266 terraNCe CallaN dionysius of Halicarnassus, Plutarch, and other writers frequently use parqe,noj in speaking of the Vestal Virgins. For example, in Romulus 3.3 Plutarch refers to a priestess of Vesta, bound to live unmarried (a;gamon) and a parqe,noj all her days 7. in addition to such passages, i have found seventeen other passages that speak of a woman’s being a parqe,noj, either temporarily or permanently, for the sake of service to a god or goddess. For example, diodorus Siculus (16.26.2) narrates how in the past the priestess of apollo at delphi was a parqe,noj. after one of them was carried away and violated, the parqe,noj was replaced by an elderly woman of fifty dressed in the costume of a parqe,noj 8. all together i have found ninety-six instances of this use of parqe,noj. Few interpreters see the Corinthian parqe,noi as consecrated in some special way, but there is more difference of opinion among inter- preters regarding other aspects of their identity. there is first of all some uncertainty about whether they are both men and women, or only women 9. and those who understand them as only women differ as to whether they are betrothed women, unmarried daughters, spouses in spiritual marriages, or young widows who are possible candidates for levirate marriage 10. in what follows i will argue that the parqe,noi are only women, and that they are unmarried daughters of Corinthian Christians. My argu- ment will be based mainly on usage of parqe,noj in literature written before, and at approximately the same time as, 1 Corinthians. this usage indicates the most likely meaning of the word as used in 1 Corinthians. obviously, however, this evidence does not exclude the possibility that the word is being used in some unusual way in 1 Corinthians. therefore, 7 See appendix a. 8 other references to parqe,noi in service to a god or goddess are found in eu- ripides, The Trojan Women 41, 253; Pausanias, 2.10.4; 2.33.2; 3.16.1; 3.18.4; 7.18.12; 7.19.1; 7.19.2 (twice); 7.22.8; 7.26.5; 8.5.12; 8.13.5; 9.27.6; Cassius dio, 67.15.1. 9 those who argue that the parqe,noi are both men and women include e.-B. allo, Saint Paul Première Épître aux Corinthiens (etB; Paris 1956) 177; W.F. orr – J.a. WaltHer, 1 Corinthians (aB 32; Garden City, NY 1976) 220; ColliNS, First Corinthians, 288; a.C. tHiSeltoN, The First Epistle to the Corinthians. a Commentary on the Greek text (New international Greek testament Commen- tary; Grand rapids, Mi – Cambridge uK – Carlisle 2000) 570-571; J.a. FitzMYer, First Corinthians (anchor Yale Bible 32; New Haven, Ct 2008) 314; a.r. GueN- tHer, “one Woman or two? 1 Corinthians 7:34”, Bulletin for Biblical Research 12 (2002) 39. 10 tHiSeltoN (First Epistle to the Corinthians, 595-597) gives rather extensive lists of those who have advocated each of these views.