1 Corinthians 13:3, “body to be burned,” or “that I may boast”?
1 Corinthians 13:3 has both readings: giving the body to be burned and giving it up to boast. The Greek forms differ by one letter, and the wording changes the example of an act performed without love.
The APB text at this verse
The manuscripts, editions, and versions
The committee record at this verse
The APB is translated by a committee of language models that works blind. The translators are never told they are translating the Bible, never given a book name or a verse number, and never shown the witnesses listed above. Where the manuscripts disagree, the choice between readings is made before translation by the same kind of translator working the same way: it sees the competing readings and the witnesses by age and class, but never a reference or a manuscript name. There are 14,877 such places. For APB 4.0 every one was decided again in October 2026. GPT-6.1 Sol decided every one first. Claude Fable 5.1, from another model family, decided 2,483 of them second, including every place where the first translator left the base text. A departure from the base text needs both translators to agree and the first to be at least 0.8 confident. There is no third translator, so the base text stands when the two disagree. APB 4.0 is translated over those decisions. Whatever was done at this verse was done on the language and the evidence alone, and the record is public.
“The base text reads (nothing). The copies also carry καυχήσωμαι [early greek manuscript tradition]; the committee kept the base text. The committee retains the default as the stated absence option.”
“The base text reads καὶ ἐὰν; the committee adopted κἂν on the evidence of the copies. The contracted form has the early copies and is the one a copyist would level to its neighbours. The sense is the same either way.”
“The base text reads καὶ ἐὰν. The copies also carry κἂν [early greek manuscript tradition]; the committee kept the base text. Retain the default on its modest external advantage.”
“The base text reads καυθήσομαι. The copies also carry καυθήσωμαι [early greek manuscript tradition; later majority tradition], καυχήσωμαι [early greek manuscript tradition]; the committee kept the base text. Both readers preferred the other wording, but the first reader's confidence was under the committee's floor of 0.8, so the base text stands.”
The APB 4.0 committee retained καυθήσομαι, the future-tense burning reading. Its note states: "The base text reads καυθήσομαι." It then records that "the committee kept the base text." GPT-6.1 Sol (OpenAI) was the first translator; Claude Fable 5.1 (Anthropic) was the second translator. Both preferred the other wording, but the first translator's confidence fell below the committee's threshold of 0.8, so the default remained. The committee's printed text consequently says "if I hand over my body so that I will be burned".
The argument for each reading
If “burned”
The burning reading has support in Tregelles and the Robinson-Pierpont Byzantine Textform, both of which print καυθήσωμαι. The Greek text underlying the NIV prints καυθήσομαι, a future-tense form of the same verb. These editions therefore agree on burning while differing over the verb's form. Their agreement gives the reading support across a critical edition, the Byzantine majority edition, and the NIV's Greek base.
With this reading, Paul imagines handing over his body to be burned. The statement extends the example of giving away possessions to an extreme bodily sacrifice. Even that act brings no benefit without love. The force of the example rests on how much a person might surrender.
If “boast”
Westcott-Hort and Nestle-Aland 28 print καυχήσωμαι, which makes boasting the purpose of handing over the body. Westcott-Hort's support includes the earliest manuscripts and the oldest papyrus of Paul. This gives the boasting reading an early basis as well as a place in both critical editions.
With this reading, the sentence draws attention to the person's grounds for boasting. Handing over the body can become a claim to distinction, yet the absence of love still empties the act of benefit. The nearby statement in 1 Corinthians 13:4 that love does not boast gives this wording a connection with the description of love that follows. That connection does not settle which wording preceded the other.
The editions differ over burning and boasting, and the burning forms also differ from each other. Their readings do not establish how the one-letter difference arose. The committee's retained wording reflects its confidence threshold even though both translators preferred the alternative. The uncertainty concerns the example Paul uses. Both readings preserve the surrounding claim that giving possessions and handing over the body bring no benefit without love.
Related entries
Witness readings for critical editions are quoted from the SBLGNT apparatus (CC BY 4.0); Hebrew text from the Westminster Leningrad Codex (Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible). Readings of ancient manuscripts and versions are cited from the sources linked above.