1 Corinthians 2:6 - Coke's Commentary on the Holy Bible

Howbeit, we speak wisdom, &c.— The next argument the Apostle uses, to shew them that they had no reason to glory in their teachers, is, that the knowledge of the Gospel, was not attainable by our natural parts, however they were improved byart and philosophy, but was wholly owing to revelation, 1 Corinthians 2:6-16. Perfect, in this verse, is the same with spiritual, 1 Corinthians 2:15.—One that is so perfectly well apprized of the divine nature and original of the Christianreligion, that he sees and acknowledges it to be all a pure revelation from God, and not in the least the product of human discovery, parts, or learning; and so, deriving it wholly from what God hath taught by his Spirit in the sacred Scriptures, allows not the least part of it to be ascribed to the skill or abilities of men. Thus perfect is opposed to carnal, ch. 1 Corinthians 3:1; 1 Corinthians 3:3 that is, such babesinChristianity,suchweakandmistakenChristians,thattheythoughtthe Gospel was to be managed as human arts and sciences among men of the world, and that those were better instructed and more in the right, who followed this master, or teacher, rather than another; and thus, glorying in being the disciples, one of Paul, another of Apollos, fell into divisions and parties about it, and vaunted one over another: whereas, in the school of Christ, all was to be built on the authority of God alone, and the revelation of his Spirit in the sacred Scriptures. Some render the clause, Howbeit, we teach wisdom in things most excellent. See Ezra 2:63. By the wisdom of this world, is meant the knowledge, arts, and sciences attainable by man's natural parts and faculties; such as man's wit could find out, cultivate, and improve, and such as the princes of this world approve, encourage, and endeavour to propagate. Though by αρχοντες του αιωνος τουτου, may here be understood the princes or great men of this world, in the ordinary sense of these words, says Mr. Locke; yet he that well considers 1 Corinthians 1:28 of the foregoing chapter, and 1 Corinthians 2:8 of this chapter, may find reason to think, that the Apostle here principally designs the rulers and great men of the Jewish nation. If it be objected, that there is little ground to think that St. Paul, by the wisdom he disowns, should mean that of his own nation, which the Greeks of Corinth (whom he was writing to) had little acquaintance with, and had very little esteem for,—I reply, that to understand this right, and the pertinency of it, we must remember, that the great design of St. Paul in writing to the Corinthians was, to take them off from therespect and esteem, that many of them had for a false apostle who was got in among them, and had there raised a faction against St. Paul. This pretended apostle, it is plain from 2 Corinthians 11:22 was a Jew, and, as it seems, 2 Corinthians 5:16-17, valued himself upon that account, and possibly boasted himself to be a man of note, either by birth, or alliance, or place, or learning among the people, who counted themselves the holy and illuminated people of God; and therefore to have a right to sway among those new heathen converts. To obviate this claim of his to any authority, St. Paul here tells the Corinthians, that the wisdom and learning of the Jewish nation led them not into the knowledge of the wisdom of God, that is to say, the Gospel revealed in the Old Testament; evident in this, that it was their rulers and rabbies who, stiffly adhering to the notions and prejudices of their nation, had crucified Jesus the Lord of glory, and were now themselves, with their state and religion, upon the point of being swept away and abolished. It is to the same purpose that, 2 Corinthians 4:16-18 he tells the Corinthians, that he knows no man after the flesh; that is to say, that he acknowledges no dignity of birth, or descent; or outward national privileges. "The old things of the Jewish constitution are past and gone; whoever is in Christ, and entered into his kingdom, is in a new creation, wherein, all things are new, all things are from God; no right, no claim or preference derived to any one from any former institution; but every one's dignity consists solely in this, that God hath reconciled him to himself, not imputing his former trespasses to him." Αιων ουτος which we translate this world, seems to me to signify commonly, if not constantly, in the New Testament, that state which, during the Mosaical constitution, men, either Jews or Gentiles, were in, as contradistinguished to the evangelical state or constitution; which is commonly called 'Αιων μελλων, ερχομενος, The world to come.—Who come to nought, means, who are vanishing. If the wisdom of this world, and of the princes of this world, is to be understood of the wisdom and learning of the world in general, as contradistinguished to the doctrine of the Gospel, then the words are added, to shew what folly it is for them to glory as they do in their teachers, when all that worldly wisdom and learning, and the great men the supporters of it, would quickly be gone; whereas all true and lasting glory came only from Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory. But if these words are to be understood of the Jews, as seems most consonant both to the main design of the Epistle, and to St. Paul's expressions here, then his telling them that the princes of the Jewish nation are brought to nought, is to take them off from glorying in their Judaizing false apostle; since the authority of the rulers of that nation in matters of religion was now at an end, and they with all their pretences, and their very constitution itself, were upon the point of being abolished and swept away, for having rejected and crucified the Lord of glory. See Locke.