LITERAL COMMENTARY
1 Cor 2:6 “But we speak wisdom among the perfect—not the wisdom of this age, nor of the rulers of this age, who are passing away. Rather, we proclaim the higher and more hidden mysteries of religion to those who are mature in faith and spiritual, who are capable of solid food. For, as our Apostle says elsewhere: Everyone who lives on milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, for he is a child; but solid food belongs to the perfect, to those who by habit have their senses trained to discern good and evil.
The wisdom we hand on and teach is not secular wisdom, which by the light of natural reason alone, and by ingeniously devised arguments artfully arranged, subtly disputes about physical, ethical, and political matters. It is not that wisdom which philosophers and orators devised and refined, and which princes, kings, and their ministers—trained in political arts and serving the perishing affairs of this age—most often employ in their counsels, their power and dominion extending no further than temporal things. Of these it is written: The kings of the earth stood up, and the rulers assembled together against the Lord and against His Christ (Psalm 2:2; Acts 4:26–27).
1 Cor 2:7 But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, which has been hidden, which God predestined before the ages for our glory. We proclaim the counsels of divine wisdom contained in the mysteries of the Incarnation, Passion, and Death of Christ Jesus—mysteries which God willed to be hidden and, before the death and resurrection of His Son, revealed only to a few. These most exalted counsels of His wisdom God ordained, decreed, and prepared from eternity to be carried out at the fitting time, so that through knowledge and faith in this wisdom and these mysteries He might lead us to the honor of adoption as sons and consequently to heavenly glory. Indeed, faith in Christ Jesus is the pledge and beginning of this. This is eternal life: that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent (John 17:3).
1 Cor 2:8 This wisdom none of the rulers of this age knew. No ruler among the unbelievers—such as Pilate, Herod, the Caesars, or among the Jews Annas, Caiaphas, the scribes and Pharisees—knew this wisdom hidden in the mystery of the Incarnation of the Son of God. For if they had known it, they would never have crucified the Lord of glory. Had they known that Christ Jesus was the Son of God made man, whose Passion and Death the Father had decreed as the means of redeeming the human race from the servitude of the devil, they would never have consigned to the death of the Cross Him who is coequal in glory with the Father and the author and giver of glory. Compare Acts 3:17, where Peter says: And now, brethren, I know that you acted in ignorance, as did your rulers.
Reflecting on these passages, Tertullian says: “I shall unfold the Scriptures which proclaim Christ as capable of being put to death and thus affirm that He was necessarily unknown. For unless He had been unknown, He could not have suffered anything.” And further on: “If all hope of the Jews—indeed, even of the Gentiles—was destined for the revelation of Christ, it was beyond doubt demonstrated that they would not recognize Him and would not understand Him, the powers of recognition and understanding having been removed: wisdom and prudence. What was being announced—that is, Christ—was hidden from the rulers wise in their own eyes, that is, from the scribes and their prudent ones, that is, the Pharisees, and likewise from the people who would hear with ears and not hear, who would see Christ teaching with their eyes and yet not see Him performing signs.” As it is written elsewhere: And who is blind but My servant, and who is deaf but the one who rules over them?
1 Cor 2:9 But, as it is written, concerning the hidden counsels of the wisdom of God in the mystery of the Incarnate Word, we speak: What eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor has it entered into the heart of man, what God has prepared for those who love Him. The eye—which is the sense most useful for acquiring knowledge of things—has not seen it; nor has the ear heard it, which is the sense of discipline; nor can the human mind attain it by knowing, unless God reveals it. This adorable mystery of the Incarnation, and the benefits prepared in Christ and through Christ for those who love God—that is, for the elect whom He makes His lovers—namely redemption, grace, adoption, glory, and eternal happiness, lie beyond human reach.
