1 COR 1:20 Interlinear View

SIL Open Translator’s Notes:

Section 1:10–2:16: Believers should not divide up into competing factions. They should be united by true wisdom, the message of the cross.

In this section Paul wrote about a serious problem in the Corinthian church. The Corinthian believers were dividing up into competing groups. They were following whichever human leader they admired the most. Paul tried to solve this problem by reminding the Corinthians of the message of the cross. He wanted them to stop following human wisdom and to follow God’s wisdom.

Paragraph 1:20–25

In this paragraph Paul talked more about foolishness and wisdom. The gospel message expresses God’s power and wisdom. For different reasons, both Jewish people and Greek people may reject it. However, to those who believe the message/gospel, it brings salvation from sin and death.

1:20a-c

Paul began this verse with three rhetorical questions. Each of these questions asks where some of the clever people of this world are. Paul used these rhetorical questions to emphasize that these clever people have failed. They are not able to know God through their cleverness.

Some ways to translate this emphasis are:

Use rhetorical questions. For example:
Where is the wise person? Where is the educated person? Where is the skilled talker of this world? (NCV)
Use emphatic statements. For example:
The wise man has failed. The educated person has failed. The skilled talker has failed.

1:20a

Where is the wise man?

¶ What is the position/status of wise people?
¶ So, wise people have no special advantage before God.
¶ The wise people have no special significance/importance according to God’s thoughts.

Where is the wise man?: This is the first of the three rhetorical questions beginning with the word Where. Paul was not asking where these people were living. Paul used this rhetorical question to emphasize that people who the world thinks are wise have failed. They are not wise according to God’s thoughts or plans. God has defeated them and their clever thoughts.

Paul also did not mean that being wise is of no value at all. He meant that worldly wisdom does not help a person to know God and his eternal plan.

Some ways to translate this emphasis are:

As a rhetorical question. You may want to indicate the implied answer. For example:
What happened to those wise people? They failed!
As a statement. For example:
The wise man has failed completely.
The wise man is foolish.

the wise man: The phrase the wise man refers to a person whom the people of this world admire as being wise. Paul did not talk about one wise man, but about all such people. In some languages it may be more natural to use a plural form. For example:

people who are wise

those wise people (CEV)

1:20b

Where is the scribe?

What is the position/status of expert people?
Scholars have no special advantage before God.
The scholars have no special significance/importance/have failed according to God’s thoughts.

Where is the scribe?: This is the second of the three rhetorical questions beginning with the word Where. This functions as an emphatic statement that people who the world thinks of as educated people are foolish.

Some ways to translate this emphatic statement are:

As a rhetorical question. For example:
Where is the educated person?
What happened to the educated person?
As a statement. For example:
The educated person has failed.

the scribe: There are two ways to interpret the word scribe here:

It refers to an educated professional person of any culture.See Thiselton p. 164. For example:
the educated person (NCV) (NCV, NIV, REB, GNT, GW, NLT)
It refers to a teacher of the Jewish laws. See scribe in the Gospels (e.g., Mark 1:22) and in KBT. For example:
the expert in the Mosaic law (NET) (BSB, NET, RSV, KJV, NASB, ESV, CEV)

It is recommended that you follow interpretation (1) since it has slightly stronger support in the commentaries.

Paul was not writing to Jewish people here. He was likely writing in general terms about any educated professional person. Professional people, at that time, were all men. Another English example is:

man of learning (REB)

In some languages it may be more natural to translate this using a plural word. For example:

the scholars (NLT)

the experts

1:20c

Where is the philosopher of this age?

What is the position/status of the skillful debaters of this world before God?
The clever/skillful debaters/philosophers of this world have no special advantage before God.
The clever/skillful debaters/speakers of this world have no special significance/importance/have failed according to God’s thoughts.

Where is the philosopher of this age?: This is a third rhetorical question. Paul used this rhetorical question to emphasis that skilled speakers are foolish compared to God.

Some ways to translate this emphasis are:

As a rhetorical question. For example:
Where are the skillful debaters of this world? (GNT)
As a statement. For example:
The skilled talkers of this world are foolish.

the philosopher: The Greek word which the BSB translates philosopher refers to a person who has learned to debate, talk and argue cleverly. He is clever especially about philosophical thoughts. Another English example is:

the debater

Paul was talking about debaters in general. In some languages it may be more natural to use a plural word. For example:

The skillful debaters (GNT)

of this age: The Greek phrase that the BSB translates as this age refers to the time we live in before Christ returns. Other ways to translate this are:

of our time (GW)

this present age (REB)

this world order

General Comment on 1:20a-c

Some other ways to translate these rhetorical questions are:

You can combine these three “Where” questions into one sentence. For example:
Where is your wise man now, your man of learning, your subtle debater of this present age? (REB)
You may use one full sentence and two following sentence fragments:
So then, where does that leave the wise? or the scholars? or the skillful debaters of this world? (GNT)

1:20d

Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world?

God has shown that the wisdom of this world is really foolishness.
God has turned the wise plans/schemes of those worldly people into foolishness.
God has shown that what the wise people of this world think is worthless/nonsense.

Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world?: This is also a rhetorical question. Paul used this rhetorical question for emphasis. It can be understood as an answer to the three questions in 1:20a-c. Paul was saying that God himself has made foolish the wisdom of the world.

God does not make use of people’s wise thinking in his plan to save people. His thoughts/plans cause wise thinking to come to nothing. Some ways to translate this emphasis are:

As a rhetorical question. For example:
Hasn’t God turned the wisdom of the world into nonsense? (GW)
As a statement. For example:
God has shown that this world’s wisdom is foolishness! (GNT)

the wisdom of the world: Paul here referred to the wisdom of the three groups of people that he had just mentioned. They are: the wise men, the scholars, and the debaters. It may be more natural to make the connection clear by referring to “those wise people.” You can also be general at this point and use “all.” For example:

God has made them all look foolish and has shown their wisdom to be useless nonsense. (NLT96)

the world: The Greek word that the BSB translates as world here refers to the moral system of the world. The world’s moral system is opposed to God and Christ.

uW Translation Notes:

Note 1 topic: figures-of-speech / rquestion

ποῦ σοφός? ποῦ γραμματεύς? ποῦ συνζητητὴς τοῦ αἰῶνος τούτου?

(Some words not found in SR-GNT: Ποῦ σοφός Ποῦ γραμματεύς Ποῦ συζητητής τοῦ αἰῶνος τούτου Οὐχί ἐμώρανεν ὁ Θεός τήν σοφίαν τοῦ κόσμου)

With these questions, Paul is not actually asking about the location of certain people. Rather, he is suggesting to the Corinthians that these kinds of people cannot be found. If it would be helpful in your language, you could express the idea behind these questions with statements that: (1) assert that these people do not actually have real wisdom, knowledge, or skill. Alternate translation: [The wise person does not really have wisdom. The scholar does not really know much. The debater of this age is not really good at arguing] (2) assert that these people do not exist. Alternate translation: [There is no wise person. There is no scholar. There is no debater of this age]

Note 2 topic: figures-of-speech / genericnoun

σοφός & γραμματεύς & συνζητητὴς

˓the˒_wise & ˓the˒_scribe & (Some words not found in SR-GNT: Ποῦ σοφός Ποῦ γραμματεύς Ποῦ συζητητής τοῦ αἰῶνος τούτου Οὐχί ἐμώρανεν ὁ Θεός τήν σοφίαν τοῦ κόσμου)

Paul uses these singular nouns to identify types of people, but he does not mean just one wise person, scholar, or debater. If it would be helpful in your language, you could express this form with a form that identifies a type of person, or you could translate these nouns in plural form. Alternate translation: [the kind of person who has wisdom … the kind of person who is a scholar … the kind of person who is a debater]

Note 3 topic: figures-of-speech / possession

συνζητητὴς τοῦ αἰῶνος τούτου

Here Paul uses the possessive form to describe a debater who is part of this age. In fact, Paul may mean that the wise person and the scholar also belong to this age. If it would be helpful in your language, you could express the idea behind this form with a relative clause. Alternate translation: [the debater, who belongs in this age] or [the debater? All these kinds of people belong to this age]

Note 4 topic: translate-unknown

συνζητητὴς

Here, debater refers to a person who spends much of their time arguing about beliefs, values, or actions. If it would be helpful in your language, you could express the meaning of this word with a short phrase or a term that expresses this idea better. Alternate translation: [the disputant]

Note 5 topic: figures-of-speech / rquestion

οὐχὶ ἐμώρανεν ὁ Θεὸς τὴν σοφίαν τοῦ κόσμου?

Paul does not ask this question because he is looking for information. Rather, he asks it to involve the Corinthians in what he is arguing. The question assumes that the answer is “yes.” If it would be helpful in your language, you could express the idea behind this question with a statement. Alternate translation: [God has turned the wisdom of the world into foolishness]

Note 6 topic: figures-of-speech / possession

τὴν σοφίαν τοῦ κόσμου

Here Paul uses the possessive form to describe wisdom that seems wise according to the standard of this world. If it would be helpful in your language, you could express the idea behind this form using a relative clause. Alternate translation: [the wisdom that this world values]

OET-LV English word order (‘Reverse’ interlinear)

Note: The OET-RV is still only a first draft, and so far only a few words have been (mostly automatically) matched to the Hebrew or Greek words that they’re translated from.

Acknowledgements: The SR Greek text, lemmas, morphology, and VLT gloss are all thanks to the CNTR.

OET interlinear 1 COR 1:20

SR Greek word order (including unused variant words in grey)

Section 1:10–2:16: Believers should not divide up into competing factions. They should be united by true wisdom, the message of the cross.

Paragraph 1:20–25

1:20a-c

1:20a

1:20b

1:20c

General Comment on 1:20a-c

1:20d

OET-LV English word order (‘Reverse’ interlinear)

OET interlinear 1 COR 1:20

SR Greek word order (including unused variant words in grey)

Section 1:10–2:16: Believers should not divide up into competing factions. They should be united by true wisdom, the message of the cross.

Paragraph 1:20–25

1:20a-c

1:20a

1:20b

1:20c

General Comment on 1:20a-c

1:20d

OET-LV English word order (‘Reverse’ interlinear)

OET interlinear 1 COR 1:20