4:1 Where do the conflicts and where 17 do the quarrels among you come from? Is it not from this, 18 from your passions that battle inside you? 19
2:1 My brothers and sisters, 20 do not show prejudice 21 if you possess faith 22 in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ. 23 2:2 For if someone 24 comes into your assembly 25 wearing a gold ring and fine clothing, and a poor person enters in filthy clothes,
1 tn That is, “if you are harming and exploiting one another.” Paul’s metaphors are retained in most modern translations, but it is possible to see the meanings of δάκνω and κατεσθίω (daknw and katesqiw, L&N 20.26 and 88.145) as figurative extensions of the literal meanings of these terms and to translate them accordingly. The present tenses here are translated as customary presents (“continually…”).
2 tn Or “destroyed.”
3 tn This term is plural in Greek (as is “murder” and “carousing”), but for clarity these abstract nouns have been translated as singular.
4 tc ‡ φόνοι (fonoi, “murders”) is absent in such important
5 tn Or “revelings,” “orgies” (L&N 88.287).
6 tn Or “falsely proud.”
7 tn Or “irritating.” BDAG 871 s.v. προκαλέω has “provoke, challenge τινά someone.”
8 tn Or “another, envying one another.”
9 tn Grk “not according to selfish ambition.” There is no main verb in this verse; the subjunctive φρονῆτε (fronhte, “be of the same mind”) is implied here as well. Thus, although most translations supply the verb “do” at the beginning of v. 3 (e.g., “do nothing from selfish ambition”), the idea is even stronger than that: “Don’t even think any thoughts motivated by selfish ambition.”
10 tn Grk “This.”
11 tn Grk “come down”; “descend.”
12 tn Grk “soulish,” which describes life apart from God, characteristic of earthly human life as opposed to what is spiritual. Cf. 1 Cor 2:14; 15:44-46; Jude 19.
13 tn Grk “vainly says.”
14 tn Grk “he”; the referent (God) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
15 tc The Byzantine text and a few other
16 tn Interpreters debate the referent of the word “spirit” in this verse: (1) The translation takes “spirit” to be the lustful capacity within people that produces a divided mind (1:8, 14) and inward conflicts regarding God (4:1-4). God has allowed it to be in man since the fall, and he provides his grace (v. 6) and the new birth through the gospel message (1:18-25) to counteract its evil effects. (2) On the other hand the word “spirit” may be taken positively as the Holy Spirit and the sense would be, “God yearns jealously for the Spirit he caused to live within us.” But the word for “envious” or “jealous” is generally negative in biblical usage and the context before and after seems to favor the negative interpretation.
17 tn The word “where” is repeated in Greek for emphasis.
18 tn Grk “from here.”
19 tn Grk “in your members [i.e., parts of the body].”
20 tn Grk “brothers.” See note on the phrase “brothers and sisters” in 1:2.
21 tn Or “partiality.”
22 tn Grk “do not have faith with personal prejudice,” with emphasis on the last phrase.
23 tn Grk “our Lord Jesus Christ of glory.” Here δόξης (doxhs) has been translated as an attributive genitive.
24 tn The word for “man” or “individual” here is ἀνήρ (anhr), which often means “male” or “man (as opposed to woman).” But as BDAG 79 s.v. 2 says, “equivalent to τὶς someone.”
25 tn Grk “synagogue.” Usually συναγωγή refers to Jewish places of worship (e.g., Matt 4:23, Mark 1:21, Luke 4:15, John 6:59). The word can be used generally to refer to a place of assembly, and here it refers specifically to a Christian assembly (BDAG 963 s.v. 2.b.).