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 .