1 Paul, called to be an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, and Sosthenes a brother, 2 To the church of God that is at Corinth, to them that are sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints, with all that invoke the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, in every place of theirs and ours. 3 Grace to you, and peace from God our Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ. 4 I give thanks to my God always for you, for the grace of God that is given you in Christ Jesus, 5 That in all things you are made rich in him, in all utterance, and in all knowledge; 6 As the testimony of Christ was confirmed in you, 7 So that nothing is wanting to you in any grace, waiting for the manifestation of our Lord Jesus Christ. 8 Who also will confirm you unto the end without crime, in the day of the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. 9 God is faithful: by whom you are called unto the fellowship of his Son Jesus Christ our Lord. 10 Now I beseech you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you all speak the same thing, and that there be no schisms among you; but that you be perfect in the same mind, and in the same judgment. 11 For it hath been signified unto me, my brethren, of you, by them that are of the house of Chloe, that there are contentions among you. 12 Now this I say, that every one of you saith: I indeed am of Paul; and I am of Apollo; and I am of Cephas; and I of Christ. 13 Is Christ divided? Was Paul then crucified for you? or were you baptized in the name of Paul? 14 I give God thanks, that I baptized none of you but Crispus and Caius; 15 Lest any should say that you were baptized in my name. 16 And I baptized also the household of Stephanus; besides, I know not whether I baptized any other. 17 For Christ sent me not to baptize, but to preach the gospel: not in wisdom of speech, lest the cross of Christ should be made void. 18 For the word of the cross, to them indeed that perish, is foolishness; but to them that are saved, that is, to us, it is the power of God. 19 For it is written: I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and the prudence of the prudent I will reject. 20 Where is the wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the disputer of this world? Hath not God made foolish the wisdom of this world? 21 For seeing that in the wisdom of God the world, by wisdom, knew not God, it pleased God, by the foolishness of our preaching, to save them that believe. 22 For both the Jews require signs, and the Greeks seek after wisdom: 23 But we preach Christ crucified, unto the Jews indeed a stumblingblock, and unto the Gentiles foolishness: 24 But unto them that are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God, and the wisdom of God. 25 For the foolishness of God is wiser than men; and the weakness of God is stronger than men. 26 For see your vocation, brethren, that there are not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble: 27 But the foolish things of the world hath God chosen, that he may confound the wise; and the weak things of the world hath God chosen, that he may confound the strong. 28 And the base things of the world, and the things that are contemptible, hath God chosen, and things that are not, that he might bring to nought things that are: 29 That no flesh should glory in his sight. 30 But of him are you in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and justice, and sanctification, and redemption: 31 That, as it is written: He that glorieth, may glory in the Lord.
1 Corinthians · Douay-Rheims (Challoner), American Edition 1899
1 Corinthians 1 Douay-Rheims (Challoner), American Edition 1899
Audio: World English Bible (WEB), read by Winfred W. Henson · About the recordings
People & places in this chapter
From this site's family tree and Bible maps, only where those guides cite this chapter.
People
Chloe
Members of her household informed Paul of the quarrels at Corinth.
Cited in the guide: 1 Corinthians 1:11
Crispus
The leader of the synagogue at Corinth who believed in the Lord with his whole household and was baptized by Paul.
Cited in the guide: Acts 18:8; 1 Corinthians 1:14
Sosthenes
The synagogue leader seized and beaten before Gallio's tribunal at Corinth; a Sosthenes is named as co-sender of 1 Corinthians, probably the same man.
Cited in the guide: Acts 18:17; 1 Corinthians 1:1
Places
Corinth
Corinth straddled the isthmus linking mainland Greece to the Peloponnese — a hub of commerce and immorality. Paul founded the church here; a Roman bema traditionally linked to his hearing before…
Cited in the guide: Acts 18:1; 1 Corinthians 1:2; 2 Corinthians 1:1
Cross references (31)
Related passages for each verse, from the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge as collected and ranked by readers at OpenBible.info.
- 1 Romans 1:1; Ephesians 1:1; 2 Corinthians 1:1; Acts 18:17; Colossians 1:1
- 2 Romans 1:7; 1 Corinthians 6:9–11; 1 Corinthians 1:30; Acts 26:18; 1 Peter 1:15–16
- 3 Romans 1:7; 1 Peter 1:2; 2 Corinthians 1:2; Ephesians 1:2
- 4 Romans 1:8; John 14:26; John 15:26; Romans 6:17; John 14:14
- 5 2 Corinthians 9:11; 2 Corinthians 8:7; Colossians 2:3; Philippians 1:9; Romans 15:14
- 6 Revelation 1:2; 2 Timothy 1:8; 1 Timothy 2:6; 1 Corinthians 2:1–2; Acts 20:24
- 7 Philippians 3:20; 2 Peter 3:12; Hebrews 9:28; 1 John 3:2; Jude 21
- 8 1 Thessalonians 5:23–24; 1 Thessalonians 3:13; Colossians 1:22; Philippians 1:6; Jude 24–25
- 9 2 Thessalonians 3:3; Hebrews 10:23; Deuteronomy 7:9; 1 John 1:3; 1 Corinthians 10:13
- 10 Philippians 2:1–4; Ephesians 4:1–7; 1 Corinthians 12:25; Romans 12:16; James 3:13–18
- 11 1 Timothy 6:4; 2 Timothy 2:23–25; Galatians 5:26; Proverbs 18:6; Genesis 37:2
- 12 Matthew 23:9–10; John 1:42; 1 Corinthians 3:21–23; 1 Corinthians 3:4–6; Galatians 2:9
- 13 Ephesians 4:5; 2 Corinthians 11:4; Acts 2:38; Acts 10:48; 1 Corinthians 10:2
- 14 Acts 18:8; Romans 16:23; 1 Thessalonians 5:18; 2 Corinthians 2:14; 1 Corinthians 14:18
- 15 John 7:18; 2 Corinthians 11:2; John 3:28–29
- 16 1 Corinthians 16:15; 1 Corinthians 16:17; Acts 16:15; Acts 16:33
- 17 1 Corinthians 2:1; 1 Corinthians 2:13; 2 Peter 1:16; 1 Corinthians 2:4–5; 2 Corinthians 10:10
- 18 1 Corinthians 2:14; Romans 1:16; 2 Thessalonians 2:10; 1 Corinthians 1:23–25; 2 Corinthians 4:3
- 19 Isaiah 29:14; Jeremiah 8:9; 1 Corinthians 3:19; Job 5:12–13; Isaiah 19:11
- 20 Romans 1:22; 1 Corinthians 3:19; Job 12:17; 1 Corinthians 1:19; Job 12:24
- 21 Luke 10:21; Romans 1:20–22; Matthew 11:25; Ephesians 3:10; 1 Corinthians 1:24
- 22 Matthew 16:1–4; Matthew 12:38–39; John 2:18; Acts 17:18–21; Mark 8:11
- 23 1 Corinthians 2:14; 1 Peter 2:8; 1 Corinthians 2:2; Galatians 5:11; Isaiah 8:14–15
- 24 1 Corinthians 1:30; Colossians 2:3; 1 Corinthians 1:18; 1 Corinthians 1:9; Romans 1:16
- 25 Romans 11:33–36; 1 Corinthians 1:18; Zechariah 4:6–7; 2 Corinthians 13:4; Zechariah 12:7–8
- 26 James 2:5; 1 Corinthians 3:18–20; 1 Corinthians 2:8; James 1:9–11; Matthew 11:25–26
- 27 James 2:5; Matthew 11:25; 1 Corinthians 1:20; Psalm 8:2; Luke 21:15
- 28 Job 34:24; Romans 4:17; Isaiah 2:11; Isaiah 41:12; Job 34:19–20
- 29 Romans 3:27; Ephesians 2:9; Jeremiah 9:23; 1 Corinthians 4:7; 1 Corinthians 1:31
- 30 Ephesians 1:7; Philippians 3:9; Romans 8:1; 1 Corinthians 1:2; 1 Corinthians 6:11
- 31 Jeremiah 9:23–24; 2 Corinthians 10:17; Philippians 3:3; Psalm 105:3; Isaiah 41:16
Cross references: OpenBible.info (CC BY), drawn mainly from the public-domain Treasury of Scripture Knowledge. · Sources & licences
What the Fathers said
Passages from the Church Fathers that expound or quote this chapter, verbatim from the public-domain Schaff edition (19th-century English translations).
How these were chosen
“Commentary” is the opening of a homily or exposition on this chapter (John Chrysostom’s homilies, Augustine’s tractates, sermons and expositions of the Psalms). “Quotes” are sentences where the edition’s own footnotes identify a quotation of a verse here, kept only when the wording matches the verse. Only works whose authorship is not in doubt are used. Psalms follow the Hebrew/English numbering (Augustine numbers them as the Septuagint does: his Psalm 50 is Psalm 51 here).
See how immediately, from the very beginning, he casts down their pride, and dashes to the ground all their fond imagination, in that he speaks of himself as "called." For what I have learnt, saith he, I discovered not myself, nor acquired by my own wisdom, but while I was persecuting and laying waste the Church I was called.
Read in context · Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, series 1, vol. 12 (1889)
… "Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, neither let the mighty man glory in his might, neither let the rich man glory in his riches; but let him that glorieth glory in the Lord, in diligently seeking Him, and doing judgment and righteousness" ), being especially mindful of the words of the Lord Jesus which He spake, teaching …
Moreover, they affirm that the Apostle Paul himself made mention of this cross in the following words: "The doctrine of the cross is to them that perish foolishness, but to us who are saved it is the power of God." And again: "God forbid that I should glory in anything save in the cross of Christ, by whom the world …
But the Only-begotten has been "made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification," and has been numbered amongst us, and paid tribute to Cæsar.
Read in context · Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, series 1, vol. 1 (1886)
… whom;" as when it saith, "I have gotten a man by God," putting not the second cause, but the first; and again, "Is not the interpretation of them by God," and, "God is faithful, by whom ye are called unto the fellowship of His Son."
Read in context · Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, series 1, vol. 10 (1888)