1 When I came to you, brothers, I didn’t come with excellence of speech or of wisdom, proclaiming to you the testimony of God. 2 For I determined not to know anything among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. 3 I was with you in weakness, in fear, and in much trembling. 4 My speech and my preaching were not in persuasive words of human wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, 5 that your faith wouldn’t stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God. 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. 7 But we speak God’s wisdom in a mystery, the wisdom that has been hidden, which God foreordained before the worlds for our glory, 8 which none of the rulers of this world has known. For had they known it, they wouldn’t have crucified the Lord of glory. 9 But as it is written, “Things which an eye didn’t see, and an ear didn’t hear, which didn’t enter into the heart of man, these God has prepared for those who love him.” 10 But to us, God revealed them through the Spirit. For the Spirit searches all things, yes, the deep things of God. 11 For who among men knows the things of a man except the spirit of the man which is in him? Even so, no one knows the things of God except God’s Spirit. 12 But we received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit which is from God, that we might know the things that were freely given to us by God. 13 We also speak these things, not in words which man’s wisdom teaches but which the Holy Spirit teaches, comparing spiritual things with spiritual things. 14 Now the natural man doesn’t receive the things of God’s Spirit, for they are foolishness to him; and he can’t know them, because they are spiritually discerned. 15 But he who is spiritual discerns all things, and he himself is to be judged by no one. 16 “For who has known the mind of the Lord that he should instruct him?” But we have Christ’s mind.
1 Corinthians · World English Bible (Classic, with Deuterocanon)
1 Corinthians 2 World English Bible (Classic, with Deuterocanon)
Audio: World English Bible (WEB), read by Winfred W. Henson · About the recordings
Notes on this text (1)
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Cross references (16)
Related passages for each verse, from the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge as collected and ranked by readers at OpenBible.info.
- 1 1 Corinthians 1:17; 1 Corinthians 2:13; 1 Corinthians 2:4; Exodus 4:10; Romans 16:18
- 2 Galatians 6:14; 1 Corinthians 1:22–25; Philippians 3:8–10; John 17:3; Galatians 3:1
- 3 2 Corinthians 13:4; 1 Corinthians 4:10–13; 2 Corinthians 12:5–10; 2 Corinthians 13:9; Galatians 4:13–14
- 4 1 Corinthians 4:20; 1 Thessalonians 1:5; 1 Corinthians 1:17; 1 Corinthians 2:1; Romans 15:19
- 5 2 Corinthians 4:7; 2 Corinthians 12:9; 2 Corinthians 6:7; 1 Corinthians 1:17; 1 Corinthians 3:6
- 6 Hebrews 5:14; James 3:15; 2 Corinthians 4:4; 1 Corinthians 2:8; 1 Corinthians 1:28
- 7 Colossians 1:26–27; 2 Peter 1:3; Romans 16:25–26; Matthew 11:25; Psalm 78:2
- 8 Acts 13:27; James 2:1; Acts 7:2; 1 Corinthians 2:6; Psalm 24:7–10
- 9 Isaiah 64:4; Psalm 31:19; James 1:12; Romans 8:28; Isaiah 65:17
- 10 John 14:26; Ephesians 3:5; Luke 10:21; John 16:13; Ephesians 3:3
- 11 Proverbs 20:27; 1 Corinthians 2:10; Romans 11:33–34; Jeremiah 17:9; Proverbs 14:10
- 12 1 John 2:27; Romans 8:5–6; 1 John 2:20; 1 John 5:19–20; 1 John 4:4–5
- 13 1 Corinthians 2:14; 1 Corinthians 2:4; 1 Corinthians 1:17; 1 Corinthians 2:1; 1 Corinthians 12:1–3
- 14 1 Corinthians 1:18; Romans 8:5–8; Matthew 13:11–17; 2 Corinthians 4:4–6; 1 John 2:27
- 15 1 Thessalonians 5:21; Hebrews 5:14; Proverbs 28:5; 1 John 4:1; 1 Corinthians 14:37
- 16 Isaiah 40:13–14; Romans 11:34; John 16:13–16; John 15:15; Job 15:8
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).
Nothing was ever more prepared for combat than the spirit of Paul; or rather, I should say, not his spirit, (for he was not himself the inventor of these things,) but, nothing was ever equal to the grace working within him, which overcometh all things.
Read in context · Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, series 1, vol. 12 (1889)
For [the Scripture] saith, "Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which He hath prepared for them that wait for Him." Chapter XXXV — Immense is this reward.
… forth the material, animal, and spiritual, saying in one place, "As is the earthy, such are they also that are earthy;" and in another place, "But the animal man receiveth not the things of the Spirit;" and again: "He that is spiritual judgeth all things." And this, "The animal man receiveth not the things of the Spirit," they affirm to …
… things which are before," we were seeking between ourselves in the presence of the Truth, which Thou art, of what nature the eternal life of the saints would be, which eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither hath entered into the heart of man. But yet we opened wide the mouth of our heart, after those supernal streams of …
Read in context · Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, series 1, vol. 1 (1886)
… in mentioning this, he hath mentioned also the resurrection of our bodies, and the manifestation of His miracles here, and our partaking of His kingdom, and the good things, which "eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man." For all these things He bestowed on us by that gift.
Read in context · Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, series 1, vol. 10 (1888)