1 Corinthians 2:1

1. And I—"So I" [CONYBEARE] as one of the "foolish, weak, and despised" instruments employed by God (1 Corinthians 1:27; 1 Corinthians 1:28); "glorying in the Lord," not in man's wisdom (1 Corinthians 1:28- :). Compare 1 Corinthians 1:23, "We."

when I came— (1 Corinthians 1:23- :, c.). Paul might, had he pleased, have used an ornate style, having studied secular learning at Tarsus of Cilicia, which STRABO preferred as a school of learning to Athens or Alexandria here, doubtless, he read the Cilician Aratus' poems (which he quotes, Acts 17:28), and Epimenides (Titus 1:12), and Menander (1 Corinthians 15:33). Grecian intellectual development was an important element in preparing the way for the Gospel, but it failed to regenerate the world, showing that for this a superhuman power is needed. Hellenistic (Grecizing) Judaism at Tarsus and Alexandria was the connecting link between the schools of Athens and those of the Rabbis. No more fitting birthplace could there have been for the apostle of the Gentiles than Tarsus, free as it was from the warping influences of Rome, Alexandria, and Athens. He had at the same time Roman citizenship, which protected him from sudden violence. Again, he was reared in the Hebrew divine law at Jerusalem. Thus, as the three elements, Greek cultivation, Roman polity (1 Corinthians 15:33- :), and the divine law given to the Jews, combined just at Christ's time, to prepare the world for the Gospel, so the same three, by God's marvellous providence, met together in the apostle to the Gentiles [CONYBEARE and HOWSON].

testimony of God—"the testimony of Christ" (1 Corinthians 15:33- :); therefore Christ is God.