What Does 1 Corinthians 7:36 Mean?
But if anyone thinks he is acting without shape toward his virgin, if she is past the peak of her age, and so it is owed, let him do what he wills. He does not miss the mark. Let them marry.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
But if any man think that he behaveth himself uncomely toward his virgin, if she pass the flower of her age, and need so require, let him do what he will, he sinneth not: let them marry.THE KEY
When the situation calls for marriage, the verse permits it without calling the man’s choice a sin.
THE MEANING
The verse speaks into the tension between desire, conduct, and commitment. It treats the man’s behavior toward the woman and the timing of marriage as the question; when marriage is the fitting outcome, he does not sin.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The belief that choosing marriage when desire or timing presses makes the man morally guilty is undone here: the verse explicitly says he does not sin.
THE ROOT
ἀσχημονεῖν
aschēmonein
GROWS FROM
σχημ-
schēm-
Form, outward appearance, or manner.
“is acting without shape” in this verse is aschēmonein. The word describes conduct that is out of fitting form. That makes the verse’s concern the shape of his behavior toward her, while still allowing it to say that marriage itself is not sinful.
ALSO GROWS
schēma: Form, outward appearance, or manner.
σχῆμα
This is the shape or manner beneath “uncomely,” drawing attention to how he acts toward her.
euschēmonōs: Decently, in proper form.
εὐσχημόνως
This related word shows the positive side of the same family: conduct can take a fitting form.
ὀφείλει
opheilei
GROWS FROM
ὀφειλ-
opheil-
To owe or be under an obligation.
“so it is owed” in this verse is opheilei. Alongside the KJV’s “need so require,” the verb carries the sense of what ought to happen or is due. The situation is framed as one of obligation, and the verse still says that marrying in response is not sin.
ALSO GROWS
opheiletēs: A debtor, one who owes.
ὀφειλέτης
The shared root links what is “required” with what is owed or due.
opheilē: A debt or obligation.
ὀφειλή
This branch makes the sense of obligation visible beneath the verse’s wording about what ought to happen.
THE PATTERN
Marriage can be a fitting bond without the choice to marry being counted as wrongdoing.
Therefore a man leaves his father and his mother, and clings to his wife, and they become one flesh.But if you marry, you have not missed the mark, and if a virgin marries, she has not missed the mark. Yet such will have pressure in the flesh, but I hold back from you.Marriage is precious among all, and the bed unstained, but God judges the sellers of bodies and the adulterers.THE THREAD
But if you marry, you have not missed the mark, and if a virgin marries, she has not missed the mark. Yet such will have pressure in the flesh, but I hold back from you.Both verses use γαμέω (gaméō), meaning “to marry.” The linked verse makes the verdict explicit for either person: marriage itself is not sin.
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