1 Corinthians 1:21

21. For since the world knew not. The right order of things was assuredly this, that man, contemplating the wisdom of God in his works, by the light of the understanding furnished him by nature, might arrive at an acquaintance with him. As, however, this order of things has been reversed through man’s depravity, God designs in the first place to make us see ourselves to be fools, before he makes us wise unto salvation, (2 Timothy 3:15;) and secondly, as a token of his wisdom, he presents to us what has some appearance of folly. This inversion of the order of things the ingratitude of mankind deserved. By the wisdom of God he means the workmanship of the whole world, which is an illustrious token and clear manifestation of his wisdom: God therefore presents before us in his creatures a bright mirror of his admirable wisdom, so that every one that looks upon the world, and the other works of God, must of necessity break forth in admiration of him, if he has a single spark of sound judgment. If men were guided to a right knowledge of God by the contemplation of his works, they would know God in the exercise of wisdom, or by a natural and proper method of acquiring wisdom; but as the whole world gained nothing in point of instruction from the circumstance, that God had exhibited his wisdom in his creatures, he then resorted to another method for instructing men. Thus it must be reckoned as our own fault, that we do not attain a saving acquaintance with God, before we have been emptied of our own understanding.

He makes a concession when he calls the gospel the foolishness of preaching, having that appearance in the view of those foolish sages (μωροσόφοις) who, intoxicated with false confidence, fear not to subject God’s sacred truth to their senseless criticism. And indeed in another point of view nothing is more absurd in the view, of human reason than to hear that God has become mortal — that life has been subjected to death — that righteousness has been veiled under the appearance of sin — and that the source of blessing has been made subject to the curse, that by this means men might be redeemed from death, and become partakers of a blessed immortality — that they might obtain life — that, sin being destroyed, righteousness might reign — and that death and the curse might be swallowed up. We know, nevertheless, in the meantime, that the gospel is the hidden wisdom, (1 Corinthians 2:7,) which in its height surmounts the heavens, and at which angels themselves stand amazed. Here we have a most beautiful passage, from which we may see how great is the blindness of the human mind, which in the midst of light discerns nothing. For it is true, that this world is like a theater, in which the Lord presents to us a clear manifestation of his glory, and yet, notwithstanding that we have such a spectacle placed before our eyes, we are stone-blind, not because the manifestation is furnished obscurely, but because we are alienated in mind, (Colossians 1:21,)and for this matter we lack not merely inclination but ability. For notwithstanding that God shows himself openly, it is only with the eye of faith that we can behold him, save only that we receive a slight perception of his divinity, sufficient to render us inexcusable.

Accordingly, when Paul here declares that God is not known through means of his creatures, you must understand him to mean that a pure knowledge of him is not attained. For that none may have any pretext for ignorance, mankind make proficiency in the universal school of nature; so far as to be affected with some perception of deity, but what God is, they know not, nay more, they straightway become vain in their imaginations, (Romans 1:21.) Thus the light shineth in darkness, (John 1:5.) It follows, then, that mankind do not err thus far through mere ignorance, so as not to be chargeable with contempt, negligence, and ingratitude. Thus it holds good, that all

have known God, and yet have not glorified him, (Romans 1:21,)

and that, on the other hand, no one under the guidance of mere nature ever made such proficiency as to know God. Should any one bring forward the philosophers as exceptions, I answer, that in them more especially there is presented a signal token of this our weakness. For there will not be found one of them, that has not from that first principle of knowledge, which I have mentioned, straightway turned aside into wandering and erroneous speculations, and for the most part they betray a silliness worse than that of old wives. When he says, that those are saved that believe, this corresponds with the foregoing statement — that the gospel is the power of God unto salvation Farther, by contrasting believers, whose number is small, with a blind and senseless world, he teaches us that we err if we stumble at the smallness of their number, inasmuch as they have been divinely set apart to salvation.

John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.

1Co_1:21

For after that in the wisdom of God the world by wisdom knew not God.

Wisdom and salvation

I. Paul meant that men had tried to know God in His wisdom, not in His righteousness, not in His love, and had failed.

1. The wisdom of God is revealed in the universe, in man and in history--revealed but hidden. Wise men have endeavoured to construct a philosophy of the universe, and to reach God by reaching His thought as it underlies the universal order. They have not succeeded. In our times the endeavour to master the laws of Nature has achieved a brilliant success; but this is science, not philosophy. Philosophy attempts to discover what lies behind and above all the laws. It asks whence and where the universe came, and is not satisfied with learning its present structure or its history. It attempts to reduce all things to unity--to determine the relation of man to all things, to verify the certainty of the real value of human knowledge, and to discover the truth about destiny. If it had been successful it would have reached the thought of God, and so, in a measure, God Himself.

2. But Paul declares that in this great adventure human wisdom had failed; God, in His wisdom, remained unknown to the wisest. The task of philosophy had proved to be beyond human strength. School after school had risen in Greece, and the supreme question remained unsolved. There was a feeling of exhaustion, and there was a last desperate attempt to reach the object by means of transcendent speculation, ascetic mortification and ecstasy. But Neo-Platonism failed, and ancient philosophy sank in complete exhaustion.

3. The Corinthians, many of them, were seeking God in the old way; and when Paul came, they expected him to satisfy their desire for wisdom and explain everything. When he spoke of Christ, and of His death as a propitiation, they passed at once with a certain impatience from the fact, and wanted some new and deeper speculation about sin, some discussion about the nature of eternal life; some account of the reason why the death of Christ should be connected with these great things. Paul refused to listen to their demands. God had not given him a philosophy to make known to men of intellectual activity, but a series of facts within the reach of the least intelligent. They said, Let us know the philosophy of your message. No, said Paul, for you I have only the fact. You say it explains nothing, and that it is a foolish thing. Granted; but seeing that the world, in its wisdom, knew not God in His wisdom--

III. It was Gods good pleasure through the foolishness of the preaching to save them that believed. Paul does not mean to say that it pleases God to save men by foolish preaching. There is nothing to save men in intellectual feebleness and folly. This Epistle on the very next page says, We speak wisdom among the perfect. When a man has received the Divine life, and that life has reached a certain maturity, he is capable of moving into regions of thought even sublimer than those which are familiar to the loftiest philosophy, and in the light of the Spirit of God the thought of God becomes known to him. But at first, while he is dealing with those who have not yet received Christ, Paul will not theorise or philosophise. It is not the theory that holds the planets in their orbits, but the force which the theory attempts to explain. And if that force ceased to act you might have the most perfect understanding of the theory, but you would all fly off into space. Here are the facts--this is Pauls position--resting on the testimony of the apostles; facts which have witnessed their own reality to millions of hearts. The Eternal Son of God became man, died for the sins of men, rose again, and has not forsaken the world that He came to save. How do we know? Why, age after age men have spoken to Him and He has answered; they have brought to Him the burden of guilt, and at the touch of His hand the burden has gone. Weak, in the presence of duty, they have appealed to Him for strength and have become strong. That was the foolishness of Pauls preaching, and this has proved to age after age wiser than all the wisdom of man, for through this men have actually found God, and through this they have actually been able to translate the will of God into life and conduct. The Incarnation is the basis of a philosophy of the universe, the death of Christ for sin contains a philosophy of human nature; and of the Divine order of the moral universe, the resurrection of Christ contributes new elements to the philosophy of human life. Yes; on these great facts a majestic philosophy may rest; but between the facts and our philosophy there is a difference as wide as between all other facts and our theories about them; and if you must be persuaded to receive the facts by the theories that are constructed in relation to them, your faith, to use Pauls words, will stand in the wisdom of man, and mot in the power of God. We must begin with the facts and pass to the philosophy. (R. W. Dale, D. D.)

The insufficiency of worldly wisdom

In this verse we have two general parts especially considerable of us. First, the worlds misimprovement and neglect of the opportunities of knowledge, which sometimes were afforded unto them. Secondly, the supply of this neglect by a new kind of dispensation to them. The former we have in these words, the world by wisdom knew not God; the latter we have in these: After that … it pleased God by the foolishness, &c. We begin first of all with the former. First, the wisdom of God. What is the meaning of this? The wisdom of God is variously taken in Scripture. First, it is taken for an essential attribute of God (Job_12:13; Pro_8:14). But this is not that wisdom which is meant here in this place. Secondly, the wisdom of God is sometimes taken for Christ Himself, who is the wisdom of the Father: thus here in this very text (1Co_1:24), Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. Thirdly, the wisdom of God is taken for that wisdom which is in us, participative, and by derivation from God. Thus the wisdom of Solomon is called the wisdom of God (1Ki_3:28). To Joseph it is said, The Spirit of God was in him in regard of his wisdom (Gen_41:38-39); and Daniel, it is said of him that he was a man in whom the Spirit of the holy gods, and wisdom like the wisdom of the gods, was found in him (Dan_5:11). Fourthly, the wisdom of God is sometimes taken for the Scripture and Word of God, as Luk_11:49. Fifthly, the wisdom of God is taken more restrainedly for the doctrine of the gospel, and the great mysteries which are contained in that (1Co_2:7; Eph_3:10). Lastly, the wisdom of God is taken for the creation of the world; that wisdom which does shine forth in the creature, and the works of God in that respect. And so it is particularly to be understood here in this place. When it is said that the world knew not God in the wisdom of God, the meaning is this, that they did not so improve that advantage for the knowledge of God by the creation, as indeed it became them to do so. This work of the creation is fitly called the wisdom of God, because the wisdom of God does therein very much appear to all such persons as will take notice of it (Rom_1:20; Psa_104:24). The second is, what is meant by the world. And surely here, as in the first term, was understood the world for the frame of it, so also in this second term is understood the world for the inhabitants of it. That world which is opposed to the Church, these are the world which the apostle Paul points here unto in sundry respects.

