Biblical Interpretation
In 1 Corinthians 1:18-31
A troubled church in a muddled culture was all part of the reasons Paul wrote his letter to the church in Corinth. A key passage that speaks particularly to the church’s struggles with Christianity is 1 Corinthians 1:18-30.
To give some back ground, 1 Corinthians was written by Paul to the church at Corinth. As referenced in 1 Corinthians 16:8, Paul wrote this letter from Ephesus during his third missionary journey, dated A.D. 53-37. Although Paul spent many months in Corinth, teaching and investing in the church there, the Christians living in the city still had many problems, including church division, abuse of the sacraments, disorder during the worship services, and numerous theological problems.[1]
The city of Corinth had been the capital of the Roman province Achaia, and was 50 miles southwest of Athens, near the isthmus that joins Attica and Pelopennesus. Corinth was a large and prosperous city in the eighth and sixth centuries B.C., but it declined and was captured in 338 B.C. by Philip II of Macedon. In 196 B.C., it was taken by the Romans.[2] While the Romans would say that they rid the place of the Greeks when they took it over, archaeological digs have revealed Greeks continued to live there.[3]
The city of Corinth was – and still is today – an important thoroughfare for travelers. In Paul’s time, the city of Corinth was one of the strategic centers of communication and commerce in its area. The city was filled with pagan temples and on the south there was a high acropolis with a temple of Aphrodite. The city of Corinth was not known for its high moral standards. From the fifth century B.C. the expression “to Corinthianize,” was synonymous with being sexually immoral.[4] If people today were to use modern vernacular to describe how to get ahead in the Corinthian culture, they’d use words such as “smoozing, massaging a superior’s ego, rubbing shoulders with powerful, pulling strings, scratching each other’s back and dragging rivals’ names through the mud.”[5] In other words, they’d get ahead by any means necessary.
While Corinth had a diverse population of “Roman freedmen, indigenous Greeks, and immigrants from far and wide,”[6]Garland, in his commentary on 1 Corinthians, says Corinth was “heavily influenced by Rome,”[7] and the people of the city “felt themselves to be Roman.”[8]
All these influences made for new Christians who were fighting against their culture overcoming diversity to form a community of believers within the city. As one could imagine, when you throw Christianity and the idea of the Cross into this muddled culture, there are going to be conflicting ideas. Paul addresses many topics within 1 Corinthians the new Christians and the church was facing as a whole. In 1 Corinthians 1:18-31, one of the issues facing the church was wisdom and foolishness.
Not only in this passage, but throughout 1 Corinthians Paul contrasts wisdom and foolishness. The word “wisdom” is used prominently in 1 Corinthians 18-31. Coming from the Greek word sofia. Wisdom throughout the Bible can be used in two ways. The first is to describe the wisdom of men, which can have several definitions. In this passage, the passage that fits most within the context is “the knowledge and practice of the requisites for godly and upright living.”[9]
According to Eastman’s Bible Dictionary, wisdom is defined as a “moral rather than an intellectual quality.”[10] As is referenced in the Psalms, wisdom is given as a gift from God to those who ask for it. The basis of that wisdom, however, is not human cleverness but obedient reverence for God. God is the source of true wisdom and he gives it to those who seek it. In 1 Corinthians 1:24, there is a personification of wisdom, where it doesn’t become just a mere trait that is desirable, but it also becomes personified as a divine person. As in, God is wisdom.[11]
“Wisdom” was one of the keys to Corinthian faith. Paul abruptly construed the wisdom of this age or this world with the cross of Christ. The question of power is prominent throughout the paragraph (1:18, [21], 24, 27). Wisdom evidently appealed because of its power, and against this, Paul set the paradoxical power in weakness of the cross of Christ. Against human wisdom the cross looks like foolishness and weakness, but it is the focal place where God’s surprising power to transform human existence is at work.[12]
“Thus, when Paul spoke of wisdom as “the wisdom of the world” (1:20) or as “human wisdom” (2:5), he was setting a limit to wisdom that presumably was not recognized by some of the Corinthians.”[13] One may ask, however, if God is the giver of wisdom, why does the Bible – particularly this passage – speak negatively about human wisdom? In his commentary on 1 Corinthians, Godet gives one possible reason:
“But it is asked why God chose to treat human wisdom so rudely. Did He wish to extinguish the torch of reason which He had Himself lighted? Ver. 21 answers this question; it explains the reason, by the irrational nature of the gospel; to Christ, reason had been unfaithful to its mission.”[14]
While Paul talks references wisdom in this passage many times, he contrasts it with folly or foolishness. What is folly or foolishness? In contrast to wisdom, foolishness is not a desirable trait, and is often contrasted with wisdom throughout the Bible. Bakers Evangelical Bible Dictionary says “There are fewer Greek terms employed for the fool and these are essentially negative, indicating that the fool is lacking sense and intelligence.”[15] In Proverbs, we see the fool often contrasted with the wise, as in Proverbs 12:15, “The way of the fool is right in his own eyes, but a wise man listens to advice.”[16] The wise person and foolish person are polar opposites.
The Greek word for foolishness is “moria.” The word is used five times within this passage. The origin of the word is “moros,” which in addition to meaning foolish, can also mean “impious” or “godless.”[17] To be impious means “not showing respect or reverence, especially for a god.”[18] If wisdom is seeking out God and His opinion, foolishness is being irreverent and going about life as you see fit.
A second theme found in this passage is how Paul addresses the societal status of Christians in 1 Corinthians 1:26-31. According to Keener, “Elite Christians apparently played a significant role in the congregation but were numerically in the minority.”[19]
Beardslee, in his commentary on 1 Corinthians, says the social differences could have been one reason for conflict within the congregation. Because of the disparity between the wealthy elite and the poor within the congregation, some scholars feel the elite were looking down on the poor. As Beardslee writes in his commentary on the passage, “It is far more probable, however that there some in the congregation with cultural and economic advantages. Such social differences, in fact, were probably part of the reason for the emergence of the conflicting groups that Paul had been criticizing.”[20]
To address this troubled and conflicted Christians at Corinth, Paul writes his letters. What I appreciate about Paul is his frankness and ability to say things concisely and to the point. His ability to speak directly not only made him an effected minister of the Gospel, but God’s words through him are still changing lives today.
In verse 18, Paul starts out by saying Christ’s death on the cross for our sin doesn’t make sense to the lost. Beardslee states that “Against human wisdom the cross looks like foolishness and weakness, but it is actually the focal place where God’s surprising power to transform human existence is at work.”[21] He contrasts that with how Christ’s death on the cross to those who believe it makes sense, and show’s Christ’s power. Paul addresses the logic here because he understood that the Christians had been influenced by Greek culture, which “is characterized by tireless inquisitiveness and, specifically, by intellectual search for wisdom.”[22]
Paul goes on to write in verse 19, that he will “destroy the wisdom of the wise, and the discernment of the discerning I will thwart.” While some may see it as attacking wisdom, other see it as “not opposing wisdom per جء ; rather he is attacking the self-reliance that some have in adopting a worldly wisdom that is splitting tire church instead of relying on the power of God, which Paul interprets to be the word of the cross.”[23]
In this verse Paul is quoting Isaiah 29:14. To give the quoted verse context, Paul is quoting Isaiah, who was relaying the judgement from God on those “among his people who honor him with their lips, but in their hearts are far from him.”[24] Obviously, Paul could see parallels of what Isaiah saw, and what was happening in the church at Corinth, and was using scripture as a tool to teach these principles.
In 1 Cor 1:10-3:23 Paul uses as many biblical passages as any other place in this letter, which underscores the significance of the situation as well as how these texts play a fundamental part of his teaching style. Plus, the content and structure of this message suggests that Paul’s audience must be familiar with this type of argumentation (cf. Acts 18).[25]
In verse 20, Paul continues to make his point by asking as series of rhetorical questions.[26] While some scholars dismiss this verse, and write it off as Paul again referencing Isaiah as he did in verse 19, because “this exclamatory form has the same triumphant tone in the words of Isaiah which our passage seems to be an imitation.”[27] Other scholars say Paul is targeting the “wise,” the “scribe,” and the “debater,” which reference professional experts of that time. The “wise” is believed to reference the Gentile philosophers, the “scribes” are the Jewish doctors, and the “disputers” are the Greek sophists. As Garland says in his commentary on 1 Corinthians:
“What do these three categories of persons have in common? They are all perceived as professional experts. Paul skewers those who refract their search for truth through the lens of human wisdom and derive their status from their expertise. These who have made it their goal to search for “truth” greet with skepticism anything that does not match their own prejudgment of what truth is. God’s truth, revealed in the cross, fails to meet the intellectual elite’s criteria, so they reject it and settle for their own humbug.”[28]
In other words, these elite groups are trying to find God in their own terms in their own way. However, that’s not what God intended. Beardslee asserts verse 20 was introducing limits to human wisdom. “Thus, when Paul spoke of wisdom as “the wisdom of the world” (1:20) … he was setting a limits to wisdom that presumably was not recognized by the Jewish and Greek Corinthians.”[29] He makes that point in verse 21, when Paul writes, “It pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe.”
