In 1 Cor. 7, 12-16 Paul advises 16 church members not to divorce their non-Christian spouses. How does the apostle=s advice measure up to his declared strategy of distancing oneself from the outside world, particularly in matters of sexual ethics (1 Cor. 5 and 6)? El Mansy examines the range of discourse on the subject of exogamy that would have influenced Paul and his constituency. In order to do this she analyzes three historically relevant Jewish viewpoints on customs (Ezra / Nehemiah, Ruth and Jubilees) as well as Greco-Roman sources that shed light on the religious and socio-cultural evaluation of ethnically mixed marriages. Lastly she places the argument expressed by Paul in 1 Cor. within the context of Hellenistic Judaism (Philo of Alexandria) and an additional Christian viewpoint (1 Peter).

Dr. Aliyah El Mansy ist wissenschaftliche Mitarbeiterin an der Philipps-Universität Marburg.