3. Therefore (thus) saith the
Apostle, the teacher of the Gentiles, the vessel of election,
“But I say unto the unmarried and the widows, that it is good for
them, if they shall have so continued, even as I also.”2222
These
words are to be so understood, as that we think not that
widows
ought not to be called
unmarried, in that they seem to have made
trial of
marriage: for by the name of
unmarried women he means
those, who are not now bound by
marriage, whether they have been,
or whether they have not been so. And this in another place he
opens, where he says, “Divided is a
woman unmarried and a
virgin.”
2223
| 2223 ἡ γυνὴ καὶ
ἡ παρθένος |
Assuredly
when he adds a
virgin also, what would he have understood by an
unmarried woman, but a
widow? Whence also, in what follows, under
the one term “
unmarried” he embraces both professions, saying,
“She who is
unmarried is careful of the things of the
Lord, how
to please the
Lord: but she who is
married is careful of the things
of the
world, how to please her
husband.”
2224
Certainly by the
unmarried he
would have understood, not only her who hath never
married, but her
also, who, being by widowhood set free from the
bond of
marriage,
hath ceased to be
married; for on this account also he calleth not
married,
save her, who hath an
husband; not her also, who hath had,
and hath not. Wherefore every
widow is
unmarried; but, because not
every
unmarried woman is a
widow, for there are
virgins also;
therefore he hath here set both, where he says, “But I say unto
the
unmarried and the
widows;” as if he should say, What I say
unto the unmarried, I say not unto them alone, who are virgins, but
unto them also who are widows; “that it is good for them, if they
shall have so continued, even as also I.”
2225
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