SEV Biblia, Chapter 2:14
Pero el hombre animal no percibe las cosas que son del Espíritu de Dios, porque le son locura; y no las puede entender, porque se han de discernir espiritualmente.
Clarke's Bible Commentary - 1 Corinthians 2:14
Verse 14. But the natural man] yucikov, The animal man-the man who is in a mere state of nature, and lives under the influence of his animal passions; for the word yuch, which we often translate soul, means the lower and sensitive part of man, in opposition to nouv, the understanding or rational part. The Latins use anima to signify these lower passions; and animus to signify the higher. The person in question is not only one who either has had no spiritual teaching, or has not profited by it; but one who lives for the present world, having no respect to spiritual or eternal things. This yucikov, or animal man, is opposed to the pneumatikov, or spiritual man: and, as this latter is one who is under the influence of the Spirit of God, so the former is one who is without that influence.
The apostle did speak of those high and sublime spiritual things to these animal men; but he explained them to those which were spiritual. He uses this word in this sense, chap. iii. 1; ix. 11; and particularly in verse 15 of the present chapter: He that is spiritual judgeth all things. But the natural man-The apostle appears to give this-as a reason why he explained those deep spiritual things to spiritual men; because the animal man-the man who is in a state of nature, without the regenerating grace of the Spirit of God, receiveth not the things of the Spirit-neither apprehends nor comprehends them: he has no relish for them; he considers it the highest wisdom to live for this world. Therefore these spiritual things are foolishness to him; for while he is in his animal state he cannot see their excellency, because they are spiritually discerned, and he has no spiritual mind.
John Gill's Bible Commentary
Ver. 14. But the natural man , etc.] Not a babe in Christ, one that is newly born again, for though such have but little knowledge of spiritual things, yet they have a taste, and do relish and desire, and receive the sincere milk of the word, and grow thereby; but an unregenerate man, that has no knowledge at all of such things; not an unregenerate man only, who is openly and notoriously profane, abandoned to sensual lusts and pleasures; though such a man being sensual, and not having the Spirit, must be a natural man; but rather the wise philosopher, the Scribe, the disputer of this world; the rationalist, the man of the highest attainments in nature, in whom reason is wrought up to its highest pitch; the man of the greatest natural parts and abilities, yet without the Spirit and grace of God, mentioned ( 1 Corinthians 1:20) and who all along, both in that chapter and in this, quite down to this passage, is had in view: indeed, every man in a state of nature, who is as he was born, whatever may be the inward furniture of his mind, or his outward conduct of life, is but a natural man, and such an one receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God : not the things relating to the deity, personality, and perfections of the Holy Spirit, though these the natural man knows not, nor receives; nor the things done by him, particularly the operations of his grace on the souls of men in regeneration, concerning which he says, as Nicodemus did, how can these things be? but the truths of the Gospel before spoken of; so called, because they are contained in the Scriptures edited by the Spirit of God, are the deep things of God, which he searches into and reveals; and because they are made known by him, who is given and received for that end and purpose, that the saints might know them; and because they are delivered by the preachers of the Gospel, in words which he teacheth; now these the natural man receives not in the love of them, so as to approve of and like them, truly to believe them, cordially embrace them, and heartily be subject to them, profess and obey them, but on the contrary abhors and rejects them: for they are foolishness unto him ; they are looked upon by him as absurd, and contrary to reason; they do not agree with his taste, he disrelishes and rejects them as things insipid and distasteful; he regards them as the effects of a crazy brain, and the reveries of a distempered head, and are with him the subject of banter and ridicule: neither can he know them : as a natural man, and whilst he is such, nor by the help and mere light of nature only; his understanding, which is shut unto them, must be opened by a divine power, and a superior spiritual light must be thrown into it; at most he can only know the literal and grammatical sense of them, or only in the theory, notionally and speculatively, not experimentally, spiritually, and savingly: because they are spiritually discerned ; in a spiritual manner, by a spiritual light, and under the influence, and by the assistance of the Spirit of God.
