The Evangelical Universalist Forum

How should it be translated?

Theology Biblical Theology
#1

The first thing to understand is that Paul is not addressing individuals. The word “you” and “are” are both plural in both instances of “you are” (as well as the single word “you”). Paul is addressing the people as a group, who are part of the assembly at Corinth.

So “God’s temple” is God’s Assembly (or “Church” if you insist). As for the person who φθειριε the Assembly, God will do the same to him, according to Paul. So one would expect that the first clause in 1 Corinthians 3:17, φθειριε would be translated by the same English word. But no, the following translations use two different English words in the translation of φθειριε:

If any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy… (King James Version)
If any one corrupt the temple of God, him shall God destroy…(Darby)
But if any man violate the temple of God, him shall God destroy… (Douay)
If anyone defiles the temple of God, God will destroy him… (NKJV)
God will destroy anyone who defiles his temple…(Rotherham)
If any man defileth the temple of God, him shall God destroy…(RWebster)

This is puzzling, is it not? Isn’t the meaning of “destroy” quite different from that of “defile” or “corrupt” or “violate”?
Some translators understood the inconsistency of translating the word with two different English words, since the verse itself seems to indicate that God will do the same thing to the offender, as the offender did to the “temple” (i.e. to God’s Assembly).
The translators of the following versions render both instances of the word as “destroy”:
ASV, Diaglot, EMTV, ESV, LO, NASB, RV, and Williams.

But does the word even mean “destroy”? Let’s examine the other 5 instances in which the word is used in the NT. The following is the NKJV rendering of the word:

1 Corinthians 15:33 Do not be deceived: “Evil company corrupts good habits.”
2 Corinthians 7:2 Open your hearts to us. We have wronged no one, we have corrupted no one, we have cheated no one.
2 Corinthians 11:3 But I fear, lest somehow, as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, so your minds may be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ.
Ephesians 4:22 that you put off, concerning your former conduct, the old man which grows corrupt according to the deceitful lusts,
Jude 1:10 But these speak evil of whatever they do not know; and whatever they know naturally, like brute beasts, in these things they corrupt themselves .
Revelation 19:2 “For true and righteous are His judgments, because He has judged the great harlot who corrupted the earth with her fornication; and He has avenged on her the blood of His servants shed by her.”

Like the NKJV, several other translations render the word as the verb “corrupts” (or “corrupt” if the subject is plural).
So why can it not be so translated in the both instances of the verb in 1 Corinthians 3:17?

#3

For our sensitivities yes they are different, and yet for them it carried both meanings because to do one would inevitably result in the other.

<φθείρει> / <φθερεῖ> from <φθείρω> ftheirō

1) to corrupt, to destroy; 1a) in the opinion of the Jews, the temple was corrupted or “destroyed” when anyone defiled or in the slightest degree damaged anything in it, or if its guardians neglected their duties; 1b) to lead away a Christian church from that state of knowledge and holiness in which it ought to abide; 1c) to be destroyed, to perish; 1d) in an ethical sense, to corrupt, deprave.

#4

For me the English word “corrupt” carries the connotation of “make sinful”. As such, I would find that translation jarring.

#5

“Corrupt” can carry that connotation. But “corrupt” can also simply mean “waste” or “spoil.”
Here are some versions that translate both instances of the Greek word with the same English word. Would these be acceptable to you?

If anyone ruins God’s sanctuary, God will ruin him… (HCSB)
Whoever shall mar the temple of God, God will mar him… (Murdoch)
If any one the sanctuary of God doth waste, him shall God waste…(YLT)

#6

Yes, the words “ruin” and “waste” do not have for me any inappropriate connotations. I particularly like “ruin”. :slight_smile:

#7

I’m not sure “ruin” really fits the connotations of the other uses of the term, however.

I rather like “corrode”, but can’t get a good English noun for it.

I think the idea is to crumble, or to unmake in a rotting way. The Greek behind the typical word for “destroy” can have the same connotation in the sense of dis-integration, loosing or freeing components from each other, dissolution, dissolve.

#8

Here are all the other instances of “φθειρω” in the New Testament (as translated in the NKJV):

1 Corinthians 15:33 Do not be deceived: “Evil company corrupts good habits.”

2 Corinthians 7:2 Open your hearts to us. We have wronged no one, we have corrupted no one, we have cheated no one.

2 Corinthians 11:3 But I fear, lest somehow, as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, so your minds may be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ.

Ephesians 4:22 that you put off, concerning your former conduct, the old man which grows corrupt according to the deceitful lusts,

Jude 1:10 But these speak evil of whatever they do not know; and whatever they know naturally, like brute beasts, in these things they corrupt themselves (Paidion’s note: or perhaps better, “are corrupted”)

Revelation 19:2 “For true and righteous are His judgments, because He has judged the great harlot who corrupted the earth with her fornication; and He has avenged on her the blood of His servants shed by her.”

So in each instance “corrupt” is the operative verb, according to the NKJV. Why should it be any different in 1 Corinthians 3:17?

#9

I did a little more investigation, and I found one instance in the Septuagint Apocrypha, in which the word was translated as “destroyed” in all English translations that I checked.

The reference is Wisdom 16:27. The Catholic Douay translated the verse as:

The word in this verse was also rendered as “destroyed” by the translators of the 1769 Oxford Apocrypha, the New English Bible with Apocrypha, and the Orthodox Study Bible.

But I still don’t think that in the sentence, “If anyone φθειριε God’s temple, God will φθειριε him” that this justifies translating the second “φθειριε” as “destroy” and the first “φθειριε” as something else.

#10

The root word <φθείρω> ftheirō (and its various cognates) is replete right across both Testaments, and if you’re going to render the two occurrences the same for 1Cor 3:17 then “defile” would seem a reasonable option, given that the references are in relation to “temple”, IMO.

Interestingly… “temple” <ναον> naon <ναος> naos in these verses is better rendered “shrine” i.e., “the dwelling of a deity” which given religiously pagan Corinth such would have been everywhere and thus Paul’s use of the words here.