Lessons #27 and 28
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+ 1. It is best to use this note after you have listened to the lessons because there are +
+ comments given in the actual exposition not in the note. +
+ 2. The Bible abbreviations are as follows: CEV =Contemporary English version, +
+ CEB = Common English Bible, ESV= English Standard Version, +
+ GWT = God’s Word Translation, ISV = International Standard Version, +
+ NAB=New English Bible, NASB= New American Standard Bible, +
+ NEB= New English Bible, NET = New English Translation, +
+ NLT = New Living Translations NJB = New Jerusalem Bible, +
+ NJV = New Jewish Bible, TEV = Today’s English Version. +
+AMP = Amplified Bible, UBS = United Bible Society +
+ 3. Notes have not been edited for grammatical errors. +
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Different assessments of the message of the cross (1 Cor 1:22–23)
22 Jews demand miraculous signs and Greeks look for wisdom, 23 but we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles,
In the preceding verse, that is, verse 21, the apostle addressed the superiority of the message of the cross to human wisdom as it relates to salvation. However, that is not all the apostle conveyed in verse 21. He indicated that it is both an explanation and a reason why human intellect unaided by the Holy Spirit is of no value when it comes to understanding the message of the cross. In effect, a reason human intellect unaided by the Holy Spirit is of no value when it comes to understanding the message of the cross is that human intellect is inadequate to understand God. We indicated that verse 21 served both as an explanation and a reason for inadequacy of human intellect regarding comprehending the message of the cross because of the phrase for since that begins 1 Corinthians 1:21. This reason and explanation is followed by a second one in the passage before us which is that the message of the crossed is assessed differently by Jews and Greeks or Gentiles in general.
We are confident that verse 22 introduced a second reason and explanation for human intellect unaided by the Holy Spirit is of no value when it comes to understanding the message of the cross for two reasons. First, the apostle began verse 22 with the same Greek conjunction (epeidē) that he used in verse 21 we indicated that was used in that verse as a marker of cause or reason, hence the translation “since.” Of course, the translators of the NIV and some of our English versions did not translate the conjunction in verse 22 and some of those that did used the word “for” to begin verse 22. The apostle would not have used this conjunction a second time in verse 22 if he did not have in mind that both verses 21 and 22 serve the same purpose or function in his argument regarding the superiority of the message of the cross to human wisdom as it related to salvation mentioned in verse 20. Second, the apostle used a Greek conjunction (kai) that often is translated “and” in our English versions as a marker of connection between single words or clauses but the conjunction has several usages. It may be used as a marker of introduction of a result that comes from what precedes and so may be translate “and then, and so.” It may be used to emphasize a fact as surprising or unexpected or noteworthy leading to the translation “and yet, and in spite of that, nevertheless.” It may also be used as a marker of emphasis where there is a stress on what is said and hence means “indeed, certainly.” It may also be used as a marker to indicate an additive relation that is not of equal rank and significance to connect clauses and sentences hence means “also, likewise.” It is in this later sense of addition that the apostle probably used the word. It is for this reason that we are convinced that verse 22 provides additional reason and explanation for human intellect unaided by the Holy Spirit is of no value when it comes to understanding the message of the cross.
In any event, a major point the apostle wanted to convey in the passage before us is that the message of the cross is assessed differently by Jews and Greeks, by implication Gentiles. To this end, he made two assertions. A first assertion of the apostle is that the message of the cross is not the focus of the Jews and Greeks. The Jews, the apostle, indicated are focused on signs or miracles as in the sentence of 1 Corinthians 1:22 Jews demand miraculous signs.
Who are the Jews? This is an important question because the Greek word (Ioudaios) translated “Jews” in our passage although strictly means “persons belonging to Judea”, that is, a “Judean” but it has been used in different ways depending on the period of history of Israel that is in view. Prior to exile, the term “Jews” was used to describe Judeans as we can gather from some passages. The term was used to describe Judeans in 2 Kings 16:6:
At that time, Rezin king of Aram recovered Elath for Aram by driving out the men of Judah. Edomites then moved into Elath and have lived there to this day.
The phrase the men of Judah is the way the translator of the NIV translated a Hebrew word (yehûḏî) that means “Judean, Jew.” Prophet Jeremiah used the term in the same sense of Judeans in Jeremiah 32:12:
and I gave this deed to Baruch son of Neriah, the son of Mahseiah, in the presence of my cousin Hanamel and of the witnesses who had signed the deed and of all the Jews sitting in the courtyard of the guard.
