1 Corinthians 13:8-10

“Charity never faileth. As to prophecies, they shall be done away; as to tongues, they shall cease; as to knowledges, they shall be done away. 9. For we know in part, and we prophesy in part. 10. But when that which is perfect is come, that which is in part shall be done away.”

The first words: never faileth, are, as it were, the theme of the following passage. This is why the subject: charity, is repeated. The best proof of the absolute value of charity is its eternal permanence in contrast to everything else, even the most excellent; and the subjective persistence of charity in the believer (1 Corinthians 13:7) is the prelude, as it were, of this objective permanence.

It seems as if the verb ought to be in the future; but the present is here, as often, that of the idea.

The two readings: πίπτει and ἐκπίπτει, have almost the same meaning: the former, however, is the simpler and more probable. An allusion to the spot from which the fall takes place (ἐκ) is unnecessary. The verb πίπτειν, to fall, cannot, as Holsten would have it, refer solely to the value of charity in this sense: It never loses its worth. The following antitheses: shall be done away, shall cease, prove clearly that its duration is the point in question. Prophesying and speaking in tongues will cease, but not loving.

The transient character of gifts, even the most eminent, such as prophecy and knowledge (between which Paul introduces, as an inferior gift, speaking in tongues), proves their relative and secondary value. The Vatic. reads the singular προφητεία; all the other documents have the plural.

To what epoch does the abolition of prophecy belong? If history is consulted, it seems to answer: toward the end of the second and during the third century. For the Doctrine of the Twelve Apostles shows us the prophets still in full activity in the first half of the second century. But the apostle's answer, in 1 Corinthians 13:10, certainly makes the abolition of prophecy, as well as that of tongues and of knowledge, coincident with the advent of the perfect state; consequently with Christ's glorious coming, which will introduce this state. It is vain to attempt to fix an interval between the abolition announced in 1 Corinthians 13:8 and the τὸ τέλειον ἐλθεῖν, the advent of perfection, of 1 Corinthians 13:10. But if, according to this text, the total abolition of gifts cannot take place before the end of the present economy, there may come about a modification in their phenomenal manifestation. The very figure which the apostle uses in 1 Corinthians 13:11 easily leads to the idea of a gradual metamorphosis, which will pass over their mode of manifestation. For the speaking of the child, its mode of feeling and thinking, do not give place suddenly to the analogous faculties of the mature man; the change in these three respects takes place insensibly and progressively. So the spiritual gifts granted to the primitive Church, while accompanying and supporting the Church to the very threshold of the perfect state, need not do so necessarily in the same form as at the beginning. Prophecy may be transformed into animated preaching; speaking in tongues may appear in the form of religious poetry and music; knowledge continue to accomplish its task by the catechetical and theological teaching of Christian truth (see on chap. 14 conclusion).

In speaking of tongues Paul substitutes for the word καταργεῖσθαι, be done away, the term παύεσθαι, to cease, become silent. This feverish agitation of discoursings in tongues, which uplifted the Church of Corinth, will calm down.

The reading γνώσεις, knowledges, of the Sinaït. and the Greco-Lats., is regarded by most, even by Tischendorf, as an assimilation to the preceding substantives. But sufficient account has not been taken of Rückert's remarks. It is not the true knowledge which shall cease; it is only the various fragments of knowledge, received here below (γνώσεις), which shall pass away to give place to perfect knowledge (1 Corinthians 13:12).