282 terraNCe CallaN but it does not seem especially indicative of an understanding of parqe,noj as meaning fiancée rather than daughter. one instance in which the possessive pronoun is used with parqe,noj to mean daughter is found in the epiphanius passage discussed above. epiphanius refers to fathers who kept their parqe,noi (ta.j e`autw/n parqe,nouj) for a long time. one might argue, however, that epiphanius’ usage has been in- fluenced by 1 Cor 7,36-38. another use of the possessive pronoun with parqe,noj is in euripides, Iphigenia in Aulis 1267, where agamemnon tells iphigenia that if he does not sacrifice her, the Greeks “will kill my parqe,noi in argos” (ta.j evn :Argei parqe,nouj ktenou/si, mou), apparently referring to his other daughters (see also line 714). Herodotus says that among the auseans, at an annual festival of athena, their parqe,noi (ai` parqe,noi auvtw/n) divide into two groups that fight one another (4.180); these seem to be their young, unmarried women. Several passages in the lXX use the possessive pronoun with parqe,noj in various ways to identify parqe,noi as belonging to israel. For example, 2 Chr 36,17 says that when the king of the Chaldeans conquered Judah, he did not have mercy on their parqe,noi (ta.j parqe,nouj auvtw/n) 63. in all of these cases, the parqe,noi are the young, unmarried women of israel. and according to Pausanias, the Spartans say that their parqe,noi (parqe,nouj au`tw/n) coming to a festival were violated by Messenian men (4.4.2); these are young, unmarried women of Sparta. Conclusion i have argued that the topic of Paul’s discussion in 1 Cor 7,25-40 is the young, unmarried daughters of Corinthian church members. this arises as a particular topic when Paul discusses marriage in 1 Corinthians 7 because the Corinthians’ questions about marriage concern not only their own marriages but also the marriages they might arrange for their daughters. understanding vv. 25-40 as discussing betrothed women would also explain why this arises as a particular topic; betrothal is also a special situation not clearly addressed by a general discussion of marriage. However, this understanding is inferior to understanding young, unmarried daughters as the topic, both because parqe,noj more frequently designates daughters than it does betrothed women and because what Paul says better suits the topic of daughters 64. 63 See also Ps 77,63 (= 78,63); lam 1,4.18; 2,21; Jdt 16,4. 64 KüMMel (“Verlobung und Heirat”, 291-294) says that an objection against understanding 1 Cor 7,36-38 as referring to betrothed couples is that the passage