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1 Corinthians 1

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Paul, called to be an apostle of Jesus Christ through the will of God, and Sosthenes our brother,

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Unto the church of God which is at Corinth, to them that are sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints, with all that in every place call upon the name of Jesus Christ our Lord, both theirs and ours:

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Grace be unto you, and peace, from God our Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ.

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I thank my God always on your behalf, for the grace of God which is given you by Jesus Christ;

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That in every thing ye are enriched by him, in all utterance, and in all knowledge;

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Even as the testimony of Christ was confirmed in you:

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So that ye come behind in no gift; waiting for the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ:

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Who shall also confirm you unto the end, that ye may be blameless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ.

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God is faithful, by whom ye were called unto the fellowship of his Son Jesus Christ our Lord.

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Now I beseech you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that ye all speak the same thing, and that there be no divisions among you; but that ye be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment.

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For it hath been declared unto me of you, my brethren, by them which are of the house of Chloe, that there are contentions among you.

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Now this I say, that every one of you saith, I am of Paul; and I of Apollos; and I of Cephas; and I of Christ.

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Is Christ divided? was Paul crucified for you? or were ye baptized in the name of Paul?

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I thank God that I baptized none of you, but Crispus and Gaius;

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Lest any should say that I had baptized in mine own name.

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And I baptized also the household of Stephanas: besides, I know not whether I baptized any other.

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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.

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

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

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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?

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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.

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For the Jews require a sign, and the Greeks seek after wisdom:

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But we preach Christ crucified, unto the Jews a stumblingblock, and unto the Greeks foolishness;

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But unto them which are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God, and the wisdom of God.

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

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For ye see your calling, brethren, how that not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called:

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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;

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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:

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That no flesh should glory in his presence.

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

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

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1 Corinthians 1

Paul opens with thanksgiving for the Corinthians' spiritual enrichment in Christ, but immediately names the crisis: divisions around allegiance to Paul, Apollos, Cephas, or Christ—a sectarianism that Paul defuses by asking whether he was crucified for them or they baptized in his name. He relativizes baptism itself, clarifying that Christ did not send him to baptize but to preach the gospel, and that the message of the cross—folly to the Greeks, a stumbling block to Jews—is precisely the power and wisdom of God. The paradox deepens: God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise, the weak to shame the strong, the lowborn and despised, so that no flesh should boast before God. Christ has become wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption for us, and Paul anchors the whole vision in Jeremiah's oracle: let the one who boasts boast in the Lord.

1 Corinthians 1:1

Paul, called to be an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God — the opening establishes Paul's authority not through human appointment but through divine calling (klēsis). The phrase 'by the will of God' (dia thelēmatos theou) grounds all that follows in God's sovereign action, not in personal ambition or rhetorical skill. For the status-conscious Corinthians, this framing would redirect their gaze from human patronage networks to God's purposive will.

1 Corinthians 1:2

To the church of God in Corinth, to those sanctified in Christ Jesus and called to be his holy people — 'church' (ekklēsia) means assembly; these are not simply a philosophical club but a called-out people. Sanctification (hagiazō) is both positional (in Christ) and vocational (called to be holy). The Corinthians' divisions will be exposed as contradicting their very identity as God's holy ones.

1 Corinthians 1:3

Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ — this dual blessing (charis and eirēnē) opens every Pauline epistle, signaling that all that follows flows from God's unmerited favor and the reconciling work of Christ. In a society built on status hierarchy, 'grace' subverts patronage logic: all receive this gift equally, regardless of wisdom or power.

1 Corinthians 1:4

I always thank my God for you because of his grace given you in Christ Jesus — Paul's gratitude is not sentimental but theological: the Corinthians have received God's grace (charis). Their gifts and spiritual abundance are not achievements but divine bestowal. This gratitude precedes rebuke and models the posture Paul will urge throughout: boasting in God alone, not in self.

1 Corinthians 1:5

For in him you have been enriched in every way — in all your speaking and in all your knowledge — the Corinthians are 'enriched' (eploutisthēte) in logos (speech/word) and gnōsis (knowledge). These twin gifts—eloquence and intellectual understanding—were precisely the currency of Corinthian pride. Paul acknowledges the gifts but will argue they have been misused to build human factions rather than God's temple.

1 Corinthians 1:6

This is because our testimony about Christ was confirmed in you — the testimony (martyrion) concerning Christ has been 'confirmed' (bebaioō) or made firm in the Corinthians' experience. Their spiritual gifts are not self-generated but are the Spirit's confirmation of the gospel message. Yet confirmation of truth does not guarantee proper use of truth.

