1 Corinthians 2 (ESV)

16 verses · English Standard Version · Essentially literal

The ESV balances word-for-word accuracy with modern English readability. Favored by scholars and pastors for study and preaching, it preserves the structure of the original Hebrew and Greek while using clear, contemporary language.

1 Corinthians Chapter 2 contains 16 verses and is presented here in the English Standard Version (ESV), which uses a essentially literal approach. Read the full text below, compare with other translations, or navigate to any of the 16 chapters in 1 Corinthians.

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1And I, when I came to you, brothers, did not come proclaiming to you the testimony of God with lofty speech or wisdom.

2For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified.

3And I was with you in weakness and in fear and much trembling,

4and my speech and my message were not in plausible words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power,

5so that your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men but in the power of God.

6Yet among the mature we do impart wisdom, although it is not a wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age, who are doomed to pass away.

7But we impart a secret and hidden wisdom of God, which God decreed before the ages for our glory.

8None of the rulers of this age understood this, for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.

9But, as it is written, “What no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man imagined, what God has prepared for those who love him” —

10these things God has revealed to us through the Spirit. For the Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God.

11For who knows a person's thoughts except the spirit of that person, which is in him? So also no one comprehends the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God.

12Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might understand the things freely given us by God.

13And we impart this in words not taught by human wisdom but taught by the Spirit, interpreting spiritual truths to those who are spiritual.

14The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned.

15The spiritual person judges all things, but is himself to be judged by no one.

16“For who has understood the mind of the Lord so as to instruct him?” But we have the mind of Christ.

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About This Translation

What is 1 Corinthians 2 in the ESV?

1 Corinthians 2 in the English Standard Version (ESV) contains 16 verses. The ESV uses a essentially literal approach, first published in 2001 (rev. 2016).

How does the ESV translate 1 Corinthians 2 differently?

The English Standard Version uses essentially literal, balancing accuracy with modern readability. Compare this with the NIV (dynamic equivalence) version of 1 Corinthians 2 for a different perspective.

How many verses are in 1 Corinthians 2 (ESV)?

1 Corinthians Chapter 2 contains 16 verses in the English Standard Version. The book of 1 Corinthians has 16 chapters total.

1 Corinthians (ESV) — All 16 Chapters