Translations
F.O.G.MPrimary
F.O.G MessageInstead, we were gentle in your midst, like a nursing mother tenderly caring for her own children—
F.O.GSecondary
The F.O.GBut we became as infants in your midst—as a nursing mother warms her own children—
KJV
King James VersionBut we were gentle among you, even as a nurse cherisheth her children:
BSB
Berean Standard BibleOn the contrary, we were gentle among you, like a nursing mother caring for her children.
Footnotes
A pivotal textual variant divides manuscripts between νήπιοι (nēpioi, "infants") and ἤπιοι (ēpioi, "gentle"). The earliest and weightiest witnesses (𝔓⁶⁵, Sinaiticus, Vaticanus) support νήπιοι—Paul casting the apostles as vulnerable as newborns—though the adjacent nursing mother image makes ἤπιοι the smoother transition. F.O.G. follows the harder, better-attested νήπιοι; F.O.G. Message takes the ἤπιοι reading, which flows more naturally into the tender maternal image that follows.
