1 Corinthians 1:20Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

“Has not God made foolish the wisdom of this world?” The great God showed such glorious wonders in the redemption of the human race. He accomplished such incomprehensible works through the Incarnation of His Only-begotten Son.

Having gathered His Church from all nations, through the simplicity of His divine disciples He put to shame the folly of those high-minded sages. They wished to comprehend with their weak reason all the incomprehensibility of the mysteries of God.

The wisdom of this world, according to the Apostle’s teaching, has been put to shame and rejected by God: “Has not God made foolish the wisdom of this world?” Can philosophical knowledge, then, be necessary for us, or is it contrary to theological teaching?

Antiquity held various and erroneous judgments on this doubtful point. Some esteemed philosophical teaching far more than they should. Others, on the contrary, considered it not at all necessary for the knowledge of divine things.

Those who ascribed excessive honor to philosophical teaching are divided into two degrees or kinds. To the first belong certain teachers of the Western Roman Church, who maintained that pagans can obtain salvation for themselves through philosophy.

For this reason one Roman writer at the Council of Trent asserted in writing that philosophy, although it does not have the power to justify a man, was nevertheless necessary in antiquity for the Greeks to obtain justification.

He said that the beneficent Being used philosophy as a kind of instrument or means, in order to adorn with the virtue of righteousness those who attached themselves to this teaching.

In other places the same writer calls philosophy a guide to Christ. He confirms his opinion by saying that philosophical reflection illumines the human mind with knowledge of God and fills it with piety and love of every virtue.

Thus, he says, it opens the way to the truth of Christian piety. In the second degree are placed certain of the Reformed, infected with Calvinism. They judge and draw conclusions about the mysteries of faith according to philosophical principles.

Therefore they consider philosophical teaching necessary for the interpretation of theological dogmas. They also imagine that, in the mystery of faith, one must look with the right eye upon nature, to understand what it requires and what defects it suffers.

With the other eye, they say, one must look upon Scripture, in order to know what it declares.

Not agreeing with the Reformed, the Anabaptists of old held contrary reasonings. They considered philosophical teaching to be carnal reasoning, opposed to God and untrue.

They maintained that the intention of philosophy does not accord with the knowledge of faith and divine revelation, upon which all the most pure teaching of true Orthodoxy is founded.

But in order to confine all such subtleties and reasonings within their proper limits, philosophical reasonings must not overstep the boundaries set for them. At the same time, theological teaching must in everything be founded upon divine revelation.

For this, the following explanations should be observed.

First, philosophical teaching has no power to provide justification for man. When the Apostle preaches that all worldly wisdom has been put to shame by God, he makes known that man must not seek his salvation in wisdom or in the understanding of the prudent.

Rather, he must expect it from the Gospel alone.

Second, philosophy cannot guide man to Christ. For if, according to the Apostle’s word, the world through its wisdom did not know God, how much less could it know anything of Christ?

Therefore it considered the prophecies about the Mediator, Who was to be crucified for the sins of the whole world, to be foolishness.

Third, piety and the truths of worshiping God do not belong to philosophy alone. If philosophy alone kindled in us piety, fear, reverence, and invocation of God, then the unlearned and simple people could not possess these virtues.

Fourth, philosophical knowledge does not illumine man with the light of the grace of the All-Holy Spirit. This gift is obtained through the word of God.

This truth is confirmed by Holy Scripture itself, as one can see in the Second Epistle of the Apostle Peter: “We have also the prophetic word made more sure. To which you do well to give heed, as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts” (2 Pet 1:19).

Fifth, the Christian faith neither begins from philosophical teaching nor is established by it. Rather, the grace of Christ, through the word of God, assists our renewal itself.

Therefore Saint Ambrose, in his book On the Faith, says this: faith is planted not by philosophers, but by fishermen. It is rooted not by subtle philosophical disputants, but by simple men of lowly understanding.

Sixth, philosophical principles do not belong to theological truths. Therefore they are not necessary in the knowledge of things pertaining to faith.

The Apostle Paul, reproving the abuse of philosophy in such matters, commands the Colossians to beware lest anyone deceive them by carnal wisdom. He says, “Beware lest anyone deceive you through philosophy and empty deceit, according to the tradition of men, according to the elements of the world, and not according to Christ” (Col 2:8).

