1 Corinthians 12:8-10

“For to the one is given by the Spirit the word of wisdom; to the other the word of knowledge according to the same Spirit; 9. to another faith by the same Spirit; to the other the gifts of healing by the same Spirit; 10. to the other the workings of miracles; to the other prophecy; to the other discerning of spirits; to another divers kinds of tongues; to the other the interpretation of tongues.”

Most moderns think it impossible to discover any psychological or logical order in the following enumeration, and think even that there is no force to be ascribed in this respect to the change of the pronoun ἄλλῳ into ἑτέρῳ (once in 1 Corinthians 12:9, a second time in 1 Corinthians 12:10). Meyer is not of this opinion, and rightly, as it seems to me; for there is nothing arbitrary in Paul's style, and everybody knows that ἄλλος expresses a difference of individual, but ἕτερος a difference of quality. Thus we have the expression in Greek ἕτερος γίνεσθαι, to become other, to change one's opinion, while ἄλλος γίνεσθαι, to become a different individual, would have no meaning. It cannot therefore be without an object that Paul has twice introduced in this enumeration the stronger adjective instead of the weaker. Before the first ἑτέρῳ, to a different, we find the indication of two gifts, which, as has always been remarked, relate principally to the faculty of intelligence, and thus form a first homogeneous group. It is easy to understand the reason why Paul assigns to it at this stage the first place. We shall see that the Corinthians were disposed to regard the most extraordinary manifestations, the most ecstatic, as much more really Divine than those which leave man in full possession of his reason. Now the apostle places these very manifestations in the foreground to sweep away this false judgment.

The two terms wisdom and knowledge have been very variously distinguished. According to Neander and others, wisdom has a practical character, and knowledge indicates something more speculative; according to Bengel, inversely. This last view is evidently false; gnosis (knowledge) bears of course on theory. But no more can Neander's view be maintained in the face of chap. 1, where the term sophia, wisdom, is applied to the profounder exposition of the mysteries embraced in the Divine plan (1 Corinthians 2:6 seq.). Hofmann understands wisdom as applying to the general view of the whole domain of spiritual life, and knowledge as referring to profound insight into certain particular points in this domain. Heinrici takes wisdom as the simple knowledge of salvation (as it is explained, for example, by the catechism), knowledge as the reasoned understanding of the gospel, as it is given in a course of dogmatic. According to Edwards, gnosis is a degree of Christian knowledge inferior to wisdom, which is the prerogative of mature Christians. There is a measure of truth in these different points of view, but there is something arbitrary about them all. If we start from the meaning of the two substantives, as it seems to follow from the form of the two Greek terminations (σις and ια), we shall rather see in gnosis a notion of effort, investigation, discovery (comp. 1 Corinthians 13:2, where this term is connected with the idea of knowing all mysteries), and in sophia, on the contrary, the idea of a calm possession of truth already acquired, as well as of its practical applications. Gnosis makes the teacher; wisdom, the preacher and pastor. When corrupted, the former becomes gnosticism, the speculation of the intellectualist; the latter, dead orthodoxy.

It should be remarked, with Hofmann, that the apostle speaks neither of wisdom nor of knowledge in themselves, but of a word, discourse of wisdom or of knowledge; for he seizes the gift in action at the moment when it is to serve the edification of the Church.

The use of the two different prepositions διά, by means of, and κατά, according to the standard of, applied, the former to wisdom, the latter to knowledge, is not arbitrary. Knowledge advances by means of subjective and deliberate study, which, if it is not to deviate from the straight line of Divine truth, must be carried on according to the light of the Spirit; whereas the edifying discourses of wisdom are produced in the heart by the Spirit, agreeably to the wants of the given situation. Moreover, Ephesians 4:11 shows how the two gifts, as well as the two offices connected with them (pastor and teacher), are in close affinity.