Passage

1 Corinthians 1.18

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

Immediate context (±2 verses)

ASV

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.

18. For the word of the cross is to them that perish foolishness; but unto us who are saved it is the power of God.

For it is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, And the discernment of the discerning will I bring to nought. 20. Where is the wise? where is the scribe? where is the disputer of this world? hath not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? (1 Corinthians 1:16-20, ASV)

WEB

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.

18. 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.

For it is written, “I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, I will bring the discernment of the discerning to nothing.” 20. Where is the wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the lawyer of this world? Hasn’t God made foolish the wisdom of this world? (1 Corinthians 1:16-20, WEB)

KJV

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}

18. For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness; but unto us which are saved it is the power of God.

For it is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and will bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent. 20. Where is the wise? where is the scribe? where is the disputer of this world? hath not God made foolish the wisdom of this world? (1 Corinthians 1:16-20, KJV)

YLT

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;

18. for the word of the cross to those indeed perishing is foolishness, and to us, those being saved, it is the power of God,

for it hath been written, 'I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and the intelligence of the intelligent I will bring to nought;' 20. where [is] the wise? where the scribe? where a disputer of this age? did not God make foolish the wisdom of this world? (1 Corinthians 1:16-20, 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

The word of the cross (ho logos ho tou staurou) is set between two present participles that English translations often flatten. Paul does not write about those who have perished and those who are saved as finished categories; he writes about those perishing and those being saved, two trajectories in motion. The gospel divides its hearers as it is heard.

The claim is deliberately offensive. To the Roman world, crucifixion was the servile punishment, so degrading that Cicero told a jury the very word should be kept far from the ears of Roman citizens. To claim it as the power of God is not a difficulty Paul is managing but the thesis he is asserting. Verse 23 will name the two audiences and their two reasons for rejecting it, and verse 25 will state the paradox outright: the foolishness of God is wiser than men.

Power of God (dynamis theou) is the phrase to watch, because Paul returns to it in Romans 1:16 with the same structure. The cross is not power despite being weakness; it is the location where God's power is exercised in a form that human evaluation is guaranteed to misread. That is the apologetic point of the passage: the gospel's implausibility to the wise is presented as evidence for it rather than as an embarrassment to be explained away.

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.

G0622 - apollymi, apollymi, Strong's G0622
G4982 - sozo, sozo, Strong's G4982
G3056 - logos, logos, Strong's G3056
G2316 - theos, theos, Strong's G2316

Quoted in

Arguments and defeaters:

Concepts:

Lexicon:

Passages:

1 Corinthians 1.23

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.