Word Study: Does “skeuos” in 1 Thessalonians 4:4 refer to a vessel, one’s body or wife?

1 Thessalonians 4:4 is found in the context of the apostolic admonition to the young church in Thessalonica to continue in the commandments they had received and to avoid “porneias” referring to all forms of sexual immorality. Uncertainty arises with regards to the meaning of the Greek word “skeuos”, which may be a reference to the “body”, “vessel” or “wife”.

A survey of the concordance shows that in most instances, the word was employed to mean “vessel” or “container” used literally for household utensils (Rev 2:27, John 19:29), nautical gear (Acts 27:17) and temple cultic vessels (Mark 11:16). Metaphorically, people could also be “instruments” of God (Acts 9:15). A sample of data collected could be viewed at the appendix below . However, we should not base our conclusions solely on such statistics since the context in which the word is used determines the meaning. In secular Greek, the word could also have “a transferred sense” referring to the body as the vessel of the soul or the reproductive organ. (1 Sam 21:6 in the Septuagint, italics mine) Historically, Tertullian and Chrysotom favored this meaning but others like Augustine and Theodore of Mopsuestia understood the word to mean “the wife” as in the Jewish euphemism.

Since the preceding warning in 1 Thessalonians 4:1-3 is against fornication and the succeeding one in verse 6 is against adultery, we could narrow down the semantic range to either “possessing the body/sexual organ” or “acquiring a wife” in sanctification. There are several strands of evidence that seem to favor the latter meaning. According to E. Best, ktasthai in the present tense normally means “to gain or acquire”, rather than “to control or possess.” The argument offered is that the body cannot be acquired or gained. Moreover, others have pointed out that Paul’s teaching does not exhibit Platonic concept of “the body as a container of the soul” or “an ethics centered on the body” .

If the wife is meant here, 1 Thessalonians 4:4 urges men to marry or acquire a wife as an antidote to sexual immorality or to hold one’s wife in esteem. A similar Pauline exhortation is found in 1 Corinthians 7:2-5 where marriage is urged as divinely ordained provision for sexual needs for both men and women, especially in view of prevalent sexual sins. This meaning of skeous is also consistent with 1 Peters 3:7 where the wife is also referred to as “the weaker vessel” to be honored. Maurer also notes that the rabbinic metaphor of “vessel” to refer to women occurs in sexual contexts and suggests that ktasthai here has a similar correspondence.

Some common objections against this interpretation could be that only the needs of men are addressed in Paul’s admonition and its seemingly low view of marriage. However, Paul certainly has the needs of women in mind too when he wrote on a similar vein, “Let each woman have her own husband.” (1 Corinthians 7:2-5) In the epistle to the Thessalonians, the men were addressed simply because it was their susceptibility to sexual sins, which occasioned Paul’s admonition. Understanding the occasional nature of his epistles, we should also be careful not to consider the passage as an exhaustive exposition of Paul’s views on marriage. There was indeed practical wisdom in the advice: “It is better to marry than to burn with passion”. (1 Corinthians 7:9) However, it is only one aspect of Paul’s lofty vision of marriage as foreshadowing the mystery of Christ’s mystical union with His bride, the Church. (Ephesians 4: 22-33)



- posted by Dave @ 11:13 PM