Online Resource Library
Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comRobertson Word Pictures - 1 Corinthians 1:20 - 1:20
(Show All Books | Show All Chapters)
This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
Where is the wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the disputer of this world? (Pou sophos̱ pou grammateus̱ pou sunzētētēs tou aiōnos toutou̱). Paul makes use of Isa 33:18 without exact quotation. The sudden retreat of Sennacherib with the annihilation of his officers. “On the tablet of Shalmaneser in the Assyrian Gallery of the British Museum there is a surprisingly exact picture of the scene described by Isaiah” (Robertson and Plummer). Note the absence of the Greek article in each of these rhetorical questions though the idea is clearly definite. Probably sophos refers to the Greek philosopher, grammateus to the Jewish scribe and sunzētētēs suits both the Greek and the Jewish disputant and doubter (Act 6:9; Act 9:29; Act 17:18; Act 28:29). There is a note of triumph in these questions. The word sunzētētēs occurs here alone in the N.T. and elsewhere only in Ignatius, Ephesians. 18 quoting this passage, but the papyri give the verb sunzēteō for disputing (questioning together).
Hath not God made foolish? (ouchi emōranen ho theos̱). Strong negative form with aorist active indicative difficult of precise translation, “Did not God make foolish?” The old verb mōrainō from mōros, foolish, was to be foolish, to act foolish, then to prove one foolish as here or to make foolish as in Rom 1:22. In Mat 5:13; Luk 14:34 it is used of salt that is tasteless.
World (kosmou). Synonymous with aiōn (age), orderly arrangement, then the non-Christian cosmos.