Prof Jenny Knust had an interesting presentation on sexual language in Paul. For example, she argues it’s unfair to isolate Paul’s condemnation of homosexual acts, because Paul thinks it would be better not to engage in any sexual acts as all – even heterosexual ones. In ancient times, heterosexuality and homosexuality were acts, not general identifiers of a person’s identity as we think today. Paul doesn’t act on sexual desire, and he thanks Christ for that. She also made the point that “virgin” had to do with being an unmarried young woman or man rather than the later medical condition of whether the hymen was intact or not.

She offered the important point that we can make Paul say many things even if in so doing we go beyond what we really know about Paul.