Unmarried
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ἄγαμος (agamos) means unmarried, not presently in a marriage bond. Its four New Testament occurrences all appear in 1 Corinthians 7, where Paul addresses several situations rather than one uniform social identity.
Reader summary
Full entry for ἄγαμος (G22) · Open the biblical lexicon
ἄγαμος (agamos) means unmarried, not presently in a marriage bond. Its four New Testament occurrences all appear in 1 Corinthians 7, where Paul addresses several situations rather than one uniform social identity.
The BSB source-word alignment has 4 aligned rows for this entry. Common renderings include unmarried (3), unmarried man (1).
The source-word alignment first shows this entry at 1 Corinthians 7:8. Its strongest book concentrations include 1 Corinthians (4).
ἄγαμος (agamos) means unmarried, not presently in a marriage bond. Its four New Testament occurrences all appear in 1 Corinthians 7, where Paul addresses several situations rather than one uniform social identity. He speaks to unmarried people and widows, to a separated wife who is to remain unmarried or be reconciled, and to unmarried men and women whose concerns may be directed toward the Lord’s work and holy devotion.
The term itself does not tell whether a person has never married, has been widowed, is separated, desires marriage, or expects lifelong singleness; the surrounding argument must supply that history. Paul calls unmarried life good and identifies real opportunities for less divided service, while also calling marriage good, recognizing sexual temptation, honoring mutual obligations, and refusing coercion.
The noun does not rank unmarried believers above married believers or leave them in a waiting room for adulthood. It describes a real life station in which disciples may belong fully to Christ and His church, cultivate faithful relationships, serve with their gifts, and seek wisdom about marriage without shame or pressure.
ἄγαμος occurs only in 1 Corinthians 7 and describes people who are not presently married within several distinct circumstances. Paul treats unmarried life as good, regulates separation carefully, and names opportunities for focused concern about the Lord.
Now to the unmarried and widows I say this: It is good for them to remain unmarried, as I am.
Paul directly calls remaining unmarried good for the people he addresses and points to his own life. The statement offers honorable possibility, not a universal command or a denial that marriage is also good.
But if she does, she must remain unmarried or else be reconciled to her husband. And a husband must not divorce his wife.
Here ‘unmarried’ describes a separated wife within Paul’s command against divorce. The verse is not a complete treatment of danger, abandonment, civil protection, or every pastoral circumstance and should not be isolated from the chapter and wider biblical counsel.
I want you to be free from concern. The unmarried man is concerned about the work of the Lord, how he can please the Lord.
Paul names a potential freedom for concentrated attention to the Lord. He describes an orientation to be cultivated, not an automatic quality possessed by every unmarried man.
And his interests are divided. The unmarried woman or virgin is concerned about the work of the Lord, how she can be holy in both body and spirit. But the married woman is concerned about the affairs of this world, how she can please her husband.
Paul includes unmarried women in devoted concern for the Lord and whole-person holiness. His comparison recognizes differing responsibilities; it does not portray a spouse’s care as sinful or unmarried women as disembodied workers for the church.
BSB source-word alignment connects this entry to exact verse rows, English rendering, source form, transliteration, and parsing.
How English Renders ItA compact distribution from source-word alignment before the full evidence tables.
Greek word. unmarried
unmarried: 1Co.7:8, 32; fem. (= cl. ἄνανδρος), ib. 11, 34.
Textus Receptus witness, full corpus Greek token appearances from Scrivener 1894 Textus Receptus in the full New Testament corpus.
4 Greek text appearances shown. Linked morphology labels have verse guides.
unmarried
Read verseunmarried
Read verseunmarried
Read verseunmarried
Read verseFull New Testament corpus: 260 chapters, 7,957 verses, 140,628 tokens. Data source: honza/textus-receptus (data only), with authority check against byztxt/greektext-textus-receptus.
How this word appears across different grammatical cases and numbers.
This word appears as a noun across 3 case and number patterns. The form changes show how the word functions in a sentence; they do not change the basic lexical meaning by themselves.
Verse guides are not available for this word yet, so verse references remain plain evidence markers.
ἄγαμος is built from these roots:
The church should hear Paul’s word ‘good’ before it adds embarrassment, suspicion, or urgency to unmarried life. An unmarried believer is not a partial adult, an unused spouse, or an unlimited volunteer. He or she is a whole disciple whose body, time, friendships, work, household, suffering, and gifts belong to the Lord. Paul sees a genuine opportunity for less divided concern, but he does not say that every unmarried person automatically enjoys emotional ease or abundant free time.
Nor does he demean marriage when he acknowledges its responsibilities. The chapter addresses desire realistically, protects mutuality within marriage, permits marriage, commends remaining as one is in a present distress, and resists compulsion. Pastoral teaching should therefore honor widowed, never-married, divorced, separated, and celibate people without pretending their circumstances are identical.
Churches should create durable family-like belonging, include unmarried believers in leadership and ordinary friendship, respect their boundaries, and support those who desire marriage without promising it. Devotion to the Lord can flourish in this station, but it should be nurtured through grace and community rather than extracted through guilt.
1Cor.7.32
ἄγαμος combines the privative prefix with the marriage word family and functions substantivally in 1 Corinthians 7: ‘the unmarried.’ The label states present marital status but does not encode the person’s prior history, desire for marriage, permanence of circumstance, or spiritual gift. Verse 11’s separated context especially warns against treating every occurrence as never-married singleness.
Genesis presents marriage as God’s good creation gift, while the Old Testament also gives serious attention to widows, households, eunuchs, inheritance, and communal belonging. Jesus remains unmarried, honors marriage, and speaks of some who live without marriage for the kingdom. The New Testament church becomes a household in Christ where marriage is honored, singleness is dignified, and resurrection hope relativizes every present family arrangement without erasing its responsibilities.
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