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| Chapter XLVII
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Chapter
XLVII.
But it is probable that what is written by Paul in
the first Epistle to the Corinthians,3583
as
being addressed to Greeks who prided themselves greatly on their
Grecian wisdom, has moved some to believe that it was not the object of
the Gospel to win wise men. Now, let him who is of this opinion
understand that the Gospel, as censuring wicked men, says of them that
they are wise not in things which relate to the understanding, and
which are unseen and eternal; but that in busying themselves about
things of sense alone, and regarding these as all-important, they are
wise men of the world: for as there are in existence a multitude
of opinions, some of them espousing the cause of matter and
bodies,3584
| 3584 τὰ μὲν
συναγορεύοντα
ὑγῇ καὶ
σώμασι. | and asserting that
everything is corporeal which has a substantial existence,3585
| 3585 τὰ
προηγουμένως
ὑφεστηκότα. | and that besides these nothing else exists,
whether it be called invisible or incorporeal, it says also that these
constitute the wisdom of the world, which perishes and fades away, and
belongs only to this age, while those opinions which raise the soul
from things here to the blessedness which is with God, and to His
kingdom, and which teach men to despise all sensible and visible things
as existing only for a season, and to hasten on to things invisible,
and to have regard to those things which are not seen,—these, it
says, constitute the wisdom of God. But Paul, as a lover of
truth, says of certain wise men among the Greeks, when their statements
are true, that “although they knew God, they glorified Him not as
God, neither were thankful.”3586
And he
bears witness that they knew God, and says, too, that this did not
happen to them without divine permission, in these words:
“For God showed it unto them;”3587
dimly alluding, I think, to those who ascend from things of sense to
those of the understanding, when he adds, “For the invisible
things of God from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being
understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and
Godhead; so that they are without excuse: because that, when they
knew God, they glorified Him not as God, neither were
thankful.”3588
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