Parainesis on ἁγιασ�ός (1 Th 4: 3-8) 135 5:2, and the Epistle of Barnabas 7:3 – all of them passages which evidence the sense of ‘body’. The meaning of ‘wife’, which has no direct support in Greek literature nor in the NT32, has been based mainly on rabbinic evidence, reference to a certain OT usage, and Semitic views of sex.33 The evidence for this point of view has been ably presented by Chr. Maurer, and has been applied to our passage with sensitivity by Best. The third meaning hinted at above has been based on Aelian, Nat. An. 17:11, as well as in a reference to a writer of the I A.D., Antistius34. In these passages σκεῦος is used in place of αἰδοῖου (pl. αἰδοῖα), that is, the genitalia. A third passage, 1 Sam (LXX) 21:5, uses σκεῦος to trans- late Heb. ylk, usually = ‘vessel’35, but here ‘genitals’, though the garbled translation of the LXX makes it uncertain that its translators perceived this meaning. The difficulty with ἀδελφός is not semasiological, but contextual: how does this brother fit in in this particular context? II. The Two Basic Interpretations For the two basic interpretations referred to above a brief presentation may suffice. For the interpretation σκεῦος=‘wife’ we may make J. E. Frame our point of departure. He interprets ἀπέχεσθαι ... πορνείας as “That you hold aloof from fornication”, εἰδέναι ... τὸ σκεῦος κτᾶσθαι ... (with a comma after σκεῦος) is understood as implying two injunctions36: (i) “that each of you respect his own wife” addressed to married people, and (ii) “that each of you get his own wife in the spirit of consecration and honour” addressed to unmarried people; ἐν ἁγιασμῷ καὶ τιμῇ would refer to holy and honorable conjugal relations; μὴ ἐν πάθει ἐπιθυμίας etc. would again refer to one’s relations to his wife: he should treat her “not in the passion The application of σκεῦος to the woman in 1 Pt 3:7 has no sexual overtones, and 32 is, therefore, no evidence for σκεῦος = ‘woman’. Moreover, her being the ‘weaker’ vessel, implies that man, too, is thought of as a vessel. In fact, the human person is described as a vessel: Acts 9:15; Rm 9:22, 23. See Strack, H.-Billerbeck, P., Kommentar zum Neuen Testament aus Talmud und 33 Midrasch, 5 Vols., München 1926-1928, 1956, rp. 1986 III, 632f. Anthologia Palatina, 16:243. 34 See also J. Whitton, “A Neglected Meaning for skeuos in 1 Thessalonians 4.4” NTS 35 28 (1982) 142-3. On this cf. also H. Schlier, “Auslegung des 1 Thessalonicherbriefes (4:1-12)” Bibel und 36 Leben 3 (1962), 243.