The accent in the Greek word translated as even is uncertain, and so the meaning is also unclear. If the word is accentuated as in the UBS Greek text, it must mean “yet, still,” and that is the basis of the translation even. However, the sequence of thought is not entirely clear, and for this reason many commentators prefer the form “in the same way”: “In the same way, lifeless instruments such as….”

As in verse 6, the rhetorical question expects the answer “It will not be possible!”

Lifeless: this word is not used elsewhere in the New Testament. Here the contrast is between inanimate objects and human beings.

The phrase such as the flute or the harp is literally “whether flute or harp.” However, Paul is not contrasting two different types of musical instruments, but choosing two instruments at random. Thus Revised Standard Version and Good News Bible‘s rendering such as is correct.

What is played translates two Greek verbs, literally “what is being fluted or harped.”

The final part of this verse can be restructured as follows: “… if people do not play them [the instruments] distinctly, how will the listener know what tune is being played?”

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 .