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1 Corinthians

About this book
Chapter 13

1 If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels,⁠ but I do not have love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.⁠ 2 And if I have prophecy, and know all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith so that I can remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing.⁠ 3 If I give away everything I own, and if I give over my body in order to boast, but do not have love, I receive no benefit. 4 Love is patient, love is kind, it is not envious. Love does not brag, it is not puffed up.⁠ 5 It is not rude, it is not self-serving, it is not easily angered or resentful.⁠ 6 It is not glad about injustice, but rejoices in the truth. 7 It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. 8 Love never ends. But if there are prophecies, they will be set aside; if there are tongues, they will cease; if there is knowledge, it will be set aside.⁠ 9 For we know in part, and we prophesy in part,⁠ 10 but when what is perfect comes, the partial will be set aside. 11 When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. But when I became an adult, I set aside childish ways. 12 For now we see in a mirror indirectly, but then we will see face to face.⁠ Now I know in part, but then I will know fully, just as I have been fully known. 13 And now these three remain: faith, hope, and love. But the greatest of these is love.⁠

Texts in conversation

Compare LXX Numbers 12:8 and 1 Corinthians 13:12

Septuagint · New Testament

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Summary

In Numbers 12, God says he speaks with Moses face to face, openly and not in riddles, while other prophets receive only visions. Paul echoes this in 1 Corinthians 13, promising that all believers will one day see God face to face.

Passages

LXX Numbers 12:8

Septuagint
7 My servant Moses is not so; he is faithful in all my house. 8 I will speak to him mouth to mouth in appearance, and not in riddles; and he has seen the glory of the Lord; and why were you not afraid to speak against my servant Moses? 9 And the great anger of the Lord was upon them, and he departed.
300–201 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in LXX Numbers

1 Corinthians 13:12

New Testament
11 When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. But when I became an adult, I set aside childish ways. 12 For now we see in a mirror indirectly, but then we will see face to face. Now I know in part, but then I will know fully, just as I have been fully known. 13 And now these three remain: faith, hope, and love. But the greatest of these is love.
55–57 CE (scholarly estimate) Read in 1 Corinthians

References

“... In 13:12 Paul alludes to Numbers 12:6–8, which contrasts Moses’ prophetic experience with that of all other prophets. Whereas other prophets receive revelation through visions and dreams (12:6; compare Joel 2:28), Moses experiences the presence of the Lord face to face (stoma kata stoma), not indirectly (ou di ainigmatōn) and sees his form (LXX: ‘glory’): ‘With him I speak face to face, clearly, and not in riddles, and he beholds the form of the LORD.’ Paul says, ‘Now we see in a mirror [di esoptrou] indirectly [en ainigmati], but then face to face [prosōpon pros prosōpon]. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.’ According to Leviticus Rabbah 1:14, there was a debate regarding the difference between Moses and the other prophets based on Numbers 12:8. Both sides held that Moses, like the other prophets, saw the Lord through a mirror (reading the word for ‘appearance’ [mar’eh] in Numbers 12:8 as though it meant ‘mirror,’ another meaning of the word used for ‘vision’ [mar’â] in Numbers 12:6). Some thought that the difference was that the other prophets saw the Lord through a series of mirrors rather than just one, while others thought that Moses saw the Lord through a polished mirror while the other prophets saw him through a blurred one ...”
Roy E. Ciampa and Brian S. Rosner, "1 Corinthians" in Beale, G. K., and D. A. Carson, editors. Commentary on the New Testament Use of the Old Testament (Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2007), 741.

References are not endorsements of their contents. Read each reference in full to understand its author's intentions in using these texts.

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LXX Numbers 12:8 and 1 Corinthians 13:12

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