1 Corinthians 2:7

“(We speak … a wisdom not of this world …) but (ἀλλά, of diametrical opposition) a wisdom of God, in (shape of) a mystery.” ἐν μυστηρίῳ qualifies λαλοῦμεν, rather than σοφίαν (as Hn [340], Ev [341], Lt [342] read it “couched in mystery”), indicating how it is that the App. do not speak in terms of worldly wisdom, and express themselves fully to the τέλειοι alone: their message is a Divine secret, that the Spirit of God reveals (1 Corinthians 2:10 f.), while “the age” possesses only “the spirit of the world” (1 Corinthians 2:12). Hence to the age God's wisdom is uttered “in a mystery” and remains “the hidden (wisdom)”; cf. 2 Corinthians 4:4; also Matthew 13:13 ff. (ἐν παραβολαῖς … λαλῶ), Luke 10:21 f.: λαλῶ ἐν μυστηρίῳ = ἀποκρύπτω. μυστήριον (cf. 1 Corinthians 15:51) has “its usual meaning in St. Paul's Epp., something not comprehensible by unassisted human reason” (El [343]; for a full account see Ed [344], or Bt [345], on the term). The Hellenic “mysteries,” which flourished at this time, were practised at night in an imposing dramatic form; and peculiar doctrines were taught in them, which the initiated were sworn to keep secret. This popular notion of “mystery,” as a sacred knowledge disclosed to fit persons, on their subjecting themselves to prescribed conditions, is appropriated and adapted in Bibl. Gr [346] to Divine revelation. The world at large does not perceive God's wisdom in the cross, being wholly disqualified; the Cor [347] believers apprehend it but partially, since they have imperfectly received the revealing Spirit and are “babes in Christ” (1 Corinthians 3:1 ff.); to the App., and those like them (1 Corinthians 2:10 ff.), a full disclosure is made. When he “speaks wisdom among the ripe,” P. is not setting forth esoteric doctrines diff [348] from those preached to beginners, but the same “word of the cross” for he knows nothing greater or higher (Galatians 6:14) in its recondite meaning and larger implications, as, e.g., in 1 Corinthians 15:20-27 of this Ep. (where he relents from the implied threat of 1 Corinthians 3:1 ff.), in Romans 5:12-21; Romans 11:25 ff., or Colossians 1:15 ff., Ephesians 5:22-32. τὴν ἀποκεκρυμμένην expands the idea of ἐν μυστηρίῳ (see parls.): P. utters, beneath his plain Gospel tale, the deepest truths “in a guise of mystery” “that (wisdom) hidden away (ἀπὸ τ. αἰώνων, Colossians 1:26), which God predetermined before the ages unto (εἰς, aiming at) our glory”. That the Gospel is a veiled mystery to many accords with past history and with God's established purpose respecting it; “est occulta ante-quam expromitur: et quum expromitur, tamen occulta manet multis, imperfectis” (Bg [349]). The “wisdom of God” now revealed, was destined eternally “for us” “the believers” (1 Corinthians 1:21), “the called” (1 Corinthians 1:24), “the elect” (1 Corinthians 1:27 ff.), “those that received the Spirit of God” (1 Corinthians 2:10 ff.), as men who fulfil the ethical conditions of the case and whom “it has been God's good pleasure to save” (1 Corinthians 1:21); see the same thought in Ephesians 1:4 ff. This δόξα is not the heavenly glory of the saints; the entire “ministry of the Spirit” is ἐν δόξῃ and carries its subjects on ἀπὸ δόξης εἰς δόξαν (2 Corinthians 3:8-18); His ἀπαρχὴ effects a glorious transformation, by which the base things of the world put to shame its mighty (1 Corinthians 1:27 ff.), and “our glory” overthrows “the rulers of this world” (1 Corinthians 2:6), “increasing as theirs wanes” (Lt [350]), cf. Romans 8:30. This present (moral) glory is an “earnest” of “that which shall be revealed” (Romans 8:18 f.). For προώρισεν, marked out beforehand, see parls., and notes to Romans 8:29 f.

[340] C. F. G. Heinrici's Erklärung der Korintherbriefe (1880), or 1 Korinther in Meyer's krit.-exegetisches Kommentar (1896).

[341] T. S. Evans in Speaker's Commentary.

[342] J. B. Lightfoot's (posthumous) Notes on Epp. of St. Paul (1895).

[343] C. J. Ellicott's St. Paul's First Epistle to the Corinthians.

[344] T. C. Edwards' Commentary on the First Ep. to the Corinthians.

[345] J. A. Beet's St. Paul's Epp. to the Corinthians (1882).

[346] Greek, or Grotius' Annotationes in N.T.

[347] Corinth, Corinthian or Corinthians.

[348] difference, different, differently.

[349] Bengel's Gnomon Novi Testamenti.

[350] J. B. Lightfoot's (posthumous) Notes on Epp. of St. Paul (1895).