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Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of 1 Corinthians 2:9

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But as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him.

9. But as it is written, Eye hath not seen ] There has been much discussion whence these words are derived, but they are quite sufficiently near to the passage in Isa 64:4 to be regarded as a quotation from thence. It is unreasonable to require greater literal accuracy in the citation of words from the O. T. than is customary in a modern preacher, who is frequently content with giving the general drift of the passage he quotes. Such a practice was even more likely to exist in days when the cumbrous nature of books prevented them from being so readily at hand as at present We can hardly suppose, with some modern divines, that the passage is a quotation from the liturgy of the Apostolic Church, for Origen, Chrysostom, and Jerome, are alike ignorant of the fact.

Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

But as it is written – This passage is quoted from Isa 64:4. It is not quoted literally; but the sense only is given. The words are found in the apocryphal books of Elijah; and Origen and Jerome supposed that Paul quoted from those books. But it is evident that Paul had in his eye the passage in Isaiah; and intended to apply it to his present purpose. These words are often applied by commentators and others to the future life, and are supposed by them to be descriptive of the state of the blessed there. But against the supposition that they refer directly to the future state, there are insuperable objections:

(1) The first is, that the passage in Isaiah has no such reference. In that place it is designed clearly to describe the blessedness of those who were admitted to the divine favor; who had communion with God; and to whom God manifested himself as their friend. That blessedness is said to be superior to all that people elsewhere enjoy; to be such as could be found no where else but in God. See Isa 64:1, Isa 64:4-5, Isa 64:8. It is used there, as Paul uses it, to denote the happiness which results from the communication of the divine favor to the soul.

(2) The object of the apostle is not to describe the future state of the redeemed. It is to prove that those who are Christians have true wisdom 1Co 2:6-7; or that they have views of truth, and of the excellence of the plan of salvation which the world has not, and which those who crucified the Lord Jesus did not possess. The thing which he is describing here, is not merely the happiness of Christians, but their views of the wisdom of the plan of salvation. They have views of that which the eyes of other people have not seen; a view of wisdom, and fitness, and beauty which can be found in no other plan. It is true that this view is attended with a high degree of comfort; but the comfort is not the immediate thing in the eye of the apostle.

(3) The declaration in 1Co 2:10, is conclusive proof that Paul does not refer to the happiness of heaven. He there says that God has revealed these things to Christians by his Spirit. But if already revealed, assuredly it does not refer to that which is yet to come. But although this does not refer directly to heaven, there may be an application of the passage to a future state in an indirect manner, which is not improper. If there are such manifestations of wisdom in the plan here; if Christians see so much of its beauty here on earth; and if their views so far surpass all that the world sees and enjoys, how much greater and purer will be the manifestations of wisdom and goodness in the world of glory.

Eye hath not seen – This is the same as saying, that no one had ever fully perceived and understood the value and beauty of those things which God has prepared for his people. All the world had been strangers to this until God made a revelation to his people by his Spirit. The blessedness which the apostle referred to had been unknown alike to the Jews and the Gentiles.

Nor ear heard – We learn the existence and quality of objects by the external senses; and those senses are used to denote any acquisition of knowledge. To say that the eye had not seen, nor the ear heard, was, therefore, the same as saying that it was not known at all. All people had been ignorant of it.

Neither have entered into the heart of man – No man has conceived it; or understood it. It is new; and is above all that man has seen, and felt, and known.

The things which God hath prepared – The things which God has held in reserve (Bloomfield); that is, what God has appointed in the gospel for his people. The thing to which the apostle here refers particularly, is the wisdom which was revealed in the gospel; but he also intends, doubtless, to include all the provisions of mercy and happiness which the gospel makes known to the people of God. Those things relate to the pardon of sin; to the atonement, and to justification by faith; to the peace and joy which religion imparts; to the complete and final redemption from sin and death which the gospel is suited to produce, and which it will ultimately effect. In all these respects, the blessings which the gospel confers, surpass the full comprehension of people; and are infinitely beyond all that man could know or experience without the religion of Christ. And if on earth the gospel confers such blessings on its friends, how much higher and purer shall be the joys which it shalt bestow in heaven!

Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible

Verse 9. But, as it is written] The quotation is taken from Isa 64:4. The sense is continued here from verse seven, and , we speak, is understood-We do not speak or preach the wisdom of this world; but that mysterious wisdom of God, of which the prophet said: Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man the things which God has prepared for them that love him. These words have been applied to the state of glory in a future world; but they certainly belong to the present state, and express merely the wondrous light, life, and liberty which the Gospel communicates to them that believe in the Lord Jesus Christ in that way which the Gospel itself requires. To this the prophet himself refers; and it is evident, from the following verse, that the apostle also refers to the same thing. Such a scheme of salvation, in which God’s glory and man’s felicity should be equally secured, had never been seen, never heard of, nor could any mind but that of God have conceived the idea of so vast a project; nor could any power but his own have brought it to effect.

Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible

The place where this is written is by all agreed to be Isa 64:4, where the words are, For since the beginning of the world men have not heard, nor perceived by the ear, neither hath the eye seen, O God, beside thee, what he hath prepared for him that waiteth for him. It is so usual with the penmen of holy writ to quote the sense of texts in the Old Testament, not tying themselves to letters and syllables, that it is mightily vain for any to object against this quotation, as no where written in the Old Testament, but taken out of some apocryphal writings. The sense of what is written, Isa 64:4, is plainly the same with what he speaketh in this place; the greatest difference is, the apostle saith,

them that love him; the prophet, him that waiteth for him (which is the certain product and effect of love). The whole 64th chapter of Isaiah, {Isa 64:1-12} and some chapters following, treat concerning Christ; so doth this text. Christ and his benefits are to be understood here, by

the things which God hath prepared for them that love him; which are set out as things not obvious to sense, nor to be comprehended by reason. It could never have entered into the heart of men to conceive, that God should give his only begotten Son out of his own bosom, to take upon him our nature, and to die upon the cross; or, that Christ should so far humble himself, and become obedient unto death.

Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole

9. But(it has happened) as itis written.

Eye hath not seen,c.ALFORD translates,”The things which eye saw not . . . the things which Godprepared . . . to us God revealed through His Spirit.” Thus,however, the “but” of 1Co2:10 is ignored. Rather construe, as ESTIUS,”(‘We speak,’ supplied from 1Co2:8), things which eye saw not (heretofore), . . . things whichGod prepared . . . But God revealed them to us,” &c. Thequotation is not a verbatim one, but an inspired exposition ofthe “wisdom” (1Co 2:6,from Isa 64:4). The exceptivewords, “O God, beside (that is, except) Thee,” arenot quoted directly, but are virtually expressed in the exposition ofthem (1Co 2:10), “None butthou, O God, seest these mysteries, and God hath revealed themto us by His Spirit.”

enteredliterally,”come up into the heart.” A Hebraism (compare, Jer3:16, Margin). In Isa64:4 it is “Prepared (literally, ‘will do’) for him thatwaiteth for Him” here, “for them that loveHim.” For Isaiah spake to them who waited for Messiah’sappearance as future; Paul, to them who love Him as havingactually appeared (1Jo 4:19);compare 1Co 2:12, “thethings that are freely given to us of God”

Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible

But as it is written,…. Not in an apocryphal book, called the Apocalypse of Elijah the prophet, as some have thought, but in

Isa 64:4 with some variation; and is brought to prove that the Gospel is mysterious and hidden wisdom, unknown to the princes of this world, and ordained before the world was, for the glory of the saints: for the following words are not to be understood of the glories and happiness of the future state; though they are indeed invisible, unheard of, and inconceivable as to the excellency and fulness of them, and are what God has prepared from all eternity, for all those on whom he bestows his grace here; but of the doctrines of grace, and mysteries of the Gospel, as the context and the reason of their citation abundantly show; and are what

eye hath not seen, nor ear heard: which could never have been seen to be read by the eye of man, nor the sound thereof ever heard by the ear of man, had not God been pleased to make a revelation of them; and though they are to be seen and read in the sacred writings, and to be heard either read or expounded, with the outward hearing of the ear; yet are neither to be seen nor heard intellectually, spiritually, and savingly, unless, God gives eyes to see, and ears to hear; the exterior senses of seeing and hearing are not sufficient to come at and discover the sense of them; flesh and blood, human nature cannot search them out, nor reveal them, no nor the internal senses, the intellectual capacity of men:

neither have entered into the heart of man; this clause is not in the original text; but is a phrase often used by the Jews, for that which never came into a man’s mind, was never thought of by him, or he ever had any conceptions, or the least notion and idea of; so the elders of the city, at the beheading of the heifer, are represented not only as saying, “our hands have not shed this blood, neither have our eyes seen it”; but also neither , “hath it entered into our hearts”, that the sanhedrim hath shed blood y; and elsewhere z it is said, this matter is like to a king,

, “into whose heart it entered”, to plant in his garden, c.

The things which God hath prepared for them that love him in the original text it is, “for him that waiteth for him”; the sense is the same, for such as hope in the Lord and wait for him, are lovers of him; and the meaning is, that God has prepared and laid up in his own breast, in his counsels and covenant, in the types, shadows, and sacrifices of the old law, in the promises and prophecies of the Old Testament, such doctrines and mysteries of grace as were not so seen, heard, known, and understood by the Old Testament prophets and saints; and has reserved for his people under the Gospel dispensation, the times of the Messiah, a more clear discovery of them: so the Jews themselves own that these words belong to the world to come a, which with them commonly signifies the days of the Messiah; though here they think fit to distinguish them, and interpret the phrase, “eye hath not seen”, of the eye of the prophets: their words are these b;

“all prophesied not, but of the days of the Messiah; but as to the world to come, eye hath not seen, O God, besides thee.”

The gloss on it is,

“the eye of the prophets hath not been able to see it.”

Indeed, the mysteries of the Gospel are more clearly discerned now, than by the prophets formerly.

y T. Bab. Sota, fol. 46. 2. z Sepher Bahir in Zohar in Gen. fol. 31. 1. a Zohar in Exod. fol. 64. 4. & 67. 2. b T. Bab. Beracot, fol. 34. 2. Sabbat, fol, 63. 1. Sanhedrin, fol. 99. 1. Maimon. in Misn. Sanhed. c. 11. sect. 1. & Hilch. Teshuva, c. 8. sect. 7. & Jarchi in Isa. lxiv. 4.

Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible

But as it is written ( ). Elliptical sentence like Rom 15:3 where (it has happened) can be supplied. It is not certain where Paul derives this quotation as Scripture. Origen thought it a quotation from the Apocalypse of Elias and Jerome finds it also in the Ascension of Isaiah. But these books appear to be post-Pauline, and Jerome denies that Paul obtained it from these late apocryphal books. Clement of Rome finds it in the LXX text of Isa 64:4 and cites it as a Christian saying. It is likely that Paul here combines freely Isa 64:4; Isa 65:17; Isa 52:15 in a sort of catena or free chain of quotations as he does in Ro 3:10-18. There is also an anacoluthon for (which things) occurs as the direct object (accusative) with (saw) and (heard), but as the subject (nominative) with (entered, second aorist active indicative of , to go up).

Whatsoever (). A climax to the preceding relative clause (Findlay).

Prepared (). First aorist active indicative of . The only instance where Paul uses this verb of God, though it occurs of final glory (Luke 2:31; Matt 20:23; Matt 25:34; Mark 10:40; Heb 11:16) and of final misery (Mt 25:41). But here undoubtedly the dominant idea is the present blessing to these who love God (1Co 1:5-7).

Heart () here as in Ro 1:21 is more than emotion. The Gnostics used this passage to support their teaching of esoteric doctrine as Hegesippus shows. Lightfoot thinks that probably the apocryphal Ascension of Isaiah and Apocalypse of Elias were Gnostic and so quoted this passage of Paul to support their position. But the next verse shows that Paul uses it of what is now

revealed and made plain, not of mysteries still unknown.

Fuente: Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New Testament

Eye hath not seen, etc. From Isa 64:4, freely rendered by Septuagint. The Hebrew reads : “From of old men have not heard, not perceived with the ear, eye has not seen a God beside Thee who does (gloriously) for him who waits on Him.” Septuagint, “From of old we have not heard, nor have our eyes seen a God beside Thee, and Thy works which Thou wilt do for those who wait for mercy.” Paul takes only the general idea from the Old – Testament passage. The words are not to be limited to future blessings in heaven. They are true of the present. Have entered [] . Lit., went up. See on Act 7:23. Compare Dan 2:29, Sept.

Heart [] . See on Rom 1:21.

Fuente: Vincent’s Word Studies in the New Testament

1) “But as it is written”. (Greek alla Kathos gegraptai). “But (strong adversative) “even as it is having been written.” This alludes to God’s provision in physical and spiritual matters for His children, from the beginning of the world, Isa 64:9.

2) “Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard.” These are two of man’s most comprehensive media of learning, through visual and audio contact. Thru these media the Devil subtly beguiled Eve, Gen 3:1-7. In like manner just Lot was ensnared by sin, 2Pe 2:7-8. Yet, these media may glorify God, 1Jn 1:1-4.

3) “Neither have entered into the heart of man.” (Greek kai epi kardian) “and upon (the) heart of affections.” (anthropou ouk anebe) “of man came not up” (or has not entered to impress).

4) “The things which God hat h prepared.” (hosa hetoimasen ho theos) “how many (things) God has prepared or made ready”. Tho man can not comprehend it, God is an exceeding “pre-provider” for those who love and serve Him. Joh 14:1; Of this Jesus promised and Paul wrote Eph 3:20.

5) “For them that love him.” (Greek tois agaposin). “For the ones loving Him.” The Lord not only prepares a place beyond present audio, visual, and affectionate comprehension of His loving one; but He also has rewards untold, awaiting them for their services, matters that the wisdom of this world can not grasp. Luk 6:35; 1Co 3:8; 2Jn 1:8; Rev 11:18; Rev 22:12.

Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary

9. As it is written, “What eye hath not seen.” All are agreed that this passage is taken from Isa 64:4, and as the meaning is at first view plain and easy, interpreters do not give themselves much trouble in expounding it. On looking, however, more narrowly into it, two very great difficulties present themselves. The first is, that the words that are here quoted by Paul do not correspond with the words of the Prophet. The second is, that it seems as though Paul had perverted the Prophet’s declaration to a purpose quite foreign to his design.

First then as to the words; and as they may be taken in different senses, they are explained variously by interpreters. Some render the passage thus: “From the beginning of the world men have not heard, nor perceived with their ears, and eye hath not seen any god beside Thee, who doth act in such a manner towards him that waiteth for him.” Others understand the discourse as addressed to God, in this manner: “Eye hath not seen, nor hath ear heard, O God, besides thee, the things which thou dost for those that wait for thee.” Literally, however, the Prophet’s meaning is: “From the beginning of the world men have not heard, nor have they perceived with the ears, hath not seen a god, (or O God,) besides thee, will do (or will prepare) for him that waiteth for him.” If we understand אלהים (God) to be in the accusative, the relative who must be supplied. This exposition, too, appears, at first view, to suit better with the Prophet’s context in respect of the verb that follows being used in the third person; (118) but it is farther removed from Paul’s meaning, on which we ought to place more dependence than on any other consideration. For where shall we find a surer or more faithful interpreter than the Spirit of God of this authoritative declaration, which He himself dictated to Isaiah — in the exposition which He has furnished by the mouth of Paul. With the view of obviating, however, the calumnies of the wicked, I observe that the Hebrew idiom admits of our understanding the Prophets true meaning to be this: “O God, neither hath eye seen, nor hath ear heard: but thou alone knowest the things which thou art wont to do to those that wait for thee.” The sudden change of person forms no objection, as we know that it is so common in the writings of the Prophets, that it needs not be any hindrance in our way. If any one, however, prefers the former interpretation, he will have no occasion for charging either us or the Apostle with departing from the simple meaning of the words, for we supply less than they do, as they are under the necessity of adding a mark of comparison to the verb, rendering it thus: “ who doth act in such a manner. ”

As to what follows respecting the entering of these things into the heart of man, though the expression is not made use of by the Prophet, it does not differ materially from the clause besides thee For in ascribing this knowledge to God alone, he excludes from it not merely the bodily senses of men, but also the entire faculty of the understanding. While, therefore, the Prophet makes mention only of sight and hearing, he includes at the same time by implication all the faculties of the soul. And without doubt these are the two instruments by which we attain the knowledge of those things that find their way into the understanding. In using the expression them that love him, he has followed the Greek interpreters, who have translated it in this way from having been misled by the resemblance between one letter and another; (119) but as that did not affect the point in hand, he did not choose to depart from the common reading, as we frequently have occasion to observe how closely he follows the received version. Though the words, therefore, are not the same, there is no real difference of meaning.

I come now to the subject-matter. The Prophet in that passage, when mentioning how signally God had on all occasions befriended his people in their emergencies, exclaims, that his acts of kindness to the pious surpass the comprehension of human intellect. “But what has this to do,” some one will say, “with spiritual doctrine, and the promises of eternal life, as to which Paul is here arguing?” There are three ways in which this question may be answered. There were no inconsistency in affirming that the Prophet, having made mention of earthly blessings, was in consequence of this led on to make a general statement, and even to extol that spiritual blessedness which is laid up in heaven for believers. I prefer, however, to understand him simply as referring to those gifts of God’s grace that are daily conferred upon believers. In these it becomes us always to observe their source, and not to confine our views to their present aspect. Now their source is that unmerited goodness of God, by which he has adopted us into the number of his sons. He, therefore, who would estimate these things aright, will not contemplate them in their naked aspect, but will clothe them with God’s fatherly love, as with a robe, and will thus be led forward from temporal favors to eternal life. It might also be maintained that the argument is from the less to the greater; for if man’s intellect is not competent to measure God’s earthly gifts, how much less will it reach the height of heaven? (Joh 3:12.) I have, however, already intimated which interpretation I prefer.

(118) “ Assauoir, Fera, or Preparera;” — “Namely — He will do, or He will prepare.”

(119) The word made use of by Isaiah is מחכה, which is a part of the verb חכה, to wait for, and Calvin’s meaning most probably is, that the “Greek interpreters had (from the resemblance between ב and כ) been led into the mistake of supposing it to be a part of the verb חבב, to love, while the corresponding part of the latter verb — מחובב, manifestly differs very widely from the word made use of by the Prophet. There appears, how ever, to have been an oversight, in this instance, on the part of Calvin, as the word in the Septuagint version is not the word made use of by the Apostle — ἀγαπῶσιν, “them that love” (him,) but (corresponding to the word made use of bythe Prophet ὑπομένουσιν, “them that wait for” (him.) It is not a little singular, that Clemens Romanus (Ep. ad Cor. Sect. 34.) quotes the words of Isaiah precisely as Paul quotes them, with the exception of the last clause, which he gives as follows: ὅσα ἡτοιμασε τοις ὑπομένουσιν αὐτὸν — “which he hath prepared for them that wait for him.” Some have supposed the citation to have been taken from one or other of the two Apocryphal books, entitled, “The Ascension of Esaiah,” and “The Apocalyps of Elias,” in both of which this passage was found, but, as is justly observed by Horne in his Introduction (volume 2,) “it is so near to the Hebrew here both in sense and words, that we cannot suppose it to be taken from any other source, nor in this case would the Apostle have introduced it with the formula of quotation — as it is written. ” In accordance with Calvln’s remark, that “though the words are not the same, there is no real difference of meaning,” it is well observed by Poole in his Annotations, that “waiting for ” God is “the certain product and effect of love to him. ” — Ed

Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary

(9) As it is written.Where do the words which follow occur? They are not to be found as here given anywhere in the Old Testament. It has therefore been suggested (Origen) that they are from some apocryphal book, or some book which has been lost, as is supposed many have been. Chrysostom also suggests that it may be a reference, not to a writing, but to historical facts, as in Mat. 2:23. None of these explanations would justify the use of that phrase, it is written, with which these words are introduced, and which in the apostolic writings is confined to quotations from the Old Testament scriptures. It is not used where the words are taken from other sources (see, e.g., Jud. 1:9; Jud. 1:14). Although the words given here are not to be found in the same sequence in any passage in the Old Testament, still there are phrases scattered through the writings of Isaiah (see Isa. 64:4; Isa. 65:17; see also Isa 62:15 in the LXX.), which would easily be joined together in memory and resemble even verbally the passage as written here by the Apostle. This is not the only place in which St. Paul would seem to thus refer to the Old Testament scriptures (see 1Co. 1:19-20) when he is not basing any argument upon a particular sentence in the Scriptures, but merely availing himself of some thoughts or words in the Old Testament as an illustration of some truth which he is enforcing.

Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)

9. Written Isa 64:4 paraphrased by Paul, and adapted to his purpose. The words, of course, describe not the future happiness of the redeemed in heaven, but their present.

Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

‘But as it is written, “Things which eye saw not, and ear heard not, and which did not enter into the heart of man, whatever things (those refer to) God prepared for those who love him”.’

He declares that Scripture reveals that what he has been describing is beyond human comprehension. It is describing what man could neither see, nor hear, nor know within. It therefore results in something that is naturally outside man’s ability to understand. Yet it speaks of what God has prepared for those who love Him. And he goes on to say that it is revealed by God’s own Spirit coming to man’s spirit, if they receive Him, and making all supernaturally known.

