Some things never change
For it is written,
"I WILL DESTROY THE WISDOM OF THE WISE,
AND THE CLEVERNESS OF THE CLEVER I WILL SET ASIDE."
Where is the wise man? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world?
For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not come to know God, God was well-pleased through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe.
For indeed Jews ask for signs and Greeks search for wisdom;
but we preach Christ crucified, to Jews a stumbling block and to Gentiles foolishness,
but to those who are the called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.
Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men.
For consider your calling, brethren, that there were not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble;
but God has chosen the foolish things of the world to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to shame the things which are strong,
and the base things of the world and the despised God has chosen, the things that are not, so that He may nullify the things that are,
so that no man may boast before God.
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Gaytor on -
In this Epistle Paul continues on and eventually calls wisdom foolish and wise men vain. (1 Corinth 3:19-20) I think that in order to understand why Paul would think this way, it's important to understand what Paul thought about the longevity of the world.
Paul was an apocryphal writer. He thought that the world was about the imminently end. In 1 Thessalonians 4:16-17, he wrote: "For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord." (Link) There are a number of these that show Paul assuming that he was about to meet up with Jesus. In this perspective, what use would intelligence be? If you are about to meet God, a book talking about the orbit of the stars is pretty useless. But Paul was not correct about the timeline of Jesus' return.
Given that we are 2000 years removed from when the most prolific writer of the NT thought that world was going to end, it's time to worry about knowledge. If we don't, with the number of people that we have on the planet, we will see the death and destruction Paul spoke of caused by lack of food, clean water, and wars as the haves fight the have nots for all of their available plunder. Wisdom keeps us all alive, contrary to Paul's assertions.
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Permalink Reply by Keith A. Szilagyi on -
Even when I was a devout christian, I hated this passage. It says to me two things.
1. In order to be a christian you must check your brain at the door.
2. Don't think about the problems with the religion. You should just take everything on faith. This passage was used on me more then a couple of times when I was asking questions of my faith.
Burry your head in the sand and don't look at any evidence to the contrary. As Aric said, it really does seem like they were afraid that intelligent people would see through the bullshit.
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Permalink Reply by Apple on -
Intelligent people see through the bullshit now, and they did back then. I think that the idea of these verses does nothing to hinder people from seeing through the hoax, but rather it serves as a catch all against any arguement against the faith when talking to the "sheep." This way when obvious questions about the faith come up (Why did god have to have himself killed in order to forgive rather than just forgiving, etc) and there are no answers readily at hand then the preacher can always fall back on these lines. In other words, these verses serve to prevent the faithful from taking in information from "outside" sources.
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Permalink Reply by Cara Coleen on -
Ah, how wise you are! This passage may not draw anyone in, but it will certainly keep those who are in safely encased.
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Permalink Reply by Cara Coleen on
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I hated the anti-intellectual attitude Christians had while I was a believer, but I tried to use this passage to feel better about it and convince myself things didn't have to make sense. Fortunately, my brain won that one.
It's definitely surprising to me that Christians aren't suspicious of this passage. What would brainwashing look like if you were to look for it? Do you think the people trying to "wash" your brain would tell you about it? NO! They'd tell you wisdom was foolish and don't think too much... like our example above does.
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Permalink Reply by David on -
///1. In order to be a christian you must check your brain at the door.///
Not at all, it says the way you think is flawed.
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Permalink Reply by Keith A. Szilagyi on
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No, it says that "wisdom" is flawed.
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Permalink Reply by David on
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Be more specific when you quote it, it does not say that at all.
//but we preach Christ crucified, to Jews a stumbling block and to Gentiles foolishness,
but to those who are the called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.
Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men.//
The Gentiles "wisdom" is flawed. Do you know what a relative truth is?
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Permalink Reply by Keith A. Szilagyi on
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The whole passage is a denouncement of wisdom.
Oh, and where does it say "the way you think is flawed?" You accuse me of doing exactly what you have done, which is to interpret the passage!
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Permalink Reply by David on
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I jsut showed you the Gentiles view the cross as foolishness by their "wisdom". Then it goes on to say in indirect terms that God is infinitely more wise than they. "The foolishness of God is wiser than the wisdom of men" If you read up a few lines it says "For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not come to know God. . . ".
but the Gentiles through their wisdom see God as foolish
"For indeed Jews ask for signs and Greeks search for wisdom;
but we preach Christ crucified, to Jews a stumbling block and to Gentiles foolishness"
So this passage says that the "wisdom" of the Gentiles is flawed
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Permalink Reply by David on
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way to twist the meaning of this scripture to what you want it to be. I suggest you read up on exegesis not eisegesis, or putting what you want to see in the text. http://www.220generation.com/How_To_Do_An_Exegesis.pdf
Maybe you can learn from it
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Permalink Reply by Mario Rodgers on -
Oh yes. This tired routine. The "proper context" defense. Or the "you need an instructional manual to understand our instruction manual so we have these priests and people of the faith to help you" card. Or how about the "it's all metaphor" gambit?
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