1 Cor 2:6 “Yet we speak wisdom among the perfect.”
The closer each thing comes to its proper end, the more perfect it is said to be. Hence Sacred Scripture calls perfect the soul of a human being who either, by understanding, recognizes God intensely—often even with neglect of the bodily senses—or, by desiring Him as the supreme good, pursues Him with such ardor that, in comparison with His vision, he regards changeable and perishable things as nothing. Such persons, the Apostle says, partake of solid food, namely those who, by habit (consuetudine), have their senses exercised for the discernment of good and evil.
Having obtained hearers of this sort, the Apostle no longer taught the first rudiments of the faith, but wisdom already acquired, knowing that their minds, disposed by the Holy Spirit, were fitted not only to perceive and contemplate divine realities—good and desirable things—more subtly, but also so to retain and absorb them that they would wish to cleave to them wholly with mind and spirit. For the Apostle had not undertaken to preach the doctrine of faith merely for this end, as the Lutherans hold—namely, that the human mind might be disposed to perceive and believe it—but also that the movements of the will, under the guidance of this faith as a leader, might be made more inclined to love and to act. From this it is clear that the Lutherans have in no way attained the goal of apostolic doctrine, since, content with the light of faith alone, they think there is no need for the affection of the will to carry out what faith commands.
Saint Augustine holds that one and the same doctrine of faith is rudiments for the unlearned and solid food for the trained—not because the former know it one way in public and the latter another way in private chambers, but because they do not hear it in the same manner when it is proclaimed openly, and each receives it according to his own capacity. Thus Paul calls the Cross of Christ solid food and wisdom; yet for the Corinthians who were saying, “I am of Paul, I of Apollo,” it was a rudiment and scarcely milk.
The wisdom, however, not of this age nor of the rulers of this age, who are passing away, which Paul strives to hand on to the perfect, he professes to teach not as some habit acquired by use and exercise, but as a gift handed on to him by the prompting of the Holy Spirit. Its depth is so great that those who among men are considered most illustrious for wisdom do not know it. For this reason he says it is hidden from the rulers of this age, because it teaches truths about eternal and immortal things which lie beyond human and temporal wisdom—wisdom that lasts only for this time and is bounded merely by the duration of the world, but after this age is abolished and vanishes—whereas this wisdom will endure eternally among the heavenly beings. For just as divine wisdom proceeded from heaven, so it shows the way back to heaven, where it will never suffer any loss; for as its author is God, who is eternal, so it will shine forth eternally in unfading bloom.
The cultivators of human wisdom, moreover, are orators and philosophers—or, according to Chrysostom, scribes and Pharisees—who, although they possessed some knowledge of Christ, nevertheless, because of their malice and ambition, were never able to recognize Him as God or as the Messiah promised in the Law and the Prophets.
1 Cor 2:7 “But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, which has been hidden.”
That which is accomplished by some hidden sacred rationale is said not to be done without mystery. For it is not truly a mystery, says Basil, that is brought forth to popular and vulgar ears. This is the reason why certain things were handed down without being written, lest knowledge of the dogmas be neglected and fall into contempt among the common people through over-familiarity. In this way the Apostle here intimates that this kind of wisdom is taught by him—one that had been hidden from ages and generations both because of its excellence and majesty and because of its sanctity and difficulty—so that, as Ambrose says, every intention of human reasoning yields before it. And because this wisdom is not rendered credible by words but by power, and not by human reasoning but by the efficacy of the Spirit, the same holy Doctor says that it was hidden in a mystery.
Chrysostom spoke in nearly the same sense when he said that it is full of mystery, because in it we do not behold the very thing we believe, but see one thing and believe another. Just as, he says, an unlearned person, even when he looks at books, does not understand the force of writing nor know what he perceives by the sense of sight; whereas one trained in letters finds great power hidden in them and discovers whole lives, histories, and letters. But one ignorant of these things will think it is merely paper and ink; the learned, however, receives voices and converses with one who is absent, and through letters asks again whatever he wishes. In the same way, mystery comes into use here.
