1 Corinthians 2:1. AND I, BRETHREN, WHEN I CAME UNTO YOU, CAME NOT WITH EXCELLENCY OF SPEECH (as a rhetorician), OR OF WISDOM (as a philosopher), PROCLAIMING TO YOU THE TESTIMONY OF GOD [1] that concerns His Son. [1] Or, according to another reading, which has striking support, ‘the mystery of God.... [ Continue Reading ]
1 Corinthians 2:2. FOR I DETERMINED NOT TO KNOW ANYTHING AMONG YOU, SAVE JESUS CHRIST, AND HIM CRUCIFIED. He would not only know but one theme, but would hold that forth in precisely the light which he knew would prove the most repulsive to their fastidious ears and corrupt taste. For this being tha... [ Continue Reading ]
1 Corinthians 2:3. AND I WAS WITH YOU IN WEAKNESS, AND IN FEAR, AND IN MUCH TREMBLING. It is remarkable that nowhere else does the apostle so speak, nor does he seem to have anywhere else felt such an oppressive consciousness of his insufficiency (see 2 Corinthians 2:15-17); and it is worthy of noti... [ Continue Reading ]
1 Corinthians 2:4. AND MY SPEECH AND MY PREACHING, the ‘message' itself as well as its clothing, WERE NOT IN PERSUASIVE WORDS OF WISDOM, [1] BUT IN THE POWER OF GOD. It was not that he could not have wielded the weapon of ‘man's wisdom' to excellent effect, as may be seen in various passages of thes... [ Continue Reading ]
1 Corinthians 2:6. HOWBEIT WE SPEAK WISDOM AMONG THE PERFECT. This is a favourite Pauline word, having one well-defined sense, with only varying shades according to the subject treated of. With reference to Christ's work, it denotes its ‘completion' by His death (Hebrews 2:10; Hebrews 5:10); with re... [ Continue Reading ]
1 Corinthians 2:7. BUT WE SPEAK GOD'S WISDOM IN A MYSTERY _i.e._ (in the apostolic sense of the word ‘mystery') a wisdom long hidden from view, but now disclosed (see Romans 16:25-26; Ephesians 3:6; 1 Timothy 3:16). In the same sense our Lord uses the word (Matthew 13:11; Matthew 13:17). even the wi... [ Continue Reading ]
1 Corinthians 2:8. WHICH (WISDOM) NONE OF THE PRINCES OF THIS WORLD KNOWETH: FOR HAD THEY KNOWN IT, THEY WOULD NOT HAVE CRUCIFIED THE LORD OF GLORY (as He is also called in James 2:1) inflicting hereby (exclaims Bengel) on the Lord of glory the punishment of slaves!... [ Continue Reading ]
1 Corinthians 2:9. BUT AS IT IS WRITTEN (Isaiah 64:4, or 1 Corinthians 2:3 in Heb., which is here recalled in fragmentary form), THINGS WHICH EYE SAW NOT, etc. The truth here expressed by the prophet and the apostle is, that what God has in store for His people transcends not only all past experienc... [ Continue Reading ]
1 Corinthians 2:10. BUT UNTO US GOD REVEALED THEM THROUGH THE SPIRIT. [1] Though this is true of believers generally, the reference here, as appears from 1 Corinthians 2:3, is to the apostles. [1] Not (as in the received text) ‘through his Spirit.' FOR THE SPIRIT SEARCHETH ALL THINGS, YEA, THE DE... [ Continue Reading ]
1 Corinthians 2:11. FOR WHO AMONG MEN KNOWETH THE THINGS OF A MAN SAVE THE SPIRIT OF THE MAN WHICH IS IN HIM? EVEN SO THE THINGS OF GOD NONE KNOWETH SAVE THE SPIRIT OF GOD. The relation of ‘the Spirit' to ‘God' is here compared to that of a man to his own spirit. As each man's own spirit is known to... [ Continue Reading ]
1 Corinthians 2:12. NOW WE RECEIVED, NOT THE SPIRIT OF THE WORLD, BUT THE SPIRIT WHICH IS OF GOD; THAT WE MIGHT KNOW THE THINGS THAT ARE FREELY GIVEN TO US OF GOD. Not only are the things themselves ‘freely given us,' but we only ‘know' them, so as to make them our own, through the Spirit which is g... [ Continue Reading ]
1 Corinthians 2:13. WHICH THINGS WE (the apostles) SPEAK, NOT IN THE WORDS WHICH MAN'S WISDOM TEACHETH, BUT WHICH THE SPIRIT [2] TEACHETH, COMBINING SPIRITUAL THINGS (in their _matter)_ WITH SPIRITUAL (things in their _form)._ So we understand this very difficult clause. While the word we have rende... [ Continue Reading ]
1 Corinthians 2:14. BUT THE NATURAL MAN a phrase on the sense of which it would be vain to expect light from the classical writers, who had no conception of the spiritual things intended here. In Greek writings, the noun, from which the adjective here used is formed, means ‘the animal soul,' or that... [ Continue Reading ]
1 Corinthians 2:15. BUT HE THAT IS SPIRITUAL JUDGETH ALL THINGS not only those spiritual things which the natural man cannot judge, but also those which belong to the natural man's own domain, and which he only views in their true light. YET HE HIMSELF IS JUDGED OF NO MAN (who is not spiritual).... [ Continue Reading ]
1 Corinthians 2:16. FOR WHO HATH KNOWN THE MIND OF THE LORD, THAT HE MAY INSTRUCT HIM? The question is quoted from Isaiah 40:13 (as in LXX,). BUT WE HAVE THE MIND OF CHRIST. The meaning is, that though none can penetrate _Jehovah's_ mind, yet since in _Christ_ are hid all the treasures of wisdom a... [ Continue Reading ]