In this sense Tertullian called philosophers the chiefs of heretics. Saint Jerome, discoursing on chapter two, writes that external philosophy contains nothing other than a flowing speech filled with imaginary beauty and containing a destructive meaning.

From this one can understand why the pagans considered the mystery of the Cross to be foolishness. One can also understand why they did not acknowledge as truth, worthy of belief, anything that surpassed their carnal concepts.

Seventh, philosophy is not an activity dependent on the flesh, but a special gift of God. Therefore the Apostle Paul praises the natural knowledge and wisdom of the pagans.

Although through the fall man lost the first beauties of his soul, he was not deprived of the faculty and gift of distinguishing what is honorable from what is vile, nor of understanding and reasoning about things.

In order that this faculty might be brought to greater perfection in man, the liberal arts were invented and honorable rules established. These should not be referred to the activity of the flesh.

Eighth, philosophical knowledge is neither useless nor destructive for theological teaching. As for the preaching of the Apostle Paul, he does not simply reject philosophical knowledge.

He rejects it because philosophy considers the evangelical teaching to be foolishness. Would it be fitting for a mistress to be mocked by her servant, however necessary that servant’s services may be for the household economy?

Ninth, the proper use of philosophy with respect to theology is this: it assists the literal understanding of biblical texts and the understanding of the order and style which the Holy Spirit was pleased to use in Scripture.

It assists in preserving method in teaching others. It assists in interpreting biblical expressions, many of which cannot only not be interpreted, but cannot even be understood, without knowledge of ethics, physics, or mathematics.

Finally, philosophy assists in understanding the opinions of opponents better and more justly, and in refuting them. To conquer them with their own instrument is glorious and useful for the Church of Christ.

Therefore, if philosophical teaching is directed toward this end, then its use even in divine matters will not only not be despised, but can serve a great benefit.

The wisdom of this world became foolish. Thinking itself wise, it was found unchaste. It proclaimed the impossible to be possible, and God indifferent toward His creation.

Can any judgment about God be found more foolish than the claim that He created the world, but does not care for it? As though what is created does not concern the Creator.

The wise men of the age saw one man prospering securely and another oppressed. They saw the righteous despised and evildoers praised. Thus they came to believe in an uninterested God.

The one who says that God is indifferent is least able to deny malice and injustice in such indifference.

But those who used it improperly turned it into a deceptive bait and made a mythology filled with errors appear plausible. Therefore the Apostle does not accuse eloquence, but the falsehood hidden within it. He says that it was exposed and proved to be folly.

If you ask the reason that caused the Greek philosophers to consider themselves wise, the Apostle names it as the hardening of their heart (Eph. 4:18). Since, in the light of the wisdom of God proclaimed by the prophets, and through the wisdom that spoke by the mouths of the wise, the world did not know Him, that is, God, He was pleased to save those who believe through the foolishness of preaching. This means through preaching that seemed foolishness to the Greeks.

For faith, says the Apostle, the Hebrews require miracles, and the Greeks seek wisdom, that is, arguments with strict proofs and other formal conclusions. But we preach Jesus Christ crucified. For the Hebrews He is a stumbling block, because, believing in the prophecies, they do not believe in their fulfillment. For the Greeks He is foolishness, because those who consider themselves wise find it fabulous that the Son of God spoke through the mouth of a man, that God has a Son, and that this Son suffered. Preconceived opinions keep them from believing.

Yet the coming of the Savior did not make those who proved obedient to His call unreasonable, hard-hearted, or faithless. Rather, it formed them into reasonable, obedient, and honorable men. Those who refused to enter into union with these obedient ones, and separated from them, proved by comparison to be unreasonable, faithless, and shortsighted.

But for those who remained faithful to the voice that called them, whether Hebrews or Greeks, Christ is the power of God and the wisdom of God (1 Cor. 1:21-24). With these words the Apostle explains his thought more precisely. Therefore one should not see anything negative toward wisdom in his expression, “Has not God made foolish the wisdom of this world?” Nor should one think that God purposely turned the wise of this world aside and cast them into irrationality.

