1 Corinthians 9:4

Mace New Testament

have we not a right to meat and drink?

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

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?

Simplified Cowboy Version
A ramrod has the right to eat and drink, doesn't he?

Contextual Overview

³ my answer to those who call me to account, is this: ⁴ have we not a right to meat and drink? ⁵ have not we the liberty to take a christian woman with us in our travels, as well as the rest of the apostles, as the brothers of the Lord, and Cephas did? ⁶ or I and Barnabas, are we only excluded the privilege of not working? ⁷ who ever serves in war at his own charges? who plants a vineyard, and does not eat of the fruit? or who feeds a flock, and eats not of the milk of the flock? ⁸ is this only the voice of reason? does not the law express the same too? ⁹ for it is written in the law of Moses , "thou shalt not muzzle the mouth of the ox that treadeth out the corn." are oxen the objects of divine care? ¹⁰ or is it said, no doubt, for our sakes? for our sakes, no doubt, this is written: that he who plows should plow in hope; and that he who thresheth should expect the advantage. ¹¹ if for your benefit we have sown spirituals, is it so extraordinary if we should reap some benefit from your temporals? ¹² if others partake of your substance, have not I a better title? nevertheless, I have not made use of this privilege; but bear with any thing rather than obstruct the gospel of 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

Acts 15:20
that they abstain from the pollutions of idols, from fornication, from animals that are strangled, and from their blood.

Acts 15:25
we unanimously judg'd it proper to send particular deputies to you, with our beloved Barnabas and Paul,

Acts 15:29
that you abstain from what has been sacrificed to idols, from blood, from the flesh of strangled animals, and from fornication: you will do well to preserve your selves from these practices. farewel.

1 Timothy 4:4
for all that God has created is good, and nothing is to be rejected, provided it be receiv'd with thanksgiving:

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.