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OET (OET-LV) Brothers, not little_children be_becoming in_your thinking, but in_the evil, be_child_like, and in_your thinking, mature be_becoming.
OET (OET-RV) Brothers and sisters, don’t be childish in your thinking. You all can be like infants with respect to evil, but in everything else, be mature in your thinking.
In this section Paul instructed the Corinthian believers about how they should worship God together. First, he compared prophecy and tongues. He stressed the value of prophecy for building up the church. Then he said they should conduct their worship services in an orderly and harmonious way. They were not to speak all at once. People who spoke in tongues should have someone to interpret, and women were to remain silent in the assembly.
Here are some other possible section headings:
Good order in worship
The spiritual gifts of prophecy and tongues
Use spiritual gifts to help the church grow
In this paragraph Paul contrasted the purpose of tongues and the purpose of prophecy. The gift of tongues was a sign to unbelievers of God’s judgment upon them. But when the believers prophesied, unbelievers can repent.
Brothers, stop thinking like children.
¶ Brothers and sisters, stop thinking like children think.
¶ Fellow believers, do not keep on being childish in the way you think about speaking in tongues.
Brothers: Paul addressed the believers in Corinth with a friendly term. He spoke to both men and women, so you may wish to use a term that refers to both men and women. See also 14:6a.
stop thinking like children: The Greek clause that the BSB translates stop thinking like children is more literally “do not be children in your diaphragm,” Paul used the diaphragm to represent the center of thought. He said that the believers were thinking like children, with immature opinions.
thinking: In some languages it is natural to have an object of thinking. The implied object of their thinking is the opinions they had about speaking in tongues.See, for example, Thiselton, pp. 1119; Fee, p. 679.
Here are some other ways to translate this clause:
stop thinking like children who don’t know anything
the way you think about the gift of tongues should not be like children think
In regard to evil be infants,
Be as free from evil as infants,
About evil deeds, you should behave like infants.
In regard to evil be infants: Paul wanted believers to know nothing about evil. In some languages it may be natural to make the point of the comparison explicit.
Here are some other ways to translate this clause:
about evil deeds, it is right for you to think like infants
so far as evil is concerned, you should be as innocent as infants
infants don’t know about evil, and you should not either
infants: The Greek word that the BSB translates as infants is often translated as “babies.” It usually refers to a child who is younger than the word that is translated as “children” in 14:20a.
but in your thinking be mature.
but think like adults.
but in the way you think, be as wise/thoughtful as grown ups.
but in your thinking be mature: Paul wanted the Corinthians to think in a way that was spiritually mature. He wanted them to have wise attitudes, and to know what is valuable and useful.
Here is another way to translate this clause:
think like adults
In some languages it may be helpful to reorder the parts of the verse. For example:
20aBrothers and sisters, about speaking in tongues, you(plur) should not think like children, 20cbut you should think like adults. 20bBut concerning evil, it is right for you to think like infants.
Note 1 topic: figures-of-speech / gendernotations
ἀδελφοί
(Some words not found in SR-GNT: Ἀδελφοί μή παιδία γίνεσθε ταῖς φρεσίν ἀλλά τῇ κακίᾳ νηπιάζετε ταῖς δέ φρεσίν τελειοῖ γίνεσθε)
Although Brothers is in masculine form, Paul is using it to refer to any believer, whether man or woman. If it would be helpful in your language, you could express Brothers with a non gendered word or refer to both genders. Alternate translation: [Brothers and sisters]
Note 2 topic: figures-of-speech / metaphor
μὴ παιδία γίνεσθε & τῇ κακίᾳ, νηπιάζετε
(Some words not found in SR-GNT: Ἀδελφοί μή παιδία γίνεσθε ταῖς φρεσίν ἀλλά τῇ κακίᾳ νηπιάζετε ταῖς δέ φρεσίν τελειοῖ γίνεσθε)
Here, much like in [13:11](../13/11.md), Paul compares people to children. He is particularly thinking about how children do not know very much or do very much. Paul does not want the Corinthians to be like children in how children know very little. Rather, he wants the Corinthians to be like children in how children do very little evil. If it would be helpful in your language, you could express this figure of speech as an analogy or in a nonfigurative way. If possible, preserve the metaphor, because Paul has already used “child” language in [13:11](../13/11.md). Alternate translation: [do not be immature, like children, … do very little evil, like children,]
Note 3 topic: figures-of-speech / infostructure
ἀλλὰ τῇ κακίᾳ, νηπιάζετε, ταῖς δὲ φρεσὶν, τέλειοι γίνεσθε
(Some words not found in SR-GNT: Ἀδελφοί μή παιδία γίνεσθε ταῖς φρεσίν ἀλλά τῇ κακίᾳ νηπιάζετε ταῖς δέ φρεσίν τελειοῖ γίνεσθε)
If your language would naturally express the contrast before the comparison, you could move the clause about being mature before the clause about being childlike. Alternate translation: [Rather, become mature in the thoughts, and only be childlike in evil]
τῇ κακίᾳ
˱in˲_the evil
Alternate translation: [about evil]
OET (OET-LV) Brothers, not little_children be_becoming in_your thinking, but in_the evil, be_child_like, and in_your thinking, mature be_becoming.
OET (OET-RV) Brothers and sisters, don’t be childish in your thinking. You all can be like infants with respect to evil, but in everything else, be mature in your thinking.
Note: The OET-RV is still only a first draft, and so far only a few words have been (mostly automatically) matched to the Hebrew or Greek words that they’re translated from.
Acknowledgements: The SR Greek text, lemmas, morphology, and VLT gloss are all thanks to the CNTR.