Putting God in Context: 1 Corinthians 1:19 and a bad Translation

Just to begin, there is no book called Corinthians. There is First Corinthians or Second Corinthians. This passage is in First Corinthians. The passage begins with the words, For it is written, which was a standard Jewish practice for citing Jewish Scripture. That’s important to realize as there is a reason why Paul is citing scripture.

Here, Paul is citing Isaiah 29:14. Before jumping into the verse though, the translation that the meme is using simply isn’t the best. A better translation is: I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and the discernment of the discerning I will thwart.

So we have to take this passage in context, both within First Corinthians and with what is said in Isaiah. The whole thing comes back to a promise from God that God would rescue Israel despite the fact that there has been false consul by the wise.

This is part of a larger rhetoric that Paul is engaging in, where he speaks of God’s foolishness being wiser than human wisdom.

So this has nothing to do with destroying human wisdom, but it’s about destroying false wisdom pushed by false consul.

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Dustin Written by: