6 We speak wisdom, however, among those who are full grown; yet a wisdom not of this world, nor of the rulers of this world, who are coming to nothing.
*Minor differences ignored. Grouped by changes, with first version listed as example.
We speak wisdom Lest he should appear to despise wisdom, as unlearned and ignorant men (Acts 4:13) condemn learning with a sort of barbarian ferocity, he adds, that he is not devoid of that wisdom, which was worthy of the name, but was esteemed as such by none but competent judges. By those that were perfect, he means not those that had attained a wisdom that was full and complete, but those who possess a sound and unbiased judgment. For tm, which is always rendered in the Septuagint by teleios means complete [1] He twits, however, in passing, those that had no relish for his preaching, and gives them to understand that it was owing to their own fault: "If my doctrine is disrelished by any of you, those persons give sufficient evidence from that very token, that they possess a depraved and vitiated understanding, inasmuch as it will invariably be acknowledged to be the highest wisdom among men of sound intellect and correct judgment." While Paul's preaching was open to the view of all, it was, nevertheless, not always estimated according to its value, and this is the reason why he appeals to sound and unbiased judges, [2] who would declare that doctrine, which the world accounted insipid, to be true wisdom. Meanwhile, by the words we speak, he intimates that he set before them an elegant specimen of admirable wisdom, lest any one should allege that he boasted of a thing unknown. Yet not the wisdom of this world He again repeats by way of anticipation what he had already conceded -- that the gospel was not human wisdom, lest any one should object that there were few supporters of that doctrine; nay more, that it was contemned by all that were most distinguished for intellect. Hence he acknowledges of his own accord what might be brought forward by way of objection, but in such a way as not at all to give up his point. The princes of this world By the princes of this world he means those that have distinction in the world through means of any endowment, for sometimes there are persons, who, though they are by no means distinguished by acuteness of intellect, are nevertheless held in admiration from the dignity of the station which they hold. That, however, we may not be alarmed by these imposing appearances, the Apostle adds, that they come to nought, or perish. For it were unbefitting, that a thing that is eternal should depend upon the authority of those who are frail, and fading, and cannot give perpetuity even to themselves: "When the kingdom of God is revealed, let the wisdom of this world retire, and what is transient give place to what is eternal; for the princes of this world have their distinction, but it is of such a nature as is in one moment extinguished. What is this in comparison with the heavenly and incorruptible kingdom of God?"
1 - "Thus we read, (Genesis 25:27,) that Jacob was 'ys tm, "a perfect man," i.e. without any manifest blemish. See also Job 1:1, 8. The corresponding word tmym, is frequently applied to the sacrificial victims, to denote their being without blemish Exodus 12:5; Leviticus 1:3. -- Ed
2 - "Il ne s'en rapporte pas a vn chacvn, mais requiert des luges entiers;" -- "He does not submit the case to every one, but appeals to competent judges."
How be it - But δε de. This commences the "second" head or argument in this chapter, in which Paul shows that if human wisdom is missing in his preaching, it is not devoid of true, and solid, and even divine wisdom - Bloomfield.
We speak wisdom - We do not admit that we utter foolishness. We have spoken of the foolishness of preaching 1-Corinthians 1:21; and of the estimate in which it was held by the world 1-Corinthians 1:22-28; and of our own manner among you as not laying claim to human learning or eloquence; but we do not design to admit that we have been really speaking folly. We have been uttering that which is truly wise, but which is seen and understood to be such only by those who are qualified to judge - by those who may be denominated "perfect," that is, those who are suited by God to understand it. By "wisdom" here, the apostle means that system of truth which he had explained and defended - the plan of salvation by the cross of Christ.
Among them that are perfect - (ἐν τοῖς τελείοις en tois teleios). This word "perfect" is here evidently applied to Christians, as it is in Philippians 3:15, "Let us therefore as many as be perfect, be thus minded." And it is clearly used to denote those who were advanced in Christian knowledge; who were qualified to understand the subject; who had made progress in the knowledge of the mysteries of the gospel; and who thus saw its excellence. It does not mean here that they were sinless, for the argument of the apostle does not bear on that inquiry, but that they were qualified to understand the gospel in contradistinction from the gross, the sensual, and the carnally minded, who rejected it as foolishness. There is, perhaps, here an allusion to the pagan mysteries, where those who had been fully initiated were said to be perfect - fully instructed in those rites and doctrines. And if so, then this passage means, that those only who have been fully instructed in the knowledge of the Christian religion, will be qualified to see its beauty and its wisdom. The gross and sensual do not see it, and those only who are enlightened by the Holy Spirit are qualified to appreciate its beauty and its excellency.
Not the wisdom of the world - Not that which this world has originated or loved.
Nor of the princes of this world - Perhaps intending chiefly here the rulers of the Jews; see 1-Corinthians 2:8. They neither devised it, nor loved it, nor saw its wisdom; 1-Corinthians 2:8.
That come to naught - That is, whose plans fail; whose wisdom vanishes; and who themselves, with all their pomp and splendor, come to nothing in the grave; compare Isaiah. 14. All the plans of human wisdom shall fail; and this which is originated by God only shall stand,
We speak wisdom among them that are perfect - By the εν τοις τελειοις, among those that are perfect, we are to understand Christians of the highest knowledge and attainments- those who were fully instructed in the knowledge of God through Christ Jesus. Nothing, in the judgment of St. Paul, deserved the name of wisdom but this. And though he apologizes for his not coming to them with excellency of speech or wisdom, yet he means what was reputed wisdom among the Greeks, and which, in the sight of God, was mere folly when compared with that wisdom that came from above. Dr. Lightfoot thinks that the apostle mentions a fourfold wisdom.
1. Heathen wisdom, or that of the Gentile philosophers, 1-Corinthians 1:22, which was termed by the Jews חכמה יונית chokmah yevanith, Grecian wisdom; and which was so undervalued by them, that they joined these two under the same curse: Cursed is he that breeds hogs; and cursed is he who teaches his son Grecian wisdom. Bava Kama, fol. 82.
2. Jewish wisdom; that of the scribes and Pharisees, who crucified our Lord, 1-Corinthians 2:8.
3. The Gospel, which is called the wisdom of God in a mystery, 1-Corinthians 2:7.
4. The wisdom, του αιωνος τουτου, of this world; that system of knowledge which the Jews made up out of the writings of their scribes and doctors. This state is called העולם הזה haolam hazzeh, this or the present world; to distinguish it from העולם הבא haolam habba the world to come; i.e. the days of the Messiah. Whether we understand the term, this world, as relating to the state of the Gentiles, cultivated to the uttermost in philosophical learning, or the then state of the Jews, who had made the word of God of no effect by their traditions, which contained a sort of learning of which they were very fond and very proud, yet, by this Grecian and Jewish wisdom, no soul ever could have arrived at any such knowledge or wisdom as that communicated by the revelation of Christ. This was perfect wisdom; and they who were thoroughly instructed in it, and had received the grace of the Gospel, were termed τελειοι, the perfect. This, says the apostle, is not the wisdom of this world, for that has not the manifested Messiah in it; nor the wisdom of the rulers of this world - the chief men, whether philosophers among the Greeks, or rabbins among the Jews (for those we are to understand as implied in the term rulers, used here by the apostle) these rulers came to nought; for they, their wisdom, and their government, were shortly afterwards overturned in the destruction of Jerusalem. This declaration of the apostle is prophetic. The ruin of the Grecian superstition soon followed.
(4) Howbeit we speak wisdom among them that are (e) perfect: yet not the wisdom of this world, nor of the (f) princes of this world, that come to nought:
(4) Another argument taken from the nature of the thing, that is, of the Gospel, which is true wisdom, but known only to those who are desirous of perfection: and it is unsavoury to those who otherwise excel in the world, but yet vainly and frailly.
(e) They are called perfect here, not who had already gotten perfection, but those who are striving for it, as in (Philippians 3:15): so that perfect is contrasted with weak.
(f) Those that are wiser, richer, or mightier than other men are.
