Was Paul Married
Was Paul Married
Was Paul Married
readers that in this regard they follow his example and not remarry,
unless and until it becomes clear that God is continuing to give them
the gift of a nature requiring marriage: in which case they should in
fact remarry (1 Cor 7:7,9). There is no evidence on the other side,
that is, is support of the view that Paul had never married; and there
are no reasonable grounds for holding such a view. It is possible that
Paul had been divorced: F F Bruce (1 and 2 Corinthians, p. 68) says,
"His wife may have left him and returned to her family because of
his conversion to Christianity." Certainly, the kind of wife to whom
such a person as Paul would have been wedded, with his strict
Pharisee family background and his zeal for Judaism, would have
found his conversion difficult to take: in Phil 3:4-8 Paul refers to his
old life in Judaism before his conversion, and adds, "... Christ my
Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things" - which may have
included his wife (cf. Luke 14:26; 18:29). The evidence which we
have, however, is best explained on the basis that Paul was a
widower. The least likely possibility is that Paul had never married
at all. The above is a brief survey of the issue.