1 Corinthians 3:19,20

a gives the reason why the philosophy of the times must be renounced by the aspirant to Christian wisdom: “For the wisdom of the world is folly with God” (= 1 Corinthians 1:20); and since it is folly with God, it must be counted folly, and not wisdom, amongst you (1 Corinthians 3:18). God's judgment is decisive for His Church. παρὰ Θεῷ, apud Deum, judice Deo (see parls.).

1 Corinthians 3:19-20. That the above is God's judgment appears from two sayings of Scripture, bearing on the two classes of worldly wise the men of affairs (such as the ἄρχοντες of 1 Corinthians 2:6) and the philosophers (1 Corinthians 1:20), distinguished respectively by πανουργία and διαλογισμοί. In the first text (the only N.T. quotation from Job: Philippians 1:19, perhaps an allusion), Paul improves on the LXX, possibly from another version, substituting the vivid ὁ δρασσόμενος (He that grips: cf. δραξάμενος φάρυγγος, Theocritus, xxiv. 28) for ὁ καταλαμβάνων, and πανουργίᾳ αὐτῶν for φρονήσει, both nearer to the Heb. (LXX reads πανουργίαν in 1 Corinthians 3:12). The words (from Eliphaz) are “appropriated because of their inherent truth” (Lt [615]); they reassert the anticipation expressed in 1 Corinthians 2:6. For πανουργία, see parls.; note its deterioration of meaning, as in Eng. craft. When the world's schemers think themselves cleverest, Providence catches them in their own toils. The second text P. adapts by turning ἀνθρώπων into σοφῶν : what is true of the vanity of human thoughts generally (machsh 'both 'âdâm) he applies par excellence to “the reasonings of the wise ”. διαλογισμοί, signifying in Plutarch's later Gr [616] debates, arguings (see parls.), recalls 1 Corinthians 1:19 f. above, echoing the quotation of that passage. On μάταιοι, futile, see note to 1 Corinthians 15:14 (κενός).

[615] J. B. Lightfoot's (posthumous) Notes on Epp. of St. Paul (1895).

[616] Greek, or Grotius' Annotationes in N.T.