Parq/e,noi iN CoriNtH: 1 Cor 7,25-40 269 one, a;nqrwpoj in v. 26 probably means “human” rather than “male human” as in v. 1. What is the meaning of to. ou[twj ei=nai? ou[twj could point back to v. 25 and mean that it is good for an a;nqrwpoj to be a parqe,noj; or it could point forward to v. 27 and mean that it is good for an a;nqrwpoj to make no change in marital status. in 7,40 Paul says that it is good for a woman to remain thus (ou[twj mei,nh|). in this case ou[twj rather clearly points back to the previous verse in which Paul spoke of a woman’s being free of her bond to her husband after his death. in 7,26 it probably refers forward to the following verse. if v. 27 does not ex- plicate ou[twj in v. 26, it is unclear why Paul says what he does in v. 27. if v. 27 does explicate ou[twj, the course of his argument is straightfor- ward. as explicated in v. 27, to. ou[twj ei=nai is equivalent to what Paul says in 7,17-24, i.e., that all believers should remain as they are, as far as possible. thus Paul begins his discussion of parqe,noi by stating a general principle that applies to both men and women, and illustrates it by dis- cussing the situation of men (cf. also 7,29). if the men Paul addresses are married, they should remain married; if not, they should not marry. this general principle provides Paul’s answer to the question of parqe,noi; they should not marry. as he did in 7,1-16, however, Paul qualifies this. His opinion is that parqe,noi should not marry; but if they do marry, they do not sin by marrying (v. 28). in v. 28 Paul con- siders both the possibility that the person he addresses marry (“you”) and that the parqe,noj marry. this supports the view that the parqe,noi are distinct from the men Paul addresses in vv. 27-28 17. one reason Paul begins his discussion of parqe,noi in vv. 25-40 by speaking about men (in vv. 27-28a, 29) is that he relies on the general principle he developed in 7,1-24 and uses men to illustrate the principle. in addition, the question whether parqe,noi should marry cannot be con- sidered in isolation from the question of whether men should marry because the parqe,noi would marry men; their marriage is simultane- ously the marriage of a man. and Paul naturally illustrates his general principle by referring to men because he mainly addresses men in vv. 25-40. in first-century Corinth, the decision whether or not parqe,noi marry would not have been made by the parqe,noi themselves, but rather 17 in 7,32-34 Paul argues for remaining unmarried by considering the situation of men and women. in 7,36-38 he speaks about the situation of a man and clearly distinguishes the man from the parqe,noj.