For unbelievers, although they hear, do not seem truly to hear; but the faithful, having attained experience through the Spirit, behold power in hidden things. “I hear,” says the unbeliever, “that Christ was crucified,” and at first I marvel at His kindness, but I judge it weakness. “I hear that He became a servant,” and I marvel at His charity; the other considers it disgrace and mocks. He lies in a manger—yet the Church sings that He thunders in the clouds; He is born wrapped in swaddling clothes—yet He clothes the stars; He is buried dead—yet He rises, to live forever. For in Himself there did not appear the wisdom that was hidden under the covering of an earthen vessel. Thus God too is called a treasure hidden in a field, although the heavens wonderfully exalt and proclaim His glory: “From the greatness and beauty of creatures the Creator is known; His eternal power and divinity.”
“Which God predestined before the ages for our glory.”
Three things greatly commend the wisdom which Paul professed among the perfect in a mystery. First, its antiquity: before the mountains were made or the earth was formed, it had already been conceived and promised by God to those to whom He had decreed to reveal the riches of this glory. For God has been accustomed to care for human beings as a father for his children; out of love He had stored up immense riches from eternity, to be bestowed in His own time—just as fathers later lavish upon their children the wealth they had earlier resolved to give.
The second part is the fruit which wisdom produced, which greatly magnifies its majesty and from which the greatest benefit accrues to the human race. For by revealing His secrets, God wished to make known His friendship toward humanity, since the sharing of secrets is a sure sign of friendship. By this sign alone Truth itself wished to prove true friendship, signifying the change from the state of servitude under the Law to the state of sons and friends under the Gospel, when He said: “I have called you friends, because all that I heard from My Father I have made known to you.”
Finally, what glory is to be expected for the heralds of this wisdom both before God and before human beings becomes clear from what Paul says elsewhere: “Through the Church the manifold wisdom of God was made known to the principalities in the heavens.” For the angels, through apostolic preaching, learned by experience itself that the mystery of Christ was believed by human beings and was advancing among them. For God wished to honor the citizens of the New Testament in this way, that the heavenly beings should receive together with us the knowledge of the mystery of Christ. Indeed, the earth has never produced any class of human beings upon whom such honor, such praise, such glory has been bestowed, that at their ashes—held in highest veneration—the most powerful kings should, with the deepest humility, implore divine help through their intercession.
1 Cor 2:8 “Which none of the rulers of this age knew.”
Paul says that the wisdom he professes was of such lofty height that it surpasses the sight and power of understanding of all beings endowed with intellect. For that even the angels themselves, from the beginning of human redemption, did not fully perceive the mystery with which this knowledge is concerned in its particular circumstances until it later came to pass in reality and was preached by the Apostles, is clear from the fact that in Isaiah they are introduced asking about this mystery: “Who is this who comes from Edom?” and in the Psalmist: “Who is this King of glory?”
In a general way and by faith they were not ignorant of this—that the Son of God would take on human flesh and, having become man, would redeem the human race—but the particular circumstances of the mystery remained unknown to them, as Augustine teaches. “Nor,” he says, “were the angels ignorant of the mystery of the Kingdom of Heaven, which in due time was revealed for our salvation, so that from this pilgrimage we might be joined to their company.” For since all of them, from the very beginnings, obtained grace on account of the merits of Christ, it was fitting that their faith—by the benefit of which they attained that grace—should concern the future mystery of Christ’s Incarnation. Thomas Aquinas likewise teaches that this was not hidden even from our first parent in the state of innocence, and this can easily be gathered from Paul.
As for the rulers of this age, if you understand philosophers and those who administer justice and govern laws, Jerome says: “This the learned Plato did not know; this the eloquent Demosthenes was ignorant of,” because, as Thomas says, it surpasses human reason. For, as the Prophet testifies, “the seekers of prudence and knowledge did not know the way of wisdom.” And in the same way it was hidden from the rulers of the world, in whose hands lay the greatest power of affairs, because human power and worldly pomp do not lead to this justice, but rather the faith of little ones does—not the learning of those who wish to seem wise in their own eyes.
