I realize that the phrase in this verse, translated by RSV "to take a wife for himself," is rendered in two other ways by other translations: "to gain mastery over his body" (NEB) and "to guard his member" (NAB). I am following the conclusion of O. Larry Yarbrough, who devoted a major portion of his Ph.D. thesis to examining 1 Thessalonians 4:3-8, that the RSV translation is the most reliable one. See O. Larry Yarbrough, Not Like the Gentiles: Marriage Rules in the Letters of Paul (Atlanta, Ga.: Scholars Press, 1985), especially pp. 68-76. |