‘As it is written.’ Again Paul intends to reinforce his argument from the authoritative word of God.

The verse in mind is Isa 64:4 possibly amplified by Isa 65:16 c (LXX). Isa 64:4 reads in the Hebrew, ‘From of old men have not heard, nor perceived by the ear, neither has the eye seen, a God beside you Who works for those who wait for Him.’ In LXX it reads, ‘From of old we have not heard, nor have our eyes seen a God beside you, and your works which you will perform for those who wait for mercy’. Isa 65:16 c LXX reads ‘neither shall they at all come into their mind’ (Hebrew ‘nor come into mind’).

As regularly (compare 1Co 1:19; 1Co 1:31) Paul may well be making a deliberate paraphrase in order to specifically apply the verse or verses (compare the same method in Mar 1:2-3) to the situation, for the point he is bringing out is that God has done a new thing for His own which is beyond anything man has known or seen, He is working for them in a new way, just as He promised in the days of Isaiah. The change from ‘wait for Him’ to ‘love Him’ is in part simply a change of emphasis, for those who wait for Him are those who love Him, and in part a declaration that there has been a moving forward. They no longer wait lovingly but love Him because He has acted, because of what He has done in the cross. Paul is concerned that there be a full response to the significance of the cross. To Paul Christians are those who supremely love God (Rom 8:28).

Origen suggested that this actual wording was as found in the Apocalypse of Elijah, but that is unknown to us and it may well be that that apocalyptic writing as known to Origen was quoting from Paul, just as Clement of Rome may have had Paul’s quotation in mind when he writes ‘For [the Scripture] says, “Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which He has prepared for them that wait for Him”.’ Alternately some have suggested that they all obtained it from a jointly known source such as a Jewish/apocalyptic collection of verses not known to us. (Exact quotation was more difficult in those days due to shortage of manuscripts and the difficulty in consulting them, and anthologies would often be used, just as we use different versions).

But the significance of the words is the same. What God will do is beyond what man has ever known, for God will act on behalf of those who love Him, who trust Him, who wait for Him, in a way beyond telling.

Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett

This Message Is Revealed To Men by the One Holy Spirit Enlightening the Mind and Heart (2:9-16).

1Co 2:9-10 are connecting verses. They confirm what has been said about the wonder of what God has done, and lead in to Paul’s explanation of how God brings it home to men.

Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett

1Co 2:9 . ] but , antithesis to . . . .

The passage of Scripture , which Paul now adduces, is to be translated: “ What an eye hath not seen, nor an ear heard, and (what) hath not risen into the heart of a man , (namely:) all that God hath prepared for them that love Him .” In the connection of our passage these words are still dependent upon . Paul, that is to say, instead of affirming something further of the wisdom itself , and so continuing with another (which none of the rulers have known, but which ), describes now the mysterious contents of this wisdom, and expresses himself accordingly in the neuter form (by ), to which he was induced in the flow of his discourse by the similar form of the language of Scripture which floated before his mind. The construction therefore is not anacoluthic (Rckert hesitatingly; de Wette and Osiander, both of whom hold that it loses itself in the conception of the mysteries referred to); neither is it to be supplemented by (Theophylact, Grotius). The connection with 1Co 2:10 , adopted by Lachmann (in his ed. min [373] ), and in my first and second editions, and again resorted to by Hofmann: what no eye has seen , etc., God, on the other hand ( , see on 1Co 1:23 ), has revealed to us , etc., is not sufficiently simple, mars the symmetry of the discourse, and is finally set aside by the consideration that, since the quotation manifestly does not go beyond , logically would need to stand, not before , but after , because in reality this , and not the , would introduce the object of .

.] Chrysostom and Theophylact are in doubt as to what passage is meant, whether a lost prophecy (so Theodoret), or Isa 52:15 . Origen, again, and other Fathers (Fabricius, a [374] Cod. Apocr. N. T. p. 342; Pseudepigr. N. T. I. p. 1072; Lcke, Einleit. z. Offenb. I. p. 235), with whom Schrader and Ewald agree, assume, amidst vehement opposition on the part of Jerome, that the citation is from the Revelation of Elias , in which Zacharias of Chrysopolis avers ( Harmonia Evang. p. 343) that he himself had actually read the words. Grotius regards them as “ e scriptis Rabbinorum , qui ea habuerunt ex traditione vetere.” Most interpreters, however, including Osiander and Hofmann, agree with Jerome (on Isa 64 and a [375] Pammach. epist. ci.) in finding here a free quotation from Isa 64:4 (some holding that there is, besides, a reference to Isa 52:15 , Isa 65:17 ); see especially Surenhusius, . p. 526 ff., also Riggenbach in the Stud. u. Krit. 1855, p. 596 f. But the difference in sense not to be got over by forced and artificial interpretation of the passage in Isaiah (see especially Hofmann) and the dissimilarity in expression are too great, hardly presenting even faint resemblances; which is never elsewhere the case with Paul, however freely he may make his quotations. There seems, therefore, to remain no other escape from the difficulty than to give credit to the assertion however much repugnance may have been shown to it in a dogmatic interest from Jerome downwards made by Origen and others, that the words were from the Apocalypsis Eliae . So, too, Bleek in the Stud. u. Krit. 1853, p. 330. But since it is only passages from the canonical Scriptures that are ever cited by Paul with ., we must at the same time assume that he intended to do so here also, but by some confusion of memory took the apocryphal saying for a canonical passage possibly from the prophecies , to which the passages of kindred sound in Isaiah might easily give occasion. Comp also Weiss, biblische Theol. p. 298.

. . [377] ] For similar designations in the classics and Rabbins of what cannot be apprehended by the senses or intellect, see Wetstein and Lightfoot, Horae , p. 162. Comp Empedocles in Plutarch, Mor. p. 17 E: , , . With respect to . ., , to rise up to the heart , that is, become a consciously apprehended object of feeling and thought, so that the thing enters as a conception into the sphere of activity of the inner life, comp on Act 7:23 .

. ] i.e. in the apostle’s view: for the true Christians . [380] See on Rom 8:28 . What God has prepared for them is the salvation of the Messianic kingdom. Comp Mat 25:34 . Constitt. Apost. vii. 32. 2 : , . . [382]

[373] in. codices minusculi , manuscripts in cursive writing. Where these are individually quoted, they are marked by the usual Arabic numerals, as 33, 89.

[374] d refers to the note of the commentator or editor named on the particular passage.

[375] d refers to the note of the commentator or editor named on the particular passage.

[377] . . . .

[380] Clement, ad Cor. I. 34, in quoting this same passage (with his usual formula for scriptural quotations, ), has here , remembering perhaps Isa 64:4 in the LXX. Clement also, there can be no doubt, held the passage to be canonical, which is explained, however, by the fact of his being acquainted with our Epistle. The Constitt. apost. too, vii. 32. 2, have . The so-called second Epistle of Clement, chap. 11, has the passage only as far as .

[382] . . . .

Fuente: Heinrich August Wilhelm Meyer’s New Testament Commentary

DISCOURSE: 1939
THE GOSPEL A STUPENDOUS MYSTERY

1Co 2:9-10. It is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him. But God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit.

THE former part of this passage is generally quoted as relating to the eternal world. But, if the latter part be taken in connexion with it, as it ought to be, the sense is evidently determined to those things which were revealed by the Spirit to the Apostles of Christ. And it is in this sense that the words were originally used in the place from whence they are cited. They are part of a prayer, which the Jews, as soon as they shall begin to embrace the Gospel, will pour out before God in behalf of their afflicted nation; entreating him to interpose in their behalf, as powerfully as he formerly did when he brought them out of the land of Egypt; and to make known to them those great and glorious truths of which hitherto they have never had any just conception [Note: Isa 64:4. The prayer begins at Isa 63:15 and continues to the end of the sixty-fourth chapter.]. To the same purpose the Apostle cites them in our text. He is speaking of the Gospel as foolishness indeed to the natural man, but as in reality the most stupendous display of the Divine wisdom; such as had never before been seen, or heard, or thought of, from the foundation of the world [Note: ver. 68.]; and such as, if previously known to those who crucified our Lord, would have effectually deterred them from executing in that respect the eternal counsels of the Deity.

Confining then our views of the passage to what is revealed in the Gospel, we will shew,

How infinitely superior the Gospel is to any thing that reason ever devised

Reason has certainly evinced great powers in relation to things natural and temporal
[It has penetrated far into the regions of science. It has comprehended within its grasp the whole extent of that field which was laid open to the mind of Solomon; and has arranged according to their nature and properties all parts of the animal and vegetable creation, from the cedar of Lebanon to the hyssop that springeth out of the wall, together with all the different orders of beasts, and fowl, and fishes of the sea [Note: 1Ki 4:33.]. Nay, it has soared beyond this terraqueous globe, even to the starry heavens; and has found out the magnitude and distances and courses of the heavenly bodies, together with the laws by which they move in their respective orbits. It has in these and many other respects carried its researches far beyond the limits which nature appeared to have assigned to it, and has raised man far higher in the scale of creation than by his contracted powers he seemed destined to stand.]

But it has made little progress in relation to things spiritual and eternal
[Man with, all his powers was not able to find out God. Not even the unity of the Godhead was discovered by him; much less were his great and glorious perfections. The wisest philosophers spake on these subjects with much uncertainty and inconsistency. As for any way of reconciliation with God, consistently with the Divine perfections, not so much as a thought of it ever entered into the mind of man, till it was revealed to man by the Spirit of God: it was far out of the reach of human reason to declare, how God should be just, and yet the justifier of sinful men. Even a future state of existence was rather guessed at than fully ascertained; and the nature of that state was wholly unknown:so true is it, in reference to the whole circle of divine knowledge, that man by wisdom knew not God [Note: 1Co 1:21.].

Thus, when we compare the knowledge which we enjoy under the Gospel with the discoveries of uninspired men, we are constrained to say, that they are as wide asunder as light is from darkness, and heaven from hell.]
But, to form a correct estimate of the Gospel, we should see,

II.

How far superior it is to any thing that men had a conception of under the Jewish dispensation

God did reveal himself to Moses: but his views of God were very partial and indistinct: he saw only, as we are told, his back parts [Note: Exo 33:23.]. As far as he, and David, and Isaiah had a cleaver insight into the great mystery of redemption than others, they received it rather by special inspiration, than from the notices given of it in the Mosaic law: the Jews as a people had very indistinct notions on the whole subject of religion.

Their views of God himself were very dark

[To them he appeared rather as a Sovereign than as a Father; and as a Sovereign of their own nation only, and not the Father of the whole human race. They beheld him rather in the terrific aspect of his majesty, than in the endearing attribute of mercy.]

They knew but little of the way of acceptance with him

[They had sacrifices, it is true, but such as could give no peace to a wounded conscience. The very necessity of repeating the same sacrifices from year to year, clearly shewed to them, that their past sins were not fully expiated or blotted out. The sacrifices, in this view, were rather remembrances of sin, than real expiations of it. For some sins, as murder and adultery, no sacrifice whatever was appointed: and for these therefore there was no well-grounded hope of pardon. All that they were assured of, in any case, was, rather an exemption from punishment by the civil magistrate, than an everlasting remission of their sins by God himself: so dark, even in this respect, was the dispensation under which they lived.]

The real blessedness of his people could not be duly estimated by them

[They possessed indeed many privileges above the heathen; but yet they were kept at an awful distance from God. The people at large could not enter into the court of the more privileged orders, the priests and Levites: nor could any but the high-priest alone enter into the most holy place; and he only on one day in the year, and in the way that was particularly prescribed. Their services consisted altogether in burthensome rites and ceremonies, which, instead of calling forth a sublime exercise of spiritual devotion, were a yoke which none of them were able to bear. They went in and out before God as servants actuated by fear, and not as children under the influence of love.]

Not even the future state of rewards and punishments was clearly known to them

[Some light indeed was thrown upon the eternal world; but it was faint and glimmering. Little was seen throughout the Mosaic writings but a prospect of temporal rewards and punishments, of an enjoyment of Canaan with much earthly felicity, or of an ejection from it with the attendant miseries of captivity and bondage.
Thus the whole of the Jewish state was at best only as an intermediate state between the darkness of heathenism and the light of the Gospel: it was as the early dawn to usher in the brighter day.]
To elucidate the infinite superiority of the Gospel, we must proceed to shew,

III.

How full and rich a manifestation of it we enjoy

The darkness is now passed, and the true light now shineth [Note: 2 John, ver. 8.];

God himself is now fully revealed to us

[We see not only his unity, but his subsistence in Three Persons, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost; all in glory equal, and in majesty co-eternal. All his perfections also have been made, as it were, to shine both in their separate, and united, splendour before our eyes;justice harmonizing with mercy, and righteousness combining with truth, in the salvation of fallen man: yea, justice glorified in the way of mercy, and mercy in the way of justice, and truth and righteousness in all. Yes verily, the whole glory of the Godhead now shines before us in the face of Jesus Christ [Note: 2Co 4:6.].]

The mysterious plan of redemption also is now fully opened

[We are introduced, if we may so speak, to the eternal counsels of the Deity, wherein the Father gave to his Son a people to be redeemed, and the Son undertook to lay down his life for them. In the fulness of time we behold the eternal Son of God laying aside that glory which he had with the Father before the worlds were made; and taking upon him our nature, on purpose that in the nature which had sinned he might suffer the curse that was due to sin. We behold him fulfilling the perfect law of God for us, that we may have his perfect righteousness imputed to us, and at the same time expiating our guilt by his own sufferings on the cross. We see him further rising from the dead, and ascending up to heaven, to carry on there the work he had begun on earth; to be the continual Intercessor for his people, and, as their living Head, to supply them with all that their necessities require. And, finally, we behold him coming again to judge the world, and to assign to his friends, and to his enemies, the portion prepared for them; and then, having completed the whole work of redemption to the uttermost, surrendering up the kingdom into the Fathers hands, that God may be all in all.
How amazing is all this! how infinitely beyond all that human eye ever saw, or ear heard, or heart conceived!]

The felicity of Gods people is now also plainly declared

[Perfect peace is now to be enjoyed by all who believe in Christ. No doubt rests upon the mind respecting the fulness and sufficiency of his atonement: it is known to be a sufficient propitiation for the sins of the whole world. Now every believer has free access into the holiest of all, to behold God himself upon his mercy-seat, and to present before him his sacrifices of prayer and praise. Every saint now regards God as his Father, and with a filial confidence goes in and out before him, assured that every thing both in heaven and earth shall be ordered with an immediate view to his good, as much as if there were not another creature in the universe. And lastly, he looks up to the more immediate residence of Jehovah, assured that a crown and a kingdom are prepared for him, even a participation of the Redeemers glory, and an everlasting fruition of God himself.
Say, Did ever any child of man, even among the Jews, foresee such things as these? Did even the highest archangel ever form any adequate conception of them, before they were revealed to the Christian Church? No: they were hid from angels, as well as men [Note: This is particularly marked in the passage as it stands in Isaiah; None, O God, besides thee. Isa 64:4.]; and the angels are made wiser by the revelation of them to the Church [Note: Eph 3:9-10.]. But to us they are now revealed: they are revealed to us in the written word; and they are revealed in us by the mighty power of the Spirit taking the veil from our hearts, and giving to us a spiritual discernment [Note: 1Co 2:12; 1Co 2:14.]: and we are authorized to declare, that the most ignorant of true believers at this day is greater than all the prophets, not excepting the Baptist himself, who personally knew Christ, and pointed him out as the Lamb of God who should take away the sins of the world [Note: Mat 11:11.].]

Improvement
1.

How inexcusable are they who inquire not into these things!

