By Angus Harley
AD70 is hub central for preterism, and to a lesser extent for partial preterism, and manages to be found by some Evangelicals in certain texts that one would think they ought not to. 1 Corinthians 7:26-31 supposedly has AD70 language and references:
“26 Because of the impending crisis….29….The time is short….31…For the present shape of this world is passing away.” [NET]
It is typical to find preterists citing these phrases and verses as proof of AD70 and its impending coming. There is not even an attempt by preterists to exegete the context, it being so ‘obvious’. Proof-texting at its apogee! Some Evangelicals slip into the same AD70 explanation for the phrases.
We will see that there is no need for AD70 to take center stage here in 1 Corinthians 7, nor is it in his mind. Paul has a wholly different theology in mind.
1 Corinthians 7’s theme
What are the meaning and context of 1 Corinthians 7:26-31?
The setting is explicit, “Now with regard to the issues you wrote about” (v1). Paul is dealing in this chapter with the issues that some Corinthians had written to him about, asking him to explain what will happen in the future (what we know as AD70), and he was replying to them.
Well, not really, but you would think this given how preterism uses these verses! Paul is replying to the Corinthians’ questions about marriage and divorce and life in the present. Now that the Corinthians were Christians, should they devote themselves wholly to the Lord and kind of abandon marriage and non-Christians for service to Christ, or should they hang on in these marriages in serving Christ? Paul gives various responses: Christians should not divorce one another; if Christian spouses are apart, it should be for a short time only to avoid sexual misconduct; if a non-Christian leaves the marriage, let him/her go; if a Christian leaves the marriage, hang on in there; those who burn with passion ought to marry (vv1-16).
Then, in vv17-24, Paul tells the Corinthians to remain in their divinely assigned roles: slaves ought to remain slaves (but can obtain their freedom if they so wish); circumcised remain circumcised. Whatever one’s calling is, one should remain in it, says Paul. This principle implies- for Paul goes on- that those who are unmarried should remain so (he had previously dealt with the married). By this he means that, an unmarried man or woman is free to serve the Lord more freely; not so the married man or woman: the man has worldly things such as caring for his wife to focus upon, and the wife is taken up with pleasing her husband (vv25-38).
Paul then concludes with a brief comment in vv39-40 that a woman whose husband dies can remarry, but she is better off remaining unmarried, presumably in order to serve the Lord. Paul in saying this is yet again preserving and extending the principle of remaining in one’s ‘condition’ or calling.
So, we see in this summary that the entire sweep of 1 Corinthians 7 is concerned with marriage, divorce, and one’s calling in life in this world. Not a word is said concerning the destruction of the temple to come, AD70 to come and its events, the Second Coming, etc., etc..
Vv25-31
Let’s take a closer look at the supposed AD70 verses themselves in context. Paul writes:
“25 Now about virgins: I have no command from the Lord, but I give a judgment as one who by the Lord’s mercy is trustworthy. 26 Because of the present crisis, I think that it is good for a man to remain as he is. 27 Are you pledged to a woman? Do not seek to be released. Are you free from such a commitment? Do not look for a wife. 28 But if you do marry, you have not sinned; and if a virgin marries, she has not sinned. But those who marry will face many troubles in this life, and I want to spare you this.
29 What I mean, brothers and sisters, is that the time is short. From now on those who have wives should live as if they do not; 30 those who mourn, as if they did not; those who are happy, as if they were not; those who buy something, as if it were not theirs to keep; 31 those who use the things of the world, as if not engrossed in them. For this world in its present form is passing away.” [NET]
“Impending”?
I have deliberately used the NET reading to give to preterism a ‘fair shake’, as the NET is the closest translation I could get to preterism’s theology. From its rendition we see that Paul teaches that, those who are married ought to remain so; and those unbound from marriage, although they have the freedom to remarry, ought to remain unmarried. A virgin can marry, too. Yet, Paul thinks that marriage itself is problematic, not only because of the issue of each spouse being taken up with the other, but because of what the NET bible calls an “impending crisis”? It has to be said that this is a most unfortunate translation by the NET. The Greek term enistémi is used seven times in the NT and never means ‘impending’, but mainly, if not always, it retains the core idea of ‘present’; six uses are from Paul’s pen, including 1 Corinthians 7:26:
“For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers” (Rom.8:38). (NASB95)
“whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas, or the world or life or death, or things present or things to come; all things belong to you” (1 Cor.3:22). (NASB95)
“I think, then, that this is good in view of the present distress, that it is good for a man to remain as he is.” (1 Cor.7:26) (NASB95)
“who gave Himself for our sins so that He might rescue us from this present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father”. (Gal.1:4) (NASB95)
“that you not be quickly shaken from your composure or be disturbed either by a spirit or a message or a letter as if from us, to the effect that the day of the Lord has come”. (2 Thess.2:2) (NASB95)
“But realize this, that in the last days difficult times will come.” (2 Tim.3:1) (NASB95)
“which is a symbol for the present time. Accordingly both gifts and sacrifices are offered which cannot make the worshiper perfect in conscience”. (Heb.9:9) (NASB95)
Paul is therefore very capable of speaking about the present (enistémi) as ‘now’, and as representing the state of affairs of Christians of that day in which he was writing (Rom.8:38). Indeed, 1 Corinthians 3:22 says that very thing. Things “present” are obviously thorny in some manner, to the apostle. He calls the present age “evil”, even (Gal.1:4). He warns against those heretics who say that the Lord has come, and is present (2 Thess.2:2)- oh the irony! Even the writer of Hebrews uses enistémi for the present time.
The only text that is problematic is 2 Timothy 3:1, for it uses the future tense of enistémi. Yet, this need not change the term’s basic identity as that which is present. The “Last Days” are, in the NT, the equivalent of the present days of the early assembly (Act.2:17; Heb.1:2; Jam.5:3; 2 Pet.3:3). Those days are, and will be, characterized by trials and persecutions. 2 Timothy has already laid out some of those issues, for Paul himself was a prisoner, and then we read in the rest of 2 Timothy 3 about the mark of the Last Days, namely, evil opposition to the Gospel, both present and future. So, as Aida Besancon Spencer remarks, “in the last days difficult times will be present”.[1]
“Crisis”?
Is this “present” matter a “crisis” as is sometimes translated? The term anagké does sometimes denote ‘distress’ (Luke 21:23; 2 Cor.12:10; 1 Thess.3:7). However, those NT verses indicate a series of extreme trials and hardships that threaten the very life of people. That does not suite the context of 1 Corinthians 7 and its message about marriage, divorce, and one’s calling. That being said, perhaps ‘distress’ or ‘crisis’ is somewhat appropriate in 1 Corinthians 7, given that marriages and service to God were being challenged. Then we can then arguably extend this to imply that both not to serve Christ and to undermine marriage were equally a sign of an evil day. So, perhaps those concepts are woven into the context. Even if they are, the overall impression is not so intense in its nature, for, as stated already, we are dealing with the theme of marriage and service to Christ, and, moreover, Paul is sometimes asserting his apostolic authority, and at other times he is not (e.g., v25). Any note of a crisis has to be a milder, background one. It is preferable, then, to understand v26 as conveying a similar thought to v28, ” “But those who marry will face many troubles in this life, and I want to spare you this.” It is about the troubles of marriage in life in this world. The YLT arguably goes too far in the opposite direction in its rendition of v26, “I suppose, therefore, this to be good because of the present necessity“. Certainly, there is a ‘necessity’ present in the things that Paul talks about; but there is more weight to the issue- troubles, even- but not what we could properly call a ‘crisis’.
“Short” = AD70 to come?
