1 Corinthians 1:26

THE MESSAGE

Take a good look, friends, at who you were when you got called into this life. I don't see many of "the brightest and the best" among you, not many influential, not many from high-society families. Isn't it obvious that God deliberately chose men and women that the culture overlooks and exploits and abuses, chose these "nobodies" to expose the hollow pretensions of the "somebodies"? That makes it quite clear that none of you can get by with blowing your own horn before God. Everything that we have—right thinking and right living, a clean slate and a fresh start—comes from God by way of Jesus Christ. That's why we have the saying, "If you're going to blow a horn, blow a trumpet for God."

Parallel Translations

Easy-to-Read Version
Brothers and sisters, God chose you to be his. Think about that! Not many of you were wise in the way the world judges wisdom. Not many of you had great influence, and not many of you came from important families.

Revised Standard Version
For consider your call, brethren; not many of you were wise according to worldly standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth;

Tyndale New Testament (1525)
Brethren loke on youre callinge how that not many wyse men after the flesshe not many myghty not many of hye degre are called:

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

International Standard Version
Brothers, think about your own calling. Not many of you were wise by human standards,according to the flesh">[fn] not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth.John 7:48;">[xr]

New American Standard Bible
For consider your calling, brothers and sisters, that there were not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble;

New Century Version
Brothers and sisters, look at what you were when God called you. Not many of you were wise in the way the world judges wisdom. Not many of you had great influence. Not many of you came from important families.

Update Bible Version
For look at your calling, brothers, that not many wise after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, [are called]:

Webster's Bible Translation
For ye see your calling, brethren, that not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble [are called]:

English Standard Version
For consider your calling, brothers: not many of you were wise according to worldly standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth.

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

Wesley's New Testament (1755)
Behold your calling brethren: that not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble are called:

Weymouth's New Testament
For consider, brethren, God's call to you. Not many who are wise with merely human wisdom, not many of position and influence, not many of noble birth have been called.

Wycliffe Bible (1395)
But, britheren, se ye youre clepyng; for not many wise men aftir the fleisch, not many myyti, not many noble.

English Revised Version
For behold your calling, brethren, how that not many wise after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, [are called]:

Berean Standard Bible
Brothers, consider the time of your calling: Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were powerful; not many were of noble birth.

Contemporary English Version
My dear friends, remember what you were when God chose you. The people of this world didn't think that many of you were wise. Only a few of you were in places of power, and not many of you came from important families.

Amplified Bible
Just look at your own calling, believers; not many [of you were considered] wise according to human standards, not many powerful or influential, not many of high and noble birth.

American Standard Version
For behold your calling, brethren, that not many wise after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called:

Bible in Basic English
For you see God's design for you, my brothers, that he has not taken a great number of the wise after the flesh, not the strong, not the noble:

Complete Jewish Bible
Just look at yourselves, brothers — look at those whom God has called! Not many of you are wise by the world's standards, not many wield power or boast noble birth.

Darby Translation
For consider your calling, brethren, that [there are] not many wise according to flesh, not many powerful, not many high-born.

Etheridge Translation
26 For you see also your calling, my brethren, that not many among you are wise after the flesh, and not many among you are powerful, and not many among you are of noble birth; [fn]

Murdock Translation
For look also at your calling, my Brethren; that not many among you are wise, according to the flesh; and not many among you are mighty, and not many among you are of high birth.

King James Version (1611)
For ye see your calling, brethren, how that not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble are called.

New Living Translation
Remember, dear brothers and sisters, that few of you were wise in the world's eyes or powerful or wealthy when God called you.

New Life Bible
Christian brothers, think who you were when the Lord called you. Not many of you were wise or powerful or born into the family of leaders of a country.

New Revised Standard
Consider your own call, brothers and sisters: not many of you were wise by human standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth.

Geneva Bible (1587)
For brethren, you see your calling, how that not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble are called.

George Lamsa Translation
For consider also your own calling, my brethren, not many among you are wise in terms of worldly things, and not many among you are mighty, and not many among you belong to the nobility.

J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
For be looking at the calling of you, brethren, - that there were not many wise, according to flesh. Not many powerful, not many high-born:

Douay-Rheims Bible
For see your vocation, brethren, that there are not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble.

Bishop's Bible (1568)
Brethren, ye see your callyng, howe that not many wise men after the fleshe, not many myghtie, not many noble [are called.]

Good News Translation
Now remember what you were, my friends, when God called you. From the human point of view few of you were wise or powerful or of high social standing.

Christian Standard Bible®
Brothers and sisters, consider your calling: Not many were wise from a human perspective, not many powerful, not many of noble birth.

King James Version
For ye see your calling, brethren, how that not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called:

Lexham English Bible
For consider your calling, brothers, that not many were wise according to human standards, not many were powerful, not many were well born.

Literal Translation
For you see your calling, brothers, that there are not many wise according to flesh, nor many powerful, not many wellborn.

Young's Literal Translation
for see your calling, brethren, that not many [are] wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble;

Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
Brethren loke on youre callinge, how that not many wyseme after the flesh, not many mightie, not many of hye degre are called:

Mace New Testament (1729)
for consider, brethren, that not many worldly wise, not many men of power, not many men of birth are among you that are called.

New English Translation
Think about the circumstances of your call, brothers and sisters. Not many were wise by human standards, not many were powerful, not many were born to a privileged position.

New King James Version
For you see your calling, brethren, that not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called.

Simplified Cowboy Version
Don't forget cowboys, there were very few of you who were considered wise by worldly standards or thought to be rich and powerful. But then God got ahold of you.

New American Standard Bible (1995)
For consider your calling, brethren, that there were not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble;

Legacy Standard Bible
For consider your calling, brothers, that there were not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble.

Contextual Overview

¹⁷ God didn't send me out to collect a following for myself, but to preach the Message of what he has done, collecting a following for him. And he didn't send me to do it with a lot of fancy rhetoric of my own, lest the powerful action at the center—Christ on the Cross—be trivialized into mere words. ¹⁸The Message that points to Christ on the Cross seems like sheer silliness to those hellbent on destruction, but for those on the way of salvation it makes perfect sense. This is the way God works, and most powerfully as it turns out. It's written, I'll turn conventional wisdom on its head, I'll expose so-called experts as crackpots. So where can you find someone truly wise, truly educated, truly intelligent in this day and age? Hasn't God exposed it all as pretentious nonsense? Since the world in all its fancy wisdom never had a clue when it came to knowing God, God in his wisdom took delight in using what the world considered dumb—preaching, of all things!—to bring those who trust him into the way of salvation. ²²While Jews clamor for miraculous demonstrations and Greeks go in for philosophical wisdom, we go right on proclaiming Christ, the Crucified. Jews treat this like an anti-miracle—and Greeks pass it off as absurd. But to us who are personally called by God himself—both Jews and Greeks—Christ is God's ultimate miracle and wisdom all wrapped up in one. Human wisdom is so tinny, so impotent, next to the seeming absurdity of God. Human strength can't begin to compete with God's "weakness." ²⁶Take a good look, friends, at who you were when you got called into this life. I don't see many of "the brightest and the best" among you, not many influential, not many from high-society families. Isn't it obvious that God deliberately chose men and women that the culture overlooks and exploits and abuses, chose these "nobodies" to expose the hollow pretensions of the "somebodies"? That makes it quite clear that none of you can get by with blowing your own horn before God. Everything that we have—right thinking and right living, a clean slate and a fresh start—comes from God by way of Jesus Christ. That's why we have the saying, "If you're going to blow a horn, blow a trumpet for God."

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

that: 1 Corinthians 1:20, 1 Corinthians 2:3-6, 1 Corinthians 2:13, 1 Corinthians 3:18-20, Zephaniah 3:12, Matthew 11:25, Matthew 11:26, Luke 10:21, John 7:47-49, James 3:13-17

not many mighty: Luke 1:3,*Gr: Luke 18:24, Luke 18:25, John 4:46-53, John 19:38, John 19:39, Acts 13:7, Acts 13:12, Acts 17:34, Philippians 4:22, James 1:9-11, James 2:5, 2 John 1:1

