ISB ~ 1 Corinthians 9 v5

accompanied by a wife:This statement has been understood in different ways. (1) Paul may be stressing his right to be married to a Christian wife. His right to have and travel with a wife would then have included the right to receive living expenses for both spouses from the missionary churches that hosted them. Paul surrendered these privileges by living a celibate life (7:8) and by working as a tentmaker to support himself, instead of relying on material assistance from the Corinthians (9:6; Acts 18:1-3). (2) According to a prominent tradition among the Church Fathers, Paul speaks, not of marriage, but of his right to be helped by a traveling female assistant (the word translated “wife” can also be translated “woman”). Precedent for such an arrangement can be traced back to the ministry of Jesus (Lk 8:1-3). See note on 1 Cor 7:7. • The discipline of clerical celibacy was highly revered in the early Church and was required by the eleventh century for all men ordained in the Latin Rite of the Catholic Church. The celibacy requirement continues in the Latin Rite for deacons, priests, and bishops, although married men may be ordained to the permanent diaconate. The Eastern Rites of the Catholic Church continue to ordain married men to the priesthood and the diaconate (CCC 1579-80). Vatican II reaffirmed the validity of both traditions in 1965 (Presbyterorum Ordinis 16).

the other apostles:Other leaders in the early Church traveled either with their spouses or with a female assistant, including Jesus’ kinsmen (brethren, Gal 1:19) and Peter (Cephas, Mk 1:30). See note on Mt 12:46.