1 Corinthians 1:19-20

1:19 For it is written, “I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and I will thwart the cleverness of the intelligent.” ¹  1:20 Where is the wise man? Where is the expert in the Mosaic law? ²  Where is the debater of this age? Has God not made the wisdom of the world foolish?

1 Corinthians 2:6

Wisdom from God

2:6 Now we do speak wisdom among the mature, ³  but not a wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age, who are perishing.

Isaiah 19:11-14

19:11 The officials of Zoan are nothing but fools; ⁴ 

Pharaoh’s wise advisers give stupid advice.

How dare you say to Pharaoh,

“I am one of the sages,

one well-versed in the writings of the ancient kings?” ⁵ 

19:12 But where, oh where, are your wise men? ⁶ 

Let them tell you, let them find out

what the Lord who commands armies has planned for Egypt.

19:13 The officials of Zoan are fools,

the officials of Memphis ⁷  are misled;

the rulers ⁸  of her tribes lead Egypt astray.

19:14 The Lord has made them undiscerning; ⁹ 

they lead Egypt astray in all she does,

so that she is like a drunk sliding around in his own vomit. ¹⁰ 

Isaiah 29:14-16

29:14 Therefore I will again do an amazing thing for these people –

an absolutely extraordinary deed. ¹¹ 

Wise men will have nothing to say,

the sages will have no explanations.” ¹² 

29:15 Those who try to hide their plans from the Lord are as good as dead, ¹³ 

who do their work in secret and boast, ¹⁴ 

“Who sees us? Who knows what we’re doing?” ¹⁵ 

29:16 Your thinking is perverse! ¹⁶ 

Should the potter be regarded as clay? ¹⁷ 

Should the thing made say ¹⁸  about its maker, “He didn’t make me”?

Or should the pottery say about the potter, “He doesn’t understand”?

Isaiah 44:25

44:25 who frustrates the omens of the empty talkers ¹⁹ 

and humiliates ²⁰  the omen readers,

who overturns the counsel of the wise men ²¹ 

and makes their advice ²²  seem foolish,

Romans 1:21-22

1:21 For although they knew God, they did not glorify him as God or give him thanks, but they became futile in their thoughts and their senseless hearts ²³  were darkened. 1:22 Although they claimed ²⁴  to be wise, they became fools

[1:19]  ¹ sn A quotation from Isa 29:14.

[1:20]  ² tn Grk “the scribe.” The traditional rendering of γραμματεύς (grammateu") as “scribe” does not communicate much to the modern English reader, for whom the term might mean “professional copyist,” if it means anything at all. The people referred to here were recognized experts in the law of Moses and in traditional laws and regulations. Thus “expert in the Mosaic law” comes closer to the meaning for the modern reader.

[2:6]  ³ tn In extrabiblical literature this word was applied to an initiate of a mystery religion (BDAG 995 s.v. τέλειος 3, gives numerous examples and states this was a technical term of the mystery religions). It could here refer to those who believed Paul’s message, the mystery of God (v. 1), and so be translated as “those who believe God’s message.”

[19:11]  ⁴ tn Or “certainly the officials of Zoan are fools.” אַךְ (’akh) can carry the sense, “only, nothing but,” or “certainly, surely.”

[19:11]  ⁵ tn Heb “A son of wise men am I, a son of ancient kings.” The term בֶּן (ben, “son of”) could refer to literal descent, but many understand the word, at least in the first line, in its idiomatic sense of “member [of a guild].” See HALOT 138 s.v. בֶּן and J. N. Oswalt, Isaiah (NICOT), 1:371. If this is the case, then one can take the word in a figurative sense in the second line as well, the “son of ancient kings” being one devoted to their memory as preserved in their literature.

[19:12]  ⁶ tn Heb “Where are they? Where are your wise men?” The juxtaposition of the interrogative pronouns is emphatic. See HALOT 38 s.v. אֶי.

[19:13]  ⁷ tn Heb “Noph” (so KJV); most recent English versions substitute the more familiar “Memphis.”

[19:13]  ⁸ tn Heb “the cornerstone.” The singular form should be emended to a plural.

[19:14]  ⁹ tn Heb “the Lord has mixed into her midst a spirit of blindness.”

[19:14]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “like the going astray of a drunkard in his vomit.”

[29:14]  ¹¹ tn Heb “Therefore I will again do something amazing with these people, an amazing deed, an amazing thing.” This probably refers to the amazing transformation predicted in vv. 17-24, which will follow the purifying judgment implied in vv. 15-16.

[29:14]  ¹² tn Heb “the wisdom of their wise ones will perish, the discernment of their discerning ones will keep hidden.”

[29:15]  ¹³ tn Heb “Woe [to] those who deeply hide counsel from the Lord.” This probably alludes to political alliances made without seeking the Lord’s guidance. See 30:1-2 and 31:1.

[29:15]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “and their works are in darkness and they say.”

[29:15]  ¹⁵ tn The rhetorical questions suggest the answer, “no one.” They are confident that their deeds are hidden from others, including God.

[29:16]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “your overturning.” The predicate is suppressed in this exclamation. The idea is, “O your perversity! How great it is!” See GKC 470 §147.c. The people “overturn” all logic by thinking their authority supersedes God’s.

[29:16]  ¹⁷ tn The expected answer to this rhetorical question is “of course not.” On the interrogative use of אִם (’im), see BDB 50 s.v.

[29:16]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “that the thing made should say.”

[44:25]  ¹⁹ tc The Hebrew text has בַּדִּים (baddim), perhaps meaning “empty talkers” (BDB 95 s.v. III בַּד). In the four other occurrences of this word (Job 11:3; Isa 16:6; Jer 48:30; 50:36) the context does not make the meaning of the term very clear. Its primary point appears to be that the words spoken are meaningless or false. In light of its parallelism with “omen readers,” some have proposed an emendation to בָּרִים (barim, “seers”). The Mesopotamian baru-priests were divination specialists who played an important role in court life. See R. Wilson, Prophecy and Society in Ancient Israel, 93-98. Rather than supporting an emendation, J. N. Oswalt (Isaiah [NICOT], 2:189, n. 79) suggests that Isaiah used בַּדִּים purposively as a derisive wordplay on the Akkadian word baru (in light of the close similarity of the d and r consonants).

[44:25]  ²⁰ tn Or “makes fools of” (NIV, NRSV); NAB and NASB both similar.

[44:25]  ²¹ tn Heb “who turns back the wise” (so NRSV); NIV “overthrows the learning of the wise”; TEV “The words of the wise I refute.”

[44:25]  ²² tn Heb “their knowledge” (so KJV, NAB, NASB, NRSV).

[1:21]  ²³ tn Grk “heart.”

[1:22]  ²⁴ tn The participle φάσκοντες (faskonte") is used concessively here.