If in the previous verse the translator used a positive statement for the sentence “I do not run aimlessly,” the word but will not be necessary to begin this verse.

Good News Bible expands pommel to “harden with blows.” One may also say “I hit my body to make it hard (or, tough).”

Body here, as elsewhere, means human nature as a whole, in its weakness, not the literal body. Paul is using a physical metaphor to refer, not only to fasting, scourging, and similar practices, but also to discipline of his complete being.

Lest after (Good News Bible‘s “to keep myself from being”) is literally “in-order-that perhaps not.” Both the Greek and the sentence as a whole show that Paul is speaking about a positive situation that is not yet a reality.

After preaching can be rendered as “after I have preached.” The verb translated preaching may mean “make a public announcement,” as in New Jerusalem Bible‘s “act as a herald” and Good News Bible, or “proclaim the gospel,” as in most translations. Preaching is used by Paul in its normal Christian meaning of “proclaim the gospel.”

Disqualified (compare 2 Cor 13.5-7) clearly refers to athletic competitions. In languages that do not normally use the passive voice it will help to render should be disqualified as “so that God will not disqualify me” or “so that God will not say that I am not allowed to run the race.”

The final sentence of this verse can be translated as “So that God will not disqualify me after I have preached to others” or “So that after I have preached to others, God does not disqualify me.”

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 .