1 Corinthianschapter 2
16 verses · Paul · AD 54 or 55 · Paul's letters
None of the rulers of this age understood it. For if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.
Introduction
Paul, Paul's letters, 1 Corinthians Overview.
Paul continues the argument he began in the first chapter, now turning to his own arrival in Corinth. The church lived in a city that paid to hear skilled speakers and ranked them by their polish. Some believers had come to think their founder a poor performer. Here he explains why he preached as he did, and then speaks of a wisdom the powerful of the age never grasped. Listen for the contrast between two kinds of wisdom and two kinds of people. Read it with the question of how anyone comes to know the mind of God.
Context
- Who
- Corinthian believers embarrassed that their founding apostle had not been an impressive orator.
- What
- Paul recalls his plain preaching at Corinth and teaches that God's wisdom is revealed by the Spirit to those who have the Spirit.
- Where
- Written from Ephesus to Corinth, looking back to Paul's first preaching in the city.
- When
- About AD 53 to 55, recalling Paul's arrival in Corinth about AD 50, after his time in Athens.
- Why
- To show that faith rests on God's power alone, and that spiritual truth is received by the Spirit's teaching.
Historical context
Public speaking was entertainment, education, and status all at once. Professional orators, often called sophists, toured the cities, charged fees, drew crowds, and were graded on delivery, voice, polish, and physical presence. Corinth, with its games and its traffic, was a natural stop on that circuit.
Show the rest of the historical context, 2 more paragraphs
Paul's reminder that he came in weakness and fear and much trembling, without lofty speech or wisdom, is a direct comparison with that world. He is admitting he failed the standard measurement, and claiming it was deliberate, so their faith would rest on God's power rather than on a performance.
The word "wisdom" in this letter carries the flavour of that culture: not knowledge in general but the clever, admired eloquence that made a man's reputation. Paul contrasts it with a wisdom hidden from the rulers of this age, revealed by the Spirit.
Significance
For Corinthians tempted to be ashamed of a plain-spoken founder, the chapter reframed everything. He had resolved to know nothing among them except Jesus Christ and him crucified, and the demonstration that mattered was of the Spirit and of power.
Show the rest of the significance, 1 more paragraph
It also told them why some people simply could not see it. Spiritual things are discerned spiritually; a natural person finds them foolish. Their neighbours' contempt was not evidence against the message.
The heads below are this chapter's scenes. The numbered points under each are its verses.
Paul Arrives Trembling and Preaches Only Christ Crucified
1 Corinthians 2:1-2
When I came to you, brothers: At Corinth Paul resolved to know nothing except Jesus Christ and Him crucified. This was a chosen narrowing of the message, since elsewhere the same Paul reasons from Scripture and quotes Greek poets.
1 Corinthians 2:1
“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 18:1 ff. 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.”
1 more voice on this verseWhat preachers and commentators have said about this verse, in their own words.
1 Corinthians 2:1
“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.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Jesus Christ and Him crucified: Paul's resolve answers the Corinthian love of eloquence. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown, following Alford, take the two phrases as Christ's person and His office, the Messiah executed as a criminal.
1 Corinthians 2:2
“But answer me at once, you that murder truth: Was not God really crucified? And, having been really crucified, did He not really die? And, having indeed really died, did He not really rise again? Falsely did Paul "determine to know nothing amongst us but Jesus and Him crucified; " falsely has he impressed upon us that He was buried; falsely inculcated that He rose again.”
Tertullian · written before 220 · On the Flesh of Christpatristic
3 more voices on this verse
1 Corinthians 2:2
“The Greek implies, "The only definite thing that I made it my business to know among you, was to know Jesus Christ (His person) and Him crucified (His office)" [ALFORD], not exalted on the earthly throne of David, but executed as the vilest malefactor.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
1 Corinthians 2:2
“I determined not to know anything - To wave all my other knowledge, and not to preach anything, save Jesus Christ, and him crucified - That is, what he did, suffered, taught. A part is put for the whole.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the New Testament (1755)evangelical
1 Corinthians 2:2
“CORINTH was situated in the midst of a people who admired eloquence and wisdom. This Epistle was written in the age of orators and philosophers. The Apostle Paul was a man of profound learning—he had been educated at the feet of Gamaliel in all the wisdom of the East.”
