Paul turns from addressing some of his readers generally to addressing an individual, a typical wife and husband. Translators must decide whether such a change is stylistically natural in their own languages. There is no difference in meaning.

Commentaries and translations give verse 16 almost opposite meanings, depending on whether they think this rhetorical question is expecting the answer “yes” or “no.” Good News Bible‘s footnote has the “pessimistic” understanding, where there is doubt. The positive statements of verse 14 and the end of verse 15 would naturally lead to an optimistic or hopeful understanding of verse 16. Conzelmann claims, among other arguments for the pessimistic interpretation, that the translation “perhaps you will save your husband/wife” makes verse 17 unclear. It is difficult to see why this should be so, (a) because verse 17 belongs to a different section, and (b) because in any case an optimistic interpretation of verse 16 would broaden naturally into the advice “go on living as you were when God called you.” The “optimistic” understanding of this verse is represented by Good News Bible‘s “How can you be sure … that you will not save your husband?” Revised Standard Version, New International Version, and New Jerusalem Bible attempt a neutral translation; New Revised Standard Version (“for all you know, you might save your husband … your wife”) and Revised English Bible (“a wife may save her husband…”) are optimistic. Barrett claims support for the optimistic interpretation from the context and from the Greek fathers; Fee believes the verse is deliberately ambiguous.

Wife may be rendered as “Christian wife” (Good News Bible). Many languages will place this word at the beginning of the sentence as Revised Standard Version does: “Christian wife, how can you…?”

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 .