1. Because they are most of the world in regard of their number.

2. Most in the world in regard of their interest.

3. Most in regard of their affections.

The third is, what is meant by wisdom, the world by wisdom; surely that is the wisdom of the world, as the other was the wisdom of God. Well, but what now do ye call that here in this place? We may reduce it to two branches, either first of all, the wisdom of parts and natural wit and sagacity; or secondly, the wisdom of study and industry, learning and philosophy; their wisdom which consisted in knowledge of natural things. First, they knew Him confusedly, but not distinctly; they knew Him in the general, but not in reference to the right person. Secondly, they knew God imperfectly, and according to some weak and slender apprehensions which they had of Him in their minds, but they knew Him not in the latitude of those excellences which are to be found in Him. Thirdly, they knew God notionally, and in the speculation; they had some apprehensions of Him in their Understanding. But they did not know Him practically and in the effects, so as this knowledge had any influence upon their hearts for the ordering of their lives and conversations. Fourthly, they knew God essentially, as considered in His own nature, but they knew Him not dispensatively and representatively, as exhibited in Christ. I come now in the next place to the proposition itself thus explained as it lies in the text, that in the wisdom of God the world by wisdom knew not God, which affords us this observation, as the moral of all, that the greatest wits of the, world having no more but the common light of nature, are oftentimes exceedingly to seek in the spiritual and saving knowledge of God. And I shall endeavour to make it good by a threefold consideration, and that founded upon the words of the text. First, the insufficiency of the medium, and that is the glory of God shining forth in the creatures, which is here called the wisdom of God. This of itself is insufficient to the producing of such a kind of knowledge as this is. There is not the least spire of grass, but it presents a god to our thoughts, much more the whole body of the creation. This does exhibit God a great deal more fully. But yet God as He is laid open in the gospel, and as He is made known in the preaching of the Word, this the creature does not show, nor is able to do it. Secondly, from the weakness of the faculty, the world by wisdom knew not God; that is, by its own wisdom, and that wisdom which is within the compass of itself, so it knew Him not. The wisdom of the world is insufficient alone of itself to bring any people to the saving knowledge of God: this is clear out of sundry places of Scripture (Mat_16:17). So that we see how men may much abound in worldly wisdom, and yet fall short of evangelical knowledge. First, because this mystery of the gospel is a thing which is merely dependent upon the will and counsel of God Himself. Again it is said to be hid in God (Eph_3:9), that is, in the secret of His own purpose and eternal counsel. Secondly, as it is hid in God, so it is also hid by God; and that of purpose, oftentimes, from those which are otherwise the wisest men in the world (Mat_11:25). Thirdly, the world by the strength of natural wisdom is not able to know God in Christ, in regard of the disproportion betwixt the faculty and the object, the knowledge of Christ being of a far different and contrary nature and condition hereunto. We know that no faculty can act beyond its own sphere, nor reach an object which is above itself. As bodily eyes cannot see spiritual substances, no more can wit and natural sagacity be able to reach the knowledge of God in Christ, which is an object transcendent unto it. The improvement of this point to ourselves is not (as some would make it to be) from hence to cast a reproach and disparagement upon wit and human learning. There is a threefold disparagement especially which we do justly cast upon human learning and the wisdom of the world. First, comparative and exclusive, we do disparage it and diminish from it so. Human learning, if we compare it with Divine, and worldly wisdom with the wisdom from above; here it is as good as nothing (Php_3:8). Secondly, we do disparage human wisdom, as a ground or argument of pride and boasting and carnal confidence. Thirdly, and more principally to our present purpose, we do disparage human wisdom in reference to such an effect as this, which is to bring those that have it to the saving knowledge of God in Christ. Here the wisdom of the world is too weak, and of small or no effect; it cannot do this. Go to now, let us see then in what sense we do disparage this wisdom of the world; namely, as in another case we seem likewise to disparage good works; this is not simply considered in themselves, but in order to justification and merit. The third is, from the perverseness of the subjects; namely, those persons in which this wisdom was, they did not do their duty to this purpose as they should, and from hence it comes to pass oftentimes that they are as they are. The world by wisdom might have known Him more than they did, if they had given themselves to it. But there was a manifold obstruction upon them, which is a great hindrance hereunto. At first, their non-attendancy, that they did mot heed nor apply their minds to these things. A scholar that looks off his book will never learn his letters, let them be written or printed before him in never so fair and elegant a character. Secondly, it proceeds from idleness and want of taking some pains with ourselves to dive into these things. A scholar must not only read but study, that will improve in any knowledge. A third obstruction to this knowledge is pride and scornfulness of spirit, because men think themselves too good to be taught or learn anything. Well, to close up all now with a brief word of application, let us consider what does result from these truths for our own use. And first let us here take notice of the corrupt nature which is in man, to be abased and humbled for it. Secondly, seeing the world by wisdom knew not God, let us then labour to find somewhat more in us than worldly wisdom. Thirdly, let those who know God and have this worldly wisdom, see what cause they have to bless God and to acknowledge His goodness to them. And again, for those who desire this wisdom, let them learn hence to veil and cover the other, and lay it down in order to the other, where it makes any opposition and resistance. Yet to conclude, let me add one thing more, and that is this, that though human wit does not give grace of itself, yet it does sometimes forward the means of grace, and accordingly is to be improved by us; as the star occasionally led the wise men to Christ. Again, though parts make us not good at first, yet when we are good they are good helps to make us better and more useful in the exercise of piety; and so likewise are we conscionably to use them. (Thomas Horton, D. D.)

Philosophy and the gospel

I. The failure of philosophy.

1. Exhibited in ignorance of God.

2. Occasioned by wisdom.

3. The conformity with the wisdom of God.

II. The success of the gospel. Though the scorn of man it is--

1. The salvation of believers.

2. The pleasure of God. (J. Lyth, D.D.)

Gods plan of salvation a remedy for mans ignorance

To each man his highest welfare is entrusted as a most solemn charge. The question is, By what method can he obtain salvation? To know what his duties are, he must be acquainted with his Ruler. A true knowledge of God is therefore indispensable. Let us consider the assertions of the text.

I. A true knowledge of God not reached by mans wisdom. Consider--

1. The admissions of the wisest men of old. The lament of Plato was that it was so hard to discover the Father of the universe, and he never seems to have reached the conception of God as a self-conscious, living, personal Being. Socrates deemed it the greatest happiness to know the will of the gods; but how this knowledge was to be obtained he could not say; perhaps by a resort to divination.

2. The low morality of heathenism at its brightest periods. Vices tolerated which now are reprobated. The mythologies are disgraceful. All this shows practical ignorance of God.

3. The assertions of modern philosophy--that it has dislodged theology from its lofty pedestal, and made it only a curious speculation. The world by wisdom now knows not God, nor seems likely to. It refuses the appointed organ of knowledge, and resembles a man attempting to learn the meaning of sounds by the eye instead of the ear.

II. Gods remedy for mans ignorance is foolishness in the eyes of the world. The remedy is preaching, including the thing preached and the act of preaching. This preaching is to the wisdom of man foolishness, for--

1. It simply states facts, not theories and reasonings. The apostles came simply to bear witness to Christ.

2. It states facts likely to excite contempt. The Jew didnt want a suffering Messiah; the Greek could not understand a crucified God,

3. It makes salvation depend on faith, not on wisdom. To save them that believe.

III. The conspicuous manifestation afforded of the wisdom of God. Wisdom is discoverable--

1. In the whole plan, in that man was first taught his weakness. A wise teacher lets his pupil flounder a little that he may learn a lesson of humility. So the centuries before Christ are a standing rebuke to man, reminding him of his impotence. Hence no flesh can glory in the presence of God. The saint cannot, for all he knows was taught him; the preacher cannot, since the treasure does not depend on the earthen vessel for its value; the facts he has to deliver are successful not from his eloquence, or thought, or exposition.

2. In the plan of proclamation, in that it enables all Christians to be preachers. He has only to testify what he has seen, tasted, and felt.

3. In making salvation depend on faith, in that it makes salvation possible to all. (S. R. Aldridge, B. A.)

Gods interposition for the world

I. Its condition--ignorant of God; consequently

1. Alienated.

2. Guilty.

3. Depraved.

4. Miserable.

II. Its helplessness--unalleviated by--

1. Philosophy.

2. Art.

3. Legislation.

4. Religious systems--infidelity.

III. Its belief--by the foolishness of preaching--exemplified in--

1. The preacher.

2. The subject.

3. The condition.

4. The result. (J. Burnet.)

Gods procedure with the world

I. His wisdom.

1. In delaying the revelation of the gospel.

2. In affording man ample opportunity to test the insufficiency of reason.

3. And by his worldly wisdom to work out his own misery.

II. His pleasure.

1. In the discovery of His mercy.

2. In its free dispensation by the foolishness of preaching--to all that believe. (J. Lyth, D. D.)

The worlds need and Gods remedy

I. The state of the then heathen world.

1. It knew not God. It was in no barbarous age that the apostle bore this testimony; but in the evening of the Augustan age, when mans intellect had been developed to the utmost. It was not on the Arabs tent, nor the Indians wigwam, that these words were inscribed; but it was on the polished marbles of Athens and on the proud walls of imperial Rome. And not only was it of that particular age he spoke; but he seems to look back to the very earliest ages, After that, &c. After four thousand years had rolled by, looking back to the place where science was born and cradled, to Egypt with its reptile gods, to Babylon where science was nourished and cherished, and whither the Grecian sages went to light their lamps.

2. It was in a perishing condition. Men would not have needed to be saved if they were not lost.

II. The method of belief which God provided. It pleased God. Here is something in which the Lord delighted. And what was it that pleased God? It was that which man despised. Beware how you say a word against preaching, and extol or depreciate it in favour of sacraments. But what is this preaching? Heralding, the calling of the rebel to submission, the exhibition of the lawful Sovereign, the proclamation of mercy from the King of kings, &c. And what is the substance of this preaching? Christ, in all the glories of His person; in all the sufficiency of His offices, and in all the riches of His grace. But this is not all. There is peculiar character in this preaching, by the foolishness of preaching the apostle means its simplicity. It is possible so to preach Christ and His gospel as to strip it of its power. Conceal it in the tangled web of human sophistry; garnish it with the flowers of human eloquence; obscure it with the dusky mantle of antiquity; dress it up in the gorgeous dish; and what do you? You destroy its hidden power. You may attract the eye of man from the precious pearl to the gorgeous setting of it; and what do you then? It is an uncertain sound which the trumpet gives, and none will prepare them for the battle. It is only plain, affectionate, scriptural declarations of Gods truth, unreserved, full, free, from the heart, and in the power and demonstration of the Spirit, that can save them that believe.

III. The result of the application of this remedy. It pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save--whom? all the world? every creature? No; them that, believe. The effect of early evangelising efforts at best what is it? And it came to pass, that some believed, and some believed not. It was nearly three centuries before the civilised world became Christian. But in all cases preaching did save them that believed; and there is the important truth to fix the mind upon. Look at the converts; whether they were in Jewry, or in Corinth, or in Athens; wherever it might be the effect which followed the preaching of the gospel was the same. As many as received Him, to them gave He power to become the sons of God, &c. Lions became lambs; licentious men pure; impious men became pious. These were the effects which uniformly followed in them that believed. (Dean Close.)

Divine wisdom displayed in the gospel

I. The christian religion is a supernatural science. The world by wisdom knew not God. Genuine religion is a subject of pure revelation, and cannot be discovered by human reason, in its most perfect state. It s a spiritual science, and can only be comprehended by faith, and realised through the operations of the Holy Ghost (2Co_2:14).

II. The gospel is a full development of the method of salvation. It pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe. Thus, the gospel is not only a revelation of the scheme of salvation, but also an instrument of its accomplishment in the believer (Rom_1:16).

III. The gospel is a glorious display of infinite wisdom. In the wisdom of God, &c. The Divine Being always acts according to infinite wisdom and eternal truth. In the dispensation of grace, the Lord has proposed the best possible ends, and accomplishes them by the best possible means. It is not only a display of the wisdom of God, but is the medium of all Christian knowledge.

IV. The gospel is a clear manifestation of Divine benevolence and love. It pleased God, &c.

V. The gospel enjoins faith as an essential principle of salvation. It pleased God to save them that believe. (Sketches of Sermon.)

Sense, reason, and faith

Here we have three kinds of evidence referred to--the sign looked for by the Jews; the philosophy sought after by the Greeks; and the wisdom and power of God. This leads to observations on--

I. The domain of sense. The present age is one in which sense knowledge is unduly exalted. This arises partly from the vast advancement of physical science, and partly from the development of commerce which leaves small time or inclination for the study of spiritual things.

1. But sense knowledge is--

(1) Exceedingly limited. We know very little indeed from direct experience; information for the most part is based upon testimony. Even in science the great mass have neither time, means, nor capacity to conduct experiments, and thus to verify the theories they so boldly advocate. We must always believe much more than we can know.

(2) Often deceptive. The state of our minds always gives colouring to eternal things. We see in nature just what we bring to nature the capacity for seeing. The same scenery produces very different effects upon different minds, and upon the same mind at different times.

(3) Never extends beyond the surface of things. Behind the domain of our experience there lies a whole world of things which we can never cognize with any organ of sense.

2. Christianity is based upon as much sense knowledge as will suffice to prove its truth. Christs resurrection is the greatest fact in history; and at the first its appeal was made directly to the senses. To us it is a matter of testimony; but the testimony is irresistible. If, like the Jew, therefore, we would demand a sign, it is forthcoming.

II. The province of reason.

1. This province is also very limited. A correct process of ratiocination by no means ensures the accuracy of the conclusion arrived at, for the premises may be incorrect. Butler has well remarked, that the unsatisfactory nature of the evidence, with which we are obliged to take up in the daily course of life, is scarcely to be expressed. Reason, of herself, is incompetent to inform man of some of the most important facts which appear to lie completely in her own domain. She cannot describe the essence either of matter or of mind. The freedom of the will she has proved herself utterly incompetent to deal with. Reason is by no means perfect in her own domain, for--

(1) The knowledge on which the process is based is often too limited.

