1 Corinthians 2:1–2:5

1 Corinthians 2:1-2 1. And I, brethren, when I came to you, came not with excellency of speech or of wisdom, declaring unto you the testimony of God. 1. Et ego, quum venissem ad vos, fratres, veni non in excellentia sermonis vel sapientiae, annuntians vobis testimonium Dei. 2. For I determined not to know any thing among you, save Jesus Christ, and him crucified. 2. Non enim eximium duxi, (vel, duxi pro scientia,) scire quicquam inter vos, [102] nisi Iesum Christum, et hunc crucifixum. 1. And I, when I came Paul having begun to speak of his own method of teaching, had straightway fallen into a discussion as to the nature of gospel preaching generally. Now again he returns to speak of himself, to show that nothing in him was despised but what belonged to the nature of the gospel itself, and did in a manner adhere to it. He allows therefore that he had not had any of the aids of human eloquence or wisdom to qualify him for producing any effect, but while he acknowledges himself to be destitute of such resources, he hints at the inference to be drawn from this -- that the power of God shone the more illustriously in his ministry, from its standing in no need of such helps. This latter idea, however, he will be found bringing forward shortly afterwards. For the present he simply grants that he has nothing of human wisdom, and in the meantime reserves to himself this much -- that he published the testimony of God Some interpreters, indeed, explain the testimony of God in a passive sense; but as for myself, I have no doubt that another interpretation is more in accordance with the Apostle's design, so that the testimony of God is that which has come forth from God -- the doctrine of the gospel, of which he is the author and witness. He now distinguishes between speech and wisdom (logon apo tos sophias.) Hence what I noticed before [103] is here confirmed -- that hitherto he has not been speaking of mere empty prattling, but has included the entire training of human learning. 2. For I did not reckon it desirable. As krinein, in Greek, has often the same meaning as eklegein, that is to choose out anything as precious, [104] there is, I think, no person of sound judgment but will allow that the rendering that I have given is a probable one, provided only the construction admits of it. At the same time, if we render it thus -- "No kind of knowledge did I hold in esteem," there will be nothing harsh in this rendering. If you understand something to be supplied, the sentence will run smoothly enough in this way -- "Nothing did I value myself upon, as worth my knowing, or on the ground of knowledge." At the same time I do not altogether reject a different interpretation -- viewing Paul as declaring that he esteemed nothing as knowledge, or as entitled to be called knowledge, except Christ alone. Thus the Greek preposition and, would, as often happens, require to be supplied. But whether the former interpretation is not disapproved of, or whether this latter pleases better, the substance of the passage amounts to this: "As to my wanting the ornaments of speech, and wanting, too, the more elegant refinements of discourse, the reason of this was, that I did not aspire at them, nay rather, I despised them, because there was one thing only that my heart was set upon -- that I might preach Christ with simplicity." In adding the word crucified, he does not mean that he preached nothing respecting Christ except the cross; but that, with all the abasement of the cross, he nevertheless preached Christ. It is as though he had said: "The ignominy of the cross will not prevent me from looking up to him [105] from whom salvation comes, or make me ashamed to regard all my wisdom as comprehended in him -- in him, I say, whom proud men despise and reject on account of the reproach of the cross." Hence the statement must be explained in this way: "No kind of knowledge was in my view of so much importance as to lead me to desire anything but Christ, crucified though he was." This little clause is added by way of enlargement (auxesin,) with the view of galling so much the more those arrogant masters, by whom Christ was next to despised, as they were eager to gain applause by being renowned for a higher kind of wisdom. Here we have a beautiful passage, from which we learn what it is that faithful ministers ought to teach, what it is that we must, during our whole life, be learning, and in comparison with which everything else must be "counted as dung." ( Philippians 3:8 .) Footnotes: [102] "Car je n'ay point eu en estime de scauoir aucune chose ou rien deli-ber de sqauoir entre vous:" -- "I had nothing in esteem as knowledge; or, I determined to know nothing among you." [103] Calvin refers to what he had said when commenting on an expression which occurs in chap. 1:17 -- not with wisdom of words. [104] Xenophon uses krino in the sense of choosing out, or preferring: in Mem. 4. 4, sec. 16, ouch hopos tous autous chorous krinosin hoi politai -- not that the citizens should prefer the dances." See also Menander, prefer the same line 245, edit. Cleric. In the New Testament we find krino used in the sense of esteeming, in Romans 14:5 . -- Ed [105] "Ne fera point que ie n'aye en reuerence et admiration;" -- "Will not prevent me from holding in reverence and admiration."

And {1} I, brethren, when I came to you, came not with excellency of speech or of wisdom, declaring unto you the {a} testimony of God. (1) He returns to 1Co 1:17, that is to say, to his own example: confessing that he did not use among them either excellency of words or enticing speech of man's wisdom, but with great simplicity of speech both knew and preached Jesus Christ crucified, humbled and abject, with regard to the flesh. (a) The Gospel.

And I, brethren, when I came to you, came not with excellency of speech or of wisdom, declaring unto you the testimony of God. Not with excellency — St Paul’s speech was neque lecta, neque neglecta, neither curious nor careless. Politian could say, that it is an ornament to an epistle to be without ornaments. And yet he had so little grace as to prefer Pindar’s Odes before David’s Psalms. Hosius also, the cardinal, thought David’s Psalms unlearned, applying that, Scribimus indocti doctique poemata passim. Os durum! We write unlearned teachings and poems everywhere. Harsh speech. The Holy Scriptures have a grave eloquence, but lack those pompous and painted words that carnal rhetoricians hunt after. There is difference between a pedantic style and a majestic. Non Oratorum filii sumus, sed Piscatorum, We are not sons of orators but of Picatus, said that great divine to Libanius the rhetorician, that tickled his hearers with tinkling terms, and delighted to wit-wanton it with lascivious phrases of oratory.

And I, brethren, when I came to you,.... This account the apostle gives of himself is occasioned, either by what he had said in the latter part of the preceding chapter, concerning the choice God has made of the foolish, weak, base, and despicable things of the world, and of his calling them by his grace both to fellowship with the saints in common, and therefore he accommodated his ministry unto them, and in particular to the ministry of the word, of which he himself was a like instance and an example; or else by what he had declared in 1 Corinthians 1:17 of the same chapter, that he was sent to preach the Gospel, not with wisdom of words; which he here reassumes, and affirms agreeably, that when he first came to Corinth, he came not with excellency of speech, or of wisdom; for though he was not only versed in Jewish learning, being brought up at the feet of Gamaliel; but had also a good share of Grecian literature, and was capable, upon proper occasions, to cite the Greek poets, as he does Aratus, Acts 17:28 and Menander, Titus 1:12 and so could, had he thought fit, have adorned his discourses with pompous language, with the flowers of rhetoric, and the eloquence of the Grecians; yet he chose not such a high and florid style, and which savoured so much of human wisdom and art; for the subject he treated of required no such dress, nor any great swelling words of vanity, or a bombast style to set it off, and gain the applause and assent of men: for what he delivered were plain matters of fact, attested by God himself, declaring unto you the testimony of God; that is, the Gospel, which bears a testimony to the love, grace, and mercy of God, his kindness and good will to the sons of men, in giving and sending his only begotten Son to be the Saviour and Redeemer of them; and in which God bears a testimony of his Son, of his sonship, deity, mediation, incarnation, obedience, sufferings, and death, of his resurrection, ascension to heaven, session at his right hand, intercession for his people, and his second coming to judgment, and of eternal life and salvation by him. All which being matter of fact, and depending upon the witness of God, which is greater than that of men, needed no art nor oratory of men to recommend it: it was enough in plain words, and easy language, to declare it, with the evidence by which it was supported. The Alexandrian copy, and some others, read, "the mystery" of God: and so the Syriac version , "the mystery of God" one of Stephens's copies reads, "the mystery of Christ"; and the Vulgate Latin version, "the testimony of Christ".

Christ, in his person, and offices, and sufferings, is the sum and substance of the gospel, and ought to be the great subject of a gospel minister's preaching, but not so as to leave out other parts of God's revealed truth and will. Paul preached the whole counsel of God. Few know the fear and trembling of faithful ministers, from a deep sense of their own weakness They know how insufficient they are, and are fearful for themselves. When nothing but Christ crucified is plainly preached, the success must be entirely from Divine power accompanying the word, and thus men are brought to believe, to the salvation of their souls.

CHAPTER 2 1Co 2:1-16. Paul's Subject of Preaching, Christ Crucified, Not in Worldly, but in Heavenly, Wisdom among the Perfect. 1. And I—"So I" [Conybeare] as one of the "foolish, weak, and despised" instruments employed by God (1Co 1:27, 28); "glorying in the Lord," not in man's wisdom (1Co 1:31). Compare 1Co 1:23, "We." when I came—(Ac 18:1, &c.). Paul might, had he pleased, have used an ornate style, having studied secular learning at Tarsus of Cilicia, which Strabo preferred as a school of learning to Athens or Alexandria; here, doubtless, he read the Cilician Aratus' poems (which he quotes, Ac 17:28), and Epimenides (Tit 1:12), and Menander (1Co 15:33). Grecian intellectual development was an important element in preparing the way for the Gospel, but it failed to regenerate the world, showing that for this a superhuman power is needed. Hellenistic (Grecizing) Judaism at Tarsus and Alexandria was the connecting link between the schools of Athens and those of the Rabbis. No more fitting birthplace could there have been for the apostle of the Gentiles than Tarsus, free as it was from the warping influences of Rome, Alexandria, and Athens. He had at the same time Roman citizenship, which protected him from sudden violence. Again, he was reared in the Hebrew divine law at Jerusalem. Thus, as the three elements, Greek cultivation, Roman polity (Lu 2:1), and the divine law given to the Jews, combined just at Christ's time, to prepare the world for the Gospel, so the same three, by God's marvellous providence, met together in the apostle to the Gentiles [Conybeare and Howson]. testimony of God—"the testimony of Christ" (1Co 1:6); therefore Christ is God. 1 Corinthians 2:1-5 Paul declareth that he used not human learning and eloquence in preaching the gospel to his converts, that their faith, being built on the testimony of the Spirit, and on miracles, might be solely ascribed to God. 1 Corinthians 2:6-13 The gospel doth contain God’s wise, but secret, counsel for bringing men to glory; which no natural abilities could discover, but the Spirit of God only, by which it was revealed to the apostles. 1 Corinthians 2:14-16 Upon this account, both the doctrine and its teachers are held in disesteem by the mere natural man, who is not duly qualified to judge of and discern them. It should seem by the apostle’s so often declaring against that vanity, that even that age much admired a style, and ministers in sacred things delivering their minds, not in a mere decent, but in a lofty, high-flown phrase; and that they vilified St. Paul, because his phrase did not so tickle their ears. The apostle had declared against this, 1 Corinthians 1:17 ; there he called it the wisdom of words; here he calls it an excellency of speech: 1 Corinthians 1:4 , the enticing words of man’s wisdom: 1 Corinthians 4:19 , the speech of them which are puffed up; puffed up with conceits of their own parts and abilities. St. Paul declares, that this was not his way of preaching, he came to declare to them the gospel, which he calleth the testimony of God: this needed no fine words, and excellent phrase and language, to set it forth.

And I, brethren - Keeping up the tender and affectionate style of address. When I came unto you - When I came at first to preach the gospel at Corinth. Act 18:1ff. Came not with excellency of speech - Came not with graceful and attractive eloquence. The apostle here evidently alludes to that nice ant studied choice of language; to those gracefully formed sentences, and to that skill of arrangement in discourse and argument which was so much an object of regard with the Greek rhetoricians. It is probable that Paul was never much distinguished for these (compare 2 Corinthians 10:10 ), and it is certain he never made them an object of intense study and solicitude. Compare 1 Corinthians 2:4 , 1 Corinthians 2:13 . Or of wisdom - Of the wisdom of this world; of that kind of wisdom which was sought and cultivated in Greece. The testimony of God - The testimony or the witnessing which God has borne to the gospel of Christ by miracles, and by attending it everywhere with his presence and blessing. In 1 Corinthians 2:6 , the gospel is called "the testimony of Christ;" and here it may either mean the witness which the gospel bears to the true character and plans of God; or the witnessing which God had borne to the gospel by miracles, etc. The gospel contains the testimony of God in regard to his own character and plans; especially in regard to the great plan of redemption through Jesus Christ. Several mss. instead of "testimony of God," here read "the mystery of God." This would accord well with the scope of the argument; but the present reading is probably the correct one. See Mill. The Syriac version has also "mystery."

Continues his defense of his mode of preaching. In 1 Corinthians 2:1-5 he shows that he acted on the principles set forth in the preceding paragraph. In 1 Corinthians 2:6-9 he shows that the gospel is the true wisdom. The source of this knowledge, as externally revealed as a spiritually apprehended, is the Holy Spirit, 1 Corinthians 2:10-16 . Continuation of His Defense of His Mode of Preaching — 1 Corinthians 2:1-16 As God had determined to save men not by human wisdom but by the gospel, Paul, when he appeared in Corinth, came neither as an orator nor as a philosopher, but simply as a witness, 1 Corinthians 2:1 , 1 Corinthians 2:2 . He had no confidence in himself, but relied for success exclusively on the demonstration of the Spirit, 1 Corinthians 2:3 , 1 Corinthians 2:4 . The true foundation of faith is not reason, but the testimony of God, 1 Corinthians 2:5 . Though what he preached was not the wisdom of men, it was the wisdom of God, undiscoverable by human reason, 1 Corinthians 2:6-9 . The revealer of this divine wisdom is the Holy Ghost, he alone being competent to make this revelation, because he only knows the secret purposes of God, 1 Corinthians 2:10-12 . In communicating the knowledge thus derived from the Spirit, the apostle used words taught by the Spirit, 1 Corinthians 2:13 . Though the knowledge communicated was divine, and although communicated in appropriate language, it was not with excellency of speech;’ or with the word declaring, ‘I came not declaring with the spiritual,’ 1 Corinthians 2:14-16 . And I, brethren, when I came to you, came not with excellency of speech or of wisdom, declaring unto you the testimony of God. And I , i.e. accordingly I ‘In accordance with the clearly revealed purpose of God to reject the wisdom of the world and to make the cross the means of salvation.’ Excellency of speech or of wisdom . As speech and wisdom ( λόγος and σοφία ) are here distinguished, the former probably refers to the manner or form, and the latter to the matter of his preaching. It was neither as a rhetorician nor as a philosopher that he appeared among them. This clause may be connected either with the word came , ‘I came not with excellency of speech;’ or with the word declaring , ‘I came not declaring with excellency of speech, etc.’ The former mode is generally preferred, not only because of the position of the words in the sentence, but also because of the sense. Paul does not mean to say merely that he did not declare the testimony of God in a rhetorical or philosophical manner; but that what he declared was not the wisdom of men, but the revelation of God. The testimony of God may mean either the testimony which Paul bore concerning God, or God’s own testimony which Paul bore concerning God, or God’s own testimony, i.e. what God had revealed and testified to be true. “The testimony of God” is, in this sense, the gospel, as in 2 Timothy 1:8 . The latter interpretation best suits the connection, as throughout these chapters Paul contrasts what reason teaches with what God teaches. He did not appear as a teacher of human wisdom, but as announcing what God had revealed.