The Apostle here alludes to Isaiah. St. Jerome translates the passage thus: From of old they have not heard, nor perceived with the ears; the eye has not seen, O God, besides You, what You have prepared for those who wait for You. But the Septuagint translators rendered it: From of old we have not heard, nor have our eyes seen a God besides You, and Your works which You will do for those who wait for mercy. The Apostle looked more closely to the Hebrew truth than to the version of the Seventy. Therefore it is less probable that he derived this sentence from apocryphal writings, namely from the Ascension of Isaiah or the Apocalypse of Elijah. See St. Jerome, Book 17 on Isaiah, chapter 64.
1 Cor 2:10 “But God has revealed these things to us through His Spirit.” Lest anyone object that if this wisdom is so hidden, why he promises to hand it on and claims to teach it among the perfect, the Apostle anticipates the objection and responds: God has revealed this wisdom to us, His Apostles, through His Spirit, who is the Spirit of truth, teaching all truth that exceeds human capacity yet is necessary for salvation. For unless God had revealed to us the counsels of His wisdom and these mysteries of His, we too would have remained ignorant of them.
“For the Spirit searches all things, even the depths of God.” The Holy Spirit knows and penetrates all things with precision, even the highest, most intimate, and most deeply hidden counsels and mysteries of God. He “searches” not in order to discover what He does not know, but because He leaves nothing at all unknown. Or else He “searches” in the sense that He makes us search, just as He is said to cry out and groan within us. What you do by His gift, He Himself is said to do, because without Him you would not do it. From this verse and the two that follow, the divinity of the Holy Spirit is proved.
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MORAL COMMENTARY
1 Cor 2:6-7 ‘Yet we speak wisdom among the perfect; not the wisdom of this age, nor of the rulers of this age, who are passing away; but we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, a hidden wisdom’ (sapientiam Dei in mysterio, quæ abscondita est). The foolishness of preaching is in truth wisdom—wisdom placed in the sublimity of its doctrines, in the loftiness of its mysteries, and in the ardor of the Holy Spirit. This alone is a wisdom worthy of Christians, even of the more perfect among them. Worldly wisdom, however, is vain and perishable, just as the world itself; it serves its rulers—namely demons—for the overthrow and destruction of human beings. It is therefore unworthy of a Christian and utterly powerless to establish or sustain the eternal foundation of faith and edification.
All human wisdom consists in this one thing: that a person may know God and worship Him. This is precisely what all philosophers sought throughout their entire lives, yet they were never able to discover, grasp, or retain it—either because they embraced a corrupt form of religion, or because they abolished religion altogether. Let all those therefore depart who do not instruct life but disturb it. For what do they teach, or whom do they instruct, when they have not yet instructed themselves? How can the sick heal, or the blind guide? Behold, a voice from heaven teaching the truth and showing us a light clearer than the sun itself. Why do we, who are unrighteous, hesitate to receive wisdom which learned men, worn out by ages of searching, were never able to find?
Whoever wishes to be wise and blessed, let him listen to the voice of God, learn justice, come to know the sacrament of his own birth, despise what is human, receive what is divine, so that he may attain that supreme good for which he was born. ‘We speak wisdom among the perfect, but not the wisdom of this age.’ What, then, do we suppose was the reason that this wisdom—sought with such effort, by so many minds and over so many ages—was never found? Simply this: the philosophers sought it outside its proper bounds. Having traversed and explored all things, yet finding no wisdom, it became evident that it must exist somewhere—and that it should be sought especially where the title of foolishness appears. For under that veil God hid the treasure of wisdom and truth, lest the mystery of His supreme divine work be laid open to the public gaze.
‘But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, which God predestined before the ages unto our glory.’ Lactantius marvels that Pythagoras, and later Plato, inflamed with love for the investigation of truth, traveled even to the Egyptians, the Magi, and the Persians in order to learn the rites and sacred practices of those peoples, suspecting that wisdom resided in religion—yet they never went to the Jews, among whom alone it then existed, and to whom they could have gone with ease. Divine providence, he says, turned them away, lest they come to know the truth before it was permitted. For God had decreed that, as the final age approached, He would send from heaven a great Leader who would reveal this wisdom to foreign nations after it had been taken away from a faithless and ungrateful people.
