English Language resources: Bible texts analysis – 1...

English Language resources: Bible texts analysis – 1 Corinthians 13: 1-13

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Textual analysis of a passage from two versions of the Bible

Text A is the King James Bible

translation of 1 Corinthians 13:1-13.

The King James Bible (KJB) was first

translated in 1611 but was revised in

1769. This is the version in general use

today.

Text B is the Good News Bible

translation of the same text. The Good

News Bible is a modern dynamic

equivalent of the Bible, first published in

1976.

This is an analysis of the two texts

showing the ways in which language

has changed over time.

Audience The audience can considered on three

levels:

The original audience of the passage

was first century Christians in the

Roman Empire, specifically located

in Corinth, Greece.

The KJB audience was a Christian

society with limited access to the

Bible until the KJB appeared in

1611. The translation maintains

ceremony and tradition in the

translation. It was used in church

but, increasingly, families and

individuals with growing literacy had

access to the text. The KJB was

produced in order to give an

authoritative translation acceptable

to majority of church goers during a

time of religious conflict. (See

http://www.crossref-

it.info/articles/71/English-Bible-

Translations An authoritative state

Bible)

There is a wide modern-day

audience for the Good News Bible.

The GNB version is deliberately

more straightforward than more

traditional translations, thereby

widening its potential audience. The

translation of the GNB was

undertaken by American scholars and

aimed at an American audience. (See

http://www.crossref-

it.info/articles/71/English-Bible-

Translations > Biblical translation and

language change The Good News Bible

1976 Context).

Purpose

The main purpose of the passage is to

teach and encourage. It is an excerpt

from a letter from Paul to the Christian

community of Corinth telling them of his

thinking on important matters to do with

behaviour. The advice is not given

through direct instruction. There are no

imperative verbs. Instead he uses himself

as an example: ‘but if I have no love, I

am nothing.’ v.2, GNB. This stresses the

importance of love as the main criterion

for a good Christian life.

The passage is meant to show the

importance of love and delineates the

qualities of love (e.g. ‘patient and kind’

v.2, GNB), so might be said to be

informational. Love is an abstract concept

and the exploration of love shows how it

can be put into practice. Paul gives

examples of loving behaviour in vv. 4 & 5

using active verbs in the KJB (eg. ‘Charity

suffereth long’), while adjectives are used

for this purpose in the GNB e.g. ‘patient’,

(not) ‘jealous’, (not) ‘selfish’.

Content/genre This is a sacred text, specifically from the

New Testament of the Bible. The passage

comes from a text known as Saint Paul’s

Epistle to the Corinthians. An epistle is a

letter. In the New Testament the epistle

was a particular genre. It was a letter

directed at the members of a church, in

this case the inhabitants of Corinth. It

was meant to go beyond the personal

context and relate important matters of

doctrine not only to these church

members, but also to the wider existing

Christian community.

This is an extract from a much longer

letter, so we do not see here any typical

genre features of the opening and closing

http://www.crossref-it.info/articles/71/English-Bible-Translations






English Language resources: Bible texts analysis –

1 Corinthians 13: 1-13

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of a letter. However, a letter writer’s

typical use of the first person pronoun

‘I’ and the recounting of personal

experience is evident: ‘When I was a

child, I spake as a child’ KJB v.11. This

is equally true of Text B. The author

seems to be a teacher who is giving the

benefit of his experience in order to

instruct the readers in the ways of God,

the personal pronouns indicating that

these are lessons he too has had to

learn.

It is a letter of advice to the Corinthian

congregation in the early Church.

Therefore it is inevitably conveying

values and beliefs. It starts with a

warning that the gifts of the Holy Spirit

like prophecy are not enough. The key

thing is love. Without it the other things

count for little.

Paul goes on to describe the qualities of

love, which will only be fully understood

when the full glory of God is revealed:

‘when that which is perfect is come’ v.

10 KJB. Then humanity will come to full

realisation, ‘then I shall know even as

also I am known’ v. 12 KJB. The nature

of this perfection is not spelt out in

either of the texts, perhaps

underscoring the message that human

comprehension of God is only partial.

