Heb, ii. 4; Lk. 1. 17, iv. 14, xxiv. 49; Acts i. 8, x 38. q xiii. 10, xiv. 20; Eph. iv. 13; Ph. iii. 15; Col. i. 28, iv. 12; Heb. v. τή; Jas. i. 4; Mt. v. s Jo. xii. 31, xiv. 30, xvi. 11, with κοσµου; in pl. A.L.; cf. Eph. ii. 2, οι αρχοντες, Rom. xiii 3; Mt. xx. 25; Lk xxii 13, 35, xxiv. 20; Acts iii. 17, and six othe
Η.Ι. in N.T. See vb, in 1ν.ο. n In ver. 13, vii. 40; 2 Cor. iii. 3, αἰῶνος "τούτου τῶν 6, Rom. Vili. 9, 13- 15, and ο In combination with πν., xii. 10; Rom. i. 4, p see
rs
(4), governing aim (5), illustrated and accorded with the Gospel, as that is a message from God through which His power works to the confounding of human wisdom by the seeming impo- tence of a crucified Messiah (i. 17 5-31).
§ 7. THE GOSPEL CONSIDERED AS WISDOM, ii. 6-9. So far Paul has been maintaining that his message is a “‘ folly,” with which “ wisdom of word” is out of keeping; yet all the while he makes it felt that it is wisdom in the truest sense —‘‘God’s wisdom,” convicting in its turn the world of folly. If relatively the Gospel is not wisdom, absolutely it is so,—to persons qualified to understand it, This P. now proceeds to show (ii. 6-iii. 2: cf. Introd. to Div. Π.). The message of the cross is wisdom to the right people (§ 7), qualified to comprehend it (§ 8).
Ver. 6. Σοφίαν δὲ λαλοῦμεν κ.τ.λ.: “(there is) a wisdom, however, (that) we speak amongst the full-grown”. The anarthrous, predicative σοφίαν asserts that to be “ wisdom” which in ironical deference to the world has been styled “folly” (i. 21 ff.). ἐν τοῖς τελείοις, the mature, the initiates (opp. to νήπιοι, παιδία, iii. I, xiv. 20; see parls.) = πνεν- ματικοὶ in contrast with the relatively σάρκινοι (ili. 1; cf. note on µυστήριον, νετ. 7). “‘The curtain must be lifted with a caution measured by the spiritual intelligence of the spectators, ἐπόπται ’' (Ev.). This τελειότης the Cor. had by no means reached; hence they failed to see where the real wisdom of the Gospel lay, and estimated its ministers by worldly standards. ἐν signifies not to, nor in yelation to, but amongst the qualified hearers—in such a circle P. freely ex- pounded deeper truths. λαλέω (cf. 7, 13), to utter, speak out :*P. uses the pl. not thinking of Sosthenes in particular (i. 1), but of his fellow-preachers generally, including Apollos (i. 23, and xy. 11, etc. iii. 6, iv. 6).
The ‘“*wisdom” uttered in such com- pany is defined first negatively: “but a
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See i. 28. u Seei. a viv.1; Eph. ~}
μα η
Col. 1]. 2,
iv. 3; Rev. x. 7; Mt. xiii. rr.
viii. 296: Eph. i 5,11; Acts iv. 28. y
i. 20; Jo. xvii. 24; see x. 11 below.
w Eph. iii. ah i. 26; Lk. x. 21; cf. Rom. xvi. 25.