Commentary on 1 Corinthians
Lecture 2. Revelation of the Spirit
2:8 Which none of the princes of this world knew. For if they had known it, they would never have crucified the Lord of glory. [n. 88]
2:9 But, as it is written: that eye has not seen, nor ear heard: neither has it entered into the heart of man, what things God has prepared for those who love him. [n. 96]
2:10 But to us God has revealed them by his Spirit. For the Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God. [n. 99]
2:11 For what man knows the things of a man, except the spirit of a man which is in him? So the things also that are of God, no one knows, except the Spirit of God. [n. 103]
2:12 Now, we have not received the spirit of this world, but the Spirit that is of God: that we may know the things that are given us from God. [n. 106]
88. Having explained the wisdom he speaks among the perfect, the Apostle now gives the reason behind the explanation: first, insofar as he described it in relation to unbelievers; second, in relation to believers, at but to us God has revealed. As to the first he does two things. First, he states his proposition; second, he proves it, at for if they had known it.
89. He says, therefore: I have said that the wisdom we speak is not the wisdom of the rulers of this world; for this is the wisdom which none of the princes of this world knew. This is true regardless of which class of rulers be considered; for worldly rulers did not know this wisdom, because it surpasses the rules of human government: he takes away understanding from the chiefs of the people of the earth, and makes them wander in a pathless waste (Job 12:24). Philosophers, too, have not known it, because it transcends human reason; hence it is said: the searchers for understanding on the earth have not learned the way to wisdom (Bar 3:23). Finally, the devils have not known it, because it surpasses all created wisdom; hence it is said: it is hid from the eyes of all living, and the fowls of the air know it not. Destruction and death have said: with our ears we have heard the fame thereof (Job 28:21).
90. Then when he says, for if they had known, he proves what he had said: first, he proves it by a sign which indicates that the rulers did not know God’s wisdom, insofar as it is hidden in him; second, he proves on scriptural authority that they did not know it as prepared for our glory, at as it is written.
91. He says, therefore: I am correct in saying that the rulers of this world did not understand God’s wisdom; for if they had known it, they would certainly have known that Christ is God, who is contained in this wisdom, and knowing it, they would never have crucified the Lord of glory, i.e., Christ the Lord, who gives glory to his own: the Lord of hosts, he is the king of glory (Ps 24:10) and he brought many sons into glory (Heb 2:10).
For since the rational creature by nature desires glory, it cannot occur to the human will to destroy the author of glory.
That the rulers crucified Jesus Christ is certain, if by rulers is meant those in power among men, for it is said: the kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the Lord and his anointed (Ps 2:2). In Acts this is referred to Herod and Pilate and the Jewish leaders, who consented to Christ’s death (Acts 4:27). But the devils also had a part in Christ’s death by persuading, for John says: the devil, having now put into the heart of Judas Iscariot to betray him (John 13:2). Furthermore, the pharisees and scribes versed in the law and students of wisdom, procured Christ’s death by instigating and approving.
92. Two difficulties arise here: the first concerns the statement that the God of glory was crucified. For Christ’s godhead, according to which Christ is called the Lord of glory, cannot suffer anything.
The answer is that Christ is one person subsisting in two natures, the human and the divine. Hence he can be described by names drawn from either nature; furthermore, no matter what the name by which he is designated, it can be predicated of him, because there is but one person underlying both natures. Consequently, we can say that the man created the stars and that the Lord of glory was crucified; however, it was not as man that he created the stars, but as God; nor was it as God that he was crucified, but as man.
Hence this phrase refutes Nestorius’ error asserting that there is one nature, composed of God and man, in Christ; because if Nestorius were correct, it would not be true to say that Lord of glory was crucified.
93. The second difficulty is that he seems to suppose that the Jewish rulers or the devils did not know that Christ was God. Indeed, as far as the Jewish rulers were concerned, this seems to be supported by Peter’s statement in Acts: I know that you did it in ignorance, as did also your rulers (Acts 3:17).
This in turn seems to be contrary to what it says in Matthew: but when the tenants saw the son, they said to themselves, this is the heir; come, let us kill him and have his inheritance (Matt 21:38). Furthermore, in explaining this Chrysostom says: by these words the Lord proves clearly that the Jewish rulers killed the Son of God not through ignorance but through envy.
This difficulty is answered in a Gloss, which states that the Jewish rulers knew that he was the one promised in the law, although they did not know his mystery, that he was the Son of God or the sacrament of the Incarnation and redemption.
But this seems to be contradicted by Chrysostom’s own statement that they knew he was the Son of God.
Therefore, the answer is that the Jewish rulers knew for certain that he was the Christ promised in the law, although the people did not know; yet they did not know for certain but somehow conjectured that he was the true Son of God. However, this conjectural knowledge was obscured in them by envy and from a desire for their own glory, which they saw was being diminished by Christ’s excellence.
94. There seems to be difficulty also about devils.
For it says in Mark and Luke that the devil cried out: I know you are the holy one of God (Mark 1:23; Luke 4:34). But lest this be ascribed to the devils’ boasting to know what they did not know, the knowledge they had of Christ is asserted by the Evangelists. For Mark says: and he did not permit the demons to speak, because they knew him (Mark 1:34), and Luke says: but he rebuked them, and would not allow them to speak, because they knew that he was the Christ (Luke 4:41).
This is answered in the book of questions of the New and Old Testament: that the devils knew he was the one promised by the law, because they saw in him all the signs foretold by the prophets; nevertheless, they did not know the mystery of his divinity.
95. But opposed to this is Athanasius’ statement that devils called Christ the holy one of God, as being uniquely holy, for he is naturally holy, by participation in whom, all others are called holy.
Consequently, it must be said with Chrysostom that they did not have firm and sure knowledge of God’s coming, but only conjectures; hence Augustine says in The City of God that he was recognized by the devils not by that which is eternal life, but by certain temporal things effected by his power.
96. Then when he says, but, as it is written, he proves by Scripture that the rulers of this world did not know God’s wisdom as to what it prepared for the glory of believers, saying, but, as it is written, where our version has: the eye has not seen, O God, besides you, what things you have prepared for those who wait for you (Isa 64:4).
That this glorious vision is unknown to man is shown in two ways: first, because it is not within the range of the human senses, from which all human knowledge begins. And he mentions two senses: first, vision, which is employed when a person finds things out for himself: hence he says: that eye has not seen: the bird has not known the path, neither has the eye of the vulture beheld it (Job 28:7). The eye is of no use, because the object of inquiry is not something colored and visible. Second, he mentions the sense of hearing, which is employed when a person learns from someone else; hence he says: nor ear heard that glory, because it is not a sound or an audible word: his voice you have never heard, his form you have never seen (John 5:37).
97. Then he excludes intellectual discovery of this glory when he says: neither has it entered into the heart of man. In one sense, whatever is known by men in any manner whatsoever is said to enter into the heart of man: let Jerusalem come into your mind (Jer 51:50). In this way, the heart of man refers to the heart of a carnal man in the sense of his statement below: while there is among you envying and contention, are you not carnal and walk according to man? (1 Cor 3:3).
The meaning, therefore, is that such glory is not only not known by the senses, but not even by the heart, of a carnal man: even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him (John 14:17).
98. In another sense, something is said to ascend into the heart of man, when from a lower state, for example, from existing in sense perceptible things, it reaches man’s understanding.
For things exist in the understanding according to its mode; therefore, lower things exist in the intellect in a higher state than they exist in themselves. Consequently, when they are grasped by the intellect, they ascend into the heart of man. The former things shall not be in remembrance, and they shall not come upon the heart (Isa 65:17). But things which are more excellent than the intellect exist in a higher state in themselves than in the intellect; therefore, when they are grasped by the intellect they somehow descend: every perfect gift is from above, descending from the Father of lights (Jas 1:17).
Therefore, since the knowledge of that glory is not obtained from sense perceptible things but by divine revelation, he says quite significantly: neither has it entered into the heart of man, but it comes down, namely, that which God has prepared, i.e., predestined, for those who love him, because the essential reward of eternal glory is due to charity: if anyone loves me, he will be loved by my Father; and I will love him and will manifest myself to him (John 14:21), for it is in this that the perfection of eternal glory consists; and Job says: he shows his friend concerning it, i.e., concerning the light of glory, that it is his possession (Job 36:33). The other virtues, however, play a role in meriting eternal life, insofar as they are enlivened by charity.
99. Then when he says, but to us, he proves the above explanation of divine wisdom in relation to the faithful: first, he states his proposition; second, he proves it, at for the Spirit searches.
100. He says, therefore: I have stated that none of the rulers of this world knew God’s wisdom, but to us God has revealed them by his Spirit, whom he sent to us: but the Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things (John 14:26); the breath of the Almighty gives me understanding (Job 33:4).
