SEV Biblia, Chapter 1:17
¶ Porque no me envi Cristo a bautizar, sino a predicar el Evangelio; no en sabiduría de palabras, para que no sea hecha vana el madero del Cristo.
Clarke's Bible Commentary - 1 Corinthians 1:17
Verse 17. For Christ sent me not to baptize] Bp. Pearce translates thus: For Christ sent me, not so much to baptize as to preach the Gospel: and he supports his version thus- "The writers of the Old and New Testaments do, almost every where (agreeably to the Hebrew idiom) express a preference given to one thing beyond another by an affirmation of that which is preferred, and a negation of that which is contrary to it: and so it must be understood here, for if St. Paul was not sent at all to baptize, he baptized without a commission; but if he was sent, not only to baptize but to preach also, or to preach rather than baptize, he did in fact discharge his duty aright." It appears sufficiently evident that baptizing was considered to be an inferior office, and though every minister of Christ might administer it, yet apostles had more important work. Preparing these adult heathens for baptism by the continual preaching of the word was of much greater consequence than baptizing them when thus prepared to receive and profit by it. Not with wisdom of words] ouk en sofia logou. In several places in the New Testament the term logov is taken not only to express a word, a speech, a saying, &c., but doctrine, or the matter of teaching. Here, and in 1 Thess. i. 5, and in several other places, it seems to signify reason, or that mode of rhetorical argumentation so highly prized among the Greeks. The apostle was sent not to pursue this mode of conduct, but simply to announce the truth; to proclaim Christ crucified for the sin of the world; and to do this in the plainest and simplest manner possible, lest the numerous conversions which followed might be attributed to the power of the apostle's eloquence, and not to the demonstration of the Spirit of God. It is worthy of remark that, in all the revivals of religion with which we are acquainted, God appears to have made very little use of human eloquence, even when possessed by pious men. His own nervous truths, announced by plain common sense, though in homely phrase, have been the general means of the conviction and conversion of sinners. Human eloquence and learning have often been successfully employed in defending the outworks of Christianity; but simplicity and truth have preserved the citadel.
It is farther worthy of remark, that when God was about to promulgate his laws he chose Moses as the instrument, who appears to have laboured under some natural impediment in his speech, so that Aaron his brother was obliged to be his spokesman to Pharaoh; and that, when God had purposed to publish the Gospel to the Gentile world-to Athens, Ephesus, Corinth, and Rome, he was pleased to use Saul of Tarsus as the principal instrument; a man whose bodily presence was weak, and his speech contemptible, 2 Cor. x. 1, 10. And thus it was proved that God sent him to preach, not with human eloquence, lest the cross of Christ should be made of none effect but with the demonstration and power of his own Spirit; and thus the excellence of the power appeared to be of God, and not of man.
John Gill's Bible Commentary
Ver. 17. For Christ sent me not to baptize , etc.] Some think the apostle refers to his particular mission from Christ, ( Acts 26:16) in which no mention is made of his administering the ordinance of baptism; but no doubt he had the same mission the rest of the apostles had, which was to baptize as well as preach; and indeed, if he had not been sent at all to baptize, it would have been unlawful for him to have administered baptism to any person whatever; but his sense is, that baptism was not the chief and principal business he was sent about; this was to be done mostly by those preachers of the word who travelled with him, or followed after him: he was not sent so much about this work, but to preach the Gospel ; for which he was most eminently qualified, had peculiar gifts for the discharge of it, and was greatly useful in it. This was what he was rather sent to do than the other, and this not with wisdom of words. Scholastic divinity, or the art of disputation, is by the Karaites, a sect among the Jews, called yrbdh tmkj , wisdom of words: this the apostle seems to refer to, and signifies he was not sent with, or to preach, with words of mans wisdom, with human eloquence and oratory, with great swelling words of vanity, but in a plain, humble, modest manner; on which account the false teachers despised him, and endeavoured to bring his ministry into contempt with others: but this way and manner of preaching he chose for this reason, lest the cross of Christ should be made of none effect ; that is, either lest mens ears and fancies should be so tickled and pleased with the eloquence of speech, the elegancy of diction, and accuracy of expression, the cadency of words, and beauty of the oration, with the manner, and not with the matter of preaching, and so the true use, end, and design of the doctrine of a crucified Christ be defeated; or lest the success of the ministry should be attributed to the force of enticing words, and the strength and persuasion of oratory, and not to the energy of divine power attending the doctrine of the cross.