1 Corinthians 1:7

Therefore you do not lack any spiritual gift as you await eagerly for our Lord Jesus Christ to be revealed — the Corinthians possess 'every spiritual gift' (charisma), yet they are still 'awaiting' (apekdechomenai) Christ's revelation. The tension is crucial: abundance of gifts now does not mean maturity or wisdom; eschatological completion is still future. This corrects any triumphalism.

1 Corinthians 1:8

He will also keep you firm to the end, so that you will be blameless on the day of our Lord Jesus Christ — 'firm' (bebaioō) and 'blameless' (anegklētos) are Paul's prayer, not the Corinthians' achievement. The final judgment will reveal who built with gold, silver, stone versus wood, hay, straw (ch. 3). Standing firm depends on Christ's faithfulness, not human moral attainment.

1 Corinthians 1:9

God is faithful, who has called you into fellowship with his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord — the foundation of all reassurance: God's faithfulness (pistis). 'Fellowship' (koinōnia) is not merely social friendship but participation in the person of Christ. The Corinthians' divisions mock this call to radical unity-in-Christ that transcends their worldly status categories.

1 Corinthians 1:10

I appeal to you, brothers and sisters, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree with one another in what you say and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be perfectly united in mind and thought — the opening plea uses 'I appeal' (parakalō), evoking both urgency and gentleness. 'Divisions' (schismata) are literally tears in fabric; they fragment the body. 'Perfectly united' (katērtismenoi) means perfectly fitted together, like joints in a body.

1 Corinthians 1:11

My brothers and sisters, some from Chloe's household have informed me that there are quarrels among you — Chloe is unnamed otherwise; perhaps she was a trusted trader or widow with information networks. The quarrels (eris) are not doctrinal subtleties but status-driven factionalism. Paul must address the social sin before moving to theological clarification.

1 Corinthians 1:12

What I mean is this: One of you says, 'I follow Paul'; another, 'I follow Apollos'; another, 'I follow Cephas'; and another, 'I follow Christ' — the four factions reveal the Corinthian disease: patronage loyalty. Cephas (Aramaic for Peter/rock) represents Jerusalem authority; Apollos (known as eloquent in Acts 18) represents rhetorical power; Paul represents apostolic pioneering; 'Christ' may be a super-spiritual faction or Paul's counterquestion. All four divide Christ's body.

1 Corinthians 1:13

Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Were you baptized in the name of Paul? — three rhetorical questions expose the absurdity. 'Is Christ divided?' (memeriston Christos) — the answer is ontologically No. The cross belongs to Christ alone; baptism's formula uses Christ's name, not Paul's. The Corinthians' hero-worship contradicts their baptismal identity.

1 Corinthians 1:14

I am thankful that I did not baptize any of you except Crispus and Gaius — Paul's relief (eucharisteō) that he baptized few is strategic: baptism's power rests in Christ, not in the one who administers it. His avoidance of extensive baptizing protects against false claims that converts 'belong' to Paul. The few names mentioned confirm Paul's historical presence in Corinth.

1 Corinthians 1:15

So no one can say that you were baptized in my name — the reason is clear: baptism in Christ's name is ontological transfer of ownership from self to Christ. Any baptism 'in Paul's name' would have created a false lord and fractured the singular lordship of Christ.

1 Corinthians 1:16

Yes, I also baptized the household of Stephanas; beyond that, I don't remember if I baptized anyone else — the admission of imprecise memory is refreshingly honest and theologically apt: baptism is not the locus of Paul's remembered mission. His memory fails on this point because the method of initiation mattered less than its object (Christ). This sets up the paradox: the Corinthians care intensely about who baptized them; Paul barely remembers.

1 Corinthians 1:17

For Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel — not by means of eloquent wisdom, or else the cross of Christ would lose its power — 'not to baptize but to preach' (kēryssō) is not disparagement of baptism but clarification of Paul's primary calling. The watershed comes in the second clause: preaching must not employ 'eloquent wisdom' (sophia logou), which would domesticate the cross into a rhetorical achievement. In Corinthian ears, 'eloquence' was the ultimate good; Paul warns it is the cross's enemy.

1 Corinthians 1:18

For the message of the cross is foolishness (mōria) to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God — the diairesis is absolute: two kinds of humans, two opposite verdicts on the cross. 'Foolishness' (mōria) is not mere silliness but logical incoherence: a crucified messiah contradicts power. Yet for 'those being saved' (sōzomenoi, present passive), the cross is dynamis theou (God's power actively at work). The question is which world's logic one inhabits.

1 Corinthians 1:19

For it is written: 'I will destroy the wisdom of the wise; the intelligence of the intelligent I will frustrate' — quoted from Isaiah 29:14, this prophecy announces God's judgment on human wisdom (sophia). 'Destroy' (apollymi) is total; 'frustrate' (athetēō) nullifies the smart's cleverness. The Corinthians, proud of their sophists, theologians, and orators, are warned that God has declared war on human wisdom as a path to truth.

1 Corinthians 1:20

Where is the wise person? Where is the scholar? Where is the philosopher of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? — four rhetorical questions press the point home with mounting force. 'This age' (ho aiōn houtos) is ruled by principalities that do not know God (2:8). The 'wisdom of the world' (sophia tou kosmou) is not benign knowledge but ideological blindness that mistakes power for truth and eloquence for wisdom.

1 Corinthians 1:21

For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not know him, God was pleased through the foolishness of what was preached to save those who believe — the paradox is sharpened: 'the world through its wisdom did not know him' — worldly wisdom is structurally incapable of knowing God. God therefore chose 'the foolishness of what was preached' (mōrian tēs kērygmatos), namely the gospel, to save. The Greek aorist 'was pleased' (eudokēsen) recalls God's sovereign pleasure at Creation and at Jesus's baptism.

1 Corinthians 1:22

Jews demand signs, Greeks look for wisdom — two cultures, two ultimate desires. 'Signs' (sēmeia) prove divine authorization; 'wisdom' (sophia) demonstrates intellectual mastery. Both are human frameworks of evaluation. Both will fail to grasp the cross unless the Spirit opens eyes. Corinth's mixed population likely included both Jewish and pagan wisdom-seekers who could not fit the crucified Christ into their categories.

1 Corinthians 1:23

But we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles — 'we preach' (kēryssō) is emphatic; Paul's message is singular and non-negotiable: Christ crucified (Christos estaurōmenos). 'Stumbling block' (skandalon, from which 'scandal' derives) means offensive, a rock that trips. To Jews, a crucified messiah contradicts scripture's promises of triumph; to Greeks, death-by-torture contradicts divine nature. Yet this is the gospel's heart.

1 Corinthians 1:24

But to those whom God has called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God — the 'but' (de) is Paul's reversal: those called by God (klētoi) see differently. To them, Christ crucified is not stumbling but power (dynamis) and not folly but wisdom (sophia). The genitive 'of God' is decisive: this is not human power or cleverness but God's own.

1 Corinthians 1:25

For the foolishness of God is wiser than human wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than human strength — the antithesis reaches its peak. If God has a 'foolishness' (even hypothetically), it surpasses human wisdom; if God has a 'weakness,' it surpasses human strength. This is not theology of the absurd but inversion of all values. The cross reveals that what the world calls weakness (suffering, death) is God's chosen means of salvation.

1 Corinthians 1:26

Brothers and sisters, think of what you were when you were called. Not many of you were wise by worldly standards; not many were influential; not many were of noble birth — Paul's 'not many' (ou polloi) is devastating social commentary. The Corinthian church, though perhaps prosperous, was not filled with the intellectual elite, the politically powerful, or the aristocracy. This fact subverts their status anxiety. God's choice of the 'not many' wise/powerful/noble is deliberate.

1 Corinthians 1:27

But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong — the divine choice (exelexato) is not random but purposeful: to shame (kataischy­nē) the wise and the strong. 'Things' (ta) depersonalizes—God uses not merely lowly people but lowly realities (the cross, the messiah's death, Paul's weakness). Shame in honor-shame culture is the deepest humiliation; God inflicts it on human pride.

1 Corinthians 1:28

God chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things — and the things that are not — to nullify the things that are — the descent into ever-greater lowliness: lowly (tapeinoi), despised (exouthenemena), 'things that are not' (ta mē onta). The phrase 'things that are not' recalls the Greek philosophical worry about non-being; Paul says God chooses the non-existent to nullify existence. This is paradoxical to worldly logic.

1 Corinthians 1:29

So that no one may boast before him — the purpose clause (hopōs) reveals the whole strategy: to exclude boasting (kauchaomai) before God. In Corinth's patronage world, boasting in patrons, wealth, and status defined social life. Paul announces God's redistributive justice: only one person can be boasted in—God himself.

1 Corinthians 1:30

It is because of him that you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God — that is, our righteousness, holiness and redemption — all Corinthian identity is 'because of him' (ex autou), not from their own attainment. Christ is our 'wisdom from God' (sophia apo theou), replacing human sophia. The fourfold description—righteousness (dikaiosynē), holiness (hagiasmos), redemption (apolytrōsis)—covers all the dimensions of salvation: legal standing, moral transformation, and final liberation.

1 Corinthians 1:31

Therefore, as it is written: 'Let the one who boasts boast in the Lord' — the citation is from Jeremiah 9:24, Paul's capstone. Boasting (kauchē) is not forbidden but redirected: boast exclusively in the Lord. This verse encapsulates chapters 1-4: the Corinthians must cease internal boasting in human teachers and make the singular object of pride God himself. All wisdom, power, status, and honor flow from him alone.