As Not Abusing It - Glenn Conjurske

Stray Notes on the English Bible 
by the Editor

“As Not Abusing It”

These words appear in I Cor. 7:31. I suggest that the word “abuse” is too strong, and rather diverts the mind from the true sense of the passage.

First, observe the context: Paul exhorts the saints that, ere they marry, they should consider the trouble it will bring them in the flesh (verse 28). He exhorts them to consider refraining from marriage, that they might be without carefulness, and attend upon the Lord without distraction (verses 32-35). In the midst of this exhortation, he enforces it by the transitory nature of all things here. Thus, in verses 29-31, “But this I say, brethren, the time is short: it remaineth, that both they that have wives be as though they had none; and they that weep, as though they wept not; and they that rejoice, as though they rejoiced not; and they that buy, as though they possessed not; and they that use this world, as not abusing it, for the fashion of this world passeth away.”

Thus he contrasts the present state with the eternal. (“Though” is not in the Greek. The meaning is simply, “they that have wives, as not having,” etc.) Now in each of these contrasting pairs, the second half is the simple setting aside of the first half. “They that have wives, as though they had none—-they that weep, as though they wept not,” &c. The things which occupy us here will have passed away there, “for the fashion of this world passeth away”—-and the time in which they remain is but short. Coming to the last of these contrasts, then, we should expect to read, “they that use this world, as not using it.” We should expect, in other words, the second half of the contrast to contain the simple setting aside of the first, as in all the other pairs. But instead of this we read “abuse,” which seems to set up a different kind of contrast altogether—-not a simple contrast between the present use or possession, and the future absence of it (as in all the other pairs), but a contrast between a right and a wrong use of it.

Yet before proceeding with this train of thought, it will be necessary to point out that “using” and “abusing” are in fact two different words in the Greek. “Using” is v , and “abusing” is v . These two, it will be seen, are the same word in essence, but the second is strengthened by the prefix v. Yet I suggest that the difference between the two words is not so great as would be suggested by “use” and “abuse.” Many, in fact, contend that v is practically equivalent to v , and that we ought to read simply, “they that use this world, as not using it.” This, as we have seen, would exactly suit the context.

But if so, if Paul actually meant the same thing in both clauses, why did he use a different word in the second? I suppose that his primary thought and argument is, according to the context, “they that use this world, as not using it,” but in prefixing v he casts a side glance at the Corinthians’ reigning as kings, which he had rebuked earlier in the epistle. So Bloomfield: “Thus is glanced a censure at the too luxurious way of living among some Christians at this seat of Grecian profligacy.”1 And Wordsworth well says on the prefixed v: “It denotes a downward affection of the mind, which shows itself by a riveted devotion to its object, and may be illustrated by the attitude and temper of the men of Gideon who fell down on their knees to gulp down the water, in contradistinction to the three hundred who only lapped it, and passed on (Judges vii.6). This was the trial and test prescribed by God (vii.4). They who lapped were chosen: the others were rejected. The one were v , the other v .”2

This is true enough, and well said. But “abusing” is too strong a word for this. Thus Godet writes “It is a mistake here to translate ‘ in the sense of abusing; for there never is for any one a time of abusing. To the notion of the simple ‘ , to make use of, the preposition v adds, as in the preceding verb, a shade of tenacity, carnal security, false independence.”3

But how that shade of tenacity is to be expressed in English, without upsetting the main argument (as “abuse” does)—-this is not so easy, and after noting the various attempts which have been made after it, I venture to question whether it is possible. Various renderings have been suggested. Robert Young: “those using this world, as not using it up.” Henry Alford: “they that use this world, as not using it to the full.” So in his “Authorized Version Revised,” but in his Greek Testament he has, “they who use the world, as not using it in full. So, or merely `as not using it.”’ He rejects “abusing,” because it “destroys the parallel.” And that parallel—-“those using this world as not using it”—-I believe to be the point of primary importance in the verse, while whatever is added by the prefixed v is only incidental. And since it does not seem possible to retain both in the translation, I judge it best to translate, “they that use this world, as not using it,” and reserve any further elucidation for a note in the margin.

After I had written thus far, I determined to check the early English versions, and was pleasantly surprised to find that they speak with one voice for the rendering which I recommend. Thus:

Both Wycliffe versions—-“êei êat vsen êis world, as êei êat vsen not.”

Tyndale (1526)—-“they that vse this worlde/ be as though they vsed it not.” The same in Tyndale’s revisions, Coverdale, Matthew, Taverner, and the Great Bible.

Geneva N. T. (1557)—-“they that vse this worlde, as thogh they vsed it not.” The same in the Geneva Bible (1560), the Bishops’ Bible of 1568, and the Rheims N. T. of 1582.

The Bishops’ Bible as revised in 1572, however, read “they that vse this worlde, as not abusing it,” and the King James Version followed this, but the old rendering was better.

Glenn Conjurske

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