PAUL AND THE RHETORIC OF REVERSAL: KERYGMATIC ...

Origen rehearses the thrust of this section in countering a desire for polished rhetoric,
insisting that it is only by “divine agency” that words achieve power. 127 Christian Wolff
suggests that this verse, along with many others in these chapters, indicates that the base
problem, in Paul’s view, is the Corinthians’ desire for self-attestation and the fulfilment of
human ideals, rather than an acquiescence to the saving work of God through the crucified
one. 128
2:9-10
These verses bring 2:6-10 to a climax with a Scripture quotation and insistent adversative
(ἡμῖν δέ): no eye, ear, or human heart (καρδίαν ἀνθρώπου) has comprehended the things
of God; but God has revealed them to those of his choosing. The contrast is between the
ability of worldly rulers (οὐδεὶς τῶν ἀρχόντων τοῦ αἰῶνος τούτου) to discern the things
of God and God’s own revelation to the apostles:
The ἡμῖν is in emphatic contrast to “the rulers of this world” who do not know
(v.8). God reveals His glory, through His Spirit, to those for whom it is
prepared. 129
Paul arguably alludes to Isaiah 6 (and Isaiah 64-65) here, picking up Isaiah’s emphatic
opposition between human presumption and divine revelation. Tertullian rightly insists
that the mention of the “rulers of this age” is not primarily intended to evoke thought of
supernatural rulers, but of all-too-human rulers, representative of ignorant worldly power,
and seen quintessentially in Rome. 130
127 Origen, Against Celsus Book 6, Chapter 2.
128 Christian Wolff, Der erste Brief des Paulus an die Korinther (2nd ed.; TKNT 7;
Leipzig: Evangelische Verlangsanstalt, 2000), 8.
129 Archibald Robertson and Alfred Plummer, A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on
the First Epistle of St Paul to the Corinthians (ICC; Edinburgh, T&T Clark, 1911), 43.
130 Tertullian, Against Marcion Book 5, Chapter 6.
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