1 Corinthians 2

World English Bible 119 include this book

1 When I came to you, brothers, I didn’t come with excellence of speech or of wisdom, proclaiming to you the testimony of God.

2 For I determined not to know anything among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified.

3 I was with you in weakness, in fear, and in much trembling.

4 My speech and my preaching were not in persuasive words of human wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power,

5 that your faith wouldn’t stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God.

6 We speak wisdom, however, among those who are full grown, yet a wisdom not of this world nor of the rulers of this world who are coming to nothing.

7 But we speak God’s wisdom in a mystery, the wisdom that has been hidden, which God foreordained before the worlds for our glory,

8 which none of the rulers of this world has known. For had they known it, they wouldn’t have crucified the Lord of glory.

9 But as it is written, “Things which an eye didn’t see, and an ear didn’t hear, which didn’t enter into the heart of man, these God has prepared for those who love him.”

10 But to us, God revealed them through the Spirit. For the Spirit searches all things, yes, the deep things of God.

11 For who among men knows the things of a man except the spirit of the man which is in him? Even so, no one knows the things of God except God’s Spirit.

12 But we received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit which is from God, that we might know the things that were freely given to us by God.

13 We also speak these things, not in words which man’s wisdom teaches but which the Holy Spirit teaches, comparing spiritual things with spiritual things.

14 Now the natural man doesn’t receive the things of God’s Spirit, for they are foolishness to him; and he can’t know them, because they are spiritually discerned.

15 But he who is spiritual discerns all things, and he himself is to be judged by no one.

16 “For who has known the mind of the Lord that he should instruct him?” But we have Christ’s mind.

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3 places named in this book — no place is named in this chapter, so the whole book is shown.

Where this was written

Ephesus attested Paul writes that he is staying at Ephesus until Pentecost.

When this was written

The traditions broadly agree on this one.

Broad agreement: 48 AD–62 AD Paul
Authorship and approximate dating are accepted across traditional and critical scholarship alike.

Who ruled Rome

Emperors reigning while this book is dated. Where the traditions differ, they often fall under different rulers.

Broad agreement

Claudius 41 AD–54 AD
Expelled Jews from Rome, which is why Priscilla and Aquila were in Corinth when Paul met them.
Nero 54 AD–68 AD
The fire of Rome in 64 was followed by the first state persecution of Christians. Paul and Peter are traditionally martyred in this reign.

Elsewhere in the world

Events overlapping the period this book is dated to (48 AD–62 AD).

1070 BC–350 AD The kingdom of Kush Africa
A Nubian power on the upper Nile that ruled Egypt itself as its twenty-fifth dynasty.
500 BC–500 AD The Nazca lines South America
Vast figures drawn on the Peruvian desert, visible only from the surrounding hills.
206 BC–220 AD The Han dynasty China
Four centuries of Chinese rule contemporary with the whole of Roman expansion.
150 BC–100 AD Roman concrete and the aqueducts Rome
Hydraulic concrete let Rome build harbours, domes and aqueducts that still stand.
100 BC–550 AD Teotihuacan Mesoamerica
A city of perhaps a hundred thousand people in the valley of Mexico, with monumental pyramids.
43 AD–84 AD Rome conquers Britain Britain
Claudius invaded and the province was gradually extended to the Scottish lowlands.
27 BC–100 AD Roman road and sea network matures Rome
Consolidated roads, harbours and suppressed piracy made long-distance travel unusually safe, a precondition for the rapid spread of early Christian communities.
60 AD–61 AD Boudica's revolt Britain
The Iceni rose against Roman rule and burned three cities before being crushed.

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