As Codet writes about this, “A Crucified One, a compact mass of weakness, suffering, ignominy, and incomprehensible absurdity! There is enough there absolutely to bewilder Jewish expectation; in the first place, it is a stone against which it is broken.” He goes on to say that the Greeks, in their mythology, believed that “after a communication from above were capable of binding man to God.”[30]
In verse 22 and 23, Paul lays out that God’s intention was for Christ’s death on the cross not to make sense, as he says “For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, it please God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe.” God intended for the cross not to make sense to those who consider themselves smart and wise in the eyes of the world.
As Garland writes, “What the world finds impressive and irresistible are sensory spectacles or demonstrations of irrefutable proof. That is not what God offers in the cross. It confounds both Jews and Greeks. Stowers (1990: 260) comments, “The problem with Jews and Greeks is that they have closed minds blinded by their own traditions of rationality.”[31] In other words, they didn’t see the power of Christ’s death on the cross because what they had been taught and expected was not such a humiliating death to be the key to their eternal forgiveness, and they were missing the significance of the most important event in the history of the world.
In verses 24 through 25, Paul speaks to how powerful and wise God is, “But to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. For the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men.” What stands out in these verses, however, is that Paul says God can appear weak, which may seem contrary to his character. However, Godet explains that “when God has the appearance of acting irrationally or weakly, that is the time when He triumphs most certainly over human wisdom and power.”[32] So, it isn’t necessarily that God is acting weakly, he is just acting in a way in our human minds we can’t or don’t understand, which shows that God’s character is “multifaceted”, as Jeremy Treat writes about in his article about the glory of the cross:
“At the cross, we see God’s justice through the judgment of sin. God’s love through the forgiveness of sinners, God’s power through his defeat of Satan, and God’s wisdom in his upholding of holiness yet making a way for sinners. Christ’s death is the ultimate, “Thus sayeth the Lord.” It reveals the glorious harmony of God’s multifaceted character. The Cross is the crossroads of everything we know about God.”[33]
Paul goes on to say in verses 26-28, that while those who God chooses are not according to human standards. The words that Paul uses in verses 26 and 27 Paul describes people according to their status. The terms he used were “sociological” terms to refer to those who made up the church in Corinth.[34] As he says in verse 28, “God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are.” As Soards says in his commentary on this passage, “God freely chooses whomever God pleases at will, and not in a manner beholden to human standards.”[35]
Paul goes on to say in verse 28, that “God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are.” As Beardslee says in his commentary about this verse, “Paul turns the barrenness of their economic and cultural life to the service of his point: even without any of these cultural advantages, God has worked through Christ to give them a new life.”[36] God has given new life to those who don’t deserve it. And even those the world would deem the low of the low. God’s is magnified through his ability to save those who would be looked down upon in society.
Pauls statements in verses 26-28 however, are not just to point out that humans are weak and frail people. It is also to point to the fact that God is the only who can save us. As David Startling writes:
“Similarly, in w. 26-31, Paul’s reminder of the lowly status of the majority of the Corinthians (v 26) is placed within a pattern of divine action that has taken place “in Christ Jesus, who became for us wisdom from God” (v 30). This pattern of divine action has a proximate purpose (“to shame the wise … to shame the strong…to reduce to nothing the things that are”), which is, in turn, directed toward a larger goal, “so that no one might boast in the presence of God” (v.29)…[37]
As “frail, mortal creatures,” humans, we can’t boast because there’s no way we could save ourselves.[38] Paul drives this point home in verses 29-31, as he says in verse 29, “no human being might boast in the presence of God”, and in verse 31, “Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.”
