1 Corinthians 3:12
New International Version
If anyone builds on this foundation using gold, silver, costly stones, wood, hay or straw,

New Living Translation
Anyone who builds on that foundation may use a variety of materials—gold, silver, jewels, wood, hay, or straw.

English Standard Version
Now if anyone builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw—

Berean Standard Bible
If anyone builds on this foundation using gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, or straw,

Berean Literal Bible
Now if anyone builds upon the foundation using gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, or straw,

King James Bible
Now if any man build upon this foundation gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stubble;

New King James Version
Now if anyone builds on this foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw,

New American Standard Bible
Now if anyone builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, or straw,

NASB 1995
Now if any man builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw,

NASB 1977
Now if any man builds upon the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw,

Legacy Standard Bible
Now if anyone builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw,

Amplified Bible
But if anyone builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw,

Christian Standard Bible
If anyone builds on the foundation with gold, silver, costly stones, wood, hay, or straw,

Holman Christian Standard Bible
If anyone builds on that foundation with gold, silver, costly stones, wood, hay, or straw,

American Standard Version
But if any man buildeth on the foundation gold, silver, costly stones, wood, hay, stubble;

Aramaic Bible in Plain English
And if a man builds on this foundation, gold or silver or precious stones, or wood, hay or stubble,

Douay-Rheims Bible
Now if any man build upon this foundation, gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stubble:

English Revised Version
But if any man buildeth on the foundation gold, silver, costly stones, wood, hay, stubble;

GOD'S WORD® Translation
People may build on this foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, or straw.

Good News Translation
Some will use gold or silver or precious stones in building on the foundation; others will use wood or grass or straw.

International Standard Version
Whether a person builds on this foundation with gold, silver, expensive stones, wood, hay, or straw,

Literal Standard Version
and if anyone builds on this foundation gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw—

Majority Standard Bible
If anyone builds on this foundation using gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, or straw,

New American Bible
If anyone builds on this foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, or straw,

NET Bible
If anyone builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, or straw,

New Revised Standard Version
Now if anyone builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw—

New Heart English Bible
But if anyone builds on the foundation with gold, silver, costly stones, wood, hay, or straw;

Webster's Bible Translation
Now if any man buildeth upon this foundation, gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stubble;

Weymouth New Testament
And whether the building which any one is erecting on that foundation be of gold or silver or costly stones, of timber or hay or straw--

World English Bible
But if anyone builds on the foundation with gold, silver, costly stones, wood, hay, or straw,

Young's Literal Translation
and if any one doth build upon this foundation gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw --

Additional Translations ...
Audio Bible



Context
Christ Our Foundation
11For no one can lay a foundation other than the one already laid, which is Jesus Christ. 12 If anyone builds on this foundation using gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, or straw, 13his workmanship will be evident, because the Day will bring it to light. It will be revealed with fire, and the fire will prove the quality of each man’s work.…

Cross References
Jeremiah 23:28
Let the prophet who has a dream retell it, but let him who has My word speak it truthfully. For what is straw compared to grain?" declares the LORD.

1 Corinthians 3:11
For no one can lay a foundation other than the one already laid, which is Jesus Christ.

1 Corinthians 3:13
his workmanship will be evident, because the Day will bring it to light. It will be revealed with fire, and the fire will prove the quality of each man's work.


Treasury of Scripture

Now if any man build on this foundation gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stubble;

gold.

Psalm 19:10
More to be desired are they than gold, yea, than much fine gold: sweeter also than honey and the honeycomb.

Psalm 119:72
The law of thy mouth is better unto me than thousands of gold and silver.

Proverbs 8:10
Receive my instruction, and not silver; and knowledge rather than choice gold.

precious.

Isaiah 54:11-13
O thou afflicted, tossed with tempest, and not comforted, behold, I will lay thy stones with fair colours, and lay thy foundations with sapphires…

Revelation 21:18
And the building of the wall of it was of jasper: and the city was pure gold, like unto clear glass.

wood.

Proverbs 30:6
Add thou not unto his words, lest he reprove thee, and thou be found a liar.

Jeremiah 23:28
The prophet that hath a dream, let him tell a dream; and he that hath my word, let him speak my word faithfully. What is the chaff to the wheat? saith the LORD.

Matthew 15:6-9
And honour not his father or his mother, he shall be free. Thus have ye made the commandment of God of none effect by your tradition…

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Base Build Buildeth Building Builds Costly Dry Foundation Gold Grass Great Hay Precious Price Silver Stones Straw Stubble Timber Using Whether Wood
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Base Build Buildeth Building Builds Costly Dry Foundation Gold Grass Great Hay Precious Price Silver Stones Straw Stubble Timber Using Whether Wood
1 Corinthians 3
1. Milk is fit for children.
3. Strife and division, arguments of a fleshly mind.
7. He who plants and He who waters are nothing.
9. The ministers are God's fellow workmen.
11. Christ the only foundation.
16. You are the temples of God, which must be kept holy.
19. The wisdom of this world is foolishness with God.














