1 Korintus 2:4

2:4 My conversation and my preaching were not with persuasive words of wisdom, but with a demonstration of the Spirit and of power,

1 Korintus 2:8

2:8 None of the rulers of this age understood it. If they had known it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.

1 Korintus 2:12

2:12 Now we have not received the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, so that we may know the things that are freely given to us by God.

1 Korintus 3:18

3:18 Guard against self-deception, each of you. ¹  If someone among you thinks he is wise in this age, let him become foolish so that he can become wise.

1 Korintus 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 Korintus 6:12

Flee Sexual Immorality

6:12 “All things are lawful for me” ²  – but not everything is beneficial. “All things are lawful for me” – but I will not be controlled by anything.

1 Korintus 6:18

6:18 Flee sexual immorality! “Every sin a person commits is outside of the body” ³  – but the immoral person sins against his own body.

1 Korintus 7:7-8

7:7 I wish that everyone was as I am. But each has his own gift from God, one this way, another that.

7:8 To the unmarried and widows I say that it is best for them to remain as I am.

1 Korintus 7:37

7:37 But the man who is firm in his commitment, and is under no necessity but has control over his will, and has decided in his own mind to keep his own virgin, does well.

1 Korintus 9:11

9:11 If we sowed spiritual blessings among you, is it too much to reap material things from you?

1 Korintus 9:27

9:27 Instead I subdue my body and make it my slave, so that after preaching to others I myself will not be disqualified.

1 Korintus 10:11

10:11 These things happened to them as examples and were written for our instruction, on whom the ends of the ages have come.

1 Korintus 10:20

10:20 No, I mean that what the pagans sacrifice ⁴  is to demons and not to God. I do not want you to be partners with demons.

1 Korintus 10:28

10:28 But if someone says to you, “This is from a sacrifice,” do not eat, because of the one who told you and because of conscience ⁵  –

1 Korintus 10:30

10:30 If I partake with thankfulness, why am I blamed for the food ⁶  that I give thanks for?

1 Korintus 12:2

12:2 You know that when you were pagans you were often led astray by speechless idols, however you were led.

1 Korintus 12:15-16

12:15 If the foot says, “Since I am not a hand, I am not part of the body,” it does not lose its membership in the body because of that. 12:16 And if the ear says, “Since I am not an eye, I am not part of the body,” it does not lose its membership in the body because of that.

1 Korintus 12:26

12:26 If one member suffers, everyone suffers with it. If a ⁷  member is honored, all rejoice with it.

1 Korintus 14:4

14:4 The one who speaks in a tongue builds himself up, ⁸  but the one who prophesies builds up the church.

1 Korintus 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. ⁹ 

1 Korintus 14:37

14:37 If anyone considers himself a prophet or spiritual person, he should acknowledge that what I write to you is the Lord’s command.

1 Korintus 15:2

15:2 and by which you are being saved, if you hold firmly to the message I preached to you – unless you believed in vain.

[3:18]  ¹ tn Grk “let no one deceive himself.”

[6:12]  ² sn All things are lawful for me. In the expressions in vv. 12-13 within quotation marks, Paul cites certain slogans the Corinthians apparently used to justify their behavior. Paul agrees with the slogans in part, but corrects them to show how the Corinthians have misused these ideas.

[6:18]  ³ sn It is debated whether this is a Corinthian slogan. If it is not, then Paul is essentially arguing that there are two types of sin, nonsexual sins which take place outside the body and sexual sins which are against a person’s very own body. If it is a Corinthian slogan, then it is a slogan used by the Corinthians to justify their immoral behavior. With it they are claiming that anything done in the body or through the body had no moral relevance. A decision here is very difficult, but the latter is to be preferred for two main reasons. (1) This is the most natural understanding of the statement as it is written. To construe it as a statement by Paul requires a substantial clarification in the sense (e.g., “All other sins…” [NIV]). (2) Theologically the former is more difficult: Why would Paul single out sexual sins as more intrinsically related to the body than other sins, such as gluttony or drunkenness? For these reasons, it is more likely that the phrase in quotation marks is indeed a Corinthian slogan which Paul turns against them in the course of his argument, although the decision must be regarded as tentative.

[10:20]  ⁴ tn Grk “what they sacrifice”; the referent (the pagans) is clear from the context and has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[10:28]  ⁵ tc The Byzantine texttype and a few other witnesses (H^c Ψ Ï) essentially duplicate v. 26 at the end of this verse (with γάρ [gar, “for”] in second instead of third position), which itself is a quotation from Ps 24:1 (23:1 LXX). Not only is there a vast number of early, important, and diverse witnesses that lack this extra material (א A B C* D F G H* P 33 81 365 630 1175 1739 1881 2464 latt co), but the quotation seems out of place at this point in the discourse for Paul is here discussing reasons not to partake of food that has been sacrificed to idols. Perhaps scribes felt that since food is from the Lord, to eat meat sacrificed to idols contradicts that belief. Either way, the better witnesses lack the clause which, had it been authentic to v. 28, would have not occasioned such a widespread excision. The evidence is thus compelling for the shorter reading.

[10:30]  ⁶ tn Grk “about that for which”; the referent (the food) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[12:26]  ⁷ tc ‡ Before μέλος (melos, “member”) the great majority of witnesses read ἕν (Jen, “one”; א² C D F G Ψ 0285 33 1881 Ï latt sy), while the most important of the Alexandrian mss omit it (Ì⁴⁶ א* A B 1739). The addition of ἕν appears to be motivated by its presence earlier in the verse with μέλος and the parallel structure of the two conditional clauses in this verse, while little reason can be given for its absence (although accidental oversight is of course possible, it is not likely that all these witnesses should have overlooked it). NA²⁷ has the word in brackets, indicating doubt as to its authenticity.

[14:4]  ⁸ sn The Greek term builds (himself) up does not necessarily bear positive connotations in this context.

[14:35]  ⁹ 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.