I Corinthians 4:7 KJB "For WHO MAKETH THEE TO DIFFER FROM ANOTHER? and what hast thou that thou didst not receive? now if thou didst receive it, why dost thou glory, as if thou hadst not received it?"
I personally just love this verse. It gives all the glory to God, and none to man. If I am different in any way, or have any good, or spiritual gifts or knowledge of the truth, or am a Christian at all, it is solely because of the good pleasure of Almighty God. Most versions teach the same thing here, even the NKJV and NIV.
NKJV - "Who makes you to differ from another?"
NIV - "Who makes you different from anyone else?"
ASV 1901, Revised Version 1885 - "For who maketh thee to differ?
But when we look at the NASB, NET and Holman Standard something is just a little bit out of place.
The NASB asks: "For WHO REGARDS YOU AS SUPERIOR?" instead of "For who maketh thee to differ from another?" What does the NASB even mean? and how would you answer the question?
The obvious answer to the question in the KJB, NKJV and NIV is "God, of course". Now if you answer "God" to the NASB, does God regard me as superior? I thought He said He chose the foolish, weak, and despised to confound the wise, mighty and exalted, that no flesh should glory in His presence.
The NASB has translated this same Greek word in Acts 15:9 as "and He MADE NO DISTINCTION between us and them, cleansing their hearts by faith." So too do the NET and the Holman versions.
The ESV is a little off as well. It says: "For WHO SEES ANYTHING DIFFERENT IN YOU?" Gone is the truth that it is GOD who makes this difference in us. He just "sees" the difference, but didn't make it.
Other Versions
Geneva bible - "For who separateth thee?"
Tyndale - "For who preferreth thee?"
Lamsa's 1933 translation of the Syriac Peshitta - "For who has examined you?"
Catholic Douay Version 1950 - "For who singles thee out?"
The New English Bible 1970 - "Who makes you, my friend, so important?"
Living Bible 1971 - "What are you so puffed up about?"
The Message 2002 - "For who do you know that really knows you, knows your heart?"
Jubilee Bible 2010 -"For who makes thee to judge?"
Worldwide English N.T. 1998 - "If you are better, who made you that way?"
Agreeing with the meaning found in the King James Bible are the following Bible translations - Whiston's N.T. 1745, Wesley N.T. 1755, Worsley N.T. 1770, Webster Bible 1833, Noyes TranslationLiving Oracles N.T. 1835, Sawyer N.T. 1858, Darby 1890, Young's 1898, the R.V. 1885, ASV 1901, Rotherham's Emphasized bible 1902, Worrell N.T. 1904, 1770, J.B. Phillips 1972, NKJV 1982, Word English Bible 2000, Green's Literal 2005, New Heart English Bible 2010, NIV 2011, Modern English Version 2014 - "Who makes you to differ from another?", the Tree of Life Version 2015, The Passion Translation 2017.
Foreign Language Versions = KJB
The Spanish Reina Valera 1960 and the Spanish Reina Valera Gómez 2010 - "Porque ¿quién te distingue?", the French Martin 1744, French Ostervald 1996 and the French Louis Segond 2007 - "En effet, qui est celui qui te distingue?", The Italian La Nuova Diodati 1991, and the Italian Nuova Riveduta 2006 - “Infatti, chi ti distingue dagli altri?”, The Portuguese A Biblia Sagrada and the Almeida Corrigida 2009 - “Porque quem te diferença?”,
Bible Commentators
John Gill - “For who maketh thee to differ from another,.... This question, and the following, are put to the members of this church, who were glorying in, and boasting of the ministers under whom they were converted, and by whom they were baptized, to the neglect and contempt of others; when the apostle would have them consider, and whatever difference was made between them and others, was made, not by man, but God; that whatever good and benefit they had enjoyed under their respective ministers, were in a way of receiving, and from God; and therefore they ought not to glory in themselves, nor in their ministers, but in God, who had distinguished them by his favours: whatever difference is made among men, is of God; it is he that makes them to differ from the rest of the creation”
Matthew Henry - “What had they to glory in, when all their peculiar gifts were from God? They had received them, and could not glory in them as their own, without wronging God… But it may be taken as a general maxim: We have no reason to be proud of our attainments, enjoyments, or performances; all that we have, or are, or do, that is good, is owing to the free and rich grace of God. Boasting is for ever excluded. There is nothing we have that we can properly call our own: all is received from God.
Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New Testament - Maketh thee to differ (σε διακρινει — Distinguishes thee, separates thee, as in Acts 159. All self-conceit rests on the notion of superiority of gifts and graces as if they were self-bestowed or self-acquired.”
Hodges Commentary on 1 Corinthians. “Who maketh thee to differ from another?” - “It is here assumed that every thing, whether natural or gracious, by which one man is favorably distinguished from another, is due to God; and being thus due to him and not to the possessor, is a cause of gratitude, but not of self-complacency or of self-applause.”
Albert Barnes on 1 Corinthians 4:7 - "This verse contains a reason for what Paul had just said; and the reason is, that all that any of them possessed had been derived from God, and no endowments whatever, which they had, could be laid as the foundation for self-congratulation and boasting. The apostle here doubtless has in his eye the teachers in the church of Corinth, and intends to show them that there was no occasion of pride or to assume pre-eminence. As all that they possessed had been given of God, it could not be the occasion of boasting or self-confidence."
Hawker's Poor Man's Commentary on 1 Corinthians 4:7 - "The Apostle is here speaking by a figure of speech, in allusion to what he had said of the similitude the Gospel Ministry bears to planting, or watering, in the preceding Chapter, And the Apostle follows up, the same doctrine, in those verses, in referring all gifts, whether spiritual, or temporal, to the Lord. And as Paul's design in this representation was to heal the divisions made in the Church by the people classing themselves under different ministers; never could he have taken a more effectual method, than the one he hath here adopted; in bringing all upon a level, to shew, that everything a man hath, either in gifts, or graces, is of the Lord."
Alford's commentary - "He speaks not only to the leaders, but to the members of parties, who imagined themselves superior to those of other parties, as if all, for every good thing, were not dependent on God the Giver."
Ellicott's commentary - "This is the explanation of why such “puffing up” is absurd. Even if one possess some gift or power, he has not attained it by his own excellence or power; it is the free gift of God."
Expositor's Greek New Testament - "But if indeed thou didst receive (it), why glory as one that had not received?” The receiver may boast of the Giver (1 Corinthians 1:31 ), not of anything as his own."
ALL of grace, believing the Book - the King James Holy Bible.
Accept no substitutes.
Will Kinney
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