This is my defense to those who would examine me. (A)Do we not have the right to eat and drink? (B)Do we not have the right to take along a believing wife,[a] as do the other apostles and (C)the brothers of the Lord and (D)Cephas? Or is it only Barnabas and I who have no right to refrain from working for a living? (E)Who serves as a soldier at his own expense? (F)Who plants a vineyard without eating any of its fruit? Or who tends a flock without getting some of the milk?

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Footnotes

  1. 1 Corinthians 9:5 Greek a sister as wife

This is my answer to those who question my authority.[a] Don’t we have the right to live in your homes and share your meals? Don’t we have the right to bring a believing wife[b] with us as the other apostles and the Lord’s brothers do, and as Peter[c] does? Or is it only Barnabas and I who have to work to support ourselves?

What soldier has to pay his own expenses? What farmer plants a vineyard and doesn’t have the right to eat some of its fruit? What shepherd cares for a flock of sheep and isn’t allowed to drink some of the milk?

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Footnotes

  1. 9:3 Greek those who examine me.
  2. 9:5a Greek a sister a wife.
  3. 9:5b Greek Cephas.