[B-Greek] 1 Cor. 13:2

A. J. Birch AJBIRCH at terra.es
Sat Apr 23 12:29:50 EDT 2005


Mitch Larramore asked two questions related to 1 Corinthians 13:2:

"KAI EAN ECW PROFHTEIAN KAI EIDW TA MUSTHRIA PANTA KAI PASAN THN GNWSIN, KAN ECW PASAN THN PISTIN hWSTE..."

Just a few thoughts on this:

(1) I may be wrong, but I think this is more of a hermeneutical question than a Greek one.

(2) The words PROFHTEIAN, GNWSIN and PISTIN all seem to refer back to the list of spiritual gifts in 1 Cor. 12:8-10. (So PISTIS here would seem to refer, not to 'saving faith', but to faith as a spiritual gift - the faith to move mountains, etc.)

(3) Is this is correct, then the gifts in question admit of degrees - the Holy Spirit may (and surely does) give 'more' to some people than to others.

(4) So Paul seems to be saying, in a rhetorical way, that even if (hypothetically and hyperbolically) he were to have those gifts to the maximum degree possible (thus PANTA...PASAN...PASAN), but were not to have love...

Andrew J. Birch
Palma de Mallorca, Spain


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