An apostle has a right to be supported by the churches. Paul illustrates this right by comparisons with various kinds of secular work. The form of each part of the verse is generally similar to the others, though the second and third resemble one another more closely than the first and are linked by “or” in Greek.

In the first part of the verse, the word translated expense in New Testament times generally meant “wages”; but in this context the idea of “expenses” is preferable.

The sentence does not explicitly use the words “soldiers,” “farmers” or “their own” (Good News Bible), or speak explicitly about the owner of a flock of sheep. Instead Paul uses verbs meaning “to soldier,” “to plant,” and “to shepherd.” Good News Bible uses plural forms to avoid the masculine pronoun “his,” though women soldiers were not known in ancient Israel (see also verse 10). In the second and third parts of the verse, Paul is probably thinking of a farm worker and a shepherd, that is, people employed by someone else; he does not seem to be thinking of a landowner. Such an interpretation would make a better parallel to 7a: Who serves as a soldier at his own expense? Bible en français courant brings out this possibility: “Did you ever hear of a soldier serving in the army at his own expense? or a man not eating the grapes from the vineyard he has planted? or a shepherd not taking milk from the flock he is looking after?”

The word translated getting (Good News Bible‘s “use”) is literally “eat.” Paul may be including the thought of eating solid products made from milk, but this is not clearly expressed. Therefore a more general word such as “use” is preferable in translation, unless there is a word for “eat” that can mean both eating and drinking.

Some Greek manuscripts omit the “or” that links the second and third questions in this verse. It is part of the UBS Greek text but may be omitted in translation, as in Revised Standard Version and Good News Bible, if it is not good style.

In many languages translators will prefer to translate the three rhetorical questions in this verse as statements. For example, the first question may be rendered as “a soldier never has to pay his own expenses.”

The expressions Who serves as a soldier, Who plants a vineyard, and Who tends a flock are difficult to translate in some languages. In such cases one may say “Does any soldier…” and so on.

An alternative translation model for this verse is:
• A soldier never has to pay his own expenses. A person who plants a vineyard expects to eat some of its fruit. And a shepherd expects to drink the milk from his own sheep.

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 .