1 Corinthians 1:1-31

Context

Salutation

1:1 From Paul,¹ called to be an apostle of Christ Jesus² by the will of God, and Sosthenes, our brother, 1:2 to the church of God that is in Corinth,³ 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.⁴ 1:3 Grace and peace to you⁵ from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ!

Thanksgiving

1:4 I always thank my God for you because of the grace of God that was given to you in Christ Jesus. 1:5 For you were made rich⁶ in every way in him, in all your speech and in every kind of knowledge⁷ – 1:6 just as the testimony about Christ has been confirmed among you – 1:7 so that you do not lack any spiritual gift as you wait for the revelation⁸ of our Lord Jesus Christ. 1:8 He⁹ will also strengthen you to the end, so that you will be blameless on the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. 1:9 God is faithful, by whom you were called into fellowship with his son, Jesus Christ our Lord.

Divisions in the Church

1:10 I urge you, brothers and sisters,¹⁰ by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, to agree together,¹¹ to end your divisions,¹² and to be united by the same mind and purpose.¹³ 1:11 For members of Chloe’s household have made it clear to me, my brothers and sisters,¹⁴ that there are quarrels¹⁵ among you. 1:12 Now I mean this, that¹⁶ each of you is saying, “I am with Paul,” or “I am with Apollos,” or “I am with Cephas,” or “I am with Christ.” 1:13 Is Christ divided? Paul wasn’t crucified for you, was he?¹⁷ Or were you in fact baptized in the name of Paul?¹⁸ 1:14 I thank God¹⁹ that I did not baptize any of you except Crispus and Gaius, 1:15 so that no one can say that you were baptized in my name! 1:16 (I also baptized the household of Stephanus. Otherwise, I do not remember whether I baptized anyone else.) 1:17 For Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel – and not with clever speech, so that the cross of Christ would not become useless.²⁰

The Message of the Cross

1:18 For the message about the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. 1:19 For it is written, “I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and I will thwart the cleverness of the intelligent.”²¹ 1:20 Where is the wise man? Where is the expert in the Mosaic law?²² Where is the debater of this age? Has God not made the wisdom of the world foolish? 1:21 For since in the wisdom of God the world by its wisdom did not know God, God was pleased to save those who believe by the foolishness of preaching. 1:22 For Jews demand miraculous signs and Greeks ask for wisdom, 1:23 but we preach about a crucified Christ,²³ a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles. 1:24 But to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ is the power of God and the wisdom of God. 1:25 For the foolishness of God is wiser than human wisdom,²⁴ and the weakness of God is stronger than human strength.²⁵

1:26 Think about the circumstances of your call,²⁶ brothers and sisters.²⁷ Not many were wise by human standards,²⁸ not many were powerful, not many were born to a privileged position.²⁹ 1:27 But God chose what the world thinks foolish to shame the wise, and God chose what the world thinks weak to shame the strong. 1:28 God chose³⁰ what is low and despised in the world, what is regarded as nothing, to set aside what is regarded as something, 1:29 so that no one can boast in his presence. 1:30 He is the reason you have a relationship with Christ Jesus,³¹ who became for us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification and redemption, 1:31 so that, as it is written, “Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.”³²

[1:1] ¹tn Grk “Paul.” The word “From” is not in the Greek text, but has been supplied to indicate the sender of the letter.

[1:1] ²tc Many important mss, as well as several others (א A Ψ 1739 1881 Ï sy), have a reversed order of these words and read “Jesus Christ” rather than “Christ Jesus” (Ì⁴⁶ B D F G 33 it). The meaning is not affected in either case, but the reading “Christ Jesus” is preferred both because it has somewhat better attestation and because it is slightly more difficult and thus more likely the original (a scribe who found it would be prone to change it to the more common expression). At the same time, Paul is fond of the order “Christ Jesus.” As well, the later Pauline letters almost uniformly use this order in the salutations. Thus, on both external and internal grounds, “Christ Jesus” is the preferred reading here.

[1:2] ³map For location see JP1 C2; JP2 C2; JP3 C2; JP4 C2.

[1:2] ⁴tn Grk “theirs and ours.”

[1:3] ⁵tn Grk “Grace to you and peace.”

[1:5] ⁶sn Made rich refers to how God richly blessed the Corinthians with an abundance of spiritual gifts (cf. v. 7).

[1:5] ⁷sn Speech and knowledge refer to the spiritual gifts God had blessed them with (as v. 7 confirms). Paul will discuss certain abuses of their gifts in chapters 12-14, but he thanks God for their giftedness.

[1:7] ⁸sn The revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ refers to the Lord’s return, when he will be revealed (cf. the reference to the day of our Lord Jesus Christ in v. 8).

[1:8] ⁹tn Grk “who,” referring to Christ. Because of the length and complexity of the Greek sentence, a new sentence was started here in the translation.

[1:10] ¹⁰tn Grk “brothers,” but the Greek word may be used for “brothers and sisters” or “fellow Christians” as here (cf. BDAG 18 s.v. ἀδελφός 1, where considerable nonbiblical evidence for the plural ἀδελφοί [adelfoi] meaning “brothers and sisters” is cited).

[1:10] ¹¹tn Grk “that you all say the same thing.”

[1:10] ¹²tn Grk “that there be no divisions among you.”

[1:10] ¹³tn Grk “that you be united in/by the same mind and in/by the same purpose.”

[1:11] ¹⁴tn Grk “brothers.” See note on the phrase “brothers and sisters” in 1:10.

[1:11] ¹⁵tn Or “rivalries, disputes.”

[1:12] ¹⁶tn Or “And I say this because.”

[1:13] ¹⁷tn Questions prefaced with μή (mh) in Greek anticipate a negative answer. This can sometimes be indicated by using a “tag” at the end in English (here the tag is “was he?”).

[1:13] ¹⁸tn This third question marks a peak in which Paul’s incredulity at the Corinthians’ attitude is in focus. The words “in fact” have been supplied in the translation to make this rhetorical juncture clear.

[1:14] ¹⁹tc 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.

[1:17] ²⁰tn Grk “would not be emptied.”

[1:19] ²¹sn A quotation from Isa 29:14.

[1:20] ²²tn 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.

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

[1:25] ²⁴tn Grk “than men.”

[1:25] ²⁵tn Grk “than men.”

[1:26] ²⁶tn Grk “Think about your calling.” “Calling” in Paul’s writings usually refers to God’s work of drawing people to faith in Christ. The following verses show that “calling” here stands by metonymy for their circumstances when they became Christians, leading to the translation “the circumstances of your call.”

[1:26] ²⁷tn Grk “brothers.” See note on the phrase “brothers and sisters” in 1:10.

[1:26] ²⁸tn Grk “according to the flesh.”

[1:26] ²⁹tn The Greek word ευγενής (eugenh") refers to the status of being born into nobility, wealth, or power with an emphasis on the privileges and benefits that come with that position.

[1:28] ³⁰tn Here καί (kai) has not been translated because of differences between Greek and English style.

[1:30] ³¹tn Grk “of him you are in Christ Jesus.”

[1:31] ³²sn A quotation from Jer 9:24. The themes of Jer 9 have influenced Paul’s presentation in vv. 26-31. Jeremiah calls upon the wise, the strong, and the wealthy not to trust in their resources but in their knowledge of the true God – and so to boast in the Lord. Paul addresses the same three areas of human pride.