You were bought may be expressed as “he bought you for a price” (Good News Bible) or “he paid a price for you.” The “he” here probably refers to the work of Christ, although it is impossible to be sure. Paul does not use “buy” figuratively anywhere else except in 7.23, where Good News Bible again has “God bought you,” although Christ has just been mentioned in 7.22. If the translator chooses to put “God” in the text, “Christ” may be given as an alternative in a footnote.

With a price probably does not mean “for a great price” (Vulgate). The meaning is more likely that the transaction has been completed: “God has bought and paid for you.”

So introduces the conclusion; “Very well, then” (Barrett). The final sentence may be expressed as “Let each of you use his body to bring glory to God.”

For glorify, see comment on “glorification” in 2.7.

Your body is emphasized in the Greek by its position at the end of the sentence. “Your bodies” (Good News Bible) is more natural in English, since Paul is writing about individuals. In some other languages your body may be better, since each individual has one body. Translators should do what is natural in their own language.

All modern translations agree with Revised Standard Version and Good News Bible in omitting the words that King James Version translated “and in your spirit, which are God’s.” The shorter Greek text that Revised Standard Version and Good News Bible follow represents “the decisive testimony of the earliest and best witnesses” (Metzger). Scribes who added the words “your spirit” failed to realize that body for Paul included the whole personality.

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 .

Verses 32-34 use a verb four times meaning “concern oneself” or “be anxious,” and once a related adjective meaning “unconcerned” or “not worrying.” The problem in translating these terms is that they seem to be used in a good sense when it is a question of the affairs of the Lord, and in a bad sense when referring to wives or husbands. Paul uses this word positively in 12.25 and Phil 2.20, and negatively only in Phil 4.6, where Good News Bible has “don’t worry about.”

Revised Standard Version‘s word anxious, which is used throughout the passage, is not the best English equivalent. On the other hand, it may be difficult to find a neutral term like Good News Bible‘s “concerns,” which is effective in English; New Jerusalem Bible has “gives his mind to.” In that case it is better to use different or even unrelated words than to distort the meaning.

In some languages it may be necessary in this passage to state explicitly that the married and unmarried people whom Paul refers to are Christians. One may say, for example, “the unmarried Christian man,” and so on. One may also show in some way that Paul is not speaking of married and unmarried people in general. In this respect, one may say at the beginning of the second sentence, “Among Christians, an unmarried man….”

The phrase to be free from anxieties may be expressed as “not to be worried at all” or “not to have any worries (or, anxieties) at all.”

When we contrast this verse with verse 33, it is clear that unmarried is the correct translation, no matter what meaning is given in verse 8. Paul obviously means “unmarried man” here (Good News Bible), because it is contrasted with unmarried woman in verse 33. “The unmarried man,” like similar phrases in this passage, means “the (typical) unmarried Christian man,” “any unmarried Christian man.” In contrast to verse 8, this verse seems to refer to all unmarried Christians, not just widowers or widows. In some languages unmarried in this context will be expressed as “men without wives,” or “men who do not yet have a family.”

The affairs of the Lord is literally “the (things) of the Lord,” so Revised English Bible and Barclay translate “the Lord’s business.” Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch combines this phrase with what follows, and translates “to live in a way pleasing to the Lord.” Whichever translation is chosen, the translator should, if possible, make this phrase a contrasting parallel to the phrase “worldly affairs” in verses 33 and 34, as the Greek in those verses, “the affairs of the world,” is very similar in form to the affairs of the Lord.

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 .

At this point in Paul’s argument, we probably means not only Paul and Barnabas, as in verse 6, but the apostles or evangelists generally. In any case, Paul is excluding his readers.

This rhetorical question may be restructured as follows: “We have sown spiritual seed among you, therefore it is not too much to expect that we should harvest material benefits from you.” The spiritual good, literally “spiritual things,” is essentially the Christian message. The phrase sown spiritual good among you may also be rendered as “sown good things in your hearts,” “sown spiritual things in your hearts,” or even “sown things from God’s Spirit in your hearts.”

The phrase is it too much may be translated as “is it unfair to” or “is it an unfair thing to.”

The material benefits, literally “the fleshly things,” are material support for evangelists and their families, as verses 4-7 make clear. Verse 11 slightly changes the agricultural image of verse 10. In some languages and cultures it may be preferable to use nonfigurative expressions, where reap, “harvest,” or similar metaphors would not be naturally used in this way. One may say “If we have placed spiritual things in your hearts, is it too much to expect you to give us material benefits in return?” or “If we have placed things from God’s Spirit in your hearts, is it unfair for us to expect that you give us material benefits in return?”

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 .

Consider is the verb that was translated “take heed” in verse 12, but the context gives a quite different meaning. Here no warning is involved; Paul is just asking the readers to give special attention. One may also express this as “Think about.”

The people of Israel is literally “Israel according to the flesh” but has no unfavorable meaning here. Paul adds the words “according to the flesh” because he thought of the church as fulfilling God’s promises to Israel, and therefore as being, in a sense, the true or spiritual Israel. So he needed an expression, here as in Rom 9.4, to speak of non-Christian Jews. Today there is little danger of confusing Israel with the church. For this reason Revised Standard Version and Good News Bible omit the words “according to the flesh.” Modern translators could render this as “the Jewish people,” as Bijbel in Gewone Taal has done. Barclay has “Look at actual Jewish practice and belief,” and Revised English Bible has “Jewish practice,” which fits the context well.

