1 Corinthians 3:18-20 - Scriptural Analysis

I have episodes where I can become obsessed logic and ideas. And, it is to a fault. My vision becomes clouded to everything else around me and I lose perspective, deeming the fixation in my mind to be paramount to all other thoughts and considerations. Recently, during one of these incidents, I was jarred loose from my obsession when I heard a relevant verse, 1 Corinthians 3:18-20.

"Let no man deceive himself. If any man among you seemeth to be wise in this world, let him become a fool, that he may be wise. For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God. For it is written, He taketh the wise in their own craftiness. And again, The Lord knoweth the thoughts of the wise, that they are vain."1 Corinthians 3:18-20 (KJV)

After being brought back to reality, it occurred to me that this verse, and a couple others on wisdom, would be a good focus for a scriptural analysis. My obsession with physic's explanation of use of energy in regards to magnets became pretty trivial. Which was nice, to be reeled back in. It's neither here nor there what I personally think on the matter.

• To be complete for the curious: My issue was that apparently in physics, a magnet doing nothing in a drawer and a magnet holding up a box of paper clips are both "exerting zero energy." That bothered me because to me, that makes no sense. The explanation is apparently based on the fact that nothing is in motion. In my brain, the magnet is holding it from succumbing to gravity. That is something. Most of my frustration comes from knowing that I must be wrong, but not understanding why.

On a journey for deeper understanding, wisdom feels like a good topic to familiarize myself with. I want to start by focusing in on a few of the words used, and verifying that their translation is not only valid, but that I am correctly understanding what the message is. I will do this for Corinthians, but not the other verses. 1 Corinthians 3:18-20 (KJV) "Let no man deceive himself. If any man among you seemeth to be wise in this world, let him become a fool, that he may be wise. For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God. For it is written, He taketh the wise in their own craftiness. And again, The Lord knoweth the thoughts of the wise, that they are vain."

KJV used because Strong's Concordance and the Companion Bible use KJV, so in order to trace words back, I have to be pulling from KJV. Going through the verse I picked out words to dissect that stood out. Words that unprecise understanding could affect. The words selected were:

• deceive

• fool

• foolishness

• knoweth

• wise

• wisdom

• taketh

• thoughts

• world

• world

• craftiness

• vain

World is in twice because when I was looking for the reference word used in Strong's, I noticed that different Greek words were used in the first and second use of the word, and I wanted to know the distinction, obviously.

ἐξαπατἀω - ĕxapataō, ex-ap-at-ah-o;

• KJV word rendered: deceive

• Strong's Concordance Ref: 1818

• Selection of Strong's Notes:

  • "to seduce wholly:- beguile, deceive."

  • "of self-deception"

σοφὀς - sŏphŏs, sof-os';

• KJV word rendered: wise

• Strong's Concordance Ref: 4680

• Selection of Strong's Notes:

  • "wise (in a most general application)."

  • "(A) Sophos denotes one who is wise, skilled, an expert"

  • "(B) Sunetos (4908) means intelligent, and denotes one who can put things together, who has insight and comprehension."

  • "(C) Phronimos (5429) means prudent, and denotes primarily one who has quick and correct perceptions."

αἰὠν - aiõn, ahee-ohn';

• KJV word rendered: world

• Strong's Concordance Ref: 165

• Selection of Strong's Notes:

  • "an age; by extension perpetuity (also past); by implication the world;"

μωρὀς - mŏrŏs, mo-ros';

• KJV word rendered: fool

• Strong's Concordance Ref: 3474

• Selection of Strong's Notes:

  • "dull or stupid"

  • "primarily denotes dull, sluggish, hence stupid, foolish."

  • "(2a1) Mt 5:22, "thou fool"' here the word means morally worthless, a scoundrel, a more serious reproach than "raca"' the latter scorns a man's mind and calls him stupid; moros scorns his heart and character; hence the Lord's more severe condemnation;"

σοφἰα - sŏphia, sof-ee'-ah;

• KJV word rendered: wisdom

• Strong's Concordance Ref: 4678

• Selection of Strong's Notes:

  • "(1) broad and full of intelligence; it is used of the knowledge of very diverse matters."

  • "There is

    • (2) the wisdom which belongs to men, human wisdom (Lk 2:40, 52)

  • specifically

    • (2a) varied knowledge of things human and divine, acquired by acuteness and experience, and summed up in maxims and proverbs (Mt 12:42)

    • (2b) science and learning (Acts 7:22)

    • (2c) the act of interpreting dreams and always giving the sagest advice (Acts 7:10)

    • (2d) the intelligence evinced in discovering the meaning of some mysterious number or vision (Rev 13:18; 17:9)

    • (2e) skill in the management of affairs (Acts 6:3)

    • (2f) devout and proper prudence in intercourse with men not disciples of Christ (Col 4:5)

    • (2g) skill and discretion in imparting Christian truth (Col 1:28; 3:16)

    • (2h) the knowledge and practive of the requisites for godly and upright living (Jas 1:5; 3:13, 17)

    • (3) supreme intelligence, such as belongs to God (Rom 16:27)"

κὀσμος - kŏsmŏs, kos'-mos;

• KJV word rendered: world

• Strong's Concordance Ref: 2889

• Selection of Strong's Notes:

  • "Summary: Kosmos is first a harmonious arrangement or order, then by extension, adornment or decoration, and came to denote the world, or the universe, as that which is divinely arranged.

  • It came to mean anyone not of the ekklasia (church)"

μωρἰα - mōria, mo-ree'-ah;

• KJV word rendered: foolishness

• Strong's Concordance Ref: 3472

• Selection of Strong's Notes:

  • "Moria denotes "foolishness", and is used in 1 Cor 1:18, 21, 23; 2:14; 3:19."

