1 Corinthians 4-6
Complete Jewish Bible
4 So, you should regard us as the Messiah’s servants, as trustees of God’s secret truths. 2 Now the one thing that is asked of a trustee is that he be found trustworthy. 3 And it matters very little to me how I am evaluated by you or by any human court; in fact, I don’t even evaluate myself. 4 I am not aware of anything against me, but this does not make me innocent. The one who is evaluating me is the Lord. 5 So don’t pronounce judgment prematurely, before the Lord comes; for he will bring to light what is now hidden in darkness; he will expose the motives of people’s hearts; and then each will receive from God whatever praise he deserves.
6 Now in what I have said here, brothers, I have used myself and Apollos as examples to teach you not to go beyond what the Tanakh says, proudly taking the side of one leader against another. 7 After all, what makes you so special? What do you have that you didn’t receive as a gift? And if in fact it was a gift, why do you boast as if it weren’t? 8 You are glutted already? You are rich already? You have become kings, even though we are not? Well, I wish you really were kings, so that we might share the kingship with you! 9 For I think God has been placing us emissaries on display at the tail of the parade, like men condemned to die in the public arena: we have become a spectacle before the whole universe, angels as well as men. 10 For the Messiah’s sake we are fools, but united with the Messiah you are wise! We are weak, but you are strong; you are honored, but we are dishonored. 11 Till this very moment we go hungry and thirsty, we are dressed in rags, we are treated roughly, we wander from place to place, 12 we exhaust ourselves working with our own hands for our living. When we are cursed, we keep on blessing; when we are persecuted, we go on putting up with it; 13 when we are slandered, we continue making our appeal. We are the world’s garbage, the scum of the earth — yes, to this moment!
14 I am not writing you this to make you feel ashamed, but, as my dear children, to confront you and get you to change. 15 For even if you have ten thousand trainers in connection with the Messiah, you do not have many fathers; for in connection with the Messiah Yeshua it was I who became your father by means of the Good News. 16 Therefore I urge you to imitate me. 17 This is why I have sent you Timothy, my beloved and trustworthy child in the Lord. He will remind you of the way of life I follow in union with the Messiah Yeshua and teach everywhere in every congregation.
18 When I didn’t come to visit you, some of you became arrogant. 19 But I am coming to you soon, if the Lord wills; and I will take cognizance not of the talk of these arrogant people but of their power. 20 For the Kingdom of God is not a matter of words but of power. 21 Which do you prefer — should I come to you with a stick? or with love in a spirit of gentleness?
5 It is actually being reported that there is sexual sin among you, and it is sexual sin of a kind that is condemned even by pagans — a man is living with his stepmother! 2 And you stay proud? Shouldn’t you rather have felt some sadness that would have led you to remove from your company the man who has done this thing? 3 For I myself, even though I am absent physically, am with you spiritually; and I have already judged the man who has done this as if I were present. 4 In the name of the Lord Yeshua, when you are assembled, with me present spiritually and the power of our Lord Yeshua among us, 5 hand over such a person to the Adversary for his old nature to be destroyed, so that his spirit may be saved in the Day of the Lord.
6 Your boasting is not good. Don’t you know the saying, “It takes only a little hametz to leaven a whole batch of dough?” 7 Get rid of the old hametz, so that you can be a new batch of dough, because in reality you are unleavened. For our Pesach lamb, the Messiah, has been sacrificed. 8 So let us celebrate the Seder not with leftover hametz, the hametz of wickedness and evil, but with the matzah of purity and truth.
9 In my earlier letter I wrote you not to associate with people who engage in sexual immorality. 10 I didn’t mean the sexually immoral people outside your community, or the greedy, or the thieves or the idol-worshippers — for then you would have to leave the world altogether! 11 No, what I wrote you was not to associate with anyone who is supposedly a brother but who also engages in sexual immorality, is greedy, worships idols, is abusive, gets drunk or steals. With such a person you shouldn’t even eat! 12 For what business is it of mine to judge outsiders? Isn’t it those who are part of the community that you should be judging? 13 God will judge those who are outside. Just expel the evildoer from among yourselves.[a]
6 How dare one of you with a complaint against another go to court before pagan judges and not before God’s people? 2 Don’t you know that God’s people are going to judge the universe? If you are going to judge the universe, are you incompetent to judge these minor matters? 3 Don’t you know that we will judge angels, not to mention affairs of everyday life? 4 So if you require judgments about matters of everyday life, why do you put them in front of men who have no standing in the Messianic Community? 5 I say, shame on you! Can it be that there isn’t one person among you wise enough to be able to settle a dispute between brothers? 6 Instead, a brother brings a lawsuit against another brother, and that before unbelievers!
