1 Corinthians 2:11Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

Then, showing the greatness of this knowledge, he says that if the Spirit, who knows the mysteries of God, had not revealed it to us, we would not have known it. For God was pleased to keep this matter in mystery.

Therefore we needed such a teacher, one who knew it clearly. "For the Spirit," he says, "searches all things, even the depths of God. For what man knows the things of a man, except the spirit of the man which is in him? So also no one knows the things of God except the Spirit of God. Now we have received, not the spirit of this world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might know the things freely given to us by God" (1 Cor 2:10-12).

Here the word "searches" does not mean ignorance, but exact knowledge. He uses the same expression concerning God when he says, "He who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is" (Rom 8:27).

Having spoken of the Spirit's perfect knowledge, he showed that it is equal to the knowledge of God, as a man's knowledge is equal to itself. Having proved that we have learned all things from Him, and only from Him, he continues: "These things we also speak, not in words taught by human wisdom, but in words taught by the Holy Spirit, comparing spiritual things with spiritual" (1 Cor 2:13).

And now, concerning the making of peace, it is said that peace was made through Him. This does not refer to the essence of the Spirit, who knows the things of God as a man's spirit knows what is in him.

This accords with Paul's words: no one knows, "For what man knows the things of a man, except the spirit of the man which is in him?"

Therefore, if my spirit is alien to my nature, then the Spirit of God is also alien to the divine nature. For the Apostle says, "The Spirit searches all things, even the depths of God."

But the heretic hears "searches" and understands its meaning badly. If the Spirit knew what is in God, he says, He would not search. This searching bears witness to His ignorance.

Therefore, if the Holy Spirit's searching of the depths of God leads you to accuse Him of ignorance, then when you see that God searches men's hearts, will you accuse Him of ignorance?

Hear what Paul says. As he said of the Spirit, "The Spirit searches all things, even the depths of God," so also, speaking wisely about God, he says, "He who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is" (Rom 8:27).

Consequently, if God searches because He does not know, then the Spirit also searches because He does not know. But so that you may know that searching belongs not to one ignorant, but to one who knows, he added: "So also no one knows the things of God except the Spirit of God."

Thus he ascribes knowledge to the Spirit, not a reception from nature, but knowledge from nature.

For all creation together cannot represent its Master or be likened to Him in form. This includes angels and archangels, cherubim and seraphim with the heavenly host.

It includes what is in heaven and on earth, that is, earthly, heavenly, and subterranean things. It includes the luminaries and stars, things on dry land and in the waters, and everything whatever in heaven and on earth.

Only by mercy does He grant man His image, saying, “God created man; in the image of God He created him” (Gen 1:27). Only by gift does every man possess the image of God.

Yet no one can become like his Master. For the one is invisible, the other visible. The one is immortal, the other mortal.

God is the source of all wisdom and has all things perfectly in Himself. Man has the gift only in part. He lacks what is most perfect unless God wills to grant perfection to each according to his worth.

12. Yet, using this example, holy Paul himself says, “No man knows what is in man except the spirit of man which dwells in him. So also no one knows the things of God.”

He did not say, “except the Spirit of God which dwells in Him.” He said only, “the Spirit of God,” lest anyone imagine the Godhead as composed of parts and compounded.

“Only,” he says, “the Spirit of God. For the Spirit of God searches all things, even the depths of God.” Therefore the Spirit, who searches the depths, is not alien to God.

For if divine Scripture reproves us, saying, “Understand the things commanded you,” and, “You have no need of hidden things; seek not what is above you, and search not what is deeper than you” (Sir 3:21-22), what shall we say?

Shall we say of the Holy Spirit that He searches the depths of God from curiosity rather than by the property of His nature? Where does He search the depths of God? For what cause? Speak, O senseless man.

Does He search as one curious? As one who lays claim to what belongs to another? As one who desires what is not His own? May it never be.

Since the saints are counted worthy for the Holy Spirit to dwell in them, when the Holy Spirit abides in the saints, He grants them the power to search the depths of God.

