Τοῦτο γάρ ἐστιν θέλημα τοῦ θεοῦ, ὁ ἁγιασμὸς ὑμῶν, ἀπέχεσθαι ὑμᾶς ἀπὸ τῆς πορνείας, > εἰδέναι ἕκαστον ὑμῶν τὸ ἑαυτοῦ σκεῦος κτᾶσθαι > ἐν ἁγιασμῷ καὶ τιμῇ, μὴ ἐν πάθει ἐπιθυμίας καθάπερ καὶ τὰ ἔθνη τὰ μὴ εἰδότα τὸν θεόν, τὸ μὴ ὑπερβαίνειν καὶ πλεονεκτεῖν ἐν τῷ πράγματι τὸν ἀδελφὸν αὐτοῦ, διότι ἔκδικος Κύριος περὶ πάντων τούτων, καθὼς καὶ προείπαμεν ὑμῖν καὶ διεμαρτυράμεθα.
At a bible study this weekend, on this verse, I was a little surprised to hear someone read from an English translation that used “wife” for σκεῦος in the above. The study material from Donald Knuth had the following:
But unfortunately the exact meaning of 4:4 is unclear, because it uses an unusual Greek expression whose interpretation has been the subject of endless debate. Literally 4:4 says that everyone should know enough ‘to acquire or possess one’s own skeúos’, where skeúos normally means ‘vessel’ or ‘container’. Some translations render this ‘to take a wife’, because 1 Peter 3:7 tells husbands to respect their wives although a wife is a ‘weaker vessel’. Then 4:4 is saying that marriage is the proper outlet for sexual passion, that a man should honor his wife. Other translations say ‘to control your body’, because skeúos sometimes means ‘reproductive organ’ in secular Greek. A third possibility, ‘to have marital intercourse’, is based on rabbinic discourses from Paul’s time in which ‘using as a vessel’ is a euphemism for sexual relations. All three of these interpretations are consistent with Paul’s more complete discussion in 1 Corinthians 7.
The 1st Corinthians verse mentioned is: διὰ δὲ τὰς πορνείας ἕκαστος τὴν ἑαυτοῦ γυναῖκα ἐχέτω, καὶ ἑκάστη τὸν ἴδιον ἄνδρα ἐχέτω.
The LSJ has the following for σκεοῦος:
II. τὸ σ. the body, as the vessel of the soul, a metaph. clearly expressed in 2 Ep.Cor.4.7, ἔχομεν δὲ τὸν θησαυρὸν τοῦτον ἐν ὀστρακίνοις σκεύεσιν, cf. 1 Ep.Thess.4.4, 1 Ep.Pet.3.7.
While I can see the argument for τὸ ἑαυτοῦ σκεῦος as a metaphor for wife, especially if πορνεία is taken literally, it seems hard to read “ἐν πάθει” as anything but a parallel to “κτᾶσθαι ἐν ἁγιασμῷ καὶ τιμῇ”. And I suspect that with “μὴ ἐν πάθει ἐπιθυμίας καθάπερ καὶ τὰ ἔθνη”, Paul is not talking about how the gentiles κτᾶσθαι their wives.
But, who knows, maybe I’m wrong.
