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Read the Bible

King James Version

1 Corinthians 13:9

For we know in part, and we prophesy in part.

Bible Study Resources

Concordances:

- Nave's Topical Bible - Charitableness;   Ignorance;   Knowledge;   Love;   Readings, Select;   Religion;   Righteousness;   Sanctification;   The Topic Concordance - Charity;   Torrey's Topical Textbook - Conduct, Christian;   Language;  

Dictionaries:

- Bridgeway Bible Dictionary - Child;   Ethics;   Gifts of the spirit;   Baker Evangelical Dictionary of Biblical Theology - Corinthians, First and Second, Theology of;   Prophet, Prophetess, Prophecy;   Charles Buck Theological Dictionary - Alms;   Love, Brotherly;   Fausset Bible Dictionary - Thunder;   Holman Bible Dictionary - Love;   Prophecy, Prophets;   Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible - Brotherly Love;   Corinthians, First Epistle to the;   Ethics;   John, Theology of;   Law;   Perfection;   Spiritual Gifts;   Tongues, Gift of;   Hastings' Dictionary of the New Testament - Love;   Morrish Bible Dictionary - Knowledge;   48 To Know, Perceive, Understand;   People's Dictionary of the Bible - Obsolete or obscure words in the english av bible;   Watson's Biblical & Theological Dictionary - Paul;  

Encyclopedias:

- International Standard Bible Encyclopedia - Abstinence;   Busybody;   Charity;   Corinthians, First Epistle to the;   Dark Sayings;   Hope;   Language of the New Testament;   Literature, Sub-Apostolic;   Love;   Name;   Tongues, Gift of;   Wisdom;  

Parallel Translations

Easy-to-Read Version
These will all end because this knowledge and these prophecies we have are not complete.
Revised Standard Version
For our knowledge is imperfect and our prophecy is imperfect;
Tyndale New Testament (1525)
For oure knowledge is vnparfect and oure prophesyinge is vnperfet.
Hebrew Names Version
For we know in part, and we prophesy in part;
International Standard Version
For what we know is incomplete and what we prophesy is incomplete.1 Corinthians 8:2;">[xr]
New American Standard Bible
For we know in part and prophesy in part;
New Century Version
The reason is that our knowledge and our ability to prophesy are not perfect.
Update Bible Version
For we know in part, and we prophesy in part;
Webster's Bible Translation
For we know in part, and we prophesy in part.
English Standard Version
For we know in part and we prophesy in part,
World English Bible
For we know in part, and we prophesy in part;
Wesley's New Testament (1755)
For we know in part, and we prophesy in part.
Weymouth's New Testament
For our knowledge is imperfect, and so is our prophesying;
Wycliffe Bible (1395)
For a parti we knowun, and a parti we prophecien;
English Revised Version
For we know in part, and we prophesy in part:
Berean Standard Bible
For we know in part and we prophesy in part,
Contemporary English Version
We don't know everything, and our prophecies are not complete.
Amplified Bible
For we know in part, and we prophesy in part [for our knowledge is fragmentary and incomplete].
American Standard Version
For we know in part, and we prophesy in part;
Bible in Basic English
For our knowledge is only in part, and the prophet's word gives only a part of what is true:
Complete Jewish Bible
For our knowledge is partial, and our prophecy partial;
Darby Translation
For we know in part, and we prophesy in part:
Etheridge Translation
for it is a little of much that we know, and a little of much we prophesy;
Murdock Translation
For we know but partially; and we prophesy but partially.
King James Version (1611)
For we know in part, and we prophesie in part.
New Living Translation
Now our knowledge is partial and incomplete, and even the gift of prophecy reveals only part of the whole picture!
New Life Bible
For we only know a part now, and we speak only a part.
New Revised Standard
For we know only in part, and we prophesy only in part;
Geneva Bible (1587)
For we knowe in part, and we prophecie in part.
George Lamsa Translation
For we know in part, and we prophesy in part.
J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
For, in part, are we gaining knowledge, and, in part, are we prophesying, -
Douay-Rheims Bible
For we know in part: and we prophesy in part.
Bishop's Bible (1568)
For our knowledge is vnperfect, and our prophesiyng is vnperfect:
Good News Translation
For our gifts of knowledge and of inspired messages are only partial;
Christian Standard Bible®
For we know in part, and we prophesy in part,
Lexham English Bible
For we know in part and we prophesy in part,
Literal Translation
For we know in part, and we prophesy in part;
Young's Literal Translation
for in part we know, and in part we prophecy;
Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
For oure knowlege is vnparfecte, and oure prophecienge is vnparfecte.
Mace New Testament (1729)
for our knowledge is defective, and our prophesying is defective.
New English Translation
For we know in part, and we prophesy in part,
New King James Version
For we know in part and we prophesy in part.
Simplified Cowboy Version
We don't know everything, and even prophecy reveals only so much,
New American Standard Bible (1995)
For we know in part and we prophesy in part;
Legacy Standard Bible
For we know in part and we prophesy in part,

