a Luke 10.21; Rom.1.20,22,28. consideration, Paul uses them as any man does language where he finds words with which he or his readers are familiar, that will convey his meaning. A man familiar with the Bible, will naturally often make use of Scripture expressions in conveying his ideas. In Isaiah the passage refers to the deliverance of the people from the threatened invasion of Sennacherib. The 18th verse represents the people as meditating on the threatened terror of the invasion; and then in the language of exultation and thanksgiving at their deliverance, saying, "where is the wise man that laid the plan of destroying the nation? Where the Inspector General (see my Note on the passage in Isaiah), employed in arranging the forces? Where the receiver (marg. the weigher), the paymaster of the forces? Where the man that counted the towers of Jerusalem, and calculated on their speedy overthrow? All baffled and defeated; and their schemes have all come to naught." So the apostle uses the same language in regard to the boasted wisdom of the world in reference to salvation. It is all baffled, and is all shown to be of no value. ¶ The wise (ropós). The sage. At first the Greek men of learning were called wise men (copoí), like the magicians of the East. They after wards assumed a more modest appellation, and called themselves the lovers of wisdom (412.000001), or philosophers. This was the name by which they were commonly known in Greece, in the time of Paul. ¶ Where is the scribe? (γραμματεὺς). The scribe among the Jews was a learned man, originally employed in transcribing the law, but subsequently the term came to denote a learned man in general. Among the Greeks the word was used to denote a public notary; or a transcriber of the laws; or a secretary. It was a term, therefore, nearly synonymous with a man of learning; and the apostle evidently

uses it in this sense in this place. Some have supposed that he referred to the Jewish men of learning here; but he probably had reference to the Greeks. ¶ Where is the disputer of this world? The acute and subtle sophist of this age. The word disputer (over), properly denotes one who inquires carefully into the causes and relations of things; one who is a subtle and abstruse investigator. It was applied to the ancient sophists and disputants in the Greek academies; and the apostle refers, doubtless, to them. The meaning is, that in all their professed investigations, in all their subtle and abstruse inquiries, they had failed of ascertaining the way in which man could be saved; and that God had devised a plan which had baffled all their wisdom, and in which their philosophy was disre. garded. The term world, here (alvos), refers, probably, not to the world as a physical structure-though Grotius supposes that it does-but to that age the disputer of that age, or generation-an age eminently wise and learned. ¶Hath not God made foolish, &c. That is, has he not by the originality and superior efficacy of his plan of salvation, poured contempt on all the schemes of philosophers, and evinced their folly? Not only without the aid of those schemes of men, but in opposition to them, he has devised a plan for human salvation that evinces its efficacy and its wisdom in the conversion of sinners, and in destroying the power of wickedness. Paul here, possibly, had reference to the language in Isa. xliv. 25. God "turneth wise men backward, and maketh their knowledge foolish."

21. For after that (izuồn). Since, or seeing that it is true that the world by wisdom knew not God. After all the experience of the world it was ascertained that men would never by their own wisdom come to the true knowledge of God, and it pleased him to devise another plan for salvation.

preaching to save them that believe.

¶In the wisdom of God. This phrase is susceptible of two interpretations. (1.) The first makes it refer to "the wisdom of God" evinced in the works of creation-the demonstration of his existence and attributes found there, and, according to that, the apostle means to say, that the world by a survey of the works of God did not know him; or were, notwithstanding those works, in deep darkness. This interpretation is adopted by most commentators by Lightfoot, Rosenmüller, Grotius, Calvin, &c. According to this interpretation, the word is (in) is to be translated by or through. (2.) A second interpretation makes it refer to the wise arrangement or government of God, by which this was permitted. For when, by the wise arrangement or government of God; after a full and fair trial of the native, unaided powers of man, it was ascertained that the true knowledge of God would not be arrived at by man, it pleased him," &c. This appears to be the correct interpretation, because it is the most obvious one, and because it suits the connection best. It is, according to this, a reason why God introduced a new method of saving men. This may be said to have been accomplished by a plan of God, which was wise, because, (1.) It was desirable that the powers of man should be fully tried before the new plan was introduced, in order to show that it was not dependent on human wisdom, that it was not originated by man, and that there was really need of such an interposition. (2.) Because sufficient time had been furnished to make the experiment. An opportunity had been given for four thousand years, and still it had failed. (3.) Because the experiment had been made in the most favourable circumstances. The human faculties had had time to ripen and expand; one generation had had an opportunity of profiting by the observation of its predecessor; and the most mighty minds had been brought to bear on the subject. If

22 For the Jews require a sign a and the Greeks seek after wisdom:

a Mat.12.38, &c.

some

the sages of the east, and the profound philosophers of the west, had not been able to come to the true knowledge of God, it was in vain to hope that more profound minds could be brought to bear on it, or that more careful investigation would be bestowed on it. The experiment had been fairly made, and the result was before the world; see Notes on Rom. i. ¶ The world. The men of the world; particularly the philosophers of the world. ¶ By wisdom. By their own wisdom, or by the united investigations of the works of nature. ¶ Knew not God. Obtained not a true knowledge of him. Some denied his existence; represented him under the false and abominable forms of idol worship; some ascribed to him horrid attributes; all showed that they had no true acquaintance with a God of purity, with a God who could pardon sin, or whose worship conduced to holiness of life; see Notes, Rom. i. ¶ It pleased God. God was disposed, or well pleased. The plan of salvation originated in his good pleasure, and was such as his wisdom approved. God chose this plan, so unlike all the plans of men. By the foolishness of preaching. Not " by foolish preaching," but by the preaching of the cross, which was regarded as foolish and absurd by the men of the world. The plan is wise, but it has been esteemed by the mass of men, and was particularly so esteemed by the Greek philosophers, to be egregiously foolish and ridiculous; see Note, ver. 18. ¶ To save them that believe. That believe in the Lord Jesus Christ; see Note, Mark xvi. 16. This was the peculiarity and essence of the plan of God, and this has appeared to the mass of men to be a plan devoid of wisdom and unworthy of God. The preaching of the cross which is thus esteemed foolishness, is made the means of saving them, because it sets forth God's only plan of mercy, and states the way in which lost sinners may become reconciled to God.

22. For the Jews require a sign. A miracle, a prodigy, an evidence of divine interposition. This was the characteristic of the Jewish people. God had manifested himself to them by miracles and wonders in a remarkable manner in past times, and they greatly prided themselves on that fact, and always demanded it when any new messenger came to them, professing to be sent from God. This propensity they often evinced in their intercourse with the Lord Jesus; Mat. xii. 38; xvi. 1; Mark viii. 11; Luke xi. 16 xii. 54-56. Many MSS., instead of "sign" here in the singular, read signs in the plural; and Griesbach has introduced that reading into the text. The sense is nearly the same, and it means that it was a characteristic of the Jews to demand the constant exhibition of miracles and wonders; and it is also implied here, I think, by the reasoning of the apostle, that they believed that the communication of such signs to them as a people, would secure their salvation, and they therefore despised the simple preaching of a crucified Messiah. They expected a Messiah that should come with the exhibition of some stupendous signs and wonders from heaven (Mat. xii. 38, &c., as above); they looked for the displays of amazing power in his coming, and they anticipated that he would deliver them from their enemies by mere power; and they, therefore, were greatly offended (ver. 23), by the simple doctrine of a crucified Messiah. And the Greeks, &c. Perhaps this means the heathen in general, in opposition to the Jews; Note, Rom. i. 16. It was, however, peculiarly the characteristic of the Greek philosophers. They seek for schemes of philosophy and religion that shall depend on human wisdom, and they therefore despise the gospel.

23. But we. We who are Christian preachers make Christ crucified the grand subject of our instructions and

a

a Isa. 8.14; 1 Pet. 2.8.

our aims in contradistinction from the Jew and the Greek. They seek, the one miracles, the other wisdom, we glory only in the cross. Christ crucified. The word Christ, the anointed, is the same as the Hebrew name Messiah. The emphasis in this expression is on the word crucified. The Jews would make the Messiah whom they expected no less an object of glorifying than the apostles, but they spurned the doctrine that he was to be crucified. Yet in that the apostles boasted; proclaiming him crucified, or having been crucified as the only hope of man. This must mean more than that Christ was distinguished for moral worth, more than that he died as a martyr; because if that were all, no reason could be given why the cross should be made so prominent an object. It must mean that Christ was crucified for the sins of men, as an atoning sacrifice in the place of sinners. We proclaim a crucified Messiah as the only redeemer of lost men." ¶ To the Jews a stumbling-block. The word stumbling-block (onávdaλov) means properly any thing in the way over which one may fall; then any thing that gives offence, or that causes one to fall into sin. Here it means that to the Jews, the doctrine that the Messiah was to be crucified gave great offence; excited, irritated, and exasperated them; that they could not endure the doctrine, and treated it with scorn. Comp. Note, Rom. ix. 33; 1 Pet. ii. 8. It is well known that to the Jews no doctrine was more offensive than this, that the Messiah was to be put to death, and that there was to be salvation in no other way. It was so in the times of the apostles, and it has been so since. They have, therefore, usually called the Lord Jesus, by way of derision, Tolvi, the man that was hanged, that is, on a cross; and Christians they have usually denominated, for the same reason, Abdai Tolvi,-servants of the man that was hanged. The reasons of this feeling are obvious. (1.) They had looked