Paul then tells us that the “time is short” (v29), which is preferably rendered, “the time is shortened”, for the Greek word is sunestalmenos, a perfect participle, indicating an action completed before the main verb, namely, “is”. We are not referring therefore to a future time to come, but to the nature of time in the then-present that already had been ‘clipped’, or shortened. Thus, Paul adds, “From now on those who have wives should live as if they do not”, etc.. The one concept implies its ‘other side’: the shortening of time implies the Christian’s duty of utter devotion to Christ only, not to spouses; so that, by not devoting oneself utterly to one’s spouse, one is then able to devote oneself completely to the Lord. Time, life in this world for the Christian, was shortened because of the entrance of redemption in Christ Jesus. Time itself was ‘put on notice’. Life in this world, including all its relationships (marriage, slavery, masters, virgins, etc., etc.), were all put on notice, too, for the one true life was present: that of service to the risen Lord.
“Passing” = AD70 to come?
Paul goes on to tell us that the “form” (Gk., schema) of this world is passing (Gk., paragó). Some see in this a more sinister concept. For example, 1 John 2:18 refers to the passing of the darkness in the present; and 1 John 2:17 speaks of the world itself passing in the present, along with its lusts. The jump is then made by some to AD70. Yet, like before, Paul does not, here, have a sinister meaning in mind; or if he does, it is way in the background and is running ‘silently’, as it were. The form of the world is, in context, how this world operates in its current ‘form’ or appearance. It is a world originally built for human relationships, at the center of which is marriage, not a world constructed for complete and utter devotion (aka, spiritual ‘marriage’) to the Lord (see Eph.5:21ff.). The Christian can and must, in spite of this world’s current form, devote himself entirely to the Lord. He can do this because he is a redeemed child of God who has the Spirit of God in him.
It is this martial vs spiritual-service division that is drawn out in vv32-35:
“32 I would like you to be free from concern. An unmarried man is concerned about the Lord’s affairs—how he can please the Lord. 33 But a married man is concerned about the affairs of this world—how he can please his wife— 34 and his interests are divided. An unmarried woman or virgin is concerned about the Lord’s affairs: Her aim is to be devoted to the Lord in both body and spirit. But a married woman is concerned about the affairs of this world—how she can please her husband. 35 I am saying this for your own good, not to restrict you, but that you may live in a right way in undivided devotion to the Lord.”
Vv32 and 35 reveal Paul’s concerned heart as an apostle, but mainly as a servant of the Lord. This could be read as some kind of pastoral appeal, saying, in effect, that Paul’s concern is that the Corinthians not get swallowed up in marriage and its concerns, but devote themselves spiritually to the Lord undividely, without time being consumed by the “affairs of this world”, namely, by pleasing one’s husband or wife. He said, for example, that the circumcised should remain circumcised, and slaves remain slaves. The idea, in that case, is of devotion to the Lord in whatever station of life one finds oneself. So that, even in marriage, the Christian can fully love the Lord God, for his/her spirit is given wholly over to him.
The other view allows for the core of the above concept in the idea of single-minded devotion to the Lord, but says vv32-35 injects a point of realism: marriage consumes time in this world, and that cannot be avoided; thus, not to be married frees one up in this world of marriage to serve the Lord with undivided attention, and removes marriage and its troubles as an obstacle to serving the Lord.
Conclusion
By limiting ourselves to the context, we have seen that the preterist buzz words are not at all concerned with AD70 and the nearness of the Lord’s coming. Paul is teaching about the trials that life in this “present” world throw up for Christian marriage and service to Jesus Christ. Again, this is all about the then-present, which was before AD70, and continues on unto this day. The world is said to be passing, not because of some transition from temple worship to heavenly worship, or due to the future removal of the Old Covenant and the official investiture of the New Covenant. Context, not proof-texting, is the key. To make vv26-31 about AD70, to render them a set of proof-texts, is to undermine Paul’s pastoral concern and his blunt, yet realistic, evaluation of marriage itself in regard to service to Christ. But then again eschatologies taken up with dates and numbers do not care about exegesis; they are only concerned with their system and how the cascade of proof-texts ‘obviously’ prove their point.
[1] Aida Besancon Spencer, 2 Timothy and Titus, New Covenant Commentary Series, (Eugene, OR: Cascade Books, 2014): Kindle, 2 Timothy 3:1.