1 Cor 2:8 This wisdom of God, hidden in the mystery of the Man-God (in mysterio hominis Dei absconditam) and predestined before the ages, was not known by the philosophers nor by the rulers of this world. For wisdom and religion are inseparably joined by an indivisible bond. Wisdom pertains to sons and demands love; religion pertains to servants and demands fear (timor). Just as sons ought to love and honor their father, so servants ought to worship and fear their lord. God, however, who is one, sustains both roles—that of Father and that of Lord—and thus we must love Him because we are sons, and fear Him because we are servants. Religion therefore cannot be separated from wisdom, nor wisdom from religion, since it is the same God who must be understood (which belongs to wisdom) and honored (which belongs to religion). Wisdom precedes; religion follows, because knowing God comes before worshiping Him.
The source of both wisdom and religion is God. If these two streams wander away from Him, they must necessarily dry up. Those who do not know Him cannot be wise, nor can they be religious. Thus philosophers and idol-worshipers alike resemble either disinherited sons or runaway slaves: the former do not seek their father, the latter do not seek their lord. And just as disinherited sons do not receive the father’s inheritance, nor runaway slaves escape punishment, so philosophers do not receive immortality—the inheritance of the heavenly kingdom, which is the supreme good they most ardently seek—nor will idolaters escape the punishment of eternal death, which is the judgment of the true Lord against those who flee from His majesty and name.
‘For if they had known, they would never have crucified the Lord of glory.’ The ignorance of the Jews was both the sin of deicide and the punishment of sin, and also the cause of sin. For it is just that God should hand over to darkness, and to other sins flowing from it, a mind that has surrendered itself to sin. Yet even penal ignorance and sins themselves serve the counsels of God. Although the raging Jews did whatever they wished against the Lord Jesus, and although divine power did not withdraw the truth of the assumed humanity from their assaults, the patience of the Lord fulfilled the gift of His plan, and the obstinacy of sacrilegious cruelty advanced the work of the Savior—something neither scribes nor Pharisees nor the high priests understood. ‘For if they had known, they would never have crucified the Lord of glory.’
Nor did the devil himself understand that by raging against Christ he was destroying his own dominion. He would not have lost the rights of his ancient fraud had he restrained himself from the blood of the Lord Jesus. But malice, eager to harm, rushed in—and by rushing fell; by seizing was seized; by pursuing a mortal man, stumbled upon the Savior.
‘We speak wisdom among the perfect.’ Let the Apostles’ successors—preachers and proclaimers—imitate this economy, adapting themselves to the capacity, comprehension, and condition of their hearers. Let them not preach what exceeds their listeners’ understanding, or what may disturb or scandalize them; in a word, considering their present weakness or incapacity, let them avoid what might harm more than help. This was the conduct of the patriarchs, the prophets, the apostles, and Christ Himself—the illuminator of the prophets, the teacher of the apostles, the exemplar of preachers.
As Augustine says: “The human race, until the illumination of the inner person, was assisted by God according to the times, being given what that age required, and being informed through prophecy of what it was not yet fitting to reveal.” Such were the patriarchs and prophets, as they are found by those who do not rush in childishly but handle divine and human matters with pious diligence. And the same careful provision is seen in the times of the new people, among the great and spiritual men of the Catholic Church, who most cautiously ensure that they do nothing popularly which they understand is not yet the right time to do with the people. They generously and insistently pour out milk-like nourishment for the many weaker and eager ones, but feed on solid food with the few who are wise. Thus they speak wisdom among the perfect; to the carnal and animal, even though newly converted yet still infants, they conceal certain things—but they lie about nothing. They do not seek their own empty honors or vain praise, but the benefit of those with whom they have merited to share this life. For this is the law of divine providence: no one is helped by superiors to know and receive the grace of God unless he himself helps inferiors toward the same with a pure affection.
