1 Corinthians 2

1 Corinthians 2:1

I said I preached not the gospel to you in any eloquent words, ch. i. 17, (from whence to this place all hath been brought in on that occasion by way of parenthesis,) and now I resume it again, because it is a thing laid to my charge by some of you, that I am too plain and mean in preaching the gospel to you: an accusation or charge which I am most ready to confess.

1 Corinthians 2:2

For I thought it not any way proper for me to go about to mend God’s method; and when he had determined the sum of our doctrine to be the doctrine of Christ, which he taught in his lifetime, together with the confirmation of it by his death, (through which also we have many precious advantages, as pardon of sins through his satisfaction &c.,) not excluding also, but taking in, in an eminent manner, his resurrection, it had been unreasonable to think of preaching any thing to you but this doctrine thus confirmed: (see ch. i. 17.)

1 Corinthians 2:3

And accordingly when I was among you I was (in the like manner as Christ when he was here on earth) very ill used, (see note [m] Rom. viii., and

1 Corinthians 2:4

And as for powerful speaking, that which I used did not consist in rhetorical proofs or probable arguments of the truth of what I said, such as human writings are content with, but in plain demonstration from the prophecies of the old Bible, or the voice of the Spirit since, and the miracles done by Christ under the gospel.

[a] demonstration of the Spirit and of power] That πνεῦμα καὶ δύναμις, Spirit and power, may here signify the same thing, (as it is ordinary for two words or phrases to be conjoined, the one only to explain the other,) may seem probable from the next verse, where one only of them is mentioned, δύναμις Θεοῦ, the power of God. But there is no necessity that we should so interpret it, because the power of God in the fifth verse being set opposite to the wisdom of men, (that is, the human ways of persuasion or eloquence,) must signify God’s powerful ways of persuading the belief of the gospel, and signifying so, will contain under it the Spirit and power with the several notions that may well belong to them; as first taking the Spirit for the prophecies of the old Bible inspired by the Spirit of God, and power for the miracles done by Christ. Thus hath Origen expressed the meaning of them: the demonstration of the Spirit; that is, saith he, τὰς προφητείας ἱκανὰς πιστοποιῆσαι τὸν ἐντυγχάνοντα εἰς τὰ περὶ Χριστοῦ, “the prophecies which were suffi-

1 Corinthians 2:5

That the ground of your faith may not be human eloquence &c. but the arguments of persuasion, which God hath thought fit to make use of.

1 Corinthians 2:6

Meanwhile the things which we teach are (to those men which are arrived to the highest pitch of wisdom) divine and perfect wisdom, not that which this age boasts of or depends on, or in which the rulers of the Jews, ver. 8, do excel; for all these are now a perishing, their learning and they ready to come to nought.

1 Corinthians 2:7

But that wise dispensation of God’s in giving us his Son, which was hidden under the Jewish types, and only darkly spoken of by the prophets, but by God determined from the beginning to be now revealed to us, to the very great honour of us to whom it is so revealed.

1 Corinthians 2:8

A thing which is not to be imagined, that the chief men among the Jews (ver. 6, see note [c] ch. i.) understood any thing of, for if they had, they would sure never have put him to death, appearing by the voice from heaven, and his miracles (as well as by their own prophecies) to be God himself come down from heaven.

1 Corinthians 2:9

To this belongs that of Isaiah, ch. lxiv. 4, at least it may fitly be accommodated to this purpose, that God prepares for them that depend on him, all faithful pious men, such things as they never imagine or hope for; such is the revelation of his merciful designs toward us in the gospel.

1 Corinthians 2:10

And these hath God made known to us, not by any fallible deceivable way, but by sending down his Spirit upon the apostles, which leading them into all truth, teaching them all things, reveals even these

1 Corinthians 2:11

For as among men, the thoughts and great concernments and designs of a man, though none else knoweth them, yet his own spirit doth; so these divine matters, though none else can reveal them to us, yet his Spirit can.

1 Corinthians 2:12

And this is that Spirit which we have received, the very Spirit of God, (not the spirit which suggests worldly things to us, that instructs us in those,) to the end that we may reveal to you the infinite mercies of God toward you, which being bestowed on you, should not in any reason be concealed from you.

1 Corinthians 2:13

And as the matter of our preaching is divine, and such as was kept secret in God till his Spirit revealed it to us, so we proportionably preach it to you, not in a human but divine manner, not by using ordinary human means of persuasion but by such arguments as the Spirit of God in the prophecies of the old Bible, and in his descent upon Christ, Matt. iii., and by coming down upon his apostles hath directed, adapting spiritual divine arguments to the proving of divine matters.

1 Corinthians 2:14

But such things as these, they that are led only by the light of human reason, the learned philosophers, &c. do absolutely despise, and so hearken not after the doctrine of the gospel, (see note [c] 1 Tim. i.,) for it seems folly to them, ch. i. 23, nor can they by any study of their own come to the knowledge of them, for they are only to be had by understanding the prophecies of scripture and other such means which depend on divine revelation, the voice from heaven, descent of the Holy Ghost, miracles, &c.

1 Corinthians 2:15

But he that hath made use of all these afforded him by the Spirit of God, viz. prophecies and voices from heaven, and such other evidences of divine revelation, ver. 13, he will be able to understand all these secrets perfectly, and being not himself persuaded by any other arguments but only by those that he hath thus received from the Spirit of God, he cannot reasonably be refuted by any other sort of arguments taken from human reason or worldly wisdom.

1 Corinthians 2:28

And those methods and courses hath God pitched on, which are by the nobles and the potentates looked on as most despicable and empty and abject, that it may appear how empty are all those things that are most valued in the world, when these which they so much despise shall appear more effectual than they.

1 Corinthians 2:29

That no man may have any reason to boast of his wisdom &c. in God’s presence.

1 Corinthians 2:30

But of God’s special bounty it is that ye believe, and thereby are ingraffed into Christ, who is made by God to us the author of all true knowledge, the cause of our justification, our sanctification, and will be also of deliverance and rescue from all calamities that this life is subject to, yea, and from death itself, by raising us again: (see note [l] Rom. viii.)

1 Corinthians 2:31

That all our good may be acknowledged to come from God, and none else. ## CHAP. II.

AND I, brethren, when I came to you, came not with excellency of speech or of wisdom, declaring unto you the testimony of God.