1 Corinthians 3:20

1Co 3:20. Σοφῶν, of the wise) LXX. have ἀνθρώπων, of men. The word, thoughts, not in itself, but with this addition, of the wise, corresponds to the Hebrew word מחשבות, Psa 94:11, LXX.—εἰσι, are) men, namely with their thoughts; see Ps. now quoted in the Hebrew.

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

1Co_3:20. Πάλιν] as in Rom_15:10; Mat_4:7. The passage quoted is Psa_94:11, and the only variation from the Hebrew and the LXX. is in putting σοφῶν instead of ἀνθρώπων, and that purposely, but with no violence to the connection of the original (the reference being to men of pretended wisdom).

μάταιοι] empty, thoughts (for Paul, at all events, had διαλογ. not σοφ. in view) which are without true substance. Comp Plato, Soph. p. 231 B: περὶ τὴν μάταιον δοξοσοφίαν.

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_3:19, 1Co_3:20

For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God. For it is written, He taketh the wise in their own craftiness. And again, The Lord knoweth the thoughts of the wise, that they are vain.

We must renounce our own wisdom because it is folly. The infinite mind sees that to be folly which we children think to be wisdom. There are two senses in which this is true, or in which wisdom may be said to be folly. Even truth or true knowledge becomes folly, if employed to accomplish an end for which it is not adapted. If a man attempts to make men holy or happy; if he undertakes to convert the world, by mathematics, or metaphysics, or moral philosophy, he is foolish, and his wisdom, as a means to that end is folly. He must renounce all dependence on those means if he would accomplish that end. But in the second place, much that passes for wisdom among men is in itself, and not merely as a means to an end, foolishness. Both these ideas are evidently comprehended in the apostles statement. He means to say that human knowledge is entirely inadequate to save men; because that end can only be accomplished by the gospel. And he means also to brand as folly the speculations of men about the deep things of God.

In proof of the assertion that the wisdom of men is foolishness with God, he quotes two passages of Scripture. The first is from Job_5:13 the second is from Psa_94:11. The former is a fragment of a sentence containing in the Greek no verb. Our translation renders the participle (ὁ δρασσόμενος) as though it were a verb. Those passages clearly express the same sentiment which the apostle had uttered. They declare the impotency and insufficiency of human wisdom.

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

Quotation from Psa 94:11. There it is of men; here it is "of the wise." Paul by inspiration states the class of men whose "thoughts" (or rather, "reasonings," as suits the Greek and the sense of the context) the Spirit designated in the Psalm, "vanity," namely, the "proud" (Psa 94:2) and worldly-wise, whom God in Psa 94:8 calls "fools," though they "boast themselves" of their wisdom in pushing their interests (Psa 94:4).

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 20. The Lord knoweth the thoughts of the wise] They are always full of schemes and plans for earthly good; and God knows that all this is vain, empty, and unsatisfactory; and will stand them in no stead when he comes to take away their souls. This is a quotation from Ps 94:11. What is here said of the vanity of human knowledge is true of every kind of wisdom that leads not immediately to God himself.

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

20. And again] This passage occurs in Psa_94:11.

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.

And again,.... Not in the same place, nor in the same book, but in the Psalms, in Psa 94:11. This form of citing Scriptures answers to and moreover, used by the Jewish doctors when the matter does not so clearly appear from the first proof, and therefore they produce another (q): and so here the apostle, for the further confirmation and illustration of this point, that the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God, to the testimony of Eliphaz, adds this of David,

the Lord knoweth the thoughts of the wise, that they are vain; in the Psalms it is, "the Lord knoweth the thoughts of men, that they are vanity"; which the apostle not only cites, but explains and teaches; as that by men is meant men of wisdom and knowledge, of the greatest capacities, whose thoughts, reasonings, schemes, and devices, the omniscient God not only knows, but makes known, and discovers them, sooner or later, to be vain and fruitless, yea, vanity itself; and notwithstanding all their machinations and contrivances, his counsel shall stand, his Gospel shall be maintained, his truths shall prevail, and his ordinances shall be continued, and his work go on.

(q) Vid. Surenhusii Biblos Katallages, p. 11, 531.

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

20 And again, The Lord knoweth the thoughts of the wise, that they are vain.

Ver. 20. Of the wise] Such as excel in natural gifts, that are the choicest and most picked men. The Psalmist saith only of men, Psa 94:12.

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.

And again, - Psa 94:11.

