1 Corinthians 1

1 Paul, a called apostle of Jesus Christ through the will of God, and Sosthenes the brother,

Paul, called to be an Apostle of Christ Jesus through the will of God--and our brother Sosthenes:

2 to the congregation of God that is at Corinth, to called men, to holy men who have been sanctified in Christ Jesus with all in every place who call upon the name of our the Lord Jesus Christ-both ours and theirs.

To the Church of God in Corinth, men and women consecrated in Christ Jesus, called to be saints, with all in every place who call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ-- their Lord as well as ours.

3 Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

May grace and peace be granted to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

4 I thank my God always about you, for the grace of God that was given you in Christ Jesus,

I thank my God continually on your behalf for the grace of God bestowed on you in Christ Jesus--

5 that in everything ye were enriched in him, in all speech and in all knowledge.

that you have been so richly blessed in Him, with readiness of speech and fulness of knowledge.

6 Just as the testimony of Christ was confirmed in you,

Thus my testimony as to the Christ has been confirmed in your experience,

7 so that ye come behind in not one gift, waiting for the revealing of our Lord Jesus Christ,

so that there is no gift of God in which you consciously come short while patiently waiting for the reappearing of our Lord Jesus Christ,

8 who will also confirm you until the end, irreproachable in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ.

who will also keep you stedfast to the very End, so that you will be free from reproach on the day of our Lord Jesus Christ.

9 God is faithful through whom ye were called for the fellowship of his Son Jesus Christ our Lord.

God is ever true to His promises, and it was by Him that you were, one and all, called into fellowship with his Son Jesus Christ, our Lord.

10 Now I beseech you, brothers, through the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that ye all speak the same thing, and there be no divisions among you, but ye may be thoroughly prepared in the same mind and in the same understanding.

Now I entreat you, brethren, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, to cultivate a spirit of harmony--all of you--and that there be no divisions among you, but rather a perfect union through your having one mind and one judgement.

11 For it was declared to me about you, my brothers, by those of Chloe, that there are contentions among you.

For I have been distinctly informed, my brethren, about you by Chloe's people, that there are dissensions among you.

12 Now I say this. That each of you actually say, I am of Paul, and I of Apollos, and I of Cephas, and I of Christ.

What I mean is that each of you is a partisan. One man says "I belong to Paul;" another "I belong to Apollos;" a third "I belong to Peter;" a fourth "I belong to Christ."

13 Has Christ been divided? Was Paul crucified for you, or were ye immersed in the name of Paul?

Is the Christ in fragments? Is it Paul who was crucified on your behalf? Or were you baptized to be Paul's adherents?

14 I thank God that I immersed none of you except Crispus and Gaius,

I thank God that I did not baptize any of you except Crispus and Gaius--

15 lest some man should say that I immersed in my name.

for fear people should say that you were baptized to be my adherents.

16 And I also immersed the household of Stephanas. Besides, I know not whether I immersed any other.

I did, however, baptize Stephanas' household also: but I do not think that I baptized any one else.

17 For Christ sent me not to immerse, but to preach the good news, not in wisdom of speech lest the cross of Christ would be emptied.

Christ did not send me to baptize, but to proclaim the Good News; and not in merely wise words--lest the Cross of Christ should be deprived of its power.

18 For the message of the cross is of course foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is a power of God.

For the Message of the Cross is foolishness to those who are on the way to perdition, but it is the power of God to those whom He is saving.

19 For it is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and I will frustrate the understanding of those of understanding.

For so it stands written, "I will exhibit the nothingness of the wisdom of the wise, and the intelligence of the intelligent I will bring to nought."

20 Where is a wise man? Where is a scholar? Where is a researcher of this age? Did not God make foolish the wisdom of this world? (aiōn g165)

Where is your wise man? Where your expounder of the Law? Where your investigator of the questions of this present age? Has not God shown the world's wisdom to be utter foolishness? (aiōn g165)

21 For since in the wisdom of God the world did not know God through its wisdom, it pleased God through the foolishness of preaching to save those who believe.

For after the world by its wisdom--as God in His wisdom had ordained--had failed to gain the knowledge of God, God was pleased, by the apparent foolishness of the Message which we preach, to save those who accepted it.

22 And because Jews demand a sign and Greeks search for wisdom,

Seeing that Jews demand miracles, and Greeks go in search of wisdom,

23 but we proclaim Christ crucified, it is truly to Jews a stumbling-block and to Gentiles foolishness.

while we proclaim a Christ who has been crucified--to the Jews a stumbling-block, to Gentiles foolishness,

24 But to them, to the called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ is the power of God and the wisdom of God.

but to those who have received the Call, whether Jews or Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.

25 Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weak thing of God is stronger than men.

Because that which the world deems foolish in God is wiser than men's wisdom, and that which it deems feeble in God is mightier than men's might.

26 For notice your calling, brothers, that not many are wise according to flesh, not many powerful, not many eminent.

For consider, brethren, God's call to you. Not many who are wise with merely human wisdom, not many of position and influence, not many of noble birth have been called.

27 But God chose the foolish things of the world, so that he might humiliate the wise, and God chose the weak things of the world, so that he might humiliate the powerful.

But God has chosen the things which the world regards as foolish, in order to put its wise men to shame; and God has chosen the things which the world regards as destitute of influence, in order to put its powerful things to shame;

28 And God chose the common things of the world, and the disdained things, and the things that are not, so that he might make useless the things that are,

and the things which the world regards as base, and those which it sets utterly at nought--things that have no existence--God has chosen in order to reduce to nothing things that do exist;

29 so that no flesh may boast before God.

to prevent any mortal man from boasting in the presence of God.

30 But ye are his, in Christ Jesus, who became for us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification and redemption,

But you--and it is all God's doing--are in Christ Jesus: He has become for us a wisdom which is from God, consisting of righteousness and sanctification and deliverance;

31 so that, just as it is written, He who boasts, let him boast in the Lord.

in order that it may be as Scripture says, "He who boasts--let his boast be in the Lord."