπέχεσθαι … πορνείας)—that each of you know how to win his own vessel in sanctification and honour. Κτᾶσθαι always signifies to acquire, get possession of (see Luk 18:12; Luk 21:19, &c.),—the perfect κεκτῆσθαι, to hold possession of (not occurring in N.T.); and οἶδα with the infin. signifies not only a fact (to know that; as in 1Pe 5:9), but more frequently a possibility (to know how to, to have skill, aptitude to do something: cf. Php 4:12; Mat 7:11; Jam 4:17). The difficulty of the passage lies in τὸ ἑαυτοῦ σκεῦος, which (a) the Greek interpreters (except Theodore of Mopsuestia), as also Tertullian, Calvin, Beza, Bengel, Meyer (on Rom 1:24; cf. Camb. Bible for Schools on this verse), refer to the body of the man as “the vessel of himself,”—that in which his personality is lodged: 2Co 4:7 (“this treasure ἐν ὀστρακίνοις σκεύεσιν”; cf. 2Co 5:1-4) and Rom 1:24 (where “the body” is the subject of “dishonour” through sexual vice; cf. ἐν τιμῇ below, also Col 2:23) are passages which afford an approximate parallel to this reading of the sense. The comparison of the human body to a vessel (σκεῦος, ἀγγεῖον, vas—of the soul, spirit, ego) was common enough in Greek writers; it occurs also in Philo Judæus, and in Barnabas (Ep. vii. 3, xi. 9), and Hermas (Mand. 1Th 4:2). 1Pe 3:7 may be fairly claimed as supporting this view rather than (b); for St Peter does not call the wife a σκεῦος in virtue of her sex, but he regards man and wife alike as σκεύη of the Divine Spirit, the latter being the ἀσθενέστερον of the two. The idea of this interpretation is certainly Pauline, viz. that mastery of bodily passion is a point of “honour” and of “holiness” with the Christian (see 1Co 6:15-20). Nor is the verb κτάομαι incongruous with σκεῦος in this sense, if “winning a vessel” can be understood to mean “gaining” the object in question for this purpose,—in other words, getting possession of one’s body in such a way that it becomes one’s instrument for God’s service; thus interpreted, κτᾶσθαι τὸ σκεῦος is nearly synonymous with δουλαγωγεῖν τὸ σῶμα, 1Co 9:27; similarly κτᾶσθαι in Luk 21:19 is synonymous with περιποιεῖσθαι τὴν ψυχήν of Luk 17:33. Chrysostom writes, Ἡμεῖς αὐτὸ (scil. τὸ σῶμα) κτώμεθα ὅταν μένῃ καθαρὸν καί ἐστιν ἐν ἁγιασμῷ, ὅταν δὲ ἀκάθαρτον, ἁμαρτία· εἰκότως, οὐ γὰρ ἂ βουλόμεθα πράττει λοιπόν, ἀλλʼ ἂ ἐκείνη ἐπιτάττει. No other example, however, is forthcoming of κτᾶσθαι in the signification required (“to gain the mastery of”); and it must be admitted that ἑαυτοῦ σκεῦος would be an awkward and obscure expression for the body as the vessel of the man’s true life.
But the decisive objection against (a) lies in the pointed contrast in which κτᾶσθαι τὸ ἑαυτοῦ σκεῦος is placed to πορνεία. This forces upon us (b) the alternative explanation of σκεῦος, expounded by Augustine and Theodore and adopted by most modern interpreters,—viz. that “his own vessel,” to be “won” by “each” man, means his own wife: cf. the parallel παραγγελία of 1Co 7:2, διὰ τὰς πορνείας ἕκαστος τὴν ἑαυτοῦ γυναῖκα ἐχέτω. For Christian wedlock as being ἐν ἁγιασμῷ, see 1Co 7:14; and ἐν τιμῇ, Heb 13:4 (τίμιος ὁ γάμος ἐν πᾶσιν). Κτᾶσθαι, however, seems to describe courtship and the contracting of marriage, rather than the married state: the position supposed is that of a man at the outset of life deciding whether he shall yield himself to a course of license or engage in an honourable marriage; this was the choice lying before the readers. To say that ἔκαστον upon this view precludes the celibate state commended by St Paul in 1 Corinthians 7, is an insufficient objection; for 1Th 4:2 of that chapter recognizes celibacy as being practically out of the question, though preferable on some religious grounds. The verb κτάομαι is appropriate to the winning of a bride (see Rth 4:10; Sirach 36:29, in LXX; also Xenophon, Symp. ii.10). Rabbinical writers afford instances of the wife described as a “vessel” (see Schöttgen, Horœ Hebraicœ, i. 827; also Bornemann or Lightfoot ad loc., for full examples); the last-named cites Shakespeare’s Othello, iv. 2, 1. 83, “to preserve this vessel for my lord” (Desdemona). The figure indicates the wedded partner as instrumental to the sacred purposes of marriage, whereas fornication is the debasement of sexual affection severed from its appointed ends.
The above κτᾶσθαι τὸ σκεῦος is ἐν ἁγιασμῷ, as it is conducted by the ἡγιασμένος under the sense of his devotion to God, and of the sanctity of his body (see note on ἁγιασμός, 1Th 4:3 : cf. 1Co 6:15-20; also Gen 2:21-24; Eph 5:28-31). It is accordingly ἐν … τιμῇ (note the single preposition), since the “honour” of the human person has a religious basis in the devotion of the body and its functions to God (cf. 1Co 12:23 f.). Perhaps the thought of “holiness” attaches rather to the wooer in his Christian self-respect, while the “honour” is paid to the object of his courtship (1Pe 3:7).