1 Corinthians 13:2

The ecstatic gifts (verse Mark 1 ) are worthless. Equally so are the teaching gifts (prophecy, knowledge of mysteries, all knowledge). Crasis here in kan=kai ean. Paul is not condemning these great gifts. He simply places love above them and essential to them. Equally futile is wonder-working faith "so as to remove mountains" (wste orh meqistanein) without love. This may have been a proverb or Paul may have known the words of Jesus ( Matthew 17:20 ; Matthew 21:21 ). I am nothing (ouqen eimi). Not ouqei, nobody, but an absolute zero. This form in q rather than d (ouden) had a vogue for a while (Robertson, Grammar, p. 219).