Bible Strands
1 Corinthians 13:9
For we know in part and we prophesy in part,
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — Paul to the Corinthian church, mid-argument that love outranks the spiritual gifts they prize. He is conceding a limitation before stating the contrast in verse 10.
The words — μέρους (meros, "part") modifies both verbs, making the claim "we know from a part" and "we prophesy from a part." The same root reappears in 13:10 ("the partial passes away"), tying the two verses into a single thought-unit.
The thread — The gap between partial and full knowledge recurs in Colossians 2:2 ("full riches of complete understanding"), Ephesians 3:18 (comprehending "the breadth and length and height and depth"), and Psalms 139:6 ("too wonderful for me, too lofty for me to attain").
Why it lands — It asks the reader to treat every current conviction—doctrinal, experiential, prophetic—as provisional rather than final.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Greek words
King James Version
For we know in part, and we prophesy in part.
Cross-references
- Colossians 2:2 that they may be encouraged in heart, knit together in love, and filled with the full riches of complete understanding, so that they may know the mystery of God, namely Christ,
- Ephesians 3:18 will have power, together with all the saints, to comprehend the length and width and height and depth
- Psalms 139:6 Such knowledge is too wonderful for me, too lofty for me to attain.
- 1 Corinthians 2:9 Rather, as it is written: “No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no heart has imagined, what God has prepared for those who love Him.”
- 1 Corinthians 8:2 The one who thinks he knows something does not yet know as he ought to know.
- 1 Corinthians 13:12 Now we see but a dim reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.
- Job 11:7 Can you fathom the deep things of God or discover the limits of the Almighty?
- Psalms 40:5 Many, O LORD my God, are the wonders You have done, and the plans You have for us—none can compare to You—if I proclaim and declare them, they are more than I can count.
- Proverbs 30:4 Who has ascended to heaven and come down? Who has gathered the wind in His hands? Who has bound up the waters in His cloak? Who has established all the ends of the earth? What is His name, and what is the name of His Son—surely you know!
- Matthew 11:27 All things have been entrusted to Me by My Father. No one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal Him.