1 Corinthians 1 in plain modern English. New Ground English Translation.
Time Period
~AD 53-55
Location
Written to Corinth, a major Roman port city in Greece (Achaia)
Audience
The Christian church in Corinth, composed of both Jewish and Gentile converts that Paul had founded approximately 3-4 years earlier
Situation
Paul had received reports from 'Chloe's people' about serious divisions in the Corinthian church, with different factions claiming allegiance to Paul, Apollos, Cephas, or Christ. He writes to address this quarreling and party spirit that threatened the unity of the congregation.
Key Background
Corinth was a wealthy, cosmopolitan city known for commerce, Greek philosophy, and rhetorical skill, which heavily influenced its culture. The Corinthian Christians' high regard for eloquent wisdom and human teachers led them to form competing groups around different leaders. Paul counters this by emphasizing that the gospel's power lies not in human wisdom or eloquence, but in the 'foolishness' of Christ crucified.
From Paul, called to be an of Jesus the by the will of God, and from our brother —
To the of God in — to those who have been in Jesus the One, called to be his dedicated people — along with everyone everywhere who calls on the name of our Jesus the One, theirs and ours:
May and be yours from God our Father and the Lord Jesus the One.
I always thank my God for you because of the undeserved kindness he gave you through Jesus the One.
Through him you've been in every way — in all your speaking and in all your
This confirms that the about the One has been firmly established among you,
so that you don't lack any from the as you eagerly wait for our Lord Jesus the One to be
He will also keep you standing firm all the way to the end, so that you'll be on the of our Lord Jesus the One.
God is — the one who called you into with his Son, Jesus the One, our Lord.
I'm urging you, and by the authority of our Lord Jesus the One: all of you need to be on the same page. Stop letting tear you apart. Instead, be completely united — same mind, same purpose.
I say this because people from have told me that there's among you.
What I mean is this: one of you says, "I follow Paul," another says, "I follow another, "I follow and another, "I follow the One."
Has the One been divided into pieces? Was Paul on a for you? Were you in Paul's name?
I'm thankful that I didn't submerge any of you except and
so that no one can say you were submerged in my name.
(Oh wait, I also submerged the household of Beyond that, I don't remember if I submerged anyone else.)
Because the didn't send me to submerge people — he sent me to tell the And not with either, so that the of the wouldn't be emptied of its power.
I know the message of the execution stake sounds like to people who are on the path to destruction. But to us who are being it is the of God.
It's "I will destroy the cleverness of the clever, and I will set aside the intelligence of the intelligent."
So where does that leave the The The skilled debater of this Hasn't God exposed the world's cleverness as foolishness?
Since the world, with all its failed to know God through its own wisdom, God decided to use the "nonsense" of the message we announce to rescue those who it.
Jewish ask for and search for clever arguments,
but we announce an — an idea that's an to Jewish people and nonsense to non-Jewish people.
But for those who are — both Jewish and Greek — the One is the power of God and the of God.
Because God's is wiser than human wisdom, and God's "weakness" is stronger than human strength.
Just look at your own group, brothers and sisters. By human standards, not many of you were not many were powerful, not many came from
But God what the world considers foolish to the clever to and God what the world considers weak to the strong to
God chose the of the world, the looked-down-on — the that — to the that do,
so that no one can in front of God.
It is because of that you are part of the One, Jesus — who has become for us from and the basis for our and our being and our
The result is what's written: "If you're going to about something, about what the Lord has done."