1 Corinthians 1:19Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

For it is written: "I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and the understanding of the understanding I will reject." Up to this point he says nothing accusatory. But now, first bringing forward the testimony of Scripture and taking boldness from it, he begins the speech of rebuke and says: "Has not God made foolish the wisdom of this world? Where is the wise man? Where is the scribe? Where is the disputer of this age? For since, in the wisdom of God, the world through its wisdom did not know God, it pleased God through the foolishness of preaching to save those who believe" (1 Cor 1:20-21).

Having said that unbelieving sages perish, he confirms this from Scripture. For it says, "The wisdom of their wise men shall perish" (Isa 29:14). He means the wisdom of those outside, that there is no understanding in the wisdom of this world. It is no longer wisdom. The understanding of those who consider themselves intelligent and learned has been rejected.

"For it is written: I will destroy the wisdom of the wise." The Apostle proves by Holy Scripture that this event followed from the success of the preaching of the Gospel. By the prophetic Spirit of God, Isaiah foresaw from afar and wrote in his book of prophecy (Isa 29:14) that God, seeing the blindness and hardening of the Jews, and likewise the disobedience of the sages of this age, would finally be compelled to deal with them according to the law of His justice. Taking away from them His divine grace, He would strike even the most lofty-minded sages of that age with such blindness and lack of understanding that, having lost true wisdom, they would not know even their own salvation.

"The wisdom of this world is foolishness with God" (1 Cor 3:19). And since this wisdom makes men foolish, God says that He will destroy the wisdom of the wise and reject the understanding of the understanding (cf. Isa 29:14). Therefore the plausibilities of falsely named knowledge become a cause of death for those persuaded by them.

But lest you think that I rejected wisdom because I did not understand it at all, hear something from Scripture. Before I despised it, it had been cast away according to the prophecy of the Spirit. For it is written: "I will destroy the craft of the crafty, and the wisdom of the learned I will reject" (Isa 29:14).

"I will destroy the wisdom of the wise" (Isa 29:14), Scripture says, because God accomplishes what they deny to be possible. The God whom they call indifferent reveals what they consider foolish. When God the Son, incarnate of the Virgin, is crucified on the Cross for the salvation of men, the deed truly speaks more than words.

For it is written: "I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and the understanding of the understanding I will reject" (Isa 29:14). He added the testimony of Scripture, thereby teaching that the God of all foretold this from of old. Then he shows that the prediction is not false. Not eloquence, but falsehood. By the wisdom of this world the Apostle does not mean eloquence, because God also gives this. He divided the languages and allotted to each its own distinguishing property. He also gave expressiveness to the Greek language. But those who used it improperly turned it into a deceitful lure. They made persuasive a mythology filled with error. Therefore the Apostle accuses them not for eloquence, but for the falsehood hidden within it.

"I will destroy the wisdom of the wise," and so forth (Isa 29:14). What the prophet says about his own time was fulfilled in the higher sense when the kingdom of grace was revealed in the world.

Yet even in the Old Testament, the Apostle continues his rebuke, it was foretold, namely in Isaiah 29:14, that God would destroy, that is, humble and shame, the wisdom of the wise, the scribes, and the disputers of this age (1 Cor 1:19-20). This indeed happened.

"For since, in the wisdom of God," scattered throughout the beautiful ordering of the universe and the destinies of mankind, "the world through its wisdom," that is, through natural means of knowledge, "did not know God, it pleased God through the foolishness" that only seems such "of preaching to save those who believe" (1 Cor 1:21).

The teaching concerning Him who was crucified for our sins is filled with the greatest wisdom. Yet its inner power and meaning lie in its essence, not in this or that expression. Therefore it is incomprehensible to people wholly alien to the ideas, concepts, and feelings contained in it. These are so discordant with, and even opposed to, the concepts and feelings of people who live according to the world, that to them this teaching seems strange and even mad.

This is written in the Prophet Isaiah (Is 29:14). There, as is thought, these words were spoken in rebuke of the wise men of that time. They offered King Hezekiah, who was in narrow circumstances, counsels that seemed to them wise and very useful.

But God, through the Prophet Isaiah, declares that what He has determined in His divine counsel will come to pass. This counsel is a sealed book which no one can read. Here the literate man is like the illiterate.

No one can guess what I shall do, or when I shall do it. No wisdom will understand why it was done so.

"I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and the understanding of the prudent I will hide."