---
title: "1 Corinthians 9 – Catholic Bible (CPDV) & Latin Vulgate"
url: https://blessbible.app/bible/1-corinthians/9/
description: "The apostle did not make use of his power of being maintained at the… 1 Corinthians 9 in the Catholic Public Domain Version, with the Latin Vulgate."
---

# 1 Corinthians 9

1 Corinthians 9 is chapter 9 of 16 in the First Letter to the Corinthians. Here are all 27 verses in the Catholic Public Domain Version, with the Latin of the Clementine Vulgate beside them.

> The apostle did not make use of his power of being maintained at the charges of those to whom he preached, that he might give no hindrance to the gospel. Of running in the race and striving for the mastery.
>
> — Bp. Richard Challoner, chapter summary

## 1 Corinthians 9 (Catholic Public Domain Version)

1. Am I not free? Am I not an Apostle? Have I not seen Christ Jesus our Lord? Are you not my work in the Lord?
2. And if I am not an Apostle to others, yet still I am to you. For you are the seal of my Apostleship in the Lord.
3. My defense with those who question me is this:
4. Do we not have the authority to eat and to drink?
5. Do we not have the authority to travel around with a woman who is a sister, just as do the other Apostles, and the brothers of the Lord, and Cephas?
6. Or is it only myself and Barnabas who do not have the authority to act in this way?
7. Who has ever served as a soldier and paid his own stipend? Who plants a vineyard and does not eat from its produce? Who pastures a flock and does not drink from the milk of the flock?
8. Am I saying these things according to man? Or does the law not also say these things?
9. For it is written in the law of Moses: “You shall not bind the mouth of an ox, while it is treading out the grain.” Is God here concerned with the oxen?
10. Or is he saying this, indeed, for our sake? These things were written specifically for us, because he who plows, ought to plow in hope, and he who threshes, too, in hope of receiving the produce.
11. If we have sown spiritual things in you, is it important if we harvest from your worldly things?
12. If others are sharers in this authority over you, why are we not more entitled? And yet we have not used this authority. Instead, we bear all things, lest we give any hindrance to the Gospel of Christ.
13. Do you not know that those who work in the holy place eat the things that are for the holy place, and that those who serve at the altar also share with the altar?
14. So, too, has the Lord ordained that those who announce the Gospel should live by the Gospel.
15. Yet I have used none of these things. And I have not written so that these things may be done for me. For it is better for me to die, rather than to let anyone empty out my glory.
16. For if I preach the Gospel, it is not glory for me. For an obligation has been laid upon me. And woe to me, if I do not preach the Gospel.
17. For if I do this willingly, I have a reward. But if I do this reluctantly, a dispensation is granted to me.
18. And what, then, would be my reward? So, when preaching the Gospel, I should give the Gospel without taking, so that I may not misuse my authority in the Gospel.
19. For when I was a free man to all, I made myself the servant of all, so that I might gain all the more.
20. And so, to the Jews, I became like a Jew, so that I might gain the Jews.
21. To those who are under the law, I became as if I were under the law, (though I was not under the law) so that I might gain those who were under the law. To those who were without the law, I became as if I were without the law, (though I was not without the law of God, being in the law of Christ) so that I might gain those who were without the law.
22. To the weak, I became weak, so that I might gain the weak. To all, I became all, so that I might save all.
23. And I do everything for the sake of the Gospel, so that I may become its partner.
24. Do you not know that, of those who run in a race, all of them, certainly, are runners, but only one achieves the prize. Similarly, you must run, so that you may achieve.
25. And one who competes in a contest abstains from all things. And they do this, of course, so that they may achieve a corruptible crown. But we do this, so that we may achieve what is incorruptible.
26. And so I run, but not with uncertainty. And so I fight, but not by flailing in the air.
27. Instead, I chastise my body, so as to redirect it into servitude. Otherwise, I might preach to others, but become myself an outcast.

