BishopFaithful building

1 Corinthians 3 — God's workers, building, and temple — 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 3 — God's workers, building, and temple

Infancy and rivalries in Corinth

Verse 3:1

Greek–English Translation

And I, brothers, could not speak to you as spiritual people, but as people of flesh, as infants in Christ.

Textual and Reception Notes

Text: Sarkinoi, of flesh, is the selected adjective here; sarkikoi, fleshly, follows in 3:3. Infants are nevertheless explicitly in Christ.

Verse 3:2

Greek–English Translation

I gave you milk to drink, not solid food, for you were not yet able to receive it. Indeed, even now you are still unable,

Textual and Reception Notes

Verse 3:3

Greek–English Translation

for you are still fleshly. For where there are jealousy and quarrels among you, are you not fleshly and walking in a merely human way?

Textual and Reception Notes

Text: The selected list is jealousy and quarrels; no third divisions noun is inserted.

Variant [SBL-1COR-APP 3:3]: The additional divisions appears under RP in the apparatus; WH, Treg and NA28 have the shorter list translated here.

Verse 3:4

Greek–English Translation

For whenever someone says, “I belong to Paul,” and another, “I to Apollos,” are you not merely human?

Textual and Reception Notes

Text: Human preserves anthrōpoi here, rather than substituting the fleshly adjective from 3:3.

Workers through whom God gives growth

Verse 3:5

Greek–English Translation

What, then, is Apollos? And what is Paul? Servants through whom you believed, each as the Lord granted.

Textual and Reception Notes

Text: The selected questions ask what, with Apollos named before Paul. Diakonoi describes their service; a later technical office is not imposed.

Variant [SBL-1COR-APP 3:5]: The apparatus gives what, with Apollos before Paul, for WH, Treg and NA28; RP has who, with Paul first.

Verse 3:6

Greek–English Translation

I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth.

Textual and Reception Notes

Verse 3:7

Greek–English Translation

So neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but God who gives the growth.

Textual and Reception Notes

Verse 3:8

Greek–English Translation

The one who plants and the one who waters are one, but each will receive his own wages according to his own labor.

Textual and Reception Notes

Verse 3:9

Greek–English Translation

For we are God's fellow workers; you are God's cultivated field, God's building.

Textual and Reception Notes

Text: God's fellow workers preserves the genitive: it can emphasize workers who belong to God and work together, or cooperation with God. The repeated God's also governs field and building.

Building on the foundation of Jesus Christ

Verse 3:10

Greek–English Translation

According to the grace of God given to me, I laid a foundation as a wise master builder, and another builds upon it. But let each one watch how he builds upon it.

Textual and Reception Notes

Verse 3:11

Greek–English Translation

For no one can lay another foundation besides the one already laid, which is Jesus Christ.

Textual and Reception Notes

Verse 3:12

Greek–English Translation

Now if anyone builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, grass, or straw,

Textual and Reception Notes

Verse 3:13

Greek–English Translation

each person's work will become manifest, for the day will disclose it, because it is revealed in fire; and the fire itself will test what sort of work each has done.

Textual and Reception Notes

Text: The day is not expanded with a supplied title. Fire tests the quality of the work; the material list is preserved as the building metaphor's own imagery.

Verse 3:14

Greek–English Translation

If anyone's work that he has built upon the foundation remains, he will receive wages.

Textual and Reception Notes

Verse 3:15

Greek–English Translation

If anyone's work is burned up, he will suffer loss, but he himself will be saved, though in this way: as through fire.

Textual and Reception Notes

Text: The loss of work and salvation of the person are both explicit. As through fire preserves the comparison without inserting a later doctrinal name or timetable.

God's holy temple and the end of boasting

Verse 3:16

Greek–English Translation

Do you not know that you are God's temple and that God's Spirit dwells among you?

Textual and Reception Notes

Text: You is plural, while temple is singular: the community is addressed as God's temple. Among you expresses that collective setting; in you is also possible.

Verse 3:17

Greek–English Translation

If anyone destroys God's temple, God will destroy that person. For God's temple is holy, and that is what you are.

Textual and Reception Notes

Text: The same verb, phtheirō, is retained as destroys/will destroy; it can also express corrupting or ruining. The severity of the warning is not reduced.

Verse 3:18

Greek–English Translation

Let no one deceive himself. If anyone among you thinks he is wise in this age, let him become foolish so that he may become wise.

Textual and Reception Notes

Verse 3:19

Greek–English Translation

For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God. For it is written, “He catches the wise in their craftiness,”

Textual and Reception Notes

Verse 3:20

Greek–English Translation

and again, “The Lord knows the reasonings of the wise, that they are futile.”

Textual and Reception Notes

Verse 3:21

Greek–English Translation

So let no one boast in human beings, for all things are yours,

Textual and Reception Notes

Verse 3:22

Greek–English Translation

whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas, or the world or life or death, or present things or things to come—all are yours,

Textual and Reception Notes

Verse 3:23

Greek–English Translation

and you are Christ's, and Christ is God's.

Textual and Reception Notes

Text: The successive relationships of belonging are retained without replacing the last clause with a doctrinal paraphrase.