1 Corinthians 4:8

Amplified Bible

[You behave as if] you are already filled [with spiritual wisdom and in need of nothing more]. Already you have become rich [in spiritual gifts]! You [in your conceit] have ascended your thrones and become kings without us; and how I wish [that it were true and] that you did reign as kings, so that we might reign with you.

Parallel Translations

Easy-to-Read Version
You think you have everything you need. You think you are rich. You think you have become kings without us. I wish you really were kings. Then we could rule together with you.

Revised Standard Version
Already you are filled! Already you have become rich! Without us you have become kings! And would that you did reign, so that we might share the rule with you!

Tyndale New Testament (1525)
Now ye are full: now ye are made rych: ye raygne as kinges with out vs: and I wold to god ye dyd raygne that we might raygne with you.

Hebrew Names Version
You are already filled. You have already become rich. You have come to reign without us. Yes, and I wish that you did reign, that we also might reign with you.

International Standard Version
You already have all you want! You have already become rich! You have become kings without us! I wish you really were kings so that we could be kings with you!Revelation 3:17;">[xr]

New American Standard Bible
You are already filled, you have already become rich, you have become kings without us; and indeed, I wish that you had become kings so that we also might reign with you!

New Century Version
You think you already have everything you need. You think you are rich. You think you have become kings without us. I wish you really were kings so we could be kings together with you.

Update Bible Version
Already you are filled, already you have become rich, you have come to reign without us: yes and I would that you did reign, that we also might reign with you.

Webster's Bible Translation
Now ye are full, now ye are rich, ye have reigned as kings without us: and I wish ye did reign, that we also might reign with you.

English Standard Version
Already you have all you want! Already you have become rich! Without us you have become kings! And would that you did reign, so that we might share the rule with you!

World English Bible
You are already filled. You have already become rich. You have come to reign without us. Yes, and I wish that you did reign, that we also might reign with you.

Wesley's New Testament (1755)
Now ye are full: now ye are rich: ye have reigned as kings without us. And I would ye did reign, that we also might reign with you.

Weymouth's New Testament
Every one of you already has all that heart can desire; already you have grown rich; without waiting for us, you have ascended your thrones! Yes indeed, would to God that you had ascended your thrones, that we also might reign with you!

Wycliffe Bible (1395)
Nowe ye ben fyllid, now ye ben maad riche; ye regnen with outen vs; and Y wolde that ye regnen, that also we regnen with you.

English Revised Version
Already are ye filled, already ye are become rich, ye have reigned without us: yea and I would that ye did reign, that we also might reign with you.

Berean Standard Bible
Already you have all you want. Already you have become rich. Without us, you have become kings. How I wish you really were kings, so that we might be kings with you.

Contemporary English Version
Are you already satisfied? Are you now rich? Have you become kings while we are still nobodies? I wish you were kings. Then we could have a share in your kingdom.

American Standard Version
Already are ye filled, already ye are become rich, ye have come to reign without us: yea and I would that ye did reign, that we also might reign with you.

Bible in Basic English
For even now you are full, even now you have wealth, you have been made kings without us: truly, I would be glad if you were kings, so that we might be kings with you.

Complete Jewish Bible
You are glutted already? You are rich already? You have become kings, even though we are not? Well, I wish you really were kings, so that we might share the kingship with you!

Darby Translation
Already ye are filled; already ye have been enriched; ye have reigned without us; and I would that ye reigned, that *we* also might reign with you.

Etheridge Translation
Now you are satiated, and are rich, and without us have reigned. But I would that you did reign, that we might also reign with you !

Murdock Translation
Now ye are yourselves full, and enriched; and, without us, are on thrones! And I wish ye were enthroned; that we also might reign with you.

King James Version (1611)
Now ye are full, now ye are rich, ye haue reigned as kings without vs, and I would to God ye did reigne, that we also might reigne with you.

New Living Translation
You think you already have everything you need. You think you are already rich. You have begun to reign in God's kingdom without us! I wish you really were reigning already, for then we would be reigning with you.

New Life Bible
You are full. You are rich. You live like kings and we do not. I wish you were kings and we could be leaders with you.

New Revised Standard
Already you have all you want! Already you have become rich! Quite apart from us you have become kings! Indeed, I wish that you had become kings, so that we might be kings with you!

Geneva Bible (1587)
Nowe ye are full: nowe ye are made rich: ye reigne as kings without vs, and would to God ye did reigne, that we also might reigne with you.

