1 Corinthians 13:12
Text: (NA27):
Transliteration (Accordance):
Translation (Thiselton 2006):
Grammatical Analysis (Zerwick/BDAG, meanings in this context):
Comment from the first edition of The First Epistle to the Corinthians (NICNT: Eerdmans, 1987), by Gordon D. Fee (via Accordance):
Text: (NA27):
βλέπομεν γὰρ ἄρτι δι᾿ ἐσόπτρου ἐν αἰνίγματι, τότε δὲ πρόσωπον πρὸς πρόσωπον· ἄρτι γινώσκω ἐκ μέρους, τότε δὲ ἐπιγνώσομαι καθὼς καὶ ἐπεγνώσθην.
Transliteration (Accordance):
blepomen gar arti di’ esoptrou en ainigmati, tote de prosōpon pros prosōpon; arti ginōskō ek merous, tote de epignōsomai kathōs kai epegnōsthēn.
Translation (Thiselton 2006):
For we are seeing the present only by means of a mirror indirectly; but then it will be face to face. For the present I come to know part by part; but then I shall come to know just as fully as I have been known.
Grammatical Analysis (Zerwick/BDAG, meanings in this context):
ἄρτι : now.
ἔσοπτρον : mirror, of polished metal, usually bronze, δι᾿ ἐσόπτρου in a mirror.
αἴνιγμα : riddle, so ἐν αἰνίγματι "in a puzzling way", obscurely, indistinctly.
μέρος : part, ἐκ μέρους partially, in part.
ἐπιγνώσομαι : I shall really know, future of ἐπιγινώσκω know thoroughly/perfectly.
ἐπεγνώσθην : passive I am known (by God).
ἔσοπτρον : mirror, of polished metal, usually bronze, δι᾿ ἐσόπτρου in a mirror.
αἴνιγμα : riddle, so ἐν αἰνίγματι "in a puzzling way", obscurely, indistinctly.
μέρος : part, ἐκ μέρους partially, in part.
ἐπιγνώσομαι : I shall really know, future of ἐπιγινώσκω know thoroughly/perfectly.
ἐπεγνώσθην : passive I am known (by God).
Comment from the first edition of The First Epistle to the Corinthians (NICNT: Eerdmans, 1987), by Gordon D. Fee (via Accordance):
12 Paul now proceeds to another analogy, to which he appends an immediate application. With their repeated “now, but then” language, these sentences bring out more sharply the contrast between the Corinthians’ present existence and that of the future. The fact that they are tied to verse 11 by an explanatory “for” further indicates, as we have argued, that the preceding analogy has basically to do with two modes of existence, not with “growing up” and putting away childish behavior.
The first sentence, which literally reads “For at the present time we look through a looking-glass en ainigmati, but then face to face,” is particularly relevant to their setting, since Corinth was famous as the producer of some of the finest bronze mirrors in antiquity. That suggests that the puzzling phrase en ainigmati is probably not as pejorative as most translations imply. More likely the emphasis is not on the quality of seeing that one experiences in looking into a mirror that would surely have been an affront to them but to the indirect nature of looking into a mirror as opposed to seeing someone face to face. The analogy, of course, breaks down a bit since one sees one’s own face in a mirror, and Paul’s point is that in our present existence one “sees” God (presumably), or understands the “mysteries,” only indirectly. It is not a distorted image that we have in Christ through the Spirit; but it is as yet indirect, not complete. To put all this in another way, but keeping the imagery, “Our present ‘vision’ of God, as great as it is, is as nothing when compared to the real thing that is yet to be; it is like the difference between seeing a reflected image in a mirror and seeing a person face to face.” In our own culture the comparable metaphor would be the difference between seeing a photograph and seeing someone in person. As good as a picture is, it is simply not the real thing.
With the second set of sentences in this verse, Paul brings into focus all that has been argued since verse 8. Picking up the words of contrast from verse 12a (“at the present time,” “then”) but the content of verse 9, he concludes, “Now I know in part, but then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.” By this Paul intends to delineate the difference between the “knowing” that is available through the gift of the Spirit and the final eschatological knowing that is complete. What is not quite clear is the exact nuance of the final clause that expresses the nature of that final knowing, “even as I am fully known.” It is often suggested that the passive, “as I am fully known,” “contains the idea of electing grace.” Attractive as that is theologically, most likely it simply refers to God’s way of knowing. God’s knowledge of us is immediate full and direct, “face to face,” as it were; at the Eschaton, Paul seems to be saying, we too shall know in this way, with no more need for the kinds of mediation that the mirror illustrates or that “prophecy” and the “utterance of knowledge” exemplify in reality.
