2 And so it was with me, brothers and sisters. When I came to you, I did not come with eloquence or human wisdom^(A) as I proclaimed to you the testimony about God.^{[a] 2} For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified.^{(B) 3} I came to you^(C) in weakness^(D) with great fear and trembling.^{(E) 4} My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words,^(F) but with a demonstration of the Spirit’s power,^{(G) 5} so that your faith might not rest on human wisdom, but on God’s power.^(H)

God’s Wisdom Revealed by the Spirit

⁶ We do, however, speak a message of wisdom among the mature,^(I) but not the wisdom of this age^(J) or of the rulers of this age, who are coming to nothing.^{(K) 7} No, we declare God’s wisdom, a mystery^(L) that has been hidden^(M) and that God destined for our glory before time began. ⁸ None of the rulers of this age^(N) understood it, for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.^{(O) 9} However, as it is written:

¹⁰ these are the things God has revealed^(Q) to us by his Spirit.^(R)

The Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God.

Jesus Clears the Temple Courts^(A)

¹³ When it was almost time for the Jewish Passover,^(B) Jesus went up to Jerusalem.^{(C) 14} In the temple courts he found people selling cattle, sheep and doves,^(D) and others sitting at tables exchanging money.^{(E) 15} So he made a whip out of cords, and drove all from the temple courts, both sheep and cattle; he scattered the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables. ¹⁶ To those who sold doves he said, “Get these out of here! Stop turning my Father’s house^(F) into a market!” ¹⁷ His disciples remembered that it is written: “Zeal for your house will consume me.”^[a](G)

¹⁸ The Jews^(H) then responded to him, “What sign^(I) can you show us to prove your authority to do all this?”^(J)

¹⁹ Jesus answered them, “Destroy this temple, and I will raise it again in three days.”^(K)

²⁰ They replied, “It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and you are going to raise it in three days?” ²¹ But the temple he had spoken of was his body.^{(L) 22} After he was raised from the dead, his disciples recalled what he had said.^(M) Then they believed the scripture^(N) and the words that Jesus had spoken.