He also used it to describe all Hebrews prior to the exile, as recorded in Jeremiah 34:9:
Everyone was to free his Hebrew slaves, both male and female; no one was to hold a fellow Jew in bondage.
This usage of the term to describe all Hebrews was applicable in the time of exile. For example, Mordecai, from the tribe of Benjamin, was described as a Jew in Esther 2:5:
Now there was in the citadel of Susa a Jew of the tribe of Benjamin, named Mordecai son of Jair, the son of Shimei, the son of Kish,
Of course, it will seem that the term was widely used to describe the other Ten tribes who were scattered all over the vast kingdom of King Xerxes since the attempt to exterminate the Jews was one that was wide spread throughout the kingdom of Xerxes. During the period of exile, the term was applied to some Gentiles who allied with the Jews, as implied in Esther 8:17:
In every province and in every city, wherever the edict of the king went, there was joy and gladness among the Jews, with feasting and celebrating. And many people of other nationalities became Jews because fear of the Jews had seized them.
The people of other nationalities became Jews in the general sense of one who identifies with beliefs, rites, and customs of Mosaic tradition. Consequently, after the exile, the term “Jews” was applied not only to those who are from the Southern Kingdom of Israel but to Gentiles who were adherents to the religion of the Judeans.
In the NT time, the term “Jews” was used to describe Judeans as those who adhered to Mosaic tradition. Of course, it is not a term that these Judeans used to describe themselves since they preferred to use the term “Israel”. That Judeans did not generally use the term to address themselves, but the term “Israel” may be seen by comparing the descriptions of Jesus during His crucifixion. On the one hand, the Jews referred to Him as the “King of Israel” in Mark 15:31–32:
31 In the same way the chief priests and the teachers of the law mocked him among themselves. “He saved others,” they said, “but he can’t save himself! 32 Let this Christ, this King of Israel, come down now from the cross, that we may see and believe.” Those crucified with him also heaped insults on him.
On the other hand, the Roman soldiers referred to Him as “King of the Jews” in Mark 15:17–18:
17 They put a purple robe on him, then twisted together a crown of thorns and set it on him. 18 And they began to call out to him, “Hail, king of the Jews!”
That others used the term to refer to Judeans as those who adhere to Mosaic tradition is evident in its use by the Samaritan woman that Jesus spoke with, as recorded in the fourth chapter of John, specifically, John 4:9:
The Samaritan woman said to him, “You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink?” (For Jews do not associate with Samaritans.)
Jews used the term to describe themselves when it is intended to differentiate themselves from Gentiles. Thus, Peter used that term when he preached in Cornelius house, as recorded in Acts 10:28:
He said to them: “You are well aware that it is against our law for a Jew to associate with a Gentile or visit him. But God has shown me that I should not call any man impure or unclean.
It is in the same sense that Apostle Paul used it in his rebuke of Peter, as we read in Galatians 2:14:
When I saw that they were not acting in line with the truth of the gospel, I said to Peter in front of them all, “You are a Jew, yet you live like a Gentile and not like a Jew. How is it, then, that you force Gentiles to follow Jewish customs?
Apostle Paul in this usage indicates that a Jew is one who by birth is an Israelite and so practices Mosaic tradition. But that is not all, he also implied that a true Jew is not one who is merely a descendant of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob as evident in circumcision but one that is regenerated, as that is what we can gather from Romans 2:28–29:
28 A man is not a Jew if he is only one outwardly, nor is circumcision merely outward and physical. 29 No, a man is a Jew if he is one inwardly; and circumcision is circumcision of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the written code. Such a man’s praise is not from men, but from God.
In any case, the term “Jew” refers originally to those who are Judeans, but it extended to those who are Hebrew people. Of course, today Hebrew people are found every nation in the world although some of them do not even know they are Hebrews. However, current research to locate the lost tribes of Israel have led to few discoveries. The tribe of Gad has been traced to the Ibos in Nigeria, the Yinglings of Sweden, among others. The tribe of Dan to Sudan, some Levites in Lemba tribe of Ethiopia. Other Hebrew people have been found in other parts of the world. This should not surprise anyone because of what Prophet Isaiah wrote in Isaiah 11:11:
In that day the Lord will reach out his hand a second time to reclaim the remnant that is left of his people from Assyria, from Lower Egypt, from Upper Egypt, from Cush, from Elam, from Babylonia, from Hamath and from the islands of the sea.
