KJV: And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing.
YLT: and if I give away to feed others all my goods, and if I give up my body that I may be burned, and have not love, I am profited nothing.
Darby: And if I shall dole out all my goods in food, and if I deliver up my body that I may be burned, but have not love, I profit nothing.
ASV: And if I bestow all my goods to feed the poor , and if I give my body to be burned, but have not love, it profiteth me nothing.
| ψωμίσω | I may give away |
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Parse: Verb, Aorist Subjunctive Active, 1st Person Singular Root: ψωμίζω Sense: to feed by putting a bit or crumb (of food) into the mouth. |
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| ὑπάρχοντά | possessions |
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Parse: Verb, Present Participle Active, Accusative Neuter Plural Root: ὑπάρχω Sense: to begin below, to make a beginning. |
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| μου | of me |
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Parse: Personal / Possessive Pronoun, Genitive 1st Person Singular Root: ἐγώ Sense: I, me, my. |
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| παραδῶ | I may deliver up |
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Parse: Verb, Aorist Subjunctive Active, 1st Person Singular Root: παραδίδωμι Sense: to give into the hands (of another). |
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| σῶμά | body |
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Parse: Noun, Accusative Neuter Singular Root: σῶμα Sense: the body both of men or animals. |
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| ἵνα | that |
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Parse: Conjunction Root: ἵνα Sense: that, in order that, so that. |
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| [καυχήσωμαι] | I may boast |
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Parse: Verb, Aorist Subjunctive Middle, 1st Person Singular Root: καυχάομαι Sense: to glory (whether with reason or without). |
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| ἀγάπην | love |
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Parse: Noun, Accusative Feminine Singular Root: ἀγάπη Sense: brotherly love, affection, good will, love, benevolence. |
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| δὲ | however |
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Parse: Conjunction Root: δέ Sense: but, moreover, and, etc. |
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| οὐδὲν | nothing |
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Parse: Adjective, Accusative Neuter Singular Root: οὐδείς Sense: no one, nothing. |
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| ὠφελοῦμαι | I am profited |
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Parse: Verb, Present Indicative Middle or Passive, 1st Person Singular Root: ὠφελέω Sense: to assist, to be useful or advantageous, to profit. |
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Greek Commentary for 1 Corinthians 13:3
First aorist active subjunctive of πσωμιζω psōmizō to feed, to nourish, from πσωμος psōmos morsel or bit, and so to feed, by putting a morsel into the mouth like infant (or bird). Old word, but only here in N.T. [source]
First future passive subjunctive (Textus Receptus), but D καυτησομαι kauthēsomai (future passive indicative of καιω kaiō old word to burn). There were even some who courted martyrdom in later years (time of Diocletian). This Byzantine future subjunctive does not occur in the old MSS. (Robertson, Grammar, p. 876). Aleph A B here read καυχησωμαι kauchēsōmai first aorist middle subjunctive of καυχαομαι kauchaomai (so Westcott and Hort), “that I may glory.” This is correct. It profiteth me nothing (ουδεν ωπελουμαι ouden ōpheloumai). Literally, I am helped nothing. Ουδεν Ouden in the accusative case retained with passive verb. See two accusatives with ωπελεω ōpheleō in 1 Corinthians 14:6. Verb is old and from οπελος ophelos (profit). [source]
Literally, I am helped nothing. Ουδεν Ouden in the accusative case retained with passive verb. See two accusatives with ωπελεω ōpheleō in 1 Corinthians 14:6. Verb is old and from οπελος ophelos (profit). [source]
