1 Corinthians 2:10

The true reading, ἡμῖν γάρ (cf. 1 Corinthians 1:26), links this ver. to the foregoing by way of illustration: “For to us (being of those that love Him) God revealed (them), through the Spirit”: cf. 1 Corinthians 1:18 1 Corinthians 8:3, 1 Corinthians 13:2; 1 John 4:7; also ἀπεκαλύφθη τ. ἁγίοις ἀποστόλοις κ. τ. λ., Ephesians 3:5, indicating the like ethical receptivity. ἀπεκάλυψεν echoes ἐν μυστηρίῳ and τ. ἀποκεκρυμμένην (1 Corinthians 2:7), signifying a supernatural disclosure (see notes on 1 Corinthians 1:7; 1 Corinthians 14:6); cf. esp. Romans 16:25, κατὰ ἀποκάλυψιν μυστηρίου, and Ephesians 1:17 in connexion with 1 Corinthians 2:6 f. above. The tense (aor [378]) points to the advent of Christianity, “the revelation given to Christians as an event that began a new epoch in the world's history” (Ed [379]). The Spirit reveals, “for the Spirit investigates everything (πάντα ἐραυνᾷ), even the depths of God”: He discloses, for He first discovers οὐκ ἀγνοίας, ἀλλʼ ἀκριβοῦς γνώσεως τὸ ἐρευνᾶν δεικτικόν (Cm [380]). The phrase describes an Intelligence everywhere active, everywhere penetrating (cf. Psalms 139:1-7). For the complementary truth concerning the relation of Father and Spirit, see Romans 8:27. The Spirit is the organ of mutual understanding between man and God. P. conceives of Him as internal to the inspired man, working with and through, though immeasurably above his faculties (see 1 Corinthians 3:16; Romans 8:16; Romans 8:26, etc.). τὰ βάθη (pl [381] of noun βάθος) are those inscrutable regions, below all that “the eye sees” and that “comes up into the heart of a man” (1 Corinthians 2:9), where God's plans for mankind are developed: cf. Romans 11:33 ff., Ephesians 1:9 ff; Ephesians 3:18, and by contrast Revelation 2:24. These deep-laid counsels centre in Christ, and are shared by Him (Matthew 11:27; John 5:20; John 17:10; John 17:25); so that it is one thing to have the Spirit who “sounds the deeps of God” and to “have the mind of Christ” (1 Corinthians 2:16). The like profound insight is claimed, in virtue of his possessing the Holy Spirit, by the writer of the Wisdom of Solomon (1 Corinthians 2:7), but in a ὑπεροχὴ λόγου καὶ σοφίας that goes to discredit the assumption; cf. also Sir 42:18. The attributes there assigned to the half-personified “Wisdom,” N.T. theology divides between Christ and the Spirit in their several offices towards man. The “Spirit” is apprehended in Wisdom under physical rather than, as by Paul, under psychological analogies.

[378] aorist tense.

[379] T. C. Edwards' Commentary on the First Ep. to the Corinthians. 2

[380] John Chrysostom's Homiliœ († 407).

[381] plural.