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Read the Bible

New Living Translation

1 Corinthians 9:4

Don't we have the right to live in your homes and share your meals?

Bible Study Resources

Dictionaries:

- Bridgeway Bible Dictionary - Giving;   Hospitality;   Work;   Baker Evangelical Dictionary of Biblical Theology - Collection;   Fausset Bible Dictionary - Tribute;   Holman Bible Dictionary - Bag;   1 Corinthians;   Hastings' Dictionary of the New Testament - Church Government;   Liberty (2);   Power Powers;   Preaching;   Property (2);  

Encyclopedias:

- International Standard Bible Encyclopedia - Authority in Religion;  

Parallel Translations

Christian Standard Bible®
Don’t we have the right to eat and drink?
King James Version (1611)
Haue wee not power to eate and to drinke?
King James Version
Have we not power to eat and to drink?
English Standard Version
Do we not have the right to eat and drink?
New American Standard Bible
Do we not have a right to eat and drink?
New Century Version
Do we not have the right to eat and drink?
Amplified Bible
Have we not the right to our food and drink [at the expense of the churches]?
New American Standard Bible (1995)
Do we not have a right to eat and drink?
Legacy Standard Bible
Do we not have authority to eat and drink?
Berean Standard Bible
Have we no right to food and to drink?
Contemporary English Version
that Barnabas and I have the right to our food and drink.
Complete Jewish Bible
Don't we have the right to be given food and drink?
Darby Translation
Have we not a right to eat and to drink?
Easy-to-Read Version
We have the right to eat and drink, don't we?
Geneva Bible (1587)
Haue we not power to eat & to drinke?
George Lamsa Translation
Have we not the right to eat and to drink?
Good News Translation
Don't I have the right to be given food and drink for my work?
Lexham English Bible
Do we not have the right to eat and drink?
Literal Translation
Have we not authority to eat and to drink?
American Standard Version
Have we no right to eat and to drink?
Bible in Basic English
Have we no right to take food and drink?
Hebrew Names Version
Have we no right to eat and to drink?
International Standard Version
We have the right to eat and drink, don't we?1 Corinthians 9:14; 1 Thessalonians 2:6; 2 Thessalonians 3:9;">[xr]
Etheridge Translation
Have we not authority to eat and to drink ?
Murdock Translation
Have we not authority, to eat and to drink?
Bishop's Bible (1568)
Haue we not power to eate and to drinke?
English Revised Version
Have we no right to eat and to drink?
World English Bible
Have we no right to eat and to drink?
Wesley's New Testament (1755)
Have we not power to eat and to drink?
Weymouth's New Testament
Have we not a right to claim food and drink?
Wycliffe Bible (1395)
Whether we han not power to ete and drynke?
Update Bible Version
Do we have no right to eat and to drink?
Webster's Bible Translation
Have we not power to eat and to drink?
New English Translation
Do we not have the right to financial support?
New King James Version
Do we have no right to eat and drink?
New Life Bible
Do we not have the right to have food and drink when we are working for the Lord?
New Revised Standard
Do we not have the right to our food and drink?
J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
Have we not a right to eat and drink?
Douay-Rheims Bible
Have not we power to eat and to drink?
Revised Standard Version
Do we not have the right to our food and drink?
Tyndale New Testament (1525)
Have we not power to eate and to drynke?
Young's Literal Translation
have we not authority to eat and to drink?
Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
Haue we not power to eate and drynke?
Mace New Testament (1729)
have we not a right to meat and drink?
Simplified Cowboy Version
A ramrod has the right to eat and drink, doesn't he?

Contextual Overview

3 This is my answer to those who question my authority. 4 Don't we have the right to live in your homes and share your meals? 5 Don't we have the right to bring a believing wife with us as the other apostles and the Lord's brothers do, and as Peter does? 6 Or is it only Barnabas and I who have to work to support ourselves? 7 What soldier has to pay his own expenses? What farmer plants a vineyard and doesn't have the right to eat some of its fruit? What shepherd cares for a flock of sheep and isn't allowed to drink some of the milk? 8 Am I expressing merely a human opinion, or does the law say the same thing? 9 For the law of Moses says, "You must not muzzle an ox to keep it from eating as it treads out the grain." Was God thinking only about oxen when he said this? 10 Wasn't he actually speaking to us? Yes, it was written for us, so that the one who plows and the one who threshes the grain might both expect a share of the harvest. 11 Since we have planted spiritual seed among you, aren't we entitled to a harvest of physical food and drink? 12 If you support others who preach to you, shouldn't we have an even greater right to be supported? But we have never used this right. We would rather put up with anything than be an obstacle to the Good News about Christ.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

we: 1 Corinthians 9:7-14, Matthew 10:10, Luke 10:7, Galatians 6:6, 1 Thessalonians 2:6, 2 Thessalonians 3:8, 2 Thessalonians 3:9, 1 Timothy 5:17, 1 Timothy 5:18

