Nathan is posting regularly on his learning of Greek. I’m sure that’s going to be helpful to all sorts of other people. Most recently he’s been getting down to it with the BAGD – the big boys’ lexicon. His particular examination raises some questions in my mind. The verses he is looking at are interesting in themselves.
24 Do you not know that in a race the runners all compete, but only one receives the prize? Run in such a way that you may win it. 25 Athletes exercise self-control in all things; they do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable one. 26 So I do not run aimlessly, nor do I box as though beating the air; 27 but I punish my body and enslave it, so that after proclaiming to others I myself should not be disqualified. (1 Corinthians 9:24-27 NRSV)
24 Οὐκ οἴδατε ὅτι οἱ ἐν σταδίῳ τρέχοντες πάντες μὲν τρέχουσιν, εἷς δὲ λαμβάνει τὸ βραβεῖον; οὕτως τρέχετε ἵνα καταλάβητε. 25 πᾶς δὲ ὁ ἀγωνιζόμενος πάντα ἐγκρατεύεται, ἐκεῖνοι μὲν οὖν ἵνα φθαρτὸν στέφανον λάβωσιν, ἡμεῖς δὲ ἄφθαρτον. 26 ἐγὼ τοίνυν οὕτως τρέχω ὡς οὐκ ἀδήλως, οὕτως πυκτεύω ὡς οὐκ ἀέρα δέρων· 27 ἀλλὰ ὑπωπιάζω μου τὸ σῶμα καὶ δουλαγωγῶ, μή πως ἄλλοις κηρύξας αὐτὸς ἀδόκιμος γένωμαι.
The passage is replete with metaphors drawn from the experience of (especially) the Isthmian games which Paul may have experienced first hand.1 The use to which he puts them is loose enough to invite caution. He is clearly not intending to suggest that only one person can achieve salvation. The passage as a whole suggests that his emphasis is on training rather than competing, and the key idea controlling the later metaphors is that “athletes exercise self-control”. The exercises described in vv26-27 are, it seems to me, best understood as part of the gymnasium training package. That is part of what makes the passage so interesting. Paul shows no sign of discomfort with the imagery of the gym, but seems at ease in the culture. (The other part of what makes it interesting, of course, is the immediacy of this kind of imagery for today’s fitness-obsessed society of largely unfit people.)
It is the training metaphor, therefore, that renders translations of verse 27 like RSV “I pommel my body” or NIV “I beat my body” and Nathan’s own “I black my eyes” so dubious. It’s indisputable that ὑπωπιάζω does mean “give someone a black eye” but the phrase makes little sense if it is taken literally. No-one in training injures themselves on purpose. Incidentally, this also means the verse gives no real support to the use of the flagellum or cilice. A literal meaning is often not a nuance of a colloquial meaning, but a distraction from it.
Without my trying to offer an exact translation, it seems to me that the heart of these closing verses is best captured by a paraphrase something like this:
Notes“I don’t jog around taking my eye off the ball, nor do I ponce about shadow-boxing. Instead I put my body through a punishing training schedule, so that I don’t become one of those who tell others what to do, but themselves collapse before the finishing line.”
- Murphy O’Connor St Paul’s Corinth (1983) p 16 [↩]
16 responses so far ↓
1 Bob MacDonald // Apr 14, 2008 at 8:45 pm
If Paul was collapsed before the finishing line, would any of us coming up behind this father of ours not lend him a hand - even if we heartily disagreed with some of the things people had said about him or drawn from his teachings? I wonder.
2 Kevin Sam // Apr 14, 2008 at 9:22 pm
It seems like everyone is getting into the 1 Cor.9:26 passage beginning with TC, then Nathan and now you. I agree, Paul was definitely not talking about flagellum or cilice. Perhaps you already know that in ancient Greek culture, the gymnasium was widely used center for exercise. I think your paraphrase is overly-interpretive of exercise in a gymnasium setting, but nevertheless, it does capture the sense of physical training.
3 mike // Apr 14, 2008 at 9:34 pm
well, I like it. Good translation Doug.
Kevin Same:
What’s the difference between paraphrase and translation in your mind?
4 Kevin Sam // Apr 15, 2008 at 2:41 am
Mike, I wasn’t trying to minimize Doug’s translation. Perhaps I should have used the word “translation” because, Doug, you do look into the original Greek I’m sure. But I said “paraphrase” because such dynamic translations, such as the Message bible can be so “unliteral” that it sounds like paraphrase bibles, i.e., Living Bible.