The Lord knoweth - God searches the heart. The particular thing which it is here said that he knows, is, that the thoughts of man are vain. They have this quality; and this is that which the psalmist here says that God sees. The affirmation is not one respecting the omniscience of God, but with respect to what God sees of the nature of the thoughts of the wise.

The thoughts of the wise - Their plans, purposes, designs.

That they are vain - That they lack real wisdom; they are foolish; they shall not be accomplished as they expect; or be seen to have that wisdom which they now suppose they possess.

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

And again, it was said by the psalmist, Psa 94:11, that:

The Lord knoweth the thoughts of man, that they are vanity: man’s counsels, imaginations, reasonings, they are all vanity; they propose to themselves ends which they cannot attain, and pursue them by means that are inefficacious with reference to their ends.

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

20. Wise—Psa_94:11. Instead of the thoughts of the wise, the Hebrew has it, “the thoughts of men;” a term which includes, of course, men especially who pride themselves in original and philosophic thoughts and reasonings.

Vain—Liable to error and defect.

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

The Lord knoweth, etc. A quotation from Psa_94:11. St. Paul substitutes "the wise" for the "men" of the original, because the psalmist is referring to perverse despisers of God. Dialogismoi is rather "reasonings" than "thoughts." It is used in a disparaging sense, as in Rom_1:21; Eph_4:17.

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

That they are but vain - Empty, foolish; they and all their thoughts. Psalm xciv, 11.

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

Marg

The Lord Jehovah. Psa 94:11

The Scofield Reference Bible (1917 edition), notes by C. I. Scofield — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

20. “And again, The Lord knoweth the thoughts of the wise that they are empty.” The wise people of this world wear out their eyes, craze their brains and paralyze their nerves to accumulate the wisdom of the world, which is all empty bosh when they get it, wearing them out, making them prematurely old, bringing down their gray hairs with sorrow to the grave for naught.

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

and again [ Psa_94:11 ], The Lord knoweth the reasonings of the wise, that they are vain . [Alford interprets the passage thus: "If God uses the craftiness of the wise as a net to catch them in, such wisdom is in his sight folly, since he turns it to their own confusion." How foolish to modify or adapt the gospel to make it palatable and acceptable to sectarian spirits or worldly minds! Man is to be adjusted to God, not God to man, for he is unchangeable-- Jam_1:17 ; Heb_13:8 ]

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.

20. And again, the Lord knoweth, etc. Psalm 94:11.

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.

20. καὶ πάλιν. In Psa 94:11. It is curious that the first of these citations does not, and the second does, agree with the LXX.

διαλογισμούς. The reasonings, literally.

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.

20.] The LXX have ἀνθρώπων (Heb. אָדָם); the Psalmist however is speaking of the proud, ver. 2 f., and such, when διαλογισμοί are in question, would be the worldly wise.

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

20. Κύριος γινώσκει. From Psa 94:11, and another instance (1:20) of St Paul’s freedom in quoting: the LXX, following the Hebrew, has ἀνθρώπων, where he (to make the citation more in point) has σοφῶν. But the Psalm contrasts the designs of men with the designs of God, and therefore the idea of σοφός is in the context.

διαλογισμούς. In the LXX the word is used of the thoughts of God (Psa 40:6, Psa 92:5). When used of men, the word often, but not always, has a bad sense, as here, especially of questioning or opposing the ways of God (Psa 56:5; Luk 5:22, Luk 5:6:8; Rom 1:21; Jas 2:4).

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

Vv. 20. This passage is taken from Psa 94:11. It proclaims the emptiness of human wisdom, not now as to its result, but as to its very essence. The Hebrew and the LXX. say, “the thoughts of man.” The apostle says, of the wise, because it is through them that mankind exercise their understanding.

The verb knowing has two objects in the original texts (Hebrew and Greek), as is often the case; first, the object known, the thought; then what God knows of those thoughts: that they are vain. We cannot render this forcible turn of expression in French.

The apostle here judges human wisdom only from the point of view of the discovery and attainment of salvation. He certainly respects every sincere effort to discover the truth (Php 4:8); but salvation is a thought of God superior to all the discoveries of human wisdom (1Co 2:6-8).

Though he had addressed the whole Church (1Co 3:17 : Ye are...), it was those who encouraged disorders whom the apostle had indirectly threatened in the foregoing verses. The three following verses contain the direction which it remains to him to give to the Church itself as to its conduct toward Christ’s true ministers. They are therefore the conclusion of the passage begun 1Co 2:5.

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.