The second part of the verse, from those who eat …, begins a series of rhetorical questions. There are four of them, according to the UBS Greek text and the punctuation. Revised Standard Version translates the first as a question and Good News Bible renders it as a statement. As in verse 16, Paul is appealing to well-known facts and common beliefs. The sentence is concise and may need to be expanded in translation. For example, “those who eat the sacrifices share with one another in the sacrifice to God made on the altar.” When an animal was sacrificed by the Hebrews to God, part of it was burned on the altar, and part of it was eaten by the people who were performing this act of worship. The underlying thought, then, is that by sharing in the sacrificial meal, Jewish worshipers enter into a relationship with God that also unites them with one another. Paul’s readers would know, of course, that although some sacrifices had to be burnt whole, there were others that priests, Levites, and even ordinary people could share by eating part of the flesh (see Lev 10.12-15; Deut 18.1-4).

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 .

See the comments on verse 18, with which this verse is closely connected.

The Lord’s translates an adjective meaning “belonging to the Lord.” In Rev 1.10 it is used of Sunday as the Lord’s day.

The meaning of verse 20 must be partly understood in the light of the contrast with verse 21: “it is not the Lord’s Supper that you are eating; it is your own selfish individual meals.” Another possible translation is “even though you may think you are eating the Lord’s Supper, it is not so.”

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 .

From this point on Paul explains the image of the body as referring to the church, the body of Christ. This verse takes up the thought of verse 12. For this reason and in order to make the contrast between verses 27a and 27b clearer, several translations agree with Good News Bible in expanding you to “all of you.” For example, Jerusalem Bible has “Now you together are Christ’s body…”; New Jerusalem Bible “Now Christ’s body is yourselves, each of you with a part to play in the whole.”

Are the body of Christ may be expressed as “make up Christ’s body.” The body of Christ means not “the body which is Christ” but “the body which belongs to Christ.”

An alternative translation model for this verse is:
• All of you are the body which belongs to Christ, and each one of you is a part of it.

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 .

This verse, like other details in the section, presupposes a church situation in which worship is accompanied by teaching. Different verbs for “giving thanks” are used here and in the following verse, but in both verses the ideas of praising God and thanking him are closely linked.

With the spirit: see the comment on “spirit” in verse 14. New International Version‘s “your spirit” makes it clear that the human spirit is meant.

Translators may add the word “only” as Good News Bible has done, since the content of verses 14-15 implies this addition.

An outsider (Good News Bible‘s “ordinary persons”) is rendered quite differently in different translations: New International Version text “one who finds himself among those who do not understand”; New International Version footnote “among the inquirers”; New Jerusalem Bible text “the uninitiated person”; New Jerusalem Bible explanatory footnote “one who is not granted similar gifts”; Revised English Bible “an ordinary person.” The basic problem is that of deciding whether “ordinary people” were members of the Christian community or not. Outside the Bible the Greek word is used of “nonexperts,” particularly of nonmembers who nevertheless took part in pagan sacrifices. This fits the present context well. In verse 23 the same word is used of people associated but not identified with unbelievers, but both groups had access to plenary meetings of the Christian community in Corinth (see comments on verse 23). It is probably best to think of the “ordinary persons” as those who do not have the gift of understanding and interpreting strange tongues. In any case outsider in English often means someone excluded from some select group, and such negative associations are clearly out of place here.

Position almost certainly means “status”; it does not refer to a particular area or location.

Most languages borrow the Hebrew term Amen, a word used at the end of prayers to show that the hearers agreed with the content of the prayer. In languages where this is not the case, it may be possible to translate “how can an uninstructed person be able to respond to your prayer of thanksgiving?” or “… say ‘I agree’ to your prayer of thanksgiving?”

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 first part of this verse presents a serious problem. It is difficult to be certain how the word only relates to the rest of the clause. The interpretation that underlies Revised Standard Version‘s text and Good News Bible‘s footnote would be unique in Paul’s writings, for nowhere else does he use expressions like “only hope.” The main difficulty is that this clause appears to suggest that hope continues in a future life, which would contradict Rom 8.24 and possibly 1 Cor 13.13.

If for this life only we have hoped in Christ: “hoping” here seems to mean “placing our confidence in Christ” or “trusting in Christ with confidence that he will save us.” Good News Bible‘s “and no more” is added to stress the emphatic nature of the Greek word. Only this life is involved, not the next one. Another translation model for this first sentence is: “If we can trust Christ to save us only in this life and not in the next one….”

However, in the present verse Paul seems to be emphasizing this life at the beginning of the clause, and only at the end. Paul is not thinking explicitly, at the moment, about a future life. Other common language translations agree with Good News Bible‘s interpretation and sometimes express it more concisely: Bible en français courant “If our hope in Christ is valid only for this life.”

We are … most to be pitied translates an adjective meaning “more to be pitied.” Another possible translation is “people should pity us more than….”

Of all men is literally “than all people.” This last clause can then be translated “We deserve the most pity of anyone in the world.”

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 .