(2) The instruments that are employed are very defective.

2. Man is not left to the guidance of reason alone. Impulse, enthusiasm, feeling, passion, love, and faith are independent of reason, and often lead to higher results.

3. Christianity is supported by reason as far as their powers coincide. The evidences of the Divine authority of Christs religion are conclusive if judged of by reason. Those, therefore, who seek after philosophy, like the Greeks, can find it here.

4. Many Christian truths are higher than reason, but not opposed to it. Christianity leads into a region where reason cannot follow. There are mysteries in religion, as there are also in nature. Man is surrounded by mystery, and is himself the greatest mystery of all. And mystery deepens as knowledge increases.

III. The region of faith. This belongs peculiarly to religion. Here we can discuss the conscience, the soul, and mans relation to God. Reason might discover the existence of Deity, but it could never tell us of His relationship, to man. Modern science puts God, when it admits Him, at the end of the universe. Revelation places Him at the beginning. Scientific men do not hesitate again to proclaim the unknown God, thus taking us back two thousand years in history. There is a tendency in this age to decry faith, yet society could not exist a week without it. Christ is described as--

1. The wisdom of God. Everything seen in His light is clear. By Him we read the riddle of the universe. The purpose of God in creation is seen in Him, and nowhere else.

2. The power of God. His influence on the ages is greater than that of all other systems combined. And He alone can save the soul.

3. Christ is the wisdom of God and the power of God only to those who believe. They become one with Him, and receive out of the fulness of His grace. (G. Sexton, LL. D.)

It pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe.--

The foolishness of preaching

Gods folly is the highest wisdom; mans highest wisdom is but folly. The foolishness of preaching is here contrasted with the wisdom of human teaching.

I. Wherein does the foolishness of preaching consist?

1. God chooses and uses the simplest means to save men, which human philosophers would have scorned. It is the proclamation of a message. Gods plan is, first of all, to tell men the good news of a free, full salvation. After they have believed and accepted the gift of God, they are to be taught more fully the whole range of Christs commands. But, at the beginning, it is only pointing to the Lamb of God, and crying, Behold!

2. God takes the most humble and unlettered believers as His heralds.

3. God makes no heavy demands on the souls to whom the gospel comes. It is only Hear, believe, confess. Salvation is thus put within reach of all--even the feeblest mind and greatest sinner (Rom_10:1-21.).

II. In employing this method--

1. God discarded the aid of all human wisdom in saving men: Hath not God made foolish the wisdom of this world? Not a feature of His redemptive plan was borrowed from the philosophies of men. The utter failure of human philosophy is one of the marked facts of history. It culminated in Pantheism, Atheism, Materialism, Rationalism, Agnosticism, or in a refined selfishness, like Stoicism and Epieureanism. God not only discarded, but contradicted, the teachings of mans philosophy.

(1) He presented Divine thoughts far above the thoughts of man; mysteries above comprehension, though not above apprehension; things too high and lofty for human wisdom to grasp, and which the natural man could not receive.

(2) He dared to present paradoxes, apparent contradictions, irreconcilable by mans philosophy, such as the union of two natures in one person in the God-man; the union of three persons in one God; the doctrines of Divine sovereignty and human free-agency, an unchangeable God and yet prevailing prayer, &c.

(3) The whole philosophy of redemption, of sin and its desert, the law and its demands, salvation by vicarious suffering, &c., is above the reason of man to devise, or even explore. Into it even the angels desire to look.

2. God discarded all human merit. The gospel not only humbles the proud intellect, but the prouder heart. A free salvation is the offence of the Cross?

III. In all this the wisdom of god appears. For--

1. God makes it possible for all sinners to be saved. Whoever can sin can understand salvation. All philosophies were addressed to an elect few: witness Platos few disciples, and Pythagoras, with his exoteric and esoteric schools.

2. God makes possible for all believers to be preachers of the gospel and winners of souls.

3. God abolishes invidious distinctions between sinners and believers. All are on a level, as guilty, condemned, and helpless; all on a level, as saved by grace without works.

4. God presents a faith so grandly superior to all human teaching that there is no risk of confounding it with mans philosophy, or mistaking it for a human invention.

5. God reserves to Himself all the glory. Man has no ground for boasting or self-complacency, &c.

6. God teaches men implicit submission and obedience. (A. T. Pierson, D. D.)

The wisdom of God by preaching

First, the order of working, After that, &c. Secondly, the affection to the work, It pleased God. Thirdly, the means by which the work is wrought, the foolishness of preaching; and fourthly, the work or design itself, To save them that believe. We begin with the first, viz., the order of working, After that, where we must note that this word after, it carries a double force and emphasis with it, either first of all as a restraining word; after, that is, not before: or secondly, as a resolving word, after, i.e., to be sure then. First, take it in the restraining sense. First, that so by this means He might the more fully and palpably convince the world of their neglect; let them first alone and see what they will do of their own accord, and then come in upon their miscarriage. Secondly, that He might the more discover the insufficiency of mere natural and carnal wisdom, which did not yet reach to the knowledge of God. Thirdly, that He might gain to Himself the greater glory. He that does anything after another which misses, he has from hence so much the more honour to himself; especially if he that misses be one that pretends to any great matters, as here it was. The second is the affection to the work, It pleased God. And this again carries a twofold intimation in it. First, it is a word of freedom and spontaneity, it pleased God, that is, He did it of His own accord and inclination, being not moved thereunto by anything out of Himself. Secondly, it is a word of delight and complacency, it pleased God, that is, it was very acceptable to Him; He took a great deal of pleasure and contentment and satisfaction in the doing of it, as in nothing more. The third is the means by which the work is wrought, and that is here expressed to us to be by the foolishness of preaching. Where again there are two particulars considerable of us. First, the means itself considered in its own nature, and that is preaching, by preaching to save believers. Secondly, the qualification of this means as the denomination which is put upon it, and that is mean and contemptible. It is here called the foolishness of preaching. We will begin first of all with the second, to wit, the means in its denomination, the foolishness of preaching, blot as it is, indeed, but as it is rather in mens apprehension. Now there is a double account which may be given hereof unto us. First, occasionally from others in regard of their carriage: for truly as many men order the business, it is the foolishness of preaching indeed; there are some kind of persons in the world which have a great deal to answer to God for the offence which they give in this respect, and the scandal and ill report which they bring upon Gods own ordinance by their unworthy managing of it. But then again secondly, there is an occasion given to think preaching foolishness from too much niceness and affectation. When we shall make preaching a mere business of wit, and a thing to tickle the fancy, an airy and empty discourse, carried with some high-flown language, but never touching or coming near the heart, nor uttering anything which may be profitable to the soul. Secondly, originally from themselves in regard of their own perverse reasonings. And here there are sundry things which they falsely reason upon. At first, they think meanly of preaching, from the nature and condition of the instruments which are employed and improved in it; poor, frail, and weak men like themselves. If an angel might be the dispenser of it, then it may be they would have some high thoughts of it. Secondly, in regard of the matter of it, and the subject which it is conversant about. And that is, Christ crucified, this is the foolishness of preaching, that is not only the ordinance, but the doctrine; and not only the preaching, but the thing preached about. And so not only in the narrative, but in the hortatory part of it; when it persuades men to deny themselves, to cross their sweetest lusts. Thirdly, in regard of the manner of it, and way of proceeding in it. That it comes not so much with reason and demonstration, as rather simple propositions. Fourth, from defect mingled with pride. And so much of that first, viz., the denomination of the ordinance, as it is here styled, the foolishness of preaching. The second is the means and ordinance itself simply considered, and that is preaching; this is the means of working salvation; God saves believers by preaching. First, by preaching He makes them believers; and then being believers, He bestows salvation upon them. This is the order and method that God uses. That poor and mean ordinance which the world thinks so scornfully of, and counts no better than foolishness; yet it has this excellency that it is a means to bring men to heaven; and God is pleased to use it to this purpose. If it be foolishness, it is a saving foolishness, and thats a great deal better than a destructive wisdom. For the better handling of this present point, there are two particulars which may here profitably be considered by us. For the first, what preaching is: it is not merely to speak somewhat of religion, to make a rambling and roving discourse, and nothing to the purpose. But preaching is a ministerial and authoritative improvement of the truths and doctrines of the Scriptures, to the good and benefit of mens souls, and the procurement of their eternal salvation. The showing men of their misery by nature, and the benefit which they may have by Christ, with the appurtenances thereunto, this in a word is preaching, blow further, for the efficacy of this ordinance, and whence it comes to be thus powerful, this is merely from the ordinance of God. As it is His institution who has ordained and appointed it to be so. It pleased Him, there is an account of the business indeed. Alas! preaching considered in itself is a poor and empty voice, and were able to do no great matter at all. It is not the gifts of the preacher, it is not the nature of the argument, it is not the strength of the matter, it is not the sweetness of the expression, it is none of all these things in themselves which makes preaching so powerful a conveyance; no, but the ordinance of God which has appointed to work by these means, and the Spirit of God who is pleased to concur with it in working. The improvement of this point to ourselves for application may be twofold. First, as it concerns ministers, there is a very good item for them to quicken us and encourage us in our work, and the conscionable discharge of it without fainting and giving out. Again, let us also hence learn so much the more faithfully to discharge, and make that our chief end in undertaking it, which was Gods chief end in ordaining it. Secondly, here is somewhat also for the people, and that is so much the more carefully to attend upon this ordinance of preaching, and to take heed of the despising of it as a weak and foolish thing; they which despise preaching, they do in effect despise believing. And further let this teach us with what affections to come to the ordinances, the preaching and hearing of the Word, namely, as those which expect and desire salvation from it as the end whereunto it is intended. Let us not come to a sermon as to a prize, or a mere trial of wits. Now the fourth is the work or design itself which we have in the last words--To save them that believe. Where among many other things which might be profitably observed by us concerning salvation, in the nature of it, and the causes of it, and the means of it, and the like, I shall at this time only fasten upon that which is here especially presented unto us, and that is the subjects of it--believers. And here there are two things again which this restraint does extend itself to. First, here is a restraint of the benefit of preaching to faith. And secondly, here is a restraint of the benefit of salvation to faith. There are none which have benefit by preaching any further than they believe; and there are none which do partake of salvation, but those only which do believe neither. And for saving faith has it here attributed to itself. First, as the radical and fundamental grace, and that which puts a life and vigour into all the rest. Secondly, faith has it attributed to it, because it is that whereby we please God (Heb_6:6). Thirdly, it is faith which lays hold upon Christ, who is the Author of eternal salvation (Gal_2:20). Fourthly, it is faith which gives most glory to God (Rom_4:20; 2Th_1:10). Fifthly, faith is that which does most conquer temptations, and subdue all the enemies of our salvation (Eph_6:16). Lastly, faith is said to save as the condition which God requires and will have in them which shall be saved; and this were enough, though nothing else, to give account of it. In all these respects is salvation attributed hereunto. But what is this faith which we speak of all this while, and wherein does it consist? Sure it is not a mere assent to the truth revealed; though that be somewhat which belongs thereunto, yet this is not all. But saving faith is quieting faith too: Being justified by faith, we have peace with God (Rom_5:1-21.). For the rise of faith, it comes by preaching, and is suitable to the doctrine of the Word. Those who contemn the ordinance, they have none of the grace. For the fruits of it, it works by love.

1. It makes us afraid to displease God.

2. It makes us courageous for God.

3. It makes us love the children of God.

4. It quite changes and alters our converse from evil to good. (Thomas Horton, D. D.)

The foolishness and excellence of preaching

God frequently employs instrumentality in the accomplishment of His purposes so inadequate, as to make it manifest that the excellency of the power is of Himself. It was before the blast of rams horns that the walls of Jericho fell down, &c.; and it is by the foolishness of preaching that souls are saved. Note--

I. The apparent foolishness of preaching.

1. How inadequate is the means itself to accomplish much! How little has human eloquence been able in other fields to achieve? True; once an orators audience, wrought up by his invective, exclaimed, Let us march against our foe! But that effect soon passed away. And in the ordinary intercourse of mankind; look at the effect of mere persuasion, when it comes in collision with mens passions, interests, and tastes.

2. But the inadequacy of the instrumentality will be still more apparent when we remember that the first preachers of the gospel were not highly gifted, and had no advantage of rank, or influence. They were unlettered fishermen, who had no excellency of speech; and taking the mass of ministers in all ages, how few have had any pretensions to transcendant powers of persuasion!

3. But if we pass on to regard the grand theme of preaching the foolishness of preaching will be still more obvious. The Cross of Christ has ever been to the Jew a stumbling-block and to the Greek foolishness.

4. And yet more will the foolishness of preaching strike us if we regard how contrary to the natural bias is that effect at which preaching aims. It aims at getting men to deny themselves, to crucify the flesh with its affections and lusts; to live for eternity and not for time.

II. Its real wisdom and excellency.

1. It is an ordinance of Almighty God. Judaism was propagated by ceremonies and types; false religions have usually been propagated by the sword; but it is the preeminent peculiarity of the religion of Jesus, that by the simple appeal of truth to the conscience and the heart, it has its potency and its triumph. Omniscience could only devise, and infinite grace must have prompted the best of all machinery.

2. It is the ministration of the Spirit of God. We are under the dispensation of the Spirit, and the Spirit communicates Himself mainly and most frequently through preaching.

3. The theme at which the Jews stumbled, and which the Greeks esteemed foolishness is to them that are called Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.

4. It is attended with great and gracious results. Why are we not gathered, as our forefathers were, under the oak-tree, to go through our dark orgies of impiety and blood? Why have we the arts, and sciences, and literature, and all that marks out a civilised people? These are the external triumphs of Christianity. But they are nothing compared with its internal, its everlasting triumphs. What multitudes has it made to pass from death to life, from darkness to light, from the bondage of Satan, to the glorious liberty of the Son of God.

Conclusion: If, on the one hand, preaching appears so foolish, and, on the other, it is so wise and powerful--

1. Do not fall into the false notion of the day, that education is to be the grand regenerator of mankind.

2. How faulty must many of you be when you go to hear the preaching of the Word much as the world goes to the theatre; when you go to hear the words of man instead of the Word of God.

3. How much does it behove the Christians of this country to multiply that machinery which is Gods great ordinance, to promote that righteousness which exalteth a nation. (Canon Stowell.)

The preaching of the gospel

The chief means by which the blessings of this revelation have been communicated to mankind, is the preaching of the Word--a means of instruction which, in the time of St. Paul, was in a great measure new to the world. It had been employed, indeed, in the Jewish synagogue, at the reading of the law and the prophets; but that employment of it was very limited, both in respect of the subjects which it embraced, and of the persons to whom it was addressed: and throughout the whole extent of the heathen nations, the practice was altogether unknown. In Greece, by far the most celebrated of these nations for learning and refinement, there were magnificent temples, in which many splendid ceremonies were observed in honour of the gods, and a variety of officers consecrated to the services of devotion; but there was no institution like that of preaching, for explaining to the people the principles of their religious system. Hence, when the apostles of Christ went forth preaching the kingdom of God, and unfolding clearly its doctrines and its objects, their plan of conduct excited surprise. By the Greeks in particular it was derided as foolishness--as a scheme of reformation unskilfully devised, and on account of the simplicity and weakness of those who engaged in it, incapable of answering any valuable end.

I. The preaching of the gospel has contributed in a remarkable degree to improve the intellectual capacities of human nature, and to disseminate, through a wider sphere, the principles of useful knowledge. It threw into the circulation of human thought a new stock of most interesting principles--principles well established themselves, fruitful in important consequences, and fitted to exercise all the higher faculties of the understanding. It trained a numerous order of men, and forced them, by the very nature of their employment, to cultivate their intellectual talents, to cherish habits of regular thought, and to study the most effectual method of elucidating and confirming the doctrines which they taught. This order of men it mingled with the mass of the people, and placed them in a situation, where their example and instructions could not fail to draw forth and improve the reasoning powers of their hearers. This institution furnishes, besides--

II. A rich inexhaustible treasure of consolation to every individual who employs it with proper dispositions. Numerous are the evils to which we are subjected in the course of our earthly pilgrimage. In the sanctuary of God we see the plan of Providence unveiled, and, through the ministry of the Word, discover order and beauty rising from the darkness. The train of thought which is there presented to us, and rendered habitual by its frequent recurrence, has a direct and powerful tendency to calm the agitations of a troubled heart, and to re-establish our confidence in God. We there learn that God is good to all; that, through Christ, He is reconcilable even to the guilty; that His government of the universe is free from defect; that the apparent disorder around us is essential to the nature of our probationary state, and productive of good; that even afflictions are frequently messengers of His love. But the doctrines which the preaching of the gospel preserves, and diffuses through all orders of the people, tend not only to enlighten the understandings of men and to alleviate the ills of life. They are also--

III. Powerful means of our moral improvement. The system of duty which the gospel contains is most perfect in itself, and most wisely adapted to the exigencies of human nature. It reaches to the thoughts and intents of the heart; it prescribes with a minuteness and accuracy which leaves no room for misconception, the conduct proper for all the situations in which we may be called to act; and it enforces its precepts by motives the most awful and the most interesting which can operate on the mind. (James Finlayson, D. D.)

The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

1:21 Human wisdom alone does not bring people to the true knowledge of God; that comes only through the message of the cross, which the world considers foolish, but which saves those who believe (cp. Matt 11:25).

Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

1Co 1:21. Ἐν τῇ σοφίᾳ, in the wisdom) since [‘because’] the wisdom of God is so great, 1Co 1:25.—οὐκ ἔγνω, knew not) Before the preaching of the cross, although the creature proclaimed the Creator, although the most eloquent prophets had come, still the world knew not God. Those, who heard the prophets, despised them; those, who did not hear them, were of such a spirit, that they would have despised them.—διὰ τῆς σοφίας, by wisdom) viz., by the wisdom of preaching,[8] as is evident from the antithesis, by the foolishness of preaching.—εὐδόκησεν Θεὸς) it pleased God, in mercy and grace to us. Paul seems evidently to have imitated the words of the Lord, Luk 10:21.—διὰ τῆς μωρίας, by the foolishness) God deals with perverse man by contraries, so that man may deny himself, and render glory to God, through belief in the cross.—κηρύγματος, of preaching) inasmuch as it is concerning the cross.

[8] Not, “the world by its wisdom:” but, notwithstanding the preaching of true wisdom by creation and by prophets of God, the world knew not God.—ED.

Bengel's Gnomon of the New Testament — English translation (T&T Clark, Edinburgh, 1860) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

1Co_1:21. More detailed explanation as to this ἐμώρανεν ὁ Θεὸς κ.τ.λ[236], specifying the why in the protasis and the how in the apodosis: since (see Hartung, Partikell. II. p. 259), that is to say, in the wisdom of God the world knew not God through wisdom, it pleased God to save believers through the foolishness of preaching. The wisdom of God was set before the eyes of the world, even of the heathen part of it, in the works of creation (Rom_1:19 f.; comp also Act_17:26 f., 1Co_16:15 ff.); to the Jews it was presented, besides, in the revelation of the O. T. In this His manifested wisdom Go might and should have been known by men; but they did not know Him therein (ἘΝ Τῇ ΣΟΦ. Τ. ΘΕΟῦ ΟὐΚ ἜΓΝΩ Ὁ ΚΌΣΜ. Τ. ΘΕΌΝ),did not attain by the means which they employed, by their wisdom, namely (ΔΙᾺ Τῆς ΣΟΦΊΑς), to this knowledge; whereupon God adopted the plan of saving (in the Messianic sense) believe through the opposite of wisdom, namely, through the foolishness of the gospel.

ἘΝ Τῇ ΣΟΦΊᾼ Τ. ΘΕΟῦ] is put first emphatically. because the whole stress of the antithesis in both protasis and apodosis is meant to fall on the notions of wisdom and folly. By ἐν Paul marks out the sphere, in which the negative fact of the οὐκ ἔγνω (in media luce, Calvin) took place; ΤΟῦ ΘΕΟῦ again is genitive subjecti, denoting, however, not the wisdom shown by God in Christ (Zachariae, Heydenreich, and Maier), nor Christ Himself even (Schrader and older expositors adduced by Estius), both of which would be quite unsuitable to the apodosis, but the wisdom of God manifested before Christianity in nature and Scripture.[238] Rückert is wrong in holding that ἐν τ. σοφ. τ. Θεοῦ is: in virtue of the wisdom of God, i.e. under its guidance and arrangement, the world knew not God through its own wisdom. Certainly Paul would not be made by this interpretation to say anything which would in itself be at variance with his view of the divine relationship to the matter; for with him the two factors of human action, the divine causality and the human self-determination, are so associated, that he may bring now the one and now the other into the foreground (comp on Romans 9); but against it may be urged, partly the position of the words ἐν … Θεοῦ, which on Rückerts view would lose their weight and convey a thought here unessential, and partly the significant relation between the protasis and apodosis, according to which the measure taken by God (εὐδόκησεν κ.τ.λ[240]) appears as called forth by mens lack of knowledge, and hence the οὐκ ἔγνω would in such a passage be most unsuitably referred to the appointment of God, so as to excuse what is declared in Rom_1:20 to be inexcusable.

οὐκ ἔγνω] Seeing that the Jews also are included, and that anything which would contradict Rom_1:19-21 is out of the question, this must apply to the true knowledge of God, which was not attained, and which, if the κόσμος had reached it, would have caused the preaching of the cross to appear other than foolishness; comp 1Co_2:14.

ΔΙᾺ Τῆς ΣΟΦ.] applies to the heathen world-wisdom and the Jewish school-wisdom, since it is the means of knowledge employed without result (observe that by the οὐκ the whole from ἔγνω to ΘΕΌΝ inclusive is negatived) by the κόσμος for the knowing God. The prepositional relation cannot differ from that of the correlative διὰ τ. μωρίας which follows. Hence Theophylact interprets wrongly: ΔΙᾺ Τῆς ἘΝ ΕὐΓΛΩΤΤΊᾼ ΘΕΩΡΟΥΜΈΝΗς ΣΟΦΊΑς ἘΜΠΟΔΙΖΌΜΕΝΟΙ. So, too, Billroth: their own wisdom was the cause of their not knowing.

ἐυδόκησεν ὁ Θ.] placuit Deo, He pleased, it was His will, as Rom_15:26; Gal_1:15; Col_1:19; 1Th_2:8. See Fritzsche, a[242] Rom. II. p. 370.

ΔΙᾺ Τῆς ΜΩΡΊΑς ΤΟῦ ΚΗΡΎΓΜ., i.e. by means of the foolishness which formed the substance of the preaching (of the gospel). That is the doctrine of the cross, 1Co_1:18, which, as compared with the wisdom employed by the κόσμος as a means of knowledge, is a foolish doctrine, but in the counsel and work of God the means of salvation, namely, for the πιστεύοντας, which word, as solving the riddle of the divinely applied ΜΩΡΊΑ, stands emphatically at the end. For to the conscious experience of believers that resultless wisdom of the world is now foolishness, and the foolishness of the κήρυγμα the divine saving wisdom.

Notice, in conclusion, how the whole verse is a compact and stately co-ordination and dovetailing of correlative clauses. Remark, in particular, the repetition of σοφία and ΘΕΌς, quasi aliquod telum saepius perveniat in eandem partem corporis, Auct. a[243] Herenn. iv. 28.

[236] .τ.λ. καὶ τὰ λοιπά.