George Lamsa Translation
For a long time you have been full and enriched, and you have waxed strong without our counsel. And I would to God you were as kings, so that we also might share with you.

J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
Already, ye have become full, already, ye are become rich, - apart from us, ye are become kings! And I would indeed ye had become kings, that, we also, with you, might have together become kings!

Douay-Rheims Bible
You are now full: you are now become rich: you reign without us; and I would to God you did reign, that we also might reign with you.

Bishop's Bible (1568)
Nowe ye are full, nowe ye are made ryche, ye raigne as kynges without vs, and I woulde to God ye dyd raigne, that we also myght raigne with you.

Good News Translation
Do you already have everything you need? Are you already rich? Have you become kings, even though we are not? Well, I wish you really were kings, so that we could be kings together with you.

Christian Standard Bible®
You are already full! You are already rich! You have begun to reign as kings without us—and I wish you did reign, so that we could also reign with you!

King James Version
Now ye are full, now ye are rich, ye have reigned as kings without us: and I would to God ye did reign, that we also might reign with you.

Lexham English Bible
Already you are satiated! Already you are rich! Apart from us you reign as kings! And would that indeed you reigned as kings, in order that we also might reign as kings with you!

Literal Translation
You are already satisfied; you already became rich; you reigned without us (and oh that you really did reign, so that we also might reign with you!)

Young's Literal Translation
Already ye are having been filled, already ye were rich, apart from us ye did reign, and I would also ye did reign, that we also with you may reign together,

Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
Now ye are full, now ye are made riche, ye raigne without vs, and wolde God ye dyd raigne, that we might raigne with you.

Mace New Testament (1729)
You have already a sufficiency, you already abound, you live like princes in our absence: and would to God you did reign, that we too might have the advantage of your administration.

New English Translation
Already you are satisfied! Already you are rich! You have become kings without us! I wish you had become kings so that we could reign with you!

New King James Version
You are already full! You are already rich! You have reigned as kings without us--and indeed I could wish you did reign, that we also might reign with you!

Simplified Cowboy Version
I've already said you have everything you need already. As a matter of fact, you have more access to God than you know what to do with. You're like a little kid with a champion cutting horse, but you've never straddled a saddle. But I wish you were already champions in your own rights. If you were, then we would be too.

New American Standard Bible (1995)
You are already filled, you have already become rich, you have become kings without us; and indeed, I wish that you had become kings so that we also might reign with you.

Legacy Standard Bible
You are already filled, you have already become rich, you have ruled without us—and how I wish that you had ruled indeed so that we also might rule with you.

Contextual Overview

⁷For who regards you as superior or what sets you apart as special? What do you have that you did not receive [from another]? And if in fact you received it [from God or someone else], why do you boast as if you had not received it [but had gained it by yourself]? ⁸[You behave as if] you are already filled [with spiritual wisdom and in need of nothing more]. Already you have become rich [in spiritual gifts]! You [in your conceit] have ascended your thrones and become kings without us; and how I wish [that it were true and] that you did reign as kings, so that we might reign with you.⁹For, I think, God has exhibited us apostles at the end of the line, like men sentenced to death [and paraded as prisoners in a procession], because we have become a spectacle to the world [a show in the world's amphitheater], both to angels and to men. ¹⁰We are [regarded as] fools for Christ, but you are so wise in Christ; we are weak, but you are strong; you are highly esteemed, but we are dishonored. ¹¹To this present hour we are both hungry and thirsty; we are continually poorly dressed, and we are roughly treated, and wander homeless. ¹²We work [for our living], working hard with our own hands. When we are reviled and verbally abused, we bless. When we are persecuted, we take it patiently and endure. ¹³When we are slandered, we try to be conciliatory and answer softly. We have become like the scum of the world, the dregs of all things, even until now.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

ye are full: 1 Corinthians 1:5, 1 Corinthians 3:1, 1 Corinthians 3:2, 1 Corinthians 5:6, Proverbs 13:7, Proverbs 25:14, Isaiah 5:21, Luke 1:51-53, Luke 6:25, Romans 12:3, Romans 12:16, Galatians 6:3, Revelation 3:17

without: 1 Corinthians 4:18, Acts 20:29, Acts 20:30, Philippians 1:27, Philippians 2:12

and I: Numbers 11:29, Acts 26:29, 2 Corinthians 11:1

ye did: Psalms 122:5-9, Jeremiah 28:6, Romans 12:15, 2 Corinthians 13:9, 1 Thessalonians 2:19, 1 Thessalonians 2:20, 1 Thessalonians 3:6-9, 2 Timothy 2:11, 2 Timothy 2:12, Revelation 5:10

