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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 13:8 and Pirkei Avot 5:16

New Testament · Rabbinic

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Summary

In 1 Corinthians, Paul describes love as enduring beyond all other gifts, language also found in Rabbinic tradition in Pirkei Avot, which distinguishes between love that lasts and love that fades when based on self-interest.

Passages

1 Corinthians 13:8

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

Pirkei Avot 5:16

Rabbinic · Mishnah
15 There are four types among those who sit before the sages: a sponge, a funnel, a strainer, and a sieve. A sponge soaks up everything. A funnel takes in at one end and lets out at the other. A strainer lets out the wine and retains the sediment. A sieve lets out the coarse meal and retains the choice flour. 16 All love that depends on something, when the thing ceases, the love ceases; and all love that does not depend on anything will never cease. What is an example of love that depended on something? Such was the love of Amnon for Tamar. And what is an example of love that did not depend on anything? Such was the love of David and Jonathan.
190–230 CE (scholarly estimate) Read in Pirkei Avot

References

"... Love: Here in the Greco-Roman sense of agape. Compare with 1 Corinthians 13. When the thing is lost, the love is lost: If love is based upon some instrumental purpose, other than the well-being of the beloved, it will evaporate with the loss of the ulterior motive ..."
Shaye J. D. Cohen, The Oxford Annotated Mishnah: A New Translation of the Mishnah with Introductions and Notes (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2022), 747.

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 13:8 and Pirkei Avot 5:16

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