Paul Now Stresses His Own Example To Demonstrate That the Gospel in its Successful Presentation by Him Had Not Been with Eloquence and Wisdom, But In Power (2:1-8).
‘And I, brothers, when I came to you, did not come with excellency of speech or of wisdom, proclaiming to you the mystery (or ‘testimony') of God, for I determined not to know anything among you except Jesus Christ and him the crucified one.'
In accordance with what he has said Paul reminds them of how he himself approached them with the Gospel. He did not come as an orator using flowery words. He did not put on a show of wisdom pretending to, and expanding on, special knowledge. He simply and straightly preached Jesus Christ and Him crucified. He is not here attacking eloquence or true wisdom. He is attacking preaching which gained its sole impact through eloquence, and depended on eloquence for its effect, and wisdom which was wisdom in men's eyes, but not in God's, as described in the previous verses, both of which could blur the essential content of the message.
‘Proclaiming to you the mystery (or testimony) of God'. The early authorities are fairly equally divided between reading ‘mystery' (musterion) or ‘testimony' (marturion) with the edge towards ‘mystery'. The third century papyrus 46 (the Chester Beatty papyrus) and the 4th century Codex Sinaiticus, together with 5th century Alexandrinus, support ‘mystery' but the fourth century Codex Vaticanus, and a fifth century (?) ‘correction' in Codex Sinaiticus support ‘testimony'. But as the term ‘mystery' also appears in 1 Corinthians 2:7, and the ‘mystery of God' is also mentioned in Colossians 2:2; Revelation 10:7 (compare also 1 Timothy 3:16 ‘the mystery of godliness'), whereas the term ‘the testimony of God' occurs nowhere else in the New Testament, the weight would seem to be towards ‘mystery' as the correct original. For ‘testimony' is usually used in relation to Christ.
The term ‘the testimony of Christ' occurs in 1 Corinthians 1:6 and ‘the testimony of our Lord' in 2 Timothy 1:8. The ‘testimony of Jesus Christ' appears in Revelation 1:2; Revelation 1:9 in parallel with ‘the word of God' and in 1 Corinthians 12:17 in parallel with ‘the commandments of God'. The ‘testimony of Jesus' is found in Revelation 19:10. Thus in view of the fact that the idea of testimony or witness is always elsewhere referred to Jesus Christ and not God, and the ‘mystery of God' is mentioned elsewhere, we must favour ‘mystery' as the original here as in 1 Corinthians 2:7, unless there is good reason to do otherwise
In the New Testament a ‘mystery' refers to God's divine plan, once hidden but now revealed openly to His own. It is a testimony now made to something not fully previously known. Thus Paul is here referring to the message of the cross as something once hidden, although indirectly depicted in the Old Testament sacrifices, but now openly revealed and declared as the means of salvation. Although depicted clearly in Old Testament prophecy (e.g. Isaiah 53), it was of such a nature that man's wisdom had not caught on to it. And its present revelation now especially brought out the folly of man's wisdom. This fits aptly into this context, and ties in with its use in 1 Corinthians 2:7.
In favour of ‘testimony' some would question as to why any copyist should make the change this way. But the reason is not hard to find. ‘Testimony' is superficially attractive because the whole passage is referring to Paul's testimony to the Corinthians, and it is unlikely that the copyist would discern or think about its parallel usages. And ‘testimony' had then become an ‘in word' for the witness, often to death, of Christians before the heathen world and heathen judges. And they knew that Paul had been a ‘marturos'.
‘I determined not to.' That is, ‘made a judgment that I would not--' (krino - to judge).
‘Know anything among you except Christ, the crucified One.' His message was to be centred only on Christ with special emphasis on Him as the One Who was crucified and now lives, with no flowery background calling on many aspects of wisdom. All was to be centred on Christ. All was to be centred on the cross. And as his letters make clear that means that it included all that He was doing and would yet do as a result of the victory obtained at the cross. For every aspect of the work of Christ, past, present and future, centres around the cross. All that we receive from God comes through the cross. His ministry would thus not be a restricted one except in this, that in everything Jesus Christ as the crucified and risen Saviour was to be kept central and made abundantly clear.