Is 1 Corinthians 13 Poetry? (Monday with Mounce 37)

We had an interesting experience on the ESV translation committee when we were doing 1 Cor 13. We were working really hard on the passage, perhaps especially hard since it was such a famous passage. Famous passages are difficult since changes have a greater impact on people: "how dare you change my favorite passage!" as if we own the text.

We went through the chapter, watched our word choice, made changes only where we thought it was necessary, and especially watched the cadence of the passage. After all, the passage is read at thousands of weddings. It has to sound just right. Okay so far.

But when it was all over, someone (I forget who) asked a simple question. "I wonder if 1 Cor 13 is really poetry." It was late in the day, we had worked hard, the passage was generally viewed as poetic, and for whatever reasons we didn’t answer the question and moved on to chapter 14.

But really. Is 1 Cor 13 poetry? I don’t think so.

In looking over the Greek I don’t see the tell-tale signs of poetry. Biblical poetry of course is different from English poetry; there isn’t our traditional rhyming schemes. What is there?

There is the pattern of conditional sentences, but that is hardly poetic. There is rhetorical force in the series of ου plus the verb in vv 4-7, but that is nothing more than rhetoric. There is the series of ειτε clauses in v 8, again nothing necessarily poetic, certainly nothing poetic in the Hebraic sense. Vv 11-12 have effective repetition, and the final trilogy of v 13. But poetry?

And let’s not forget the fact that we often term this chapter the parenthesis chapter, but why would Paul do that? Does that make any sense to you? The Corinthian church was one giant excess that was crushing people and destroying the witness of the gospel. Why would Paul break into poetry?

I don’t think 1 Cor 13 has anything to do with poetry, and creating a poetic form with punctuation and typography only does a disservice to the meaning of the passage — and it is meaning that we are about.

To a church that is overcome with arrogance and pride, Paul says that all the spiritual gifts in the world mean nothing if they are not practiced in love. Yes, the church was gifted spiritually, but their gifts were worthless because they lacked the fulfillment of the most important goal of our life: to love God and through him to love one another.

I can hear Paul punctuate his words as they are being written down. Good grief, Corinthians. Love is patient. It is kind. Do you know anything about love? You are full of envy and boasting and arrogance and rudeness. You know nothing of love; all you know is self-serving resentment that works against the true meaning of love when you rejoice in wrongdoing. You think you are so important, but all the gifts you treasure will one day be gone, and you will be left with nothing because you have neither faith, hope, or love.

Poetry? I don’t think so. Rhetoric? Powerful condemnation appropriate to a people who rejoice in their acceptance of the worse kinds of sexual immorality? Yes.

I am glad that 1 Cor 13 was not read at my wedding. I am sorry that translations treat apostolic condemnation as pretty words.

William D. [Bill] Mounce posts every Monday about the Greek language, exegesis, and related topics at Koinonia. He is the author of numerous books, including the bestselling Basics of Biblical Greek, and general editor for Mounce's Complete Expository Dictionary of the Old and New Testament Words. He served as the New Testament chair of the English Standard Version Bible translation. Learn more and visit Bill's blog (co-authored with scholar and his father Bob Mounce) at www.billmounce.com.

Comments

[David Bissett]

Dr M, thanks for this posting! I got out my Greek NT and read (and thought) along with your article. I've been following you here for only a few weeks, and appreciate your ministry here. Thanks,db

[Jugulum]

Dr. M,

I was discussing your article on my Facebook page with some friends, and we had a thought.

I had said:

When you read the "love does not" lists, Paul is saying them pointedly. With a bit of a barb. A smackdown. But the pointedness doesn't come across the way we usually read the chapter, because Paul said it roundaboutly. Like the article said, we read it poetically--often not even aware of the contextual point. (Especially people who assume it's specifically about romantic love.)

If he'd said it directly--"Love doesn't act how you've been behaving!"--then it would sound weird in a wedding. And if you're aware that's the point, then you'll hear the weirdness.

Someone else said this:

I don't think reading it poetically would necessarily be out of context either - such a reading style adds grandeur, which could more markedly contrast the difference between his love and our fallenness.

That got me thinking.

Maybe Paul wasn't speaking pointedly, so much as disappointedly. Which would work even better with poetic, lofty speech.

Not a barb, but disappointment. Poignantly mixed with hope, because he is writing to the Corinthians to restore them, not to simply condemn them. The wounds of a friend.

A hope and a longing for more than we have. Sadness that his children are loving poorly, but hope that God will transform them. When the perfect comes. A la Romans 8, or 2 Cor. 4:7-18.

What do you think?

[Bill Mounce]

I guess you need to look at your approach and ask if you would think that if there weren't centuries of reading this chapter poetically. How does this fit with chapters 12 and 14? I am not sure he sounds disappointed in those two. These are hard decisions. What would there be about disappointment that would lend itself to poetry? Thanks for the feedback.

[jujubee]

I'm having the passage read at my wedding that is coming up in a month. Although you have a point that the purpose was to condemn and remind the Corinthian church, and not to preach on romantic love, I think it still has a place at weddings. After all, love from/for God is the same love that we learn from Him to have for all. Without love, everything else amounts to nothing. Love is the one thing that adds value to our accomplishments and sacrifices. That applies to the love we have for our church and for our spouse.

[John Williams]

Hi.
These are some of the best comments I have seen on this chapter. Chapter 12 shows how the Corinthians misuse the gifts. Then chapter 14 shows how they misuse two in specific, tongues and prophesy. In fact, the whole book of Corinthians shows how these folks do not love one another, and so this chapter fits the context perfectly. After saying love is patient and love is kind, there are nine negatives, it is not boastful, etc. In my studies, I discovered you can find verses in the previous chapters of 1 Corinthians where they are not patient nor kind, and how they are proud, boastful, selfish, etc. Very few commentators point out what you are saying here, and it is very refreshing to see someone else who has seen this chapter in its real context. By the way, I am a translator for the Mixtec language of Mexico, and the fact that we had to translate "love" as a verb with a direct object helped enlighten us that the focus is on how they love, or better said, don't love, one another.