No, by his expression the Apostle only means that God revealed the irrationality of worldly learning when it is severed from Him. He did this so that no one would consider God Himself the author of the hardheartedness of those who did not believe. The wise of this world were learned enough to be able to believe the evangelical preaching. If they did not believe it, they became only the more responsible. For a man’s inclination toward the truth and his choice of it lie entirely within his will.

Moreover, by the expression, “I will destroy the wisdom of the wise” (Is. 29:14), the Lord was also pleased to express that He poured true light upon it. Alongside Greek philosophy He kindled philosophy also among the barbarians, that is, among the Hebrews. The philosophy of Holy Scripture should here be understood according to the writer’s meaning, not pagan philosophy. Until the most recent time it had been little valued and despised. By this contrast He did what happens to a lamp burning in the sun. Its light is dimmed by the sun, because the strength of its radiance is far inferior to the sun’s.

Since all are called, those who did not refuse obedience to the voice calling them are all alike called “the called” (1 Cor. 1:24). For injustice is not proper to God (cf. Rom. 9:14). Whether they are from the Hebrews or from the Gentiles, if they have believed, they form a particular people, chosen (Tit. 2:14).

In the Acts of the Apostles you will find the expression: “Those who received his word were baptized” (Acts 2:41). Those who did not receive it, therefore, separated themselves from the people of God. To them the prophetic word is addressed: “If you are willing and obedient, you shall eat the good things of the land” (Is. 1:19). This shows that it lies within our power to receive the word of God or reject it.

The Apostle called the teaching of the Lord the wisdom of God, thereby showing us that true philosophy has been handed down to us by the Son of God. For those who count themselves among the wise, the same Apostle’s epistles contain reminders to put on the new man, created according to the likeness of God in the righteousness and holiness of true teaching (Eph. 4:24).

Therefore, having rejected false teaching, the Apostle adds, confess the true teaching. “Give no place to the devil.” “Let him who stole steal no longer, but rather let him labor, doing what is useful.” To seek the truth is to be occupied with a good and useful work. This search for truth is the same as beneficence, except that instead of material substance its instrument is the word.

Thus one may have something to give to him who is in need (Eph. 4:25, 27-28). That is, one may be able to reveal to those in need, and seeking improvement of their condition, both the spiritual riches of this world and also the abundance of wisdom and of divine wisdom.

By commanding that one do what is useful, the Apostle wants true teaching to be studied only through a comparative testing of its worth. In the same way silver is first carefully purified in the furnace, and only afterward given to the moneychangers for increase through interest (Mt. 25:27; cf. Stromata 1, end of chapter 28).

Therefore he adds: “Let no corrupt word proceed out of your mouth” (Eph. 4:29). Such precisely are the words, that is, the teachings, that proceed from human conceit. They are corrupt and repulsive. On the contrary, let everything you say nourish faith and give grace to those who hear (Eph. 4:29).

Since God is good, His word must also be good and trustworthy. And how could these words not be worthy of trust, if they are saving for man?

Come, plunge your wisdom into this wondrous deed, and explain to us why it is so. Only believe that God, having become incarnate, died on the Cross for our salvation, and be baptized, and suddenly you will become altogether different.

Here are whole communities of these wondrously renewed people. And no one says a word.

This is the deed by which God showed that all the wisdom of this age is madness. He made it foolish.

When they call the word of the Cross, the preaching of the Crucified One and faith in Him, madness, they expose their own madness even more. Is it not mad to call a deed mad when, before everyone's eyes, it vindicates its wisdom?

"Having said, It is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, he adds proof of this from deeds and says, Where is the wise? Where is the scribe?" (Saint Chrysostom).

The preaching of the Cross has conquered them all. He calls wise the man adorned with Hellenic eloquence. He calls scribe the Jewish teacher who boasts in knowledge of the Law. He calls disputer both Jew and Greek who has long practiced the art of debate (Theodoret).

The Apostle wished to say: whatever rank a man may have who boasts in human wisdom, the Cross has put them all to shame. Through it God made their wisdom foolish, that is, "He showed that it is mad and unfit for the work of faith."

"Since people thought highly of it, He openly exposed it. What kind of wisdom is it if it cannot find, or even understand, where our chief good lies? He exposed its madness because it had first exposed itself in this" (Saint Chrysostom).