The emphatic I makes a contrast with “your call” (Good News Bible‘s “what you were”) in 1.26. Not only are the Corinthian readers weak, but even Paul himself is weak from the human point of view. Paul may also be contrasting himself in an indirect way with false preachers in Corinth. This idea is possibly even stronger in verse 3, which begins with the same emphatic I.
When I came … I did not come repeats the Greek verb for “come.” Good News Bible and Revised English Bible (not New International Version, New Jerusalem Bible) remove this repetition completely, and other translations simplify it; for example, Jerusalem Bible (Jerusalem Bible): “When I came to you, it was not….” Some translators may need to expand the clause When I came to “When I came to visit you.”
Brethren should be translated “fellow Christians” or “fellow believers” in languages where the word “brother” only refers to an actual family member. In certain languages, though, this word may be rendered in an idiomatic way; for example, “elders and youngers.” (See comments on brother in 1.1.)
It is not certain whether Paul wrote the testimony of God or “God’s secret truth” as in Good News Bible. Good News Bible, New Jerusalem Bible, and New Revised Standard Version translate the Greek word for “mystery” (musterion), while Revised Standard Version, and New International Version translate the word for “testimony” (marturion); these Greek words can be easily confused with each other. The manuscript evidence is evenly divided; Nestle-Aland 25th edition has “testimony,” while the UBS text and Nestle-Aland 26th edition have “mystery.” Commentators and translators are similarly divided. “Testimony” is preferred by Revised Standard Version, Bijbel in Gewone Taal, Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch, ITCL, New English Bible, New American Bible, Jerusalem Bible, Bible de Jérusalem, and “mystery” by Good News Bible, Bible en français courant, Translator’s New Testament, Moffatt, An American Translation, Phillips, Barclay, and Traduction œcuménique de la Bible. Many translations give the alternative reading in a note. Scribes may have changed “mystery” to testimony because they were looking back to 1.6. Less probably, they may have changed testimony to “mystery” because they were looking forward to 2.7. A good reason to pick “mystery” is that Paul usually speaks of the Christian “mystery” as something that is revealed. He uses such language here: “preaching,” verse 1; “demonstration,” verse 4 (see the comments). For these reasons we choose the reading of the UBS text, which the Good News Bible text follows.
If “mystery” is chosen as the text, it may be “a secret truth belonging to God,” “a secret truth that comes from God,” or “a secret truth about God.” The first two are more likely since, as the context shows, Christ is the content of this secret truth.
Revised Standard Version‘s I did not come proclaiming is more literally “I came not according to superiority of word or wisdom preaching to you….” The meaning is “when I came, it was not to proclaim….” Good News Bible‘s “big words” should not be understood literally as meaning that Paul used only short and simple words. The term that is translated words means “message,” as in 1.18. Here it may have the added meaning of “argument” or “reasoning.” There is a close connection between words and wisdom, as in 1.17. The Greek for words or wisdom means “message, that is, wisdom” (see the Detailed Comment at 1.5). It is for this reason that Good News Bible replaces or with “and.”
Revised Standard Version‘s lofty, which Good News Bible renders as “big,” translates a Greek noun that may mean simply “prominence” or “authority,” as in 1 Tim 2.2. But in the present verse Paul may be comparing himself with other preachers. The Translator’s New Testament (Translator’s New Testament) takes this latter view: “I came to you with no superiority in speech or wisdom.”
Good News Bible‘s “use … great learning” can also be rendered “show off my education”; Bible en français courant has “… impressive education.”
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 .