[238] Not simply in the natural revelation (Chrysostom, Calvin, Grotius, Estius, and many others, including Hofmann). For ver. 22 proves that the Jews, too, are included with the rest in the notion of the κόσμος.

[240] .τ.λ. καὶ τὰ λοιπά.

[242] d refers to the note of the commentator or editor named on the particular passage.

[243] d refers to the note of the commentator or editor named on the particular passage.

Meyer — Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament — English translation by Peter Christie, edited by Frederick Crombie (T&T Clark, 1880) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

1Co 1:21-25 . The ἐπειδὴ of 1Co 1:21 and that of 1Co 1:22-25 are parl [218] , the second restating and expanding the first ( cf. the double ὅταν in 1Co 15:24 , and in 1Co 15:27 f.: see notes), rather than proving it; together they justify the assertion implied in 1Co 1:20 b , which virtually repeats 1Co 1:18 .

[218] parallel.

1Co 1:21 . ἐπειδὴ γάρ ( quoniam enim , Cv [219] ) introduces the when and how of God’s stultifying the world’s wisdom by the λόγος τοῦ σταύρου : “For since, in the wisdom of God, the world through its wisdom did not know God, God was pleased,” etc. οὐκ ἔγνω … διὰ τ . σοφίας τ . Θεὸν records Paul’s experience, e.g. , at Athens, in disclosing the ἄγνωστον Θεὸν to philosophers. Of the emphatic adjunct, ἐν τῇ σοφίᾳ τοῦ Θεοῦ , there are two explanations, following the line of Rom 1:19 f. or Rom 11:32 f.: on the former view, the clause qualifies ἔγνω “the world did not come to know God in His wisdom,” evidenced in creation and Providence so most interpreters (“amid the wisdom of God,” Bt [220] ; in media luce , Cv [221] ; in nature and Scripture , addressed to Gentile and Jew, Bg [222] ; Mr [223] ); on the other hand, Rückert, Reuss, Al [224] , Lt [225] , Ev [226] attach the clause to οὐκ ἔγνω , in God’s wise plan of the world’s government, the world’s wisdom failed to win the knowledge of Him. The latter is the sounder explanation, being ( a ) in accord with Paul’s reff. elsewhere to σοφία Θεοῦ , ( b ) presenting a pointed antithesis to σοφία κόσμου , and ( c ) harmonising with Paul’s theory of the education of mankind for Christ, expounded in Gal 3:10 to Gal 4:5 and Rom 5:20 f., 1Co 7:7-25 ; 1Co 7:11 “Through its (Greek) wisdom the world knew not God,” as through its (Jewish) righteousness it pleased not God; both results were brought about “in the wisdom of God” according to that “plan of the ages,” leading up to “the fulness of the seasons,” which embraced the Gentile “times of ignorance” (Act 17:26-31 ) no less than the Jewish dispensations of covenant and law. “It is part of God’s wise providence that He will not be apprehended by intellectual speculation, by ‘dry light’ ” (Ev [227] ). The intellectual was as signal as the moral defeat; the followers of Plato were “shut up,” along with those of Moses, εἰς τ . μέλλουσαν πίστιν (Gal 3:22 f.).

[219] Calvin’s In Nov. Testamentum Commentarii .

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

[221] Calvin’s In Nov. Testamentum Commentarii .

[222] Bengel’s Gnomon Novi Testamenti.

[223] Meyer’s Critical and Exegetical Commentary (Eng. Trans.).

[224] Alford’s Greek Testament .

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

[226] T. S. Evans in Speaker’s Commentary .

[227] T. S. Evans in Speaker’s Commentary .

Now that God’s wisdom has reduced the self-wise world to ignorance, εὐδόκησεν σῶσαι : man’s extremity, God’s opportunity. “It was God’s good will” ( placuit Deo: see parls. for the vb [228] ); εὐδοκία P. associates with θέλημα , βουλὴ on the one hand, and with χάρις , ἀγαθωσύνη on the other: God’s sovereign grace rescues man’s bankrupt wisdom. διὰ τ . μωρίας τ . κηρύγματος states the means , τοῦς πιστεύοντας defines the qualified objects of this deliverance. “Through the folly (as the wise world calls it, 1Co 1:18 ) of the κήρυγμα ” which last term signifies not the act of proclamation ( κήρυξις ), but the message proclaimed by God’s herald ( κῆρυξ , see parls.: the heralding suggests thoughts of the kingdom; cf. Act 20:25 , Luk 8:1 , etc.). P. designates Christians by the act which makes them such “those that believe” (see parls.). God saves by faith . Faith here stands opposed to Greek knowledge, as in Rom. to Jewish lawworks.

[228] verb

The Expositor's Greek Testament, edited by W. Robertson Nicoll (1897–1910) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

After that [επειδη] . Rev., correctly, seeing that.

By wisdom [δια της σοφιας] . Better, as Rev., giving the force of the article, "through its wisdom."

Preaching [κηρυγματος] . Not the act, but the substance of preaching. Compare ver. 23.

To save [σωσαι] . The word was technically used in the Old Testament of deliverance at the Messiah 's coming; of salvation from the penalties of the messianic judgment, or from the evils which obstruct the messianic deliverance. See Joe 2:32; Mt 1:21; compare Act 2:40. Paul uses it in the ethical sense, to make one a partaker of the salvation which is through Christ. Edwards calls attention to the foregleam of this christian conception of the word in the closing paragraph of Plato's "Republic :" " And thus, Glaucon, the tale has been saved, and has not perished, and will save [σωσειεν] us if we are obedient to the word spoken, and we shall pass safely over the river of forgetfulness and our soul will not be defiled. "

Marvin R. Vincent, Word Studies in the New Testament (1887–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

Vv. 21. “For after that in the wisdom of God the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe.”

The γάρ, for, does not signify, as Edwards thinks, that the apostle is proceeding to expound the manner in which God has punished wisdom; it introduces the indication of the ground why He thought good to deal so severely with it.—᾿Επειδή, after that (ἐπεί), as any one can attest (δή). The δή is added to show that Paul is speaking of a patent fact, on which one may in a manner put his finger. This fact is that of the aberrations to which human reason gave itself up during the times of heathenism, during those ages which the apostle calls, Act 17:30, the times of ignorance.

The first proposition describes the sin of reason, and the second—the principal—its chastisement. These two ideas are so developed that the exact correspondence between the sin and the punishment appears from each of the terms of the two propositions. The phrase, in the wisdom of God, is not synonymous with the following, by (means of) wisdom. The absence of the complement, of God, in the second, of itself shows that the idea of wisdom is taken in the second instance more generally and indefinitely. The matter in question is not a manifestation of the Divine wisdom, but the mode of action followed by human reason, what we should call the exercise of the understanding, the way of reasoning. Hence, also, in this second expression the apostle uses the prep. διά, by means of, while in the former, where he is speaking of the wisdom of God, he makes use of the prep. ἐν, in, which indicates a domain in which Divine wisdom has been manifested. It is not difficult to understand what the theatre is of which Paul means to speak, on which God had displayed His wisdom in the eyes of men before the coming of Christ. In the passage Rom 1:20, the apostle speaks of God’s works “in which are visible, as it were, to the eye, from the creation of the world, His invisible perfections, His eternal power and Godhead.” In his discourse at Lystra (Act 14:17), he declares that God “has not left Himself without witness before the eyes of men, sending rain from heaven and fruitful seasons, and filling the hearts of men with abundance and joy.” In the midst of the Areopagus (Act 17:27), he declares that the end God had in view in distributing men over the face of the earth, was to make them “seek the Lord that they might touch Him as with the hand, and find Him.” This universe is indeed, as Calvin says, “a brilliant specimen of the Divine wisdom.” In the immense organism of nature, every detail is related to the whole, and the whole to every detail. There we find a perceptible, though unfathomable, system of hidden causes and sensible effects, of efficacious means and beneficent ends, of laws that are constant and yet pliant and capable of modification, which fills the observer with admiration and reveals to his understanding the intelligent thought which has presided over the constitution of this great whole. Man, therefore, only needed to apply to such a work the rational processes, the principles of substance, of causality, and finality, with which his mind is equipped, to rise to the view of the wise, good, and powerful Author from whom the universe proceeds. There was in the work a revelation of the Worker, a revelation constituting what the apostle calls, Rom 1:19, τὸ γνωστὸν τοῦ θεοῦ, “that which is naturally knowable of the Divine person.” To welcome the rays of this revelation, and to reconstruct the image of Him from whom it proceeded, such was the noble mission of the reason with which God had endowed man: it should have come by this normal exercise of His gift (by means of wisdom) to know God in His wisdom. But as Paul expounds, Rom 1:21, human reason was unfaithful to this mission; man’s heart would neither glorify God as such, nor even give thanks to Him, and reason, thus interrupted in its exercise, instead of rising to the knowledge of the Worker by contemplating the work, deified the work itself. Unable to overlook altogether the traces of the Divine in the universe, and yet unwilling to assert God frankly as God, it resorted to an evasion; it gave birth to heathenism and its chimeras. Some sages, indeed, conceived the idea of a God one and good, but they did not succeed in carrying this vague and abstract notion beyond their schools; the popular deities continued to stand, dominating and falsifying the human conscience. In Israel alone there shone the knowledge of a God, one, living, and holy; but this light was due to a special revelation. We must therefore take care not to include the Jewish revelation, as Meyer and Holsten do, in the meaning of the expression: ἐν τῇ σοφίᾳ τοῦ θεοῦ, in the wisdom of God. Not till afterwards, 1Co 1:22-24, will the apostle deal with the Jews, and that in a way absolutely subsidiary, and applying to them a quite different term to that of wisdom. As little must we give to the words, in the wisdom of God, as is done by Rückert and Reuss, the meaning of our modern phrase, “In His unfathomable design, it pleased God....” This interpretation would make the wandering of human wisdom the effect of a Divine decree. Men thus find the doctrine of absolute predestination which they ascribe to the apostle. But how can we fail to see that this would be to exculpate reason at the very moment when the apostle is engaged in condemning it? Finally, it is not in accordance with the thought of the apostle to see in the expression διὰ τῆς σοφίας, by means of wisdom, with Billroth and Holsten, the indication of the obstacle which hindered man from arriving at the knowledge of God: “After that, through an effect of its wisdom, the world knew not God in...” Very far from condemning the exercise of the natural understanding, the apostle on the contrary charges this faculty with turning aside from its legitimate use.

After the ground of the punishment, the punishment itself. The term εὐδόκησεν indicates an act, not of arbitrariness, but of freewill: “He judged good,” evidently because it was good in fact. Reason had used its light so ill that the time was come for God to appeal to a quite different faculty.

He therefore presents Himself to man with a means of salvation which has no longer, like creation, the character of wisdom, and which is no more to be apprehended by the understanding, but which seems to it, on the contrary, stamped with folly: a Crucified One! The gen. τοῦ κηρύγματος, of the preaching, designates the apostolic testimony as a known fact (art. τοῦ, the).

This term includes the notion of authority: God lays down His salvation; He offers it such as it has pleased Him to realize it. There is nothing in it to be modified. It is to be accepted or rejected as it is. It need not be thought with Hofmann and others, because of the prep. διά, by means of, that this regimen is the counterpart of διὰ τῆς σοφίας, by means of wisdom, in the preceding proposition. It corresponds rather to the regimen ἐν τῇ σοφίᾳ τοῦ θεοῦ, in the wisdom of God, in His original revelation which had the character of wisdom. Man not having recognised God in this form by the healthy use of his understanding, God manifests Himself to him in another revelation which has the appearance of folly. The reason why Paul here uses the prep. by, to correspond to the in of the first proposition, is easily understood. In His revelation in the heart of nature, God waits for man; He would see if man, by the exercise of his understanding, will be able to discover Him: “to see whether they will put their hand on Him,” as it runs, Act 17:27. It is this expectant attitude which is expressed by the ἐν, in. Not having been found thus, God now takes the initiative; He Himself seeks man by the proclamation of salvation. Hence Paul in this case employs the διά, by means of, which denotes the prevenient activity.

The term which in the second proposition is the true counterpart of the phrase διὰ τῆς σοφίας, by means of wisdom (in the first), is found at the end of the sentence; it is the word τοὺς πιστεύοντας, them that believe. The faculty to which God appeals in this new revelation is no longer reason, which had so badly performed its task in reference to the former; it is faith. To an advance of love like that which forms the essence of this supreme manifestation, the answer is to be given, no longer by an act of intelligence, but by a movement of confidence. What God asks is no longer that man should investigate, but that he should give himself up with a broken conscience and a believing heart.

Finally, to the two contrasts: in the wisdom of God and by the foolishness of preaching; by wisdom, and, them that believe, the apostle adds a third: that of the two verbs know and save. Man ought originally to have known God, and by this knowledge have been united to Him; it was for this end that God revealed Himself to his understanding in an intelligible way. Man not having done so, God now comes to save him, and that by means absolutely irrational. Man, first of all, will have to let himself be snatched from perdition and reconciled to God by a fact which passes beyond his understanding. Thereafter he will be able to think of knowing. It would seem to follow from these words of the apostle, that if reason had performed its task of knowing God, it would not have been necessary for God to save man; a sound philosophy would have raised him up to God. The apostle gives no explanation on this head; but his thought was probably this: if man had risen by his wisdom to the true knowledge and worship of God, this legitimate use of his reason would have been crowned by a mode of salvation appropriate to the laws of this faculty. In the second revelation the Divine wisdom would have rayed forth with more brilliance still than in the first. Thus the character, so offensive to reason, under which the salvation offered to man presents itself in the preaching of the cross, is the consequence of the abuse which reason made of its faculty of knowing. If it had developed itself as an organ of light, the mode and revelation of salvation would have been adapted to its wants. Obviously we cannot know what salvation and the preaching of salvation would have been in such different conditions.

The verse which we have just explained contains in three lines a whole philosophy of history, the substance of entire volumes. As from the standpoint of Judaism the apostle divides history into two principal periods, that of law and that of grace, so from the standpoint of Hellenism he also distinguishes two great phases, that of the revelation of God in wisdom, and that of His revelation in the form of foolishness. In the first, God lets Himself be sought by man; in the second, He seeks man Himself. Such is the masterly survey which the apostle casts over the course of universal history. There was singular adroitness on his part in throwing such a morsel as this development to those Corinthians, connoisseurs in wisdom as they affected to be, and apt to overlook the apostle’s superiority. Paul says to them, as it were, “You will have speculation, and you think me incapable of it; here is a specimen, and true also! It is the judgment of God on your past.” But at the same time, with what marvellous subtlety of style does he succeed in putting and cramming, as it were, into the two propositions of this verse, all that wealth of antitheses which presented themselves at once to his mind! To construct such a period there needed to be joined to the thought of Paul the language of Plato.

Vers. 22-25 state the historical fact which demonstrates the judgment enunciated in 1Co 1:21 : The salvation of all, Gentiles and Jews, has really been accomplished by that which is folly in the eyes of the one, and which scandalizes the other.

Frédéric Louis Godet — Commentaries on Luke, John, Romans, and 1 Corinthians — English translation (T&T Clark, Edinburgh, 1870s–1890s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

1Co_1:21

For after that in the wisdom of God the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe.

This and the following verses contain the apostles second argument in proof of the insufficiency of human wisdom. The argument is this: expedience having shown the insufficiency of human wisdom, God set it aside, and declared it to be worthless, by adopting the foolishness of preaching as the means of salvation. This argument therefore includes two distinct proofs. First, that derived from expedience; and secondly, that derived from Gods having appointed the gospel, as distinguished from human wisdom, to be the means of saving men.

For after that. It is to be remarked that the word for in Pauls writings very often refers to something implied but not expressed in the context; most commonly it refers to the answer to a preceding question. It is so here. Hath not God made foolish the wisdom of this world? He has, for, etc. After that (ἐπειδή) properly, since. This particle, though in the Greek writers generally used of time, in the New Testament is almost uniformly used in a causal sense. This is its meaning here. For, inasmuch as, or because.

In the wisdom of God. This means either, in the wise ordination of God, or, in the midst of the manifestation of the wisdom of God. If the former interpretation be adopted, the meaning is, that it was a manifestation of divine wisdom to leave the world for four thousand years to test the power of human wisdom, that thus its insufficiency might be clearly demonstrated. The latter interpretation is generally adopted, and gives a better sense. In the wisdom of God, that is, although surrounded by the manifestations of the divine wisdom in creation and providence, man failed to attain any saving knowledge of God. The world by (its τῆς) wisdom knew not God. This is not inconsistent with Rom_1:20 where the apostle says, Gods eternal power and Godhead are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made. In this latter passage Paul speaks of the revelation which God had made of himself; in the former, of the use which men had made of that revelation. The revelation was clear, but men, through their imbecility and perverseness, did not comprehend it. In the midst of light they continued blind. The fault was in them, and not in the revelation. They did not like to retain God in their knowledge, Rom_1:28. Besides, sometimes the knowledge of God, in Scripture, means that speculative knowledge which human reason is adequate to derive from the works of God, and which renders their idolatry inexcusable; at other times, it means saving knowledge. Hence it is perfectly consistent to say in the former sense, that men by wisdom may attain the knowledge of God; and, in the latter sense, that they cannot attain that knowledge. Paul is here speaking of the knowledge which is connected with salvation. Such knowledge the world by wisdom had failed to secure. Therefore, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe. The foolishness of preaching means the preaching of foolishness, that is, the cross. The doctrine of the cross was foolishness in the estimation of men. God thus put to shame all human wisdom by making a doctrine which the wise of this world regarded as absurd the means of salvation. This passage in its connection clearly teaches two great truths; first, that the cross, or the doctrine of Christ crucified, is the substance of the gospel, that in which its vitality and power consist; and secondly, that it is the preaching, or public proclamation (κήρυγμα) of that doctrine which is the great means of salvation. To this all other means, however important, are either preparatory or subordinate. It is to be remembered, however, that preaching, in the Scriptural sense of the term, includes the inculcation of the truth, whether to an individual or to a multitude whether by the road side, or in the school, or lecture-room, or the pulpit. Philip, as he rode in the chariot with the eunuch, preached to him Jesus, Act_8:35.

Charles Hodge — Commentary on Romans (1835), First Corinthians (1857), and Ephesians (1856) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

So calleth the preaching of the Gospel as the enemies supposed it: but in the mean season he taunteth them very sharply, who had rather charge God with folly, than acknowledge their own and crave pardon for it.

The goodness of God is wonderful, for while he goeth about to punish the pride of the world, he is very provident and careful, for the salvation of it, and teacheth men to become fools, that they may be wise to God.

In the workmanship of this world, which hath the marvelous wisdom of God engraved in it, so that every man may behold it.

By the world he meaneth all men which are not born anew, but remain as they were, when they were first born.

He showeth that the pride of men was worthily punished of GOD, because they would not behold God, as meet was they should; in the most clear glass of the wisdom of the world, which is the workmanship of the world.

Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain. Text via Bolls.life.

after that--rather, "whereas."

in the wisdom of God--in the wise arrangement of God.

world by wisdom--rather, "by its wisdom," or "its philosophy" (Joh 1:10; Rom 1:28).

knew not God--whatever other knowledge it attained (Act 17:23, Act 17:27). The deistic theory that man can by the light of nature discover his duty to God, is disproved by the fact that man has never discovered it without revelation. All the stars and moon cannot make it day; that is the prerogative of the sun. Nor can nature's highest gifts make the moral day arise; that is the office of Christ. Even the Jew missed this knowledge, in so far as he followed after mere carnal world wisdom.

it pleased God--Paul refers to Jesus' words (Luk 10:21).

by the foolishness of preaching--by that preaching which the world (unbelieving Jews and Gentiles alike) deem foolishness.

save them that believe-- (Rom 1:16).

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Verse 21. For after that in the wisdom of God] Dr. Lightfoot observes, "That σοφια του θεου, the wisdom of God, is not to be understood of that wisdom which had God for its author, but that wisdom which had God for its object. There was, among the heathen, σοφια της φυσεως, wisdom about natural things, that is, philosophy; and σοφια του θεου, wisdom about God; that is, divinity. But the world in its divinity could not, by wisdom, know God." The plain meaning of this verse is, that the wise men of the world, especially the Greek philosophers, who possessed every advantage that human nature could have, independently of a Divine revelation, and who had cultivated their minds to the uttermost, could never, by their learning, wisdom, and industry, find out God; nor had the most refined philosophers among them just and correct views of the Divine nature, nor of that in which human happiness consists. The work of LUCRETIUS, De Natura Rerum, and the work of CICERO, De Natura Deorum, are incontestable proofs of this. Even the writings of Plato and Aristotle have contributed little to remove the veil which clouded the understanding of men. No wisdom but that which came from God could ever penetrate and illuminate the human mind.

By the foolishness of preaching] By the preaching of Christ crucified, which the Gentiles termed μωρια, foolishness, in opposition to their own doctrines, which they termed σοφια, wisdom. It was not by the foolishness of preaching, literally, nor by the foolish preaching, that God saved the world; but by that Gospel which they called μωρια, foolishness; which was, in fact, the wisdom of God, and also the power of God to the salvation of them that believed.

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

(21) For.—This is an explanation and evidence of Low God made the wisdom of the world to be only “folly.”

After that (better, inasmuch as) is not here a note of time, but of causal relation.

In the wisdom of God.—These words can scarcely be taken as an expression of a kind of approval of God’s wisdom in so arranging the method of revelation, but rather as referring to God’s wisdom evidenced in nature, and in the teachings of lawgivers and prophets. The world by its wisdom did not attain to a knowledge of God in His wisdom displayed in creation (Act_17:26; Rom_1:19).

It pleased God.—The world having thus failed to gain a true knowledge of God in His wisdom, He gave them that knowledge through that very proclamation of “the cross” which those “that perish” call foolishness. The contrast so strikingly put here is between (1) the failure of the world by means of its wisdom to know God, in His wisdom displayed to all in His mighty works, and to the Jews in His great teachers; and (2) the success of this “folly” of the gospel, as they called it, in saving all who believed it (Rom_1:16).

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

21. For after that in the wisdom of God the world by wisdom knew not God] We have here a contrast drawn between God’s wisdom and that of man. Man’s wisdom could but inquire and argue. God’s wisdom had decreed that by such means man should only learn his weakness.

it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching] Rather, with the Rhemish version, by the foolishness of the preachings, i.e. of the gospel. The word translated preaching should rather be rendered what is preached. It is called foolishness (1) because ‘those who were perishing’ thought it so; (2) because it required no high intellectual gift, but simple faith in a crucified and risen Lord. This abnegation by man of his natural powers was the first step in the road to salvation. But we are not to suppose that after man had thus surrendered those powers to God in a spirit of childlike faith, he was not to receive them back regenerated and transfigured.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

For after that in the wisdom of God,.... These words contain a reason proving the infatuation of men, with respect to "the wisdom of God"; by which may be meant either Christ, who is the wisdom of God, was in the world, and yet the world of the Jews, and their chief Rabbins among them, with all their wisdom, neither knew him, nor God his Father; or the Gospel, which is also so called, and though this was come, both into the Jewish and Gentile world, yet neither of them, by their natural wisdom, knew the God of grace, so manifestly revealed in it; or rather the works of creation, in which there is such a visible display of the wisdom of God: yet "the world by wisdom knew not God"; the author of them: the Gentiles knew him not in any spiritual and saving manner, as in Christ, or the God of all grace; yea, they knew him not as the God of nature to be the one, only, true God; they knew him not so as to glorify him as God, or to worship him in a right way and manner: wherefore,

it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe; it was his purpose and decree within himself; it was his sovereign good will and pleasure; it was what he, without any motion from, or merit in the creature, resolved of himself from all eternity that he would "save", not the wise man, the Scribe, the disputer of this world, the rationalist, the talker, nor the worker, but "them that believe" in his Son; that look unto him, venture on him, and commit the care and keeping of their souls to him, however weak, mean, and despicable they may otherwise be; or whether they believe with a weak, or a strong faith, so be it, it is but true: the Ethiopic version reads, "that believe in this foolish doctrine"; and this he determined to do, and did, "by the foolishness of preaching"; or by that sort of preaching, which both for the matter of it, Christ, that itself, and the manner of it, the world reckons foolishness; and which are the things of the Father's grace in election, of the Son's grace in redemption, and the Spirit's in regeneration: so the wise men of the world, with all their wisdom, are left ignorant of God, and perish in their sins, whilst the Gospel they despise is the power of God unto salvation to all that believe in Christ; this, through efficacious grace, becomes the means of regenerating and quickening men, showing them their need of salvation, and where it is, and of working faith in them to look to Christ for it.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

21 For after that in the wisdom of God the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe.

Ver. 21. The world by wisdom] Not the Jews by their deep doctors, nor the Gentiles by their wits and wizards ( qui tanquam noctuae ad solem caligabant), could grope out God, Act 17:27, ψηλαφησειαν.

