Just found out something interesting in a Bible study going through 1 Corinthians at the Big Haus. Towards the end of chapter 7, Paul makes a strange comment seemingly about a father giving away his daughter in marriage and how it's better for him to keep her a virgin. An alternate reading can look like it's better for an engaged couple to stay unmarried if the man can control his desire. Either reading is weird, and neither seems to make much sense. And then the Evan Wilson context kicks in. Turns out there was this "celibate living arrangement" practice called sub interducti (sp?) in the early church in which a man and woman lived together, unmarried, and refrained from sex. The intention was to have the assistance and companionship of a spouse, but to keep your thoughts and actions pure and "towards God", by staying chaste. The things you learn in Moscow, I tell you what....
So Paul seems to be instead referring to this wacky living situation, when he says that if any man feels he is acting unbecomingly towards a Christian daughter, let him marry, he does not sin to do so. But he adds that it's better (in sub interducti) for them to remain celibate and chaste.
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the text refers to the male half of humanity's tendencies.
given the situation, I imagine the men were having a harder time of it. Who knows, the women may have even convinced them that cuddling was kosher.
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