1 Corinthians 2

This is still an early look into the drafted text of the Open English Translation of the Bible. Please double-check the text in advance before using in public.

2 Brothers and sisters, when I visited you all, I didn’t try to impress you with flowery words or great wisdom when I taught you about God’s incredible plan, 2 because I had decided in advance to display knowledge about nothing else other than Yeshua (Jesus; Grk. Yesus) Messiah and his execution. 3 And so I came to you all in weakness and fear and with a lot of trembling,[ref] 4 and my message and my preaching wasn’t delivered with persuasive words of wisdom, but rather demonstrating God’s spirit and power, 5 so that your faith wouldn’t be based on human wisdom, but on God’s power.

2:3: Acts 18:9.

2 And _I having _come to you _all, brothers, came not according _to prominence of _speech or wisdom, proclaiming to _you _all the mystery of_ the _god.

2 For/Because not I _judged anything to _have _known among you _all, except not/lest Yaʸsous chosen _one /messiah, and this one having _been _executed _on _a _stake.

3 And _I in weakness, and in fear, and in trembling much became with you _all.

4 And the message of _me and the proclamation of _me, not in persuasive of _wisdom messages, but in demonstration of_the_spirit and of _power,

5 in _order _that the faith of _you _all, not may _be in wisdom of _humans, but in the_power of_god.

2:6 Spiritual vs human wisdom

6 However, when we’re with mature believers, we speak wisdom—not the wisdom of this age, and not the wisdom of the rulers of this age who will come to nothing. 7 Instead we speak about God’s mysterious and hidden wisdom, which he had planned before creation to enable us to enter his kingdom. 8 None of the rulers of this present age understood it, because if they had, they wouldn’t have crucified the master of that kingdom, 9 but as scripture says:

‘No eye has seen and no ear has heard,

and it’s never entered any person’s mind,

all the things that God has prepared for those who love him.’[ref]

10 But God has revealed it to us through his spirit, because his spirit strives to know the meaning of everything, even the deep things of God. 11 Yes, what person knows what other people are thinking. Only the spirit of the person themself knows that. So too, no one knows God’s thoughts other than God’s own spirit. 12 No, we haven’t received the world’s spirit, but rather God’s spirit so that we can recognise everything that God has freely given to us.

13 We don’t speak about these things from our human wisdom, but rather, saying what God’s spirit teaches—teaching spiritual things from spiritual sources. 14 Secular people don’t accept things about God’s spirit because they seem foolish to them, and they can’t understand them because it requires spiritual awareness, 15 but spiritual people can discern all these things, even though others can’t correctly discern about them. 16 This was stated in scripture: