1 Corinthians 2 KJV
Wisdom from the Spirit
1 Corinthians Chapter 2: Wisdom from the Spirit
This chapter explores themes of Heaven. Verse 10's reference to the Spirit searching 'the deep things of God' echoes Job 11:7 and Daniel 2:22, recasting divine inaccessibility as now accessible through revelation rather than human inquiry.
1nd I, brethren, when I came to you, came not with excellency of speech or of wisdom, declaring unto you the testimony of God.
2 For I determined not to know any thing among you, save Jesus Christ, and him crucified.
3 And I was with you in weakness, and in fear, and in much trembling.
4 And my speech and my preaching was not with enticing words of manโs wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power:
5 That your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God.
6 Howbeit we speak wisdom among them that are perfect: yet not the wisdom of this world, nor of the princes of this world, that come to nought:
7 But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, even the hidden wisdom, which God ordained before the world unto our glory:
8 Which none of the princes of this world knew: for had they known it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.
9 But as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him.
10 But God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit: for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God.
11 For what man knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of man which is in him? even so the things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God.
12 Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of God; that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God.
13 Which things also we speak, not in the words which manโs wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth; comparing spiritual things with spiritual.
14 But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.
15 But he that is spiritual judgeth all things, yet he himself is judged of no man.
16 For who hath known the mind of the Lord, that he may instruct him? But we have the mind of Christ.
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Did You Know?
Verse 10's reference to the Spirit searching 'the deep things of God' echoes Job 11:7 and Daniel 2:22, recasting divine inaccessibility as now accessible through revelation rather than human inquiry.
Paul's rejection of 'enticing words of man's wisdom' in verse 4 targets the sophistic rhetorical culture dominant in Corinth, where orators like those described by Dio Chrysostom competed for prestige through stylistic flourish.
The quotation in verse 9 adapts Isaiah 64:4 by inserting 'neither have entered into the heart of man,' fusing it with motifs from Isaiah 65:17 to shift focus from future eschatology to present pneumatic disclosure.
Verse 15's claim that the spiritual person 'judgeth all things' draws on Daniel 7's motif of the saints receiving judgment authority, applying apocalyptic imagery to everyday discernment of spiritual realities.
The chapter's closing allusion to Isaiah 40:13 in verse 16 positions 'the mind of Christ' as an inversion of the LXX's rhetorical question, implying believers now participate in Christ's own divine wisdom through union.