By the way, proper identification of the Jews/Hebrews is important because of the promise of the Lord to Abraham in Genesis 12:3:
I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.”
Many Christians in this country, for example, support present Israel because of this promise but present Israel consists primarily of a tiny fraction of the Hebrew people. Thus, for consistency they ought to know the rest are to avoid bringing curse on them.
Be that as it may, the question of who a Jew is, should be understood primarily as Apostle Paul would have used the term in the epistle we are considering. You see, in modern time, the word is used in different ways because of the existence of modern state of Israel. A person is accepted as a Jew by Orthodox Judaism if the person has been born to a Jewish mother and who has not apostatized in the sense of being a Christian or converted to any religion. Others would include a Jew as one who has a Jewish father or who has converted to Judaism. Of course, Jewish leaders prefer the term “Israel” to describe the Hebrew people. That aside, it is in the sense of a Hebrew person who practices the Mosaic tradition that the apostle used it in 1 Corinthians 1:22. We say this because when the apostle identified himself as a Jew he meant one who was born a Hebrew that practiced the Mosaic tradition. He referred himself as a Jew in Acts 22:3:
“I am a Jew, born in Tarsus of Cilicia, but brought up in this city. Under Gamaliel I was thoroughly trained in the law of our fathers and was just as zealous for God as any of you are today.
Here he associated being a Jew to the law, but he also associated being a Jew as that which one is born, as in Galatians 2:15:
“We who are Jews by birth and not ‘Gentile sinners’
To him, it is probably inconceivable that one would be a Jew without being a Hebrew, as we can gather from his description of himself as a Hebrew in Philippians 3:5:
circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; in regard to the law, a Pharisee;
The point is while the term “Jew” may be used to include those who are not born as Jews but have converted to Judaism that is not what the apostle would have had in mind. He would mean naturally born Hebrews who adhere to the Mosaic tradition. This explanation is necessary in understanding his assertion about the Jews.
The apostle’s assertion is that the Jews are not able to understand the message of the cross because of their preoccupation with the miraculous as in the sentence of 1 Corinthians 1:22 Jews demand miraculous signs. The phrase miraculous signs of the NIV, although a good one, is an interpretative translation. This is because the literal Greek reads the Jews ask for signs.
The word “sign” is translated from a Greek word (sēmeion) that may mean a sign or distinguishing mark whereby something is known hence “a sign, token, indication.” It is in the sense of indication of something that the word is used by the angel who spoke to the shepherds regarding the birth of the Savior in Luke 2:12:
This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.”
The word is used with the meaning “signal” or “a previously agreed upon indicator” to describe the activity of Judas Iscariot in the betrayal of the Lord Jesus in Matthew 26:48:
Now the betrayer had arranged a signal with them: “The one I kiss is the man; arrest him.”
The clause the betrayer had arranged a signal with them is literally who was betraying him had given them a sign. The apostle used the Greek word in the sense of that which characterized or marked his epistles in 2 Thessalonians 3:17:
I, Paul, write this greeting in my own hand, which is the distinguishing mark in all my letters. This is how I write.
Another meaning of the Greek word under consideration is an event that is an indication or confirmation of intervention by transcendent powers and so means “miracle, portent.” It is in the sense of “portent” that the word is used in describing terrifying appearances in the heavens, never before seen, of the last days in Luke 21:11:
There will be great earthquakes, famines and pestilences in various places, and fearful events and great signs from heaven.
The phrase of great signs of the NIV is translated in different ways in our English versions. For example, the TEV used the phrase terrifying things and NEB used great portents. These two readings capture in Luke 21:11 the sense of our Greek word. The meaning of “miracle” for our Greek word is used in Acts 4:16:
“What are we going to do with these men?” they asked. “Everybody living in Jerusalem knows they have done an outstanding miracle, and we cannot deny it.
Thus, we see that the Greek word used has two meanings of “sign” and “miracle”. It is probably to capture both senses or to emphasize the word “signs” that the translators of the NIV combined the two meanings in their phrase miraculous signs.
