1 Corinthians 9:3

Literal Standard Version

My defense to those who examine me in this:

Parallel Translations

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

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

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

English 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:

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

Legacy Standard Bible
My defense to those who 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

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

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

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

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,

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

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

Literal Translation
My defense to those examining me is this:

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.

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:

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

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

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

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

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.

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,

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:

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.

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.

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.

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?

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:

Contextual Overview

³My defense to those who examine me in this:⁴do we not have authority to eat and to drink? ⁵Do we not have authority to lead about a sister—a wife—as also the other apostles, and the brothers of the LORD, and Cephas? ⁶Or do only Barnabas and I have no authority to work? ⁷Who serves as a soldier at his own expense at any time? Who plants a vineyard and does not eat of its fruit? Or who feeds a flock and does not eat of the milk of the flock? ⁸Do I speak these things according to man? Or does the Law not also say these things? ⁹For in the Law of Moses it has been written: "you will not muzzle an ox treading out grain"; does God care for the oxen? ¹⁰Or by all means does He say [it] because of us? Yes, because of us it was written, because in hope ought the plower to plow, and he who is treading [ought] of his hope to partake in hope. ¹¹If we sowed to you the spiritual things—[is it] great if we reap your fleshly things? ¹²If others partake of the authority over you—[do] we not more? But we did not use this authority, but we bear all things, that we may give no hindrance to the good news of the 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 blesses Noah and his sons, and says to them, "Be fruitful, and multiply, and fill the earth;

Genesis 9:3
Every creeping thing that is alive, to you it is for food; as the green herb I have given to you the whole;

Genesis 9:5
And only your blood for your lives do I require; from the hand of every living thing I require it, and from the hand of man, from the hand of every man's brother I require the life of man;

Genesis 9:12
And God says, "This is a token of the covenant which I am giving between Me and you, and every living creature that [is] with you, to continuous generations;

Genesis 9:14
and it has come to pass (in My sending a cloud over the earth) that the bow has been seen in the cloud,

Genesis 9:15
and I have remembered My covenant which is between Me and you, and every living creature among all flesh, and the waters no longer become a flood to destroy all flesh;

Genesis 9:21
and drinks of the wine, and is drunken, and uncovers himself in the midst of the tent.

Genesis 9:22
And Ham, father of Canaan, sees the nakedness of his father, and declares to his two brothers outside.

Genesis 9:25
and says: "Cursed [is] Canaan, || Servant of servants he is to his brothers."

Genesis 9:26
And he says: "Blessed of my God YHWH [is] Shem, || And Canaan is servant to him.

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.