speculative manner, so that the truth taught should be pre- sented in a philosophical form. According to this view the doctrine taught would still be the gospel, but the thing re- jected and condemned would be merely the philosophical mode of exhibiting it. 3. The meaning may be, not with a discourse characterized by wisdom ; that is, the contents of which was human wisdom, instead of truths revealed by God. The context is in favour of the mterpretation last mentioned. In this whole connection the apostle contrasts two kinds of wisdom. The one he describes as the wisdom of the world, the wisdom of men, or of the rulers of the world. By this he means human wisdom, that which has a human origin. This he pronounces to be folly, and declares it to be entirely ineffi- cacious in the salvation of men. The other kind of wisdom, he calls the wisdom of God, i. e. derived from God ; the hid- den wisdom, consisting in truths which human reason never could discover. The fonner he repudiates. He says, he did not come to preach the teachings of human reason, but the testimony of God. He was among them in the character, not of a philosopher, but of a witness. As in what follows the apostle argues to prove that human wisdom is folly and can- not save men, and gives that as the reason why he came preaching the doctrine of the cross, it seems plain that this is the meaning of the passage before us. ' Christ sent me to preach, not with wise discourse, that is, not with human wis- dom— not as a philosopher, but as a witness.' His preaching therefore was the simple exhibition of the truth which God had revealed.
Lest the cross of Christ should be made of none effect, i. e. rendered powerless and inoperative. If Paul in preaching had either substituted human wisdom for the doctrine of the cross, or had so presented that doctrine as to turn it into a philosophy, his preaching would have been powerless. It would lose its divine element and become nothing more than human wisdom. Whatever obscures the cross deprives the gospel of its power.
18. For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish, fooHshness ; but unto us which are saved, it is the power of God.
77ie preaching of the cross, or, the doctrine (6 Xoyos) of the cross, that is, the doctrine of salvation through the crucifixion