Charles Spurgeon · written before 1892 · The Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, Sermon No. 2673: “Christ Crucified” (lightly modernized text, CCEL edition)Particular Baptist
1 Corinthians 2:3-5
I came to you in weakness and fear: Paul came to Corinth in weakness and fear, and with much trembling, probably after a hard reception at Athens. His preaching came with a demonstration of the Spirit’s power, so that faith would rest on God’s power.
1 Corinthians 2:3
“And I was with you - At my first entrance. In weakness - Of body, 2 Cor. xii, 7 And in fear - Lest I should offend any. And in much trembling - The emotion of my mind affecting my very body.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the New Testament (1755)evangelical
a demonstration of the Spirit’s power: Paul sets two ways of winning belief side by side. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown call persuasion man's means of moving others and demonstration God's, a proof the Spirit gives that leaves no room for doubt. Origen argues that a faith won by rhetorical art would rest on human skill.
1 Corinthians 2:4
“And my speech - Ὁ λογος μου, My doctrine; the matter of my preaching. And my preaching - Το κηρυγμα μου, My proclamation, my manner of recommending the grand but simple truths of the Gospel. Was not with enticing words of man’s wisdom - Ενπειθοις ανθρωπινης σοφιας λογοις, With persuasive doctrines of human wisdom: in every case I left man out, that God might become the more evident. I used none of the means of which great orators avail themselves in order to become popular, and thereby to gain fame.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
1 Corinthians 2:4
“If our Scriptures had persuaded people to believe because they had been written with rhetorical art or philosophical skill, there is no doubt that our faith would be said to depend on the art of words and on human wisdom rather than on the power of God.”
Origen of Alexandria · written before 253 · On First Principles 4.1.7patristic
rest on men’s wisdom: Here Paul gives the purpose behind his plain preaching. Chrysostom counts the gain of this seeming ignorance: the wisdom of the world empties the cross, while plain preaching displays the power of God. Clement of Alexandria adds that God's power saves by faith without human proofs.
1 Corinthians 2:5
“That your faith - That is, that your belief of the divine origin of the Christian religion. Should not stand - Greek, “should not be;” that is, should not rest upon this; or be sustained by this. God intended to furnish you a firm and solid demonstration that the religion which you embraced was from Him; and this could not be if its preaching had been attended with the graces of eloquence, or the abstractions of refined metaphysical reasoning. It would then appear to rest upon human wisdom.”
2 more voices on this verse
1 Corinthians 2:5
Let no man therefore glory on account of pre-eminence in human thought. For it is written well in Jeremiah, "Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, and let not the mighty man glory in his might, and let not the rich man glory in his riches: but let him that glorieth glory in this, that he understandeth and knoweth that I am the Lord, that executeth mercy and judgment and righteousness upon the earth: for in these things is my delight, saith the Lord."
Clement of Alexandria · written before 215 · The Stromata Book 1patristic
1 Corinthians 2:5
“For "wisdom" here denotes not the whole of Christian doctrine, but its sublimer and deeper principles. perfect--Those matured in Christian experience and knowledge alone can understand the true superiority of the Christian wisdom which Paul preached.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
A Hidden Wisdom No Ruler Recognized
1 Corinthians 2:6-7
Among the mature Paul speaks a message of wisdom, unlike that of the rulers of this age, who are coming to nothing. Verse 7 names it the mysterious and hidden wisdom of God, destined for our glory before time began.
1 Corinthians 2:6
“We speak wisdom among them that are perfect - By the εν τοις τελειοις, among those that are perfect, we are to understand Christians of the highest knowledge and attainments- those who were fully instructed in the knowledge of God through Christ Jesus. Nothing, in the judgment of St. Paul, deserved the name of wisdom but this.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
1 Corinthians 2:6
“Howbeit we speak wisdom,.... Though the wise philosophers among the Gentiles accounted the Gospel foolishness; and though the apostle, by an ironical concession, had called the ministry of it the foolishness of preaching, and the foolishness of God, and had thought best, for wise reasons, to deliver it in a plain and simple manner, without the embellishments of human wisdom; yet he vindicates it from the charge of folly: it was not folly, but wisdom, which he and his fellow ministers preached, and that of the highest kind, as appears from what follows.”
hidden wisdom of God: The wisdom Paul speaks is hidden in the sense that God kept it until its time. Theodore of Mopsuestia names that wisdom as the cross and the whole plan of salvation.
1 Corinthians 2:7
“But we speak the wisdom of God,.... Not of men, not of the wise politicians, the learned philosophers and Rabbins; that which human wisdom has no hand in forming, nor in revealing, nor in propagating, and which is disliked and disapproved of by it: the Gospel is the sole produce of divine wisdom, and in which there is a glorious display of it; even in those doctrines which are the most charged with folly, as salvation by a crucified Christ, justification by his righteousness, pardon by his blood, satisfaction by his sacrifice, &c. in a mystery; it is mysterious wisdom.”
3 more voices on this verse
1 Corinthians 2:7
“But we speak - We who have preached the gospel. The wisdom of God - We teach or proclaim the wise plan of God for the salvation of people; we make known the divine wisdom in regard to the scheme of human redemption. This plan was of God, in opposition to other plans which were of human beings. In a mystery, even the hidden wisdom - ἐν μυστηρίῳ τὴν ἀποκεκρυμμένην en mustēriō tēn apokekrummenēn.”
1 Corinthians 2:7
“These, we know, were publicly instituted in Israel; but they lay overshadowed with latent meanings, in which the wisdom of God was concealed to be brought to light by and by amongst "the perfect," when the time should come, but "pre-ordained in the counsels of God before the ages." But whose ages, if not the Creator's?”
Tertullian · written before 220 · Against Marcion Book Vpatristic
1 Corinthians 2:7
"If our Gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost" (2Co 4:3), "whom the God of this world hath blinded." Ordinarily we use "mystery" in reference to those from whom the knowledge is withheld; the apostles, in reference to those to whom it is revealed [WHATELY].
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
None of the rulers of this age understood it: , or they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. That title, found nowhere else in Paul's letters, sets the crucified Christ's rank against the rulers' blindness.
1 Corinthians 2:8
“Which none of the princes of this world knew - Here it is evident that this world refers to the Jewish state, and to the degree of knowledge in that state: and the rulers, the priests, rabbins, etc., who were principally concerned in the crucifixion of our Lord. The Lord of glory - Or the glorious Lord, infinitely transcending all the rulers of the universe; whose is eternal glory; who gave that glorious Gospel in which his followers may glory, as it affords them such cause of triumph as the heathens had not, who gloried in their philosophers.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
3 more voices on this verse
1 Corinthians 2:8
“According to Marcion, however, the apostle in the passage under consideration does not allow the imputation of ignorance, with respect to the Lord of glory, to the powers of the Creator; because, indeed, he will have it that these are not meant by "the princes of this world.”
Tertullian · written before 220 · Against Marcion Book Vpatristic
1 Corinthians 2:8
“In like manner the Father is styled, "the Father of glory," Eph. i, 17; and the Holy Ghost, "the Spirit of glory," 1 Pet. iv, 14. The application of this title to all the three, shows that the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost are "the God of glory;" as the only true God is called, Psalm xxix, 3, and Acts vii, 2.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the New Testament (1755)evangelical
1 Corinthians 2:8
“The strongest proof of the natural man's destitution of heavenly wisdom. crucified . . . Lord of glory--implying the inseparable connection of Christ's humanity and His divinity. The Lord of glory (which He had in His own right before the world was, Joh 17:4, 24) was crucified.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
ConnectionsRomans 10:17
Rather, as it is written: Paul applies Isaiah 64:4, what God has prepared for those who love Him, to the hidden wisdom of verse 7. Verse 10 ties the saying to what God has revealed by his Spirit now.
1 Corinthians 2:9
“But as it is written - This passage is quoted from Isa 64:4. It is not quoted literally; but the sense only is given. The words are found in the apocryphal books of Elijah; and Origen and Jerome supposed that Paul quoted from those books. But it is evident that Paul had in his eye the passage in Isaiah; and intended to apply it to his present purpose. These words are often applied by commentators and others to the future life, and are supposed by them to be descriptive of the state of the blessed there.”
Cross references
1 Corinthians 2:9
- QuotingIsaiah 64:4“From ancient times no one has heard, no ear has perceived, no eye has seen any God besides You, who acts on behalf of those who wait for Him.”
'Eye hath not seen... the things which God hath prepared' ('as it is written')
The Spirit Searches the Deep Things of God
1 Corinthians 2:10-11
But God has revealed it to us by the Spirit: God has revealed it to us by the Spirit, who searches all things, even the deep things of God. Only the Spirit of God knows the thoughts of God, so revealed truth comes from the one mind able to know it.
1 Corinthians 2:10
“But God hath revealed them unto us - A manifest proof that the apostle speaks here of the glories of the Gospel, and not of the glories of the future world. For the Spirit searcheth all things - This is the Spirit of God, which spoke by the prophets, and has now given to the apostles the fullness of that heavenly truth, of which He gave to the former only the outlines.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
except the Spirit of God: Paul argues from the lesser case to the greater: a man's own spirit alone knows his hidden thoughts. In the same way, Jamieson, Fausset and Brown note, only God's Spirit knows the things of God.
1 Corinthians 2:11
“For what man ... - The design of this is, to illustrate what he had just said by a reference to the way in which man acquires the knowledge of himself. The purpose is to show that the Spirit has an exact and thorough knowledge of the things of God; and this is done by the very striking thought that no man can know his own mind, his own plans and intentions, but himself - his own spirit.”
1 more voice on this verse
1 Corinthians 2:11
“We cannot know them at all till he had proposed them objectively (as it is called) in the external revelation; we cannot know or believe them to salvation till he enlightens the faculty, opens the eye of the mind, and gives us such a knowledge and faith of them.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
1 Corinthians 2:12-13
We have not received the spirit of the world: The Spirit who is from God is received that we may understand what God has freely given us. Verse 13 adds that the words also are taught by the Spirit, so content and words both come from Him.
1 Corinthians 2:12
“Now we have received, not the spirit of the world - We, who are the genuine apostles of Christ, have received this Spirit of God, by which we know the deep things of God; and, through the teaching of that Spirit, we preach Christ crucified. We have not therefore received the spirit of the world - of the Jewish teachers, who are all looking for a worldly kingdom and a worldly Messiah, and interpret all the scriptures of the Old Testament which relate to Him in a carnal and worldly sense.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
words taught by the Spirit: The last phrase can mean proving spiritual things by spiritual testimony. Chrysostom reads it that way, citing the types of the Old Testament as that testimony.
1 Corinthians 2:13
“So the Greek word is translated, "comparing" (2Co 10:12). WAHL (Key of the New Testament) translates, "explaining (as the Greek is translated, Ge 40:8, the Septuagint) to spiritual (that is, Spirit-taught) men, spiritual things (the things which we ourselves are taught by the Spirit)." Spirit-taught men alone can comprehend spiritual truths.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
2 more voices on this verse
1 Corinthians 2:13
For he who is still blind and dumb, not having understanding, or the undazzled and keen vision of the contemplative soul, which the Saviour confers, like the uninitiated at the mysteries, or the unmusical at dances, not being yet pure and worthy of the pure truth, but still discordant and disordered and material, must stand outside of the divine choir. "For we compare spiritual things with spiritual."
Clement of Alexandria · written before 215 · The Stromata Book 5patristic
1 Corinthians 2:13
“Comparing spiritual things with spiritual --one part of revelation with another, the revelation of the gospel with that of the Jews, the discoveries of the New Testament with the types and prophecies of the Old. The comparing of matters of revelation with matters of science, things supernatural with things natural and common, is going by a wrong measure.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
1 Corinthians 2:14-15
The natural man does not accept the things: The natural man, in Greek psychikos, the person without the Spirit, does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God. They are spiritually discerned, so spiritual truth needs the Spirit to be received.
1 Corinthians 2:14
“Receiveth not - Does not understand or conceive. The things of the Spirit - The things revealed by the Spirit of God, whether relating to his nature or his kingdom. For they are foolishness to him - He is so far from understanding, that he utterly despises, them Neither can he know them - As he has not the will, so neither has he the power.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the New Testament (1755)evangelical
3 more voices on this verse
1 Corinthians 2:14
“True knowledge, then, consists in the understanding of Christ, which Paul terms the wisdom of God hidden in a mystery, which "the natural man receiveth not," the doctrine of the cross; of which if any man "taste," he will not accede to the disputations and quibbles of proud and puffed-up men, who go into matters of which they have no perception. For the truth is unsophisticated; and "the word is nigh thee, in thy mouth and in thy heart," as the same apostle declares, being easy of comprehension to those who are obedient.”
Irenaeus · written before 202 · Fragments from the Lost Writings of Irenaeus, #36patristic
1 Corinthians 2:14
“But the natural man - Ψυχικος, The animal man - the man who is in a mere state of nature, and lives under the influence of his animal passions; for the word ψυχη, which we often translate soul, means the lower and sensitive part of man, in opposition to νους, the understanding or rational part. The Latins use anima to signify these lower passions; and animus to signify the higher.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 Corinthians 2:14
“Men unsanctified receive not the things of God. The understanding, through the corruption of nature by the fall, and through the confirmation of this disorder by customary sin, is utterly unapt to receive the rays of divine light; it is prejudiced against them. The truths of God are foolishness to such a mind.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
The spiritual man judges all things: Paul reuses the verb of verse 14, to sift or examine. Origen says the spiritual man can weigh everything, Greek or barbarian, wise or foolish, while none can sift him. Wesley limits the second clause to natural men, who understand neither what he is nor what he says.
1 Corinthians 2:15
“But he that is spiritual - The man who is enlightened by the Holy Spirit in contradistinction from him who is under the influence of the senses only. Judgeth - Greek: “Discerns.” (margin); the same word as in the previous verse. It means that the spiritual man has a discernment of these truths in regard to which the sensual man was blind and ignorant.”
Paul closes the chapter with Isaiah 40:13, For who has known the mind of the Lord, so as to instruct Him? Isaiah asked it to show that no counselor advises God, and Paul answers, But we have the mind of Christ.
1 Corinthians 2:16
Isaiah even so early, with the clearness of an apostle, foreseeing the thoughts of heretical hearts, asked, "Who hath known the mind of the Lord? For who hath been His counsellor? With whom took He counsel? ... or who taught Him knowledge, and showed to Him the way of understanding? " With whom the apostle agreeing exclaims, "Oh the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! how unsearchable are His judgments, and His ways past finding out!"
Tertullian · written before 220 · Against Marcion Book IIpatristic
1 more voice on this verse
1 Corinthians 2:16
“So the Septuagint translates the Greek verb, which means to "prove," in Ac 9:22. Natural men who judge spiritual men, living according to the mind of God ("We have the mind of Christ"), are virtually wishing to instruct God, and bring Him to another mind, as counsellors setting to right their king. we have the mind of Christ--in our degree of capability to apprehend it.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Cross references
1 Corinthians 2:16
- QuotingIsaiah 40:13“Who has directed the Spirit of the LORD, or informed Him as His counselor?”
'Who hath known the mind of the Lord?' (the mind of Christ)
How this psalm is built
The form: Paul's proof from his own preaching at Corinth that he practised what 1:17 to 31 teaches, within the divisions section from 1:10 to 4:21, as Aquinas classes it.
The patterns in this chapter
| Device | What it does | Where to see it |
|---|---|---|
| Persuasion set against demonstration | Verses 4 and 5 each set a human means against a divine one, persuasive words of wisdom against a demonstration of the Spirit's power, and men's wisdom against God's power. Jamieson, Fausset & Brown put the contrast in a sentence: persuasion is man's means of moving his fellow man, and demonstration is God's means.Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible, 1871, on 1 Corinthians 2:4. | 1 Corinthians 2:4, 1 Corinthians 2:5 |
| As it is written | Verse 9 opens its citation with as it is written, and verse 16 takes up a question from the prophets with no formula at all. John Chrysostom asks where the words of verse 9 are written and answers that Scripture counts a thing written when the same meaning stands in other words. Jamieson, Fausset & Brown set the verse beside Isaiah 64:4, where the promise is for him who waits for God, and here it is for those who love Him.John Chrysostom, Homily on 1 Corinthians 7, 407, on 1 Corinthians 2:9. | 1 Corinthians 2:9, 1 Corinthians 2:16 |
| The spirit of a man and the Spirit of God | Verse 11 asks who knows a man's thoughts except the spirit within him, then applies the same rule to God. The Berean text names the Spirit of God seven times in the chapter, from verse 4 to verse 14. Severian of Gabala guards the comparison at one point, holding that a man and his spirit are one person while God and the Holy Spirit are two, so the likeness lies in the knowing.Severian of Gabala, Pauline Commentary from the Greek Church, 425, on 1 Corinthians 2:11. | 1 Corinthians 2:10, 1 Corinthians 2:11, 1 Corinthians 2:12 |
| The natural man and the spiritual man | Verses 14 and 15 set two kinds of person side by side. The natural man counts the things of the Spirit foolishness and cannot understand them, and the spiritual man judges all things. Origen of Alexandria holds that the spiritual man can judge everything, Greek or barbarian, wise or foolish, and cannot be judged by anyone because of the depth of his understanding.Origen of Alexandria, Commentary on 1 Corinthians 1.11.44 to 45, 253, on 1 Corinthians 2:15. | 1 Corinthians 2:14, 1 Corinthians 2:15 |
Where the chapter stands
11 more paragraphs on the patterns
Chapter 2 carries on the argument of 1:18 without a break. The chapter before set the message of the cross against the wisdom of the world and showed that God chose the lowly. This chapter turns to the preacher. Verses 1 to 5 recall Paul's arrival at Corinth, and Theophylact of Ohrid reads them as the next step of one proof: the disciples were plain, and the preacher came plain as well.
