The first part of this verse raises various problems.
(1) Fought with beasts is a single verb in Greek, not used elsewhere in the Bible. Most scholars agree that the beasts are human beings acting like wild beasts, and that the “fighting” is figurative too. That is why Good News Bible puts “wild beasts” in quotation marks and adds “as it were.” Related words are used to describe human beings as “evil beasts” in a quotation in Titus 1.12, and in speaking of “fighting” (Good News Bible‘s “quarrels”) in 2 Cor 7.5. However, the strong language used in previous verses (“in peril,” verse 30; “I die,” verse 31) suggests that in the present verse the “fighting” must have involved some physical risk. Roman citizens such as Paul were not punished by being set to fight with wild beasts. However, before we exclude a literal meaning for fought with beasts, let us examine the following questions.
(2) A majority of commentators believe that the conditional clause beginning If … refers to some conflict in which Paul was actually engaged. It is, however, grammatically possible to understand this clause as an unfulfilled condition: “if I were to fight with wild beasts.” In this case the objection that Paul could not legally undergo such a punishment would lose much of its force. If this argument is correct, “wild beasts” is more likely to be figurative.
(3) Humanly speaking may be connected either with I fought or with beasts. Both Revised Standard Version and Good News Bible choose the first option, which implies “I fought for my life like someone who expects no life after death”; compare New Revised Standard Version “with merely human hopes” (similarly Revised English Bible); New Jerusalem Bible “in a purely human perspective.” The second option would probably mean “I fought with people who can only be described, in human language, as ‘wild beasts.’ ” This would be Paul’s way of softening his otherwise hard language. It is difficult to choose between these two options, since in the Greek “I-fought-with-wild-beasts” is a single word. However, the first is probably better.
What do I gain…?: this rhetorical question implies “if I have no resurrection to hope for, there would be no point in my living such a hard and dangerous life.”
The words “as it were” (Good News Bible) are implied and have the same function as the quotation marks around “wild beasts” in Good News Bible.
At Ephesus: Good News Bible adds “here,” since Paul is writing from Ephesus (see 16.8).
Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die is an exact quotation from Isa 22.13.
Good News Bible‘s “as the saying goes” is implicit. The words are added to make it clear that the following words are a quotation. Isa 22.13 is part of scripture, but the quoted words are spoken by people whom the prophet condemns. Therefore, to introduce them by “as the scripture says,” as Good News Bible did in 10.26, might misleadingly suggest that Paul approves the attitude expressed in the quotation. The phrase “as the saying goes” may also be rendered as “as people often say” or “according to the popular saying.”
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 .