We also see the wider aspects of the

epistle in the definitions of charity/love.

There is an authoritative tone in the

closing sentence (v.13) of both

versions, which foregrounds the fact

that this is a text laying down the

foundations of Christian belief.

Discourse The discourse structure is based on an

argument which is linked together by

the term charity/love. Both texts

conclude with a re-emphasis of its

importance above the other two

qualities of hope and faith.

The narrator/teacher in the KJB aligns

himself with his audience using the

inclusive ‘we’ in verse 9. This is also

true of the GNB but maybe the alignment

is less strong with the use of ‘our gifts of

knowledge’ rather than ‘we know’. The

writer includes himself as part of

humanity who has only a partial

knowledge of God in verse 12.

A distinctive feature of both texts comes

from the high level of patterning in the

language, but this is more marked in the

KJB. We see this in the use of repetition

of ‘though I’ followed by verb and object

in verses 1-3. There is the repetition of

verb followed by ‘as a child’ in verse 11.

Repeating the ‘child’ simile also re-

iterates the idea that the partial human

understanding of the divine will grow and

develop into full ‘adult’ understanding

once in heaven.

Echoing the KJB ‘though I’ construction,

the GNB has the repetition of ‘I may’

followed by a verb and object in verses 1-

3. The modal verb ‘may’ is a more

popular way now to express some level of

possibility. In this instance the important

idea is that it is possible to do much but it

is love that needs to underpin everything.

In verse 11 the verbs ‘spake’,

‘understood’, and ‘thought’ are replaced

by the abstract nouns ‘speech’, ‘feelings’

and ‘thinking’, making the construction

less formal. The same happens with verse

7 where in the KJB there is the repeated

structure of a verb followed by ‘all

things’. In the GNB the verbs ‘believeth’,

‘hopeth’ and ‘endureth’ have been

replaced by the nouns ‘faith’, ‘hope’ and

‘patience’, again making it less formal

and less obviously patterned.

The patterning and sound repetition has

the effect of making both texts, and

particularly Text A, seem poetic. The use

of other poetic devices adds to this effect.

There is the use of the simile ‘as a

sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal’ in

verse 1 of the KJB. This becomes ‘noisy

gong or a clanging bell’ in the GNB. It

could be argued that the GNB adjectives

carry more negative connotations –

suggesting that speech without love is

not positive.



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There is also the personification of

charity, ‘Charity suffereth long, and is

kind’ in KJB v.4. This personification of

love occurs in the GNB too. The

audience of both texts might make a

connection to the person and life of

Jesus who ‘personified’ love, since they

would recognise that the qualities

ascribed to charity/love could be said to

be those of Jesus.

In biblical times the text would have

been aimed at an audience who would

have heard it read aloud in church and

some of whom could read. As a written

text the epistle could be more complex

because it would be read more than

once and considered carefully. The

repetitions in the text in the KJB

translation may have made it easier to

take in for those in the original setting

of a seventeenth century listening

audience (many of whom were

illiterate).

Graphology

Both texts employ the graphological

features associated with the Bible. The

KJB Text A is divided into chapters and

verses with a new line for each verse.

In the GNB Text B the verse numbers

are still there but the text conforms to

modern paragraphing conventions.

The GNB also has a heading, which

gives information about the content of

the passage. This is typical of the more

user-friendly approach of modern

translations.

Grammar

Both texts have many marks of

formality. In Text A there are long

sentences. In particular verses 2, 4-7, 8

and 12 each comprise one long complex

sentence. There is the use of semi

colons to divide up these long

sentences. In Text B verse 8 and verse

12 have been split into two sentences.

This modifies the formality in the

modern translation and perhaps lends

simplification / clarity to the text.

There is evidence in Text A of

grammatical changes which have taken

place in the ensuing years. We no longer

have the verb ending ‘-eth’ on the third

person singular present tense as in

‘believeth’, ‘hopeth, ‘endureth’ v. 7. The

past tense of ‘speak’ here is ‘spake’ v. 11

rather than the modern ‘spoke’.

