1 Corinthians 2

¹And when I came to you, brothers, I did not come with superiority of speech or wisdom, announcing to you the testimony of God. ²For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ, and him crucified. ³And I was with you in weakness and fear and much trembling. ⁴And my speech and my proclamation were not with wisdom's persuasion, but with a demonstration of the Spirit and power, ⁵so that your faith might rest not on human wisdom but on God's power.

⁶Yet we speak wisdom among the mature, but not the wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age, who are being brought to nothing. ⁷Rather, we speak God's wisdom in a mystery, the hidden wisdom that God destined beforehand for our glory before the ages. ⁸None of the rulers of this age has known it, for if they had known it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. ⁹But as it is written, “What no eye has seen and no ear has heard, and what has not entered a human heart—what God has prepared for those who love him.” ¹⁰For God revealed these things to us through the Spirit. For the Spirit searches everything, even God's depths. ¹¹For who among people knows a person's affairs except that person's spirit within him? In the same way, no one has known God's affairs except God's Spirit. ¹²But we received not the spirit of the world but the Spirit who is from God, so that we might know the things freely given to us by God.

¹³We also speak these things, not in words taught by human wisdom but in words taught by the Spirit, interpreting spiritual things to spiritual people. ¹⁴But the natural person does not accept the things of God's Spirit, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot know them because they are examined spiritually. ¹⁵But the spiritual person examines all things, while he himself is examined by no one. ¹⁶For “Who has known the Lord's mind, who will instruct him?” But we have Christ's mind.

Translation notes 6

2:1–2 — Testimony and the cross. A substantial textual alternative in verse 1 is “mystery of God” rather than “testimony of God.” Both have early support. “To know nothing” describes Paul's chosen focus among them; the translation does not reduce it to an assertion that he possessed no other knowledge. “Brothers” includes the community's women.

2:3–5 — Persuasion and power. The working Greek base has the unusual “wisdom's persuasion” in verse 4. Most other critical editions read “persuasive words of wisdom,” while another tradition also adds “human.” The base's precise textual support is unusually uncertain; its retention is provisional. “Demonstration of the Spirit and power” does not itself specify a particular miracle or reduce the Spirit's work to formal proof.

2:6–8 — Mature people and rulers. “Mature” contrasts with the infants of 3:1, rather than requiring moral perfection. “Rulers of this age” can refer to human authorities, hostile spiritual powers, or human rule understood together with such powers; the text does not name them. “Mystery” here concerns God's previously hidden wisdom, now revealed, rather than an unsolvable puzzle.

2:9–12 — Hidden things revealed. Verse 9 echoes especially Isaiah 64:4 and related scriptural language; its wording does not exactly match one surviving Old Testament verse. The heart includes thought and understanding. Verse 10 says these things have been revealed through the Spirit, so the quotation is not simply a statement that they can never be known. “God's depths” retains the image of what lies deep within God.

2:13 — Spiritual things and people. The last phrase can mean interpreting spiritual things to spiritual people, interpreting spiritual things in spiritual words, or combining spiritual things with spiritual things. The first is preferred here because verses 14–15 and 3:1 immediately discuss the people able or unable to receive the message. The grammar permits the other readings.

2:14–16 — Natural and spiritual. “Natural” means a person considered apart from the Spirit's enabling here; it does not mean nature-loving, unintelligent, or uniquely bodily. “Spiritual” concerns God's Spirit, not vague religious sensitivity. “Examine” is the repeated verb for discerning or assessing, not simply issuing a final verdict. The statement that the spiritual person is examined by no one concerns this contrast; it is not an added permission to evade all accountability. Verse 16 quotes Isaiah 40:13 and then speaks of Christ's mind.