1st Corinthians Chapter 9 verse 6 Holy Bible
Or I only and Barnabas, have we not a right to forbear working?
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Or I only and Barnabas, have we no right to take a rest from work?
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Or *I* alone and Barnabas, have we not a right not to work?
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Or I only and Barnabas, have not we power to forbear working?
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read chapter 9 in WBT
Or have only Barnabas and I no right to not work?
read chapter 9 in WEB
or only I and Barnabas, have we not authority -- not to work?
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Pulpit Commentary
Pulpit CommentaryVerse 6. - And Barnabas. Like St. Paul, Barnabas was in every respect a genuine apostle, by the Divine call (Acts 13:2; Galatians 2:9), though not one of the twelve. He seems to have continued in his separate mission work the practice of independence which he had learnt from St. Paul. This allusion is interesting, because it is the last time that the name of Barnabas occurs, and it shows that, even after the quarrel and separation, Paul regarded him with love and esteem. To forbear working. To give up the manual labour by which we maintain ourselves without any expense to the Churches (Acts 18:3; 2 Thessalonians 3:8, 9). If, then, St. Paul toiled at the dull, mechanical, despised, and ill paid work of tent making, he did so, not because it was, in the abstract, his duty to earn his own living, but because he chose to be nobly independent, that the absolute disinterestedness of his motives might be manifest to all the world. For this reason even when he was most in need he would never receive assistance from any Church except that of Philippi, where he had at least one wealthy convert, and where he was beloved with a peculiar warmth of affection.
Ellicott's Commentary
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers(6) Or I only and Barnabas.--"Or" here does not introduce a question which implies a new right in addition to the rights already claimed, but it completes the argument. Granting the existence of the rights established by the previous questions, the Apostle now says--still preserving the interrogative form--"These things being so, the only way you can possibly do away with this right is by making exceptions of myself and Barnabas." The form in which the question is put shows the impossibility of any such arbitrary exception being made. They as well as the others had the right to abstain from working for their living. Barnabas' early association with St. Paul (Acts 11:30; Acts 12:25; Acts 15:38) probably led him to adopt the Apostle's practice of supporting himself, and not being dependent on his fellow-Christians. The word "only" implies that all the other Apostles and brethren of the Lord exercised their right of maintenance by the Church.
