For introduces the theme arising out of verse 8: the apostles are very far from living like kings.
Good News Bible‘s “it seems to me” is a difficult expression. It may be better to follow Revised Standard Version and say I think that or “I feel that.”
We noted earlier, in verses 1-5, that Paul uses language relating to official appointments. The word which Good News Bible translates as “given” may also be used in the sense of an official appointment. Most translations and commentaries, however, think here of a public spectacle such as a display in an arena, in which people previously condemned to death were killed by being made to fight with one another, with gladiators, or with wild animals (see 15.32), and this suits the context well; so New Jerusalem Bible “it seems to me that God has put us apostles on show right at the end”; Revised English Bible “… the last act in the show.” Alternatively, the picture may be that of a triumphal procession in which the apostles come at the end as captives “condemned to die in public.”
Last: almost certainly means “last in rank,” not “last in time.” Good News Bible‘s “the very last place” gives the meaning clearly. Perhaps Paul is saying that the apostles seem to have the lowest rank in contrast to their real position as first in rank in the church (12.28 “in the first place apostles,” Good News Bible). Paul’s language is still ironical. He means “If you look at the way we live, you would not think that we apostles are the most important among the church’s leaders.” An alternative translation model for this initial sentence is: “I feel that God has appointed us apostles (or, chief messengers) to the least important position in the church.”
The appositional construction like men sentenced to death may be rendered as “like men (or, people) whom they have condemned to die.” Men sentenced to death is a single noun in the Greek, grammatically masculine but in principle able to include women. It is unlikely that Paul was thinking of woman apostles (though Rom 16.7 probably refers to one); but in any case the function, not the sex, of apostles is in focus here.
A spectacle to the world: in this verse the word spectacle refers to the entertainment which takes place in a Roman theater. Paul may be thinking specifically of fights between gladiators and wild animals.
Angels are spiritual beings created by God to serve and worship him, and to be his messengers. Some of them, however, are evil. Paul implies here that Christians are given the special knowledge to know which are good and which are bad, and the authority to judge between them. See Hebrews 1; 1 Peter 1.12.
Good News Bible is probably right in thinking that the world includes “angels” and “human beings.” World is therefore used in a neutral sense as in 3.19, not in a bad sense as in 1.20. Angels will be translated in many languages as “heavenly messengers.” Men (“human beings”), of course, includes women.
The clause because we have become a spectacle to the … can be restructured as “for the whole world of angels and humans to look at (or, gaze on)” or “for everyone in the whole world, both angels and humans, to gaze 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 .