Who speaks
Paul speaks in the first person singular in verses 1 to 4, where he recalls his own coming, his resolve and his fear. From verse 6 he speaks in the plural, for the apostles who speak wisdom among the mature. Albert Barnes marks verse 6 as the opening of the chapter's second head, in which Paul shows that his preaching lacked human wisdom and still carried a divine one.
What it hands to the next chapter
The chapter ends on the claim that believers have the mind of Christ. Chapter 3 opens with Paul unable to address the Corinthians as spiritual people, so 2:6 to 3:4 reads as one unit: the wisdom for the mature, the Spirit who gives it, and a church still too worldly to take it in.
The Old Testament cited
Verse 9 stands under the formula as it is written, and Jamieson, Fausset & Brown set it beside Isaiah 64:4. Ambrosiaster records that Isaiah gives these words in another form and that they also stand in the apocryphal Apocalypse of Elijah. Verse 16 takes up the question of Isaiah 40:13 on who has known the mind of the Lord, and answers it with the mind of Christ.
The debated readings
The rulers of this age in verses 6 and 8. Albert Barnes takes them as the Jewish rulers and the Roman governor who put Jesus to death, and Adam Clarke confines them to the rulers of the Jewish state. Ambrosiaster widens the phrase to every spiritual power that sets itself against God. Oecumenius applies the ignorance of verse 8 to Herod and Pilate and holds that the high priests knew Jesus was the Christ.
The promise of verse 9. John Wesley reads it of the blessings of the Messiah's kingdom, which the Spirit now reveals. Isaac of Nineveh reads it of the good things to come, which have no likeness to anything here.
Christ crucified in verse 2. Augustine of Hippo holds that Paul spoke so to hearers who could not yet receive higher things about the Godhead of Christ. Matthew Henry takes Christ in His person and offices as the sum and substance of the gospel.
Keep studying
Sources for this chapter
The summary
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory; John Calvin, Commentaries; John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the New Testament and Matthew Henry, Complete Commentary.
The form and classifications
Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments, 1832 to 1869, on 1 Corinthians 2:6; Theophylact of Ohrid, Commentary on 1 Corinthians, 1107, on 1 Corinthians 2:1 and Thomas Aquinas, Commentary on 1 Corinthians, 1274, on 1 Corinthians 2:1.
The exposition
Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the First Epistle to the Corinthians; Augustine of Hippo, ON THE TRINITY 1.12; Charles Hodge, An Exposition of the First Epistle to the Corinthians; Charles Spurgeon, The Wisdom of God in a Mystery; Clement of Alexandria, The Stromata Book 5; Frederic Godet, Commentary on First Corinthians; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; John Calvin, Commentary on the Epistles of Paul the Apostle to the Corinthians; John Chrysostom; John Gill, Exposition of the New Testament; John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the New Testament; Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible; Origen of Alexandria; Severian of Gabala, PAULINE COMMENTARY FROM THE GREEK CHURCH; Theodore of Mopsuestia, PAULINE COMMENTARY FROM THE GREEK CHURCH and Theodoret of Cyrus, COMMENTARY ON THE FIRST EPISTLE TO THE CORINTHIANS 175.