This verse describes the result of the process described in verses 27-28.

No human being: as in verse 26, the Greek word for “flesh” is used to mean human being (Good News Bible “no one”). This verse says literally “so that all flesh should not boast before God.” But the negative “not” really contradicts “all,” so that the sentence means “so that no flesh (that is, no one) should boast before God.” The thought is similar to that of verse 23, since the phrase “Jews and Gentiles” was often used to mean the same as “all flesh,” that is, the whole human race.

The word for boast is difficult to translate in this passage, because Paul gives it a bad meaning, and then in verse 31 he quotes an Old Testament text in which it has a good meaning. The essential ideas are (1) being happy, (2) showing happiness openly, and (3) speaking about the reasons for one’s happiness. However, in some contexts boast may also include the idea of someone saying that he is somehow better than someone else. In verse 29 Paul means that in God’s presence it is foolish and wrong to compare one human being with another. So this verse may be translated “This means that no one can say in God’s presence that he is superior to anyone else.”

In the presence of God may be translated “knowing that God is there,” or “… present,” or “before God’s face,” or even “while God is looking on.”

Quoted with permission from Ellingworth, Paul and Hatton, Howard A. A Handbook on Paul’s First Letter to the Corinthians, 2nd edition. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1985/1994. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .