1 Corinthians 9:3

Amplified Bible

This is my defense to those who would put me on trial and interrogate me [concerning my authority as an apostle]:

Parallel Translations

Easy-to-Read Version
Some people want to judge me. So this is the answer I give them:

Revised Standard Version
This is my defense to those who would examine me.

Tyndale New Testament (1525)
Myne answer to them that axe me is this.

Hebrew Names Version
My defense to those who examine me is this.

International Standard Version
This is my defense to those who would examine me:

New American Standard Bible
My defense to those who examine me is this:

New Century Version
This is the answer I give people who want to judge me:

Update Bible Version
My defense to those that examine me is this.

Webster's Bible Translation
My answer to them that examine me is this,

English Standard Version
This is my defense to those who would examine me.

World English Bible
My defense to those who examine me is this.

Wesley's New Testament (1755)
My answer to them who examine me is this.

Weymouth's New Testament
That is how I vindicate myself to those who criticize me.

Wycliffe Bible (1395)
My defense to hem that axen me, that is.

English Revised Version
My defence to them that examine me is this.

Berean Standard Bible
This is my defense to those who scrutinize me:

Contemporary English Version
When people question me, I tell them

American Standard Version
My defence to them that examine me is this.

Bible in Basic English
My answer to those who are judging me is this.

Complete Jewish Bible
That is my defense when people put me under examination.

Darby Translation
My defence to those who examine me is this:

Etheridge Translation
3 My apology to them who judge me [fn] is this:

Murdock Translation
3 And [fn] apology to my judgers, is this:

King James Version (1611)
Mine answere to them that doe examine me, is this:

New Living Translation
This is my answer to those who question my authority.

New Life Bible
When people ask questions about me, I say this:

New Revised Standard
This is my defense to those who would examine me.

Geneva Bible (1587)
My defence to them that examine mee, is this,

George Lamsa Translation
So my answer to those who criticize me is this,

J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
My defence, unto them who are examining me, is this:

Douay-Rheims Bible
My defence with them that do examine me is this.

Bishop's Bible (1568)
Myne aunswere to them that aske me, is this,

Good News Translation
When people criticize me, this is how I defend myself:

Christian Standard Bible®
My defense to those who examine me is this:

King James Version
Mine answer to them that do examine me is this,

Lexham English Bible
My defense to those who examine me is this:

Literal Translation
My defense to those examining me is this:

Young's Literal Translation
My defence to those who examine me in this;

Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
Myne answere vnto them that axe me, is this:

Mace New Testament (1729)
my answer to those who call me to account, is this:

THE MESSAGE
I'm not shy in standing up to my critics. We who are on missionary assignments for God have a right to decent accommodations, and we have a right to support for us and our families. You don't seem to have raised questions with the other apostles and our Master's brothers and Peter in these matters. So, why me? Is it just Barnabas and I who have to go it alone and pay our own way? Are soldiers self-employed? Are gardeners forbidden to eat vegetables from their own gardens? Don't milkmaids get to drink their fill from the pail?

New English Translation
This is my defense to those who examine me.

New King James Version
My defense to those who examine me is this:

Simplified Cowboy Version
This is my answer to my critics and those who judge me.

New American Standard Bible (1995)
My defense to those who examine me is this:

Legacy Standard Bible
My defense to those who examine me is this:

Contextual Overview

³This is my defense to those who would put me on trial and interrogate me [concerning my authority as an apostle]:⁴Have we not the right to our food and drink [at the expense of the churches]? ⁵Have we not the right to take along with us a believing wife, as do the rest of the apostles and the Lord's brothers and Cephas (Peter)? ⁶Or is it only Barnabas and I who have no right to stop doing manual labor [in order to support our ministry]? ⁷[Consider this:] Who at any time serves as a soldier at his own expense? Who plants a vineyard and does not eat its fruit? Or who tends a flock and does not use the milk of the flock? ⁸Do I say these things only from a man's perspective? Does the Law not endorse the same principles? ⁹For it is written in the Law of Moses, "YOU SHALL NOT MUZZLE AN OX WHILE IT IS TREADING OUT THE GRAIN [to keep it from eating the grain]." Is it [only] for oxen that God cares? ¹⁰Or does He speak entirely for our sake? Yes, it was written for our sake: The plowman ought to plow in hope, and the thresher to thresh in hope of sharing the harvest. ¹¹If we have sown [the good seed of] spiritual things in you, is it too much if we reap material things from you? ¹²If others share in this rightful claim over you, do not we even more? However, we did not exercise this right, but we put up with everything so that we will not hinder [the spread of] the good news of Christ.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

answer: Acts 22:1, Acts 25:16, Philippians 1:7, Philippians 1:17, 2 Timothy 4:16,*Gr.

