1 Corinthians 1:21Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

Since the world did not wish to know God through this wisdom, He taught by the seeming foolishness of preaching, not through arguments but through faith.

Where the wisdom of God is, there is no need of human wisdom. To say that the Creator of so beautiful and great a world is God, possessing boundless and ineffable power, meant judging by human wisdom and grasping Him through created things.

But now arguments are not needed, only faith. To receive and be persuaded that the Crucified and Buried One rose and sits above, arguments are not needed, but faith.

The Apostles went forth not with wisdom, but with faith. They proved wiser and higher than the external sages, by as much as receiving divine things by faith is higher than reasoning, since this surpasses human reason.

How, then, did He destroy wisdom? By revealing Himself to us through Paul and men like him, and by showing that it is useless.

For receiving the gospel preaching, wisdom helps the wise man not at all, and ignorance hinders the unlearned man not at all. Indeed, one must say with wonder that ignorance can receive it much more quickly and easily than wisdom.

The shepherd and the farmer, not being carried away by arguments and surrendering themselves to the Lord, will receive it more quickly.

Thus He destroyed this wisdom. Since it had first put itself to shame, it then became useless. When it ought to have shown itself and known the Lord from His works, it refused.

Now, even if it wished to help in this, it cannot. The situation is no longer the same. There is a path to the knowledge of God far better than it.

Faith put philosophy to shame. To believe and be persuaded that the Crucified and Buried One rose and sits in heaven, arguments are not needed, but faith.

The Apostles came not with wisdom, but with faith, and they proved wiser and higher than the pagan sages. And He overthrew Plato not by some other, wiser philosopher, but by an unlearned fisherman.

The Apostle Paul calls the teaching of the Gospel the wisdom of God: “In the wisdom of God the world did not know God through wisdom.” From this apostolic saying some may raise the following question. Why, in another proposition, does the Apostle call the wisdom of God foolishness: “God was pleased through the foolishness of preaching to save those who believe”?

Since the preaching of the evangelical teaching announces to the sinner all the incomprehensible mysteries of the holy faith, the Apostle rightly designates it by the name of the wisdom of God. Yet many, either from weakness of understanding, from pride, or from the loftiness of the teaching itself, do not wish to recognize this evangelical preaching concerning the salvation of sinful man as the most certain and revealed truth. All this gave many occasion to call that preaching folly or foolishness, as something contrary to human wisdom and incompatible with the enlightened learning of this age.

The Apostle declares that it was pleasing to God to use, for the salvation of believers. Not the learning of certain chosen persons: “God was pleased through the foolishness of preaching to save those who believe.” The Evangelist Matthew relates that a woman was saved by only touching Christ’s garment: “If only I touch His garment, I shall be saved” (Mt. 9:21).

The sayings from the first apostolic passage belong to the salvation of our soul, which we receive by believing in the Gospel. The latter saying belongs to bodily health, which God gives us through various means: properly through the word of God and the Mysteries, and improperly through other means.

The Apostle preaches that the world, according to its wisdom, did not know God: “Since, in the wisdom of God. The world did not know God through wisdom.” Concerning the Romans the Apostle testifies that they had such a conception of God as man can have: “For what may be known of God is manifest in them, for God has shown it to them” (Rom. 1:19).

In the Epistle to the Romans, the Apostle Paul mentions only natural knowledge of God, which is innate by nature not only in the Romans but in all nations. As for the present passage, here the Apostle means not natural but grace-filled knowledge of God, which the Romans did not possess.

Although this nation, through itself and through examining this wisely ordered world, did attain knowledge of God, this knowledge of God could not serve it for obtaining salvation. For although the Romans knew that God, as the supreme Being, must be honored, they did not render Him the honor that ought to be rendered to the true God.

On the contrary, in their very knowledge of God the Romans erred in various ways. First, they suppressed the truth, for they did not communicate to other nations the concepts they had of the true God. Second, they believed various fables. Third, they rejected God’s providence. Fourth, they led a lawless life.

Such destructive superstition and hardness among the Romans so darkened their natural knowledge of God that the prophet David counted it as nothing in these words: “The fool has said in his heart, There is no God” (Ps. 13:1). Moreover, even if natural knowledge of God had not been joined to the evil deeds of the Romans, in itself it is very imperfect and insufficient. A man receives perfect knowledge of God, sufficient for salvation, not from nature and not from his own reason, but from Holy Scripture, which reveals it to him.

The holy Apostle names the evangelical preaching foolishness: “God was pleased through the foolishness of preaching to save those who believe.” In the same chapter Saint Paul calls Jesus Christ wisdom: “Of Him you are in Christ Jesus, who became for us wisdom from God” (1 Cor. 1:30).

The opponents of the Christian faith cannot conclude from these passages that the Apostle Paul contradicted himself. In truth, Jesus Christ and His Gospel are wisdom for those who look upon this mystery with the eye of faith. For evangelical preaching contains a mystery hidden from carnal understanding. Faith must precede understanding of it, not understanding precede faith.

