complete verse (1 Corinthians 14:7)

Following are a number of back-translations of 1 Corinthians 14:7:

  • Uma: “For example stuff/instruments that are made-to-sound, like a lalowe [5-holed bamboo flute] or a kasapi [kind of lute]: if the lalowe isn’t blown well, or if the kasapi isn’t plucked correctly, the people who hear won’t know what lagu is being played.” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
  • Yakan: “Na, for example, if there is a person playing a flute or the Jews harp, the people are unable to hear what tune that is, if his sounding is not clear/distinct.” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
  • Western Bukidnon Manobo: “For take, for example, musical instruments. If someone plays the flute or plays the kutiyapi (boat lute), but he does not know how to play, his companions will not really know what tune it is he is playing.” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
  • Kankanaey: “Even what we play (of musical instruments) such as the nose-flute or guitar, if its sounds are identical, the listener has no way to distinguish its tune.” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
  • Tagbanwa: “For it’s like, for example, stringed-instruments. If the tune is not clearly-sounded, nobody will know what (tune/song) is being played.” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)
  • Tenango Otomi: “You can see that if a blowing instrument is played and if a stringed instrument is played, but they don’t follow the tune, then it isn’t known what tune it is.” (Source: Tenango Otomi Back Translation)

Translation commentary on 1 Corinthians 14:7

The accent in the Greek word translated as even is uncertain, and so the meaning is also unclear. If the word is accentuated as in the UBS Greek text, it must mean “yet, still,” and that is the basis of the translation even. However, the sequence of thought is not entirely clear, and for this reason many commentators prefer the form “in the same way”: “In the same way, lifeless instruments such as….”

As in verse 6, the rhetorical question expects the answer “It will not be possible!”

Lifeless: this word is not used elsewhere in the New Testament. Here the contrast is between inanimate objects and human beings.

The phrase such as the flute or the harp is literally “whether flute or harp.” However, Paul is not contrasting two different types of musical instruments, but choosing two instruments at random. Thus Revised Standard Version and Good News Bible‘s rendering such as is correct.

What is played translates two Greek verbs, literally “what is being fluted or harped.”

The final part of this verse can be restructured as follows: “… if people do not play them [the instruments] distinctly, how will the listener know what tune is being played?”

Quoted with permission from Ellingworth, Paul and Hatton, Howard A. A Handbook on Paul’s First Letter to the Corinthians, 2nd edition. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1985/1994. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .