1 Corinthians 13:11
When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things.
1 Corinthians 13:11 in other translations
| BSB | When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I set aside childish ways. |
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| WEB | When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I felt as a child, I thought as a child. Now that I have become a man, I have put away childish things. |
| ASV | When I was a child, I spake as a child, I felt as a child, I thought as a child: now that I am become a man, I have put away childish things. |
| YLT | When I was a babe, as a babe I was speaking, as a babe I was thinking, as a babe I was reasoning, and when I have become a man, I have made useless the things of the babe; |
| DARBY | When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I felt as a child, I reasoned as a child; when I became a man, I had done with what belonged to the child. |
| BBE | When I was a child, I made use of a child's language, I had a child's feelings and a child's thoughts: now that I am a man, I have put away the things of a child. |
| Webster | When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things. |
What does 1 Corinthians 13:11 mean?
Jamieson-Fausset-Brown
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown, 1871 · public domain
Barnes' Notes
I spake as a child. Just beginning to articulate, in a broken and most imperfect manner. The idea here is, that our knowledge at present, compared with the knowledge of heaven, is like the broken and scarcely intelligible efforts of a child to speak, compared with the power of utterance in manhood.
I understood as a child. My understanding was feeble and imperfect. I had narrow and imperfect views of things. I knew little. I fixed my attention on objects which I now see to be of little value. I acquired knowledge which has vanished, or which has sunk in the superior intelligence of riper years. "I was affected as a child. I was thrown into a transport of joy or grief on the slightest occasions, which manly reason taught me to despise."--Doddridge.
I thought as a child. Marg., reasoned. The word may mean either. I thought, argued, reasoned in a weak and inconclusive manner. My thoughts, and plans, and argumentations were puerile, and such as I now see to be short-sighted and erroneous. Thus it will be with our thoughts, compared to heaven. There will be, doubtless, as much difference between our present knowledge, and plans, and views, and those which we shall have in heaven, as there is between the plans and views of a child and those of a man. Just before his death, Sir Isaac Newton made this remark: "I do not know what I may appear to the world; but to myself I seem to have been only like a boy playing on the sea-shore, and diverting myself by now and then finding a smoother pebble or a prettier shell than ordinary, while the great ocean of truth lay all undiscovered before me."--Brewster's Life of Newton, pp. 300, 301, edit. New York, 1832.
(1) "thought" "reasoned"
Albert Barnes, 1834 · public domain
Adam Clarke's Commentary
Adam Clarke, 1831 · public domain
Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary on 1 Corinthians 13:8-13
Charity is much to be preferred to the gifts on which the Corinthians prided themselves. From its longer continuance. It is a grace, lasting as eternity. The present state is a state of childhood, the future that of manhood. Such is the difference between earth and heaven. What narrow views, what confused notions of things, have children when compared with grown men! Thus shall we think of our most valued gifts of…
1 Corinthians 13:11 in the original Greek
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Source: STEPBible TAHOT/TAGNT (Tyndale House, CC BY 4.0).
Cross references for 1 Corinthians 13:11
- 1 Corinthians 14:20
Brethren, be not children in understanding: howbeit in malice be ye children, but in understanding be men.
- 1 Corinthians 3:1-2
And I, brethren, could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal, even as unto babes in Christ. I have fed you with milk, and not with meat: for hitherto ye were not able to bear it, neither yet now are ye able.
- Galatians 4:1
Now I say, That the heir, as long as he is a child, differeth nothing from a servant, though he be lord of all;
- Ecclesiastes 11:10
Therefore remove sorrow from thy heart, and put away evil from thy flesh: for childhood and youth are vanity.
Ranked by reader votes · OpenBible.info cross references (CC BY).
Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Context
- 1 Corinthians 13:10
But when that which is perfect is come, then that which is in part shall be done away.
- 1 Corinthians 13:11
When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things.
- 1 Corinthians 13:12
For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known.
1 Corinthians 13:11 in other languages
| Spanish Reina-Valera 1909 | Cuando yo era niño, hablaba como niño, pensaba como niño, juzgaba como niño; mas cuando ya fuí hombre hecho, dejé lo que era de niño. |
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| French Bible J.N. Darby 1885 | Quand j’étais enfant, je parlais comme un enfant, je pensais comme un enfant, je raisonnais comme un enfant; quand je suis devenu homme, j’en ai fini avec ce qui était de l’enfant. |
| German Elberfelder 1871 | Als ich ein Kind war, redete ich wie ein Kind, dachte wie ein Kind, urteilte wie ein Kind; als ich ein Mann wurde, tat ich weg, was kindisch war. |
| Latin Clementine Vulgate | Cum essem parvulus, loquebar ut parvulus, sapiebam ut parvulus, cogitabam ut parvulus. Quando autem factus sum vir, evacuavi quæ erant parvuli. |