As Codet writes in his commentary on this section of the passage, “In ver. 29 all human glorying has been declared to be excluded; in this, the apostle invites the new people, the wise and might who God has raised up by preaching, to strike up a song of praise, but of praise relating to God alone.”[39]In verses 30-31, as a conclusion to this passage, we are reminded once again, that there is nothing we, as Christians can boast in other than Christ. As Joop Smit writes, “it is made clear that in the end the wise are nowhere, their status is nullified, they have nothing to boast of. The foolish believers without status are in Christ Jesus, who is their wisdom and redemption, they boast in the Lord.”[40]
From studying this passage, I have come to conclude there are three things that one can take away and apply from this passage:
- Do you think you’ve already arrived, and know everything about Christianity, Christ and the Cross? Think again. As Paul warns the Greeks and Jews in this passage, God’s wisdom is superior to our wisdom, and we will never fully understand it. It is easy to pride yourself in having so much knowledge about the Bible and what it says, you find yourself disregarding the Bible and God’s wisdom, and leaning on your own strength and knowledge. As it says in verse 28, “God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, so that no human being might boast in the presence of God”. This passage is key as we see people who think they know the right path, and they are perfect in their own eyes.[41] Paul (as he is referencing Isaiah) is saying in this passage that those who think they can save themselves, the wise, will not face a happy outcome. Being humble and willing to learn is the key to truly knowing Christ.
- Don’t rob God of the glory he deserves. As we look at the world around us we might be tempted to explain it away good things that happen as a coincidence. But in this passage, we are instructed to “Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.” For example, if you are tempted to take credit for doing something good, or making the right choice. Don’t. Give the glory back to God, who gave you the power to make the right choice.
- God can transform any life. Throughout the Bible, you can see how Christ and the power of the Cross can transform lives. Paul, the author of 1 Corinthians, is a perfect example. Paul hated and helped kill Christians before he was saved. Through listening to others’ testimonies, I am constantly amazed at how God takes lives that were broken and turns them around to glorify him. God uses these testimonies, as it says in verse 29, “so that no human being might boast in the presence of the Lord.”
Bibliography
Beardslee, William A. First Corinthians: a commentary for today. St. Louis, MO: Chalice Press, 1994.
Betz, Hans Deiter. “The gospel and the wisdom of the barbarians: the Corinthians’ question behind their questions.” Biblica 85, no. 4 (2004): 585-94.
Fleming, Don. Entry for ‘Wisdom’. Bridgeway Bible Dictionary. 2004.
Garland, David E.. 1 Corinthians (Baker Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament) (Kindle Locations 505-508). Baker Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.
Godet, Frederic. Commentary on St. Pauls First Epistle to the Corinthians. Place of publication not identified: Nabu Press, 2010.
Hays, Richard B. First Corinthians. Louisville, KY: John Knox Press, 1998
Keener, Craig S. 1–2 Corinthians. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2005
Longmand, Tremper III. Baker Compact Dictionary of Biblical Studies. S.I.: Baker Book House, 2018.
Longman, Tremper, and David E. Garland. Romans–Galatians. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2007.
Melgar, Cesar. “Paul’s Use of Jewish Exegetical/Rhetorical Techniques in / Corinthians 1:10-3:23.” Review and Expositor, no. 110, Sept. 2013, pp. 609–613.
Starling, David. ” ‘Nothing beyond what is written’?: I Corinthians and the hermeneutics of early Christian theologia.” Journal of Theological Interpretation 8, no. 1 (Spring 2014): 45-62.
Strong, James. Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible. Peabody, MA: Hendrickson Pub., 2012.
Smit, Joop. “”what Is Apollos? What Is Paul?” In Search For The Coherence Of First Corinthians 1:10-4:21.” Novum Testamentum 44, no. 3 (2002): 231-51. doi:10.1163/156853602320249464.
Soards, Marion L. 1 Corinthians: interpreted by early Christian commentators. Grand Rapids, MI: Bake rBooks, 2011.
Sproul, R. C., and Keith A. Mathison. The Reformation Study Bible: English Standard version, containing the Old and New Testaments. Orlando, FL: Ligonier Ministries, 2005.
Treat, Jeremy R. “The glory of the Cross: how God’s power is made perfect in weakness.” Christianity Today, October 2013, 56-59.
[1] R. C. Sproul and Keith A. Mathison, The Reformation study Bible: English Standard version, containing the Old and
New Testaments (Orlando, FL: Ligonier Ministries, 2005), 1642-1643.
[2] Sproul, R.C., The Reformation Study Bible ,1642-1643.
[3] Keener, Craig S. 1–2 Corinthians. (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2005), 6.
[4] Sproul, R.C., The Reformation Study Bible, 1642.
[5] Garland, David E.. 1 Corinthians (Baker Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament) Baker Publishing Group.
Kindle Edition, 505-508
[6] Garland, David, 1 Corinthians (Baker Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament), 505-508
[7] Ibid.
[8] Ibid.
[9] Strong, James. Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible. (Peabody, MA: Hendrickson Pub., 2012), 503
[10] Easton, M. G., and David E. Graves. The New Easton Bible dictionary: a treasury of Biblical History, Biography,
Geography, Theology, and Literature. (Toronto, Canada: Electronic Christian Media, 2016), 215
[11] Easton, M.G., The New Easton Bible dictionary: a treasury of Biblical History, Biography,
Geography, Theology, and Literature. 216
[12] Beardslee, William A. First Corinthians: a commentary for today. (St. Louis, MO: Chalice Press 1994),
26
[13] Beardslee, William A., First Corinthians: a commentary for today, 26
[14] Godet, Frederic. Commentary on St. Pauls First Epistle to the Corinthians. (Place of publication not identified:
Nabu Press, 2010), 95
[15] Longmand, Tremper III. Baker Compact Dictionary of Biblical Studies. S.I.: Baker Book House, 2018, 145.
[16] Sproul, R.C., The Reformation Study Bible, 891
[17] Strong, James. Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible. 330.
[18] Wyld, Henry Cecil. Webster dictionary. U.S.A.: J.J. Little and Dues, 1963. 216
[19] Keener, Craig S. 1–2 Corinthians, 31
[20] Beardslee, William A., First Corinthians: a commentary for today, 27
[21] Beardslee, William A., First Corinthians: a commentary for today, 26
[22] Betz, Hans Deiter, “The gospel and the wisdom of the barbarians: the Corinthians’ question behind their
questions,” Biblica 85, no. 4 (2004), 587
[23] Melgar, Cesar. “Paul’s Use of Jewish Exegetical/Rhetorical Techniques in / Corinthians 1:10-3:23.” Review and
Expositor, no. 110, Sept. 2013, 615
[24] Tremper, Longman and David E. Garland, Romans–Galatians (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2007),
270.
[25] Melgar, Cesar. “Paul’s Use of Jewish Exegetical/Rhetorical Techniques in / Corinthians 1:10-3:23.”, 613
[26] Tremper, Longman, Romans–Galatians, 270
[27] Godet, Frederic. Commentary on St. Pauls First Epistle to the Corinthians. 92
[28] Garland, David E., 1 Corinthians (Baker Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament, 1867-1871
[29] Beardslee, William A., First Corinthians: a commentary for today, 26
[30] Godet, Frederic. Commentary on St. Pauls First Epistle to the Corinthians., 105-106
[31] Garland, David E., 1 Corinthians (Baker Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament), 1939-1941
[32] Godet, Frederic. Commentary on St. Pauls First Epistle to the Corinthians., 109
[33] Treat,Jeremy R., “The glory of the Cross: how God’s power is made perfect in weakness,” Christianity Today,
October 2013, 58.
[34] Beardslee, William A., First Corinthians: a commentary for today, 27
[35] Soards, Marion L., 1 Corinthians: interpreted by early Christian commentators (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books,
2011), 47.
[36] Beardslee, William A., First Corinthians: a commentary for today, 27
[37] David Starling, “Nothing beyond what is written’?: I Corinthians and the hermeneutics of early
Christian theologia,” Journal of Theological Interpretation 8, no. 1 (Spring 2014), 52.
[38] Garland, David E., 1 Corinthians (Baker Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament), 2136-2140
[39] Godet, Frederic. Commentary on St. Pauls First Epistle to the Corinthians.,121
[40] Smit, Joop. “”what Is Apollos? What Is Paul?” In Search For The Coherence Of First Corinthians 1:10-
4:21.” Novum Testamentum 44, no. 3 (2002): 231-51. doi:10.1163/156853602320249464, 190
[41] Hays, Richard B. First Corinthians. Louisville, KY: John Knox Press, 1998, 28