Reciprocal: Exodus 16:3 - Would Deuteronomy 8:14 - thine heart 2 Kings 5:3 - Would God Jeremiah 2:31 - We are lords Luke 1:53 - and Luke 18:11 - God Romans 5:17 - shall reign 1 Corinthians 4:10 - are wise 2 Corinthians 1:8 - insomuch 2 Corinthians 12:15 - though Galatians 4:17 - exclude you James 3:14 - glory James 4:16 - General

Cross-References

Genesis 4:3
And in the course of time Cain brought to the LORD an offering of the fruit of the ground.

Genesis 4:6
And the LORD said to Cain, "Why are you so angry? And why do you look annoyed?

Genesis 4:9
Then the LORD said to Cain, "Where is Abel your brother?" And he [lied and] said, "I do not know. Am I my brother's keeper?"

Genesis 4:10
The LORD said, "What have you done? The voice of your brother's [innocent] blood is crying out to Me from the ground [for justice].

Genesis 4:12
"When you cultivate the ground, it shall no longer yield its strength [it will resist producing good crops] for you; you shall be a fugitive and a vagabond [roaming aimlessly] on the earth [in perpetual exile without a home, a degraded outcast]."

Genesis 4:15
And the LORD said to him, "Therefore, whoever kills Cain, a sevenfold vengeance [that is, punishment seven times worse] shall be taken on him [by Me]." And the LORD set a [protective] mark (sign) on Cain, so that no one who found (met) him would kill him.

Genesis 4:24
"If Cain is avenged sevenfold [as the LORD said he would be], Then Lamech [will be avenged] seventy-sevenfold."

Genesis 4:26
To Seth, also, a son was born, whom he named Enosh (mortal man, mankind). At that [same] time men began to call on the name of the LORD [in worship through prayer, praise, and thanksgiving].

2 Samuel 3:27
So when Abner returned to Hebron, Joab took him aside to the middle of the gate to speak to him privately, and there he struck Abner in the abdomen so that he died, to avenge the blood of Asahel, Joab's brother.

2 Samuel 14:6
"Your maidservant had two sons, but the two of them struggled and fought in the field. There was no one to separate them, so one struck the other and killed him.

Gill's Notes on the Bible

Now ye are full,.... That is, in their own opinion: these words, and some following expressions, are an ironical concession. They were not full of God, and divine things; nor of Christ, and of grace out of his fulness; nor of the Holy Ghost, and of faith, as Stephen and Barnabas are said to be; nor of joy and peace in believing; nor of goodness and spiritual knowledge; but they were full of themselves, and were pulled up in their fleshly minds with an opinion of their abilities, learning, oratory, and eloquence, of their ministers, and of their own great improvements in knowledge under their ministrations. They fancied they had got to a perfection in knowledge and were brimful of it; and as the full stomach, from which the metaphor is taken, loathes the honeycomb, so these persons loathed the apostle's ministry, and the pure preaching of the Gospel; imagining that they had attained to something above it, and stood in no need of it; when, alas! they were but babes, children in understanding, and needed milk instead of strong meat; so far were they from being what they thought themselves to be.

Now ye are rich; not in faith; nor in good works; nor in spiritual gifts and knowledge, though some among them were; but that is not here intended: the meaning is, they were rich, and abounded in knowledge in their own account. Like the Laodiceans, they conceited themselves to be rich, and increased with goods, when they were poor, and wretched, and miserable.

Ye have reigned as kings without us. The saints, in the best sense, are kings, made so by Christ; and have not only the name, and the ensigns of royalty, as crowns and thrones prepared for them, but kingdoms also: they have a kingdom of grace, which they enjoy now, and shall never be removed; in which they reign as kings under the influence of the Spirit of God, over the corruptions of their own hearts, which are laid under the restraints of mighty grace; and over the world, which they have under the feet; and over Satan, who is dethroned and cast out of them; and they shall inherit the kingdom of glory hereafter; but nothing of this kind is here intended. The sense of the words is, that these persons imagined that they had arrived to such a pitch of knowledge, as to be independent of the apostles; needed no instructions and directions from them, and were in great tranquillity and ease of mind, and attended with outward prosperity, so that they lived, as kings, the most happy life that could be desired; upon which the apostle expresses his hearty wish for them:

and I would to God ye did reign; not in carnal security, and in affluence of worldly enjoyments, which the apostle was not desirous of for himself, and other his fellow ministers; nor in a spiritual sense, merely as believers in common, and as he then did; but with Christ in his kingdom state here on earth:

that we also might reign with you; for all the saints will be together when Christ takes to himself his great power, and reigns; they will all reign with him on earth a thousand years; this is a faithful saying, nothing more true, or to be depended on, that those that suffer with him shall also reign with him; and not a part of his people only, but the whole body: hence the apostle wishes, that this reigning time for the church of Christ was come, then he and the rest of the apostles would reign also: but, alas! it was a plain case, from the condition they were in, of which the following words give a narrative, that this time was not yet.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Now ye are full - It is generally agreed that this is spoken in irony, and that it is an indignant sarcasm uttered against the false and self-confident teachers in Corinth. The design is to contrast them with the apostles; to show how self-confident and vain the false teachers were, and how laborious and self-denying the apostles were; and to show to them how little claim they had to authority in the church, and the real claim which the apostles had from their self-denials and labors. The whole passage is an instance of most pungent and cutting sarcasm, and shows that there may be occasions when irony may be proper, though it should be rare. An instance of cutting irony occurs also in regard to the priests of Baal, in 1 Kings 18:27. The word translated “ye are full” (κεκορεσμένοι kekoresmenoi) occurs only here, and in Acts 27:38, “And when they had eaten enough.” It is usually applied to a feast, and denotes those who are satiated or satisfied. So here it means, “You think’ you have enough. You are satisfied with your conviction of your own knowledge, and do not feel your need of anything more.”

Ye are rich - This is presenting the same idea in a different form. “You esteem yourselves to be rich in spiritual gifts, and graces, so that you do not feel the necessity of any more.”

Ye have reigned as kings - This is simply carrying forward the idea before stated; but in the form of a climax. The first metaphor is taken from persons “filled with food;” the second from those who are so rich that they do not feel their lack of more; the third from those who are raised to a throne, the highest elevation, where there was nothing further to be reached or desired. And the phrase means, that they had been fully satisfied with their condition and attainments, with their knowledge and power, that they lived like rich men and princes - revelling, as it were, on spiritual enjoyments, and disdaining all foreign influence, and instruction, and control.

Without us - Without our counsel and instruction. You have taken the whole management of matters on yourselves without any regard to our advice or authority. You did not feel your need of our aid; and you did not regard our authority. You supposed you could get along as well without us as with us.

And I would to God ye did reign - Many interpreters have understood this as if Paul had really expressed a wish that they were literal princes, that they might afford protection to him in his persecution and troubles. Thus, Grotius, Whitby, Locke, Rosemuller, and Doddridge. But the more probable interpretation is, that Paul here drops the irony, and addresses them in a sober, earnest manner. It is the expression of a wish that they were as truly happy and blessed as they thought themselves to be. “I wish that you were so abundant in all spiritual improvements; I wish that you had made such advances that you could be represented as full, and as rich, and as princes, needing nothing, that when I came I might have nothing to do but to partake of your joy.” So Calvin, Lightfoot, Bloomfield. It implies:

1. A wish that they were truly happy and blessed;
2. A doubt implied whether they were then so; and,
3. A desire on the part of Paul to partake of their real and true joy, instead of being compelled to come to them with the language of rebuke and admonition; see 1 Corinthians 4:19, 1 Corinthians 4:21.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse 1 Corinthians 4:8. Now ye — Corinthians are full of secular wisdom; now ye are rich, both in wealth and spiritual gifts; (1 Corinthians 14:26:) ye have reigned as kings, flourishing in the enjoyment of these things, in all tranquillity and honour; without any want of us: and I would to God ye did reign, in deed, and not in conceit only, that we also, poor, persecuted, and despised apostles, might reign with you.-Whitby.

Though this paraphrase appears natural, yet I am of opinion that the apostle here intends a strong irony; and one which, when taken in conjunction with what he had said before, must have stung them to the heart. It is not an unusual thing for many people to forget, if not despise, the men by whom they were brought to the knowledge of the truth; and take up with others to whom, in the things of God, they owe nothing. Reader, is this thy case?