RE: HUSBAND OF ONE WIFE

From: Carl W. Conrad (cwconrad@artsci.wustl.edu)
Date: Thu Oct 12 1995 - 17:16:57 EDT


At 4:38 PM 10/12/95, perry.stepp@chrysalis.org wrote:
>Re. 1 Ti 3.2:
>
>J. N. D. Kelly notes that the text emphasizes the "one" (MIAS GUNAIKOC ANDRA),
>which in his opinion lessens the likelihood of a reference to polygamy,
>adultery. Thus Paul (?) seems to be talking about remarriage.
>
>Kelly says: "there is abundant evidence, from both literature and funerary
>inscriptions, pagan and Jewish, that to remain unmarried after the death of
>one's spouse or after divorce was considered meritorious, while to marry again
>was taken as a sign of self-indulgence" (p. 75 of *A Commentary on the Pastoral
>Epistles*). Of course, he doesn't provide the cross-references for this
>material, so I'm not sure where to find it.

I can't carry the matter further so far as males are concerned, but in
Roman culture women who do not remarry after the death of a spouse are
(were) esteemed morally superior to those who did remarry and carried the
epithet "univira," which is about as close as you can get, if your reverse
the genders, to MIAS GUNAIKOS ANHR. Of course men were expected to remarry
(!), although the noblewoman Cornelia who addresses her husband Paullus
from the grave in the last poem of Propertius (4.12) contemplates the
possibility that he may "deem her ashes so worthy" that he will remain
celibate.

Carl W. Conrad
Department of Classics, Washington University
One Brookings Drive, St. Louis, MO, USA 63130
(314) 935-4018
cwconrad@artsci.wustl.edu OR cwc@oui.com
WWW: http://www.artsci.wustl.edu/~cwconrad/



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