7 Actually, if you are bringing lawsuits against each other, it is already a defeat for you. Why not rather be wronged? Why not rather be cheated? 8 Instead, you yourselves wrong and cheat; and you do it to your own brothers! 9 Don’t you know that unrighteous people will have no share in the Kingdom of God? Don’t delude yourselves — people who engage in sex before marriage, who worship idols, who engage in sex after marriage with someone other than their spouse, who engage in active or passive homosexuality, 10 who steal, who are greedy, who get drunk, who assail people with contemptuous language, who rob — none of them will share in the Kingdom of God. 11 Some of you used to do these things. But you have cleansed yourselves, you have been set apart for God, you have come to be counted righteous through the power of the Lord Yeshua the Messiah and the Spirit of our God.
12 You say, “For me, everything is permitted”? Maybe, but not everything is helpful. “For me, everything is permitted”? Maybe, but as far as I am concerned, I am not going to let anything gain control over me. 13 “Food is meant for the stomach and the stomach for food”? Maybe, but God will put an end to both of them. Anyhow, the body is not meant for sexual immorality but for the Lord, and the Lord is for the body. 14 God raised up the Lord, and he will raise us up too by his power.
15 Don’t you know that your bodies are parts of the Messiah? So, am I to take parts of the Messiah and make them parts of a prostitute? Heaven forbid! 16 Don’t you know that a man who joins himself to a prostitute becomes physically one with her? For the Tanakh says, “The two will become one flesh”;[b] 17 but the person who is joined to the Lord is one spirit. 18 Run from sexual immorality! Every other sin a person commits is outside the body, but the fornicator sins against his own body. 19 Or don’t you know that your body is a temple for the Ruach HaKodesh who lives inside you, whom you received from God? The fact is, you don’t belong to yourselves; 20 for you were bought at a price. So use your bodies to glorify God.
Footnotes
- 1 Corinthians 5:13 Deuteronomy 13:6(5); 17:7,12; 19:19; 21:21; 22:21, 24; 24:7
- 1 Corinthians 6:16 Genesis 2:24
Kehillah in Corinth I 4-6
Orthodox Jewish Bible
4 So let a man consider us as Gabba’im of Rebbe Melech HaMoshiach and mefakkechim (stewards, supervisors) of the sodot (mysteries) of Hashem.
2 Moreover, it is sought in mefakkechim that one be found that has ne’emanut (faithfulness).
3 But to me it is a very small thing that I be brought, as it were, before your Bet Din for you to play dayanim (religious judges) judging me, or that I am judged by Bnei Adam on their merely human Yom HaDin; I do not even act as Dayan (Judge of a Rabbinical Court) of myself.
4 I am aware of nothing against myself, but not in this have I been yitzdak (justified); it is the L-rd who is my Shofet (Judge BERESHIS 18:25; DANIEL 7:13 14).
5 Therefore, do not judge anything before the time, until the Bias Adoneinu [Moshiach], who both will bring to Ohr (Light) the hidden things of the choshech (darkness) and manifest the motives of the levavot. And then the tehillah (praise) each one will receive will be from Hashem. [IYOV 12:22; TEHILLIM 90:8]
6 Now these things, Achim b’Moshiach, I made a dimyon (comparison) applied with respect to myself and Apollos for your sake, that through us you may learn not to go beyond what things have been written [2:13], lest you are puffed up as ba’alei ga’avah (conceited, haughty persons) in favor of one or against the other.
7 For who makes you so distinguished? And, by the way, what do you have which you did not receive? And if indeed you were given it, why this ga’avah, this boastfulness as if you had not received it?
