Worldly wisdom and the wisdom of God
But it is likely that what Paul wrote in the First Letter to the Corinthians, addressed as it was to Greeks who were greatly puffed up over Greek wisdom, has moved some to think that our teaching does not want wise men. Let anyone who thinks so hear this. When the word censures worthless men, it says that they are not wise about things intelligible, invisible and eternal, but that, having busied themselves with the things of sense alone and placing everything in these, they are wise men of the world. In the same way, since there are many doctrines, it says that those which plead for matter and bodies, and assert that all things that primarily exist are bodies and that there is nothing else besides them, whether called invisible or named incorporeal, are “the wisdom of the world,” which is brought to nothing and made foolish, and the wisdom of this age (1 Corinthians 1:20; 2:6). But those which carry the soul over from the affairs of this world to the blessedness that is with God and to what is called his kingdom, and which teach people to despise all things perceived by sense and seen, as being temporary, and to hasten toward things invisible and to look at the things that are not seen (2 Corinthians 4:18), these it says are “the wisdom of God” (1 Corinthians 2:7).
Paul, as a lover of truth, says of certain wise men among the Greeks, in the points where they speak truly, “that, although they knew God, they did not glorify him as God or give thanks” (Romans 1:21). He bears witness that they had known God; and he says too that this did not come to them without God, where he writes: “for God has shown it to them” (Romans 1:19). He is hinting, I think, at those who ascend from things visible to things intelligible, when he writes that “the invisible things of God, from the creation of the world, are clearly seen, being understood through the things that are made, both his eternal power and divinity, so that they are without excuse, because, although they knew God, they did not glorify him as God or give thanks” (Romans 1:20–21).
Greek
Ἀλλ᾿ εἰκὸς τὰ γεγραμμένα ἐν τῇ πρὸς Κορινθίους προτέρᾳ τῷ Παύλῳ, ὡς πρὸς Ἕλληνας καὶ μέγα φυσῶντας ἐπὶ τῇ Ἑλληνικῇ σοφίᾳ, κεκινηκέναι τινὰς, ὡς τοῦ λόγου μὴ βουλομένου σοφούς. ἀλλ᾿ ἀκουέτω ὁ τὰ τοιαῦτα νομίζων ὅτι. ὥσπερ διαβάλλων ἀνθρώπους φαύλους ὁ λόγος φησὶν αὐτοὺς εἶναι οὐ περὶ τῶν νοητῶν καὶ ἀοράτων καὶ αἰωνίων σοφοὺς, ἀλλὰ περὶ μόνων τῶν αἰσθητῶν πραγματευσαμένους καὶ ἐν τούτοις τὰ πάντα τιθεμένους εἶναι σοφοὺς τοῦ κόσμου· οὕτως καὶ πολλῶν ὄντων δογμάτων. τὰ μὲν συναγορεύοντα ὕλῃ καὶ σώμασι καὶ πάντα φάσκοντα εἶναι σώματα τὰ προηγουμένως ὑφεστηκότα καὶ μηδὲν παρὰ ταῦτα εἶναι ἄλλο, εἴτε λεγόμενον ἀόρατον εἴτ᾿ ὀνομαζόμενον ἀσώματον. φησὶν εἶναι „σοφίαν τοῦ κόσμου“ καταργουμένην καὶ μωραινομένην καὶ σοφίαν τοῦ αἰῶνος τούτου· τὰ δὲ μετατιθέντα τὴν ψυχὴν ἀπὸ τῶν τῇδε πραγμάτων ἐπὶ τὴν παρὰ θεῷ μακαριότητα καὶ τὴν καλουμένην αὐτοῦ βασιλείαν. καὶ διδάσκοντα καταφρονεῖν μὲν ὡς προσκαίρων πάντων τῶν αἰσθητῶν καὶ βλεπομένων σπεύδειν δὲ ἐπὶ τὰ ἀόρατα καὶ σκοπεῖν τὰ μὴ βλεπόμενα, ταῦτά φησι „σοφίαν“ εἶναι „θεοῦ“. φιλαλήθης δ᾿ ὢν ὁ Παῦλός φησι περί τινων ἐν Ἕλλησι σοφῶν, ἐν οἷς ἀληθεύουσιν. „ὅτι γνόντες τὸν θεὸν οὐχ ὡς θεὸν ἐδόξασαν ἢ ηὐχαρίστησαν.“ καὶ μαρτυρεῖ αὐτοῖς ἐγνωκέναι θεόν· λέγει δὲ καὶ τοῦτ᾿ οὐκ ἀθεεὶ αὐτοῖς γεγονέναι ἐν οἷς γράφει τὸ „ὁ θεὸς γὰρ αὐτοῖς ἐφανέρωσεν.“ αἰνισσόμενος οἶμαι τοὺς ἀναβαίνοντας ἀπὸ τῶν ὁρατῶν ἐπὶ τὰ νοητὰ, ὅτε γράφει ὅτι „τὰ ἀόρατα τοῦ θεοῦ ἀπὸ κτίσεως κόσμου τοῖς ποιήμασι νοούμενα καθορᾶται. ἥ τε ἀΐδιος αὐτοῦ δύναμις καὶ θειότης, εἰς τὸ εἶναι αὐτοὺς ἀναπολογήτους, διότι γνόντες τὸν θεὸν οὐχ ὡς θεὸν ἐδόξασαν ἢ ηὐχαρίστησαν.“