Hence even the demons themselves, although they could conjecture from certain effects that Christ had something above the common human condition, yet because they do not know so many supernatural mysteries—mysteries which they would have known by divine revelation had they been blessed—they were not able to be fully conscious of this mystery. For being deprived of the gift of infused heavenly faith, just as they are devoid of all hope, so too they are not endowed with the faith of a higher order.
For if they had known it, they would never have crucified the Lord of glory.
By reason and by authority he proves that the wisdom of God was perceived by no one, and he reasons first in this way. There is no one who does not desire to be satisfied with all perfection, in which the common notion of beatitude is placed. For, as Augustine testifies, there is no one who does not recognize within his own will this appetite for happiness. Whatever else, he says, anyone may secretly will, he does not depart from this will which is known to all human beings. For all people by a natural instinct desire to be happy, since their nature possesses such a weight and such an inclination toward that reality in which beatitude consists that it cannot fail to be carried toward it.
But since no created thing can fulfill the human appetite, God alone is able to fill the desire of the human person with good, because He alone is that exceedingly great reward (merces magna nimis), that is, one than which nothing greater exists. Apart from Him, all other things are of such a kind that the human appetite can in no way be satisfied or fulfilled by them. This is the reason why all other things are called by the Wise Man vanity of vanities.
If, therefore, the wisdom of God had been known to the rulers, surely the divinity of Christ would not have escaped them, since in the possession and knowledge of Him the very notion of happiness consists. And thus they would by no means have plotted His death, since the law implanted in nature cannot endure that the destruction of the Author of glory—and thus one’s own destruction—should either be conceived by the human mind or brought about by human action. The force of this argument for proving the divinity of Christ is so great that no one fails to see how easily by it the impiety of the Arians is overthrown.
For since God alone is the author both of grace and of glory, and since Christ is called by Paul the Lord of glory, it is astonishing that His divinity could ever have been called into doubt—especially since the Sacred Fathers everywhere interpret Christ as the King of glory whenever Scripture speaks of Him, such as Justin, Ambrose, Augustine, and Jerome.
Now when the Apostle affirms that the Lord of glory was crucified, he uses this manner of speaking by reason of the unity of person, or divine hypostasis, which sustained a human nature subject to death. For since the two natures in Christ—human and divine—subsist in one suppositum, for that reason the divinity itself is denominated by the attributes of the humanity, without danger of error, so that it can be said of God that He died, was born, and the like. Hence Augustine shows that Paul here confessed the Lord to be crucified, saying: If someone cuts your tunic, he injures your flesh; and yet you do not cry out on behalf of your garment, saying “my tunic,” but “you have cut me, you have torn me apart.” You speak while remaining whole, and you speak truly; nor has anything been taken away from your flesh though it was wounded. In the same way the Lord Christ was crucified. He is Lord, He is one with the Father, He is our Savior, He is the Lord of glory—yet He was crucified. But it was in the flesh, and He was buried in the flesh alone.
Whether, however, the divinity of Christ was known to the Jews is not agreed upon by all. Cyril thinks that God was known to the Jews, but that the people serving the Law did not know that the Son was sent in the flesh by the Father, and thus they did not know the Lord. Yet that they were not for this reason free from sin is testified by Truth itself, saying: “If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not have sin”—namely, the rulers of the Jews. And the Lord wished this same excuse to be taken away from the common people as well when He said: “If I had not done among them the works which no one else has done, they would not have sin.”
For the doctrine of Christ, in itself clear and efficacious, stands opposed to the chief rulers of the Jews and to the doctors of the Pharisees, against whom, after the Lord had spoken, He subsequently declared that they had no excuse, since they could and should have believed. The mention of Christ’s works reproves the ignorant and simpler crowds, for to those who do not believe, the works of Christ remove every excuse for sin and unbelief. For the works and miracles wrought by divine power showed that He Himself was the Son of God. “The works which I do in the name of My Father bear witness of Me.”
But blinded by malice and envy, so far were they from being moved to hold faith in Christ and to venerate Him as the natural Son of God, that they rather slew Him by a most atrocious injustice.
1 Cor 2:9 “But as it is written: 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.”
By the authority of Isaiah he proves that it could never have entered the mind of any mortal that the Author of glory would prepare for human beings such benefits of grace and glory, by which those who are saved are most certainly delivered, unless God Himself had revealed it divinely. For this matter, he says, is of a higher order and of such beauty that it cannot be grasped by the senses, from which the human mind takes the beginning of its knowledge. Hence he affirms that it could not be perceived by the eyes, which serve for imagining things, nor by the ears, which serve for receiving instruction, nor even could it ascend into the heart of man.
In the same way, neither the voice of the heavenly Father could be heard nor His form seen, by which He Himself might be known. For the voice or form which the prophets heard and saw were not God Himself, but certain signs of Him. Therefore John says: “You have neither heard His voice at any time nor seen His form.” Just as the wisdom of the Father could not ascend into the heart of man—that is, could never rise from lower faculties through common sense, imagination, and cogitative power, and through the organs up to the intellect, without the help of God revealing—so Paul says here.
For things of a higher order, which the power of understanding receives, are to be considered not so much as ascending as descending, when they retain in themselves their own vigor more perfectly than the intellect can supply by conceiving them. For the reward of eternal glory corresponds to charity, which is given by the sole favor of God to those who embrace the doctrine of Christ with mind and affection. Through this it is said that God comes to the human person and descends to him, cooperating with him and bringing about various effects with his will consenting and acting together.
1 Cor 2:10“But God has revealed it to us through His Spirit.”
The mystery of Christ’s advent in the economy of salvation was so deeply hidden that, unless the Holy Spirit—who had full knowledge of the secrets of God—had opened it to the world, neither the subtlety of angels nor any abundance of human talent or industry could ever have attained its knowledge and understanding. Hence Bernard says: “The things that are above are not taught by word but are revealed by the Spirit. What speech does not explain, let prayer await and let purity of life merit.” And when I say the things that are above, do not understand the sun and the moon; for these are beneath you in dignity. It is useless to seek what is not spirit. God is spirit, and angels are spirits; but angels and our spirit differ by participation, whereas God is wholly the supreme good.
The Apostles had heard many things pertaining to this from the mouth of Christ the Teacher; but because they either had not sufficiently grasped everything or had not attained the full meaning of all, the Holy Spirit had been promised to them, who would administer understanding and explanation of all things and would bring back to memory whatever Christ had said. For the Holy Spirit had been sent by the Father for no other reason than to carry out what had been accomplished through Christ. Christ had perfected the redemption of humankind; but the Holy Spirit was sent by Christ’s merit in order to teach, to sanctify, and finally to bring to completion all that He had instituted. Therefore Christ foretold that He would be sent by the Father in His name, so that He might conduct the proper affairs of God.
Whatever pertained to the doctrine of Christ and to the instruction or establishment of the Church, the Apostles were splendidly taught once the Holy Spirit had come, as Tertullian testifies. “For the Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God.”
That the knowledge of the wisdom of God with which the Apostles were endowed was certain and beyond doubt he proves from the fact that they received it from the Holy Spirit, from whom no secrets of God could ever be hidden, since He comprehends within Himself God, who is incomprehensible to created beings. By this argument the Fathers have always excellently defended the divinity of the Holy Spirit against the blasphemies of heretics. For the Holy Spirit is not said to search the deep things of God as though He were ignorant of them, but rather to comprehend them perfectly, as Basil teaches. For He knows God—that is, Himself—as perfectly as He is knowable, since His knowledge is of such power as the divine nature itself has of existing, which no angelic or human intellect can attain by knowing.
Therefore He is said to search the deep things, that is, those things which are hidden in God and not those which are known about Him through creatures, which are seen, as it were, on the surface, as Thomas Aquinas explains. The Gloss also says that the Holy Spirit searches all things because He causes them to be searched by His inspiration. For what is done by His gift and assistance is said to be done by Him, without whom it would not be done. Hence elsewhere the Wise Man says: “Who can know Your counsel unless You give wisdom and send Your Holy Spirit from on high?”
As though to say that the things which the Spirit searches cannot be seen by us unless through the aid of Him whose power of seeing is proportioned to the thing seen—such as God must necessarily be.
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