Papyrus 15

Date: Late Third Century A.D.

Discovered: Oxyrhynchus, Egypt

Location: Cairo, Egypt: Museum of Antiquities

Contents: 1 Corinthians 7:18-8:4

Notes: This was probably part of the same manuscript as Papyrus 16.

 

1 Corinthians 7

¹⁸ Was anyone called having been circumcised? Let him not become uncircumcised. Has anyone been called in uncircumcision? Let him not be circumcised. ¹⁹ Circumcision is nothing, and uncircumcision is nothing, but the keeping of the commandments of God. ²⁰ Let each man stay in that calling in which he was called. ²¹ Were you called being a bondservant? Don’t let that bother you, but if you get an opportunity to become free, use it. ²² For he who was called in the Lord being a bondservant is the Lord’s free man. Likewise he who was called being free is Christ’s bondservant. ²³ You were bought with a price. Don’t become bondservants of men. ²⁴ Brothers, let each man, in whatever condition he was called, stay in that condition with God.

²⁵ Now concerning virgins, I have no commandment from the Lord, but I give my judgment as one who has obtained mercy from the Lord to be trustworthy. ²⁶ Therefore I think that because of the distress that is on us, that it’s good for a man to remain as he is. ²⁷ Are you bound to a wife? Don’t seek to be freed. Are you free from a wife? Don’t seek a wife. ²⁸ But if you marry, you have not sinned. If a virgin marries, she has not sinned. Yet such will have oppression in the flesh, and I want to spare you. ²⁹ But I say this, brothers: the time is short, that from now on, both those who have wives may be as though they had none; ³⁰ and those who weep, as though they didn’t weep; and those who rejoice, as though they didn’t rejoice; and those who buy, as though they didn’t possess; ³¹ and those who use the world, as not using it to the fullest. For the mode of this world passes away. ³² But I desire to have you to be free from cares. He who is unmarried is concerned for the things of the Lord, how he may please the Lord; ³³ but he who is married is concerned about the things of the world, how he may please his wife. ³⁴ And there is also a difference between a wife and a virgin an unmarried woman[1]. The unmarried woman virgin cares about the things of the Lord, that she may be holy both in body and in spirit. But she who is married cares about the things of the world—how she may please her husband. ³⁵ This I say for your own profit; not that I may ensnare you, but for that which is appropriate, and that you may attend to the Lord to be without distraction. ³⁶ But if any man thinks that he is behaving inappropriately toward his virgin, if she is past the flower of her age, and if need so requires, let him do what he desires. He doesn’t sin. Let them marry. ³⁷ But he who stands steadfast in his heart, having no urgency, but has power over his own will, and has determined in his own heart to keep his own virgin, does will do well. ³⁸ So then both he who gives his own virgin in marriage does well, and he who doesn’t give her in marriage does better.

³⁹ A wife is bound by law for as long as her husband lives; but if the husband is dead, she is free to be married to whomever she desires, only in the Lord. ⁴⁰ But she is happier if she stays as she is, in my judgment, and I think that I also have God’s Spirit.

 

1 Corinthians 8

Now concerning things sacrificed to idols: We know that we all have knowledge. Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up. ² But if anyone thinks that he knows anything, he doesn’t yet know as he ought to know. ³ But if anyone loves God, the same is known by him. ⁴ Therefore concerning the eating of things sacrificed to idols, we know that no idol is anything in the world, and that there is no other God but one.