This verse, like the first part of verse 11, is stylistically heavy in the Greek, and its meaning is not entirely clear. Part of the reason may be that Paul is piling up words, including several repetitions, in order to emphasize his theme. Translators may need to simplify the structure of this verse.
As Paul’s argument develops, it becomes more and more difficult to understand we as referring to Paul alone. The meaning, at least from this point to the end of the chapter, appears to be “we spiritual people.” These are probably the same people as the “mature” of verse 6 and the “we” who have the “mind of Christ” in verse 16.
Revised Standard Version‘s this is a plural in Greek (New Revised Standard Version “these things”), which refers to the gifts that Paul has just mentioned. Good News Bible leaves the connection with verse 12 for the reader to understand. And at the beginning of the sentence really means “also,” showing that Paul is about to say something new; he is saying that we not only understand God’s gifts by means of his Spirit, but what is more, we speak about them. So the first sentence may be rendered as “So then, we do not speak about these gifts in words….”
The clause we impart this in words not … may be restructured as “when we speak, we do not use words….”
Words not taught by human wisdom is the most likely translation here. However, there is another possibility, which is different in grammar but similar in meaning: “not in learned words of human wisdom.”
The phrase taught by human wisdom will be difficult for some translators. Other ways of rendering this phrase are “that arise out of human wisdom” and “that come from human wisdom.”
After the clear statement of verse 12, there should be no need for a translator to repeat that the Spirit is God’s Spirit. This is shown not only by the capital S but by the context.
The end of this verse is literally “interpreting” or “comparing spiritual things with spiritual (things or people).” There are two problems here: The first one is the meaning of the verb. The second is whether the second “spiritual” refers to things or people.
The Greek verb sunkrinō is not used anywhere else in the New Testament except in 2 Cor 10.12, where it occurs twice and means “compare.” Revised Standard Version seems to follow its meaning in the Septuagint of Gen 40.8 and Dan 5.7, where it means “interpret.” This gives better sense in the immediate context here. Following we impart, though, the meaning “compare” may have been suggested by verse 11. Good News Bible has the rendering “explain.” In both places where Paul uses this verb, it is accompanied in the immediate context by another verb (here anakrinō in verses 14-15). Both verbs have the same root, krinō, which means “judge.” Here, as earlier in speaking about wisdom, Paul seems to be taking up a word that is used by his opponents in Corinth. He reuses it to express what he believes to be the true Christian message. There is a play on words here. How far it is possible to reproduce this play on words in translation depends on the words that are available to a translator in his or her language. It also depends on the meaning of the related word anakrinō in verses 14-15 (see the comments).
This leads to the second problem. If the verb sunkrinō is taken to mean “compare,” the end of the sentence may mean either (1) “comparing spiritual things with (other) spiritual things,” as in the second part of Revised Standard Version‘s footnote, or (2) “comparing spiritual things in spiritual (words),” “words” being borrowed from the first part of the sentence. Neither of these alternatives, especially the second, gives very clear sense; New Jerusalem Bible has “fitting spiritual language to spiritual things” but adds a note mentioning other possibilities.
It is more likely, then, that the verb means interpret. If this is the meaning, the translation possibilities are either (1) “interpreting spiritual things to spiritual people” or (2) “interpreting spiritual things in spiritual words,” as in the first part of Revised Standard Version‘s footnote. Against the second alternative, “spiritual words,” it may be said (a) that nowhere else does Paul speak of “spiritual words”; (b) that the immediate context (verse 15 and 3.1) mentions spiritual people. A majority of translations agree with the Good News Bible text. Jerusalem Bible follows a different Greek text that is supported by two important manuscripts and translates “we teach spiritual things spiritually.” The Bijbel in Gewone Taal (Bijbel in Gewone Taal), An American Translation, and Barclay agree with the Good News Bible footnote.
The term “spiritual people,” at least in English, can be easily misunderstood as the wrong kind of “boasting.” It is important, therefore, for a translator to discover the precise meaning of “spiritual,” and of the opposite term, which is so often translated “natural” (see the Revised Standard Version footnote). Good News Bible‘s translation of Jude 19 as “who are controlled by their natural desires, who do not have the Spirit” helps to make the meaning of “unspiritual” or “natural” clear. Paul and other New Testament writers were deeply influenced by Hebrew thought. So they did not make a sharp distinction between body, mind, and soul or spirit. The Hebrew word for “flesh” usually meant human nature with its weakness; the word for “soul” meant human nature with special reference to its inner life and vitality; and the word for “spirit” referred to the “breath of life,” which was not essentially part of man at all, but was breathed into him by God (Gen 2.7). However, here Paul is making a distinction between human beings who are governed by their own inner (sinful) nature, and those who are governed by the spirit of God. In this setting, Revised Standard Version‘s “unspiritual” and Good News Bible‘s “whoever does not have the Spirit” (verse 14; compare verse 12) are quite precise translations.
In some languages one cannot talk about “having the Spirit.” In cases like this a translator may say something like “who have the Spirit living in them.”
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 .