The Greek for therefore (Good News Bible‘s “then”), as in 1.7; 3.7, 21; 4.5, introduces the conclusion of this part of Paul’s argument. Paul draws a moral and spiritual lesson from the fact that the Passover had to be celebrated by eating bread without leaven, or yeast.

Celebrate is a present tense in Greek as in English, but it should not be translated as “Let us keep on celebrating this feast.” The verb refers to the celebration of any feast, but the context indicates that the reference is to the Passover.

Good News Bible‘s “bread having” is implicit in the Greek text. The text is literally “not with old yeast nor with yeast of evil and wickedness.” The second phrase explains the first. Good News Bible is correct to combine these two phrases. The words malice and evil have very similar meanings here, thus Good News Bible‘s rendering “sin and wickedness.” Paul used two different words to make a good stylistic effect. Again Paul is using metaphors that in many languages need to be changed to similes. The bread with the leaven of malice and evil refers to lives full of malice and evil. The unleavened bread of sincerity and truth refers to lives that are full of these virtues. The meaning of the word that is translated sincerity is given in 2 Cor 2.17, where it refers to sincerity in speaking. Truth may have the wider meaning of “dependability” or even “being worthy of trust” (honesty). “Speaking the truth” is more likely to be the meaning here. An alternative way of restructuring 5.8 is: “When we celebrate our Passover, let us not do it with malice and evil, which are like bread made with yeast, but rather use sincerity and truthfulness, which are like unleavened bread.”

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 .