The most frequently used Pauline pericope within pre-Nicene Christian
writings is an excerpt from 1 Corinthians 2. This text is employed by
early Christian writers to differentiate between the wisdom of God,
available only to those endowed with the Spirit of God, and the wisdom
of this world. The Spirit is the facilitator who enables one to move
from knowing only in part to grasping the mysteries of God. Within the
writings of Clement of Alexandria, for example, the Spirit is likened to
a ship’s navigator whose final port of call is the mysteries of God.
For Origen, the Spirit is an essential element that enables the
hermeneutist to know the secret and hidden wisdom of God and to see
beyond what is written in the words of Scripture. Thus, the Spirit has a
quasi-apocalyptic role, complementing Paul’s language about wisdom in
the discernment of that which is hidden, secret, and mysterious,
revealed only to those who have received the Spirit of God. Offering an
overview of the use of 1 Corinthians 2.13-14 in pre-Nicene Christian
writings, this paper will examine the necessity of the Spirit for
understanding both the words of Scripture and the wisdom of God. In
other words, only through wisdom and knowledge of Scripture as revealed
by the Spirit can one exegete difficult texts and progress from one
level of wisdom to another.
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