It is important for translators to compare Good News Bible‘s restructured translation with Revised Standard Version‘s more literal version, and to consider what rearrangement may bring out the meaning most clearly in their own language.
Lo! is the Greek interjection traditionally translated “behold.” Both words are no longer used in everyday English. Good News Bible‘s “Listen” is good modern English. This word is used to call attention to the following words. Another possible rendering is “I want you to pay attention to this….”
Mystery here means a special teaching revealed to Paul so that he may pass it on. Jerusalem Bible, perhaps more precisely than Good News Bible, translates “I will tell you something that has been secret”; see comments on 2.7 and 13.2. “Will” in Jerusalem Bible means “about to,” as implied in the Greek.
We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed: manuscripts vary, probably because later scribes found the text difficult to understand or accept. The UBS Greek text gives an “A” rating to the text that is translated by Revised Standard Version and Good News Bible. This means that this text is virtually certain. For the variants, see Metzger and general commentaries.
The words translated We shall not all sleep would normally mean “none of us will sleep (that is, die) before the last judgment.” It is likely that Paul, when he wrote this letter, expected to be alive when Christ returned to earth. Nowhere else does he state that no further deaths would take place before Christ’s return. For this reason, all translations consulted, and most commentaries, understand the words to mean “we shall not all die” (Good News Bible), meaning that, although some of us may die, not all of us will die. In any case, throughout the verse “we” and “us” include both Paul and his readers.
We shall all be changed: see last paragraph of comments on these verses.
In a moment: literally “atom,” meaning here a unit of time, not of matter, so small that it cannot be divided again.
Twinkling: more precisely, “in the time it takes to cast a glance at something.”
At the last trumpet: Paul does not say who is to sound the trumpet. If it is necessary in translation to give the verb a subject, one may translate “when people hear the sound of the last trumpet” or “when they blow the last trumpet.”
Trumpet is the normal translation of the Greek word; “bugle” was chosen in 14.8 because that verse referred to a military instrument (see comments).
The phrase the dead will be raised may be rendered as “God will raise the dead to life.”
Imperishable is the opposite of the condition described as “mortal” (Good News Bible) in verse 42 (see the comments). The Greek therefore implies, not only that the dead will never die again (Good News Bible), but that they can never die again.
We shall be changed: this clause almost certainly refers to different people from the dead whom God will raise, never to die again. The people here are the ones mentioned in verse 51 who will still be alive when Christ returns. The we in Greek is emphatic, suggesting a change of subject. It is therefore significant that all is expressed in the Greek of verse 51, but not in verse 52. It may even be that we shall be changed is a clarification or correction by Paul of we shall all be changed in verse 51, to show that “we all” refers only to Christians who are still alive in the last days. Good News Bible‘s “all” is not in the Greek text of verse 52. Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch makes this contrast clear: “when the trumpet sounds, the dead will be awakened to everlasting life. But we, who are still alive, (will) receive a new body.” Other translations are less explicit but do not follow Good News Bible in repeating “all” from verse 51. The distinction between the renderings of verses 51 and 52 should be kept in translation.
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 .