8 Already you have so much, already you ascended to osher (riches) and without us [Shlichim]! You became melechim (kings); I would that you did indeed become melechim that also we might reign as melechim with you.
9 For, omein, I believe that Hashem has exhibited us, the Shlichim of Rebbe, Melech HaMoshiach, as last in the program, condemned to death, because, like wretches under a mishpat mavet (death sentence), we became displayed in the arena for the eyes of the Olam Hazeh, malachim as well as Bnei Adam. [TEHILLIM 71:7]
10 We are kesilim (fools) because of Moshiach, but you are chachamim in Moshiach; we are weak, but you are strong; you are treated with honor; we dishonor.
11 Until the present sha’ah (hour) we both hunger, and thirst, and are naked, and are beaten and homeless.
12 And we have parnasah, toiling with our own hands; being reviled, we make a bracha; being persecuted, we endure it:
13 Being defamed by loshon hora, we conciliate. We have become what the earth wants swept out the door, something considered trash the Olam Hazeh wants removed. [YIRMEYAH 20:18; EKHAH 3:45]
14 The purpose of this iggeret is not to bring you under bushah (shame). I write these things as admonishing my beloved yeladim.
15 For, though you may have in Moshiach morei derech numbering ten thousand, you have not many avot, for in Moshiach through the Besuras HaGeulah I [T.N. Notice 1C4:6 indicates the canon of inerrant Scripture is closed and may not be added to.] became your abba.
16 Therefore, I encourage you, imitate me.
17 Because of this very thing, I sent Timotiyos to you who is my beni haahuv (beloved son) and ne’eman (faithful), trustworthy in Hashem, who will remind you of my derech baKodesh in Moshiach, even as I give shiurim everywhere in every kehillah.
18 Now as to my coming to you, some were puffed up, [YIRMEYAH 43:2]
19 But I will come shortly to you, im yirtzeh Hashem (if the L-rd wills), and I will find out not the speech of the ones having been puffed up but the ko’ach (power).
20 For the Malchut Hashem depends not on the talk [of the ish sefatayim (the eloquent speaker)] but on ko’ach (power).
21 What do you want? That I should come to you, so to speak, with an abba’s switch or in ahavah and an anavat ruach (a spirit of meekness)?
5 Zenut (fornication) is actually reported among you, and such zenut which is not even among the Goyim, that one of you Corinthians has the isha (wife) of his abba [VAYIKRA 18:8].
2 And you have been puffed up with ga’avah (pride). Should you not rather have been filled with agmat nefesh (grief), so that he who has done this would have been taken away from among you?
3 For I indeed being not present in habasar but being not absent in the Ruach Hakodesh have already, as being present, pronounced the Rebbe, Melech HaMoshiach’s Bet Din mishpat on the one who has done such a thing.
4 In the name of Adoneinu Yehoshua, when you have assembled in your shul (Ya 2:2) and I am with you by the same Ruach Hakodesh along with the gevurat Adoneinu Yehoshua,
5 You are to transmit and hand over to Hasatan such a person for the churban of the basar (3:16-17), that his neshamah may be spared in the Yom Hashem (AMOS 5:18; MALACHI 3:19; YOEL 2:1-17; TZEFANYAH 1:14-18).
6 Your boasting is not good. Do you not have da’as that a little chametz all the mixture leavens?
7 Purge out the old chametz (leavened bread), that you may be issa chadasha (new dough, batzek, deaf dough, having no indication of fermentation), as you are indeed like matzot (unleavened bread). More than that, our Korban Pesach has been sacrificed, Moshiach. [SHEMOT 12:3-6,21]
8 So let us celebrate Pesach, not with old chametz, nor with the chametz of kavvanah ra’ah (malice) and wickedness, but with matzot of kenut (sincerity) and emes. [SHEMOT 12:14,15; DEVARIM 16:3]
9 I wrote to you in the iggeret not to mix with those engaging in acts of zenut (fornication),
10 Not meaning to completely disassociate from the zannayim of the Olam Hazeh or those guilty of chamdanut (greed) and the ones practicing hona’ah (swindling) or those guilty of avodah zarah (idol worship), als (since) in that case you would have to exit the Olam Hazeh.