Thus Paul’s point with all of this is now made. In verse 8 he argued that love, in contrast to charismata, never comes to an end. Precisely because the gifts have an end point, which love does not, they are of a different order altogether. This does not make them imperfect, although in a sense that too is true; it makes them relative. Paul’s concern in verses 9–12 has been to demonstrate the strictly “present age” nature of these gifts. They shall pass away (verse 8); they are “in part” (verse 9); they belong to this present existence only (verses 10–12). Most likely the purpose of all this is simply to reinforce what was said in verses 1–3, that the Corinthians’ emphasis on tongues as evidence for spirituality is wrong because it is wrongheaded, especially from people who do not otherwise exhibit the one truly essential expression of the Spirit’s presence, Christian love. Good as spiritual gifts are, they are only for the present; Christian love, which the Corinthians currently lack, is the “more excellent way” in part because it belongs to eternity as well as to the present.
The first sentence, which literally reads “For at the present time we look through a looking-glass en ainigmati, but then face to face,” is particularly relevant to their setting, since Corinth was famous as the producer of some of the finest bronze mirrors in antiquity. That suggests that the puzzling phrase en ainigmati is probably not as pejorative as most translations imply. More likely the emphasis is not on the quality of seeing that one experiences in looking into a mirror that would surely have been an affront to them but to the indirect nature of looking into a mirror as opposed to seeing someone face to face. The analogy, of course, breaks down a bit since one sees one’s own face in a mirror, and Paul’s point is that in our present existence one “sees” God (presumably), or understands the “mysteries,” only indirectly. It is not a distorted image that we have in Christ through the Spirit; but it is as yet indirect, not complete. To put all this in another way, but keeping the imagery, “Our present ‘vision’ of God, as great as it is, is as nothing when compared to the real thing that is yet to be; it is like the difference between seeing a reflected image in a mirror and seeing a person face to face.” In our own culture the comparable metaphor would be the difference between seeing a photograph and seeing someone in person. As good as a picture is, it is simply not the real thing.
With the second set of sentences in this verse, Paul brings into focus all that has been argued since verse 8. Picking up the words of contrast from verse 12a (“at the present time,” “then”) but the content of verse 9, he concludes, “Now I know in part, but then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.” By this Paul intends to delineate the difference between the “knowing” that is available through the gift of the Spirit and the final eschatological knowing that is complete. What is not quite clear is the exact nuance of the final clause that expresses the nature of that final knowing, “even as I am fully known.” It is often suggested that the passive, “as I am fully known,” “contains the idea of electing grace.” Attractive as that is theologically, most likely it simply refers to God’s way of knowing. God’s knowledge of us is immediate full and direct, “face to face,” as it were; at the Eschaton, Paul seems to be saying, we too shall know in this way, with no more need for the kinds of mediation that the mirror illustrates or that “prophecy” and the “utterance of knowledge” exemplify in reality.
Thus Paul’s point with all of this is now made. In verse 8 he argued that love, in contrast to charismata, never comes to an end. Precisely because the gifts have an end point, which love does not, they are of a different order altogether. This does not make them imperfect, although in a sense that too is true; it makes them relative. Paul’s concern in verses 9–12 has been to demonstrate the strictly “present age” nature of these gifts. They shall pass away (verse 8); they are “in part” (verse 9); they belong to this present existence only (verses 10–12). Most likely the purpose of all this is simply to reinforce what was said in verses 1–3, that the Corinthians’ emphasis on tongues as evidence for spirituality is wrong because it is wrongheaded, especially from people who do not otherwise exhibit the one truly essential expression of the Spirit’s presence, Christian love. Good as spiritual gifts are, they are only for the present; Christian love, which the Corinthians currently lack, is the “more excellent way” in part because it belongs to eternity as well as to the present.
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