Contextual Overview

8 Charity never faileth: but whether there be prophecies, they shall fail; whether there be tongues, they shall cease; whether there be knowledge, it shall vanish away. 9 For we know in part, and we prophesy in part. 10 But when that which is perfect is come, then that which is in part shall be done away. 11 When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things. 12 For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known. 13 And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

1 Corinthians 13:12, 1 Corinthians 2:9, 1 Corinthians 8:2, Job 11:7, Job 11:8, Job 26:14, Psalms 40:5, Psalms 139:6, Proverbs 30:4, Matthew 11:27, Romans 11:34, Ephesians 3:8, Ephesians 3:18, Ephesians 3:19, Colossians 2:2, Colossians 2:3, 1 Peter 1:10-12, 1 John 3:2

Reciprocal: 1 Chronicles 17:2 - Do all Mark 8:24 - I see 1 Corinthians 14:1 - prophesy 1 Corinthians 14:6 - knowledge 1 Thessalonians 5:20 - General

Cross-References

Genesis 13:8
And Abram said unto Lot, Let there be no strife, I pray thee, between me and thee, and between my herdmen and thy herdmen; for we be brethren.
Genesis 13:12
Abram dwelled in the land of Canaan, and Lot dwelled in the cities of the plain, and pitched his tent toward Sodom.
Genesis 13:13
But the men of Sodom were wicked and sinners before the Lord exceedingly.
Genesis 13:18
Then Abram removed his tent, and came and dwelt in the plain of Mamre, which is in Hebron, and built there an altar unto the Lord .
Genesis 20:15
And Abimelech said, Behold, my land is before thee: dwell where it pleaseth thee.
Genesis 34:10
And ye shall dwell with us: and the land shall be before you; dwell and trade ye therein, and get you possessions therein.
Psalms 120:7
I am for peace: but when I speak, they are for war.
Romans 12:18
If it be possible, as much as lieth in you, live peaceably with all men.
1 Corinthians 6:7
Now therefore there is utterly a fault among you, because ye go to law one with another. Why do ye not rather take wrong? why do ye not rather suffer yourselves to be defrauded?
Hebrews 12:14
Follow peace with all men, and holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord:

Gill's Notes on the Bible

For we know in part,.... Not that the Scriptures, the rule and measure of knowledge, and from whence spiritual knowledge is derived, are imperfect; so that there is need of unwritten traditions, and of enthusiastic revelations and inspirations, to inform of things otherwise unknown; for though they were at sundry times, and in divers manners delivered, yet now they contain a complete system of divine truths, to which nothing is to be added, and from which nothing is to be taken away; or that only a part of the saints know the things of God; for though there is a difference between them, some have more knowledge than others, yet all have some, all are taught of God, and know him, and have that anointing which teacheth all things; wherefore the sense also is not, that only a part of truth, and not the whole, is known; for the Spirit of God leads into all truth; the whole counsel of God is made known in the Scriptures, and by the ministers of the word; though, to this sense the Arabic version inclines, rendering it, "some part of doctrine we know"; and so in 1 Corinthians 13:12 "some part of knowledge I know"; as also the Syriac version, which renders it מן סגי קליל, "a little from much we know"; but the true meaning is, that though the rule of knowledge is perfect, and all the saints have knowledge, and every truth of the Gospel is known; yet by those that know most, it is known but imperfectly: the truth itself may be most clearly discerned, as it is revealed in the word; yet the manner of it, how it is, may not be known; and many difficulties may attend it, and objections be raised to it, which are not easily solved; as in the doctrines of the Trinity, predestination, the union of the two natures in Christ, the resurrection of the dead, c.

