01/05/2021 – Barclay’s commentary- 1 Corinthians 7: 3-7 : Barclay’s states: “We may be fairly certain that at some time Paul had been married.”
Remember the Barclay’s commentary ? They are color coded by sections ; Paul’s Epistles are in green. The first edition is slightly older than I am : May 1954. 1 Corinthians – Chapter 7 is rich on God’s design for the marriage relationship. But I will focus on just the section covering Barclay’s premise that Paul was very likely married:
“We may be fairly certain that at some time Paul had been married. (i) We may be certain of that on general grounds. He was a Rabbi and it was his own claim that he had failed in none of his duties to which Jewish law and tradition laid down. Now orthodox Jewish belief laid down the obligation of marriage. If a man did not marry and have children, he was said to have “slain his posterity,” “to have lessened the the image of God in the world.” Seven were said to be excommunicated from heaven and the list began, “A Jew who has no wife; or who has a wife but no children.” God had said, “Be fruitful and multiple, and, therefore not to marry and not to have children was to be guilty of breaking a positive commandment of God. The age for marriage was considered to be eighteen; and therefore it is in the highest degree unlikely that so devout and orthodox a Jew as Paul once was would have remained unmarried. (ii) On particular grounds there is also evidence that Paul was married. He must have been a member of the Sanhedrin for he says that he gave his vote against the Christians. (Acts 26:10). It was a regulation that members of the Sanhedrin must be married men, because it was held that married men were more merciful.
It may be that Paul’s wife died; it is even more likely that she left him and broke up his home when he became a Christian, so that he did indeed literally give up all things for the sake of Christ. At all events he banished that side of life once and for all and never remarried. A married man could never have lived the life of journeying which Paul lived. His desire that others ideally should be the same sprang entirely from that fact that he expected the Second Coming at once; time was so short that earthly ties and physical things must not be allowed to interfere. It is not that Paul is really disparaging marriage; it is rather that he is insisting that all of a man’s concentration must be on being ready for the coming of Christ.”
Soli Deo Gloria!