The Greek for grievance (Good News Bible‘s “dispute”) is more general than in English. In some contexts it may mean a business transaction. Here, however, the context requires the meaning “legal dispute” or “lawsuit.”

Against a brother is literally “against another,” but the context indicates that “another Christian” (Good News Bible) is the meaning here. One may also translate this as “another member of the church.”

In Greek the word dare is emphatic because it appears at the beginning of the section. Revised Standard Version and Good News Bible put it later in the verse. Good News Bible‘s “how dare you…?” is emphatic without occurring at the beginning of the sentence.

The phrase does he dare may be expressed as “what right has he,” or one may change the rhetorical question to a statement and say “he has no right to.”

The main difficulty in this verse is the translation of the words for unrighteous (Good News Bible‘s “heathen”) and saints (Good News Bible‘s “God’s people”), which Paul is obviously contrasting. Saints refers to the church, not to Israelites as in the Old Testament. It is possible to distinguish at least three elements of meaning in this word. First is the ethnic aspect, referring to Christians as “God’s people” as if they were a distinct race. Second is the ethical meaning, referring to Christians as belonging to God and thus holy. Third is the theological aspect, stressing that Christians are “washed,” “sanctified,” and “justified.” Good News Bible rightly suggests that Paul’s thought moves from the ethnic aspect in verses 1 and 6 to the ethical aspect in verses 7-10 and the theological aspect in verse 11.

The word unrighteous (Greek adikōn) probably refers to pagans, people who do not worship the true God. In this context unrighteous does not mean “unjust” but “not justified.” This and related words recur several times in this section: “suffer wrong” (verse 7, Greek adikeisthe), “wrong” (verse 8, Greek adikeite), and “justified” (verse 11, Greek edikaiōthēte) are all related. Paul uses them to bind his teaching together in this passage; but the effect will usually be difficult or impossible to reproduce in translation. In any case, what matters is that the meaning is coherent.

Good News Bible adds the phrase “settle the matter” to bring out a meaning that is implicit in the text. One may also express this phrase as “judge the case.”

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 .