He does this so that they may glorify God from the depth. David also confesses this: “Out of the depths I cried to Thee, O Lord” (Ps 129:1).

They glorify Him boundlessly and magnificently, not faintheartedly and imperfectly, as do the followers of the heresy of Arius and all the other heresies. [...] 14. Since they have not received the Holy Spirit, they have not known the depths of God.

They have been divided into such heresies and schisms, which arose through irritation. For abandoning the truth, they went by many paths, reasoning differently and about different things at different times.

The holy Apostle himself also speaks, revealing to us why he said this: “But we have received the Spirit of God, that we might know the things given to us by God.”

He continues, “These things we also speak, not in words taught by human wisdom, but in those taught by the Holy Spirit, comparing spiritual things with spiritual” (1 Cor 2:12-13), and so forth.

Therefore the Spirit of God is not alien to God. For if He is alien to God, how does He “search the depths of God”?

And you, vainglorious man, who wage war against yourself, not to say against the Holy Spirit of God, what will you say? Why, vainglorious man, do you fight against the unconquerable? Why do you struggle against the irresistible?

“It is hard for you to kick against the goads” (Acts 9:5). You injure yourself, not the Word. You expose yourself, not the Spirit.

You estrange yourself from the grace of God. You do not estrange the Son from the Father, nor the Holy Spirit from the Father and the Son.

15. In any case, you say this from wickedness. I have already heard certain vain-minded people turn the truth of our God and Savior into blasphemy.

They said, “He searches the depths of God” (1 Cor 2:10), but He does not “comprehend,” because this word is not added to the saying.

The Apostle said only, “He searches the depths of God,” and did not add, “He comprehends.” O great folly!

Was there any need, O man wronged by God, after the saying “He searches,” for the saying “He comprehends”? According to your narrow way of thinking, the reality itself is impaired if some expression is not joined to it.

But in the present case every pretext has been taken from you. For Scripture everywhere sets forth the truth for the most reverent man.

Concerning God Almighty it is written thus: God examines the inward parts and “searches the hidden things of the belly” (Prov 20:27).

If He examines the inward parts, does He not know what He examines? Or does all knowledge consist in examination?

To the saying, “He searches the hidden things of the belly,” it is likewise not added, “He comprehends.” Therefore, if the word “comprehends” is not added to that saying, shall I destroy myself by adding the expression “He does not comprehend”?

Would I do so according to your opinion, O senseless man? In the same way it is said of the Holy Spirit that He “searches.”

There was no need to add, “and He comprehends.” From that very word it is already clear that in the Holy Spirit there is knowledge of God and of the depths of God.

If “He comprehends” is not said, understand this yourself and do not destroy your soul. For one must not dare to say of the Father, “He searches,” and not “He comprehends.”

For He Himself, together with the Son and the Holy Spirit, created man. The Trinity is always Trinity and never receives addition. So also must one think of the Holy Spirit.

When Scripture speaks of the creation of man, “In the beginning God created heaven and earth” (Gen 1:1), it indicates the voice of the Father calling creation into being.

He says, “Let Us make” (Gen 1:26), meaning, I think, the Son and the Holy Spirit. For it says, “By the Word of the Lord the heavens were established, and by the Spirit of His mouth all their host” (Ps 32:6).

Thus the Word creates together with the Father, and the Holy Spirit creates. Can God Almighty, who created man, not know what is in man when He searches “the hidden things of the belly”?

Yet in saying this, the word of God adds the highest degree of divine knowledge. It does so lest anyone among us who sin should think that he can still hide from God.

For He Himself knows man and what is in man (cf. Jn 2:25).

16. Therefore the Father “searches the hidden things of the belly” (Prov 20:27), and He knows. The Spirit “searches the depths of God” (1 Cor 2:10), and He knows.

For He reveals the mysteries of God to the saints. He teaches them to glorify God from the depth of the soul and shows His incomprehensibility to those who partake of Him.

Thus the Spirit is not alien to God. It is not said of angels that they search the depths of God, nor of archangels.