Only here and Romans 12:20. See on sop, John 13:26. The verb means to feed out in morsels, dole out. [source]
The latest critical text reads καυχήσωμαι inorder that I may glory, after the three oldest MSS. The change to burned might have been suggested by the copyist's familiarity with christian martyrdoms, or by the story of the three Hebrews. Bishop Lightfoot finds a possible reference to the case of an Indian fanatic who, in the time of Augustus, burned himself alive at Athens. His tomb there was visible in Paul's time, and may have been seen by him. It bore the inscription: “Zarmochegas the Indian from Bargosa, according to the ancient customs of India, made himself immortal and lies here.” Calanus, an Indian gymnosophist who followed Alexander, in order to get rid of his sufferings, burned himself before the Macedonian army (see Plutarch, “Alexander”). Martyrdom for the sake of ambition was a fact of early occurrence in the Church, if not in Paul's day. Farrar says of his age, “both at this time and in the persecution of Diocletian, there were Christians who, oppressed by debt, by misery, and sometimes even by a sense of guilt, thrust themselves into the glory and imagined redemptiveness of the baptism of blood … . The extravagant estimate formed of the merits of all who were confessors, became, almost immediately, the cause of grave scandals. We are horified to read in Cyprian's letter that even in prison, even when death was imminent, there were some of the confessors who were puffed up with vanity and pride, and seemed to think that the blood of martyrdom would avail them to wash away the stains of flagrant and even recent immoralities” (“Lives of the Fathers,” ch. vi., sec. 2). [source]
Reverse Greek Commentary Search for 1 Corinthians 13:3
Only in this chapter. Diminutive from ψωμός , a morsel, which, in turn, is from ψάω , to rub, or to crumble. Homer, of the Cyclops:“Then from his mouth came bits ( ψωμοί ) of human fleshMingled with wine.”“Odyssey,” ix., 374. And Xenophon: “And on one occasion having seen one of his companions at table tasting many dishes with one bit ( ψωμῷ ) of bread” (“Memorabilia,” iii., 14,15). The kindred verb ψωμίζω , rendered feed, occurs Romans 12:20; 1 Corinthians 13:3. See also Septuagint, Psalm 79:5; Psalm 80:16. According to its etymology, the verb means to feed with morsels; and it was used by the Greeks of a nurse chewing the food and administering it to an infant. So Aristophanes: “And one laid the child to rest, and another bathed it, and another fed ( ἐψώμισεν ) it” (“Lysistrate,” 19,20). This sense may possibly color the word as used in Romans 12:20: “If thine enemy hunger, feed ( ψώμιζε ) him;” with tender care. In 1 Corinthians 13:3, the original sense appears to be emphasized: “Though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor ( ψωμίσω ).” This idea is that of doling away in morsels. Dean Stanley says: “Who that has witnessed the almsgiving in a Catholic monastery, or the court of a Spanish or Sicilian bishop's or archbishop's palace, where immense revenues are syringed away in farthings to herds of beggars, but must feel the force of the Apostle's half satirical ψωμίσω ?” [source]
Σῶμα in earlier classical usage signifies a corpse. So always in Homer and often in later Greek. So in the New Testament, Matthew 6:25; Mark 5:29; Mark 14:8; Mark 15:43. It is used of men as slaves, Revelation 18:13. Also in classical Greek of the sum-total. So Plato: τὸ τοῦ κόσμου σῶμα thesum-total of the world (“Timaeus,” 31). The meaning is tinged in some cases by the fact of the vital union of the body with the immaterial nature, as being animated by the ψυξή soulthe principle of individual life. Thus Matthew 6:25, where the two are conceived as forming one organism, so that the material ministries which are predicated of the one are predicated of the other, and the meanings of the two merge into one another. -DIVIDER- -DIVIDER- In Paul it can scarcely be said to be used of a dead body, except in a figurative sense, as Romans 8:10, or by inference, 2 Corinthians 5:8. Commonly of a living body. It occurs with ψυχή soulonly 1 Thessalonians 5:23, and there its distinction from ψυχή rather than its union with it is implied. So in Matthew 10:28, though even there the