Tool Beta
Is It Actually in the Bible?
Phrases people quote as Scripture. The real verse, or the honest answer that there is not one.
"A dispensation of the gospel is committed unto me" (1 Corinthians 9:17) sounds like Paul is describing a religious era or a legal exemption.
"Dispensation" meant "stewardship" or "administration": a job entrusted to Paul, not a theological era or a legal waiver.
1 Corinthians 9:17, in every translation this tool compares.
The Greek oikonomia (the root of "economy") means the management of a household or affairs entrusted to someone. Paul is saying he's been given responsibility for managing the preaching of the gospel. Modern translations render it "stewardship," "trust," or "administration."
Today "dispensation" usually means either a formal exemption from a rule (church dispensations) or a theological era (dispensationalism), both later, narrower senses layered onto a word that in 1611 simply meant a job of management or stewardship.