## 1 Corinthians 9 in Latin (Clementine Vulgate, 1592)

1. Non sum liber? non sum Apostolus? nonne Christum Jesum Dominum nostrum vidi? nonne opus meum vos estis in Domino?
2. Et si aliis non sum Apostolus, sed tamen vobis sum: nam signaculum apostolatus mei vos estis in Domino.
3. Mea defensio apud eos qui me interrogant, hæc est:
4. Numquid non habemus potestatem manducandi et bibendi?
5. numquid non habemus potestatem mulierem sororem circumducendi sicut et ceteri Apostoli, et fratres Domini, et Cephas?
6. aut ego solus, et Barnabas, non habemus potestatem hoc operandi?
7. Quis militat suis stipendiis umquam? quis plantat vineam, et de fructu ejus non edit? quis pascit gregem, et de lacte gregis non manducat?
8. Numquid secundum hominem hæc dico? an et lex hæc non dicit?
9. Scriptum est enim in lege Moysi: Non alligabis os bovi trituranti. Numquid de bobus cura est Deo?
10. an propter nos utique hoc dicit? Nam propter nos scripta sunt: quoniam debet in spe qui arat, arare: et qui triturat, in spe fructus percipiendi.
11. Si nos vobis spiritualia seminavimus, magnum est si nos carnalia vestra metamus?
12. Si alii potestatis vestræ participes sunt, quare non potius nos? Sed non usi sumus hac potestate: sed omnia sustinemus, ne quod offendiculum demus Evangelio Christi.
13. Nescitis quoniam qui in sacrario operantur quæ de sacrario sunt, edunt: et qui altari deserviunt, cum altari participant?
14. Ita et Dominus ordinavit iis qui Evangelium annuntiant, de Evangelio vivere.
15. Ego autem nullo horum usus sum. Non autem scripsi hæc ut ita fiant in me: bonum est enim mihi magis mori, quam ut gloriam meam quis evacuet.
16. Nam si evangelizavero, non est mihi gloria: necessitas enim mihi incumbit: væ enim mihi est, si non evangelizavero.
17. Si enim volens hoc ago, mercedem habeo: si autem invitus, dispensatio mihi credita est.
18. Quæ est ergo merces mea? ut Evangelium prædicans, sine sumptu ponam Evangelium, ut non abutar potestate mea in Evangelio.
19. Nam cum liber essem ex omnibus, omnium me servum feci, ut plures lucrifacerem.
20. Et factus sum Judæis tamquam Judæus, ut Judæos lucrarer:
21. iis qui sub lege sunt, quasi sub lege essem (cum ipse non essem sub lege) ut eos qui sub lege erant, lucrifacerem: iis qui sine lege erant, tamquam sine lege essem (cum sine lege Dei non essem: sed in lege essem Christi) ut lucrifacerem eos qui sine lege erant.
22. Factus sum infirmis infirmus, ut infirmos lucrifacerem. Omnibus omnia factus sum, ut omnes facerem salvos.
23. Omnia autem facio propter Evangelium: ut particeps ejus efficiar.
24. Nescitis quod ii qui in stadio currunt, omnes quidem currunt, sed unus accipit bravium? Sic currite ut comprehendatis.
25. Omnis autem qui in agone contendit, ab omnibus se abstinet, et illi quidem ut corruptibilem coronam accipiant: nos autem incorruptam.
26. Ego igitur sic curro, non quasi in incertum: sic pugno, non quasi aërem verberans:
27. sed castigo corpus meum, et in servitutem redigo: ne forte cum aliis prædicaverim, ipse reprobus efficiar.

## Catechism of the Catholic Church

Paragraph numbers and the Catechism's own section headings (never quoted); text at vatican.va.
- CCC ¶ 857: The Church Is One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic ([vatican.va index](https://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0015/_INDEX.HTM))
- CCC ¶ 1852: The Different Kinds of Sins ([vatican.va index](https://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0015/_INDEX.HTM))
- cf. CCC ¶ 659: "He Ascended Into Heaven and Is Seated At the Right Hand of the Father" ([vatican.va index](https://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0015/_INDEX.HTM))
- CCC ¶ 500: "Conceived By the Power of the Holy Spirit and Born of the Virgin Mary" ([vatican.va index](https://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0015/_INDEX.HTM))
- CCC ¶ 848: The Church Is One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic ([vatican.va index](https://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0015/_INDEX.HTM))
- cf. CCC ¶ 876: Christ's Faithful - Hierarchy, Laity, Consecrated Life ([vatican.va index](https://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0015/_INDEX.HTM))
- cf. CCC ¶ 24: Necessary Adaptations ([vatican.va index](https://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0015/_INDEX.HTM))

## The saints

- “Fasting is the guardian of chastity, the mother of purity, the teacher of virtue.” — St. Peter Damian, Letter to Leo of Sitria, c. 1060 (On this theme: verse 27)

## Bishop Challoner's notes

Bp. Richard Challoner, notes on the Douay-Rheims (1750); they comment on its older wording.
- Verse 5: Some erroneous translators have corrupted this text by rendering it, a sister, a wife: whereas, it is certain, St. Paul had no wife (chap. 7 ver. 7, 8) and that he only speaks of such devout women, as, according to the custom of the Jewish nation, waited upon the preachers of the gospel, and supplied them with necessaries.
- Verse 16: That is, I have nothing to glory of.
- Verse 27: “I chastise” … Here St. Paul shews the necessity of self-denial and mortification, to subdue the flesh, and its inordinate desires.

## Read at Mass (US)

- Sun, Feb 7, 2027: Fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time — Second Reading, 1 Corinthians 9:16-19, 22-23
- Fri, Sep 15, 2028 (computed): Our Lady of Sorrows — First Reading, 1 Corinthians 9:16-19, 22b-27

Citations as published in the USCCB liturgical calendar (principal Mass, first option). Dates after May 31, 2027 are computed by Bless from the US Lectionary cycle — confirm with your parish.

Source: Catholic Public Domain Version (Ronald L. Conte Jr., 2009), public domain; Latin: Clementine Vulgate (1592).