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1 Corinthians 2 :: English Standard Version (ESV)

Proclaiming Christ Crucified

1Co 2:1

1Co 2:1And I, when I came to you, brothers,[fn] did not come proclaiming to you the testimony[fn] of God with lofty speech or wisdom.

1Co 2:2

1Co 2:2For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified.

1Co 2:3

1Co 2:3And I was with you in weakness and in fear and much trembling,

1Co 2:4

1Co 2:4and my speech and my message were not in plausible words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power,

1Co 2:5

1Co 2:5so that your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men[fn] but in the power of God.

Wisdom from the Spirit

1Co 2:6

1Co 2:6Yet among the mature we do impart wisdom, although it is not a wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age, who are doomed to pass away.

1Co 2:7

1Co 2:7But we impart a secret and hidden wisdom of God, which God decreed before the ages for our glory.

1Co 2:8

1Co 2:8None of the rulers of this age understood this, for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.

1Co 2:9

1Co 2:9But, as it is written,
“What no eye has seen, nor ear heard,
nor the heart of man imagined,
what God has prepared for those who love him”—

1Co 2:10

1Co 2:10these things God has revealed to us through the Spirit. For the Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God.

1Co 2:11

1Co 2:11For who knows a person’s thoughts except the spirit of that person, which is in him? So also no one comprehends the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God.

1Co 2:12

1Co 2:12Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might understand the things freely given us by God.

1Co 2:13

1Co 2:13And we impart this in words not taught by human wisdom but taught by the Spirit, interpreting spiritual truths to those who are spiritual.[fn]

1Co 2:14

1Co 2:14The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned.

1Co 2:15

1Co 2:15The spiritual person judges all things, but is himself to be judged by no one.

1Co 2:16

1Co 2:16“For who has understood the mind of the Lord so as to instruct him?” But we have the mind of Christ.
See the ESV Preface (Especially for Parenthesis, Brackets, & Asterisks).
ESV Footnotes
Or brothers and sisters
Some manuscripts mystery (or secret)
The Greek word anthropoi can refer to both men and women
Or interpreting spiritual truths in spiritual language, or comparing spiritual things with spiritual
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The Holy Bible, English Standard Version copyright © 2001, 2007, 2011, 2016 by Crossway Books and Bibles, a Publishing Ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

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For more information on this translation, see the ESV Preface.

1 Corinthians Chapter 2 — Additional Translations:

King James Version New King James Version New Living Translation New International Version Christian Standard Bible New American Standard Bible 2020 New American Standard Bible 1995 Legacy Standard Bible Amplified Bible New English Translation Revised Standard Version American Standard Version Young's Literal Translation Darby Translation Webster's Bible Hebrew Names Version Latin Vulgate Morphological Greek New Testament Textus Receptus Smith Van Dyck Arabic Bible Open New Arabic Version Reina Valera 1909 Reina-Valera 1960 Bible in Basic English Chinese Traditional Union Espanol Moderno Korean Holy Bible Louis Segond German Luther Russian Synodal Translation Sagradas Escrituras