There must be a natural visive discerning faculty, suited to the object; as there must be a natural visive faculty to see and discern natural things, so there must be a spiritual one, to see, discern, judge, and approve of spiritual things; and which only a spiritual, and not a natural man has.
Matthew Henry Commentary
Verses 10-16 - God has revealed true wisdom to us by his Spirit. Here is a proof of the Divine authority of the Holy Scriptures, 2Pe 1:21. In proof of the Divinity of the Holy Ghost, observe, that he knows all things, and he searches all things, even the deep things of God. No one can know the things of God, but his Holy Spirit, who is one with the Father and the Son, and who makes known Divine mysteries to his church. This is mos clear testimony, both to the real Godhead and the distinct person of the Holy Spirit. The apostles were not guided by worldly principles They had the revelation of these things from the Spirit of God, and the saving impression of them from the same Spirit. These things the declared in plain, simple language, taught by the Holy Spirit, totall different from the affected oratory or enticing words of man's wisdom The natural man, the wise man of the world, receives not the things of the Spirit of God. The pride of carnal reasoning is really as muc opposed to spirituality, as the basest sensuality. The sanctified min discerns the real beauties of holiness, but the power of discerning an judging about common and natural things is not lost. But the carnal ma is a stranger to the principles, and pleasures, and actings of the Divine life. The spiritual man only, is the person to whom God give the knowledge of his will. How little have any known of the mind of God by natural power! And the apostles were enabled by his Spirit to make known his mind. In the Holy Scriptures, the mind of Christ, and the mind of God in Christ, are fully made known to us. It is the grea privilege of Christians, that they have the mind of Christ revealed to them by his Spirit. They experience his sanctifying power in their hearts, and bring forth good fruits in their lives __________________________________________________________________
Greek Textus Receptus
ψυχικος 5591 A-NSM δε 1161 CONJ ανθρωπος 444 N-NSM ου 3756 PRT-N δεχεται 1209 5736 V-PNI-3S τα 3588 T-APN του 3588 T-GSN πνευματος 4151 N-GSN του 3588 T-GSM θεου 2316 N-GSM μωρια 3472 N-NSF γαρ 1063 CONJ αυτω 846 P-DSM εστιν 2076 5748 V-PXI-3S και 2532 CONJ ου 3756 PRT-N δυναται 1410 5736 V-PNI-3S γνωναι 1097 5629 V-2AAN οτι 3754 CONJ πνευματικως 4153 ADV ανακρινεται 350 5743 V-PPI-3S
Vincent's NT Word Studies
14. The natural man (yucikov anqrwpov). See on Rom. xi. 4, on the distinction between yuch soul, life, and pneuma spirit. The contrast is between a man governed by the divine Spirit and one from whom that Spirit is absent. But yucikov natural, is not equivalent to sarkikov fleshy. Paul is speaking of natural as contrasted with spiritual cognition applied to spiritual truth, and therefore of the yuch soul, as the organ of human cognition, contrasted with the pneuma spirit, as the organ of spiritual cognition. The man, therefore, whose cognition of truth depends solely upon his natural insight is yucikov natural, as contrasted with the spiritual man (pneumatikov) to whom divine insight is imparted. In other words, the organ employed in the apprehension of spiritual truth characterizes the man. Paul therefore "characterizes the man who is not yet capable of understanding divine wisdom as yucikov, i.e., as one who possesses in his yuch soul, simply the organ of purely human cognition, but has not yet the organ of religious cognition in the pneuma spirit" (Dickson). 82 It is perhaps impossible to find an English word which will accurately render yucikov. Psychic is simply the Greek transcribed. We can do no better than hold by the A.V. natural. 83 Receiveth not (ou decetai). Not, does not understand, but does not admit them into his heart; thus, according to New Testament usage, when the word is used in connection with teaching. See Luke viii. 13; Acts viii. 14; xi. 1; 1 Thess. i. 6; Jas. i. 21.Are foolishness. Not merely seem. To him they are.
Neither can he know (kai ou dunatai gnwnai). Rev., more strictly, and he cannot know. "It is an utter perversion of such statements to maintain that there is in the natural man any organic, constitutional incapacity of spiritual perception requiring to be created in them by the Holy Spirit.... The uniform teaching of Scripture is that the change effected in regeneration is a purely moral and spiritual one" (Brown).
Discerned (anakrinetai). Rev., judged. Used only by Luke and Paul, and by the latter in this epistle only. By Luke, mostly of judicial examination: Luke xxiii. 14; Acts iv. 9; xii. 19; xxiv. 8; xxviii. 18. Of examining the Scriptures, Acts xvii. 11, but with the sense of proving or coming to a judgment on. The fundamental idea of the word is examination, scrutiny, following up (ana) a series of objects or particulars in order to distinguish (krinw). This is its almost universal meaning in classical Greek. At Athens it was used technically in two senses: to examine magistrates with a view to proving their qualifications; and to examine persons concerned in a suit, so as to prepare the matter for trial, as a grand jury. The meaning judged is, at best, inferential, and the Rev. inserts examined in the margin. Bishop Lightfoot says: "Anakrinein is neither to judge nor to discern; but to examine, investigate, inquire into, question, as it is rightly translated, 1 Cor. ix. 3; x. 25, 27. The apostle condemns all these impatient human praejudicia which anticipate the final judgment, reserving his case for the great tribunal, where at length all the evidence will be forthcoming and a satisfactory verdict can be given. Meanwhile the process of gathering evidence has begun; an ajnakrisiv investigation is indeed being held, not, however, by these self-appointed magistrates, but by one who alone has the authority to institute the inquiry, and the ability to sift the facts" ("On a Fresh Revision of the New Testament"). See, further, on ch. iv. 3, 4.
Robertson's NT Word Studies
2:14 {Now the natural man} (yucikos de anqrwpos). Note absence of article here, "A natural man" (an unregenerate man). Paul does not employ modern psychological terms and he exercises variety in his use of all the terms here present as pneuma and pneumatikos, yuce and yucikos, sarx and sarkinos and sarkikos. A helpful discussion of the various uses of these words in the New Testament is given by Burton in his _New Testament Word Studies_, pp. 62-68, and in his {Spirit, Soul, and Flesh}. The papyri furnish so many examples of sarx, pneuma, and yuce that Moulton and Milligan make no attempt at an exhaustive treatment, but give a few miscellaneous examples to illustrate the varied uses that parallel the New Testament. yucikos is a qualitative adjective from yuce (breath of life like anima, life, soul). Here the Vulgate renders it by _animalis_ and the German by _sinnlich_, the original sense of animal life as in #Jude 1:19; Jas 3:15. In #1Co 15:44,46 there is the same contrast between yucikos and pneumatikos as here. The yucikos man is the unregenerate man while the pneumatikos man is the renewed man, born again of the Spirit of God. {Receiveth not} (ou decetai). Does not accept, rejects, refuses to accept. In #Ro 8:7 Paul definitely states the inability (oude gar dunatai) of the mind of the flesh to receive the things of the Spirit untouched by the Holy Spirit. Certainly the initiative comes from God whose Holy Spirit makes it possible for us to accept the things of the Spirit of God. They are no longer "foolishness" (mwria) to us as was once the case (#1:23). Today one notes certain of the _intelligentsia_ who sneer at Christ and Christianity in their own blinded ignorance. {He cannot know them} (ou dunatai gnwnai). He is not able to get a knowledge (ingressive second aorist active infinitive of ginwskw). His helpless condition calls for pity in place of impatience on our part, though such an one usually poses as a paragon of wisdom and commiserates the deluded followers of Christ. {They are spiritually judged} (pneumatikws anakrinetai). Paul and Luke are fond of this verb, though nowhere else in the N.T. Paul uses it only in I Corinthians. The word means a sifting process to get at the truth by investigation as of a judge. In #Ac 17:11 the Beroeans scrutinized the Scriptures. These yucikoi men are incapable of rendering a decision for they are unable to recognize the facts. They judge by the yuce (mere animal nature) rather than by the pneuma (the renewed spirit).
