Parq/e,noi iN CoriNtH: 1 Cor 7,25-40 267 in addition to relying on ordinary usage of parqe,noj, i will also offer an interpretation of 1 Cor 7,25-40, especially of vv. 36-38, that supports understanding the word as designating unmarried daughters. i. Men and Women, or only Women? What most strongly suggests that parqe,noi in 7,25 refers to both men and women is that Paul begins his discussion of parqe,noi in v. 26 by speaking about men and then speaks about whether or not men should marry throughout the passage (vv. 27-28a, 29, 32-34a). in 7,26 Paul’s initial answer to the Corinthians’ question about parqe,noi is this: kalo.n avnqrw,pw| to. ou[twj ei=nai. this is similar to what Paul says in 7,1, probably quoting the Corinthians 11: kalo.n avnqrw,pw| gunaiko.j mh. a[ptesqai. although a;nqrwpoj in itself means “human” rather than “male human,” it clearly means “male human” in 7,1; the parallel be- tween 7,1 and 7,26 suggests that it also means “male human” in v. 26. and in 7,27 Paul is clearly speaking about men when he says, “are you bound to a wife? do not seek to be loosed. are you loosed from a wife? do not seek a wife”. So also vv. 28a, 29, 32-34a. parqe,noj can be used to designate a man — it does so in rev 14,4 — but this is very rare. i have examined 998 occurrences of parqe,noj outside of 1 Cor 7,25-40 from the 8th century B.C.e to the 2nd century C.e., along with 161 occurrences of cognate words, and i have found only one other instance where the word refers to men 12. in Gynecology 1.30-32, Soranus discusses whether permanent parqeni,a is healthy. 11 according to J.M. Ford (A Trilogy on Wisdom and Celibacy [Studies and research in Christian theology at Notre dame 4; Notre dame, iN 1967] 66, 158), this had already been suggested by origen. Hurd (Origin of 1 Corinthians, 68, 163) lists recent scholars who take this view and adopts it himself. 12 in Jos. 43 Philo seems to avoid using parqe,noj for men when he says that before marriage Jews know no mating (o`mili,an) with other women but come as pure men (a`gnoi,) to pure (a`gnai/j) parqe,noi. inapplicability of parqe,noj to men is implied by stories about men having, or taking on, the appearance of a parqe,noj; see Plutarch, Theseus 23.3; dionysius of Halicarnassus, 7.9.4; Pausanias, 1.19.1; 4.4.3; 8.20.3-4; Cassius dio, 59.26.7. GueNtHer (“one Woman or two?”, 39 n. 24) cites Jer 5,21 as a passage in which parqe,noj refers to males, but the word does not occur in that passage. GueNtHer also cites three passages from writers later than those i have studied, namely epiphanius, Heresies 28.7 (310-403 C.e.); Chrysostom, Homilies 12 (349-407 C.e.); and Philostratus (a mistake for Philostorgius), h.e. 7.14 (368-439 C.e.). the first and last of these passages refer to John the evangelist as a parqe,noj; i have not been able to identify the second passage. use of parqe,noj to refer to males seems to have become more common in the third century and afterward.