1 Corinthians 2

1 And *I*, when I came to you, brethren, came not in excellency of word, or wisdom, announcing to you the testimony of God.
2 For I did not judge [it well] to know anything among you save Jesus Christ, and *him* crucified.
3 And *I* was with you in weakness and in fear and in much trembling;
4 and my word and my preaching, not in persuasive words of wisdom, but in demonstration of [the] Spirit and of power;
5 that your faith might not stand in men's wisdom, but in God's power.
6 But we speak wisdom among the perfect; but wisdom not of this world, nor of the rulers of this world, who come to nought.
7 But we speak God's wisdom in [a] mystery, that hidden [wisdom] which God had predetermined before the ages for our glory:
8 which none of the princes of this age knew, (for had they known, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory;)
9 but according as it is written, Things which eye has not seen, and ear not heard, and which have not come into man's heart, which God has prepared for them that love him,
10 but God has revealed to us by [his] Spirit; for the Spirit searches all things, even the depths of God.
11 For who of men hath known the things of a man except the spirit of the man which is in him? thus also the things of God knows no one except the Spirit of God.
12 But *we* have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit which [is] of God, that we may know the things which have been freely given to us of God:
13 which also we speak, not in words taught by human wisdom, but in those taught by the Spirit, communicating spiritual [things] by spiritual [means].
14 But [the] natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him; and he cannot know [them] because they are spiritually discerned;
15 but the spiritual discerns all things, and *he* is discerned of no one.
16 For who has known the mind of [the] Lord, who shall instruct him? But *we* have the mind of Christ.

Images for 1 Corinthians 2

Footnotes 13

  • [a]. Oida, vers. 2,11 (1st), 12; ginosko, vers. 8,11 (2nd), 14,16.
  • [b]. Lit. 'be.'
  • [c]. Aion: see ch. 1.20, Note c. In ver. 6 'world' has a moral signification: see Eph. 2.2.
  • [d]. Or 'worlds' (ver. 7), 'world' (ver. 8). I add this in note to keep up the connection with 'world' in ver. 6.
  • [e]. See Isa. 64.4.
  • [f]. Or 'the Spirit.'
  • [g]. 'Man' here has the article, but the sense is this: what is in man's mind is not known of any but the spirit of the man himself, who has the thoughts; much more is it so with God.
  • [h]. Note here again the difficulty, arising from 'spirit' used for cause and state, as to putting a large S to signify the person of the Holy Spirit.
  • [i]. It may perhaps be translated, 'taught words of human wisdom.'
  • [j]. Or 'expounding:' it means literally 'mixing or putting together;' as interpreting or expounding, it is common in the LXX: Gen. 40.8; 41.12,15; 'determined,' Num. 15.34.
  • [k]. Psuchikos: the man animated merely by his created soul, without the teaching and power of the Holy Spirit.
  • [l]. See Isa. 40.13-14.
  • [m]. Nous, 'the intelligent faculty;' see Note, ch. 1.5.

1 Corinthians 2 Commentaries

The Darby Translation is in the public domain.