By the foolishness of preaching] An ironic concession; so the mad world esteemeth it, who shall rue for ever the contempt of it, crying out, Nos insensati, &c.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

For after that - ἐπειδὴ epeidē. Since, or seeing that it is true that the world by wisdom knew not God. After all the experience of the world it was ascertained that human beings would never by their own wisdom come to the true knowledge of God, and it pleased him to devise another plan for salvation.

In the wisdom of God - This phrase is susceptible of two interpretations:

(1) The first makes it refer to “the wisdom of God” evinced in the works of creation - the demonstration of his existence and attributes found there, and, according to that, the apostle means to say, that the world by a survey of the works of God did not know him; or were, notwithstanding those works, in deep darkness. This interpretation is adopted by most commentators - by Lightfoot, Rosenmuller, Grotius, Calvin, etc. According to this interpretation, the word ἐν en (in) is to be translated “by” or “through.”

(2) A second interpretation makes it refer to the wise arrangement or government of God, by which this was permitted. “For when, by the wise arrangement or government of God; after a full and fair trial of the native, unaided powers of man, it was ascertained that the true knowledge of God would not be arrived at by man, it pleased him,” etc. This appears to be the correct interpretation, because it is the most obvious one, and because it suits the connection best. It is, according to this, a reason why God introduced a new method of saving people. This may be said to have been accomplished by a plan of God, which was wise, because:

(1) It was desirable that the powers of man should be fully tried before the new plan was introduced, in order to show that it was not dependent on human wisdom, that it was not originated by man, and that there was really need of such an interposition.

(2) Because sufficient time had been furnished to make the experiment. An opportunity had been given for four thousand years, and still it had failed.

(3) Because the experiment had been made in the most favorable circumstances. The human faculties had had time to ripen and expand; one generation had had an opportunity of profiting by the observation of its predecessor; and the most mighty minds had been brought to boar on the subject. If the sages of the east, and the profound philosophers of the west, had not been able to come to the true knowledge of God, it was in vain to hope that more profound minds could be brought to bear on it, or that more careful investigation would be bestowed on it. The experiment had been fairly made, and the result was before the world; see the notes at Rom. 1.

The world - The people of the world; particularly the philosophers of the world.

By wisdom - By their own wisdom, or by the united investigations of the works of nature.

Knew not God - Obtained not a true knowledge of him. Some denied his existence; some represented him under the false and abominable forms of idol worship; some ascribed to him horrid attributes; all showed that they had no true acquaintance with a God of purity, with a God who could pardon sin, or whose worship conduced to holiness of life; see the notes at Rom. 1.

It pleased God - God was disposed, or well pleased. The plan of salvation originated in his good pleasure, and was such as his wisdom approved. God chose this plan, so unlike all the plans of human beings.

By the foolishness of preaching - Not “by foolish preaching,” but by the preaching of the cross, which was regarded as foolish and absurd by the people of the world. The plan is wise, but it has been esteemed by the mass of people, and was particularly so esteemed by the Greek philosophers, to be egregiously foolish and ridiculous; see the note at 1Co 1:18.

To save them that believe - That believe in the Lord Jesus Christ; see the note at Mar 16:16. This was the speciality and essence of the plan of God, and this has appeared to the mass of people to be a plan devoid of wisdom and unworthy of God. The preaching of the cross which is thus esteemed foolishness, is made the means of saving them, because it sets forth God’s only plan of mercy, and states the way in which lost sinners may become reconciled to God.

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

For seeing that in the wisdom of God, &c. That is, by the works of the divine wisdom, by the visible creatures of this world, and the effects of his providence, the world had not wisdom, or was not wise enough, to know and worship God, as they might, and ought to have done: it pleased God to shew his power by the foolishness of preaching, by sending illiterate men to preach a God crucified, which to human wisdom seems a folly, and to save men by this belief. (Witham) --- The gospel, which I announce to you, though it appears folly to the vain philosopher, is the wisdom of God; and whilst it exhibits the picture of a crucified God, and teaches us the mortification of our senses, promises a happiness in the next life, not to be found in this. (Vat. Grot. Tir. Just. [Vatable?; Grotius?; Tirinus?; St. Justin Martyr?])

George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).

For after that in the wisdom of God: some here, by the wisdom of God, understand Jesus Christ, and make the sense thus: When he who is the Wisdom of God came and preached to the world. Others understand the gospel, which is so called, 1Co 1:24, and 1Co 2:7. But I take the wisdom of God in this text to signify the wise administrations of Divine Providence in the government of the world to his wise ends.

The world by wisdom knew not God; the unregenerate part of the world would not come to a knowledge of and an acquaintance with God, in that way whereby he chose to reveal himself in and through Jesus Christ, as to which they were hindered by their own reasonings and knowledge, and apprehended skill in things, and capacity to comprehend them.

It pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe; it pleased God to institute the great ordinance of preaching the gospel, which they count foolishness, as the sacred means by which he would bring all those that give credit to the revelation of it, and receive Christ held forth in it, to eternal life and salvation.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

21. For after that in the wisdom of God the world by wisdom knew not God—Rather, For after that in (the light of) God’s wisdom the world by (human) wisdom knew not God. Man’s wisdom ought, in accordance with God’s wisdom, as a lesser in a greater light, to have known God. Had the finite sophia accorded with the infinite sophia, man would have truly known God: but since in the divine wisdom human wisdom did not learn God, it pleased God to provide a new method. The foolishness of preaching became a method of presenting God to man’s faith, and bringing about salvation by that faith. In this word foolishness, as well as in the words (1Co_1:25) foolishness of God, weakness of God, and (1Co_1:27) foolish things, the apostle ironically styles things as the world styles them. By a similar irony the apostle asserts that since wisdom failed to know God, God accomplished the result by a foolishness. The foolishness of preaching, is the antithesis to the wisdom of (philosophic) words, or lecturing, 1Co_1:17.

Believe—By unbelief man lost God; by faith he recovers God. Of the nature of this faith, as a condition of salvation, see notes on Romans 12:23. By what un-wisdoms both Jews and Greeks missed God Paul now declares.

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

In the wisdom of God; that is, as a part of his Divine economy. The world through its wisdom knew not God. These words might be written as an epitaph on the tomb of ancient philosophy, and of modern philosophy and science so far as it assumes an anti-Christian form. (Luk_10:21) Human wisdom, when it relies solely on itself, may "feel after God," but hardly find him. (Act_17:26, Act_17:27) Through the foolishness of the preaching. This is a mis-translation. It would require keruxeos, not kerugmatos. It should be by the foolishness (as men esteemed it) of the thing preached.

Wisdom and foolishness.

"Seeing that in the wisdom," etc.

I THE CONTRAST AT CORINTH. The Greeks could no longer boast of great soldiers or statesmen, for military and political power had deserted them and centred at florae; but they had among them rhetoricians and philosophers, and still considered themselves intellectual leaders of the world. In this spirit they sat in judgment on the gospel. As to his treatment of the problems of sin and righteousness, they were not deeply concerned; but they were ready to weigh and measure it as a new philosophy, and thought it deficient in intellectual flavour, and quite inferior to the speculations of Greek teachers on the nature of God and of man, the order of the world, the beautiful and the good. St. Paul knew this feeling well, and felt the sting of such imputations, for he was an educated man; but with his usual frankness and manliness he faced this allegation of the supercilious Greeks, and with a sharp spear pricked the bubble of their self-conscious wisdom. Nay, he boldly maintained that what they thought wise was foolish, and what they thought foolish was wise. At the same time, he was too wary and too kind hearted to irritate his readers by pointing the statement at Corinth, or even at Greece by name. He spoke of the wisdom of the world. Let all the wisdom to which the whole world had attained by human investigation into the things of God be gathered into a heap, and displayed in all the light that the world"s best minds could cast upon it, and he would maintain that it was weak, dim, and futile as compared with that wisdom which he and other preachers of Christ could inculcate by the gospel. It was a large claim; but those who know "the wisdom of the ancients" best, and are most accurately acquainted with the ideas and usages of that old heathen world, will be the most ready to say that St. Paul had good ground for his assertion that his claim was absolutely true.

II THE CONTRAST TODAY. Contemptuous thoughts about the evangelical faith show themselves in many quarters, Men seem to forget that the intellectual advancement of modern society, of which they boast, and which they put forward as superseding old fashioned Christianity, is itself mainly due to Christianity; that the great schools and universities of Europe all had their roots in religion; and that the very ideas which give tone and breadth to our civilization, the appreciation of the force of truth, and the sense of human brotherhood as something far above mere enthusiasm for one race and antipathy to all others, all have been engendered and fostered by our holy faith Ungratefully overlooking this, men stand today on an eminence which Christianity has cast up, and thence decry Christianity. Religion is pronounced weak and quite unprovable. It is not good enough for these very knowing people and hard thinkers! Yet nothing is more certain than that men have urgent need of God, and of those moral helps and profound consolations which are bound up with a knowledge of God and friendship with him. And the heart at times has a passionate cry, "Where is my God?" Put aside the money bags, the clever schemes, the amusements, the newspapers, the scientific instruments, and the social engagements, and tell me this, O wisdom of the world! "Where is God my Maker? Is there not a Highest and Wisest and Best? And where is he? "Oh that I knew where I might find him! that I might come even to his seat! What can the wisdom of this world reply? It does not deny Divine existence, though a good many persons are coldly doubtful and agnostic on the subject. But as in the first century any effective conception of the Divine was wearing out of thoughtful minds, and there was hardly any religious check on licentiousness and rapacity; so now there are mere vague and high sounding phrases about the Almighty current among the worldly wise, without as much real faith in God as may restrain one fit of passion or dry one bitter tear. He is a force personal or impersonal, no one knows; where seated, why operative, how directed, none can tell. Or, he is a dream of ineffable beauty and a fountain of ineffable pity; but how to reconcile this with the more severe aspects of nature and life baffles all the wisdom of the world. The sages arc puzzled; the multitude know not what to think; and so the world by wisdom knows not God. But there is a better wisdom, and St. Paul has shows it to us. It may be well for some to watch the weary gropings and. struggles of the world"s wisdom, and speak or write on the evidences of Biblical theology and the Christian faith when they find a fit occasion. Yet those to whom the gospel is committed ought not, as a general rule, to turn aside to such discussions. They ought to preach often and earnestly, trusting to God"s vindication of the wisdom of that which men call foolishness. "What will this babbler say?" they cried against St. Paul in Greece. "What will this heretic say?" they cried against Wickliffe in England, and afterwards against Luther in Germany. "What will this tub thumper say?" they cried against Whitefield and Wesley men who, under God, saved the moral and religious life of England. But however preachers may be mocked, the foolishness of preaching has abundantly shown itself to be wisdom by its results. Its seeming weakness covers real power. O wise babbler who says, Christ crucified! F.

