The first part of this verse, If then you have such cases, has the main function of linking this verse with verse 5. common language translations differ according to how much they condense this verse. ITCL begins a new paragraph and translates “When therefore you have to resolve questions of this kind….” Other ways to condense this verse are “Such questions should not be settled by people who have no standing in the church” or “… by people whom other Christians do not respect.”
The rest of the verse, from the clause why do you lay them before, raises four related problems. The first and least important is that of punctuation. The clause can be taken as a question, a command, an exclamation, or a statement (see the footnote on punctuation in the UBS Greek New Testament). This problem scarcely affects the meaning. For example, Bible de Jérusalem‘s “You are going to take for judges people whom the church despises!” means practically the same as Traduction œcuménique de la Bible‘s “you set up as judges people whom the church despises?” In some languages, however, it may be more natural to change this rhetorical question into a negative statement: “You really should not choose as judges people whom other Christians do not respect.”
The second problem is that of how to translate this clause if it is understood as a rhetorical question. The options are: “do you (take)…?” (New American Bible; compare also Translator’s New Testament, Traduction œcuménique de la Bible), “are you going to…?” (Good News Bible, An American Translation), “how can you…?” (New English Bible, Barclay), and “why do you…?” (Revised Standard Version, Parola Del Signore: La Bibbia in Lingua Corrente, Phillips). There is little difference in meaning among all of these. “How can…?” probably brings out most clearly in English the fact that the question does not expect a real answer.
The third problem is that of deciding whether (1) Paul is talking about law cases in general, or (2) referring to a particular case. As often in his letters, Paul probably has one or more particular cases in mind, but draws general principles from them. Only Jerusalem Bible (not New Jerusalem Bible), among the translations consulted, clearly chooses (2). It shows this choice by using the past tense: “when you have had cases of that kind, the people you appointed to try them were not even respected in the Church.” The preceding words, If then you have certainly allow for (1) to be chosen by a translator. However, it seems clear from verses 1 and 6 that Paul is discussing a real situation, and thus (2) is a better choice.
The last and most difficult problem concerns the identity of the people who are least esteemed by the church. Are they the people who occupy “the very last place” within the church (4.9; contrast 12.28, where the same phrase “in the church” is used)? Or are they “outsiders” (5.12), the “heathen judges” of verse 1 (compare verse 6)? If they are these “heathen,” then the phrase who are least esteemed by the church would mean “from the point of view of the church (they) are of no account” (Moffatt; compare New Jerusalem Bible).
The translator must consider the following arguments before deciding whether or not Paul is referring to Christians.
(a) The verb translated lay … before (Good News Bible‘s “take … to be settled by”) is literally “set up” or “appoint as judges.” It is clear that Christians would have no power to appoint secular judges. However, Paul could be speaking loosely of Christians choosing to use the services of non-Christian courts.
(b) Barrett doubts whether Paul would have spoken of Christians as “people of no standing.” He comments: “Every Christian ‘counts for something’ in the church” (similarly Fee). But in fact, Paul several times uses the verb translated here “count for nothing” in speaking of Christians’ attitudes toward one another; see Rom 14.3, 10 (“despise”); 1 Cor 16.11 (“despise”); 2 Cor 10.10 (“of no account”); Gal 4.14 (“despise”); 1 Thes 5.20 (“despise”). These references, however, do not prove that Paul is speaking about Christians in this verse. They merely provide evidence that he did sometimes speak about Christians in this way.
(c) The context, especially “heathen judges” in verse 1, suggests that Paul is summing up the previous argument rather than making a contrast or changing a theme.
(d) It has been suggested that the Christian community in Corinth had appointed such unworthy church members to decide their disputes that people had turned in despair to non-Christian judges. If this situation were true, verse 4 would be a statement referring to these poorly qualified Christians who had been appointed as judges. Verse 5 would then go on to suggest that the church could find someone better. This would make a good connection with what follows, but we do not know enough about the situation in Corinth to be sure.
Most modern translators suggest that the people who are least esteemed by the church are non-Christians; Revised English Bible, for example, has “outsiders.” That means “people who have no standing to decide problems in the church because they are not members of it.” Given all the evidence that we have presented, “non-Christians” is probably the correct meaning here.
Lay them before is literally “set up as judges,” or less probably “submit to the judgment of.” The choice partly depends on how the translator resolves the problem that we have discussed in paragraphs (a) through (d).
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 .