Matthew Henry Commentary
Verses 17-25 - Paul had been bred up in Jewish learning; but the plain preaching of crucified Jesus, was more powerful than all the oratory and philosoph of the heathen world. This is the sum and substance of the gospel Christ crucified is the foundation of all our hopes, the fountain of all our joys. And by his death we live. The preaching of salvation for lost sinners by the sufferings and death of the Son of God, i explained and faithfully applied, appears foolishness to those in the way to destruction. The sensual, the covetous, the proud, an ambitious, alike see that the gospel opposes their favourite pursuits But those who receive the gospel, and are enlightened by the Spirit of God, see more of God's wisdom and power in the doctrine of Chris crucified, than in all his other works. God left a great part of the world to follow the dictates of man's boasted reason, and the event ha shown that human wisdom is folly, and is unable to find or retain the knowledge of God as the Creator. It pleased him, by the foolishness of preaching, to save them that believe. By the foolishness of preaching not by what could justly be called foolish preaching. But the thin preached was foolishness to wordly-wise men. The gospel ever was, an ever will be, foolishness to all in the road to destruction. The message of Christ, plainly delivered, ever has been a sure touchston by which men may learn what road they are travelling. But the despise doctrine of salvation by faith in a crucified Saviour, God in huma nature, purchasing the church with his own blood, to save multitudes even all that believe, from ignorance, delusion, and vice, has bee blessed in every age. And the weakest instruments God uses, ar stronger in their effects, than the strongest men can use. Not tha there is foolishness or weakness in God, but what men consider as such overcomes all their admired wisdom and strength.
Greek Textus Receptus
ου 3756 PRT-N γαρ 1063 CONJ απεστειλεν 649 5656 V-AAI-3S με 3165 P-1AS χριστος 5547 N-NSM βαπτιζειν 907 5721 V-PAN αλλ 235 CONJ ευαγγελιζεσθαι 2097 5733 V-PMN ουκ 3756 PRT-N εν 1722 PREP σοφια 4678 N-DSF λογου 3056 N-GSM ινα 2443 CONJ μη 3361 PRT-N κενωθη 2758 5686 V-APS-3S ο 3588 T-NSM σταυρος 4716 N-NSM του 3588 T-GSM χριστου 5547 N-GSM
Vincent's NT Word Studies
17. Should be made of none effect (kenwqh). Lit., emptied. Rev., made void. Compare is made void, Rom. iv. 14, and the kindred adjective kenon, kenh vain, ch. xv. 14. The nucleus of the apostolic preaching was a fact - Christ crucified. To preach it as a philosophic system would be to empty it of its saving power, a truth which finds abundant and lamentable illustration in the history of the Church.
Robertson's NT Word Studies
1:17 {For Christ sent me not to baptize} (ou gar apesteilen me cristos baptizein). The negative ou goes not with the infinitive, but with apesteilen (from apostellw, apostolos, apostle). {For Christ did not send me to be a baptizer} (present active infinitive, linear action) like John the Baptist. {But to preach the gospel} (alla euaggelizesqai). this is Paul's idea of his mission from Christ, as Christ's apostle, to be {a gospelizer}. this led, of course, to baptism, as a result, but Paul usually had it done by others as Peter at Caesarea ordered the baptism to be done, apparently by the six brethren with him (#Ac 10:48). Paul is fond of this late Greek verb from euaggelion and sometimes uses both verb and substantive as in #1Co 15:1 "the gospel which I gospelized unto you." {Not in wisdom of words} (ouk en sofiai logou). Note ou, not me (the subjective negative), construed with apesteilen rather than the infinitive. Not in wisdom of speech (singular). Preaching was Paul's forte, but it was not as a pretentious philosopher or professional rhetorician that Paul appeared before the Corinthians (#1Co 2:1-5). Some who followed Apollos may have been guilty of a fancy for external show, though Apollos was not a mere performer and juggler with words. But the Alexandrian method as in Philo did run to dialectic subtleties and luxuriant rhetoric (Lightfoot). {Lest the cross of Christ should be made void} (hina me kenwqei ho stauros tou cristou). Negative purpose (hina me) with first aorist passive subjunctive, effective aorist, of kenow, old verb from kenos, to make empty. In Paul's preaching the Cross of Christ is the central theme. Hence Paul did not fall into the snare of too much emphasis on baptism nor into too little on the death of Christ. " this expression shows clearly the stress which St. Paul laid on the death of Christ, not merely as a great moral spectacle, and so the crowning point of a life of self-renunciation, but as in itself the ordained instrument of salvation" (Lightfoot).