(12) Now if any man . . .--Better, But if any man.

Precious stones.--Not gems, but grand and costly stones, such as marble. "Hay," dried grass used to fill up chinks in the walls. "Stubble," stalks with the ears of corn cut off, and used for making a roof of thatch.

Many ingenious attempts have been made to apply the imagery of this passage in detail to various doctrines or Christian virtues, but it seems best to regard it as broadly and in outline bringing before the reader the two great ideas of permanent and ephemeral work, and the striking contrast between them. The truth brought forward is primarily, if not exclusively, for teachers. The image is taken from what would have met the eye of a traveller in Ephesus where St. Paul now was, or in Corinth where his letter was to be first read. It is such a contrast as may be seen (though not in precisely the same striking form of difference) in London in our own day. The stately palaces of marble and of granite, with roof and column glittering with gold and silver decorations, and close by these the wretched hovels of the poor and outcast, the walls made of laths of wood, with the interstices stuffed with straw, and a thatched roof above. Then arose before the Apostle's vision the thought of a city being visited by a mighty conflagration, such as desolated Corinth itself in the time of Mummius. The mean structures of perishable wood and straw would be utterly consumed, while, as was actually the case in Corinth, the mighty palaces and temples would stand after the fire had exhausted itself. Thus, says St. Paul, it will be with the work of Christian teachers when the "day of the Lord is revealed in fire." The fire of that day will prove and test the quality of each work.

Verse 12. - Gold, silver. Perhaps St. Paul thought for a moment of the gorgeous metals . rod rich marbles used in the Corinthian temples, as well as in the temple at Jerusalem. But it is surely fantastic to suggest that his reference is an historical reminiscence of the melting of gold and silver in the burning of Corinth by Mummius, nearly two hundred years before. Costly stones; i.e. costly marble from Paros, Phrygia, etc. Wood, hay, stubble. These words seem to symbolize erroneous or imperfect doctrines, which would not stand the test, and which led to evil practices. Such were the" philosophy and vain deceit," "the weak and beggarly dements," "the rudiments of the world," of which he speaks in Galatians 4:9; Colossians 2:8. So in the Midrash Tehillin, the words of false teachers are compared to hay. The doctrines to which he alludes are not and christian, but imperfect and human - such, for instance, as, "Humanas constitutiunculas de cultu, de victo, de frigidis ceremoniis" (Erasmus).

Parallel Commentaries ...


Greek
If
Εἰ (Ei)
Conjunction
Strong's 1487: If. A primary particle of conditionality; if, whether, that, etc.

anyone
τις (tis)
Interrogative / Indefinite Pronoun - Nominative Masculine Singular
Strong's 5100: Any one, some one, a certain one or thing. An enclitic indefinite pronoun; some or any person or object.

builds
ἐποικοδομεῖ (epoikodomei)
Verb - Present Indicative Active - 3rd Person Singular
Strong's 2026: To build upon (above) a foundation. From epi and oikodomeo; to build upon, i.e. to rear up.

on
ἐπὶ (epi)
Preposition
Strong's 1909: On, to, against, on the basis of, at.

[this]
τὸν (ton)
Article - Accusative Masculine Singular
Strong's 3588: The, the definite article. Including the feminine he, and the neuter to in all their inflections; the definite article; the.

foundation
θεμέλιον (themelion)
Noun - Accusative Masculine Singular
Strong's 2310: From a derivative of tithemi; something put down, i.e. A substruction.

[using] gold,
χρυσόν (chryson)
Noun - Accusative Masculine Singular
Strong's 5557: Perhaps from the base of chraomai; gold; by extension, a golden article, as an ornament or coin.

silver,
ἄργυρον (argyron)
Noun - Accusative Masculine Singular
Strong's 696: Silver as a metal. From argos; silver.

precious
τιμίους (timious)
Adjective - Accusative Masculine Plural
Strong's 5093: Of great price, precious, honored.

stones,
λίθους (lithous)
Noun - Accusative Masculine Plural
Strong's 3037: A stone; met: of Jesus as the chief stone in a building. Apparently a primary word; a stone.

wood,
ξύλα (xyla)
Noun - Accusative Neuter Plural
Strong's 3586: From another form of the base of xestes; timber; by implication, a stick, club or tree or other wooden article or substance.

hay,
χόρτον (chorton)
Noun - Accusative Masculine Singular
Strong's 5528: Grass, herbage, growing grain, hay. Apparently a primary word; a 'court' or 'garden', i.e. herbage or vegetation.

[or] straw,
καλάμην (kalamēn)
Noun - Accusative Feminine Singular
Strong's 2562: Stubble, straw, the stalk. Feminine of kalamos; a stalk of grain, i.e. stubble.


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NT Letters: 1 Corinthians 3:12 But if anyone builds on the foundation (1 Cor. 1C iC 1Cor i cor icor)
1 Corinthians 3:11
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