To render INOPERATIVE — put out of action, decommission, abolish. Not to destroy a thing but to take it out of service. It runs four times through 1 Corinthians 13 (vv8 twice, 10, 11): the prophecies, the knowledge, the partial, and finally the things of childhood are all put out of commission, the last one by Paul himself in the perfect tense. Most versions split the one verb into three or four English words — 'fail', 'vanish away', 'do away with', 'put away' — and the thread disappears. The ASV and NWT hold it. → first discussed at 1 Corinthians 13:8