Some of the problems of this verse have been covered in the comments on verse 13. Once more, Paul turns from positive to negative statements, using a “but,” which both Revised Standard Version and Good News Bible omit in translation, feeling that the contrast can be understood in English without this word.

Translations often rightly put “God’s Spirit” (Good News Bible) where the text has only “Spirit.” In the same way it is possible that scribes added the word “God’s” to make the meaning clear.

There is nothing in the Greek that corresponds to the gifts, but the thought is so close to that of verse 12 that Revised Standard Version and Good News Bible are right to add a reference to God’s gifts in the present verse only.

The clause the gifts of the Spirit of God may also be rendered as “that God’s Spirit gives.”

Folly is the word used in 1.18, 21, and 23. They are folly to him may be rephrased as “he considers them to be nonsense.”

Revised Standard Version keeps the two clauses, for they … understand them, in the same order as the Greek, but Good News Bible changes the order to show more clearly the relation between them. The second clause is literally “and he cannot understand.”

Them, in both Revised Standard Version and Good News Bible, refers to the gifts of the Spirit. Understand is the word that was translated “know” in verse 11. In this verse it refers to particular events, implying “Even when they see what happens when God gives the gifts of his Spirit to people, they do not realize what is happening.” It is also possible, in the light of the words “all things” in verse 15, that understand refers to something more general. In that case, “he does not understand anything” is a possible translation.

As in verse 11, man refers to people in general, not to any male individual. Good News Bible second edition omits “to him” in order to avoid the masculine pronoun.

The Greek anakrinō, whichGood News Bible translates as “judged” and Revised Standard Version discerned (see comments on verse 13), refers to the process of examination and investigation that leads up to a judgment, rather than just to a verdict in the law court or to God’s final judgment. In Acts 17.11 the meaning is that the Jews in Beroea were examining the Scriptures carefully, in order to see whether what the Christians were saying was true. In this verse the meaning of anakrinō is that it is only with the help of God’s Spirit that the Spirit’s own gifts can be examined and understood. In certain languages that do not naturally use a passive form of the verb, it may be helpful to render this final clause as “because a person can judge their value only if he has the Spirit living in him.”

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 .

You in this verse is singular in the Greek but refers to “any one of you.” In fact, in verse 8 Paul returns to a plural pronoun with no change of meaning. In some languages it will be necessary to use a plural pronoun here.

In some languages the rhetorical questions in this verse will need to be translated as statements; for example, “No one made you superior to others! God gave you everything you have…” or “No one gave you a higher status! God….” See the comments on rhetorical questions on 1.13.

Who sees anything different in you?: this first rhetorical question is unusual Greek; literally “for who distinguishes you?” The idea of “who distinguishes you from anyone else?” is clearly implied. Good News Bible‘s idea of being made “superior” to someone else is also possible here. The Greek verb is another compound of krinō “judge” and requires a human subject. The meaning is not “what is it in you which makes you different from anyone else?” but rather “who gives you a different status (or, makes you superior)?” The implied answer may be either (1) “no one” or (2) “not God.” In favor of (2) is the fact that God is referred to implicitly later in the verse in the clause that you did not receive (Good News Bible‘s “didn’t God give you everything?”). It is also referred to explicitly in verse 9: “God has given … us apostles” (Good News Bible). Another way to translate this first rhetorical question is “If there is anything different (or, superior) in you, it comes from God, not yourselves.” However, in light of the fact that Paul seems to be battling the high opinion the Corinthians had of themselves, the following renderings are truer to the context: “You are not superior to anyone else,” “No one has made you superior to others,” or even “No one has given you a higher status than others.”

What have you that you did not receive? means “Everything you have, you received from someone else.” This rhetorical question, in Greek as in Revised Standard Version, avoids mentioning God directly, but it can only be from God that the gifts Paul mentions were “received.” So in languages which do not use rhetorical questions, a translator could say here “God has given you everything that you have!” This rhetorical question, like the first one, refers both to the past, when the gifts were received, and to the present (Good News Bible “everything you have”).

Good News Bible‘s “Well then” can be rendered as “If that is so,” “In that case,” or “Since that is true.”

The phrase why do you boast…? can be expressed as an imperative; for example, “In that case, you should not boast as if what you have received were not a gift,” “… you should not boast as if what God has given you were not a gift,” or “Since God has given you these things, you have no right to boast.”

Boast refers to saying that one is better in some way than someone else. (See 1.29 for a further discussion on this word.)

The words “what you have” (Good News Bible) are implicit in the text, and the phrase not a gift is literally “not receiving,” but the context shows that it refers to the past. It is possible to render this as “as if what you have you did not receive as a gift.”

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 .

The Greek text begins with a word that Revised Standard Version does not translate. It usually means “already” (so New International Version, New Revised Standard Version), but here the meaning is probably “really” or “indeed” (Revised English Bible). Good News Bible‘s rendering “The very fact” understands the word to be a logical expression, and this is more probable in the present context. The phrase “The very fact” also appears to include a translation of another Greek word that is enclosed in square brackets in the UBS Greek text. A few important manuscripts omit this word. Another way to express this initial sentence is “Since you have disputes among yourselves that must be settled by a judge in court, this shows that you have….”

