1 Corinthians 2 Bible study: Jesus Christ and him crucified

The chapter opens with the letter's I: "When I came to you, brothers, I didn’t come with excellence of speech or of wisdom, proclaiming to you the testimony of God." (2:1) (tap wisdom). Then: "For I determined not to know anything among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified." (2:2) (tap crucified). "I was with you in weakness, in fear, and in much trembling." (2:3). "My speech and my preaching were not in persuasive words of human wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power" (2:4) (tap preaching, demonstration), "that your faith wouldn’t stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God." (2:5). The chapter before has set wisdom and power side by side too: "not in wisdom of words, so that the cross of Christ wouldn’t be made void" (1:17), and "For the word of the cross is foolishness to those who are dying, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God." (1:18). The letter doesn't say when this coming was, or what the demonstration was, and these notes add nothing to it.

Isaiah 64:4→leads to1 Corinthians 2:8-9

The prayer says, "For from of old men have not heard, nor perceived by the ear, nor has the eye seen a God besides you, who works for him who waits for him" (Isaiah 64:4). Paul (1 Corinthians 1:1) writes, "For I determined not to know anything among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified" (1 Corinthians 2:2). He speaks of "God’s wisdom in a mystery, the wisdom that has been hidden" (1 Corinthians 2:7), "which none of the rulers of this world has known. For had they known it, they wouldn’t have crucified the Lord of glory" (1 Corinthians 2:8). "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.”" (1 Corinthians 2:9), and "But to us, God revealed them through the Spirit" (1 Corinthians 2:10). Paul gives the words as Scripture but doesn't name Isaiah or any book, and the WEB words the two far apart. Both speak of what no ear has heard and no eye has seen, but in 64:4 no eye has seen a God besides you, "who works for him who waits for him", while in Paul no eye saw the things "God has prepared for those who love him". So setting 64:4 beside Jesus is a reading. Some hear 64:4 in Paul's "as it is written": what God does for those who wait for him, unseen and unheard of old, is what he has prepared for those who love him, revealed through the Spirit in the wisdom the rulers didn't know when they crucified the Lord of glory. Others read Paul's words as Scripture he doesn't name, sharing only some of 64:4's words, and read 64:4 in its own prayer, beside the awesome things the praying people remember (Isaiah 64:3). These notes pick neither.

σοφίαsophiasay sof-EE-ah

Strong's: "wisdom (higher or lower, worldly or spiritual)". 1 Corinthians has the noun 17 times, more than any other book of the New Testament (counted in RP2018), and this chapter has it seven times in six verses (2:1, 2:4, 2:5, 2:6 twice, 2:7, 2:13). The same noun stands behind "the wisdom of men" (2:5), "a wisdom not of this world" (2:6) and "God’s wisdom in a mystery" (2:7). The chapter before has it in "not in wisdom of words, so that the cross of Christ wouldn’t be made void" (1:17), and in "the world through its wisdom didn’t know God" (1:21).