1 Corinthians 10
Our fathers were all under the cloud, all passed through the sea, all were baptized into Moses, all ate and drank the same spiritual food and drink — the rock was Christ — yet God was not pleased with the more of them. Idols, immorality, testing, grumbling — the four sins of the wilderness are patterns for us. Let the one who thinks he stands watch out lest he fall — God is faithful and makes the way out. The cup of blessing and the broken bread are a sharing of Christ’s blood and body — you cannot share in the Lord’s table and the table of demons. All things are lawful, but not all things build. Eat what the market sells without examining — but if someone says ‘offered in sacrifice’, do not eat, for the other’s conscience. Eat or drink, all for the glory of God.
Why this rendering
1Cor.10.4 Observation
Syntactic observation
πάντες … πάντες … πάντες … πάντες … πάντες τὸ αὐτὸ πνευματικὸν ἔπιον πόμα, ἔπινον γὰρ ἐκ πνευματικῆς ἀκολουθούσης πέτρας, ἡ πέτρα δὲ ἦν ὁ Χριστός· ἀλλ’ οὐκ ἐν τοῖς πλείοσιν αὐτῶν ηὐδόκησεν ὁ θεός — all … all … all … all … all drank the same spiritual drink; for they were drinking from a spiritual rock that followed, and the rock was Christ; yet God was not well pleased with the more of them. Verses 1-4 repeat πάντες five times and v.5 turns on οὐκ … τοῖς πλείοσιν — five ‘all’ and one ‘the more of them’. This edition keeps all five as ‘all’ so the repetition is heard. πέτρα is the word of Matt 16:18, ‘on this rock’, and English keeps ‘rock’ here as there. ἐβαπτίσαντο εἰς τὸν Μωϋσῆν is the idiom of Rom 6:3, ‘baptized into Christ’ — ‘into Moses’. The base text marks ⸀ἐβαπτίσαντο (middle) as a variant. κατεστρώθησαν in v.5 (only here in the New Testament) is the picture of bodies laid out — ‘strewn’, not paraphrased as ‘died’. τύποι (patterns) in v.6 and τυπικῶς (as patterns — only here) in v.11 take up the word of Rom 5:14, ‘a pattern of the one to come’.
Rendering options · 2
Basis The repetition prepares the turn of v.5.
Basis Smoother prose.
Rejected Without the five ‘all’, ‘yet … the more of them’ loses its weight.
Lost in translation
τύποι (v.6) ↔ τυπικῶς (v.11) — ‘patterns / as patterns’ keeps the root.
πλείοσιν (v.5, comparative) — ‘the more of them’ keeps the comparative rather than ‘most’.
Why this rendering
1Cor.10.9 Observation
Syntactic observation
μηδὲ εἰδωλολάτραι γίνεσθε … μηδὲ πορνεύωμεν … μηδὲ ἐκπειράζωμεν τὸν Χριστόν, καθώς τινες αὐτῶν ἐπείρασαν, καὶ ὑπὸ τῶν ὄφεων ἀπώλλυντο. μηδὲ γογγύζετε … καὶ ἀπώλοντο ὑπὸ τοῦ ὀλοθρευτοῦ — nor become idolaters … nor let us commit sexual immorality … nor let us put Christ to the test, as some of them tested, and were perishing by the serpents. Nor grumble … and perished by the destroyer. Verses 7-10 set out the four sins of the wilderness on four μηδέ — idols, immorality, testing, grumbling. Verse 9 has ἐκπειράζω (put to the test — the verb of Matt 4:7, ‘you shall not put the Lord your God to the test’) and πειράζω (test) side by side in one verse; English keeps them apart as put to the test / test. The base text marks ⸀Χριστόν as a variant — some manuscripts read ‘the Lord’, others ‘God’. ἀπώλλυντο (v.9, imperfect, ‘were perishing’) and ἀπώλοντο (v.10, aorist, ‘perished’) are two tenses of one verb. ὀλοθρευτής (the destroyer — only here in the New Testament) shares its root with ὄλεθρος (ruin) in 5:5 and is a different word from ἀπόλλυμι (perish); English ‘destroyer’ cannot show the link to ‘ruin’. The quotation in v.7 is Exodus 32:6, and παίζω (play) is a New Testament hapax.
Rendering options · 2
Basis Matt 4:7 fixed the phrase; the prefix is carried by ‘put to the test’ rather than by an added adverb.
Basis A way of showing the prefix.
Rejected Whether ἐκ- intensifies is not something the text says; it would be an addition.
Lost in translation
ἐκπειράζω ↔ πειράζω in one verse — ‘put to the test / test’ keeps the two verbs apart.