The Greek word translated lawsuits here is a different one from the word translated “grievance” in verse 1, but both probably refer to “disputes” (Good News Bible).

At all: Revised Standard Version seems to understand the Greek word meaning “completely” as going with the word lawsuits rather than the verb defeat or “fail.” Good News Bible‘s rendering “have failed completely” seems to be the more probable one; New International Version is similar.

The clause To have lawsuits at all with one another can also be rendered as “the fact that you take each other to court to settle your differences…” or “the fact that you try to settle your differences by going to court….”

Is (Good News Bible‘s “shows”) can be rendered as “is good evidence of,” “reveals,” or “indicates.”

Defeat: the Greek may suggest “failure” also (see Good News Bible). “Failure” seems to suit the context better, since Paul has not mentioned any particular opponent.

One may translate the clause is defeat for you as “means that you are not living up to your Christian principles at all” or “you are not acting like Christians at all.”

The rest of the verse consists of two rhetorical questions that are similar in meaning. The repetition Why not rather is emphatic in Greek, but it need not be kept in translation if it would produce a heavy sentence.

The second verb defrauded (Good News Bible‘s “robbed”) has some similarity in meaning to suffer wrong, but it is more specific.

Some translators may prefer to render these two rhetorical questions as statements. In that case one may say, for example, “It would be better for you to let other people wrong you. And it would be better for you to let other people take from you what is yours.”

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 .

The function of this verse is to state more concisely and more generally the principle that Paul expressed in verse 17. In that verse Paul’s thought was only beginning to move away from the question of marriage and divorce.

In Greek the text of this verse is literally “each in the calling (in) which he was called, in this let him remain.” This kind of style is too heavy to translate word for word in most languages, so Revised Standard Version and Good News Bible restructure the verse. The Greek for “in the calling” here means, not the event in which God called the believer, but the condition or state in which the believer was living at the time when he or she was called. Verses 19 and 21 illustrate what is meant by the word state.

He was called: see the comment on verse 18 of this chapter.

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 .

Sinning, a present tense in the Greek, is expressed as future in Good News Bible in order to remind readers that since verse 10 (“Suppose”) Paul has been tactfully discussing a hypothetical or imaginary case, not a real one.

Wounding their conscience when it is weak does not mean that there are some times when a person’s conscience is weak, and other times when the same person’s conscience may be strong. Good News Bible‘s more literal translation, “wounding their weak conscience,” is closer to the meaning of the Greek. In some languages it may not be natural to speak of wounding someone’s conscience, and a more general expression may be better, such as “hurting their weak conscience,” “doing harm to their weak conscience,” “weakening their ability to decide between right and wrong,” or even “causing their ability to decide between right and wrong to become weak.” For the meaning of the Greek word translated “conscience,” see comments on 1 Cor. 8.7.

In this verse, as in verse 11, a translator needs to find a way of emphasizing the words you sin against Christ. Good News Bible has lost this emphasis by rearranging the sentence to produce a more flowing English style. One may maintain this emphasis by restructuring the verse slightly as follows: “When you commit sin against your fellow Christians and damage their consciences like this, you actually sin against Christ.”

In this verse, in contrast to verse 11, you is plural, but there is no difference in meaning, since “brother” in verse 11 means “any fellow Christian.”

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 .

Now indicates that Paul is moving on to a new point, though one that is closely related to the examples of the previous verses. This verse draws a moral from the series of Old Testament examples in verses 1-5. It is therefore similar to verse 11, which draws a moral from the second series of Old Testament examples. Translators should consider the two verses together.

These things, literally “these,” refers to the Old Testament examples given in verses 1-5, and especially to the fact that many of the Israelites died in the desert. Good News Bible‘s “all this” is an adaptation to English style. This may be why Good News Bible changes the plural warnings into the singular “an example … to warn us.” Most translations, however, keep a plural, “these events.” The point is that Paul is making a gradual transition from the positive example in verses 1-4, via the negative conclusion in verse 5, to the negative examples in verses 6-10 (see introduction to this section). Verse 6 thus combines a positive or at least neutral element, “examples,” with a negative element, “not to desire evil things.” Good News Bible naturally makes the negative element clearer by adding “to warn us”; similarly Revised English Bible, “as warnings to us.”

The wider context, particularly the use of “supernatural” (“spiritual”) three times in verses 3-4 and also in verse 11, may suggest that God intended to set up a similarity between events at the time of the exodus and the events in Paul’s time. For this reason New English Bible translates “These events happened as symbols” (but Revised English Bible “warnings”) and in verse 11 has “All these things that happened to them were symbolic.” Barclay has “symbolic warnings.” A translator would therefore be justified to render this sentence in a similar way; for example, “Now, all these things happened as symbolic examples to warn us….”

The point of the illustration in this verse is that Paul wants his readers to be like the group of Israelites who pleased God, rather than the ones who were destroyed. Verses 11-13 will make this clear.

The latter part of this verse sounds weak in most translations. Paul used an unusual word for “desirers of evil,” echoing Num 11.34, which has “craving.” Moffatt brings this meaning out by translating “to keep us from craving for evil as they craved.” His italics indicate a reference to the Old Testament. Translators may use “crave” or “desire very strongly,” or similar words.

They before did is emphatic, meaning “those people,” namely the ancestors of the exodus generation.

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 .