and we prophesy in part the word of prophecy, as it sure, it is also perfect, to which we do well to take heed; and though all do not prophesy, yet all that do, and that prophesy aright, that is, explain the word of God aright, these preach the Gospel fully, declare the whole counsel of God, and keep back nothing profit able to the saints; yet still their prophesying or explaining the prophecies of the Old Testament, or the mysteries of the Gospel, is but imperfect at best in the present state of things.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

For we know in part - Compare the note on 1 Corinthians 12:27. This expression means “only in part;” that is, “imperfectly.” Our knowledge here is imperfect and obscure. It may, therefore, all vanish in the eternal world amidst its superior brightness; and we should not regard that as of such vast value which is imperfect and obscure; compare the note at 1 Corinthians 8:2. This idea of the obscurity and imperfection of our knowledge, as compared with heaven, the apostle illustrates 1 Corinthians 13:11 by comparing it with the knowledge which a child has, compared with that in maturer years and 1 Corinthians 13:12 by the knowledge which we have in looking through a glass - an imperfect medium - compared with that which we have in looking closely and directly at an object without any medium.

And we prophesy in part - This does not mean that we partly “know” the truths of religion, and partly “conjecture” or “guess” at them; or that we know only a part of them, and “conjecture” the remainder. But the apostle is showing the imperfection of the prophetic gift; and he observes, that there is the same imperfection which attends knowledge. It is only in part; it is imperfect; it is indistinct, compared with the full view of truth in heaven; it is obscure, and all that is imparted by that gift will soon become dim and lost in the superior brightness and glory of the heavenly world. The “argument” is, that we ought not to seek so anxiously that which is so imperfect and obscure, and which must soon vanish away; but we should rather seek that love which is permanent, expanding, and eternal.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse 1 Corinthians 13:9. For we know in part — We have here but little knowledge even of earthly, and much less of heavenly, things. He that knows most knows little in comparison of what is known by angels, and the spirits of just men made perfect. And as we know so very little, how deficient must we be if we have not much love! Angels may wonder at the imperfection of our knowledge; and separate spirits may wonder at the perfection of their own, having obtained so much more in consequence of being separated from the body, than they could conceive to be possible while in that body. When Sir Isaac Newton had made such astonishing discoveries in the laws of nature, far surpassing any thing that had been done by all his predecessors in science from the days of Solomon; one of our poets, considering the scantiness of human knowledge when compared with that which is possessed by the inhabitants of heaven, reduced his meditations on the subject to the following nervous and expressive epigram:--

Superior beings, when of late they saw

A mortal man explain all nature's law,

Admired such wisdom in an earthly shape,

And show'd our NEWTON as we show an ape.


These fine lines are a paraphrase from a saying of Plato, from whom our poet borrows without acknowledging the debt. The words are these: ανθρωπον ὁ σοφωτατος προς θεον πιθηκος φανειται· "The wisest of mortals will appear but an ape in the estimation of God." Vid. Hipp. Maj. vol. xi. p. 21. Edit. Bipont.

We prophesy in part — Even the sublimest prophets have been able to say but little of the heavenly state; and the best preachers have left the Spirit of God very much to supply. And had we no more religious knowledge than we can derive from men and books, and had we no farther instruction in the knowledge of God and ourselves than we derive from preaching, our religious experience would be low indeed. Yet it is our duty to acquire all the knowledge we possibly can; and as preaching is the ordinary means by which God is pleased to instruct and convert the soul, we should diligently and thankfully use it. For we have neither reason nor Scripture to suppose that God will give us that immediately from himself which he has promised to convey only by the use of means. Even this his blessing makes effectual; and, after all, his Spirit supplies much that man cannot teach. Every preacher should take care to inculcate this on the hearts of his hearers. When you have learned all you can from your ministers, remember you have much to learn from God; and for this you should diligently wait on him by the reading of his word, and by incessant prayer.


 
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