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

For since in the wisdom of God - According to his wise disposals, leaving them to make the trial. The world - Whether Jewish or gentile, by all its boasted wisdom knew not God - Though the whole creation declared its Creator, and though he declared himself by all the prophets; it pleased God, by a way which those who perish count mere foolishness, to save them that believe.

John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.

Observe here, 1. That the frame of this world, or the work of creation, is here called the wisdom of God; the name of the cause is given to the effect, because divine wisdom shines so clearly forth in the work of creation; the beautiful frame of heaven and earth doth discover the several excellences and perfections which are in God, and amongst the rest his admirable and unerring wisdom.

Observe, 2. What is here affirmed concerning the most wise and learned men among the heathens, namely, that with all their wisdom they knew not God: that is, they did not own and acknowledge him, serve and glorify him, as they should and ought to have done. The world by wisdom knew not God, that is, they knew him confusedly, but not distinctly: they knew in general, that a God there was, but knew not particularly who the true God was; they knew him notionally, but not practically; their knowledge had no influence upon their hearts or lives; they knew him as essentially considered in himself, but knew him not relatively, as considered in Christ; they knew not Immanuel, God with us, and becoming a Mediator for us, him they did not know.

Learn hence, That the greatest wits of the world, having no more but the common light of nature, and the advantage of human accomplishments, are oft-times exceedingly ignorant as to the spiritual and saving knowledge of God and Christ; human wisdom and divine knowledge, as they are distinct in their nature, so they are separable in their subject: let those that have both, bless God with eternal thanksgivings.

Observe, 3. God’s gracious supply of that defect which the world laboured under: when by all their wisdom, collected from the book of the creature, they could not arrive at the right knowledge of the true God, then it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe.

Where note, 1. The persons described whom the wisdom of God thinks fit to save: them that believe; them exclusively, and none but them.

Note, 2. The great instrumental means which the wisdom of God ordained in order to the believer’s salvation, namely, the preaching of the gospel; it pleased God by preaching to save them that believe.

Note, 3. The mean and low opinion, the vile and base esteem, which the world have of this venerable ordinance of God, the preaching of the gospel; they think fit to style it foolishness, the foolishness of preaching.

Note, 4. The moving, impelling, and impulsive cause of this gracious dispensation, to wit, the preaching of the gospel in order to men’s salvation; and that is, the goodwill and pleasure of a gracious God: It pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe.

William Burkitt's Expository Notes on the New Testament (1700–1703) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

21. “For since in the wisdom of God the world by wisdom knew not God.” All the mighty researches of deep-thoughted Greece, the magical lore of Egypt, and the contemplative philosophy of the Orient never succeeded in sending a solitary scintillation into the dark realm of man’s true character, origin and destiny. They had the world at their disposal four thousand years before Christ came, and had never reached a syllable of primary truth nor sent a single ray into the problem of salvation. “God was pleased by the foolishness of preaching to save such as believe.” From the standing-point of worldly philosophy, preaching is sheer folly. Truly it is literal foolishness to all the worldly wise, and is bound so to remain. God’s salvation is a Masonic secret to all the uninitiated, and never can be otherwise. You can not explain the Mammoth Cave without going into it; so you can never know anything about the kingdom of God unless you enter it. This you can only do by faith, which is not knowledge, but believing.

So the preaching of the gospel is utterly foolish to the unsaved; yet if they will believe it, they will surely get saved.

William B. Godbey, Commentary on the New Testament (1896–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

For seeing that in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom knew not God, it was God's good pleasure through the foolishness of the preaching to save them that believe . [Here Paul quotes Isa_24:14 to show that God had foretold how he would make foolish and useless all kinds of worldly wisdom, Grecian or Jewish, by making the gospel the only means of salvation, and how he had carried out the prophecy; for in his wisdom, or plan of operation, he had frustrated the efforts of wise men to find or know him by their coldblooded, philosophical research, or speculative reasoning ( Act_17:23 ), and showed that it was his good pleasure to reveal himself and his salvation through this (to them) foolish preaching, and save them who believe the preaching. Where, then, asked the apostle in triumph, are these men of worldly wisdom, be they scribes or philosophical dialecticians? What have they done in comparison with that gospel which reveals their efforts as foolish and useless? What place, then, has a wise Paul or a disputing Apollos in the church, which, having the gospel, has this superior, saving wisdom of God? and why should the Corinthians leave the leadership of God in Christ and return to fools?]

J. W. McGarvey (with Philip Y. Pendleton), Commentaries on the New Testament (The Fourfold Gospel, 1914; Acts; and the epistles) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

21. For … knew not God. Worldly wisdom did not search out the true God. Intellectual speculation had done its utmost, and failed. Hence it was rejected, and the Divine Wisdom chose by the foolishness of preaching to save, etc. That is, by preaching what the wise and puffed up of the this world called foolishness. They called the gospel foolishness.

B. W. Johnson's The People's New Testament with Notes (1889–1891) — public domain. Electronic text from the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (CCEL) ThML edition.

21. ἐπειδὴ γάρ. A.V. ‘for after that.’ But Winer, Gr. Gram. Pt III. § 53 (and Moulton’s note), says that ἐπειδή is not used of time in N. T. Translate therefore for since. The meaning is that since human wisdom could not enlighten the world, it pleased God to enlighten it by what man in his self-conceit regarded as folly, and thus to display man’s folly to himself.

ἐν τῇ σοφίᾳ τοῦ θεοῦ. We have here a contrast drawn between God’s wisdom and that of man. Man’s wisdom could but inquire and argue. God’s wisdom had decreed that by such means man should only learn his weakness.

διὰ τῆς μωρίας τοῦ κηρύγματος. Translate with the Rhemish version, by the foolishness of the preaching, i.e. of the gospel. The word translated preaching should rather be rendered what is preached. It is called foolishness (1) because ‘those who were perishing’ thought it so; (2) because it required no high intellectual gift, but simple faith in a crucified and risen Lord. This abnegation by man of his natural powers was the first step in the road to salvation. But we are not to suppose that after man had thus surrendered those powers to God in a spirit of childlike faith, he was not to receive them hack regenerated and transfigured.

σῶσαι τοὺς πιστεύοντας. The aorist refers back to εὐδόκησεν. From the time when God sent the Gospel into the world, it became a means of salvation to those who believe it. The present πιστεύοντας implies that this faith is to be a continuous condition. It is not ‘to save those who believed,’ πιστεύσαντας, but ‘those who continue believing.’ The present also contemplates the continual addition of new believers to the body—those who at any time are believers in Christ.

Cambridge Greek Testament for Schools and Colleges (Cambridge University Press, 1896; 21 vols, various authors incl. Carr, Maclear, Plummer, Farrar, Lumby, Moule, M. R. James, Simcox) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

21.] For (explanation of ἐμώρανεν) when (not temporal, but illative = ‘since,’ ‘seeing that,’—so Plato, Gorg. p. 454, ἐπειδὴ τοίνυν οὐ μόνη ἀπεργάζεται τοῦτο τὸ ἔργον, ἀλλὰ καὶ ἄλλαι …; see Hartung, Partikellehre, i. 259) in the wisdom of God (as part of the wise arrangement of God. De W., Meyer, al., render it ‘by the revelation of the wisdom of God,’ which was made to the Gentiles, as Rom_1, by creation, and to the Jews by the law,—thus connecting ἐν with ἔγνω, and making τῇ σοφ. τ. θ. the medium of knowledge:—Chrys. takes it for the wisdom manifest in His works only: τί ἐστιν, ἐν τ. σοφ. τ. θ.; τῇ διὰ τῶν ἔργων φαινομένῃ, διʼ ὧν ἠθέλησε γνωρισθῆναι. But I very much doubt the legitimacy of this absolute objective use of σοφία, as = those things by which the σοφία is manifested. I cannot see with Olsh. why the interpretation given above is ‘ganz unpaulinisch:’ it is merely an expansion of ἐμώρανεν,—and agrees much better with Paul’s use of the words ἡ σοφία τ. θεοῦ in reff. and in ch. 2:7) the world (Jew and Gentile, see next verse) by its wisdom (as a means of attaining knowledge: or, but I prefer the other, “through the wisdom (of God) which I have just mentioned:” so Stanley) knew not (could not find out) God, God saw fit by the foolishness of preaching (lit., ‘of the proclamation:’ gen. of apposition,—by that preaching which is reputed folly by the world) to save believers. Rom 1:16 throws light on this last expression as connected with δύναμις θεοῦ in our ver. 18, and with what follows here. There the two are joined: δύναμις γὰρ θεοῦ ἐστιν (τὸ εὐαγ. τ. χρ.) εἰς σωτηρίαν παντὶ τῷ πιστεύοντι, Ἰουδαίῳ τε πρῶτον κ. Ελληνι.

Henry Alford, The Greek Testament (1849–1861) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

21. ἐπειδὴ γάρ. Introduces, as the main thought, God’s refutation of the world’s wisdom by means of what the world holds to be folly, viz. the word of the Cross, thus explaining (γάρ) what was stated in vv. 19, 20. But this main thought presupposes (ἐπειδή) the self-stultification of the world’s wisdom in the providence of God.

ἐν τῇ σοφίᾳ τοῦ Θεοῦ. This is taken by Chrysostom and others (e.g. Edwards, Ellicott) as God’s wisdom displayed in His works (Rom 1:20; Act 14:17), by which (ἐν quasi-instrumental) the world ought to have attained to a knowledge of Him. But this sense of σοφία would be harsh and abrupt; and the order of the words is against this interpretation, as is also the context (ἐμώρανεν, εὐδόκησεν ὁ Θεός). ‘The wisdom of God’ is here God’s wise dealing with mankind in the history of religion, especially in permitting them to be ignorant (Act 17:30; Rom 11:32; cf. Act 14:16; Rom 1:24). So Alford, Findlay, Evans, Lightfoot.

οὐκ ἔγνω. This applies to Jew as well as to Greek, although not in the same manner and degree. “The Pharisee, no less than the Greek philosopher, had a σοφία of his own, which stood between his heart and the knowledge of God” (Lightfoot). See Rom 10:2. The world’s wisdom failed, the Divine ‘foolishness’ succeeded.

εὐδόκησεν. Connects directly with γάρ. The word belongs to late Greek: Rom 15:26; Gal 1:15; Col 1:19.

διὰ τῆς μωρίας τοῦ κηρύγματος. Cf. Isa 28:9-13. Κήρυγμα (Mat 12:41) differs from κήρυξις as the aorist does from the present or imperfect: it denotes the action, not in process, but completed, or viewed as a whole. It denotes, not ‘the thing preached’ (RV. marg.), but ‘the proclamation’ itself (2:4; 2Ti 4:17); and here it stands practically for ‘the word of the Cross’ (v. 18), or the Gospel, but with a slight emphasis upon the presentation. Κηρύσσειν, which in earlier Greek meant ‘to herald,’ passes into its N.T. and Christian use by the fact that the ‘Good-tidings’ proclaimed by Christ and His Apostles was the germ of all Christian teaching (Mat 3:1, Mat 4:17). ‘The foolishness of preaching’ is a bold oxymoron (cf. v. 25), presupposing and interpreting v. 18. In N.T., μωρία is peculiar to 1 Cor. (18, 23, 2:14, 3:19).

τοὺς πιστεύοντας. With emphasis at the end of the sentence, solving the paradox of God’s will to work salvation for man through ‘foolishness.’ The habit of faith (pres. part.), and not cleverness, is the power by which salvation is appropriated (Rom 1:17, Rom 3:25). He does not say τοὺς πιστεύσαντας, which might mean that to have once believed was enough.

International Critical Commentary — older volumes (1896–1929), various authors — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.