ris3n's Apologetics Codex

Passage

1 Corinthians 6.19-20

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

Immediate context (±2 verses)

There are ads on our codex that pay for hosting and keep the codex free. If you can, please consider whitelisting ris3n.com or allowing scripts to support the work.

Sponsored

Brands, events, influencers advertise here

ASV

17. But he that is joined unto the Lord is one spirit. 18. Flee fornication. Every sin that a man doeth is without the body; but he that committeth fornication sinneth against his own body.

19. Or know ye not that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit which is in you, which ye have from God? and ye are not your own; 20. for ye were bought with a price: glorify God therefore in your body. (1 Corinthians 6:17-20, ASV)

WEB

17. But he who is joined to the Lord is one spirit. 18. Flee sexual immorality! “Every sin that a man does is outside the body,” but he who commits sexual immorality sins against his own body.

19. Or don’t you know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, 20. for you were bought with a price. Therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God’s. (1 Corinthians 6:17-20, WEB)

KJV

17. But he that is joined unto the Lord is one spirit. 18. Flee fornication. Every sin that a man doeth is without the body; but he that committeth fornication sinneth against his own body.

19. What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own? 20. For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's. (1 Corinthians 6:17-20, KJV)

YLT

17. And he who is joined to the Lord is one spirit; 18. flee the whoredom; every sin, whatever a man may commit, is without the body, and he who is committing whoredom, against his own body doth sin.

19. Have ye not known that your body is a sanctuary of the Holy Spirit in you, which ye have from God? and ye are not your own, 20. for ye were bought with a price; glorify, then, God in your body and in your spirit, which are God's. (1 Corinthians 6:17-20, YLT)

See this page's graph and discover linked topics

Setting

  • Speaker: Paul the Apostle, with Sosthenes named as co-sender
  • Audience: the church at Corinth, a divided congregation in a wealthy Roman colony
  • Location: written from Ephesus during the third missionary journey
  • Time period: c. AD 53-55

Theological reading

Your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God. You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.

Two arguments compressed. The indwelling makes the body a sanctuary, and the purchase makes it owned.

The temple language is corporate elsewhere in the letter, where the congregation together is God's temple in chapter 3, and here it is applied to the individual body, which is the letter's answer to the Corinthian slogan that all things are lawful.

The ransom language, agorazo, is the marketplace verb, and the conclusion Paul draws from it is not autonomy but obligation: not your own. That is the reverse of how ownership language is usually deployed in modern ethical argument, and the difference is the point.

The immediate application is sexual conduct, and the reasoning is that the body is not morally indifferent, which the surrounding philosophy generally held. See Biblical Sexual Ethics Objection Defeater.

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

Arguments and defeaters:

Concepts:

People:

Lexicon:

Guides:

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.