Reciprocal: 2 Kings 5:4 - and told his lord Nehemiah 3:5 - their nobles Job 32:9 - Great Job 37:24 - he Ecclesiastes 9:16 - the poor Isaiah 23:9 - bring Isaiah 26:6 - General Isaiah 29:19 - the poor Isaiah 41:9 - called Jeremiah 8:9 - The wise men are Zechariah 12:7 - save Matthew 19:23 - That Mark 10:23 - How Luke 1:48 - regarded Luke 1:53 - and Luke 6:20 - Blessed Acts 5:38 - for Acts 13:50 - honourable Acts 17:12 - honourable Romans 9:16 - General 1 Corinthians 2:8 - none 1 Corinthians 4:10 - are fools

Cross-References

Genesis 1:6
God spoke: "Sky! In the middle of the waters; separate water from water!" God made sky. He separated the water under sky from the water above sky. And there it was: he named sky the Heavens; It was evening, it was morning— Day Two.

Genesis 1:9
God spoke: "Separate! Water-beneath-Heaven, gather into one place; Land, appear!" And there it was. God named the land Earth. He named the pooled water Ocean. God saw that it was good.

Genesis 1:20
God spoke: "Swarm, Ocean, with fish and all sea life! Birds, fly through the sky over Earth!" God created the huge whales, all the swarm of life in the waters, And every kind and species of flying birds. God saw that it was good. God blessed them: "Prosper! Reproduce! Fill Ocean! Birds, reproduce on Earth!" It was evening, it was morning— Day Five.

Genesis 1:24
God spoke: "Earth, generate life! Every sort and kind: cattle and reptiles and wild animals—all kinds." And there it was: wild animals of every kind, Cattle of all kinds, every sort of reptile and bug. God saw that it was good.

Genesis 1:29
Then God said, "I've given you every sort of seed-bearing plant on Earth And every kind of fruit-bearing tree, given them to you for food. To all animals and all birds, everything that moves and breathes, I give whatever grows out of the ground for food." And there it was.

Genesis 3:22
God said, "The Man has become like one of us, capable of knowing everything, ranging from good to evil. What if he now should reach out and take fruit from the Tree-of-Life and eat, and live forever? Never—this cannot happen!"

Genesis 5:1
This is the family tree of the human race: When God created the human race, he made it godlike, with a nature akin to God. He created both male and female and blessed them, the whole human race.

Psalms 100:3
Know this: God is God, and God, God . He made us; we didn't make him. We're his people, his well-tended sheep.

Isaiah 64:8
Still, God , you are our Father. We're the clay and you're our potter: All of us are what you made us. Don't be too angry with us, O God . Don't keep a permanent account of wrongdoing. Keep in mind, please, we are your people—all of us. Your holy cities are all ghost towns: Zion's a ghost town, Jerusalem's a field of weeds. Our holy and beautiful Temple, which our ancestors filled with your praises, Was burned down by fire, all our lovely parks and gardens in ruins. In the face of all this, are you going to sit there unmoved, God ? Aren't you going to say something? Haven't you made us miserable long enough?

John 5:17
But Jesus defended himself. "My Father is working straight through, even on the Sabbath. So am I."

Gill's Notes on the Bible

For ye see your calling, brethren,.... That is, those that were called by the grace of God among them; for as circumcision and uncircumcision stand for circumcised and uncircumcised persons, and election for elect persons, and righteousness for righteous persons, Romans 3:30 so here "calling" designs men called by grace; the manner of whose calling, and what sort of persons they were, the apostle signifies, they did or might, or ought, to see, observe, and consider; for respect is here had, not, as some have thought, to the first preachers of the Gospel, who were mechanics, fishermen, illiterate persons, very mean and despicable; but to the members of the church at Corinth, whether public preachers, or private members. The city of Corinth had in it many noble families, of high birth and quality, abounded with learned philosophers and rich merchants; and yet it was easy to be seen,

how that not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble are called. The apostle does not say that there were none of the wise, the mighty, and noble called; for there were Crispus, and Sosthenes, rulers of the synagogue, and Gains a rich hospitable man, and Erastus the chamberlain of the city, and it may be some others of a like or better figure in life; but there were not many of them; instances of this kind are but few recorded in the Scripture; as Joseph of Arimathea a rich counsellor, Paulus Sergius a Roman deputy, Dionysius the Areopagite, and some in Caesar's palace; which show that nobility, riches, and learning, as they do not at all contribute towards a man's salvation, so neither can they hinder it where grace takes place; but, generally speaking, God has thought fit, for wise reasons, to choose and call persons of different characters.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

