It is grammatically possible to understand the rest (Good News Bible‘s “others”) as neuter, as in Jerusalem Bible: “the rest is from me and not from the Lord” (similarly New Jerusalem Bible). However, the context strongly suggests that Paul is speaking to a series of different groups: “the unmarried and the widows” (verse 8), “married” (verse 10), and the rest (verse 12). It is therefore necessary to decide who the rest are. This phrase is as vague in Greek as it is in English. But in the light of the following text, the rest probably refers to married couples of which one member has since become a Christian but not the other member. This situation was not covered by “the Lord’s command.”

The context shows plainly that brother means “a Christian man,” the opposite of an unbeliever. The word for unbeliever does not refer in the New Testament to someone who is unfaithful in marriage. Here Paul is using it naturally, not insultingly, to mean a non-Christian.

The situations that Paul describes in verses 12-13 and 14-15 (as in verse 9) are probably real; the word if implies the meaning “as in the case.”

Consents translates a compound verb meaning “is quite content.” The words consents or “agrees” (Good News Bible) in English imply a positive response to a suggestion made by someone else, but this is not implied in Greek.

The same verb divorce is used here and in verse 13.

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 .