In any case, the assertion of the Holy Spirit through the apostle about the Jews is the sentence Jews demand miraculous signs. It is true that the apostle probably could be thinking of the events in the time of the earthly ministry of the Lord Jesus but because we have explained that the word “Jew” was used in a way that describes the Hebrew people, then the sentence is one that indeed characterize the Jews as we can trace in their history with few individuals. We mean that if we look at the history of individuals in the history of Israel, we will discover that the focus on sign by the Jews is not merely a NT phenomenon but also an OT one. When the Lord in the form of the Angel of the Lord approached Gideon to commission him with a specific task, he asked and obtained sign that will convince him that the Lord was sending him, as we read in his request in Judges 6:17:
Gideon replied, “If now I have found favor in your eyes, give me a sign that it is really you talking to me.
On another occasion, Gideon although he did not directly ask for sign but that was what he was after in what is recorded in Judges 6:36–40:
36 Gideon said to God, “If you will save Israel by my hand as you have promised— 37 look, I will place a wool fleece on the threshing floor. If there is dew only on the fleece and all the ground is dry, then I will know that you will save Israel by my hand, as you said.” 38 And that is what happened. Gideon rose early the next day; he squeezed the fleece and wrung out the dew—a bowlful of water. 39 Then Gideon said to God, “Do not be angry with me. Let me make just one more request. Allow me one more test with the fleece. This time make the fleece dry and the ground covered with dew.” 40 That night God did so. Only the fleece was dry; all the ground was covered with dew.
King Hezekiah also sought sign from Prophet Isaiah to convince him that the Lord would do what He said about healing him, as we read in 2 Kings 20:8:
Hezekiah had asked Isaiah, “What will be the sign that the LORD will heal me and that I will go up to the temple of the LORD on the third day from now?”
When we come to the NT period, we also discover that individual Jews demanded sign that will convince them that God’s word or promise is true. Thus, Zechariah, the father of John the Baptist, indirectly asked for a sign from the angel that announced the birth of John, as we read in Luke 1:18:
Zechariah asked the angel, “How can I be sure of this? I am an old man and my wife is well along in years.”
He received the sign of being unable to speak until the birth of John. Thus, with these illustrations of individuals in the history of Israel looking for sign, we know that they are a people who are bent on having signs to convince them of God’s word. This is probably the reason when the Lord sent Moses to deliver the Israelites, he gave him miracles he was to perform in order to convince them that the Lord sent him, as we read in Exodus 4:8–9:
8 Then the Lord said, “If they do not believe you or pay attention to the first miraculous sign, they may believe the second. 9 But if they do not believe these two signs or listen to you, take some water from the Nile and pour it on the dry ground. The water you take from the river will become blood on the ground.”
This trait of Jews may explain why some of those in Africa that are regarded as dark skinned Hebrew that have become Christians are so enameled with signs and wonders.
Be that as it may, as we stated previously, it is probably because of the interactions of Jesus and Jews during His earthly ministry that the Holy Spirit through the apostle states Jews demand miraculous signs. Matthew records different occasions where the Pharisees and Teachers of the law demanded miraculous sign from Jesus. After Jesus’ healing of a blind and mute man and Jesus’ response to their reaction, we have a record of their demand for the miraculous in Matthew 12:38–39:
38 Then some of the Pharisees and teachers of the law said to him, “Teacher, we want to see a miraculous sign from you.” 39 He answered, “A wicked and adulterous generation asks for a miraculous sign! But none will be given it except the sign of the prophet Jonah.
On another occasion, the same group came to Jesus requesting sign from heaven, as we read in Matthew 16:1–2:
1The Pharisees and Sadducees came to Jesus and tested him by asking him to show them a sign from heaven. 2 He replied, “When evening comes, you say, ‘It will be fair weather, for the sky is red,’
These two examples involve religious leaders so one may think that only these are those who seek miraculous signs. No! John records in his gospel of Jews demanding miraculous signs in John 2:18:
Then the Jews demanded of him, “What miraculous sign can you show us to prove your authority to do all this?”
The Lord Jesus also addressed the Jews regarding their focus on the miraculous, as reported in John 4:48:
“Unless you people see miraculous signs and wonders,” Jesus told him, “you will never believe.”
The Holy Spirit described the Jews as those who focus on signs so that they have problem with understanding the message of the cross; however, we should understand that He does not mean to convey to us that seeking signs from God is always wrong. If seeking sign is always wrong then the Lord would not have spoken to King Ahaz to seek sign from Him, as we read in Isaiah 7:10–11:
10 Again the Lord spoke to Ahaz, 11 “Ask the LORD your God for a sign, whether in the deepest depths or in the highest heights.”
Ahaz’s refusal to accept to request for a sign from the Lord is taken by some as act of piety on his part while others see the opposite. Our concern at this point is not with rendering judgment on his action but to convey that seeking sign from God is not always wrong; otherwise, the Lord would not have invited Ahaz to seek sign from Him. Seeking sign from the Lord will be appropriate when God’s will is not known and so sign may serve as a guidance to give assurance that one is in His will. It is this kind of sign that Gideon sought in the fleece event. It is this kind of sign that the Lord gave to Moses to convince the Israelites that the Lord sent him. However, it is wrong to seek sign as the means of proving that the Lord cares for a person after the individual had seen various demonstrations of God’s power. A person who seeks such sign is one that would violate the instruction given in Deuteronomy 6:16:
Do not test the Lord your God as you did at Massah.
Putting the Lord to the test is simply demanding the miraculous either out of lust or in unbelief. Israel had seen God’s miraculous power, but they continued to request more miracles as a way of God proving Himself to them of His care or love for them. It is for this reason they are described as putting the Lord to the test despite the miracles they observed, as we read in Psalm 95:9:
where your fathers tested and tried me, though they had seen what I did.
The point is that it will be wrong to seek sign as a way for God to prove Himself concerning His love and care of someone. The Lord Jesus condemned the Jews of His time for the constant demand of sign because they had witnessed many miracles He performed, but they did not believe so that they continued to ask for more signs from Him. The fact is that presence of the miraculous does not mean that people will be convinced of the existence of God or the correctness of the message of the cross. Miracles may impress some but not all since those who observe miracles have differing evaluation of such. Today, when there is a miracle, some consider it some chance happening although they cannot explain how chance brought that about. Others take the view that the miracle they observed does not necessarily mean that God is behind it. Hence, miracle in and of itself would not bring anyone to faith in Christ. The Holy Spirit must still act on the observer to bring the individual to understand the message of the cross as to be saved. In any event, the Holy Spirit through Apostle Paul conveyed to us the truth of the focus of Jews on signs so that they did not understand the message of the cross. This is true today.
In any case, the apostle’s first assertion is that the message of the cross is assessed differently by the Jews and the Greeks, thus, after stating the focus of the Jews with signs that kept them from understanding the message of the gospel then he mentioned the focus of the Greeks with wisdom as in the last sentence of 1 Corinthians 1:22 the Greek seek wisdom.
The word “Greek” is translated from a Greek word (Hellēn) that may refer to a person of Greek language and culture as the word is used in Romans 1:14:
I am obligated both to Greeks and non-Greeks, both to the wise and the foolish.
In this context of Romans 1:14, a Greek is considered as being civilized or cultured in contrast to the non-Greek or literally a “barbarian”, that is, one who is not civilized or uneducated. The Greek word translated “Greek” may mean in a broader sense all persons who came under the influence of Greek, as distinguished from Israel’s culture so that the word may even mean “Gentile.” It is in this sense that the word is used in Acts 14:1:
At Iconium Paul and Barnabas went as usual into the Jewish synagogue. There they spoke so effectively that a great number of Jews and Gentiles believed.
The phrase Jews and Gentiles is literally Jews and Greeks. It is in the sense of a Gentile who has come under the influence of Greek culture that the word is used. In effect, the Greek in 1 Corinthians 1:22 refers to those who are ethnically Greeks and those who are not but have been influenced by Greek education or culture. In today’s language, we should understand the use of the word “Greek” as a reference to those who are civilized or educated in some measure. Our application of the word Greek to the educated is because of what the apostle said was the focus of the Greeks, that is, wisdom in the verbal phrase look for wisdom.
Those described as the Greek focused on wisdom or they demanded wisdom. You see the expression “look for” is translated from a Greek word (zēteō) that may mean “to see, look for” in order to find what one desires somehow to bring into relation with oneself or to obtain without knowing where it is to be found. Thus, it is in this sense that Apostle Paul used it in describing Onesiphorus’ kindness to him in 2 Timothy 1:17:
On the contrary, when he was in Rome, he searched hard for me until he found me.
