ris3n's Apologetics Codex

Passage

1 Corinthians 8.1

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

Immediate context (±2 verses)

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ASV

1. Now concerning things sacrificed to idols: We know that we all have knowledge. Knowledge puffeth up, but love edifieth.

  1. If any man thinketh that he knoweth anything, he knoweth not yet as he ought to know; 3. but if any man loveth God, the same is known by him. (1 Corinthians 8:1-3, ASV)
WEB

1. Now concerning things sacrificed to idols: We know that we all have knowledge. Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up.

  1. But if anyone thinks that he knows anything, he doesn’t yet know as he ought to know. 3. But if anyone loves God, the same is known by him. (1 Corinthians 8:1-3, WEB)
KJV

1. Now as touching things offered unto idols, we know that we all have knowledge. Knowledge puffeth up, but charity edifieth.

  1. And if any man think that he knoweth any thing, he knoweth nothing yet as he ought to know. 3. But if any man love God, the same is known of him. (1 Corinthians 8:1-3, KJV)
YLT

1. And concerning the things sacrificed to idols, we have known that we all have knowledge: knowledge puffeth up, but love buildeth up;

  1. and if any one doth think to know anything, he hath not yet known anything according as it behoveth [him] to know; 3. and if any one doth love God, this one hath been known by Him. (1 Corinthians 8:1-3, 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

Knowledge puffeth up, but love edifieth. The line is Paul's summary judgment on the whole idol-meat controversy, and it is aimed at people who were right. The strong at Corinth had correct theology, which Paul concedes twice in the next three verses: an idol is nothing, and there is one God. Their error was in treating a true proposition as sufficient warrant for action.

The two verbs are architectural. Physioo is to inflate, to swell with air, and oikodomeo is to build a house. One produces size without structure; the other produces something that holds weight. Paul uses oikodomeo throughout the letter for what the assembly is for, and it becomes the governing criterion of chapter 14, where even genuine spiritual gifts are ranked by whether they build.

Verse 2 turns the knife: if any man thinketh that he knoweth anything, he knoweth not yet as he ought to know. The claim is not that knowledge is bad but that confident knowledge without love is diagnostic of not yet understanding the subject. Verse 3 then reverses the expected direction of the sentence, moving from a man loving God to that man being known by God, which relocates the whole question from what the believer has grasped to whether the believer has been grasped.

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

Concepts:

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.