For “of that day or hour no one knows,” says the Son of God, “not even the angels who are in heaven, nor the Son, but the Father only” (Mk 13:32).

This is the wisdom "which none of the rulers of this age knew. For had they known, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. ... God has revealed it to us through His Spirit. For the Spirit searches all things, even the depths of God." He does this as easily as the human spirit knows its own inward actions and states (1 Cor 2:11).

All this, the Apostle adds, is what has been "given to us by God," and we proclaim it with unshaken hope of success. We speak "not in words taught by human wisdom, but in words taught by the Holy Spirit, comparing spiritual things with spiritual."

In all this one hears the Apostle's reproving thought. Perhaps the Corinthians still chase after outward signs of verbal wisdom, and are disturbed over their various teachers and preachers, because they themselves are still far from the Christian way of receiving the Gospel preaching. They cannot stand among those perfect ones among whom Christian wisdom is successfully preached by comparing spiritual things with spiritual.

The Apostle's saying about "comparing spiritual things with spiritual" (1 Cor 2:13) needs particular explanation. St. Chrysostom offers it in this sense: the Apostles took the subjects needed on various occasions to explain their speech from the same spiritual and sacred-biblical realm, for example, from types and prophecies, and by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit.

"For example," the holy Father reasons in the person of the Apostle Paul, "I say that Christ rose, and that He was born of a Virgin. For explanation I bring testimonies and types: Jonah's stay inside the whale and his subsequent deliverance from it, the childbirth of barren women, Sarah, Rebecca, and others, and the growth of trees in Paradise, when seeds had not yet been sown, rain had not fallen, and furrows had not been drawn. Future events were inscribed and prefigured, as in shadow, by earlier ones, so that people would believe them when they came to pass. Thus I explain spiritual things by spiritual things, and nowhere have recourse to external wisdom."

According to St. John Chrysostom, here "the Apostle Paul honors us, showing that we have not merely learned, and learned together with the angels, but have learned from the Spirit Himself. At the same time he shows the importance of this knowledge. He makes clear that if the Spirit, Who knows the mysteries of God, had not revealed it to us, we also would not have known it. ... God was pleased to keep this work in mystery. Therefore we needed such a Teacher, Who would know this work clearly. Such is the Spirit of God.

'The Spirit searches all things, even the depths of God.' Here the word 'searches' means not ignorance, but exact knowledge. He uses the same expression concerning God when he says, 'He who searches the hearts knows what is the mind of the Spirit' (Rom 8:27)."

"Having spoken of the Spirit's perfect knowledge, he showed that it is equal to the knowledge of God, just as human knowledge is equal to itself. Having proved that we have known everything from Him, the Apostle continues: 'which things we speak'..."

He shows that "we are as much wiser than the pagans as Plato the philosopher is distant from the Holy Spirit. They have rhetoricians as their teachers, but we have the Holy Spirit."

Does the Son of God not know all things? He does know. God the Father also knows all things. Knowledge is indivisible in the Godhead and belongs equally to all the Persons. St. Paul mentions the Spirit because he is speaking of Him as revealing the mysteries of God.

Or perhaps he is pointing here to the spirit of the Godhead, which unites all the hypostases in the single consciousness of the one Godhead, speaking in human terms. Yet the Apostle Paul's intention is not to lead us into the mysteries of the Godhead. His purpose is to explain that no one knows the things of God except the Spirit of God.

This is hidden from all creatures, and no one can grasp it by himself, however high he may stand on the ladder of creation. He said that the Holy Spirit revealed it to us. Now, lest someone think, "The Holy Spirit revealed it to you, but we shall reach the same thing by another road," he adds: "No one knows the things of God except the Spirit of God."

Therefore there is, and can be, no other path to knowledge of the wisdom of God hidden in mystery. Either learn from us, or remain outside, in ignorance and without understanding of the work. And if you follow us, you will be taught not by us, but by the Spirit of God, Who teaches and enlightens all, and Whom the crucified Lord gives for the sake of faith.