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 honourLet me know what you think, :-)