‘But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery.’ In what mystery? Christ says: “What you hear in the ear, proclaim upon the housetops.” Why then does He call it a mystery? Because neither angel nor archangel nor any other created power knew it before it was accomplished. Hence it is said: “That the manifold wisdom of God might be made known to the principalities and powers through the Church.” God did this to honor us, so that they might hear the mysteries with us. For we too consider it a sign of friendship to reveal secrets first to those whom we have made our friends.
The wisdom of God is called a mystery when we see one thing and believe another. Believers and unbelievers are affected differently by the same realities. I hear that Christ was crucified, and I immediately marvel at His kindness and love for humanity; the unbeliever hears it and imagines weakness. I hear that He became a servant and marvel at His care for us; the unbeliever thinks it disgraceful. I hear that He died and am astonished at His power—that though held by death He was not conquered, but broke death itself; the unbeliever suspects infirmity. Hearing of the resurrection, the unbeliever calls it a fable; I, considering the proofs by which Christ showed Himself risen from the dead, the prophecies that agree with it, and the fulfillment corresponding to them, adore the Son of God and His dispensation. The unbeliever hears of the washing and thinks it mere water; I see not only what appears, but the cleansing of the soul accomplished by the Spirit. He thinks only the body is washed; I believe the soul is also made clean and holy, and I recall burial, resurrection, sanctification, justification, redemption, adoption as sons, the kingdom of heaven, and the gift of the Spirit.
I do not judge by sight what appears, but by the eyes of the mind. Just as children see books but do not know the power of letters, and the illiterate see only paper and ink, while the learned hear a voice, converse with the absent, and find great power hidden in letters—so it is with the mystery. Unbelievers hear but do not truly hear; believers, having the understanding that comes through the Spirit, perceive the power and efficacy of what is hidden.
‘We speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, which was hidden, which God predestined before the ages unto our glory.’ Elsewhere he says “unto His glory,” for God considers our salvation to be His glory. He says it was predestined before the ages to show God’s care for our salvation and His eternal love for us. Those are thought to love us most who prepare benefits for us long in advance, as parents do for their children. Paul likewise shows that God loved us even before we were born; for had He not loved us, He would not have predestined for us eternal riches, eternal happiness, and glory.
1 Cor 2:9 ‘What eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor has it entered into the heart of man, what God has prepared for those who love Him.’ We are not Christians in order to enjoy temporal and sensible goods, but spiritual and eternal ones, which cannot be known except through faith, nor perfectly possessed except through love. God gave us nature that we might exist, a soul that we might live, a mind that we might understand, food that we might sustain mortal life, light from heaven and springs from the earth—but these are common gifts to both good and evil. Does He reserve nothing proper for the good? He does indeed. What He reserves is what eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor has entered the heart of man. What enters the human heart was beneath the heart; what God reserves is that to which the heart ascends. Not what has ascended into your heart, but that to which your heart ascends—this God reserves for you. Do not hear as one deaf. “Lift up your hearts.” You ask what it is that God promises to those who love Him? “I will be their God.” He has promised Himself as our reward. Seek something else, if you can find anything better. If I said He promised gold, you would rejoice; He promises Himself, and you are sad? If a rich man does not have God, what does he have? Ask nothing of God except God Himself. Love Him freely; desire Him alone from Him. Do not fear poverty—He gives Himself to us, and He is enough.
1 Cor 2:10 ‘But God has revealed it to us through His Spirit.’ The Spirit searches all things, even the depths of God. The supreme good, eternal beatitude—which is God Himself—is known only to Christians, for whom alone it is prepared. Only the Holy Spirit grants the ability to speak worthily of it. God revealed all things through His Spirit to the apostles, and through them to the Church; therefore such revelations must be received from her. While we live this mortal life, we are infants; from the Church, our mother, we must receive all things. From her womb we are born; by her milk we are nourished; by her Spirit we are enlivened. To her Christ promised and gave the Spirit of truth, who searches all things, even the depths of God. Therefore it is to her that we must listen, as to the oracle of truth.
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