Writing and reading with and without a penis

Donald Miller posts an excellent short reflection and an even more excellent Billy Collins poem.  But when it comes to reading the Bible one of the most valuable things you can do (if you happen to be a bloke) is to momentarily remove the "old chap" and try not to be such a myopic male mysogynist dimwit.  I tried it while writing my thesis, with the help of some feminist biblical scholars, and gained what I think was the most exciting insight of the whole project.  I won't tell you about it just yet, so you'll just have to take my word for it, but seriously, try reading scripture from other peoples' perspectives, try changing gender, colour, continent, socio-economic class, age group, etc, and you might be similarly and liberatingly surprised with what results.

σκεῦος = penis

Most of your Bible translations have two possible rendering of 1 Thes 4:4, something along the lines of either

that each one of you know how to control your own body in holiness and honour (NRSV)

or

that each one of you know how to take a wife for himself in holiness and honour (NRSV, note)

But the word translated variously "wife" or "body" is σκεῦος, which is a very strange word to use for either.  Of course the "wife" translation is especially wierd, as "knowing how" to take a wife presumably has little effect on your behaviour unless you actually do so!  And they are both wierd because if σκεῦος is a metaphor for either, what does the use of that metaphor add to the discussion?  σκεῦος is essentially a word for a useful object and has a semantic range broad enough to cover ship's rigging, kitchen pots, and human functionaries!  Instead, as both FF Bruce and Gordon Fee argue in their respective commentaries on 1&2 Thessalonians, σκεῦος is here best understood as a euphemism for penis.  There is even an example of this usage in the LXX (the Greek version of the OT) in 1 Sam 21:5-6.  

My contribution to this discussion is simply to concur with Fee's (much more detailed- this is just a very brief summary) argument and to point out that this would help explain Paul's use of τιμή (honour) here as in 1 Cor 12:23 he also talks about how the less presentable parts need to be treated with special τιμή (honour).

My translation suggestion?

that each one of you know how to control your own thingy in holiness and honour

Let me know what you think, :-)