1 Corinthians 1:20
What does 1 Corinthians 1:20 mean?
A plain-English look at 1 Corinthians 1:20 in WEB alongside six other public-domain English translations, with cross-references and chapter context.
What 1 Corinthians 1:20 means
Paul asks where the wise, the scribe, and the debater of this age are—have they not been shown foolish by God? His point is not to despise learning but to expose its insufficiency to produce salvation. The arrival of the gospel renders merely human claims to insight hollow. The best of human rhetoric and scholarship cannot substitute for revelation through Christ. When God acts in the cross and resurrection, He overturns the pretensions of every age. The church should not be captivated by the latest intellectual fashions but by the eternal wisdom displayed in Jesus. True understanding begins at the foot of the cross, where human boasting dies.
Parallel translations
WEB
World English Bible · 2000Where is the wise? where is the scribe? where is the disputer of this world? hath not God made foolish the wisdom of the world?
KJV
King James Version · 1611Where is the wise? where is the scribe? where is the disputer of this world? hath not God made foolish the wisdom of this world?
ASV
American Standard Version · 1901Where is the wise? where is the scribe? where is the disputer of this world? hath not God made foolish the wisdom of the world?
BBE
Bible in Basic English · 1949Where is the wise? where is he who has knowledge of the law? where is the man of this world who has a love of discussion? has not God made foolish the wisdom of this world?
YLT
Young's Literal Translation · 1862where <FI>is<Fi> the wise? where the scribe? where a disputer of this age? did not God make foolish the wisdom of this world?
DRA
Douay-Rheims (Challoner) · 1752Where is the wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the disputer of this world? Hath not God made foolish the wisdom of this world?
DBY
Darby Bible · 1890Where [is the] wise? where scribe? where disputer of this world? has notGod made foolish the wisdom of the world?
Context
Following the Scripture citation (verse 19), Paul taunts the champions of human wisdom to highlight their inadequacy before God’s saving action. Next, verse 21 will explain how, in God’s wisdom, the world did not know Him by its wisdom, so He chose to save through the preached message. This sets the stage for verses 22–24, where Paul describes typical Jewish and Greek responses to the cross, intensifying the contrast between human expectations and God’s appointed means of salvation.
v.19For it is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, And the discernment of the discerning will I bring to nought.
v.20This passage
v.21For seeing that in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom knew not God, it was God’s good pleasure through the foolishness of the preaching to save them that believe.
Cross references
Related passages from across Scripture, drawn from the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge.
- Job 12:17
He leadeth counsellors away stripped, And judges maketh he fools.
- 1 Corinthians 3:19
For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God. For it is written, He that taketh the wise in their craftiness:
- Isaiah 53:1
Who hath believed our message? and to whom hath the arm of Jehovah been revealed?
- 2 Samuel 16:23
And the counsel of Ahithophel, which he gave in those days, was as if a man inquired at the oracle of God: so was all the counsel of Ahithophel both with David and with Absalom.
- Romans 1:22
Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools,
- Isaiah 19:11
The princes of Zoan are utterly foolish; the counsel of the wisest counsellors of Pharaoh is become brutish: how say ye unto Pharaoh, I am the son of the wise, the son of ancient kings?
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