Howbeit we speak wisdom,.... Though the wise philosophers among the Gentiles accounted the Gospel foolishness; and though the apostle, by an ironical concession, had called the ministry of it the foolishness of preaching, and the foolishness of God, and had thought best, for wise reasons, to deliver it in a plain and simple manner, without the embellishments of human wisdom; yet he vindicates it from the charge of folly: it was not folly, but wisdom, which he and his fellow ministers preached, and that of the highest kind, as appears from what follows. Though it was not esteemed so by all men, yet
among, or with
them that are perfect; adult, at age, opposed to babes and children; such who have their understandings enlightened by the spirit of wisdom and revelation; who have their senses exercised to discern between divine and human wisdom; and who are perfect in a comparative sense, having more spiritual knowledge and understanding than others; for none, in the present state of things, are absolutely perfect in knowledge; they that know most, know but in part: now to such the Gospel and the doctrines of it appear to be the highest wisdom; for the apostle's sense is not that he and other Gospel ministers preached the more sublime doctrines of it to a select set of persons that had more judgment and a better understanding of things than others: if this could be thought to be the apostle's meaning, he might be supposed to allude to a custom among the Jews, not to deliver the sublime things of the law, but to persons so and so qualified.
"Says R. Ame (r), they do not deliver the secrets of the law, but to him who has the five things or characters in Isaiah 3:3''
So they did not suffer the first chapter of Genesis and the visions of Ezekiel to be read until thirty years of age (s); and from them the Pythagoreans took their notion of not declaring their mysteries but to "perfect ones", the word here used (t); but the apostle's sense is, that to such that were perfect, and even to everyone that had the least degree of spiritual knowledge, the Gospel was wisdom. Some refer this clause not to persons, but things; and so the Arabic version reads it, "we speak wisdom concerning things that are perfect"; as the things of the Gospel are, such as a plenteous redemption, perfect righteousness, full pardon, plenary satisfaction, and complete salvation and happiness:
yet not the wisdom of this world, nor of the princes of this world, that come to nought: meaning not the idolatry, superstition, curious and magic arts introduced by demons, which principalities and powers, with all their works, are spoiled and destroyed by Christ; but either the political wisdom and crafty schemes of the civil governors of the world, against Christ and his Gospel, who were by this time most, if not all of them, dead; or the vain philosophy of the wise and learned among the Gentiles, who every day were less and less in vogue, through the quick and powerful spread of the Gospel; or rather the highest pitch of wisdom and knowledge in divine things, which the doctors and Rabbins among the Jews attained to in the age before the Messiah's coming; called "this world" in distinction from the times of the Messiah, which in Jewish language was, "the world to come", as Dr. Lightfoot observes; who with all their wisdom were confounded and brought to nought by the superior wisdom of the Gospel.
(r) T. Bab. Chagiga, fol. 13. 1. (s) Hieron. prefat. in Ezekiel & ad Paulin. Tom. III. fol. 3. 2. (t) Hierocles in Pythag. Carmin. p. 302.
Those who receive the doctrine of Christ as Divine, and, having been enlightened by the Holy Spirit, have looked well into it, see not only the plain history of Christ, and him crucified, but the deep and admirable designs of Divine wisdom therein. It is the mystery made manifest to the saints, Colossians 1:26, though formerly hid from the heathen world; it was only shown in dark types and distant prophecies, but now is revealed and made known by the Spirit of God. Jesus Christ is the Lord of glory; a title much too great for any creature. There are many things which people would not do, if they knew the wisdom of God in the great work of redemption. There are things God hath prepared for those that love him, and wait for him, which sense cannot discover, no teaching can convey to our ears, nor can it yet enter our hearts. We must take them as they stand in the Scriptures, as God hath been pleased to reveal them to us.
