144 Chrys C. Caragounis The meaning of ‘body’ for σκεῦος as the container of an inner life or the soul, though unknown in pre-NT Greek literature73, is clearly attested in the NT74. Best’s objection that Paul did not share the basic Greek “dualism of body and soul” rests on a misunderstanding75. As we have seen σκεῦος has also the sense of ‘instrument’, in which it is used as an euphemism for the (male) generating organs (see above). Another term for ‘instrument’ is ἐργαλεῖον, and this term, too, occurs in Modern Greek as an euphemism of the (male) reproductive organ. There is thus a continuous tradition of using a term meaning ‘instrument’ (σκεῦος or ἐργαλεῖον) euphemistically for genitalia. Nevertheless, it is highly unlikely that this concrete thought was present to the Apostle’s mind, and that he intended us to understand σκεῦος as ‘genitals’. His habit of using euphemistic circumlocutions76 should suggest here the general meaning of ‘body’ as the word intended by σκεῦος. This is also more appropriate in an exhortation directed to both men and women. 3. The use of ἑαυτοῦ is no hindrance to the meaning of ‘body’77, as has sometimes been supposed78. disadvantage of women. There were also marriages in which the husband and wife were true partners. “It has been invariably overlooked in this connection that the Greek word for “husband” and “wife” has been from [Aeschylus and] Euripides time to the present day σύζυγος, i.e. two persons yoked together, pulling in fellowship life’s one and the same “yoke” (ζυγός)!”, C. C. Caragounis, “ ‘Fornication’ and ‘Concession’ ? Interpreting 1 Cor 7, 1-7” in Bieringer, R., The Corinthian Correspondence, 552, — a thought that reveals a high ideal of marriage among the Greeks, which, however, was not always followed in practice. See also G. N. Bernardakis, Plutarchi Chaeronensis Moralia: Λείψαντα Συγγραμμάτων Ἀδήλων [incerta] Vol. VII, Lipsiae 1896: pp. 151-82; No. 4 pp. 151-52. Maurer, Art. σκεῦος in TDNT VII, 359. E. Plümacher, Art. σκεῦος in EDNT III, 250, 73 claims that a metaphor common to Hellenistic and Jewish tradition is that of “the human person or the human body as a vessel” but the Greek texts he quotes (Artemidorus, Oniro- critica v.25 and Epictetus, Dissertations, III, 24.33) do not have the meaning he supposes. I.e. 2 Cor 4:7. This is the reason why σκεῦος by extension can cover the whole person: 74 Acts 9:15; Rom 9:21, 22, 23; 1 Pet 3:7. In Christian lit. the word occurs in the sense of ‘body’ in e.g. Barnabas 7:3; 21:8; Acta Iohannis 22; Eusebius, Demonstr. Evang. 7:1 (Βιβλιοθ. Ἑλλήν. Πατέρων καὶ Ἐκκλησ. Συγγραφέων, Vol. 27, p. 270), etc. I hope to show this in a study (under preparation), which compares Paul’s anthropol- 75 ogy with Plato’s. Cf. e.g. 1 Cor 7:5 καὶ πάλιν ἐπὶ τὸ αὐτὸ ἦτε for sex relations; 12: 23-24 ἀτιμότερα, 76 ἀσχήμονα for male and female sex organs; Gal 5:12 ἀποκόψονται, for cutting off their male member. The reflexive pron. in the NT is often used to signal possession. Cf. e.g. 1 Cor 10:33 77 τὸ ἐμαυτοῦ συμφέρον; Mt 8:22 τοὺς ἑαυτῶν; Mk 6:4 ἐν τῇ πατρίδι ἑαυτοῦ; Lk 12:36 τὸν κύριον ἑαυτῶν; Acts 14:14 τὰ ἱμάτια ἑαυτῶν νεκρούς; Rom 4:19 τὸ ἑαυτοῦ σῶμα; 5:8 τὴν ἑαυτοῦ ἀγάπην; 8:3 τὸν ἑαυτοῦ υἱόν; 1 Thess 2:7 τὰ ἑαυτοῖς τέκνα; 2:8 τὰς ἑαυτῶν ψυχάς. Frame, Thessalonians, 150. Cf. also Best, 1 Thessalonians, 161, Collins, Studies on 78 the First Letter to the Thessalonians, 313, 333, and Holtz, An die Thessalonicher, 158.