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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 1 Corinthians 13:5 and Gospel of Philip 11:8

New Testament · Nag Hammadi

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Summary

The Gospel of Philip extends 1 Corinthians' claim that love does not seek its own interests into a refusal to claim possessions as one's own. All that belongs to love is offered to others, making Paul's description a demand about sharing what one has.

Passages

1 Corinthians 13:5

New Testament
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.
55–57 CE (scholarly estimate) Read in 1 Corinthians

Gospel of Philip 11:8

Nag Hammadi
Love [never says it owns] anything, yet [everything] is owned by it. It does not [say “That is mine,”] or, “This is mine,” but instead, [“Everything that is mine] is yours.” Spiritual love is wine as well as fragrance. All who anoint themselves with it [derive good from] it. Those who stand near them also derive good, as do those anointed ones who are standing there. If those who are anointed with ointment leave them and go away, those who are not anointed, who only stand near them, they return to being stuck in their stench. The Samaritan gave nothing to the injured man but wine and oil. It was nothing other than the ointment, and it cured the injuries, because “love covers a multitude of sins.”
180–250 CE (scholarly estimate) Read in the Gospel of Philip

References

“... The quotation of 1 Cor 8:1 in §110 leads into a further discussion of love in §111, with a paraphrase of 1 Cor 13:4–8 (which is logical based on the connection of love ...), followed by an allusion to the Samaritan (Luke 10:34), and a quotation of 1 Pet 4:8. While the author appears to string together quotations, paraphrases, and allusions in a unique way, the combination of 1 Cor 13:4–8 and 1 Pet 4:8 is evident in other early Christian literature (1 Clem. 49.5; Clement, Strom. 4.18; Quis div. 38). ...”
Lorne R. Zelyck, John among the Other Gospels: The Reception of the Fourth Gospel in the Extra-Canonical Gospels (Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2013), 111.

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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1 Corinthians 13:5 and Gospel of Philip 11:8

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