2:1 And when I came to you, brothers and sisters, I did not come as someone superior in ①speaking ability or ②wisdom, as I proclaimed to you the ③testimony of God.
▷ ①Lit speech ②Or cleverness ③One early ms mystery
2:2 For I determined to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ, and Him crucified.
2:3 I also was with you in weakness and fear, and in great trembling,
2:4 and my ①message and my preaching were not in persuasive words of ②wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power,
▷ ①Lit word ②Or cleverness
2:5 so that your faith would not ①rest on the ②wisdom of mankind, but on the power of God.
▷ ①Lit be ②Or cleverness
2:6 Yet we do speak wisdom among those who are mature; a wisdom, however, not of this age nor of the rulers of this age, who are passing away;
2:7 but we speak God’s wisdom in a mystery, the hidden wisdom which God predestined before the ages to our glory;
2:8 the wisdom which none of the rulers of this age has understood; for if they had understood it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory;
2:9 but just as it is written:
“THINGS WHICH EYE HAS NOT SEEN AND EAR HAS NOT HEARD,
AND which have not entered the human heart,
ALL THAT GOD HAS PREPARED FOR THOSE WHO LOVE HIM.”
2:10 ①For to us God revealed them through the Spirit; for the Spirit searches all things, even the depths of God.
▷ ①One early ms But
2:11 For who among people knows the thoughts of a person except the spirit of the person that is in him? So also the thoughts of God no one knows, except the Spirit of God.
2:12 Now we have not received the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, so that we may know the things freely given to us by God.
2:13 We also speak these things, not in words taught by human wisdom, but in those taught by the Spirit, ①combining spiritual thoughts with spiritual words.
▷ ①Or interpreting spiritual things for spiritual people
2:14 But ①a natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned.
▷ ①Or an unspiritual
2:15 But the one who is spiritual discerns all things, yet he himself is ①discerned by no one.
▷ ①Or judged
2:16 For WHO HAS KNOWN THE MIND OF THE LORD, THAT HE WILL INSTRUCT HIM? But we have the mind of Christ.