The word may mean to seek information, that is, “to investigate, examine, consider, deliberate,” as it is used in John 16:19:
Jesus saw that they wanted to ask him about this, so he said to them, “Are you asking one another what I meant when I said, ‘In a little while you will see me no more, and then after a little while you will see me’?
The question Are you asking one another may alternatively be translated Are you deliberating with one another. The Greek word may mean to devote serious effort to realize one’s desire or objective, hence “to strive for, aim (at), try to obtain, desire, wish (for)” as Apostle Paul used the word in Colossians 3:1:
Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God.
The expression set your hearts on things above is literally seek the things above, that is, to desire the things above. The word may mean “to request, demand, ask for”, as in its usage in 2 Corinthians 13:3:
since you are demanding proof that Christ is speaking through me. He is not weak in dealing with you, but is powerful among you.
It is in the sense of seeking for something that one desires, with the implication of demanding something, that the apostle used the Greek word in our passage of 1 Corinthians 1:22. The Greeks, that is, the educated who are non-Jews seek and demand wisdom. The Greek indicates that it is a constant occupation of those who are educated through Greek culture to seek wisdom since it is through the constant learning of those educated Greeks that they abandoned their traditional gods in favor of Philosophy or wisdom.
The word “wisdom” is translated from a Greek word (sophia) that means the capacity to understand and, as a result, to act wisely. Here, the word is used in the sense of the ability to acquire and discern truth about natural and supernatural matters without the assistance or revelation of God. It is the kind of ability that one acquires through education or training. Thus, the apostle described with the word Greek those who want rational explanation to the message of the cross. They are not interested in the supernatural explanation of the message of the cross because it does not fit with their training. They are like the Stoics that the apostle encountered in Athens, as stated in Acts 17:18–21:
18 A group of Epicurean and Stoic philosophers began to dispute with him. Some of them asked, “What is this babbler trying to say?” Others remarked, “He seems to be advocating foreign gods.” They said this because Paul was preaching the good news about Jesus and the resurrection. 19 Then they took him and brought him to a meeting of the Areopagus, where they said to him, “May we know what this new teaching is that you are presenting? 20 You are bringing some strange ideas to our ears, and we want to know what they mean.” 21 (All the Athenians and the foreigners who lived there spent their time doing nothing but talking about and listening to the latest ideas.)
Anyone today who is focused on logical explanation of the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ fits into the class of people seeking wisdom that the apostle mentioned. In effect, when those in this class hear the message of the gospel, they assess it in terms of how it fits into their understanding of science or whether it makes logical sense. Anyway, the first assertion of the apostle in the passage of 1 Corinthians 1:22-23 that we have considered is that the message of the cross is assessed differently by Jews and Greeks.
The second assertion of the apostle in the passage we are considering is that the message of the cross that he and others preached is troublesome to Jews and Gentiles although differently.
People’s assessment of the message of the cross should not be a deterrent to the preaching of the message of the cross. It is this fact that is conveyed in the first clause of verse 23 of 1 Corinthian 1 but we preach Christ crucified. The conjunction but indicates the apostle intended to contrast his action to that of the Jews and the Greeks mentioned in the preceding verse. They are busy assessing the message of the cross wrongly, but the apostle and others continue to preach the message of the cross. The apostle’s use of the personal pronoun we is a reference to himself and others who preach the gospel message such as the other apostles and those in his apostolic team.
The word “preach” is translated from a Greek word (kēryssō) that may mean to make an official announcement, that is, “to announce, make known,” by an official herald or one who functions as such, as the word is used in Revelation 5:2:
And I saw a mighty angel proclaiming in a loud voice, “Who is worthy to break the seals and open the scroll?”
The word may mean to make public declaration and so means “to proclaim aloud.” In a general sense, it may mean “to speak of, mention publicly” as the word was used to describe what Jesus wanted from the man he healed of demon possession, as we read in Luke 8:39:
“Return home and tell how much God has done for you.” So the man went away and told all over town how much Jesus had done for him.
