1 Corinthians 1:21

21. For after that in the wisdom of God the world by wisdom knew not God Rather, For after that in (the light of) God’s wisdom the world by (human) wisdom knew not God. Man’s wisdom ought, in accordance with God’s wisdom, as a lesser in a greater light, to have known God. Had the finite sophia accorded with the infinite sophia, man would have truly known God: but since in the divine wisdom human wisdom did not learn God, it pleased God to provide a new method. The foolishness of preaching became a method of presenting God to man’s faith, and bringing about salvation by that faith. In this word foolishness, as well as in the words (1 Corinthians 1:25) foolishness of God, weakness of God, and (1 Corinthians 1:27) foolish things, the apostle ironically styles things as the world styles them. By a similar irony the apostle asserts that since wisdom failed to know God, God accomplished the result by a foolishness. The foolishness of preaching, is the antithesis to the wisdom of (philosophic) words, or lecturing, 1 Corinthians 1:17.

Believe By unbelief man lost God; by faith he recovers God. Of the nature of this faith, as a condition of salvation, see notes on Romans 12:23. By what un-wisdoms both Jews and Greeks missed God Paul now declares.