What Is the Perfect: At a Glance
The Question (Summary)
Section titled “The Question (Summary)”What does Paul mean by “the perfect” in 1 Corinthians 13:10?
“But when that which is perfect is come, then that which is in part shall be done away.” --- 1 Corinthians 13:10 (KJV)
SCAR Summary
Section titled “SCAR Summary”| Component | Key Finding |
|---|---|
| Scripture | The grammar (ὅταν + aorist subjunctive) points to a future event of uncertain timing. “Face to face” (πρόσωπον πρὸς πρόσωπον) echoes Moses’s direct encounter with God (Num. 12:8; Deut. 34:10). “Then shall I know even as also I am known” demands a knowing that exceeds anything a text can supply. Four views are exegetically possible; none is grammatically compelled. |
| Christocentrism | Jesus uses the same τέλειος root for present ethical pursuit (Matt. 5:48) and for corporate unity (John 17:23). The Moses typology reaches its fullest referent in seeing Christ himself --- confirmed by 1 John 3:2 (“we shall see him as he is”). The already/not-yet character of the kingdom allows “the perfect” to have both a present dimension (love) and a future arrival (Christ). |
| Antiquity | The patristic witness is unanimous against the canon reading and near-unanimous in its eschatological direction. Tertullian sets Numbers 12:6-8 beside 1 Corinthians 13:12 and “reserves to some future time” the face-to-face encounter. Chrysostom (post-Nicene witness) reads the verse of the complete knowledge of the age to come: “we shall not only know as much, but even a great deal more.” Augustine (likewise post-Nicene) builds his theology of the beatific vision on this passage. No ancient interpreter --- not one, across the roughly three and a half centuries of surviving comment, from the Didache to Augustine --- connected τὸ τέλειον with the completed canon. Clement of Alexandria alone reads it as present maturity, shaped by his Platonic context. |
| Reality | Four views compete today. The canon view faces anachronism, the personal force of “face to face,” and zero patristic support. The maturity view captures Paul’s gift-to-growth theology but cannot account for “know even as I am known.” The eschatological views (Christ’s return; eternal state) hold the strongest exegetical and historical ground. Crucially, the cessationist-continuationist debate can be separated from this passage: the verse entails neither position --- one can hold the eschatological reading and remain cessationist on other grounds, as Chrysostom, Edwards, and MacArthur each did --- though on the eschatological reading the case for cessation must be carried by arguments outside this text. |
Four Views at a Glance
Section titled “Four Views at a Glance”| View | ”The Perfect” = | Strongest Argument | Honest Challenge |
|---|---|---|---|
| Completed Canon | The full written revelation of Scripture | Scripture makes the man of God ἄρτιος, “complete” (2 Tim. 3:17), and Jas. 1:25 calls God’s law τέλειον; the Spirit guided apostles into “all truth” (John 16:13) | “Face to face” is personal-encounter language, ill-suited to the arrival of a text. No patristic attestation. The knowledge of v. 12 exceeds what any reader of Scripture possesses. |
| Christ’s Return | The Parousia --- Christ himself appearing | ”Face to face” is personal-encounter language; 1 John 3:2 names the referent; the patristic tradition points one way (Clement and John of Damascus excepted) | The neuter τὸ τέλειον more naturally names an event or state than a person --- pressing precise advocates to say “the state of affairs at his coming” rather than “Christ himself,” at which point this view begins to merge with the eternal-state view. |
| Church Maturity | The corporate body reaching fullness | Eph. 4:13 uses ἄνδρα τέλειον for corporate maturity in a gift-context; Paul’s childhood analogy (v. 11) invites a growth reading | The decisive arrival language (ὅταν ἔλθῃ) and the impossibility of any present state matching “know even as I am known.” |
| Eternal State | The consummated kingdom in eternity | Combines personal encounter (Rev. 22:4) with completed state; resolves the “face to face” and full-knowledge demands together | Difficult to distinguish from Christ’s return in practice; risks pushing the text so far into the future that it loses present force. |
Key Greek Terms
Section titled “Key Greek Terms”| Strong’s | Greek | Transliteration | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| G5046 | τὸ τέλειον | to teleion | ”The perfect” --- the complete state; from τέλος (end, goal) |
| G2673 | καταργηθήσεται | katargēthēsetai | ”Will be rendered inoperative” --- future passive (καταργηθήσονται of prophecy, v. 8; καταργηθήσεται of knowledge); both cease by external cause |
| G3973 | παύσονται | pausontai | ”Will cease” --- future middle; tongues cease (whether self-ceasing or simply intransitive is disputed) |
| G1921 | ἐπιγνώσομαι | epignōsomai | ”I shall know fully” --- future; Paul’s knowing does not yet match God’s knowing of him |
| G737 | ἄρτι | arti | ”Now” --- marks the present partial age |
| G5119 | τότε | tote | ”Then” --- marks the future complete age |
What Is Clear (Summary)
Section titled “What Is Clear (Summary)”- Love is permanent and supreme. Every tradition agrees: “Charity never faileth” (13:8). Gifts are temporary instruments; love is the character of God himself.
- Present knowledge is genuinely partial. “We know in part, and we prophesy in part” (13:9). No interpreter denies this --- and the shared limitation ought to produce shared humility.
- A future completion is coming. All views agree that the “then” of verse 12 is genuinely future from Paul’s perspective and genuinely better than the “now.”
- The gifts serve the body’s edification. Across chapters 12—14, gifts exist to build up the body, not to confer status on individuals.
- “Face to face” is our destiny. All traditions confess that believers will one day see God directly. The disagreement is about timing, not the promise itself.
What Is Debated (Summary)
Section titled “What Is Debated (Summary)”- The referent of τὸ τέλειον --- whether it is a completed text, a divine person, a corporate state, or an eschatological era. Grammar does not settle it; context is disputed.
- The middle voice of παύσονται --- whether tongues “ceasing of themselves” implies a different timeline from prophecy and knowledge being “rendered inoperative,” or whether the middle voice is simply standard Hellenistic Greek.
- The timing of “then” (τότε) --- whether it describes something that arrived around 100 AD with the completed canon or something still ahead at the resurrection and the direct vision of God.
- Whether this passage settles the cessationist-continuationist debate --- Paul’s purpose in 1 Corinthians 13 is not to settle the gifts question but to relativize the gifts in the light of love.
The Bottom Line
Section titled “The Bottom Line”The question “What is the perfect?” is genuinely difficult --- it has occupied careful exegetes for two thousand years without producing consensus. But the question “What matters most?” is not difficult at all. Paul answered it without ambiguity: love is greatest, love never fails, and whatever “the perfect” is, it will not supersede love --- it will be love’s fullest expression.
“And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity.” --- 1 Corinthians 13:13 (KJV)
A tldrSCAR study of the referent of τὸ τέλειον in 1 Corinthians 13:10.
The SCAR quadrilateral (Scripture, Christocentrism, Antiquity, Reality) is a restatement of Dean Taylor’s Apostolic Quadrilateral (A Change of Allegiance, 2009). Criticisms, encouragements, and exhortations welcome at [email protected].