From Mr John Trappes-Lomax
SIR – Fr Frank Johnson supposes that 1 Corinthians 9:5 shows that St Peter and some of the other Apostles were married. He has been misled by “to be accompanied by a Christian wife” in the New Jerusalem Bible. The same word means both “woman” and “wife” in Greek, so “adelphen gunaika periagein” could mean “to lead about a sister woman” (ie a sort of peripatetic housekeeper) or “to lead about a sister wife”.
The former seems the more natural translation; in any event the ambiguity prevents the passage from being evidence in favour of clerical marriage.
Yours faithfully, JOHN TRAPPES-LOMAX Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk