1st Corinthians Chapter 1 verse 20 Holy Bible

ASV 1stCorinthians 1:20

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?
read chapter 1 in ASV

BBE 1stCorinthians 1:20

Where is the wise? where is he who has knowledge of the law? where is the man of this world who has a love of discussion? has not God made foolish the wisdom of this world?
read chapter 1 in BBE

DARBY 1stCorinthians 1:20

Where [is the] wise? where scribe? where disputer of this world? has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world?
read chapter 1 in DARBY

KJV 1stCorinthians 1:20

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?
read chapter 1 in KJV

WBT 1stCorinthians 1:20


read chapter 1 in WBT

WEB 1stCorinthians 1:20

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?
read chapter 1 in WEB

YLT 1stCorinthians 1:20

where `is' the wise? where the scribe? where a disputer of this age? did not God make foolish the wisdom of this world?
read chapter 1 in YLT

1st Corinthians 1 : 20 Bible Verse Songs

Pulpit Commentary

Pulpit CommentaryVerse 20. - Where is the wise? etc. (Isaiah 33:18); rather, Where is a wise man? i.e. a scribe, etc., which is even more incisive. These questions are triumphant, like the "Where is the King of Hamath and of Arpad?" The same impassioned form of speech recurs in 1 Corinthians 15:55 and in Romans 3:27. The questions would come home to the Jews, who regarded their rabbis and the "pupils of the wise as exalted beings who could look down on all poor ignorant persons (amharatsim, or "people of the land"); and to the Greeks, who regarded none but the philosophers as "wise." The scribe. With the Jews of that day" the scribe" was" the theologian," the ideal of dignified learning and orthodoxy, though for the most part he mistook elaborate ignorance for profound knowledge. The disputer. The word would specially suit the disputatious Greeks, clever dialecticians. The verb from which this word is derived occurs in Mark 8:11, and the abstract substantive ("an eager discussion") in Acts 28:29. If St. Paul has Isaiah 33:18 in his mind, the word "disputer" corresponds to "the counter of the towers" (comp. Psalm 48:12). Even the rabbis say that when Messiah comes human wisdom is to become needless. Of the world; rather, of this age, or aeon. The old dispensation, then so rapidly waning to its close, was called "this age" (olam hazzeh); the next or Messianic age was called "the age to come" (olam habba). The Messianic age had dawned at the birth of Christ, but the old covenant was not finally annulled till his second coming at the fall of Jerusalem. Hath not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? rather, Did not God (by the cross) stultify the wisdom, etc.? The oxymoron, or sharp contrast of terms - a figure of which St. Paul is fond (see 1 Timothy 5:6; Romans 1:20, etc.; and my 'Life of St. Paul,' 1:628) - is here clearly marked in the Greek. The thought was as familiar to the old prophets (Isaiah 44:25) as to St. Paul (Romans 1:22); and even Horace saw that heathen philosophy was sometimes no better than insaniens sapientia (Horace, 'Od.,' 1:34, 2).

Ellicott's Commentary

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers(20) To the second quotation, which was originally a song of triumph over the enemies of Israel, the Apostle gives a general application.The wise.--The general reference in this word is to those who would exalt human knowledge, while "the scribe" indicates the Jew, and the "disputer" the Greek, who discussed philosophy (Acts 6:9; Acts 9:29).Of this world.--These words qualify all three mentioned, and not exclusively the disputer." "World" (more literally, age) does not here mean the physical world, but, in an ethical sense, "this age," in contrast to that which is "to come" (Matthew 12:32; Mark 10:30). It is employed afterwards (last word of 1Corinthians 1:20, and in 1Corinthians 1:21) to designate all who are outside the Christian communion, as in the next verse it is contrasted with "them that believe." . . .