distinction includes the two as one personality. It is used by Paul:-DIVIDER- 1. Of the living human body, Romans 4:19; 1 Corinthians 6:13; 1 Corinthians 9:27; 1 Corinthians 12:12-26. -DIVIDER- -DIVIDER- 2. Of the Church as the body of Christ, Romans 12:5; 1 Corinthians 12:27; Ephesians 1:23; Colossians 1:18, etc. Σάρξ fleshnever in this sense. -DIVIDER- -DIVIDER- 3. Of plants and heavenly bodies, 1 Corinthians 15:37, 1 Corinthians 15:40. -DIVIDER- -DIVIDER- 4. Of the glorified body of Christ, Philemon 3:21. -DIVIDER- -DIVIDER- 5. Of the spiritual body of risen believers, 1 Corinthians 15:44. -DIVIDER- -DIVIDER- It is distinguished from σάρξ fleshas not being limited to the organism of an earthly, living body, 1 Corinthians 15:37, 1 Corinthians 15:38. It is the material organism apart from any definite matter. It is however sometimes used as practically synonymous with σάρξ , 1 Corinthians 7:16, 1 Corinthians 7:17; Ephesians 5:28, Ephesians 5:31; 2 Corinthians 4:10, 2 Corinthians 4:11. Compare 1 Corinthians 5:3with Colossians 2:5. An ethical conception attaches to it. It is alternated with μέλη membersand the two are associated with sin (Romans 1:24; Romans 6:6; Romans 7:5, Romans 7:24; Romans 8:13; Colossians 3:5), and with sanctification (Romans 12:1; 1 Corinthians 6:19sq.; compare 1 Thessalonians 4:4; 1 Thessalonians 5:23). It is represented as mortal, Romans 8:11; 2 Corinthians 10:10; and as capable of life, 1 Corinthians 13:3; 2 Corinthians 4:10. -DIVIDER- -DIVIDER- In common with μέλη membersit is the instrument of feeling and willing rather than σάρξ , because the object in such cases is to designate the body not definitely as earthly, but generally as organic, Romans 6:12, Romans 6:13, Romans 6:19; 2 Corinthians 5:10. Hence, wherever it is viewed with reference to sin or sanctification, it is the outward organ for the execution of the good or bad resolves of the will. -DIVIDER- -DIVIDER- The phrase body of sin denotes the body belonging to, or ruled by, the power of sin, in which the members are instruments of unrighteousness (Romans 6:13). Not the body as containing the principle of evil in our humanity, since Paul does not regard sin as inherent in, and inseparable from, the body (see Romans 6:13; 2 Corinthians 4:10-12; 2 Corinthians 7:1. Compare Matthew 15:19), nor as precisely identical with the old man, an organism or system of evil dispositions, which does not harmonize with Romans 6:12, Romans 6:13, where Paul uses body in the strict sense. “Sin is conceived as the master, to whom the body as slave belongs and is obedient to execute its will. As the slave must perform his definite functions, not because he in himself can perform no others, but because of His actually subsistent relationship of service he may perform no others, while of himself he might belong as well to another master and render other services; so the earthly σῶμα bodybelongs not of itself to the ἁμαρτία sinbut may just as well belong to the Lord (1 Corinthians 6:13), and doubtless it is de facto enslaved to sin, so long as a redemption from this state has not set in by virtue of the divine Spirit” (Romans 7:24: Dickson).DestroyedSee on Romans 3:3.He that is dead ( ὁ ἀποθανὼν )Rev., literally, he that hath died. In a physical sense. Death and its consequences are used as the general illustration of the spiritual truth. It is a habit of Paul to throw in such general illustrations. See Romans 7:2. [source]
Quotation from lxx text of Proverbs 25:21f. Present active imperative of verb from πσωμος psōmos a morsel, and so to feed crumbs to babies, then to feed in general. In N.T. only here and 1 Corinthians 13:3. [source]
Two accusatives with this verb (see note on 1 Corinthians 13:3). Unless I speak (εαν μη λαλησω ean mē lalēsō). Second condition (also third class) with the one conclusion (cf. 1 Timothy 2:5). [source]
Rev., are yours; following the sense ofpossession which legitimately belongs to the verb; as Matthew 19:21, that thou hast; 1 Corinthians 13:3, goods. In the sense of being the verb is stronger than the simple εἶναι , to be; denoting being which is from the beginning, and therefore attaching to a person as a proper characteristic; something belonging to him, and so running into the idea of rightful possession as above. [source]