For since the Holy Spirit is the Spirit of truth, inasmuch as he proceeds from the Son, who is the truth of the Father, he inspires truth in those to whom he is sent, just as the Son, sent by the Father, also makes the Father known, as Matthew says: no one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him (Matt 11:27).
101. Then when he says, for the Spirit searches, he proves what he had said, namely, that wisdom has been revealed to believers by the Holy Spirit. First, he shows that the Holy Spirit effects this; second, he proves that he effected this in Christ’s disciples, at now, we have not received. As to the first he does two things. First, he states his proposition; second, he proves it, at for what man knows.
102. He says, therefore: I have stated that God reveals his wisdom through the Holy Spirit. This was possible, for the Holy Spirit searches all things, not as though he learns them by searching them out, but because he knows fully even the most intimate details of all things. Hence, it is stated in Wisdom that the wisdom of understanding is holy, overseeing all things, containing all spirits, intelligible, pure, subtle (Wis 7:2), and knowing not only created things perfectly but even the deep things of God. The deep things are those which are hidden in him and not those which are known about him through creatures, which are, as it were, on the surface, as Wisdom says: for from the greatness and beauty of created things comes a corresponding perception of their Creator (Wis 13:5).
103. Then when he says, for what man knows, he proves what he had said of the Spirit of God by a comparison with man’s spirit, saying, for what man knows the things of a man, i.e., which are hidden in his heart, except the spirit of a man which is in him, i.e., the intellect? Hence the things which lie within cannot be seen.
But he says significantly, what man, lest he seem to exclude God as knowing them. For it is said: the heart of man is deceitful above all things, and desperately corrupt; who can understand it? I the Lord search the mind and try the heart (Jer 17:9), because God alone knows what lies in another’s heart.
104. The reason man cannot know what lies in another’s heart is obvious, because man’s knowledge begins with the senses. Consequently, a man cannot know the things in another’s heart, unless they are manifested by certain sense perceptible signs: man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart (1 Sam 16:7).
Furthermore, not even a good or an evil angel can know the things which lie in a man’s heart, unless they are manifested by special effects. The reason can be taken from the Apostle’s statement that man’s spirit knows what lies in man’s heart, because it is in him. But no angel, good or evil, can enter the human mind to exist in a man’s heart or work from within it. God alone can do this; hence, he alone is aware of the secrets of a man’s heart: my witness is in heaven and he who vouches for me is on high (Job 16:20).
105. Then he adapts this comparison to the Spirit of God, saying, so the things also that are of God, i.e., the hidden things of God, no one knows, except the Spirit of God: behold, God is great, and we know him not (Job 36:26).
But just as the things in one man’s heart are made known to another by sense perceptible signs, so the things of God can be made known to man by sensible effects: from the greatness and beauty of created things comes a corresponding perception of their Creator (Wis 13:5). However, the Holy Spirit who is in God himself, being consubstantial with the Father and the Son, sees the secrets of the godhead by himself, for in her, i.e., in God’s wisdom, is the Spirit of understanding, holy, having all power, overseeing all things (Wis 7:22).
106. Then when he says, now, we have not received, he shows how knowledge of the Holy Spirit is obtained, saying, now, we, filled with the Holy Spirit, have not received the spirit of this world, but the Spirit that is of God.
By the word spirit is understood a definite vital power, both cognitive and dynamic. Therefore, the spirit of this world can mean the wisdom of this world and the love of this world, by which a man is impelled to do the things of this world. This is not the spirit received by the holy apostles, who rejected and despised the world; rather, they receive the Holy Spirit, by whom their hearts were enlightened and inflamed with the love of God: the Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things (John 14:26); but my servant Caleb, because he has a different spirit and has followed me fully, I will bring into the land into which he went (Num 14:24).
But the spirit of this world can err as Isaiah attests: the spirit of the Egyptians within them will be emptied out, and I will confound their plans (Isa 19:3). However, we received his divine Spirit, that we may know the things that are given us from God, i.e., that we may know to what extent God has given divine things to each of us: grace was given to each of us according to the measure of Christ’s gift (Eph 4:7).
107. Or gifts, which are unknown to those not possessing the same Spirit, for to him who conquers I will give some of the hidden manna, which no one knows except him who receives it (Rev 2:17).
From this it can be gathered that just as no one knows the Father but the Son and he to whom it has pleased the Son to reveal him, so no one knows the things of the Father and of the Son but the Holy Spirit and he who has received him (Matt 11:27). This is so, because just as the Son is consubstantial with the Father, so the Holy Spirit with the Father and the Son.