ris3n's Apologetics Codex

Passage

1 Corinthians 1.7

Book: 1 Corinthians · ASV / WEB / KJV / YLT

Immediate context (±2 verses)

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ASV

5. that in everything ye were enriched in him, in all utterance and all knowledge; 6. even as the testimony of Christ was confirmed in you:

7. so that ye come behind in no gift; waiting for the revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ;

  1. who shall also confirm you unto the end, that ye be unreproveable in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. 9. God is faithful, through whom ye were called into the fellowship of his Son Jesus Christ our Lord. (1 Corinthians 1:5-9, ASV)
WEB

5. that in everything you were enriched in him, in all speech and all knowledge; 6. even as the testimony of Christ was confirmed in you:

7. so that you come behind in no gift; waiting for the revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ;

  1. who will also confirm you until the end, blameless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. 9. God is faithful, through whom you were called into the fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ, our Lord. (1 Corinthians 1:5-9, WEB)
KJV

5. That in every thing ye are enriched by him, in all utterance, and in all knowledge; 6. Even as the testimony of Christ was confirmed in you:

7. So that ye come behind in no gift; waiting for the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ: coming: Gr. revelation

  1. Who shall also confirm you unto the end, that ye may be blameless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. 9. God is faithful, by whom ye were called unto the fellowship of his Son Jesus Christ our Lord. (1 Corinthians 1:5-9, KJV)
YLT

5. that in every thing ye were enriched in him, in all discourse and all knowledge, 6. according as the testimony of the Christ was confirmed in you,

7. so that ye are not behind in any gift, waiting for the revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ,

  1. who also shall confirm you unto the end, unblamable in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ; 9. faithful [is] God, through whom ye were called to the fellowship of His Son Jesus Christ our Lord. (1 Corinthians 1:5-9, YLT)

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Setting

  • Speaker: Paul the Apostle
  • Audience: the church at Corinth, a mixed Jew-and-Gentile congregation in a wealthy Roman colony, fractured over teachers, status, sexual ethics, and the limits of freedom
  • Location: composed in Ephesus, addressed to Corinth
  • Time period: c. AD 55-56

Theological reading

Paul says the Corinthians come behind in no gift while waiting for the revelation of Christ. The sentence carries a quiet irony that the rest of the letter unfolds: this is the best-gifted congregation Paul writes to and the least mature. Chapters 1 to 4 address their factions, chapter 5 an unaddressed case of incest, chapter 6 lawsuits between believers, chapters 11 to 14 disorder at the table and in the assembly. Gifting and maturity are separable, and Corinth is the proof.

That has a direct pastoral use. Wherever spiritual manifestation is treated as evidence of spiritual depth, this verse is the counterexample built into the canon. Paul thanks God for their charismata sincerely, and then spends sixteen chapters correcting the people who have them. See Tongues as Evidence of the Spirit.

The waiting is eschatological. Apokalypsis is unveiling, and the Christian posture is not possession of the end but expectation of it. Paul frames the whole letter between this waiting and the resurrection chapter, so that every problem in between is treated as a problem of people who have not yet arrived. Verse 8 adds the promise that God will confirm them to the end, which is the ground for correcting them at all: he writes to a church he expects to be kept.

Key words

Theologically-loaded Greek or Hebrew words in this verse may have entries in the lexicon. Curated to roughly 100 contested terms across the corpus, not every word; see Lexicon Roadmap.

Quoted in

Lexicon:

Why these four translations

ris3n chose ASV, WEB, KJV, and YLT for two reasons together. They are the most literal English translations available (formal-equivalence: word-for-word renderings that preserve the Hebrew and Greek grammar rather than smoothing it into modern dynamic-equivalence idiom). And they are in the public domain in the United States, which means fair-use quotation at any length requires no publisher license. Modern licensed translations (NASB95, ESV, NIV) restrict volume of quotation under their copyright terms, so they are not used at stub-level coverage here. NASB95 appears only on hand-curated rich passage hubs under Lockman Foundation's fair-use allowance.

The four:

  • ASV (American Standard Version, 1901). The basis of the modern critical-text English tradition.
  • WEB (World English Bible, contemporary). Public-domain revision in the ASV line, in current English.
  • KJV (King James Version, 1611). Reformation-era, Textus Receptus base.
  • YLT (Young's Literal Translation, Robert Young, 1862). Hyper-literal preservation of Hebrew and Greek grammar; useful for word-study work even where English reads stiff.

See Bibles for the full per-translation history, translators, textual basis, strengths, and weaknesses.