There is no reference to order in time in this verse, but rather to degrees of importance. To bring this idea out Good News Bible has added the phrase “all in place” after “put.” “All in place” may well be translated “all members in place” or “all parts in place.”

The Greek sentence is confused because Paul moves without warning from nouns indicating groups of people in the church—apostles, prophets, teachers—to abstract nouns that indicate spiritual gifts such as miracles (see comments on 1 Cor. 12.1).

First, second, third, and then probably suggests an order of importance, but an element of succession in time may also be present: “… one has precedence over the other in the founding and building up of the local assembly” (Fee).

Apostles: a number of other people were appointed as “apostles” after the original twelve. Paul was one of these.

Prophets can be translated as “those who proclaim God’s message.” Translator’s should avoid using terms which suggest that this group of people are the same as the Old Testament prophets.

Teachers were probably people who gave instruction in the Christian faith (see Rom 12.7; 2 Tim 1.11; James 3.1 for further insight into this gift).

The latter part of this verse is literally “then powers,” “gifts of support” (Barrett), “administration, kinds of tongues.” These abstract nouns mean respectively “the power to perform miracles, the power to heal people, the ability to help, the ability to steer or direct, and various kinds of ecstatic speech.” Most translations smooth the sentence by making all the nouns refer to people rather than directly to gifts; for example, “those who perform miracles,” and so on.

Helpers: the context suggests that these were people who had the specific duty to aid the poor and needy.

Administrators refers to people who have the ability to steer or direct the affairs of the church.

Kinds of tongues: see the discussion under verse 10.

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 .