The expression told all over town how much Jesus had done for him is literally proclaiming throughout the whole town all that Jesus had done for him. When the word is used of proclamation that is divine in origin or relates to divinity, it may mean “to preach” as in Galatians 5:11:
Brothers, if I am still preaching circumcision, why am I still being persecuted? In that case the offense of the cross has been abolished.
Or, it may mean “to proclaim” as it is used in Colossians 1:23:
if you continue in your faith, established and firm, not moved from the hope held out in the gospel. This is the gospel that you heard and that has been proclaimed to every creature under heaven, and of which I, Paul, have become a servant.
It is in the sense of to proclaim, that is, to make known publicly and loudly an important news that the word is used in our passage. Thus, the apostle conveyed that he and others made known to others regarding the Christ crucified. The apostle in using this phrase Christ crucified means to say that they preach the gospel message that involved Christ’s death and resurrection to deal with our sins. People may deny that the message does not make sense but as the apostle and others did, we must continue to proclaim publicly and loudly that Jesus Christ died for our sins and rose from the dead. This means that it is not biblical for any believer to say that his/her faith is private and so would not talk to others about it.
The message of the cross, the apostle said is troubling to the Jews because it is offensive to them as in the phrase of 1 Corinthians 1:23 a stumbling block to Jews. The expression “stumbling block” is translated from a Greek word (skandalon) that literally refers to a trap for catching something alive, but it is used primarily in a figurative sense in the NT. Hence, it may refer to an action or circumstance that leads one to act contrary to a proper course of action or set of beliefs so means “temptation to sin, enticement to apostasy, false belief.” It is in the sense of to bring about temptations to sin that the word is used in Romans 16:17:
I urge you, brothers, to watch out for those who cause divisions and put obstacles in your way that are contrary to the teaching you have learned. Keep away from them.
The clause who cause divisions and put obstacles may alternatively be translated who cause dissensions and temptations. The Greek word may mean that which causes offense or revulsion and results in opposition, thus means “disapproval, or hostility, fault, stain.” It is in the sense of that which causes offense that the apostle used the word in a passage we cited previously, that is, Galatians 5:11:
Brothers, if I am still preaching circumcision, why am I still being persecuted? In that case the offense of the cross has been abolished.
It is in the same sense of “offense”, that is, an action that results in opposition that the apostle used it in our passage of 1 Corinthians 1:23.
Why is preaching Christ crucified an offense to the Jews? It is because such a concept is at odds with their understanding of who Christ is. You see, the Jews expected that the Messiah or Christ would free them from Roman domination, as we can gather from conversation of the unnamed disciples going to Emmaus had, following the crucifixion of Jesus, as we read in Luke 24:21:
but we had hoped that he was the one who was going to redeem Israel. And what is more, it is the third day since all this took place.
Anyway, perhaps the greatest reason the preaching of Christ crucified was offensive to a Jew then and now is that they had the expectation that Christ would not suffer death as indicated in the words of those present when Jesus predicted His death, as recorded in John 12:34:
The crowd spoke up, “We have heard from the Law that the Christ will remain forever, so how can you say, ‘The Son of Man must be lifted up’? Who is this ‘Son of Man’?”
If, according to the interpretation of the Jews of the law, then Christ was not to die let alone the death on the cross. Therefore, to preach a Christ crucified is offensive to a Jew.
Preaching of Christ crucified while is offensive to the Jews, it was ridiculous to the ears of the Gentiles as in the last phrase of 1 Corinthians 1:23 foolishness to Gentiles. There is a textual problem regarding this phrase because the Textus Receptus used the Greek word that means “Greeks” instead of the Greek word that means Gentiles in our passage. This is probably to make the apostle consistent in the words he used. However, there is no reason to doubt that the original had the Greek word (ethnos) translated “Gentiles” in most of our English versions. This aside. The word “foolishness” here has the sense of “ridiculous thought,” that is, a wildly mistaken or unfounded opinion or idea. The Gentiles had the idea that their hero gods do not die. Therefore, to say that Jesus Christ is a Savior who died and resurrected seemed ridiculous to them. This response of the Gentiles given here is still true of people today since most people on the planet today are Gentiles. They still have problem accepting the idea of someone dying for their sins and resurrecting the third day. Nonetheless, we should not allow the fact that people are negative or assess the message of cross incorrectly keep us from proclaiming the gospel of Jesus Christ.
03/02/18