5 dim bulb // Apr 15, 2008 at 5:41 am
I haven’t read JMO’C’s St Paul’s Corinth so what is exactly meant by St Paul’s having experienced the games first hand? Is it meant to suggest that St Paul witnessed/participated the games? It’s my understanding that the competitors in the games were nude, not something that I think would sit well with St Paul. Perhaps “first hand” is a bit to strong an expression.
6 1 Corinthians 9:27 Redux « Discipulus Scripturae // Apr 15, 2008 at 6:33 am
[...] original post and Doug’s response. [...]
7 Nathan Stitt // Apr 15, 2008 at 6:36 am
I shared this post with my pastor and we both loved it. I have responded with a revised translation in my latest post.
8 doug // Apr 15, 2008 at 9:21 am
To be fair, Mike, I did call it a paraphrase myself.
Dim Bulb, JMO’C says that the games took place in Corinth in 49 and 51 so likely while Paul was there. That kind of “first hand”.
9 Peter Kirk // Apr 15, 2008 at 12:04 pm
As I see it, there is a danger with your translation that it gets taken too literally. Similarly with most published translations. It sounds as if Paul is calling on Christians to take literal bodily exercise. But surely he isn’t, this is all part of the image. Compare also 1 Timothy 4:8: while Paul does not denigrate bodily exercise, what he is really teaching through the imagery in both passages is the importance of training oneself in godliness. If Paul is putting his body through anything, it is not a literal exercise programme but abstinence from sin and from pleasures which might distract from the Lord’s work.
Bob, if in a literal race Paul collapsed before the finishing line and was helped across it, that would be grounds for disqualification, as in this story from the 1908 Olympics. But I guess that is not true in the spiritual world.
10 doug // Apr 15, 2008 at 2:40 pm
Peter, that’s an interesting observation. I think my question for you is whether anyone is in more danger of taking my English metaphors literally than they were 2000 years ago of taking Paul’s Greek metaphors literally.
11 Peter Kirk // Apr 15, 2008 at 4:51 pm
Good question, Doug. I would suggest that a more literal translation of Paul’s words, something like “I give my body a black eye and lead it in slavery”, could never be understood literally, but your “I put my body through a punishing training schedule” could. Perhaps to the original readers also this passage was so clearly non-literal that it could not be misunderstood as literal. Anyway I would presume that these words are not what would normally be used by someone going into training for the Isthmian Games: a boxer would certainly not punch himself! So I don’t think “I put my body through a punishing training schedule”, words which an athlete in training might actually say, is a very accurate translation.
12 Gentle Wisdom » I give my body a black eye // Apr 15, 2008 at 5:20 pm
[...] Doug responded to Nathan’s first version by noting that The passage is replete with metaphors drawn from the experience of (especially) the Isthmian games which Paul may have experienced first hand. … his emphasis is on training rather than competing … Paul shows no sign of discomfort with the imagery of the gym, but seems at ease in the culture. (The other part of what makes it interesting, of course, is the immediacy of this kind of imagery for today’s fitness-obsessed society of largely unfit people.) [...]
13 mike // Apr 15, 2008 at 6:16 pm
Thanks for the clarification Kevin (and sorry for misspelling your last name). I just wanted to double check. Often times, its hard to understand how those two words are used.
14 Boxing with metaphors: round 2 » MetaCatholic // Apr 15, 2008 at 7:28 pm
[...] conversation about 1 Corinthians 9:27 seems to be growing. See TC, Nathan (and again) and my previous post. Now the pugilistic Peter Kirk has stepped into the ring, and I need to exchange a few punches with [...]
15 The literary Bible: the winner’s wreath (redux) « He is Sufficient // May 2, 2008 at 12:03 pm
[...] (Doug Chaplin): here, here and [...]
16 Translating Metaphor | Kouya Chronicle // Jul 29, 2008 at 2:31 pm
[...] He goes on to say: The passage is replete with metaphors drawn from the experience of (especially) the Isthmian games which Paul may have experienced first hand. The use to which he puts them is loose enough to invite caution. He is clearly not intending to suggest that only one person can achieve salvation. The passage as a whole suggests that his emphasis is on training rather than competing, and the key idea controlling the later metaphors is that “athletes exercise self-control”. The exercises described in vv26-27 are, it seems to me, best understood as part of the gymnasium training package. That is part of what makes the passage so interesting. Paul shows no sign of discomfort with the imagery of the gym, but seems at ease in the culture. (The other part of what makes it interesting, of course, is the immediacy of this kind of imagery for today’s fitness-obsessed society of largely unfit people.) read more. [...]
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