| Holman Christian Standard Bible | International Standard Version |
| 1When I came to you, brothers, announcing the testimony of God to you, I did not come with brilliance of speech or wisdom. | 1When I came to you, brothers, I didn't come and tell you about God's secret with rhetorical language or wisdom. |
| 2For I didn't think it was a good idea to know anything among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified. | 2For while I was with you I resolved to know nothing except Jesus the Messiah, and him crucified. |
| 3I came to you in weakness, in fear, and in much trembling. | 3It was in weakness, fear, and great trembling that I came to you. |
| 4My speech and my proclamation were not with persuasive words of wisdom but with a powerful demonstration by the Spirit, | 4My message and my preaching were not accompanied by clever, wise words, but by a display of the Spirit's power, |
| 5so that your faith might not be based on men's wisdom but on God's power. | 5so that your faith would not be based on human wisdom but on God's power. |
| 6However, we do speak a wisdom among the mature, but not a wisdom of this age, or of the rulers of this age, who are coming to nothing. | 6However, when we are among mature people, we do speak a message of wisdom, but not the wisdom of this world or of the rulers of this world, who are passing off the scene. |
| 7On the contrary, we speak God's hidden wisdom in a mystery, a wisdom God predestined before the ages for our glory. | 7Instead, we speak about God's wisdom in a hidden secret, which God destined before the world began for our glory. |
| 8None of the rulers of this age knew this wisdom, for if they had known it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. | 8None of the rulers of this world understood it, because if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. |
| 9But as it is written: What eye did not see and ear did not hear, and what never entered the human mind-- God prepared this for those who love Him. | 9But as it is written, "No eye has seen, no ear has heard, and no mind has imagined the things that God has prepared for those who love him." |
| 10Now God has revealed these things to us by the Spirit, for the Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God. | 10But God has revealed those things to us by his Spirit. For the Spirit searches everything, even the deep things of God. |
| 11For who among men knows the thoughts of a man except the spirit of the man that is in him? In the same way, no one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. | 11Is there anyone who can understand his own thoughts except his own inner spirit? In the same way, no one can know the thoughts of God except God's Spirit. |
| 12Now we have not received the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who comes from God, so that we may understand what has been freely given to us by God. | 12Now, we have not received the spirit of the world but the Spirit who comes from God, so that we can understand the things that were freely given to us by God. |
| 13We also speak these things, not in words taught by human wisdom, but in those taught by the Spirit, explaining spiritual things to spiritual people. | 13We don't speak about these things with words taught us by human wisdom, but with words taught by the Spirit, as we explain spiritual things to spiritual people. |
| 14But the unbeliever does not welcome what comes from God's Spirit, because it is foolishness to him; he is not able to understand it since it is evaluated spiritually. | 14A person who isn't spiritual doesn't accept the things of God's Spirit, for they are nonsense to him. He can't understand them because they are spiritually evaluated. |
| 15The spiritual person, however, can evaluate everything, yet he himself cannot be evaluated by anyone. | 15The spiritual person evaluates everything but is subject to no one else's evaluation. |
| 16For who has known the Lord's mind, that he may instruct Him? But we have the mind of Christ. | 16For "Who has known the mind of the Lord so that he can advise him?" However, we have the mind of the Messiah. |
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