11 But, now I wrote to you not to mix with any “Ach b’Moshiach” who is a zannay (fornicator) or a kamtzan (miser) or an oved elilim (idolater) or a megadef (reviler) or a shikkor (drunkard) or a shoded (robber); with such a man do not sit at tish (table), do not share betzi’at halechem (breaking of bread).
12 For what is it to me to sit as a dayan in the Bet Din and then judge ones outside the kehillah? Will your Bet Din not judge the ones within [the kehillah]?
13 But the outsiders Hashem judges. UVI’ARTA HARA MIKKIR’BECHA "You must purge the evil from among you" [DEVARIM 17:7; 19:19; 22:21,24; 24:7]
6 Does anyone of you having a dispute with an Ach b’Moshiach dare to be judged before the resha’im (unrighteous, evildoers) and not before the Bet Din of the Kadoshim?
2 Or do you not have da’as that the Kadoshim will sit in mishpat over the Olam Hazeh? And if the Olam Hazeh is to be judged by you, are you incompetent dayanim to try the smallest cases?
3 Do you lack da’as that the malachim will come before our Bet Din? Not to mention the things of Olam Hazeh!
4 If, then, you have cases concerning matters of the Olam Hazeh, how could you appoint as your Bet Din dayanim men who have no standing in the kehillah?
5 I speak to your bushah (shame). Is there not among you even one chacham (wise man) who will be able to sit in mishpat between his Achim b’Moshiach?
6 But an Ach b’Moshiach takes another Ach b’Moshiach to court, and this before the courtroom of Apikorosim (Unbelievers)?
7 Already, therefore, it is a total defeat for you, that you have lawsuits with one another. Why not rather suffer wrong? Why not rather be cheated?
8 But you yourselves do wrong and practice hona’ah (cheating), and this to your Achim b’Moshiach.
9 Or do you not have da’as that the resha’im (unrighteous ones) will not inherit the Malchut Hashem? Do not be deceived! Neither zannayim (fornicators) nor ovdei elilim (idolaters) nor mena’afim (adulterers) nor effeminate call boys nor homosexuals [IYOV 13:9; VAYIKRA 18:20; DEVARIM 22:22; VAYIKRA 18:22]
10 Nor ganavim (thieves) nor kamtzanim (misers) nor shikkorim (drunkards) nor megadefim (revilers) nor the ones doing hona’ah (swindling)—none of these will inherit the Malchut Hashem.
11 And some of you were these things. But you were washed and made tehorim (clean), you were made to be Am Kadosh, you were made to be yitzdak im Hashem in the name of Rebbe, Melech HaMoshiach Yehoshua Adoneinu and in the Ruach Hakodesh of Eloheinu.
12 "All things to me are proper (10:23)!" But not all things are beneficial. "All things to me are proper!" But I will not be mastered by anything.
13 "Okhel (food) for the stomach and the stomach for okhel," but Hashem will destroy both one and the other (1:8; 3:13; 5:5); but the body is not for zenut but for Hashem, and Hashem for the body.
14 And Hashem brought about the Techiyah from HaMesim for Moshiach Adoneinu and will also bring about the Techiyas HaMesim for us through His gevurah (power).
15 Do you not have da’as that your gufot (bodies) are evarim (members, limbs) of Moshiach? Should I then take the evarim (members) of Moshiach and make them evarim (members) of a zonah (prostitute)? Chas v’Shalom! (G-d forbid!)
16 Or do you not have da’as that of the one joining himself to a zonah, that V’HAYU L’VASAR ECHAD ("And they will be as one flesh" BERESHIS 2:24)?
17 But the one with deveykus ("cleaving, attachment" DEVARIM 11:22) to Hashem has achdus (union) in the Ruach Hakodesh with Elohim.
18 Flee zenut (MISHLE 6:23-7:27)! Every chet is outside the body, but the one guilty of zenut commits chet against the body itself.
19 Or have you no da’as that your body is a Heikhal Hashem of the Ruach Hakodesh in you, whom you have from Hashem, and you are not your own?
20 For [the Geulah redemption of] you [from the Golus of Chet] was purchased with a price; therefore, bring kavod to Hashem with your gufot. [TEHILLIM 74:2]
Copyright © 1998 by David H. Stern. All rights reserved.
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