Reciprocal: Leviticus 22:7 - General Nehemiah 5:14 - I and my Mark 6:3 - James 1 Corinthians 4:11 - unto 1 Corinthians 9:14 - ordained

Cross-References

Genesis 9:10
and with all the animals that were on the boat with you—the birds, the livestock, and all the wild animals—every living creature on earth.
Genesis 9:14
When I send clouds over the earth, the rainbow will appear in the clouds,
Leviticus 3:17
"You must never eat any fat or blood. This is a permanent law for you, and it must be observed from generation to generation, wherever you live."
Leviticus 7:26
No matter where you live, you must never consume the blood of any bird or animal.
Leviticus 19:26
"Do not eat meat that has not been drained of its blood. "Do not practice fortune-telling or witchcraft.
Deuteronomy 12:16
But you must not consume the blood. You must pour it out on the ground like water.
Deuteronomy 12:23
But never consume the blood, for the blood is the life, and you must not consume the lifeblood with the meat.
Deuteronomy 14:21
"You must not eat anything that has died a natural death. You may give it to a foreigner living in your town, or you may sell it to a stranger. But do not eat it yourselves, for you are set apart as holy to the Lord your God. "You must not cook a young goat in its mother's milk.
Deuteronomy 15:23
But you must not consume the blood. You must pour it out on the ground like water.
Acts 15:20
Instead, we should write and tell them to abstain from eating food offered to idols, from sexual immorality, from eating the meat of strangled animals, and from consuming blood.

Gill's Notes on the Bible

Have we not power to eat and to drink?] Having proved his apostleship, he proceeds to establish his right to a maintenance as a Gospel minister; which he expresses by various phrases, and confirms by divers arguments: by a "power to eat and drink", he does not mean the common power and right of mankind to perform such actions, which everyone has, provided he acts temperately, and to the glory of God; nor a liberty of eating and drinking things indifferent, or which were prohibited under the ceremonial law; but a comfortable livelihood at the public charge, or at the expense of the persons to whom he ministered; and he seems to have in view the words of Christ, Luke 10:7.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Have we not power - (ἐξουσίαν exousian) Have we not the “right.” The word “power” here is evidently used in the sense of “right” (compare John 1:12, “margin”); and the apostle means to say that though they had not exercised this “right by demanding” a maintenance, yet it was not because they were conscious that they had no such right, but because they chose to forego it for wise and important purposes.

To eat and to drink - To be maintained at the expense of those among whom we labor. Have we not a right to demand that they shall yield us a proper support? By the interrogative form of the statement, Paul intends more strongly to affirm that they had such a right. The interrogative mode is often adopted to express the strongest affirmation. The objection here urged seems to have been this, “You, Paul and Barnabas, labor with your own hands. Acts 18:3. Other religious teachers lay claim to maintenance, and are supported without personal labor. This is the case with pagan and Jewish priests, and with Christian teachers among us. You must be conscious, therefore, that you are not apostles, and that you have no claim or right to support.” To this the answer of Paul is, “We admit that we labor with our own hands. But your inference does not follow. It is not because we have not a right to such support, and it is not because we are conscious that we have no such claim, but it is for a higher purpose. It is because it will do good if we should not urge this right, and enforce this claim.” That they had such a right, Paul proves at length in the subsequent part of the chapter.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse 1 Corinthians 9:4. Have we not power to eat and to drink? — Have we not authority, or right, εξουσιαν, to expect sustenance, while we are labouring for your salvation? Meat and drink, the necessaries, not the superfluities, of life, were what those primitive messengers of Christ required; it was just that they who laboured in the Gospel should live by the Gospel; they did not wish to make a fortune, or accumulate wealth; a living was all they desired. It was probably in reference to the same moderate and reasonable desire that the provision made for the clergy in this country was called a living; and their work for which they got this living was called the cure of souls. Whether we derive the word cure from cura, care, as signifying that the care of all the souls in a particular parish or place devolves on the minister, who is to instruct them in the things of salvation, and lead them to heaven; or whether we consider the term as implying that the souls in that district are in a state of spiritual disease, and the minister is a spiritual physician, to whom the cure of these souls is intrusted; still we must consider that such a labourer is worthy of his hire; and he that preaches the Gospel should live by the Gospel.


 
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