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SECT. II. N°. 2.

CHAP. I. 17-31.

CONTENTS.

THE next argument of St. Paul, to stop their followers from glorying in these false apostles, is, that neither any advantage of extraction, nor skill in the learning of the jews, nor in the philosophy and eloquence of the greeks, was that, for which God chose men to be preachers of the gospel. Those, whom he made choice of, for overturning the mighty and the learned, were mean, plain, illiterate men.

.TEXT.

17 For Christ sent me not to baptize, but to preach the gospel: not with wisdom of words, lest the cross of Christ should be made of none effect.

18 For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness: but unto us, which are saved, it is the power of God.

19 For it is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and will bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent.

20 Where is the wise? where is the scribe? where is the disputer of this world? hath not God made foolish the wisdom of this world?

PARAPHRASE.

17 For Christ sent me not to baptize, but to preach the gospel; not with learned and eloquent harangues, lest thereby the virtue and efficacy of Christ's sufferings and death should be overlooked and neglected, if the stress of our persuasion should be laid on the learning and 18 quaintness of our preaching. For the plain insisting on the death of a crucified Saviour is, by those, who perish, received as a foolish, contemptible thing; though to us, 19 who are saved, it be the power of God, Conformable to what is prophecied by Isaiah: "I will destroy the "wisdom of the wise, and I will bring to nothing the 20" understanding of the prudent." Where is the philosopher, skilled in the wisdom of the greeks? Where

TEXT.

21 For after that, in the wisdom of God, the world, by wisdom, knew not God, it pleased God, by the foolishness of preaching, to save them that believe.

22 For the jews require a sign, and the greeks seek after wisdom:

PARAPHRASE.

the scribe, studied in the learning of the jews? Where the professor of human arts and sciences? Hath not God rendered all the learning and wisdom of this world foolish, and useless for the discovery of the truths of the 21 gospel? For since the world, by their natural parts,

and improvements in what, with them, passed for wisdom, acknowledged not the one, only, true God, though he had manifested himself to them, in the wise contrivance and admirable frame of the visible works of the creation; it pleased God, by the plain, and (as the world esteems it) foolish doctrine of the gospel, to save those 22 who receive and believe it. Since both the jews de

NOTES.

20 a Scribe was the title of a learned man amongst the jews; one versed in their law and rites, which was the study of their doctors and rabbies. It is likely the false apostle, so much concerned in these two epistles to the corinthians, who was a jew, pretended to something of this kind, and magnified himself thereupon; otherwise it is not probable, that St. Paul should name, to the corinthians, a sort of men not much known, or valued, among t the greeks. This, therefore, may be supposed to be said to take off their glorying in their false apostle.

22 b'ETdi nal," since both." These words used here, by St. Paul, are not certainly idle and insignificant, and therefore I see not how they can be omitted in the translation.

'Ed is a word of reasoning, and, if minded, will lead us into one of St. Paul's reasonings here, which the neglect of this word makes the reader overlook. St. Paul, in ver. 21, argues thus in general: "Since the world, by "their natural parts and improvements, did not attain to a right and saving "knowledge of God, God, by the preaching of the gospel, which seems foolishness to them, was pleased to communicate that knowledge to those who "believed."

In the three following verses, he repeats the same reasoning, a little more expressly applied to the people he had here in his view, viz. jews and greeks; and his sense seems to be this: "Since the jews, to make any doctrine go down "with them, require extraordinary signs of the power of God to accompany "it, and nothing will please the nice palates of the learned greeks, but wisdom; "and though our preaching of a crucified Messiah be a scandal to the jews, and "foolishness to the greeks, yet we have what they both seek; for both jew and "gentile, when they are called, find the Messiah, whom we preach, to be the power of God, and the wisdom of God."

25, 27, 28. He that will read the context, cannot doubt but that St. Paul,

TEXT.

23 But we preach Christ crucified, unto the jews a stumbling block, and unto the greeks foolishness.

24 But unto them which are called, both jews and greeks, Christ, the power of God, and the wisdom of God:

25 Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men; and the weakness of God is stronger than men.

