For we know in part: and we prophesy in part.
εκ μερους δε γινωσκομεν και εκ μερους προφητευομεν
8 Church Fathers comment on this verse · 9 commentaries
Therefore it is not knowledge that will be abolished, but the incompleteness of knowledge, because we shall know not only this, but much more. I will explain this with an example. Now we know that God exists everywhere, but we do not know how. We know that He created all existing things from nothing, but we do not know in what manner. We know that He was born of the Virgin, but we do not know how. Then we shall know these things more fully and more clearly.
If knowledge is to be abolished, shall we then live in ignorance? By no means. Rather, he says that partial knowledge will be abolished.
The City of God has knowledge of things accessible to understanding and reason, though small because of the corruptible body that weighs down the soul. For, as the Apostle says, "we know in part."
Yet this knowledge is most certain. It also trusts the senses, which the soul uses through the body, when some thing is evident. For the man who supposes that they should never be trusted is deceived in a more wretched manner.
It also believes the sacred Scriptures, old and new, which we call canonical. By them faith itself was nurtured, the faith from which the righteous man lives (Hab 2:4).
Through it we walk without wavering while we are absent from the Lord (2 Cor 5:6). Keeping this faith and being convinced of its truth, we may doubt without just blame concerning certain things.
These are things we cannot grasp either by sense or by reason, which canonical Scripture does not clarify for us, or whose report has not come to us from witnesses whom it would be absurd not to believe.
Indeed, who, while living in this corruptible body that weighs down the soul (cf. Wis 9:15), can comprehend every truth, if the Apostle said that we know in part (1 Cor 13:9)?
Yet this will occur through the Holy Spirit, from Whom we have now received the pledge (cf. 2 Cor 1:22), that we shall attain the very fullness of which the same Apostle spoke.
He said, "Then we shall see face to face," and, "Now I know in part, but then I shall know, even as I am known" (1 Cor 13:12).
For this reason he does not know in this life everything that the Lord promised us for the future, unto perfection, through the love of the Spirit, saying, "He will guide you into all truth," or, "He will lead you to all truth."
For childish knowledge is superfluous for those who have reached maturity. The divine Apostle also used this likeness.
Perhaps there are prophets. Yet when they reason in silence, they know that with the eye of their prophecy they cannot penetrate all the mysteries of the Godhead at once. For, as the Apostle says, “we know in part and prophesy in part.” Then, within this immeasurable breadth of mysteries, they see how little all that they see really is. From the very immeasurable height of the light, they conclude that what they saw with their strained eye, as though through narrow openings, is nothing.
Love is the one good that never ceases. "Love never fails, though prophecies will cease, tongues will be silent, and knowledge will vanish."
When will this cessation occur? In the future age. Prophecy will then be superfluous, for the realities themselves will be present. Knowledge of tongues will be useless after their differences have been abolished.
Lesser knowledge will also cease when greater knowledge is given (Theodoret).
"For we know in part, and we prophesy in part. But when the perfect comes, then what is in part will cease," and so forth.
Therefore it is not knowledge that will be abolished, as St. Chrysostom explains, but the incompleteness of knowledge. For in the future age we shall know much more.
As if returning again to a comparative definition of the significance of love, the Apostle Paul shows its advantage over the others in that it is constant and eternal.
The gifts of prophecies, abilities to speak in various tongues, and forms of knowledge will lose their significance in the future life, because there everything will become manifest.
Love will not only not lose its significance, but on the contrary will attain its highest satisfaction in God and in the mutual love of all the righteous.
The Apostle does not define much about the future. Even the seer of mysteries, John the Theologian, does not define this fully when he says, "It has not yet appeared what we shall be" (1 Jn 3:2).
Yet Paul, wishing to make the thought of the transformation of our future knowledge fully accessible to the Corinthians, gives an example. In it our present knowledge is compared with childish knowledge.
Everyone knows from personal experience that childish knowledge is far different from the knowledge found in maturity.
The Apostle expresses the same thing by comparing knowledge of an object through its reflection in a mirror with direct contemplation of it. In a mirror, objects are always reflected from only one side.
But by direct sight one can see the whole object. To this the Apostle adds that then we shall know all things, as we also are known.
According to St. John Chrysostom's explanation, the meaning of these words is not that we shall know Him, God, as He knows us.
Rather, just as He Himself has now condescended to us, so we shall then attain to Him. We shall learn many things now hidden and be counted worthy of blessed converse and wisdom.
“Therefore it is not knowledge that will be abolished, but the incompleteness of knowledge, because we shall know not only this, but much more. I will explain this with an example. Now we know that God is everywhere, but we do not know how. We know that He created all existing things from nothing, but we do not know in what manner. We know that He was born of the Virgin, but we do not know how. Then we shall know this more fully and more clearly” (Saint Chrysostom).
Passages read together with this verse.
Greek text, 8 words with lemma, transliteration and Strong’s number. Tap to expand.
THEOSIS