The first part of this verse ends the series of contrasts. Slandered means to speak in such a way as to damage someone’s reputation. So a natural translation of the Greek for conciliate would be “we humbly make our appeal,” that is, we politely ask the slanderers to stop slandering. This makes good sense in the context, but Revised English Bible has “we try to be conciliatory.” This sentence may also be rendered in the active voice; for example, “when people slander us, we speak kindly to them.”

The keywords in the rest of the verse are refuse and offscouring. These are strong and unusual terms, having very similar meanings. Most translations agree generally with Good News Bible in using words that suggest something utterly despised which people throw out as garbage or refuse. This is the simplest and perhaps the most likely way of understanding the sentence. However, there is some evidence that both these words were sometimes used in speaking of Jewish or pagan sacrifices which were made to purify the worshiper who offered them. It is with this in mind that Barrett translates “We have become as it were the world’s scapegoats; the scum of the earth,” though the word is different from that used of the Old Testament scapegoat (Lev 16.20-28), and it is not necessary to see a reference to this means of dealing with sin.

The context of world here suggests a bad meaning. World may refer to the universe generally, or, as more often when it has a bad meaning, it refers to the people in the world. Similarly, all things in the following phrase may be either masculine, referring to people, or neuter, referring to or including nonhuman things (see comments on 3.21). In this context human “society” (Bijbel in Gewone Taal) or “humanity” (Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch) may be truer to the meaning. Keeping this in mind, it is quite possible to render the latter section of this verse as “People of this world treat us as if we were mere garbage. They look upon us as if we were filthy scum.” Other languages have even more expressive ways to render this. One may say, for example, “we are like the spitting pot (or, spittoon) in the king’s palace” (Thai Common Language Version).

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 .