Article January 22, 1938 Issue

Bible Notes

"Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not charity, I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal" (I Cor. 13:1)—The Greek word "agape," which is consistently rendered "charity" in our Common Version of this verse and elsewhere in this chapter, has the literal meaning of "love," and is thus translated in almost all modern versions of the Scriptures. Indeed, it may be added that in the early seventeenth century, when the Authorized Version was first published, "charity" was really used as a synonym for "love," following the usage of the Latin "caritas," though today it is more commonly used to describe "almsgiving." Then, the Greek word rendered "tinkling" implies a louder, more insistent sound than is suggested by this translation, and might more exactly be represented by "clanging" or "clashing" (cf. Souter: Greek Lexicon, p. 12). Goodspeed renders the verse as follows: "If I can speak the languages of men and even of angels, but have no love, I am only a noisy gong or a clashing cymbal;" and Weymouth (fifth edition): "If I can speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a blaring trumpet or a clanging cymbal."

"Charity suffereth long, and is kind; charity envieth not; charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up" (I Cor. 13:4)—While the general sense of the verse is clear enough, despite its somewhat archaic phraseology, Weymouth makes its meaning even more vivid by rendering it in modern language, as follows: "Love is forbearing and kind. Love knows no jealousy. Love does not brag; is not conceited."

"Now we see through a glass, darkly" (I Cor. 13:12)—The Greek term "esoptron," here rendered "glass," means literally "a mirror"; and it may be noted that "the mirrors of the ancients were made, not of glass, but of steel" (Thayer: Greek Lexicon, p. 253). Moreover, the Greek preposition "dia" is apparently not employed here in its literal sense of "through," since one cannot look "through" a mirror, but rather in the wider meaning which it, in common with the English "through," sometimes bears, namely, "by means of, with the help of" (cf. Thayer: op. cit., p. 133). The phrase rendered "darkly" is, in Greek, "en ainigmati" (the root of our modern word "enigma"). Weymouth has: "At present we see things as in a mirror, obscurely;" and Moffatt: "At present we only see the baffling reflections in a mirror."

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