There is archaic syntax in Text A. This is

seen in the negative construction, ‘have

not charity’ which is repeated in v.1, 2,

and 3. In modern English, we would be

more likely to use the dummy auxiliary

verb ‘do’ to write ‘I do not have charity’

instead of ‘have not’. A similar inversion

is found in v. 13, ‘And now abideth faith,

hope and charity’. The effect of both

these examples is to give weight to the

dominant idea of the passage, ‘charity’.

The GNB is intended for a wide audience

including children and non-native

speakers. There has been a clear attempt

in this translation to make the ideas more

accessible. An example of this is the end

of v.12. KJB says: ‘now I know in part;

but then shall I know even as I am

known.’ The repetition sounds poetic and

emphasizes the importance of the

knowledge which will be gained ‘when

that which is perfect is come’. But it is

not as clear as the GNB translation:

‘What I know now is only partial; then it

will be complete – as complete as God’s

knowledge of me.’ The use of the passive

voice in the KJB ‘I am known’ omits God.

The GNB makes this clear by ‘God’s

knowledge of me’.

Lexis

There are examples of archaic lexis in

Text A e.g. ‘bestow’ v.3 and ‘vaunteth’

v.4. Although the word ‘unseemly’ is still

used today, the construction in which it is

placed in v.5 is archaic. Although these

words are no longer in common use, they

would probably not hinder understanding.

The number of abstract nouns (e.g. ‘faith,

hope, charity/love’ v. 13, iniquity/evil’

v.6) makes parts of the text less

accessible. This may be a result of its



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original genre and audience. It is a

philosophical text which requires its

audience to think deeply on the nature

of love and so inevitably it introduces

abstract ideas.

There is a great emphasis on the power

of love with the evocation of powerful

concepts such as the ‘gift of prophecy’

and the ability to ‘move mountains’

which pale into insignificance compared

to the importance of love.

Another important lexical area is

incompleteness. ‘For we know in part’

KJB v.9. We see reality as ‘a dim image

in a mirror’ GNB v.12. This is contrasted

with ‘what is perfect’ which comes from

God. In v. 13 of Text A we are told that

faith, hope, charity ‘abideth’. They are

eternal values whereas prophecy,

tongues and knowledge ‘shall fail /

cease / vanish’ v.8. The contrasting

positive and negative lexical choices

focus in on the power of love against

the failure or disintegration of other

things which might initially seem more

‘real’ or tangible.

Semantics

There has been some semantic change

involving the lexis. There is the term ‘a

glass’ in verse 12. This is translated as

mirror in the GNB and other modern

translations. We still have the term

‘looking glass’ although it is now

considered quite dated (eg. its

association with a Victorian story Alice

Through the Looking Glass).

The most obvious example of semantic

change is ‘charity’. What Paul meant

here was unselfish love (‘agape’ in

Greek). ‘Charity’ has undergone a

narrowing of meaning and now

generally means ‘giving to the poor’ or

‘generosity’. However, the term ‘love’

has many meanings and is often

principally used to refer to romantic

love (‘eros’ in Greek). Neither term

conveys the meaning as well as the

original Greek.

Phonology

There is the use of repetition throughout

Text A, e.g. ‘though I’ followed by verb

and object in verses 1-3 and ‘as a child’

in v.11. There is also repetition in the

modern Text B, as in the repetition of

‘love’ in vv. 4-8. But the grammatical

structures in this text are less patterned.

Concepts

Growing informalisation is an important

feature of language change. It is seen in

all types of texts. Even though the Bible

remains a formal text because of its

serious nature and the importance it has

in the culture of Christian countries,

many modern translations have become

more informal. It is considered important

that it should be easily understood. This

has taken precedence over the literary

features that may have been admired in

the KJB. As a result there is less formal

patterning in the GNB.

In Text A verses 2 and 3 begin with ‘And’.

