1 Corinthians 9

The TorahRooted Bible (TRB), translated directly from the Hebrew and Greek.

The rights of an apostle

¹ Am I not an apostle? Am I not free? Have I not seen Yeshua the Messiah our Lord? Are you not my work in the Lord? ² If I am not an apostle to others, yet surely I am to you; for you are the seal of my apostleship in the Lord. ³ My defense to those who examine me is this: ⁴ Do we have no right to eat and drink? ⁵ Do we have no right to take along a sister as a wife, as do also the other apostles, and the brothers of the Lord, and Cephas? ⁶ Or is it only Barnabas and I who have no right to refrain from working? ⁷ Who ever serves as a soldier at his own expense? Who plants a vineyard and does not eat of its fruit? Or who tends a flock and does not feed on the milk of the flock? ⁸ Do I say these things as a mere man? Or does not the Torah also say the same? ⁹ For it is written in the Torah of Moses, "You shall not muzzle the ox while it treads out the grain." Is it oxen that Elohim is concerned about? ¹⁰ Or does He say it altogether for our sakes? For our sakes this was written, that he who plows should plow in hope, and he who threshes in hope should be partaker of his hope. ¹¹ If we have sown spiritual things for you, is it a great thing if we reap your material things? ¹² If others share in the right over you, do not we even more? Nevertheless we have not used this right, but endure all things, lest we hinder the gospel of the Messiah. ¹³ Do you not know that those who minister the holy things eat of the things of the temple, and those who serve at the altar share with the altar? ¹⁴ Even so the Lord has commanded that those who proclaim the gospel should live from the gospel. ¹⁵ But I have used none of these things, nor have I written these things that it should be done so to me; for it would be better for me to die than that anyone should make my boasting void. ¹⁶ For if I preach the gospel, I have nothing to boast of, for necessity is laid upon me; yes, woe is me if I do not preach the gospel! ¹⁷ For if I do this willingly, I have a reward; but if against my will, I have been entrusted with a stewardship. ¹⁸ What then is my reward? That when I preach the gospel, I may present the gospel of the Messiah without charge, so as not to abuse my right in the gospel.

All things to all men

¹⁹ For though I am free from all men, I have made myself a servant to all, that I might win the more. ²⁰ And to the Jews I became as a Jew, that I might win Jews; to those under law, as under law, that I might win those under law; ²¹ to those without law, as without law, not being without law toward Elohim, but within the law toward the Messiah, that I might win those without law. ²² To the weak I became as weak, that I might win the weak. I have become all things to all men, that I might by all means save some. ²³ Now this I do for the gospel's sake, that I may be a fellow partaker of it.

Running to win the prize

²⁴ Do you not know that those who run in a race all run, but one receives the prize? Run in such a way that you may obtain it. ²⁵ And everyone who competes is temperate in all things. Now they do it to obtain a perishable crown, but we an imperishable one. ²⁶ Therefore I run in this way, not with uncertainty; I box in this way, not as one who beats the air; ²⁷ but I discipline my body and bring it into subjection, lest, when I have preached to others, I myself should become disqualified.

Notes

• 9:5 "A sister as a wife" means a wife who is a believer, a sister in the faith. Cephas is Peter (see the note at 1:12). Peter was married (Matthew 8:14), and the Gospels name the Lord's brothers (Matthew 13:55); Paul's point is that he and Barnabas could have claimed the same support, but did not (verses 12, 15).
• 9:9 Paul quotes Deuteronomy 25:4 and reasons from the lesser to the greater, a common way of arguing among Jewish teachers (qal vachomer): if the Torah provides for the ox that works, how much more for those who sow spiritual things (verse 11). He does not set the command aside; he draws out what it shows about Elohim's care for every worker, and he uses the same verse again in 1 Timothy 5:18.
• 9:13 Paul speaks in the present tense: when he wrote, the priests and Levites still served at the temple in Jerusalem and lived from its offerings and tithes, as the Torah commanded (Numbers 18:8-31; Deuteronomy 18:1-3). He takes the Torah's provision for those who serve at the altar as the pattern for those who proclaim the gospel (verse 14).
• 9:20 "Those under law" is hypo nomon, without the article: those who lived under the Torah of Moses, Jews and those who had joined them. The TRB keeps "law" here, as in "not under law but under grace" (Romans 6:14). The Majority Text has nothing more in this verse; many modern Bibles, following other manuscripts, add "though I myself am not under law." Some read verses 20-22 as Paul keeping the Torah among Jews and setting it aside elsewhere, but in verse 21 he adds, "not being without law toward Elohim, but within the law toward the Messiah": ennomos, "within the law," the opposite of anomos, "without law." Paul adapted his manner to win people, not Elohim's commandments (7:19; Acts 21:24).
• 9:24 Corinth hosted the Isthmian Games every two years, so its readers knew the stadium, the runners and the boxers well (verse 26). The winner's crown was a wreath of pine or of wild celery that soon withered; Paul sets beside it the imperishable crown (verse 25).

1 Corinthians 8 · 1 Corinthians 10

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