ApostleDisciplined mission

1 Corinthians 9 — Apostolic rights freely surrendered for the good news — Greek text and reception

Saints Translation: 1 Corinthians 1–16 [V2]

Each card preserves the Greek reading and its textual and reception notes. This source provides a Greek study edition; Hebrew counterparts and Hebrew–Greek classifications are not supplied.

1 Corinthians 9 — Apostolic rights freely surrendered for the good news

The apostle's freedom and right to support

Verse 9:1

Greek–English Translation

Am I not free? Am I not an apostle? Have I not seen Jesus our Lord? Are you not my work in the Lord?

Textual and Reception Notes

Text: The selected order begins with free, then apostle; Jesus our Lord has no added Christ here.

Verse 9:2

Greek–English Translation

If I am not an apostle to others, at least I am to you, for you are the seal of my apostleship in the Lord.

Textual and Reception Notes

Verse 9:3

Greek–English Translation

This is my defense to those who examine me.

Textual and Reception Notes

Verse 9:4

Greek–English Translation

Do we not have authority to eat and drink?

Textual and Reception Notes

Verse 9:5

Greek–English Translation

Do we not have authority to take along a wife who is a sister, as do the other apostles and the Lord's brothers and Cephas?

Textual and Reception Notes

Text: Adelphēn gynaika is a sister as wife, rendered a wife who is a sister, preserving both the believing relationship and marriage. The Lord's brothers are retained without deciding the later kinship debate.

Verse 9:6

Greek–English Translation

Or do only Barnabas and I lack authority to refrain from working?

Textual and Reception Notes

Verse 9:7

Greek–English Translation

Who ever serves as a soldier at his own expense? Who plants a vineyard and does not eat its fruit? Who shepherds a flock and does not partake of the flock's milk?

Textual and Reception Notes

NA28: [ἢ] τίς ποιμαίνει, "Or who shepherds" (SBLGNT τίς, a Holmes reading with Tregelles margin); the rendering above follows SBLGNT; NA28 would read "Or who shepherds a flock".

Verse 9:8

Greek–English Translation

Am I saying these things merely in a human way, or does not the law also say them?

Textual and Reception Notes

Verse 9:9

Greek–English Translation

For in the law of Moses it is written, “You shall not muzzle an ox while it threshes.” Is it oxen that concern God,

Textual and Reception Notes

Text: The question's focus leads into Paul's application to workers in 9:10. No added only is placed in the translated question, and no separate denial of all divine concern for animals is supplied.

Verse 9:10

Greek–English Translation

or does He surely say it for our sake? For it was written for our sake, because the plowman ought to plow in hope, and the thresher in hope of sharing.

Textual and Reception Notes

Text: Pantōs can mean surely or altogether; surely is adopted in the rhetorical question. The two workers and the hope of sharing are preserved.

Verse 9:11

Greek–English Translation

If we sowed spiritual things among you, is it a great matter if we reap your material things?

Textual and Reception Notes

Text: Material renders fleshly things in the context of tangible support, not sinful things.

Verse 9:12

Greek–English Translation

If others share in this authority over you, do we not all the more? But we did not use this authority; instead, we bear everything so that we may put no hindrance in the way of the good news of Christ.

Textual and Reception Notes

Verse 9:13

Greek–English Translation

Do you not know that those who perform the sacred duties eat what comes from the temple, and those who attend the altar share with the altar?

Textual and Reception Notes

Text: Share with the altar preserves the stated relation to the sacrificial provision; no particular priestly allotment is inserted.

Verse 9:14

Greek–English Translation

In the same way, the Lord directed those who proclaim the good news to live from the good news.

Textual and Reception Notes

The reward of proclaiming without charge

Verse 9:15

Greek–English Translation

But I have used none of these things. Nor have I written this so that it should happen this way for me, for it would be better for me to die than—no one will empty my boast!

Textual and Reception Notes

Text: The selected sentence breaks off after than and restarts with no one will empty my boast. The interruption is retained rather than smoothed into a different continuous construction.

Verse 9:16

Greek–English Translation

For if I proclaim the good news, I have no boast, because necessity lies upon me. For woe to me if I do not proclaim the good news!

Textual and Reception Notes

Verse 9:17

Greek–English Translation

For if I do this willingly, I have wages; but if unwillingly, I have been entrusted with a stewardship.

Textual and Reception Notes

Verse 9:18

Greek–English Translation

What, then, are my wages? That when proclaiming the good news I may offer it without charge, so as not to make full use of my authority in the good news.

Textual and Reception Notes

Text: Make full use retains katachrēsasthai, as at 7:31; the right itself is not described as intrinsically abusive.

Becoming a servant to win others

Verse 9:19

Greek–English Translation

For though free from all, I enslaved myself to all, so that I might win more of them.

Textual and Reception Notes

Verse 9:20

Greek–English Translation

To the Jews I became as a Jew, so that I might win Jews; to those under law, as under law—though I myself am not under law—so that I might win those under law;

Textual and Reception Notes

Text: Though I myself am not under law is present in the selected Greek and is retained.

Variant [SBL-1COR-APP 9:20]: The apparatus records though I myself am not under law in WH, Treg and NA28, absent in RP.

Verse 9:21

Greek–English Translation

to those without law, as without law—though not without God's law but within Christ's law—so that I might win those without law.

Textual and Reception Notes

Text: Anomos and ennomos express being without law and within law; both qualifications prevent Paul's adaptability from becoming an unqualified claim of lawlessness.

Verse 9:22

Greek–English Translation

To the weak I became weak, so that I might win the weak. I have become all things to all people, so that by all means I might save some.

Textual and Reception Notes

Text: Became weak has no added as in the selected first clause; save some preserves the limited object alongside the repeated all.

Variant [SBL-1COR-APP 9:22]: The apparatus records as before weak in RP; WH, Treg and NA28 omit it.

Verse 9:23

Greek–English Translation

I do all things for the sake of the good news, so that I may become a fellow participant in it.

Textual and Reception Notes

Running for an imperishable wreath

Verse 9:24

Greek–English Translation

Do you not know that all the runners in a stadium run, but one receives the prize? Run in such a way that you may obtain it.

Textual and Reception Notes

Verse 9:25

Greek–English Translation

Everyone who competes exercises self-control in all things. They do so to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable one.

Textual and Reception Notes

Text: Wreath renders stephanos in the athletic setting, rather than a royal diadem.

Verse 9:26

Greek–English Translation

So I run in this way, not aimlessly; I box in this way, not as one beating the air.

Textual and Reception Notes

Verse 9:27

Greek–English Translation

Instead, I pummel my body and bring it into slavery, lest after proclaiming to others I myself should become disqualified.

Textual and Reception Notes

Text: Pummel retains hypōpiazō within the boxing metaphor; bring into slavery retains doulagōgō's force. The vivid self-discipline image is not converted into an added prescribed injury or technique.