26 For ye see your calling, brethren, how that not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called. 27 But God hath chosen the foolish things of the world, to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things of the world, to confound the things which are mighty:

28 And base things of the world, and things which are despised, hath God chosen, yea, and things which are not, to bring to nought things that are:

PARAPHRASE.

mand extraordinary signs and miracles, and the greeks 23 seek wisdom: But I have nothing else to preach to them, but Christ crucified, a doctrine offensive to the hopes and expectations of the jews; and foolish to the 24 acute men of learning, the greeks; But yet it is to these, both jews and greeks, (when they are converted) Christ, the power of God, and Christ, the wisdom of God: 25 Because that, which seems foolishness in those, who came from God, surpasses the wisdom of man; and that, which seems weakness in those sent by God, sur26 passes the power of men. For reflect upon yourselves, brethren, and you may observe, that there are not many of the wise and learned men, not many men of power, 27 or of birth, among you, that are called. But God hath chosen the foolish men, in the account of the world, to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak men 28 of the world, to confound the mighty: The mean men of the world, and contemptible, has God chosen, and those that are of no account, are nothing, to displace

NOTES.

by what he expresses in these verses, in the neuter gender, means persons, the whole argument of the place being about persons, and their glorying: and not about things.

"

28 Tà un ôvra, "Things that are not," I think may well be understood of the gentiles, who were not the people of God, and were counted as nothing, by the jews; and we are pointed to this meaning, by the words xaraloxóry

TEXT.

29 That no flesh should glory in his presence.

30 But of him are ye, in Christ Jesus, who, of God, is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption:

31 That, according as it is written, "He that glorieth, let him "glory in the Lord."

PARAPHRASE.

29 those that are: That so there might be no room, or pre30 tence, for any one to glory in his presence. Natural, human abilities, parts or wisdom, could never have reached this way to happiness: it is to his wisdom alone, that ye owe the contrivance of it; to his revealing of it, that ye owe the knowledge of it; and it is from him alone, that you are in Christ Jesus, whom God has made to us, Christians, wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption, which is all the dignity and pre-eminence, all that is of any value, amongst us 31 Christians: That, as it is written, He that glorieth, should glory only in the Lord.

NOTE.

and xarapynon, "by the foolish and weak things," i.e. by simple, illiterate, and mean men, God would make ashamed the learned philosophers, and great men of the nations; but, by the un vra, "things that are not," he would abolish the things that are, as, in effect, he did abolish the jewish church, by the christian, taking in the gentiles to be his people, in the place of the rejected jews, who, until then, were his people. This St. Paul mentions here, not by chance, but pursuant to his main design, to stay their glorying in their false apostle, who was a jew; by showing that, whatever that head of the faction might claim, under that pretence, as it is plain he did stand upon it (see 2 Cor. xi. 21, 22.) he had not any the least title to any esteem, or respect, upon that account; since the jewish nation was laid aside, and God had chosen the gen tiles to take their place, and to be his church and people instead of them; vid. note on ch. ii. ver. 6. There one may see who are the naтagyuevo, "the abo"lished," whom God says here, xarapynon, "he will abolish.”

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FARTHER to keep them from glorying in their leaders, he tells them, that as the preachers of the gospel, of God's choosing, were mean and illiterate men, so the gospel was not to be propagated, nor men to be established in the faith, by human learning and eloquence, but by the evidence it had, from the revelation contained in the old Testament, and from the power of God accompanying and confirming it with miracles.

TEXT.

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

PARAPHRASE.

1 AND I, brethren, when I came and preached the gospel to you, I did not endeavour to set it off with any ornaments of rhetoric, or the mixture of human learning, or philosophy; but plainly declared it to you, as a doctrine coming from God, revealed and attested by him.

NOTE.

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1 To μaprófior TO, "The testimony of God," i. e. what God hath revealed and testified in the Old Testament; the apostle here declares to the corinthians, that, when he brought the gospel to them, he made no use of human science, improvement, or skill; no insinuations of eloquence, no philosophical speculations, or ornaments of human learning, appeared in any thing he said to persuade them: all his arguments were, as he tells them, verse 4, from the revelation of the Spirit of God, in the predictions of the Old Testainent, and the miracles, which he (Paul) did among them, that their faith might be built wholly upon the Spirit of God, and not upon the abilities and wisdom of man; though uaplupio Te O, "The testimony of God," agrees very well with so much of St. Paul's meaning, as relates to his founding his preaching on the testimony of God, yet those copies, which read spon mystery, for uaplúpior, testimony, seem more perfectly to correspond with St. Paul's sense in the whole latitude of it. For though he owns the doctrine of the gospel, dictated by the Spirit of God, to be contained in the scriptures of the Old Testament, and builds upon revelation; yet he every where teaches, that it remained a secret there, not understood till they were led into the hidden, evangelical meaning of those passages, by the coming of Jesus Christ, and by

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