1 Corinthians 2:12

ἡμεῖς δέ, “But we ”: cf. the emphatic ἡμῖν of 1 Corinthians 2:10 (see note) and the ἡμεῖς δὲ of 1 Corinthians 1:23, standing in contrast with the σοφοὶ and δυνατοὶ of the world. The κόσμος whose “spirit” the App. “did not receive,” is that whose “wisdom God has reduced to folly” (1 Corinthians 1:20 f.), whose “rulers crucified the Lord” (1 Corinthians 2:8), its spirit is broadly conceived as the power animating the world in its antipathy to God (cf. 2 Corinthians 4:4; Ephesians 2:2; John 12:31, etc., 1 John 4:1-6). Others (Est., Cv [385], Bz [386], Hn [387], Sm [388]) read the phrase in a more abstract perhaps too modern sense, “sapientia mundana et sæcularis,” or “the world-consciousness” (Hf [389]), or “l'esprit de l'humanité … ce que les Païens appellent la muse et qui se concentre dans les génies” (Gd [390]). “(Not the spirit of the world we received), but the Spirit which is from (issues from: ἐκ, antitheton ἐν, Bg [391]) God” (compare ὡς ἐκ Θεοῦ, 2 Corinthians 2:17); the phrase recalls the teaching of Jesus in John 14:26; John 15:26; see also Romans 5:5; Galatians 4:6. “The spirit of the world” breathes in men who are a part of the world; “the Spirit that is from God” visits us from another sphere, bringing knowledge of things removed from natural apprehension (see Isaiah 55:9). ἐλάβομεν implies actual, objective receiving (taking), as in 1 Corinthians 3:8; 1 Corinthians 11:23, etc. ἵνα εἰδῶμεν κ. τ. λ. (see note on οἶδα, 1 Corinthians 2:11; and cf. the emphatic οἶδα of 2 Corinthians 5:1; 2 Timothy 1:12) a bold word here “that we may know (certo scire, Cv [392]) the things that by God were bestowed in His grace upon us”. τὰ χαρισθέντα, aor [393] ptp [394], points to the historic gifts of God to men in Christ, which would have been idle boons without the Spirit enabling us to “know” them: cf. Ephesians 1:17 ff., ἵνα δωῇ … πνεῦμα … εἰς τ. εἰδέναι. χαρίζομαι (to deal in χάρις : see note on χάρισμα, 7), to grant by way of grace, in unmerited favour (cf. esp. Romans 8:32; Galatians 3:18).

[385] Calvin's In Nov. Testamentum Commentarii.

[386] Beza's Nov. Testamentum: Interpretatio et Annotationes (Cantab., 1642).

[387] C. F. G. Heinrici's Erklärung der Korintherbriefe (1880), or 1 Korinther in Meyer's krit.-exegetisches Kommentar (1896).

[388] P. Schmiedel, in Handcommentar zum N.T. (1893).

[389] J. C. K. von Hofmann's Die heilige Schrift N.T. untersucht, ii. 2 (2te Auflage, 1874).

[390] F. Godet's Commentaire sur la prem. Ép. aux Corinthiens (Eng. Trans.).

[391] Bengel's Gnomon Novi Testamenti.

[392] Calvin's In Nov. Testamentum Commentarii.

[393] aorist tense.

[394] participle