Bible / 1 Corinthians

1 Corinthians 1

World English Bible, Catholic edition, in plain modern English. About the translations

1 Paul, called to be an apostle of Jesus Christ through the will of God, and our brother Sosthenes,

2 to the assembly of God which is at Corinth – those who are sanctified in Christ Jesus, called saints, with all who call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ in every place, both theirs and ours: CCC

3 Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

4 I always thank my God concerning you for the grace of God which was given you in Christ Jesus,

5 that in everything you were enriched in him, in all speech and all knowledge –

6 even as the testimony of Christ was confirmed in you –

7 so that you come behind in no gift, waiting for the revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ,

8 who will also confirm you until the end, blameless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ.

9 God is faithful, through whom you were called into the fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.

10 Now I beg you, brothers, through the name of our Lord, Jesus Christ, that you all speak the same thing, and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be perfected together in the same mind and in the same judgment.

11 For it has been reported to me concerning you, my brothers, by those who are from Chloe’s household, that there are contentions among you.

12 Now I mean this, that each one of you says, “I follow Paul,” “I follow Apollos,” “I follow Cephas,” and, “I follow Christ.”

13 Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Or were you baptized into the name of Paul?

14 I thank God that I baptized none of you except Crispus and Gaius,

15 so that no one should say that I had baptized you into my own name.

16 (I also baptized the household of Stephanas; besides them, I don’t know whether I baptized any other.) CCC

17 For Christ sent me not to baptize, but to preach the Good News – not in wisdom of words, so that the cross of Christ wouldn’t be made void.

18 For the word of the cross is foolishness to those who are dying, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.

19 For it is written, “I will destroy the wisdom of the wise. I will bring the discernment of the discerning to nothing.”

20 Where is the wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Hasn’t God made foolish the wisdom of this world?

21 For seeing that in the wisdom of God, the world through its wisdom didn’t know God, it was God’s good pleasure through the foolishness of the preaching to save those who believe.

22 For Jews ask for signs, Greeks seek after wisdom,

23 but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Greeks, Fathers

24 but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ is the power of God and the wisdom of God; CCC

25 because the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men. CCC

26 For you see your calling, brothers, that not many are wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, and not many noble;

27 but God chose the foolish things of the world that he might put to shame those who are wise. God chose the weak things of the world that he might put to shame the things that are strong.

28 God chose the lowly things of the world, and the things that are despised, and the things that don’t exist, that he might bring to nothing the things that exist,

29 that no flesh should boast before God. Fathers

30 Because of him, you are in Christ Jesus, who was made to us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification, and redemption, CCC

31 that, as it is written, “He who boasts, let him boast in the Lord.” CCC · Fathers

This chapter in the Catechism and the early Church

Where the Catechism of the Catholic Church cites these verses (from its footnotes on vatican.va), and where the earliest Church Fathers quote them (Ante-Nicene Fathers, vol. 1, public domain). Short quotes only; follow the links for the full text.

  1. Read the Catechism
    • CCC 752 “In Christian usage, the word "church" designates the liturgical assembly, but also the local community 142 or the whole universal community of…”
    • CCC 1695 “Justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of our God," "sanctified . . . (and) called…”
  2. Read the Catechism
    • CCC 1252 “The practice of infant Baptism is an immemorial tradition of the Church. There is explicit testimony to this practice from the second…”
  3. Read the Fathers
    • “… reason why the Son of God did these things, saying, "For to this end Christ both lived, and died, and revived, that He might rule over the living and the dead." And again, writing to the Corinthians, he declares, "But we preach Christ Jesus crucified;”

      Quoted in Against Heresies, Book III, St. Irenaeus of Lyons (c. AD 180), Chapter XVIII. Ante-Nicene Fathers, vol. 1

  4. Read the Catechism
    • CCC 272 “Faith in God the Father Almighty can be put to the test by the experience of evil and suffering. God can sometimes…”
  5. Read the Catechism
    • CCC 272 “Faith in God the Father Almighty can be put to the test by the experience of evil and suffering. God can sometimes…”
  6. Read the Fathers
    • “… the Lord my God, and He heard me out of the belly of hell;" and that he might always continue glorifying God, and giving thanks without ceasing, for that salvation which he has derived from Him, "that no flesh should glory in the Lord's presence;”

      Quoted in Against Heresies, Book III, St. Irenaeus of Lyons (c. AD 180), Chapter XX. Ante-Nicene Fathers, vol. 1

  7. Read the Catechism
    • CCC 2813 “In the waters of Baptism, we have been "washed . . . sanctified . . . justified in the name of the…”
  8. Read the Catechism and Fathers
    • CCC 1460 “The penance the confessor imposes must take into account the penitent's personal situation and must seek his spiritual good. It must correspond…”
    • “… "Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, neither let the mighty man glory in his might, neither let the rich man glory in his riches; but let him that glorieth glory in the Lord, in diligently seeking Him, and doing judgment and righteousness”

      Quoted in First Letter to the Corinthians, St. Clement of Rome (c. AD 96), Chapter XIII. Ante-Nicene Fathers, vol. 1