Texts in Conversation
Paul urges the Corinthians to avoid attachment through marriage, since the world as they know it is about to pass away. 4 Ezra 16 describes similar detachment about the coming end with merchants making no profit and builders never living in their houses.
Share:
2500 BCE
1000+ CE
1 Corinthians 7:31
New Testament
29 And I say this, brothers and sisters: The time is short. So then those who have wives should be as those who have none, 30 those with tears like those not weeping, those who rejoice like those not rejoicing, those who buy like those without possessions, 31 those who use the world as though they were not using it to the full. For the present shape of this world is passing away. 32 And I want you to be free from concern. An unmarried man is concerned about the things of the Lord, how to please the Lord.
4 Ezra 16:42
2 Esdras
Pseudepigrapha
41 The seller must expect to have to run for his life, the buyer to lose what he buys; 42 the merchant must expect to make no profit, the builder never to live in the house he builds. 43 The sower must not expect to reap, nor the pruner to gather his grapes. 44 Those who marry must expect no children; the unmarried must think of themselves as widowed. 45 For all labor is labor in vain. 46 Their fruits will be gathered by foreigners, who will plunder their goods, pull down their houses, and take their children captive.
Search:
Notes and References
“... 30. those who mourn as though they did not; those who are happy as though they were not; those who buy as though they had no possessions. Three further examples of people affected by the impending crisis are mourners, rejoicers, and buyers. In each case, what is crucial in these aspects of human life takes on a Judeo-Christian dimension that is eschatologically different. Compare Luke 6:16–21, 25b; Romans 12:15. The dialectic tension in these instances is not merely between the present and the future, but between Christians and the world in which they find themselves. The four antitheses expressed in verses 30–31 have been compared with similar antitheses in Stoic diatribe, but they should rather be compared with 4 Ezra 16:42–45, and more closely even with those expressed by Paul in 4:10–13a. 31. and those who deal with this world as though they had no use of it. Literally ‘and those using the world.’ The fourth and last example is comprehensive, summing up the others. In other words, Christians should live in this world as it has been transformed by the Christ-event, as though they were not ruled and dominated by deceptive demands of this world ...”
Fitzmyer, Joseph A.
First Corinthians: A New Translation with Introduction and Commentary
(p. 318) Yale University Press, 2008
* The use of references are not endorsements of their contents. Please read the entirety of the provided reference(s) to understand the author's full intentions regarding the use of these texts.
Your Feedback:
Leave a Comment
Anonymous comments are welcome. All comments are subject to moderation.