1 Corinthians 2

1 When I came to you, brothers, I did not come with excellence of speech or of wisdom, proclaiming to you the testimony of God.

And as for myself, brethren, when I came to you, it was not with surpassing power of eloquence or earthly wisdom that I came, announcing to you that which God had commanded me to bear witness to.

2 For I determined not to know anything among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified.

For I determined to be utterly ignorant, when among you, of everything except of Jesus Christ, and of Him as having been crucified.

3 I was with you in weakness, in fear, and in much trembling.

And so far as I myself was concerned, I came to you in conscious feebleness and in fear and in deep anxiety.

4 My speech and my preaching were not in persuasive words of human wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power,

And my language and the Message that I proclaimed were not adorned with persuasive words of earthly wisdom, but depended upon truths which the Spirit taught and mightily carried home;

5 that your faith would not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God.

so that your trust might rest not on the wisdom of man but on the power of God.

6 We speak wisdom, however, among those who are full grown, yet a wisdom not of this age (aiōn g165) nor of the rulers of this age (aiōn g165) who are coming to nothing.

Yet when we are among mature believers we do speak words of wisdom; a wisdom not belonging, however, to the present age nor to the leaders of the present age who are soon to pass away. (aiōn g165)

7 But we speak God's wisdom in a mystery, the wisdom that has been hidden, which God foreordained before the ages (aiōn g165) for our glory,

But in dealing with truths hitherto kept secret we speak of God's wisdom--that hidden wisdom which, before the world began, God pre-destined, so that it should result in glory to us; (aiōn g165)

8 which none of the rulers of this age (aiōn g165) has known. For had they known it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.

a wisdom which not one of the leaders of the present age possesses, for if they had possessed it, they would never have crucified the Lord of glory. (aiōn g165)

9 But as it is written, “Things which an eye did not see, and an ear did not hear, which did not enter into the heart of man, these God has prepared for those who love him.”

But--to use the words of Scripture--we speak of things which eye has not seen nor ear heard, and which have never entered the heart of man: all that God has in readiness for them that love Him.

10 But to us, God revealed them through the Spirit. For the Spirit searches all things, yes, the deep things of God.

For us, however, God has drawn aside the veil through the teaching of the Spirit; for the Spirit searches everything, including the depths of the divine nature.

11 For who among men knows the things of a man except the spirit of the man which is in him? Even so, no one knows the things of God except God’s Spirit.

For, among human beings, who knows a man's inner thoughts except the man's own spirit within him? In the same way, also, only God's Spirit is acquainted with God's inner thoughts.

12 But we received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit which is from God, that we might know the things that were freely given to us by God.

But we have not received the spirit of the world, but the Spirit which comes forth from God, that we may know the blessings that have been so freely given to us by God.

13 We also speak these things, not in words which man’s wisdom teaches but which the Holy Spirit teaches, comparing spiritual things with spiritual things.

Of these we speak--not in language which man's wisdom teaches us, but in that which the Spirit teaches--adapting, as we do, spiritual words to spiritual truths.

14 Now the natural man does not receive the things of God’s Spirit, for they are foolishness to him; and he cannot know them, because they are spiritually discerned.

The unspiritual man rejects the things of the Spirit of God, and cannot attain to the knowledge of them, because they are spiritually judged.

15 But he who is spiritual discerns all things, and he himself is to be judged by no one.

But the spiritual man judges of everything, although he is himself judged by no one.

16 “For who has known the mind of the Lord that he should instruct him?” But we have Christ’s mind.

For who has penetrated the mind of the Lord, and will instruct Him? But we have the mind of Christ.