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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comRobertson Word Pictures - 1 Corinthians 1:21 - 1:21
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This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
Seeing that (epeidē). Since (epei and dē) with explanatory gar.
Through its wisdom (dia tēs sophias). Article here as possessive. The two wisdoms contrasted.
Knew not God (ouk egnō). Failed to know, second aorist (effective) active indicative of ginōskō, solemn dirge of doom on both Greek philosophy and Jewish theology that failed to know God. Has modern philosophy done better? There is today even a godless theology (Humanism). “Now that God’s wisdom has reduced the self-wise world to ignorance” (Findlay).
Through the foolishness of the preaching (dia tēs mōrias tou kērugmatos). Perhaps “proclamation” is the idea, for it is not kēruxis, the act of heralding, but kērugma, the message heralded or the proclamation as in 1Co 1:23. The metaphor is that of the herald proclaiming the approach of the king (Mat 3:1; Mat 4:17). See also kērugma in 1Co 2:4; 2Ti 4:17. The proclamation of the Cross seemed foolishness to the wiseacres then (and now), but it is consummate wisdom, God’s wisdom and good-pleasure (eudokēsan). The foolishness of preaching is not the preaching of foolishness.
To save them that believe (sōsai tous pisteuontas). This is the heart of God’s plan of redemption, the proclamation of salvation for all those who trust Jesus Christ on the basis of his death for sin on the Cross. The mystery-religions all offered salvation by initiation and ritual as the Pharisees did by ceremonialism. Christianity reaches the heart directly by trust in Christ as the Saviour. It is God’s wisdom.