"But now we see in a mirror dimly" in NRSV.

I am reminded that according to Nancy Mitford "mirror" is non-U (like toilet and serviette) whereas "glass" is U (like lavatory and napkin.)

Of course love is a better rendering of agape than charity nowadays, as charity has shifted its connotations.  "Through a glass" implies looking through a dirty window, whereas "in a mirror dimly" is a different image.  It may be not such a good image (and I imagine first century mirrors were pretty unclear) but it is probably nearer to the original Greek.

I do think you're spot on, IRF, to go for the AV for purple passages, and the Oxford for the bigger picture.

1 Corinthians 13, which we are all quoting is not typical of Paul's knotty style at all*.  1 Corinthians as a whole is a string of answers to questions, and comments Paul has heard the Corinthians are getting up to, when we don't know what the questions and the situations were.  It's a bit like listening to one side of a telephone conversation.

* Although I can't remember anyone saying that.  Paul may be quoting something composed by someone else.  Ephesians is often thought not to be by Paul on stylistic grounds, and I agree.  It's still an important part of the Biblical canon.

The original was

    και ουκ εγινωσκεν αυτην εως  ετεκεν υιον και εκαλεσεν το ονομα αυτου ιησουν

Someone with Greek like to translate literally, please?  It rather looks as if εγινωσκεν was in the original and is literally "to know".

My researches in Gideon Bibles in Europe  have come up with the following:

Martin Luther: er berühte sie nicht  (he called her  ? !)

1951 Dutch: En hij had nam gemeenschap met haar

Modern French: il ne la connut point

Hi!  Reiner is citing "she knew him not", but the test passage I looked up was Matthew 1.25, "he, ie Joseph, knew her, ie Mary, not", easy to identify as it is page one of the New Testament.

I may have written down the German wrong.  I will check it on line.

And the Greek?

Blow me down, the online Luther 1545 version is

Und erkannte sie nicht, bis sie ihren ersten Sohn gebar, und hieß seinen Namen Jesus.

I'm sure the Gideon version claimed to be Luther and had something like beruhte.

Must have supper, and then a comfy bed for a change with two pillows, for the first time in a fortnight.

Totally agree about 'to know', although there might be an argument that erotic language has hardened with cultural shifts fromits original etymology-you could Iguesscompare this with changing Biblical translation values?

You make me remember a favourite point of my late Dad that , when Jesus is found praying in the temple away from
J and M for 3 days, he says '...Wish ye I wereabout my fathers' business?' with as postKJ reads it irony of family:holy father.But @KJ thereseems tobe an ambiguity implying that Jesus had clocked
that his actual father was one of the priests. On such points ofcourse hinges thecredibility of the soi-disant
moral high ground as opposed tothe human documentary.
Don B (welcome back)will have the etymology down on this
I'm sure.

That's not in any Bible I know! 

< raise tone level="back where it was please" >