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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comRobertson Word Pictures - 1 Corinthians 13:1 - 13:1
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This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
With the tongues (tais glōssais). Instrumental case. Mentioned first because really least and because the Corinthians put undue emphasis on this gift. Plato (Symposium, 197) and many others have written on love, but Paul has here surpassed them all in this marvellous prose-poem. It comes like a sweet bell right between the jangling noise of the gifts in chapters 12 and 14. It is a pity to dissect this gem or to pull to pieces this fragrant rose, petal by petal. Fortunately Paul’s language here calls for little comment, for it is the language of the heart. “The greatest, strongest, deepest thing Paul ever wrote” (Harnack). The condition (ean and present subjunctive, lalō kai mē echō, though the form is identical with present indicative) is of the third class, a supposable case.
But have not love (agapēn de mē echō). This is the crux of the chapter. Love is the way par excellence of 1Co 12:31. It is not yet clearly certain that agapē (a back-formation from agapaō) occurs before the lxx and the N.T. Plutarch used agapēsis. Deissmann (Bible Studies, p. 198) once suspected it on an inscription in Pisidia. It is still possible that it occurs in the papyri (Prayer to Isis). See Light from the Ancient East, p. 75 for details. The rarity of agapē made it easier for Christians to use this word for Christian love as opposed to erōs (sexual love). See also Moffatt’s Love in the N.T. (1930) for further data. The word is rare in the Gospels, but common in Paul, John, Peter, Jude. Paul does not limit agapē at all (both toward God and man). Charity (Latin caritas) is wholly inadequate. “Intellect was worshipped in Greece, and power in Rome; but where did St. Paul learn the surpassing beauty of love?” (Robertson and Plummer). Whether Paul had ever seen Jesus in the flesh, he knows him in the spirit. One can substitute Jesus for love all through this panegyric.
I am become (gegona). Second perfect indicative in the conclusion rather than the usual future indicative. It is put vividly, “I am already become.” Sounding brass (chalchos ēchōn). Old words. Brass was the earliest metal that men learned to use. Our word echoing is ēchōn, present active participle. Used in Luk 21:25 of the roaring of the sea. Only two examples in N.T.
Clanging cymbal (kumbalon alalazon). Cymbal old word, a hollow basin of brass. Alalazō, old onomatopoetic word to ring loudly, in lament (Mar 5:38), for any cause as here. Only two N.T. examples.