1 Corinthians 2

1 When I came to you, brothers, I did not come with eloquence of speech or wisdom as I proclaimed hidden truths about 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 decided to know nothing when I was 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 And I was with you in weakness, and 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 And my message and my proclamation were not with persuasive words of wisdom. Instead, they were with the 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 so that your faith might not be in the wisdom of humans, 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 Now we do speak wisdom among the mature, but not the wisdom of this world, or of the rulers of this age, who are passing away. (aiōn g165)

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 Instead, we speak God's wisdom in hidden truth, the hidden wisdom that God predestined before the ages for our glory. (aiōn g165)

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 None of the rulers of this age understood it, for if they had understood it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. (aiōn g165)

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 that no eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has imagined, the things that 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 These are the things that God has revealed to us through the Spirit. For the Spirit searches everything, even 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 knows a person's thoughts except the spirit of the person in him? So also, no one knows the deep things of God except the Spirit of God.

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 did not receive the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, so that we might know the things 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 speak about these things in words that man's wisdom cannot teach, but which the Spirit teaches us. The Spirit interprets spiritual words with spiritual wisdom.

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 The unspiritual person does not receive the things that belong to the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him. 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 The one who is spiritual judges all things, but he is not subject to the judgment of others.

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

16 “For who can know the mind of the Lord, that he can instruct him?” But we have the mind of Christ.

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