1 Corinthians 1:26

1:26 Think about the circumstances of your call, ¹  brothers and sisters. ²  Not many were wise by human standards, ³  not many were powerful, not many were born to a privileged position. ⁴ 

1 Corinthians 3:5

3:5 What is Apollos, really? Or what is Paul? Servants through whom you came to believe, and each of us in the ministry the Lord gave us. ⁵ 

1 Corinthians 3:18

3:18 Guard against self-deception, each of you. ⁶  If someone among you thinks he is wise in this age, let him become foolish so that he can become wise.

1 Corinthians 4:15

4:15 For though you may have ten thousand guardians in Christ, you do not have many fathers, because I became your father in Christ Jesus through the gospel.

1 Corinthians 6:5

6:5 I say this to your shame! Is there no one among you wise enough to settle disputes between fellow Christians? ⁷ 

1 Corinthians 7:13

7:13 And if a woman has a husband who is not a believer and he is happy to live with her, she should not divorce him.

1 Corinthians 7:25

Remaining Unmarried

7:25 With regard to the question about people who have never married, ⁸  I have no command from the Lord, but I give my opinion as one shown mercy by the Lord to be trustworthy.

1 Corinthians 7:40

7:40 But in my opinion, she will be happier if she remains as she is – and I think that I too have the Spirit of God!

1 Corinthians 8:8

8:8 Now food will not bring us close to God. We are no worse if we do not eat and no better if we do.

1 Corinthians 10:7

10:7 So do not be idolaters, as some of them were. As it is written, “The people sat down to eat and drink and rose up to play.” ⁹ 

1 Corinthians 11:34

11:34 If anyone is hungry, let him eat at home, so that when you assemble it does not lead to judgment. I will give directions about other matters when I come.

1 Corinthians 14:19

14:19 but in the church I want to speak five words with my mind to instruct others, rather than ten thousand words in a tongue.

1 Corinthians 14:35

14:35 If they want to find out about something, they should ask their husbands at home, because it is disgraceful for a woman to speak in church. ¹⁰ 

1 Corinthians 15:1

Christ’s Resurrection

15:1 Now I want to make clear for you, ¹¹  brothers and sisters, ¹²  the gospel that I preached to you, that you received and on which you stand,

1 Corinthians 15:32

15:32 If from a human point of view I fought with wild beasts at Ephesus, ¹³  what did it benefit me? If the dead are not raised, let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die. ¹⁴ 

1 Corinthians 15:39

15:39 All flesh is not the same: People have one flesh, animals have another, birds and fish another. ¹⁵ 

1 Corinthians 16:7

16:7 For I do not want to see you now in passing, since I hope to spend some time with you, if the Lord allows.

1 Corinthians 16:11

16:11 So then, let no one treat him with contempt. But send him on his way in peace so that he may come to me. For I am expecting him with the brothers. ¹⁶ 

[1:26]  ¹ tn Grk “Think about your calling.” “Calling” in Paul’s writings usually refers to God’s work of drawing people to faith in Christ. The following verses show that “calling” here stands by metonymy for their circumstances when they became Christians, leading to the translation “the circumstances of your call.”

[1:26]  ² tn Grk “brothers.” See note on the phrase “brothers and sisters” in 1:10.

[1:26]  ³ tn Grk “according to the flesh.”

[1:26]  ⁴ tn The Greek word ευγενής (eugenh") refers to the status of being born into nobility, wealth, or power with an emphasis on the privileges and benefits that come with that position.

[3:5]  ⁵ tn Grk “and to each as the Lord gave.”

[3:18]  ⁹ tn Grk “let no one deceive himself.”

[6:5]  ¹³ tn Grk “to decide between his brother (and his opponent),” but see the note on the word “Christian” in 5:11.

[7:25]  ¹⁷ tn Grk “virgins.” There are three main views as to which group of people is referred to by the word παρθένος (parqenos) here, and the stance taken here directly impacts one’s understanding of vv. 36-38. (1) The term could refer to virgin women who were not married. The central issue would then be whether or not their fathers should give them in marriage to eligible men. (This is the view which has been widely held throughout the history of the Church.) (2) A minority understand the term to refer to men and women who are married but who have chosen to live together without sexual relations. This position might have been possible in the Corinthian church, but there is no solid evidence to support it. (3) The view adopted by many modern commentators (see, e.g., Fee, Conzelmann, Barrett) is that the term refers to young, engaged women who were under the influence of various groups within the Corinthian church not to go through with their marriages. The central issue would then be whether the young men and women should continue with their plans and finalize their marriages. For further discussion, see G. D. Fee, First Corinthians (NICNT), 325-28.

[10:7]  ²¹ tn The term “play” may refer to idolatrous, sexual play here, although that is determined by the context rather than the meaning of the word itself (cf. BDAG 750 s.v. παίζω).

[14:35]  ²⁵ tc Some scholars have argued that vv. 34-35 should be excised from the text (principally G. D. Fee, First Corinthians [NICNT], 697-710; P. B. Payne, “Fuldensis, Sigla for Variants in Vaticanus, and 1 Cor 14.34-5,” NTS 41 [1995]: 240-262). This is because the Western witnesses (D F G ar b vg^ms Ambst) have these verses after v. 40, while the rest of the tradition retains them here. There are no mss that omit the verses. Why, then, would some scholars wish to excise the verses? Because they believe that this best explains how they could end up in two different locations, that is to say, that the verses got into the text by way of a very early gloss added in the margin. Most scribes put the gloss after v. 33; others, not knowing where they should go, put them at the end of the chapter. Fee points out that “Those who wish to maintain the authenticity of these verses must at least offer an adequate answer as to how this arrangement came into existence if Paul wrote them originally as our vv. 34-35” (First Corinthians [NICNT], 700). In a footnote he adds, “The point is that if it were already in the text after v. 33, there is no reason for a copyist to make such a radical transposition.” Although it is not our intention to interact with proponents of the shorter text in any detail here, a couple of points ought to be made. (1) Since these verses occur in all witnesses to 1 Corinthians, to argue that they are not original means that they must have crept into the text at the earliest stage of transmission. How early? Earlier than when the pericope adulterae (John 7:53-8:11) made its way into the text (late 2nd, early 3rd century?), earlier than the longer ending of Mark (16:9-20) was produced (early 2nd century?), and earlier than even “in Ephesus” was added to Eph 1:1 (upon reception of the letter by the first church to which it came, the church at Ephesus) – because in these other, similar places, the earliest witnesses do not add the words. This text thus stands as remarkable, unique. Indeed, since all the witnesses have the words, the evidence points to them as having been inserted into the original document. Who would have done such a thing? And, further, why would scribes have regarded it as original since it was obviously added in the margin? This leads to our second point. (2) Following a suggestion made by E. E. Ellis (“The Silenced Wives of Corinth (I Cor. 14:34-5),” New Testament Textual Criticism: Its Significance for Exegesis, 213-20 [the suggestion comes at the end of the article, almost as an afterthought]), it is likely that Paul himself added the words in the margin. Since it was so much material to add, Paul could have squelched any suspicions by indicating that the words were his (e.g., by adding his name or some other means [cf. 2 Thess 3:17]). This way no scribe would think that the material was inauthentic. (Incidentally, this is unlike the textual problem at Rom 5:1, for there only one letter was at stake; hence, scribes would easily have thought that the “text” reading was original. And Paul would hardly be expected to add his signature for one letter.) (3) What then is to account for the uniform Western tradition of having the verses at the end of the chapter? Our conjecture (and that is all it is) is that the scribe of the Western Vorlage could no longer read where the verses were to be added (any marginal arrows or other directional device could have been smudged), but, recognizing that this was part of the original text, felt compelled to put it somewhere. The least offensive place would have been at the end of the material on church conduct (end of chapter 14), before the instructions about the resurrection began. Although there were no chapter divisions in the earliest period of copying, scribes could still detect thought breaks (note the usage in the earliest papyri). (4) The very location of the verses in the Western tradition argues strongly that Paul both authored vv. 34-35 and that they were originally part of the margin of the text. Otherwise, one has a difficulty explaining why no scribe seemed to have hinted that these verses might be inauthentic (the scribal sigla of codex B, as noticed by Payne, can be interpreted otherwise than as an indication of inauthenticity [cf. J. E. Miller, “Some Observations on the Text-Critical Function of the Umlauts in Vaticanus, with Special Attention to 1 Corinthians 14.34-35,” JSNT 26 [2003]: 217-36.). There are apparently no mss that have an asterisk or obelisk in the margin. Yet in other places in the NT where scribes doubted the authenticity of the clauses before them, they often noted their protest with an asterisk or obelisk. We are thus compelled to regard the words as original, and as belonging where they are in the text above.

[15:1]  ²⁹ tn Grk “Now I make known to you.”

[15:1]  ³⁰ tn Grk “brothers.” See note on the phrase “brothers and sisters” in 1:10.

[15:32]  ³³ map For location see JP1 D2; JP2 D2; JP3 D2; JP4 D2.

[15:32]  ³⁴ sn An allusion to Isa 22:13; 56:12.

[15:39]  ³⁷ tn Grk “all flesh is not the same flesh, but there is one (flesh) of people, but another flesh of animals and another flesh of birds and another of fish.”

[16:11]  ⁴¹ tn Since Paul appears to expect specific delegates here and they were most likely men, the Greek word ἀδελφοί (adelfoi) here has not been not translated as “brothers and sisters.”