1 Corinthians 2:7 - Coke's Commentary on the Holy Bible

We speak the wisdom of God— The wisdom of God is used here for the doctrine of the Gospel, coming immediately from God by the revelation of his Spirit; and in this chapter it is set in opposition to all knowledge, discoveries, and improvements whatsoever, attainable by human industry, parts, and study, all which he calls the wisdom of the world, and man's wisdom;—thus distinguishing the knowledge of the Gospel, which was derived wholly from revelation, and could be had no other way, from all other knowledge whatsoever. What the Spirit of God had revealed of the Gospel during the times of the law, was so little understood by the Jews, in whose sacred writings it was contained, that it might well be called the wisdom of God in a mystery, that is to say, declared in obscure prophesies, and mysterious expressions and types. Though this be undoubtedly so, as appears by what the Jews both thought and did, when Jesus the Messiah, exactly answering what was foretold of him, came among them, yet by the wisdom of God in a mystery, wherein it was hid, though proposed by God before the settling of the Jewish oeconomy, St. Paul seems more particularly to mean what the Gentiles, and consequently the Corinthians, were more peculiarly concerned in; viz. God's purpose of calling the Gentiles to be his people under the Messiah; which, though revealed in the Old Testament, yet was not in the least understood till the times of the Gospel, and the preaching of St. Paul, the Apostle of the Gentiles, which therefore he so frequently calls a mystery. The reading and comparing Romans 16:25-26, Ephesians 3:3-9, Ephesians 6:19-20, Colossians 1:26-27, Colossians 2:1-8 and Colossians 4:3-4 will give light to this. To which give me leave to observe upon the use of the word wisdom here, that St. Paul, speaking of God's calling the Gentiles, cannot, in mentioning it, forbear expressions of his admiration of the great and incomprehensible wisdom of God therein. See Ephesians 3:8; Ephesians 3:10, Romans 11:33. The term Προ των αιωνων, signifies properly, before the ages; and I think it may be doubted whether these words, before the world, do exactly render the sense of the place. That αιων, or αιωνες, should not be translated the world, as in many places they are, I shall give one convincing instance, among many that might be brought, viz. Ephesians 3:9 compared with Colossians 1:26. The words in Colossians are, το μυστεριον το αποκεκρυμμενον απο αιωνων, thus rendered in the English translation, which hath been hidden from ages; but in Ephesians 3:9 a parallel place, the same words του μυστηριου του αποκεκρυμμενου απο των αιωνων, are translated, The mystery which from the beginning of the world hath been hid; whereas it is plain from Colossians 1:26 that απο των αιωνων, does not signify the epoch or commencement of the concealment, but those from whom it was concealed. It is plain that the Apostle, in the verse immediately preceding, and that following this which we have before us, speaks of the Jews; and therefore the phrase προ των αιωνων here, may be well understood to mean before the ages of the Jews; and so απ αιωνων, from the ages of the Jews, in the other two mentioned texts. Why the word αιωνες, in these and other places, (as Luke 1:70, Acts 3:21 and elsewhere,) should be appropriated to the ages of the Jews, may be owing to their counting by ages, or jubilees. See Mr. Locke, and Dr. Burthogge's judicious treatise, "Christianity a revealed Mystery," 100. 2. p. 17.