This verse is remarkable for the number of synonyms that Paul uses to describe the idea of “revealing” or “making clear.” These synonyms are become manifest, will disclose it, and it will be revealed.

Good News Bible‘s “the quality of” is implicit in the Greek and becomes explicit in the last part of the verse, where Paul says that “fire will test it and show its real quality.”

The phrase will become manifest or “will be seen” (Good News Bible) may be expressed as “will be revealed” or “will be known.” But in languages that do not commonly use the passive voice or may not have the passive voice, one may say “people will see.” It may also be helpful to place this phrase at the beginning of this verse and say “And people will see the quality of … when the Day of Christ….”

The Day is one of the expressions used in the Old Testament of the time when God will judge his people, or the world. In the New Testament it has the added meaning of the day of Christ’s return (see 1 Thes 5.4 and also 1 Cor 1.8). Good News Bible translates “Day of Christ” because throughout this passage Paul shows that Christ is central to God’s purposes from beginning to end (see verses 11, 23). If, however, “Day of Christ” is not clear to the intended readers of the translation, the Day may be translated “the Day of Judgment” or “the day when Christ comes to judge.”

For the Day will disclose it, because it will be revealed with fire: the Greek may mean (1) “the Day is revealed in (or, by) fire,” that is, fire will be a sign of the Day of Judgment, or less probably (2) “each person’s work is revealed by fire,” that is, by whether or not it can be burnt. The reasons for (1) are that “Day” is the nearest noun in the Greek that can serve as the subject of the verb be revealed, and that (2) would make Paul repeat himself. Revised Standard Version is ambiguous. Bible en français courant clearly picks (1): “that day will manifest itself by fire.” Out of all the translations that we consulted, only Good News Bible explicitly chooses (2). Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch has just one sentence, reducing the seeming repetition in the Greek: “On that day, the worth of each person’s work will be tested in fire.” Another way to express this is: “on that day fire will test each person’s work to show its quality (or, worth).”

Test does not seem to be used in the technical sense of testing or proving gold while refining it. The context speaks of destruction and survival on the Day of Judgment, rather than speaking of purification. It is therefore better to use an expression that has the wider meaning of a test that one either passes or fails.

Some Greek manuscripts add “itself” between the fire and will test. Some copyists may have omitted this word because it adds nothing to the sense. But others may have added it to strengthen the sentence. The emphatic “itself” following a noun is rare in Paul’s writings. So it is probably better to omit “itself”; the UBS Greek text puts this word in square brackets.

Quoted with permission from Ellingworth, Paul and Hatton, Howard A. A Handbook on Paul’s First Letter to the Corinthians, 2nd edition. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1985/1994. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .