Some exegesis on 1 Corinthians 1:23 (taken from my Master’s thesis: Christ Crucified, The Wisdom and Power of God: An Exegetical Analysis of I Corinthians 1:17–25 circa. 2003). Take the writing cum grano salis. I was yet a burgeoning writer, so you will notice certain grammatical infelicities throughout. Nonetheless, the exegesis is solid.

but we preach Christ crucified, to Jews a stumbling block and to Gentiles foolishness,

 ἡμεῖς δὲ κηρύσσομεν Χριστὸν ἐσταυρωμένον, Ἰουδαίοις μὲν σκάνδαλον ἔθνεσιν δὲ μωρίαν,

The next phrase, Χριστὸν ἐσταυρωμένον, is important because it brings the discussion back to that which is the cause of the adversative, noted above. This phrase serves as the content of the proclamation of foolishness, back in vs. 21.137 The term ἐσταυρωμένον is a perfect passive participle, and it is functioning as an adjectival-substantive participle, meaning the one who was crucified. The perfect participle carries the force of, “. . . describing an event that, completed in the past . . .,” and “. . . has results existing in the present time.”138 Thus Christ crucified carries with it the notion that Christ’s crucifixion stands as a past reality with its effects coming into the present.139 Lenski succinctly summarizes this phraseology:

The perfect participle ἐσταυρωμένον states that, one crucified, Christ now stands before us continuously as such. The fact of his crucifixion has become something permanent and enduring from the very moment when that fact occurred. This crucified Christ is both the sum of the gospel and the center from which every part of the gospel radiates, and in which all of its parts meet.140

The proclamation of Christ crucified is what serves as a stumbling block to the Jews and as folly to the Greeks.

Conversely, the next phrase, Ἰουδαίοις μὲν σκάνδαλον, ἔθνεσιν δὲ μωρίαν, “to the Jews, on the one hand, a stumbling block, and to the Greeks, on the other hand, foolishness.”141 The dative μὲν . . . δὲ construction, like in vs. 18, is noting the designation of two classifications of people. And the construction is also highlighting, “. . . the contrast between the interests of the Jews and the Greeks.”142 Nevertheless, the contrasts do not imply a different result in their judgment of the cross; rather it serves to highlight the point made in vs. 22, that “all” (i.e. Jew or Greek) human-centered wisdom will consider the message of the cross as foolishness (cf. vs. 21). Paul now turns to discuss the question, “what is the meaning of that saying?” (i.e. the saying that was just discussed, “We preach Christ crucified”). Paul provides a two-pronged approach to developing what this means first for the Jew, and then the Greek.

Paul approaches the Jew first and points out that the proclamation of Christ crucified serves as a σκάνδαλον, “. . . that which gives offense or causes revulsion, that which arouses opposition, an object of anger or disapproval, which is revolting to those who have no faith.”143 In concert with this definition, Conzelmann notes, “. . . There is correspondence between σημεῖα/σκάνδαλον . . ..”144 The correspondence is related to the definition of how Jews seek for validation of a work of God, as noted in vs. 22, they ask for signs or miracles. The Jews were aroused to opposition because Christ was a contradiction to what they expected. They expected great signs, but instead Messiah was crucified. Therefore, as Fee notes,

To the Jew the message of a crucified Messiah was the ultimate scandal. Although in Roman times the Jews did not crucify, they did afterward hang those who had been stoned, especially blasphemers and idolaters. They saw hanging therefore as the fulfillment of Deut. 21:23, because anyone who is hung on a tree is under God’s curse.145

From the Jewish perspective, which had imposed their criteria upon the dealings of God, Christ could not be the Messiah.

In the same vein, Paul turns to ἔθνεσιν146, the Greeks from vs. 22. Although this time He explicitly refers to them as Gentiles. The term ἔθνος, from which the plural ἔθνεσιν is derived, carries with it the definition of: “. . . heathen, pagans, Gentiles.”147 Paul by way of parallel, with vs. 22, notes the Greeks as pure pagans.148 Paul continues and states that these Gentiles consider the proclamation of Christ crucified, as μωρία. This notion of μωρία is commented on by BAGD, they state, “Conversely, to all those who are lost 1:18 and esp. to the Gentiles vs. 23, the Christian preaching of a Savior who died a slave’s death on the cross was μ. It has pleased God to save the believers διὰ τ. μωρίας τοῦ κηρύγματος vs. 21.”149 The Gentiles could not receive the slave’s death on a cross as meeting their expectations of wisdom, therefore this message is pure foolishness to them.150

BAGD highlights the usage of this word, μωρία, from vss. 18, 21, and 23. Two of the three usages denote it as the Gentiles considering God’s wisdom as folly. But one of the usages they note, in vs. 21, relates the foolishness of the proclamation with God’s wisdom. And it is through such a reception of God’s wisdom, that a person is considered, one of those called. Therefore, Paul adversatively turns the discussion to those who receive the wisdom and power of God.

141 Translation provided by the author of this paper.

142 Kistemaker, I Corinthians, 61.

143 Bauer, A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament, 760.

144 Conzelmann, A Commentary on the First Epistle to the Corinthians, 47.

145 Fee, The First Epistle to the Corinthians, 75-76.

146 There is a variant reading on this term, and it is followed by the Textus Receptus. The Textus Receptus is following later manuscripts. The desire in following this variant reading was to make Paul’s terminology consistent. Metzger notes this variant reading in Bruce M. Metzger, A Textual Commentary on the Greek New Testament, 2nd ed. (Germany: Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft, Stuttgart 1994), 480.

147 Bauer, A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament, 217.

148 Conzelmann, A Commentary on the First Epistle to the Corinthians, 47.

149 Bauer, A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament, 533.

150 Consult Kistemaker, 1 Corinthians, 59. He provides good summative coverage on the Gentiles perspective of the death of someone on the cross.