An Apostle's Right Not to Insist on His Rights

Four questions, each built to expect “yes”. The oldest manuscripts put freedom first, “Am I not free? am I not an apostle?”, which ties the chapter to the “liberty” of 8:9. Paul’s sight of the risen Lord is the one he lists last in 15:8, “last of all he was seen of me also”.

“Seal” is sphragis, the wax impression that authenticated a document or marked goods as genuine. The church itself is Paul’s proof of office. In 2 Corinthians 3:2–3 he uses a similar figure: “Ye are our epistle written in our hearts”.

“Answer” is apologia, a formal defence in court, the word of Acts 22:1, “hear ye my defence”. “Examine” is anakrino, the preliminary hearing of 2:15 and 4:3. Paul sets up the rest of the chapter as a speech before a tribunal.

“Power” is exousia, the “liberty” of 8:9: a right. The plural “we” includes Barnabas, named in verse 6. The right in question is to eat and drink at the church’s expense, the ordinary hospitality owed to a travelling teacher.

“A sister, a wife” means a believing wife as a travelling companion. Cephas was married; Mark 1:30 mentions his mother-in-law. The brothers of the Lord are named in Mark 6:3 as James, Joses, Juda and Simon. By the time of this letter their travels were known in Corinth.

Barnabas had partnered Paul on his first journey (Acts 13–14), and they split sharply over Mark (Acts 15:39); Paul still names him as a colleague who kept the same practice. Jewish teachers were expected to have a trade; the Mishnah commends study of the law joined to a worldly occupation (Avot 2:2).

“Charges” is opsonion, a soldier’s pay and rations, the word Paul uses for “the wages of sin” in Romans 6:23. Deuteronomy 20:6 even exempted from battle a man who had planted a vineyard and not yet eaten of it, joining two of Paul’s three examples.

“As a man” is kata anthropon, by merely human reckoning, the phrase of 3:3, “walk as men”. The appeal moves from common sense to Scripture. “The law” here means the Torah, the books of Moses, from which the next verse quotes.

Deuteronomy 25:4 stands between a law limiting the number of stripes a guilty man may receive and the law of a brother’s widow, both about human beings. 1 Timothy 5:18 quotes the same line beside “The labourer is worthy of his reward.” The Greek question expects the answer no.

“Altogether” can mean “entirely” or “surely”. The saying about the ploughman and thresher is not a known quotation from the Old Testament, and may be Paul’s own expansion of the ox law. “Hope” appears three times: the worker labours looking ahead to his share.

Galatians 6:6–7 makes the same point with the same image: “Let him that is taught in the word communicate unto him that teacheth... whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.” “A great thing” is mega, a big matter. Spiritual sowing, material harvest.

“Others” probably means teachers such as Apollos or Cephas, who had accepted support from Corinth. “Suffer” is stego, to cover or bear up, as a roof keeps out rain, the verb of 13:7, “Charity beareth all things”. “Hinder” is enkope, an obstacle cut into a road.

Numbers 18 assigns the priests their portions from the offerings, and Deuteronomy 18:3 specifies the shoulder, the two cheeks and the maw. “Partakers with the altar” describes the division of a sacrifice: part burned on the altar, part eaten by those who served it.

“Ordained” is diatasso, to give orders. This is another explicit command of Jesus, alongside 7:10: “the labourer is worthy of his hire” (Luke 10:7; Matthew 10:10). Paul cites a saying of the Lord and then explains why he has not used it.

“Make void” is kenoo, to empty, the verb of 1:17, where the cross is “made of none effect”. In 2 Corinthians 11:9–10 Paul repeats the vow: “no man shall stop me of this boasting in the regions of Achaia.” Corinth lay in Achaia, so the boast was specifically about this church.

“Woe is me” is the cry of Isaiah 6:5 at his call, and Jeremiah 20:9 describes the same compulsion: “his word was in mine heart as a burning fire shut up in my bones... and I could not stay.” “Necessity” is anagke, the word of 7:26.

“Willingly” and “against my will” are the rhyming pair hekon and akon. “Dispensation” is oikonomia, a steward’s trust, the task of the oikonomoi of 4:1. A slave put in charge of an estate did not earn wages for it; he was simply answerable.

“Without charge” is adapanos, free of expense, found only here. “Abuse not” is katachraomai, to use to the full, the verb of 7:31: Paul will not use his right to the limit. The reward he names is the chance to give away what he could have charged for.

“Gain” is kerdaino, a merchant’s word for making a profit, and it appears five times in four verses. In a trading city the image would land. “Made myself servant” is douloo, to enslave: Paul, who asked “am I not free?”, enslaves himself.

Paul was a Jew, yet he says he “became as” one. Acts shows the practice: he circumcised Timothy “because of the Jews” (16:3) and joined four men in a rite of purification in the temple (21:23–26). The oldest manuscripts add “not being myself under the law”.

“Without law” is anomos; “under the law to Christ” is ennomos Christou, literally “in-lawed to Christ”, a phrase Paul seems to have coined for the occasion. At Athens he quoted a Greek poet, Aratus, to a Gentile audience (Acts 17:28), an example of this approach.

The oldest manuscripts omit “as”: “to the weak I became weak.” These are the weak of chapter 8, whose consciences Paul has been protecting. “I am made” is perfect tense, I have become and remain so, all things to all people.

Where the King James has “this I do”, the earliest copies widen it to “all things I do”. “Partaker thereof with you” is synkoinonos, a fellow sharer, one word holding three ideas: with, common, and partner. Paul pictures himself as one sharer among others in the gospel’s benefits.

The Isthmian Games were held every two years at Isthmia, a few miles from Corinth, and Paul was likely in the city for the games of AD 51. “Race” is stadion, the sprint of one length of the stadium, about 600 feet. “Prize” is brabeion, the word of Philippians 3:14.

“Striveth for the mastery” is agonizomai, to compete. Athletes swore to have trained for ten months before the Olympic games (Pausanias 5.24.9). The Isthmian victor’s crown was a wreath of pine or of dried wild celery, which faded within days.

“Uncertainly” is adelos, without a clear line, like a runner who wanders across lanes. “Fight” is pykteuo, to box, a word found only here in the New Testament. Ancient boxers bound their hands with leather thongs and fought without rounds until one man yielded.

“Keep under” is hypopiazo, literally to strike under the eye, to give a black eye; in Luke 18:5 the unjust judge fears the widow will “weary” him with the same verb. “Castaway” is adokimos, failing the test, disqualified, the word of Romans 1:28, “a reprobate mind”.