Passage

1 Corinthians 1.17

Book: 1 Corinthians · ASV / WEB / KJV / YLT

Immediate context (±2 verses)

ASV

15. lest any man should say that ye were baptized into my name. 16. And I baptized also the household of Stephanas: besides, I know not whether I baptized any other.

17. For Christ sent me not to baptize, but to preach the gospel: not in wisdom of words, lest the cross of Christ should be made void.

For the word of the cross is to them that perish foolishness; but unto us who are saved it is the power of God. 19. For it is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, And the discernment of the discerning will I bring to nought. (1 Corinthians 1:15-19, ASV)

WEB

15. so that no one should say that I had baptized you into my own name. 16. (I also baptized the household of Stephanas; besides them, I don’t know whether I baptized any other.)

17. For Christ sent me not to baptize, but to preach the Good News, not in wisdom of words, so that the cross of Christ wouldn’t be made void.

For the word of the cross is foolishness to those who are dying, but to us who are saved it is the power of God. 19. For it is written, “I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, I will bring the discernment of the discerning to nothing.” (1 Corinthians 1:15-19, WEB)

KJV

15. Lest any should say that I had baptized in mine own name. 16. And I baptized also the household of Stephanas: besides, I know not whether I baptized any other.

17. For Christ sent me not to baptize, but to preach the gospel: not with wisdom of words, lest the cross of Christ should be made of none effect. ^{words: or, speech}

For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness; but unto us which are saved it is the power of God. 19. For it is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and will bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent. (1 Corinthians 1:15-19, KJV)

YLT

15. that no one may say that to my own name I did baptize; 16. and I did baptize also Stephanas' household, further, I have not known if I did baptize any other.

17. For Christ did not send me to baptize, but, to proclaim good news; not in wisdom of discourse, that the cross of the Christ may not be made of none effect;

for the word of the cross to those indeed perishing is foolishness, and to us, those being saved, it is the power of God, 19. for it hath been written, 'I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and the intelligence of the intelligent I will bring to nought;' (1 Corinthians 1:15-19, YLT)

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Setting

Speaker: Paul the Apostle
Audience: the church at Corinth, a mixed Jew-and-Gentile congregation in a wealthy Roman colony, fractured over teachers, status, sexual ethics, and the limits of freedom
Location: composed in Ephesus, addressed to Corinth
Time period: c. AD 55-56

Theological reading

Christ sent me not to baptize, but to preach the gospel. The sentence has to be read against the three verses before it, where Paul recalls that he did baptize Crispus, Gaius, and the household of Stephanas. He is not disparaging baptism; he is refusing to let it become a party badge. The Corinthians were sorting themselves by who had baptized them, and Paul's relief at having baptized so few is relief at having given the factions less to work with.

This bears on the baptismal-regeneration question without settling it. What the verse establishes is a distinction of commission, not a ranking of importance: the apostolic mandate Paul received is proclamation, and baptism follows the proclamation rather than constituting it. Traditions that read baptism as instrumental in regeneration have to account for Paul's ability to describe it as the part of his work he was glad to delegate; traditions that read it as merely symbolic have to account for his practising it anyway. See Baptism.

The closing clause, not in wisdom of words, lest the cross of Christ should be made void, is the hinge into the great passage that follows. Paul's worry is not that eloquence is wicked but that a gospel carried by rhetorical power would be credited to the rhetoric. The content of the message, a crucified Messiah, is calculated to defeat that, and the argument runs through to verse 25.

Key words

Theologically-loaded Greek or Hebrew words in this verse may have entries in the lexicon. Curated to roughly 100 contested terms across the corpus, not every word; see Lexicon Roadmap.

G2758 - kenoo, kenoo, Strong's G2758
G2097 - euangelizo, euangelizo, Strong's G2097
G0907 - baptizo, baptizo, Strong's G0907
G3056 - logos, logos, Strong's G3056
G5547 - christos, christos, Strong's G5547

Quoted in

Lexicon:

Why these four translations

ris3n chose ASV, WEB, KJV, and YLT for two reasons together. They are the most literal English translations available (formal-equivalence: word-for-word renderings that preserve the Hebrew and Greek grammar rather than smoothing it into modern dynamic-equivalence idiom). And they are in the public domain in the United States, which means fair-use quotation at any length requires no publisher license. Modern licensed translations (NASB95, ESV, NIV) restrict volume of quotation under their copyright terms, so they are not used at stub-level coverage here. NASB95 appears only on hand-curated rich passage hubs under Lockman Foundation's fair-use allowance.

The four:

ASV (American Standard Version, 1901). The basis of the modern critical-text English tradition.
WEB (World English Bible, contemporary). Public-domain revision in the ASV line, in current English.
KJV (King James Version, 1611). Reformation-era, Textus Receptus base.
YLT (Young's Literal Translation, Robert Young, 1862). Hyper-literal preservation of Hebrew and Greek grammar; useful for word-study work even where English reads stiff.

See Bibles for the full per-translation history, translators, textual basis, strengths, and weaknesses.