Most translations, including both Revised Standard Version and Good News Bible, reproduce rather closely the structure of the Greek sentence, making it sound like a comparison between two similar events. In fact the two things that Paul compares, namely (1) the making of Eve out of Adam’s rib (compare verse 8), and (2) the fact that it is woman that gives birth, are not so much similar as converse and complementary. Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch brings this out clearly: “True, woman was made out of man, but man is born of woman.” Parola Del Signore: La Bibbia in Lingua Corrente has “In fact, it is true that woman was taken from man, it is just as much true that every man is born of a woman.” Parola Del Signore: La Bibbia in Lingua Corrente continues without a break: “… and that both come from God who made everything.” The word “both” is not in the Greek but helps to make the progression in Paul’s argument clear. Moffatt translates the final clause as “… while both, like all things, come from God.”

The variations in Paul’s use of prepositions, from man and from God, but of woman, is probably deliberate. The word translated from means “out of” (compare verse 8) and indicates origin, while the term translated of indicates the means by which man was made.

The parentheses (round brackets) in Revised Standard Version around verses 11-12 do not seem as necessary as those around verses 8-9, since verse 13 does not follow immediately on the thought of verse 10. It is probably better to leave out the parentheses here, for they may suggest that these two verses contain material less important than the rest of the text. This is not the case here.

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 .