1 And I, when I came to you, brothers, did not come with superiority of speech {logou: polished rhetoric} or of wisdom, proclaiming to you the testimony of God {Theos, Source of Testimony}.
2 For I resolved that, while I was among you, I would focus on nothing except Jesus Christ {Iesous Christos, Crucified Messiah} and Him crucified {estauromenon: put to death by crucifixion}.
3 And I was with you in weakness {astheneia: human frailty} and in fear and in much trembling {tromos: visible shaking}.
4 And my speech and my proclamation were not in persuasive words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit {pneuma, Holy Empowering Presence} and of power {dynamis: visible might}.
5 So that your faith {pistis: steady trust} might not be in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God {Theos, Divine Source of Strength}.
6 Yet wisdom we speak among the mature, but not a wisdom of this age {aionos: present world order}, nor of the rulers of this age, who are being brought to nothing {katargoumenon: rendered powerless}.
7 But we speak the wisdom of God {Theos, Eternal Planner} in a mystery {mysterion: sacred secret}, the hidden wisdom which God predestined before the ages for our glory.
8 None of the rulers {archonton: influential authorities} of this age has known it; for if they had known, they would not have crucified the Lord {Kyrios, Crucified Lord of Glory} of glory.
9 But just as it has been written: “What eye has not seen and ear has not heard, and has not entered into the heart {kardia: inner life} of man, these are what God {Theos, Wise Preparer} has prepared for those who love Him.”
10 For God {Theos, Faithful Revealer} has made these things known to us through the Spirit; for the Spirit searches all things, even the depths {bathe: profound realities} of God.
11 For who knows the things of a man {anthropos: individual human}, except the spirit of the man which is in him? In the same way also, the things of God no one has known except the Spirit of God {Pneuma tou Theou, Divine Revealer}.
12 But we did not receive the spirit of the world {kosmos: hostile value system}; instead, we received the Spirit from God {Theos, Gracious Revealer}, so that we might know the things graciously given to us by God.
13 Which things we also speak, not in words taught by human wisdom, but in words taught by the Spirit {Pneuma, Divine Teacher}, explaining spiritual things to spiritual people {pneumatikois: Spirit-taught hearers}.
14 Yet the natural man cannot receive the things of the Spirit of God {pneuma Theou, Source of Revelation}, for to him they amount to foolishness {moria: absence of wisdom}, and he lacks the capacity to understand them, since they are spiritually discerned.
15 But the spiritual person {pneumatikos: Spirit-led person} judges all things, yet he himself is judged by no one {oudenos: not a single person}.
16 For who has known the mind of the Lord {Kyrios, Incomparable Wisdom}, so as to instruct Him? But we have the mind of Christ {Christos, Source Of Understanding}.