📖WEB · 1 Corinthians 1:19
What does 1 Corinthians 1:19 mean?
"For it is written, “I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, I will bring the discernment of the discerning to nothing.”"
— 1 Corinthians 1:19 (World English Bible)
Surrounding context
(I also baptized the household of Stephanas; besides them, I don’t know whether I baptized any other.)
For Christ sent me not to baptize, but to preach the Good News—not in wisdom of words, so that the cross of Christ wouldn’t be made void.
For the word of the cross is foolishness to those who are dying, but to us who are saved it is the power of God.
For it is written, “I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, I will bring the discernment of the discerning to nothing.”
Where is the wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the lawyer of this world? Hasn’t God made foolish the wisdom of this world?
For seeing that in the wisdom of God, the world through its wisdom didn’t know God, it was God’s good pleasure through the foolishness of the preaching to save those who believe.
For Jews ask for signs, Greeks seek after wisdom,
Explanation
In this verse, Paul is quoting the Old Testament (Isaiah 29:14) to make a striking point: God has declared that he will overturn and nullify human wisdom—not because wisdom itself is bad, but because human wisdom, when it sets itself up as the final authority or as a substitute for God, will be shown to be powerless and empty. The verse says, in plain language, that the cleverest human reasoning and the sharpest human insight will ultimately fail to grasp or contain the truth of God, and God will demonstrate this by confounding those who trust in their own intellectual sophistication.
The context is essential here. Paul is writing to the church in Corinth, a city famous for its love of rhetoric, philosophy, and worldly sophistication. The Corinthian believers were quarreling and dividing into factions, some of them prizing eloquent speech and impressive-sounding wisdom over the simple message of the gospel. Paul begins his letter by confronting this pride directly. Just before this verse, in 1:18, he states that "the word of the cross is foolishness to those who are dying, but to us who are saved it is the power of God." He then reaches back to Isaiah to show that God has always worked this way—confounding human pride with what looks like foolishness to the world.
Theologically, this verse teaches that the cross of Christ is the ultimate example of God's wisdom overturning human wisdom. The message of a crucified Messiah seemed absurd and shameful by the standards of both Jewish expectation (which wanted power and signs) and Greek philosophy
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