{"id":3560,"date":"2022-07-24T07:44:20","date_gmt":"2022-07-24T11:44:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/jkitchen.org\/?p=3560"},"modified":"2022-07-24T07:44:20","modified_gmt":"2022-07-24T11:44:20","slug":"1-corinthians-139","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jkitchen.org\/?p=3560","title":{"rendered":"1 Corinthians 13:9"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

Verse 9 \u2013 For we know in part and we prophesy in part,<\/strong><\/p>\n

Paul now in a sentence running through verse 10 moves to explain (\u03b3\u1f70\u03c1, \u201cFor\u201d) the reason for the cessation of the three activities of verse 8. In doing so he addresses only the first and third examples from verse 8. Why might this be? Some conclude that he does so because of the difference in verbs used in verse 8 (see discussion above) and the conclusion that tongues will have ceased in and of themselves before the cessation of knowledge and prophecy. But, as far as its absence here and the reason for it, this is a conclusion reached though the text is silent. We simply are not told why he chose only the first and third items to carry forward his line of logic. And silence is a text difficult to read and ought to yield no firm conclusions, especially in the context of revelatory gifts of the Spirit!<\/p>\n

Note that Paul addresses knowledge and prophecy in reverse order from verse 8, first \u201cwe know\u201d and then \u201cwe prophesy.\u201d The fact is \u201cwe know\u201d (\u03b3\u03b9\u03bd\u1f7d\u03c3\u03ba\u03bf\u03bc\u03b5\u03bd) some things and these things are brought within the realm of our knowledge by divine revelation. The verb tends to stress the personal and experiential nature of the knowledge (cf. the verb \u03bf\u1f36\u03b4\u03b1 in 13:2, which may at times emphasize the informational nature of knowledge). What Paul says certainly is equally true of knowledge acquired by observation and investigation\u2014what we would call the scientific methodology. But Paul has particularly in mind that knowledge which is imparted by divine revelation\u2014whether by a gift of immediate knowledge or supernatural insight in a specific situation or by the revelation of God in the person of Jesus Christ or the holy Scriptures through inspiration of the Holy Spirit. What God has revealed to us is true and is in harmony with all else that is true (though as yet unrevealed), but even this knowledge is only \u201cin part\u201d (\u1f10\u03ba \u03bc\u1f73\u03c1\u03bf\u03c5\u03c2). The prepositional phrase is used four times in the NT, all of them by Paul and all of them here (12:27; 139 [2x], 10, 12). Each believer is one member of the body of Christ \u201cindividually,\u201d or literally, \u201cout of a part\u201d (1 Cor. 12:27). The noun \u03bc\u1f73\u03c1\u03bf\u03c2 (\u201cpart\u201d) refers to an individual portion\/part[1]<\/a> or a share (\u201ca part due or assigned to one\u201d[2]<\/a>) as opposed to the greater whole. With the preposition \u1f10\u03ba (\u201cout\u201d or \u201cfrom\u201d) it may have the sense of \u201cone part out of the whole\u201d or, as here, simply \u201cin part.\u201d What we \u201cknow\u201d is only \u201cone part out of the whole\u201d of all that is true. And what is revealed as one may \u201cprophecy\u201d is only \u201cone part out of the whole.\u201d The prepositional (\u1f10\u03ba \u03bc\u1f73\u03c1\u03bf\u03c5\u03c2) phrase is thrown forward in both halves of the pair so that it is emphasized by its position. The Apostle is stressing the partial nature of both our current knowledge and prophetic insight, even when it is a truly divine gift given to the people of God by His Spirit.<\/p>\n

This ought to make us careful in what we claim and tentative in what we conclude, particularly when it comes to eschatology. We do not know<\/em> as much as we believe ourselves to be certain<\/em> about!
\n[1]<\/a> BDAG, 4823.1.<\/p>\n

[2]<\/a> Thayer, 3405.1.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Verse 9 \u2013 For we know in part and we prophesy in part, Paul now in a sentence running through verse 10 moves to explain (\u03b3\u1f70\u03c1, \u201cFor\u201d) the reason for the cessation of the three activities of verse 8. In doing so he addresses only the first and third examples from verse 8. Why might […]<\/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,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"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-3560","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-1-corinthians","category-love","post-preview"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pgYGxX-Vq","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jkitchen.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3560","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=3560"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/jkitchen.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3560\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3561,"href":"https:\/\/jkitchen.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3560\/revisions\/3561"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jkitchen.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3560"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jkitchen.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3560"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jkitchen.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3560"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}