Yet the Gospel preaching, so far from being at variance with true "wisdom," is a wisdom infinitely higher than that of the wise of the world.
we speak--resuming "we" (preachers, I, Apollos, &c.) from "we preach" (1-Corinthians 1:28), only that here, "we speak" refers to something less public (compare 1-Corinthians 2:7, 1-Corinthians 2:13, "mystery . . . hidden") than "we preach," which is public. For "wisdom" here denotes not the whole of Christian doctrine, but its sublimer and deeper principles.
perfect--Those matured in Christian experience and knowledge alone can understand the true superiority of the Christian wisdom which Paul preached. Distinguished not only from worldly and natural men, but also from babes, who though "in Christ" retain much that is "carnal" (1-Corinthians 3:1-2), and cannot therefore understand the deeper truths of Christianity (1-Corinthians 14:20; Philippians 3:15; Hebrews 5:14). Paul does not mean by the "mystery" or "hidden wisdom" (1-Corinthians 2:7) some hidden tradition distinct from the Gospel (like the Church of Rome's disciplina arcani and doctrine of reserve), but the unfolding of the treasures of knowledge, once hidden in God's counsels, but now announced to all, which would be intelligently comprehended in proportion as the hearer's inner life became perfectly transformed into the image of Christ. Compare instances of such "mysteries," that is, deeper Christian truths, not preached at Paul's first coming to Corinth, when he confined himself to the fundamental elements (1-Corinthians 2:2), but now spoken to the "perfect" (1-Corinthians 15:51; Romans 11:25; Ephesians 3:5-6). "Perfect" is used not of absolute perfection, but relatively to "babes," or those less ripe in Christian growth (compare Philippians 3:12, Philippians 3:15, with 1-John 2:12-14). "God" (1-Corinthians 2:7) is opposed to the world, the apostles to "the princes [great and learned men] of this world" (1-Corinthians 2:8; compare 1-Corinthians 1:20) [BENGEL].
come to naught--nothingness (1-Corinthians 1:28). They are transient, not immortal. Therefore, their wisdom is not real [BENGEL]. Rather, translate with ALFORD, "Which are being brought to naught," namely, by God's choosing the "things which are not (the weak and despised things of the Gospel), to bring to naught (the same verb as here) things that are" (1-Corinthians 1:28).
Howbeit we speak wisdom. "We" refers to Paul and his fellow-preachers. Though the gospel abjured carnal wisdom, yet it has a wisdom of its own, a divine wisdom, which is imparted to and recognized by those who have become full-grown Christians. "The perfect" are the full-grown in Christ, instead of babes. Babes must be fed on milk, but the grown can endure strong meat. For such there is a depth of wisdom revealed in the gospel, but not the wisdom of this world.
Princes of this world. Leading men of the Jews, Greeks and Romans. They had not learned this divine wisdom.
We speak the wisdom of God in a mystery. The Greeks had their mysteries, like the Eleusinian, in which secrets were imparted to the initiated. A mystery is a secret as yet not made known. The wisdom of God in the gospel was a mystery hidden until Christ came, and since then fully comprehended only by "the initiated," the full-grown Christians. The apostolic sense of "mystery" is that which was hidden, but is now disclosed to those who accept the gospel. Those who will not receive the gospel cannot comprehend this wisdom. See Romans 16:25-26; Ephesians 3:6; 1-Timothy 3:16.
Even the hidden wisdom. Long hidden, though existing in God's plans made before the "age" (see margin of Revision). The Jewish age or dispensation may be meant, or it may mean the ages of man's existence. The Greek word is "ages." This hidden wisdom proposed all through the dispensations the glory of God's chosen ones.
Which none of the princes . . . knew. Utterly ignorant of the divine wisdom to be revealed in Christ, they, the high priests, with Pilate and Herod, crucified the Son.
As it is written (Isaiah 54:4). There was no human conception, as shown by the prophet, of the glory to be revealed in the mystery of the gospel. And indeed that glory is still beyond the power of mere human conception.
Yet we speak wisdom - Yea, the truest and most excellent wisdom. Among the perfect - Adult, experienced Christians. By wisdom here he seems to mean, not the whole Christian doctrine, but the most sublime and abstruse parts of it. But not the wisdom admired and taught by the men of this world, nor of the rulers of this world, Jewish or heathen, that come to nought - Both they and their wisdom, and the world itself.
*More commentary available at chapter level.