1 Corinthians 1:19

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 Corinthians 1:2

1:2 to the church of God that is in Corinth, ²  to those who are sanctified in Christ Jesus, and called to be saints, with all those in every place who call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, their Lord and ours. ³ 

1 Corinthians 15:31

15:31 Every day I am in danger of death! This is as sure as ⁴  my boasting in you, ⁵  which I have in Christ Jesus our Lord.

1 Corinthians 16:23

16:23 The grace of the Lord Jesus be with you.

1 Corinthians 1:14

1:14 I thank God ⁶  that I did not baptize any of you except Crispus and Gaius,

1 Corinthians 1:23

1:23 but we preach about a crucified Christ, ⁷  a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles.

Job 12:17

12:17 He ⁸  leads ⁹  counselors away stripped ¹⁰ 

and makes judges ¹¹  into fools. ¹² 

Job 12:20

12:20 He deprives the trusted advisers ¹³  of speech ¹⁴ 

and takes away the discernment ¹⁵  of elders.

Job 12:24

12:24 He deprives the leaders of the earth ¹⁶ 

of their understanding; ¹⁷ 

he makes them wander

in a trackless desert waste. ¹⁸ 

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 1:22

1:22 Although they claimed ²³  to be wise, they became fools

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

[1:2]  ² map For location see JP1 C2; JP2 C2; JP3 C2; JP4 C2.

[1:2]  ³ tn Grk “theirs and ours.”

[15:31]  ⁴ tn Or, more literally, “I swear by the boasting in you.”

[15:31]  ⁵ tc ‡ Although the witnesses for the shorter reading (Ì⁴⁶ D F G Ψ 075 0243 1739 1881 Ï) are not as strong as for the addition of ἀδελφοί (adelfoi, “brothers”) at this juncture (א A B K P 33 81 104 365 1175 2464 lat sy co), it is difficult to find a reason why scribes would either intentionally or unintentionally drop the address here. Thus, the shorter reading is slightly preferred.

[1:14]  ⁶ tc The oldest and most important witnesses to this text, as well as a few others (א* B 6 1739 sa^ms bo^pt), lack the words τῷ θεῷ (tw qew, “God”), while the rest have them. An accidental omission could well account for the shorter reading, especially since θεῷ would have been written as a nomen sacrum (eucaristwtwqMw). However, one might expect to see, in some mss at least, a dropping of the article but not the divine name. Internally, the Pauline introductory thanksgivings elsewhere always include τῷ θεῷ after εὐχαριστῶ (eucaristw, “I thank”; cf. Rom 1:8; 1 Cor 1:4; Phil 1:3; Phlm 4; in the plural, note Col 1:3; 1 Thess 1:2). However, both the fact that this is already used in 1 Cor 1:4 (thus perhaps motivating scribes to add it ten verses later), and that in later portions of his letters Paul does not consistently use the collocation of εὐχαριστῶ with τῷ θεῷ (Rom 16:4; 1 Cor 10:30), might give one pause. Still, nowhere else in the corpus Paulinum do we see a sentence begin with εὐχαριστῶ without an accompanying τῷ θεῷ. A decision is difficult, but on balance it is probably best to retain the words.

[1:23]  ⁷ tn Or “Messiah”; Grk “preach Christ [Messiah] crucified,” giving the content of the message.

[12:17]  ⁸ tn The personal pronoun normally present as the subject of the participle is frequently omitted (see GKC 381 §119.s).

[12:17]  ⁹ tn GKC 361-62 §116.x notes that almost as a rule a participle beginning a sentence is continued with a finite verb with or without a ו (vav). Here the participle (“leads”) is followed by an imperfect (“makes fools”) after a ו (vav).

[12:17]  ¹⁰ tn The word שׁוֹלָל (sholal), from the root שָׁלַל (shalal, “to plunder; to strip”), is an adjective expressing the state (and is in the singular, as if to say, “in the state of one naked” [GKC 375 §118.o]). The word is found in military contexts (see Mic 1:8). It refers to the carrying away of people in nakedness and shame by enemies who plunder (see also Isa 8:1-4). They will go away as slaves and captives, deprived of their outer garments. Some (cf. NAB) suggest “barefoot,” based on the LXX of Mic 1:8; but the meaning of that is uncertain. G. R. Driver wanted to derive the word from an Arabic root “to be mad; to be giddy,” forming a better parallel.

[12:17]  ¹¹ sn The judges, like the counselors, are nobles in the cities. God may reverse their lot, either by captivity or by shame, and they cannot resist his power.

[12:17]  ¹² tn Some translate this “makes mad” as in Isa 44:25, but this gives the wrong connotation today; more likely God shows them to be fools.

[12:20]  ¹³ tn The Hebrew נֶאֱמָנִים (ne’emanim) is the Niphal participle; it is often translated “the faithful” in the Bible. The Rabbis rather fancifully took the word from נְאֻם (nÿ’um, “oracle, utterance”) and so rendered it “those who are eloquent, fluent in words.” But that would make this the only place in the Bible where this form came from that root or any other root besides אָמַן (’aman, “confirm, support”). But to say that God takes away the speech of the truthful or the faithful would be very difficult. It has to refer to reliable men, because it is parallel to the elders or old men. The NIV has “trusted advisers,” which fits well with kings and judges and priests.

[12:20]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “he removes the lip of the trusted ones.”

[12:20]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “taste,” meaning “opinion” or “decision.”

[12:24]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “the heads of the people of the earth.”

[12:24]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “heart.”

[12:24]  ¹⁸ tn The text has בְּתֹהוּ לֹא־דָרֶךְ (bÿtohu lo’ darekh): “in waste – no way,” or “in a wasteland [where there is] no way,” thus, “trackless” (see the discussion of negative attributes using לֹא [lo’] in GKC 482 §152.u).

[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).

[1:22]  ²³ tn The participle φάσκοντες (faskonte") is used concessively here.