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1 Corinthians 1:17-19
New Catholic Bible
1 Corinthians 1:17-19
New Catholic Bible
17 The Message of the Cross and Human Wisdom.[a] For Christ did not send me to baptize but to preach the gospel—and to do so without words of human wisdom lest the cross of Christ be devoid of its meaning. 18 Indeed, the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. 19 For it is written,
“I will destroy the wisdom of the wise,
and the understanding of the learned I will bring to naught.”[b]
Footnotes
- 1 Corinthians 1:17 The most beautiful construction of the human spirit cannot by itself bring salvation to the human race. This section does not oppose faith and philosophy to one another. It affirms above all that people are saved not by an intellectual theory but by God’s intervention in Jesus Christ. Faith does not consist in an ideology.
- 1 Corinthians 1:19 The citation is from Isa 29:14, where the Lord denounces the “wise” for their policy of seeking an alliance with Egypt against King Sennacherib of Assyria. The wise: the 6th-century B.C. Athenian statesman Aristedes remarked that every street in Corinth had its own so-called wise man, who claimed to have a solution to all the problems of the world.
