Prophetic powers in most languages will need to be rendered as “have the ability to preach God’s message,” or “… to transmit messages received from God,” or “… to speak messages that God has given to me.” A word such as “preach” should probably be avoided as it gives the impression of modern day preaching from a pulpit.

The word translated mysteries (Good News Bible‘s “secrets”) is sometimes used by Paul to mean that part of Christian truth that can only be understood by mature believers (see comments on 2.1, 7); but here it may refer more generally to hidden truths. Knowledge should be translated in a way that relates the term to earlier use in the letter; see “Detailed Comment” at 1.5.

All faith, so as to remove mountains: the thought is similar to Mark 11.23; compare Matt 17.20; Luke 17.6; but the language is rather different. Good News Bible‘s translation “needed to” is probably better than so as to. The appositional construction in Good News Bible‘s “faith needed” can be expressed as “faith that is needed to” or “… strong enough to.” The whole sentence may be rendered as “If I have strong enough faith in God so that I can move mountains.”

To remove mountains may be rendered as “to cause mountains to move” or “to make mountains move.” In some languages it may be necessary to say “move to another place.”

The phrase I am nothing can be translated “I have no value at all.”

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 .