love (abstract noun) (Tezoatlán Mixtec)

In Tezoatlán Mixtec the passage in 1 Cor. 13:4-6 which lists what love is not, reads with a different emphasis because “love” cannot be translated as an abstract noun (see also love (abstract noun) (Lamogai)).

John Williams explains: “[Tezoatlán Mixtec] is like many languages of the world in that it does not have abstract nouns, and so the language requires a translation of love in its verb form. The verb ‘love’ requires a subject, as well as a direct object. Mixtec must state who is loving whom. The translation team at first thought it could be God loving us, but we saw that after saying love is patient, love is kind, the next eight statements say what love is not. So we determined the focus is more on how Christians should love other Christians. Looking at the immediate context of chapter 12 and 14, as well as the context of the rest of the book led us to conclude that 1 Corinthians 13 is not a love poem, but more of a rebuke to the Corinthians, showing how they were not loving one another. This fresh understanding, to me at least, came as a result of Mixtec requiring us to look at the passage through new eyes. If this chapter is read as a rebuke, and since so many verses in the previous chapters have ‘rebuke’ as the focus, when read in Mixtec, the entire book of 1 Corinthians sounds very much like a ‘severe’ letter (see 2 Cor. 2:4).”

This is how the Tezoatlán Mixtec translation reads back-translated into English:

“4 Us loving others is that we inwardly endure what they do, and that we live at peace/kindly with them. Our loving others is not that we envy them, and loving them is not that we boast in front of them, and it is not that we are proud before them, 5 and it is not that we treat them badly, and it is not that we are selfish with them, and it is not that we get angry with them, and it is not that we feel bitterness toward them, 6 and it is not that we are happy when they do wrong, for it is that we instead are happy when they do right.”

Learn more on Bible Odyssey: First Corinthians’ Love Passage .

complete verse (1 Corinthians 13:3)

Following are a number of back-translations of 1 Corinthians 13:3:

  • Uma: “If we give all our stuff to the poor, and if we choose to die being-burned because of our following of the Lord Yesus, but if we don’t have love for others, our life has no use.” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
  • Yakan: “Even if for example I would give all my possessions/wealth to the poor and even if I would submit my body to be burned because I follow Isa, if I don’t have love for my companions I don’t have any reward.” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
  • Western Bukidnon Manobo: “Even though that I give every one of my possessions to the poor, and I permit that my body be burned, but if my companions are not precious in my breath, there is no value to these things that I do.” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
  • Kankanaey: “Even though I give all my possessions to the poor and even though I permit my body to be burned, yet if it doesn’t stem-from my love for my companions, I will gain nothing from my doing that.” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
  • Tagbanwa: “Or if I now give away all my possessions to feed the poor, and give my body to my enemies for them to burn because of my belief, if I really don’t value like this, there is nothing good that these (acts) could gain for me.” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)
  • Tenango Otomi: “Although we might take all that we own and give it to help the poor, or we might even go so far as to give up ourselves to be burned, yet if we do not love our fellow men, then we are of no value.” (Source: Tenango Otomi Back Translation)

Translation commentary on 1 Corinthians 13:3

The verb translated give away is related to the noun used in John 13.26, 27, 30 to mean a small piece of bread. The meaning of the verb may vary according to the context between “feed” and “distribute,” implying the distribution of food to the poor. In this verse the idea of selling possessions and distributing the proceeds seems to predominate. With this in mind, one may translate all I have as “all my possessions.”

And if I deliver my body to be burned: as the Revised Standard Version and Good News Bible footnotes show, the text of this clause is uncertain and so is its meaning. All modern translations that we consulted, except An American Translation, and most commentators prefer the text to be burned. Any translation that indicates any variations in the Greek should give this variation in a footnote. In languages that do not favor passives, one may translate “even let them burn my body.”

I gain nothing: Bijbel in Gewone Taal has “it helps me nothing”; Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch “all is useless.” Another possible rendering is “it is of no use to me at all.”

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 .

SIL Translator’s Notes on 1 Corinthians 13:3

13:3a If I give all I possess to the poor

I may give all my belongings to poor people,
-or-
Somebody may give everything they have to others,

13:3b and exult in the surrender of my body,

(New International Version (1984)) and surrender my body to the flames,

and allow people to kill me by burning my body.
-or-
and they may be willing to be burnt to death ⌊for Christ⌋.

13:3c but have not love,

But if I do not love ⌊other people⌋,
-or-
But if that person does not have a heart of love,

13:3d I gain nothing.

there is no benefit for me.
-or-
they will not receive ⌊a reward⌋.

© 1998, 2019, 2020, 2022, 2023 by SIL International®
Made available under the terms of a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License (CC BY-SA) creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0.
All Scripture quotations in this publication, unless otherwise indicated, are from The Holy Bible, Berean Standard Bible.
BSB is produced in cooperation with Bible Hub, Discovery Bible, OpenBible.com, and the Berean Bible Translation Committee.