Divine Wisdom and Human Wisdom in Paul’s Message to the Corinthians (1 Cor 1:17–3:4)

What made Paul’s preaching effective, that the Apostle of the Nations attracted crowds and under the influence of his teaching the Church of Christ grew in the Roman Empire? To be able to answer this question, the rhetorical style of the First Epistle to the Corinthians is defined in the above article. The rhetorical structure of the passage 1 Corinthians 1–4 was presented. We looked specifically at the rhetorical and exegetical analysis of the two steps of St. Paul’s argumentation contained in 1 Corinthians 1:18–3:4. Their content concerns the message flowing from the cross of Christ, the message to the Corinthians flowing from the doctrine of the victorious power of the Crucified One, and the wisdom of the cross, which can only be grasped by Christians mature in faith, called spiritual by the Apostle. Ultimately, the work of the Holy Spirit was shown, which constitutes the wisdom of the spiritual man against the sensual man.