Hey, this is John at Bible Project, where in the middle of a series looking at how to read

the New Testament letters.

These are the small books in the back of your Bible written by the apostles of Jesus, and

written to early church movements spread out across the Roman world.

Right now we're looking at the situational context of the communities who receive these

letters.

One thing we're going to look at today is how it's hard to know when Paul is saying something

original and when he's quoting what someone else had said.

And this might not seem like a big deal, but let's check out 1 Corinthians 7, 1st

one.

In the NIV, we see Paul write this.

Now for the matters you wrote about.

So now we're going to expect him to quote something they wrote about.

And he does, it begins with the quote, quote, quote, it is good for a man not to have sexual

relations with a woman.

Unquote.

But then Paul goes on.

But since sexual morality is occurring, each man should have sexual relations with his

own wife and each woman with her own husband.

But here's the saying, I'm looking at the New American Standard.

They do not mark that phrase in quote marks.

And so what it forces the reader to do is to put together some kind of logic for the

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