For ye see your calling - You know the general character and condition of those who are Christians among you, that they have not been generally taken from the wise, the rich, and the learned, but from humble life. The design of the apostle here is, to show that the gospel did not depend for its success on human wisdom. His argument is, that “in fact” those who were blessed by it had not been of the elevated ranks of life mainly, but that God had shown his power by choosing those who were ignorant, and vicious, and abandoned, and by reforming and purifying their lives. The verb “ye see” βλέπετε blepete, is ambiguous, and may be either in the indicative mood, as our translators have rendered it, “ye do see; you are well apprised of it, and know it,” or it may be in the imperative, “see; contemplate your condition;” but the sense is substantially the same. “Your calling” (τὴν κλῆσιν tēn klēsin) means “those who are called” 1 Corinthians 1:9; as “the circumcision” means those who are circumcised. Romans 3:30. The sense is, “took upon the condition of those who are Christians.”

Not many wise men - Not many who are regarded as wise; or who are ranked with philosophers. This supposes that there were some of that description, though the mass of Christians were then, as now, from more humble ranks of life. That there were some of high rank and wealth at Corinth who became Christians, is well known. Crispus and Sosthenes, rulers of the synagogue there (Acts 28:8, Acts 28:17; Compare 1 Corinthians 1:1); Gaius, a rich, hospitable man Romans 16:23; and Erastus the chancellor of the city of Corinth Romans 16:23, had been converted and were members of the church. Some have supposed (“Macknight”) that this should be rendered “not many mighty, wise, etc. ‘call you;’ that is, God has not employed the wise and the learned ‘to call’ you into his kingdom.” But the sense in our translation is evidently the correct interpretation. It is the obvious sense; and it agrees with the design of the apostle, which was to show that God had not consulted the wisdom, and power, and wealth of men in the establishment of his church. So the Syriac and the Vulgate render it.

According to the flesh - According to the maxims and principles of a sensual and worldly policy; according to the views of people when under the influence of those principles; that is, who are unrenewed. The flesh here stands opposed to the spirit; the views of the people of this world in contradistinction from the wisdom that is from above.

Not many mighty - Not many people of power; or men sustaining important “offices” in the state. Comp, Revelation 6:15. The word may refer to those who wield power of any kind, whether derived from office, from rank, from wealth, etc.

Not many noble - Not many of illustrious birth, or descended from illustrious families - εὐγενεῖς eugeneis, “well-born.” In respect to each of these classes, the apostle does not say that there were no men of wealth, and power, and birth, but that the mass or body of Christians was not composed of such. They were made up of those who were in humble life. There were a few, indeed, of rank and property, as there are now; but then, as now, the great mass was composed of those who were from the lower conditions of society. The reason why God had chosen his people from that rank is stated in 1 Corinthians 1:29. The character of many of those who composed the church at Corinth before the conversion, is stated in 1 Corinthians 6:10-11, which see.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse 26. Ye see your calling — την κλησιν. The state of grace and blessedness to which ye are invited. I think, βλεπετε την κλησιν, c., should be read in the imperative: Take heed to, or consider your calling, brethren that (οτι) not many of you are wise after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble: men is not in the original, and Paul seems to allude to the Corinthian believers in particular. This seems to have been said in opposition to the high and worldly notions of the Jews, who assert that the Divine Spirit never rests upon any man, unless he be wise, powerful, and rich. Now this Divine Spirit did rest upon the Christians at Corinth, and yet these were, in the sense of the world, neither wise, rich, nor noble. We spoil, if not corrupt the apostle's meaning, by adding are called, as if God did not send his Gospel to the wise, the powerful, and the noble, or did not will their salvation. The truth is, the Gospel has an equal call to all classes of men; but the wise, the mighty, and the noble, are too busy, or too sensual, to pay any attention to an invitation so spiritual and so Divine; and therefore there are few of these in the Church of Christ in general.