• Personal Note: I found it interesting that the word is used five times in the New Testament, but all five uses are in the beginning of 1 Corinthians, where as Moros is used widely. Paul seems to have bent the word to express possession of a quality.

• Chat GPT's assessment of my observation here, which I sought to check the soundness of my reasoning: "Your phrasing that “Paul seems to have bent the word to express possession of a quality” captures this well. Grammatically, he’s employing the noun form of the adjective to make a philosophical contrast — the world’s wisdom (σοφία, sophia) versus God’s foolishness (μωρία). It’s a deliberate mirroring: sophia ↔ mōria, each representing an abstract domain rather than an individual trait."

δρἀσσομαι - drassŏmai, dras'-som-ahee;

• KJV word rendered: taketh

• Strong's Concordance Ref: 1405

• Selection of Strong's Notes:

  • "This word mean "to grasp with the hand, take hold of," and is used metaphorically in 1 Cor 3:19."

• δραχμἠ - drachmē

• Strong's Concordance Ref: 1406

• Selection of Strong's Notes:

• Companion Bible notes:

  • taketh, Gr. drassomai. Only here. Found in the Septuagint, but not in Job 5:13, from which this is quoted.

  • craftiness. Gr. panourgia. See Luke 20:23. This is the only time Job is quoted in the New Testament.

πανουργἰα - panŏurgia, pan-oorg-ee'-ah;

• KJV word rendered: craftiness

• Strong's Concordance Ref: 3834

• Selection of Strong's Notes:

  • "Panourgia literally means all-working, able to do everything; hence, high discerning which works itself out in unscrupulous conduct, craftiness. It is always used in a bad sense."

γινὠσκω - ginōskō, ghin-oce'-ko;

• KJV word rendered: knoweth

• Strong's Concordance Ref: 1097

• Selection of Strong's Notes:

  • "to "know" (absolutely) in a great variety of applications and with many implications."

    • "Ginosko signifies"

    • "(1) "to be taking in knowledge, to come to know, recognize, understand," or "to understand completely.""

    • "(2) in its past tense it frequently means "to know in the sense of realizing," the aorist or point tense usually indicating definiteness."

    • "(3) In the passive voice, it often signifies "to become known," e.g., Mt 10:26; Phil 4:5"

    • "(4) In the sense of complete and absolute understanding on God's part, it is used."

    • "(5) In Lk 12:46 it is rendered "He is ... aware."

    • "(6) In the New Testament ginosko frequently indicates a relation between the person "knowing" and the object known; in this respect, what is "known" is of value or importance to the one who knows, and hence the establishment of the relationship, e.g., especially"

    • "(6a) "of God's "knowledge," 1 Cor 8:3, "if any man love God, the same is known of Him."

    • "(8) Ginosko, as a verb, means "to know by observation and experience" is translated "to know"."

διαλογισμος - dialŏgismŏs, dee-al-og-is-mos';

• KJV word rendered: thoughts

• Strong's Concordance Ref: 1261

• Selection of Strong's Notes:

  • "discussion, i.e. (internal) consideration (by impl. purpose) or (external) debate."

μἀταιος - mataiŏs, mat'-ah-yos;

• KJV word rendered: vain

• Strong's Concordance Ref: 3152

• Selection of Strong's Notes:

  • "(1) Mataios denotes communication that is devoid of force, truth, success, result; it is useless, of no purpose."

  • "(2) It stresses aimlessness and vanity of anything that does not have God."

None of the notes from Strong's Concordance are exhaustive. Each word is broken down in far more nuanced ways and accompanied by many more examples. If you are curious, there is a lot more information available to you.

I now want to revisit the verse with the nuances learned of language considered:

"Let no man deceive (seduce wholly:-beguile) himself. If any man among you seemeth to be wise (in a general sense, skilled) in this world (age), let him become a fool (dull or stupid), that he may be wise. For the wisdom (human intelligence) of this world (world, divine arrangement) is foolishness (as an individual trait) with God. For it is written, He taketh (figuratively, grasp with the hand) the wise in their own craftiness (deceptive conduct). And again, The Lord knoweth (to know absolutely) the thoughts (internal considerations) of the wise, that they are vain (are useless)."

With the extra clarity, I understand the meaning better. I am overjoyed to remove my own speculation on meaning from the equation wherever possible. When I am unsure of meaning, or I think the English leaves things open to interpretation, it is useful to remove as much of that as possible. English often lacks the linguistic nuance needed to convey messages correctly, and all too often, we misunderstand each other. Granted, there are a lot of words in the English language, going unused, that could clear a lot of this up, but I do not believe this generation is a candidate for linguistic revival. "That's fire, fam! Keep it 300!"

Examining this verse, it reminded me of other verses on wisdom that stand out in my mind. I will not dissect these as I did with the prior. I am merely sharing them while we're on the topic of wisdom.

Proverbs 3:7

"Be not wise in thine own eyes: fear the Lord, and depart from evil."

James 3:13-18 "Who is a wise man and endued with knowledge among you? let him shew out of a good conversation his works with meekness of wisdom.

But if ye have bitter envying and strife in your hearts, glory not, and lie not against the truth.

This wisdom descendeth not from above, but is earthly, sensual, devilish.

For where envying and strife is, there is confusion and every evil work.

But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, and easy to be intreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality, and without hypocrisy.

And the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace of them that make peace."

Proverbs 17:28 "Even fools are thought wise if they keep silent,

    and discerning if they hold their tongues."

This Proverb is the most important for me to keep in mind.