A modern English translation drawn directly from the original Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek texts. Translated word-for-word where possible, by a committee with scholarly oversight.
Uses the same source texts as the ESV, NASB, and most academic Bibles, including the Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia and the Nestle-Aland critical edition.
1 Corinthians 13
1 Corinthians 13 is the thirteenth chapter of Paul's first letter to the Corinthians and one of the most quoted passages in the Bible, often read at weddings. The 13-verse chapter is a sustained reflection on love, placed in the middle of three chapters on spiritual gifts.
The chapter opens with three "if" statements, each describing a remarkable spiritual gift rendered worthless without love. If Paul speaks in the tongues of men and angels but has no love, he is only a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. If he has the gift of prophecy, fathoms all mysteries and all knowledge, and has faith to move mountains but has no love, he is nothing. If he gives all he has to the poor and even surrenders his body to be burned but has no love, he gains nothing.
The middle section is a famous description of what love is and is not. "Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres."
Paul then contrasts love with the spiritual gifts. Prophecies will cease, tongues will be stilled, knowledge will pass away. They are partial; when completeness comes, they will pass. He uses a famous image: now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now he knows in part; then he will know fully, even as he is fully known.
The chapter closes with the famous closing line: "And now these three remain: faith, hope, and love. But the greatest of these is love."
Verse 1. If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a ringing gong or a clanging cymbal.
Verse 2. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have absolute faith so as to move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing.
Verse 3. If I give all I possess to the poor and exult in the surrender of my body, but have not love, I gain nothing.
Verse 4. Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.
Verse 5. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no account of wrongs.
Verse 6. Love takes no pleasure in evil, but rejoices in the truth.
Verse 7. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
Verse 8. Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be restrained; where there is knowledge, it will be dismissed.
Verse 9. For we know in part and we prophesy in part,
Verse 10. but when the perfect comes, the partial passes away.
Verse 11. When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I set aside childish ways.
Verse 12. Now we see but a dim reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.
Verse 13. And now these three remain: faith, hope, and love; but the greatest of these is love.
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