Evangelical preaching becomes foolishness for those who consider the mystery of the Cross and all the other mysteries to be some strange announcement, worthy of laughter and contrary to God’s justice. From this it follows that the Gospel is called wisdom according to its truth and its essence. It is called folly or foolishness with respect to carnal human notions, for which the loftiness of this mystery is incomprehensible.

And not only the Gentiles, but also the Jews, who considered themselves better than other nations in knowing the truth about God, and boasted that they had the better moral Law, also failed in their wisdom rightly to understand God.

They erred, not knowing the Scriptures or the power of God (Mt 22:29 and others). Morally, many of them appeared righteous to men, but within were full of hypocrisy and lawlessness (Mt 23:28).

Therefore God was pleased to save the world by the foolishness of preaching, that is, by a preaching which, in the eyes of the wise men of this age, seemed and had to seem extremely foolish.

It seemed so because it spoke of matters incomprehensible and strange to the ordinary human mind. It seemed so because it was offered by uneducated men, unprepared for the work of preaching.

According to common and ordinary sense, entrusting any important work to such men meant wasting labor and time, and even harming the work.

Finally, it seemed foolish because it was offered in unskilled forms, without any eloquence. Ordinary human wisdom was accustomed to clothe itself in eloquence, so as to act more strongly and successfully upon men's minds and hearts.

The Apostle's inner and true thought about this foolishness is that such great wisdom was hidden in it that before it the greatest human mind, in complete incomprehension, becomes mad and foolish. So, in blinding brilliance, even the strongest sight grows dim (Bishop Theophan).

Here the Apostle speaks of natural knowledge and worship of God. Yet he does not mean that they would be sufficient for salvation if they appeared in perfection. Rather, his meaning is this. You who contend for reason, and set human wisdom so high that you do not wish to accept anything that seems incomprehensible to it, even though God guarantees its truth, tell us this. God arranges and reveals it. Have you done by your reason what you could and should have done?

God opened before you His great book, the wisely ordered world. The testimony about God here is so evident that one may, as it were, touch Him. What then? Did you understand God in this wisdom of God? No. If you did not understand, what rational thing do you still demand?

You have lost every right to this by failing to use reason rightly. If you did not know how, acknowledge it and humbly submit to God’s will to save us by the foolishness of preaching.

But let us give the word to Chrysostom. “Since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, the Cross appeared. What does ‘in the wisdom of God’ mean? In the works of creation, through which He was pleased to reveal Himself. He arranged everything so that man, passing from visible things to the Creator, might marvel at Him.

The heaven is great and the earth is immeasurable. Marvel, then, at their Creator. For this great heaven was not only created by Him, but was created easily. This immeasurable earth was brought forth by Him as though it were nothing. Therefore of the first it is said: ‘The heavens are the works of Thy hands’ (Ps. 101:26). Of the earth it is said: ‘He made the earth as nothing’ (Is. 40:23).

Since the world did not wish to know God through this wisdom, He taught by what seemed the foolishness of preaching, not through arguments of the mind, but through faith. Where the wisdom of God is, there is no need of human wisdom. To say that the Being who created such a beautiful and great world is God, who has boundless and ineffable power, was a work of human wisdom’s reasoning. It meant grasping Him through those reasonings.

But now arguments are not needed, only faith. To accept and be convinced that the Crucified and Buried One rose and sits on high, this requires not arguments but faith. The Apostles came not with wisdom, but with faith. They proved wiser and higher than external sages, and all the more so because receiving divine things by faith is higher than reasoning. For this surpasses human reason.

How, then, did He destroy wisdom? By revealing Himself to us through Paul and men like him, and by showing that it is useless. For in accepting the evangelical preaching, wisdom does not help the wise man in the least, nor does ignorance hinder the unlearned man in the least. Indeed, it is wondrous to say that ignorance can receive it much sooner and more easily than wisdom.

The shepherd and the farmer, not carried away by arguments and giving themselves over to the Lord, will receive it sooner. Thus He destroyed wisdom. Since it had first put itself to shame, it then became useless. When it should have shown itself and known the Lord from His works, it did not wish to do so. Now, even if it wished to assist in this, it cannot. The state of things is now not the same. There is a path to the worship of God far better than it.

Now simple faith is needed. It must be sought everywhere and preferred to external wisdom. If this wisdom revealed nothing then, when one could investigate by arguments, what success can be expected from it now? Now higher matters stand before us, and faith alone is needed, not skill in arguments. Thus God showed its foolishness, and was pleased to save by the foolishness of preaching. Yet it is not foolishness in reality, but only in appearance.”

The Apostle merely expressed himself in this way: “by the foolishness of preaching.” His thought is that God saves believers through the highest wisdom, a wisdom before which even the greatest mind is struck senseless, comprehending nothing in it. As we call a great light a blinding light, so the highest wisdom is a wisdom that overwhelms the mind.

By the preaching of this wisdom God was pleased now to save believers. For when the mind is overwhelmed by this wisdom, nothing remains by which to receive it except faith.