gdeering

This sister thing has been bothering me ever since reading gurugeorge’s post in a thread about the Lords brother in 1 Corinthians 9:5 in the thread Abe's sermon: no default position on Jesus theories

Quote:

Originally Posted by gurugeorge The word translated as "believing" is actually SISTER, the same word as used with "the Lord's", only with different gender. So what's being said is: "Don't we have the right to take a SISTER wife along with us, as do the other apostles and the Lord's BROTHERS and Cephas?" What does it mean? Well, the simple fact of the matter is we can't be sure, but it certainly can't be recommending incest! So all we can say is that it's some kind of "term of art".

Various translations present the sentence thusly:

King James Bible

Have we not power to lead about a sister, a wife, as well as other apostles, and as the brethren of the Lord, and Cephas?

New International Version (©1984)
Don't we have the right to take a believing wife along with us, as do the other apostles and the Lord's brothers and Cephas?

New Living Translation (©2007)

Don't we have the right to bring a Christian wife with us as the other apostles and the Lord's brothers do, and as Peter does?

Webster's Bible Translation

Have we not power to lead about a sister, a wife, as well as other apostles, and as the brethren of the Lord, and Cephas?

GOD'S WORD® Translation (©1995)

Don't we have the right to take our wives along with us like the other apostles, the Lord's brothers, and Cephas do?

I like the addition of “do.” Were they all married, maybe the word spread faster than we think?

Anyway, I'd like to open this up again for those who know the greek. What is the connection between “brothers of lord” and “sister wife”? it seems really important if the terms are really more suggestive of a title rather than a denotation of kinship. Alternatively, if sister-wife just needs a comma, then there's no issue?

Any light would be appreciated.


Gregg

ApostateAbe

It seems to me that you can clarify the meaning based on the full phrase: the word "brother" (or "sister") all by itself seems different from "brother(s) of the Lord." Paul uses the phrase, "brother," very often to denote a fellow Christian, and "sister," is only a feminized form of the same word, so he seems to have meant "fellow Christian wife." On the other hand, the only other time Paul uses that latter phrase is in Galatians 1:19, where he identifies a man named James as the "brother of the Lord." If it were not for the external evidence, then we may think that this James maybe was just an important guy who had an important title. It would have to be a very small set of people, because the name, "James," was extremely common. The external evidence indicates that James was the literal sibling of Jesus, as seen in the writing of Josephus (interpolated or not) and quoted by Origen: "the brother of Jesus, who was called Christ, whose name was James." And, you also have Matthew 13:55 and Mark 6:3, where James is listed among the four literal brothers of Jesus. So, the mystery seems to be solved.

gdeering

Hi Abe,

Thanks, I know the rational for the above. I was hoping for some interest on the topic by some of the learned Greeks among us. I might not get lucky this time.


Gregg

ApostateAbe

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