This would be seen today as a mark of

informality. However, such an attitude

results from the prescriptive rules for

correct English that came in with

eighteenth century grammarians like

Bishop Lowth. The process of

standardising English particularly

developed at that time. However, no such

rules existed at the time of the KJB. The

use of ‘and’ at the beginning of a

sentence would not be a marker of

informality.

There is also the use of the comma after

‘and’ in v.4 of Text A. Nowadays this

would be considered a non-standard form

as laid down with the standardisation of

English in the eighteenth century.

In verse 11 in Text A Paul is referring to

the change from childhood to adulthood

and says, ‘when I became a man’. In Text

B this is changed to ‘now that I am an

adult’. As Paul was, in fact, a man this

term could still have been used and is

used in some modern translations.

However, given that the term ‘man /

mankind’ is gradually narrowing to refer

English Language resources: Bible texts analysis – 1 Corinthians 13: 1-13

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primarily to the male sex rather than

universal humankind, the GNB has

chosen to use ‘adult’ instead. This could

be seen as a move towards gender

neutrality, perhaps in an attempt to

widen the accessibility of the text.

Context

This passage from the Bible deals very

much with universal issues i.e.

love/charity, faith and hope, so the

subject matter of the text does not

obviously relate to one period. It is not

limited to the New Testament times

when it was first written, the time of the

KJB translation or the modern era of the

GNB. The references and examples

used by Paul to get his message across

transcend any age.

There is little difference in the underlying

message of these texts, but there are

times when the emphasis varies. The KJB

translation was produced at a time of

great religious fervour and turmoil. This

intensity seems to be there. The KJB says

in verse 12, ‘but then I shall know’ while

the GNB says, ‘then it will be complete’.

The use of the first person pronoun ‘I’

plus verb in the KJB sounds much more

like a personal spiritual journey. The GNB

is trying to be intelligible to a wide and

diverse audience and does not have that

same impact of personal revelation.



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1 Corinthians 13:1-13 KJB 1 Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not charity, I am

become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal.

2 And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries, and all

knowledge; and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have

not charity, I am nothing.

3 And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to

be burned, and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing.

4 Charity suffereth long, and is kind; charity envieth not; charity vaunteth not itself,

is not puffed up,

5 Doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked,

thinketh no evil;

6 Rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth;

7 Beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things.

8 Charity never faileth: but whether there be prophecies, they shall fail; whether

there be tongues, they shall cease; whether there be knowledge, it shall vanish

away.

9 For we know in part, and we prophesy in part.

10 But when that which is perfect is come, then that which is in part shall be done

away.

11 When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a

child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things.

12 For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part;

but then shall I know even as also I am known.

13 And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity.

Text A



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Text A

1 Corinthians 13:1-13 GNB

Love 1 I may be able to speak the languages of human beings and even of angels, but if I

have no love, my speech is no more than a noisy gong or a clanging bell. 2 I may

have the gift of inspired preaching; I may have all knowledge and understand all

secrets; I may have all the faith needed to move mountains — but if I have no love, I

am nothing. 3 I may give away everything I have, and even give up my body to be

burned — but if I have no love, this does me no good.

4 Love is patient and kind; it is not jealous or conceited or proud; 5 love is not ill-

mannered or selfish or irritable; love does not keep a record of wrongs; 6 love is not

happy with evil, but is happy with the truth. 7 Love never gives up; and its faith,

hope, and patience never fail.

8 Love is eternal. There are inspired messages, but they are temporary; there are

gifts of speaking in strange tongues, but they will cease; there is knowledge, but it

will pass. 9 For our gifts of knowledge and of inspired messages are only partial; 10

but when what is perfect comes, then what is partial will disappear.

11 When I was a child, my speech, feelings, and thinking were all those of a child;

now that I am an adult, I have no more use for childish ways. 12 What we see now is

like a dim image in a mirror; then we shall see face-to-face. What I know now is only

partial; then it will be complete — as complete as God's knowledge of me.

13 Meanwhile these three remain: faith, hope, and love; and the greatest of these is

love.

Text B

English Language resources: Bible texts analysis – 1...

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