them: 1 Corinthians 14:37, 2 Corinthians 10:7, 2 Corinthians 10:8, 2 Corinthians 12:16-19, 2 Corinthians 13:3, 2 Corinthians 13:5, 2 Corinthians 13:10

Reciprocal: 1 Corinthians 9:1 - I not an

Cross-References

Genesis 9:1
And God blessed Noah and his sons and said to them, "Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth.

Genesis 9:3
"Every moving thing that lives shall be food for you; I give you everything, as I gave you the green plants and vegetables.

Genesis 9:5
"For your lifeblood I will most certainly require an accounting; from every animal [that kills a person] I will require it. And from man, from every man's brother [that is, anyone who murders] I will require the life of man.

Genesis 9:12
And God said, "This is the token (visible symbol, memorial) of the [solemn] covenant which I am making between Me and you and every living creature that is with you, for all future generations;

Genesis 9:14
"It shall come about, when I bring clouds over the earth, that the rainbow shall be seen in the clouds,

Genesis 9:15
and I will [compassionately] remember My covenant, which is between Me and you and every living creature of all flesh; and never again will the water become a flood to destroy all flesh.

Genesis 9:21
He drank some of the wine and became drunk, and he was uncovered and lay exposed inside his tent.

Genesis 9:22
Ham, the father of Canaan, saw [by accident] the nakedness of his father, and [to his father's shame] told his two brothers outside.

Genesis 9:25
So he said, "Cursed be Canaan [the son of Ham]; A servant of servants He shall be to his brothers."

Genesis 9:26
He also said, "Blessed be the LORD, The God of Shem; And let Canaan be his servant.

Gill's Notes on the Bible

Mine answer to them that do examine me is this. These words are referred by some to the following, as if the apostle's answer lay in putting the questions he does in the next verses; but they rather seem to belong to the preceding, and the meaning to be this, that when any persons called in question his apostleship, and examined him upon that head, what he thought fit to say in answer to them, and in defence of himself, was by referring them to the famous church at Corinth, who were as particular persons, and as a church, his work in the Lord, and everyone of them as so many seals of his apostleship; he being the first preacher of the Gospel to them, the founder of them as a church, and the instrument of their conversion.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Mine answer - Greek Ἡ ἐμὴ ἀπολογία Hē emē apologia. My “apology;” my defense. The same word occurs in Acts 22:1; Acts 25:16; 2 Corinthians 7:11; Philippians 1:7, Philippians 1:17; 2 Timothy 4:16; 1 Peter 3:15; see the note at Acts 22:1. Here it means his answer, or defense against those who sat in judgment on his claims to be an apostle.

To them that do examine me. - To those who “inquire” of me; or who “censure” and condemn me as not having any claims to the apostolic office. The word used here ἀνακρίνω anakrinō is properly a forensic term, and is usually applied to judges in courts; to those who sit in judgment, and investigate and decide in litigated cases brought before them; Luke 23:14; Acts 4:9; Acts 12:19; Acts 24:8. The apostle here may possibly allude to the arrogance and pride of those who presumed to sit as judges on his qualification for the apostolic office. It is not meant that this answer had been given by Paul before this, but that this was the defense which he had to offer.

Is this - This which follows; the statements which are made in the following verses. In these statements (1 Corinthians 9:4-6, etc.) he seems to have designed to take up their objections to his apostolic claims one by one, and to show that they were of no force.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse 1 Corinthians 9:3. Mine answer to them — Ἡ εμη απολογια τοις εμε ανακρινουσιν· This is my defence against those who examine me. The words are forensic; and the apostle considers himself as brought before a legal tribunal, and questioned so as to be obliged to answer as upon oath. His defence therefore was this, that they were converted to God by his means. This verse belongs to the two preceding verses.