ὀλοθρευτής (v.10) ↔ ὄλεθρος in 5:5 — ‘destroyer / ruin’ do not share a root in English.
Why this rendering
1Cor.10.16 Observation
Syntactic observation
τὸ ποτήριον τῆς εὐλογίας ὃ εὐλογοῦμεν, οὐχὶ κοινωνία ἐστὶν τοῦ αἵματος τοῦ Χριστοῦ; … οἱ γὰρ πάντες ἐκ τοῦ ἑνὸς ἄρτου μετέχομεν … οὐχ οἱ ἐσθίοντες τὰς θυσίας κοινωνοὶ τοῦ θυσιαστηρίου εἰσίν; … οὐ δύνασθε τραπέζης κυρίου μετέχειν καὶ τραπέζης δαιμονίων — the cup of blessing which we bless, is it not a sharing of the blood of Christ? … for we all share in the one bread … are not those who eat the sacrifices partners of the altar? … you cannot share in the table of the Lord and the table of demons. Verses 16-21 use three words of sharing — κοινωνία (sharing; twice in v.16), κοινωνός (partner; vv.18, 20) and μετέχω (share in; vv.17, 21). The first two are one root, the third another (μετά + ἔχω); English sharing · partner / share in carries the split only halfway. εὐλογία (blessing) and εὐλογοῦμεν (we bless) are one root in one verse — ‘the cup of blessing which we bless’. κοινωνία in v.16 is not the ‘fellowship’ of 1:9 but follows the rule of Rom 15:26 (‘sharing’, the collection). θύω in v.20 takes the Acts 14:13 site, ‘sacrifice’ — the same verb as Luke 15:23, ‘slaughter the fattened calf’, but here at an altar. Verse 21 sets ποτήριον κυρίου against ποτήριον δαιμονίων and τράπεζα κυρίου against τράπεζα δαιμονίων. παραζηλόω in v.22 (make jealous) is the verb of the Deuteronomy 32 quotation in Rom 10:19.
Rendering options · 2
Basis Two roots, three words; as fixed at Rom 15:26, Matt 23:30 and 1 Cor 9:10.
Basis The familiar theological term.
Rejected Three words become one and κοινωνία loses its ties to 1:9 and Rom 15:26.
Lost in translation
εὐλογία ↔ εὐλογέω (v.16) — ‘the cup of blessing which we bless’ keeps the root.
κοινωνία/κοινωνός (one root) ↔ μετέχω (another) — ‘sharing’ and ‘share in’ overlap, so the root line is blurred.
Why this rendering
1Cor.10.28 Observation
Syntactic observation
ἐὰν δέ τις ὑμῖν εἴπῃ· Τοῦτο ἱερόθυτόν ἐστιν, μὴ ἐσθίετε δι’ ἐκεῖνον τὸν μηνύσαντα καὶ τὴν συνείδησιν — but if anyone says to you, ‘This is offered in sacrifice’, do not eat, because of the one who disclosed it and because of conscience. The base text reads ⸀ἱερόθυτον (offered in sacrifice — only here in the New Testament) and marks it as a variant; the majority text reads εἰδωλόθυτον, ‘sacrificed to an idol’, as in v.19. In the base text’s reading the speaker uses a pagan’s word — no one calls what was offered to his own god an ‘idol’ offering. This edition renders ‘offered in sacrifice’ to keep it apart from ‘sacrificed to an idol’ in v.19, and records here that the split is the base text’s reading. συνείδησις (conscience) comes four times in vv.25-29 and ἀνακρίνω (examine — the verb of 4:3 and 9:3) twice — ‘examining nothing’. μάκελλον (meat market) is a New Testament hapax. Verse 26 quotes Psalm 24:1, and πλήρωμα takes the ‘fullness’ of Rom 11:12. Verse 23 repeats the slogan πάντα ἔξεστιν of 6:12 twice and closes with the οἰκοδομεῖ (build) of 8:1 — ‘all things are lawful, but not all things build’. ἀπρόσκοπος in v.32 (free of stumbling) is the word of Acts 24:16 and shares its root with πρόσκομμα (striking) in 8:9.
Rendering options · 2
Basis The base text reads a different word; that the speaker is a pagan is in the word itself.
Basis The majority reading, the same word as v.19.
Rejected It adopts a rejected reading and puts the word ‘idol’ in a pagan’s mouth.
Lost in translation
ἱερόθυτον (v.28) ↔ εἰδωλόθυτον (v.19) — two words, two renderings.
ἀπρόσκοπος (v.32) ↔ πρόσκομμα in 8:9 — ‘free of stumbling / striking’ do not share a piece in English.