{"id":3558,"date":"2022-07-24T02:17:58","date_gmt":"2022-07-24T06:17:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/jkitchen.org\/?p=3558"},"modified":"2022-07-24T02:17:58","modified_gmt":"2022-07-24T06:17:58","slug":"1-corinthians-138","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jkitchen.org\/?p=3558","title":{"rendered":"1 Corinthians 13:8"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Verse 8 \u2013 Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away.<\/strong><\/p>\n

It is again (cf. v.4), literally, \u201cthe<\/em> love\u201d (\u1f29 \u1f00\u03b3\u1f71\u03c0\u03b7)\u2014that love which is above all other loves, that is in a class by itself, that is utterly unique and singular among all other loves. This love \u201cnever ends\u201d (\u03bf\u1f50\u03b4\u1f73\u03c0\u03bf\u03c4\u03b5 \u03c0\u1f77\u03c0\u03c4\u03b5\u03b9). The verb indicates a descent from one, higher level to another, lower level, often with a sense of rapidity in the descent.[1]<\/a> It thus is often translated \u201cto fall\u201d (cf. the only other usages in 1 Corinthians 10:8, 12). It can be used of persons (cf. Matt. 17:15; 18:26), or, as in this case, of things. In these instances it may speak of structures which \u201cfall,\u201d \u201cfall to pieces,\u201d or \u201ccollapse\u201d[2]<\/a> and thus become worthless. Here then it means that love never falls, never \u201cfails\u201d (NASU, NIV, NKJV), never comes to an end (cf. ESV, NRSV), never falls in upon itself or is destroyed. Love thus \u201cwill last forever\u201d (NLT)!<\/p>\n

Now Paul compares this love to three other things which the Corinthian believers placed high value upon. The ESV fails to render the mild adversative (\u03b4\u1f72, \u201cbut\u201d), but compare to the NASB, NET, NIV, NKJV, and NRSV which all include it in their rendering of the verse. Each comparison is introduced by \u03b5\u1f34\u03c4\u03b5 (\u201cAs for\u201d) which serves as \u201ca conditional disjunctive conjunction bringing together two objects in one’s thoughts while keeping them distinct from each other.\u201d[3]<\/a><\/p>\n

The first comparison is to \u201cprophecies\u201d (\u03c0\u03c1\u03bf\u03c6\u03b7\u03c4\u03b5\u1fd6\u03b1\u03b9). As for these, \u201cthey will pass away\u201d (\u03ba\u03b1\u03c4\u03b1\u03c1\u03b3\u03b7\u03b8\u1f75\u03c3\u03bf\u03bd\u03c4\u03b1\u03b9). Paul will use the verb four times in this immediate context (vv.8 [2x], 10, 11). It can range in meaning from to cause something to be unproductive, to cause something to lose its power or effectiveness, or, as here, to cause something to come to an end or to cease to exist.[4]<\/a> There will come a point when \u201cprophecies\u201d are brought to their finish line, beyond which they will be unnecessary and thus cease to exist among God\u2019s people. The future tense casts this forward to a time beyond the moment of Paul\u2019s writing. The precise nature and timing of that event will have to be determined by the context and other Scriptural evidence. The passive voice indicates that something will happen or someone will act in such a way as to cause \u201cprophecies\u201d to thus cease to exist as necessary among God\u2019s people.<\/p>\n

The second comparison (\u03b5\u1f34\u03c4\u03b5, \u201cas for\u201d) has to do with \u201ctongues\u201d (\u03b3\u03bb\u1ff6\u03c3\u03c3\u03b1\u03b9). These, we are told, \u201cwill pass away\u201d (\u03c0\u03b1\u1f7b\u03c3\u03bf\u03bd\u03c4\u03b1\u03b9). Luke was especially fond of the verb (nine of its fifteen NT usages). He used it of Jesus concluding a speech (Luke 5:4), causing the winds and waves to cease (8:24), and finishing a time of personal prayer (11:1). It is used of the cessation of the offering of Levitical sacrifices since Jesus\u2019 once for all, eternally effectual sacrifice (Heb. 10:2). The verb has the sense of causing something to stop or, in the middle voice to stop oneself from a certain activity. Here the middle voice (as distinct from the passive forms of the verbs in the comparisons before and after this one) may describe the simple leaving off of speaking in tongues at a certain point because they are eclipsed by something of greater value. It is sometimes argued that the middle voice here must mean that tongues will cease \u201cin and of themselves.\u201d That is to say, they will simply \u201cdie out\u201d by their purely temporal necessity (i.e., during the period before the closing of the cannon). Others argue against this on a couple of fronts: it is argued that the verb is deponent and thus the middle form is active in meaning and it is further claimed that the example of Jesus as the personal agent in causing the winds and waves to cease (Luke 8:24) argues against the idea that the middle voice requires of ceasing of their own accord. But Daniel Wallace demonstrates that the verb is not in fact deponent and that the argument that inanimate objects (i.e., winds and waves) cannot cease of their own doing is foiled by the fact that in Luke 8 the winds and waves are personified and set before us as acting in response to Jesus\u2019 word of command.[5]<\/a> Thus we should make something of the use of the middle voice here in the midst of verbs of passive voice. But just what is to be made of this? As Wallace further demonstrates, this verse tells us nothing about the timing<\/em> of the cessation of tongues, but simply that it will occur.[6]<\/a> The way Paul speaks of it here may<\/em> indicate that they will cease prior to the arrival of \u201cthe perfect\u201d (v.10) but it is not definitively proven to mean that.<\/p>\n

The third comparison (\u03b5\u1f34\u03c4\u03b5, \u201cas for\u201d) has to do with \u201cknowledge\u201d (\u03b3\u03bd\u1ff6\u03c3\u03b9\u03c2). This too \u201cwill pass away\u201d (\u03ba\u03b1\u03c4\u03b1\u03c1\u03b3\u03b7\u03b8\u1f75\u03c3\u03b5\u03c4\u03b1\u03b9). It is identical in form to its use in the first of these comparisons (\u201cAs for prophecies\u201d) except that here it is in the singular to match the noun \u201cknowledge\u201d (\u03b3\u03bd\u1ff6\u03c3\u03b9\u03c2).<\/p>\n

[1]<\/a> BDAG, 5936.1.<\/p>\n

[2]<\/a> Ibid., 5936.1.b.\u03b2.<\/p>\n

[3]<\/a> Friberg, 8254.<\/p>\n

[4]<\/a> BDAG, 4047.<\/p>\n

[5]<\/a> Wallace, 422-423.<\/p>\n

[6]<\/a> Ibid., 423.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Verse 8 \u2013 Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away. It is again (cf. v.4), literally, \u201cthe love\u201d (\u1f29 \u1f00\u03b3\u1f71\u03c0\u03b7)\u2014that love which is above all other loves, that is in a class by itself, that is utterly unique and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_seo_schema_type":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_wpcom_ai_launchpad_first_post":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[42,101],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3558","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-1-corinthians","category-love","post-preview"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pgYGxX-Vo","jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jkitchen.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3558","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jkitchen.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jkitchen.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jkitchen.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jkitchen.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3558"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/jkitchen.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3558\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3559,"href":"https:\/\/jkitchen.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3558\/revisions\/3559"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jkitchen.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3558"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jkitchen.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3558"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jkitchen.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3558"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}