Revised Standard Version‘s For may make it difficult for the reader to realize that this verse introduces a new thought. It is probably better to omit this word as Good News Bible does. The thought in this verse, which is found in the Old Testament (Pro 20.27) and in “common human experience” (Barrett), is that in order to understand something, one must compare it with something similar. Specifically, it is the human in man that enables him to understand human things; and similarly, it is only God’s Spirit that can understand the things of God. If human beings are to understand these things, it can only be because God allows them to share in his own Spirit.

Revised Standard Version uses the present tense for the verb know, but a different tense is used in the second half of the verse, where the same Greek verb is translated comprehends. Paul may have changed the tense for variety, but the second half more probably means “who has ever known the things of God…?” It is therefore more emphatic than the first half.

Spirit of the man: translators should use a term for spirit that is similar to the one used for the Spirit of God. This is the part of the person that reaches out to God. Terms that are used for local “spirits,” good or evil, should be avoided if at all possible.

The first half of the verse is clumsy and not very clear in detail, though there is no doubt about its general sense. A literal translation would be “For who of men knows the things of a man except the spirit of man that (is) in him?” The singular “a man” means humans in general, not a particular individual. The word that Revised Standard Version translates man means “human being” (New Revised Standard Version, Revised English Bible). Good News Bible second edition changes this to “our” in order to avoid the masculine pronoun “him”; in any case, women are included.

The rhetorical question in the first half of the verse is equivalent to a strong negative statement. The second half of the verse confirms this. There is, however, a difference between the two sections. The first half expresses something that Paul thinks his readers will readily accept; the second half is a new idea that follows the first.

Good News Bible‘s “that knows all about him” or “… about God,” gives the meaning of the Greek text, which is literally “the things of man/God,” but Good News Bible‘s “all” is not in the text. Revised English Bible has “what a human being is” and “what God is”; An American Translation‘s “a man’s thoughts” and “the thoughts of God” are probably too specific.

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 .