[Has God in his infinite mercy revealed such things to us, and shall we pay no attention to them? Shall we treat them as if they were no other than a cunningly-devised fable? Shall the angels in heaven be desiring to look into them [Note: 1Pe 1:12.], and we be unconcerned about them? O, brethren, what account shall we give of ourselves to the Lord Jesus Christ, if, when he says to us, Search the Scriptures, for they testify of me, we prefer every other book before them, and either neglect the Bible altogether, or read it only as a formal exercise? Surely our study should be in it day and night, and it should be sweeter to us than honey, or the honey-comb.]

How blind must we be, if we see no glory in them!

[What! see nothing wonderful in an incarnate God! Nothing wonderful in God dying in the place of his own rebellious creatures! Nothing wonderful in our being brought by these means into union and communion with God, and an everlasting participation of his glory in the world to come! If these things be not wonderful, tell me any thing that is. You would be filled with utter astonishment, if a fellow-creature were to tell you some of the phenomena of nature; and are you not when God tells you all the wonders of his grace? If these things produce no admiring and adoring thoughts in your hearts, know assuredly that the God of this world hath blinded your eyes, and that you are in darkness even until now. Were you of the happy number of the Lords people, it would have been given you to behold the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven: but if you see them not, it is because ye are not of God.]

How ungrateful are they who do not endeavour to walk worthy of them!

[These things are revealed, not as matters of speculation, but as means of happiness, and as incentives to holiness of life. Do but think what manner of persons ye ought to be in all holy conversation and godliness; ye, I say, for whom such things have been done, and to whom they have been revealed! But it will be well for you to attend to that expression in our text, that God hath prepared these things for them that love him. True, in the first instance it is for his enemies: but they do not remain his enemies; on the contrary, they love him, and serve him, and wait for him [Note: Compare the passage as it stands in Isaiah, with the same as cited by Paul.]: and verily, if, after you have been enlightened by the Spirit of God, and been enabled to behold all these wonders of love and mercy, you do not devote yourselves wholly to the Lord, you shew that you have no part or lot in this matter. You may have believed, like Simon Magus; but like Simon Magus you shall perish: for know assuredly, that, if ye be Christs, ye will crucify the flesh with the affections and lusts, and will glorify God with your body and your spirit, which are his [Note: If this be the subject of a Mission Sermon, the duty of diffusing over the face of the whole earth these glorious truths may here be pressed to great advantage.].]

Fuente: Charles Simeon’s Horae Homileticae (Old and New Testaments)

9 But as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him.

Ver. 9. Eye hath not seen, &c. ] It is reported of one Adrianus, that seeing the martyrs suffer such grievous things, he asked the cause; one of them answered, “Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things that God hath prepared for them that love him.” The naming of which text so wrought upon him that afterward he became a martyr.

The things which God hath prepared ] As he prepared Paradise for Adam, so heaven for all his. Yet he reserves not all for the life to come, but gives a few grapes of Canaan in this wilderness. And so this text is to be understood of gospel joy and those present comforts that the saints have here, that praemium ante praemium; for not only after, but in the doing of God’s will there is great reward,Psa 19:11Psa 19:11 , such as natural eye hath not seen nor ear heard: the stranger meddleth not with this joy; it is the sparkle of that white stone, it is that new name known to none but those that have it; it is a comfort confined to the communion of saints.

Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)

9 f.] But (opposition to 1Co 2:8 ) as it is written, The things which eye saw not, and ear heard not, and which came not up (reff.) upon heart of man, how many things God prepared for them that love Him, to us God revealed through His Spirit . There is no anacoluthon (as De W.) nor irregularity of construction, as some suppose, supplying after , (Estius, &c.) or (Theophyl., Grot., al.); the in the consequent clause after in the antecedent, which has occasioned these suppositions, is by no means unexampled; so Herod. iii. 37, , , and Soph. Philoct. 86, , , . See Hartung, Partikellehre, i. 184 f.

Whence is the citation made? Origen says, ‘In nullo regular libro invenitur, nisi in secretis Eli prophet,’ a lost apocryphal book: Chrys., Theophyl., give the alternative, either that the words are a paraphrase of Isa 52:15 , , . , or that they were contained in some lost book, of which Chrys. argues that there were very many, , . Jerome, Ep. lvii. (ci.), ad Pammachium, de optimo genere interpretandi, 9, vol. i. p. 314, says, “Solent in hoc loco apocryphorum quidam deliramenta sectari, et dicere quod de Apocalypsi Heli testimonium sumptum sit: cum in Esaia juxta Hebraicum ita legatur: A seculo non audierunt, nec auribus perceperunt, oculus non vidit, Deus, absque te, qu prparas tu expectantibus te. Hoc LXX multo aliter transtulerunt: A seculo non audivimus, neque oculi nostri viderunt Deum absque te: et opera tua vera, et facies expectantibus te misericordiam. Intelligimus, unde sumptum sit testimonium: et tamen Apostolus non verbum expressit e verbo, sed eundem sensum aliis sermonibus indicavit.” I own that probability seems to me to incline to Jerome’s view, especially when we remember, how freely St. Paul is in the habit of citing. The words of Isa 64:4 , are quite as near to the general sense of the citation as is the case in many other instances, and the words may well be a reminiscence from Isa 65:17 , not far from the other place, . Such minglings together of clauses from various parts are not unexampled with the Apostle, especially when, as here, he is not citing as authority , but merely illustrating his argument by O. T. expressions .

Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament

1Co 2:9 confirms by the language of Scripture ( ) what has just been said. The verse is open to three different constructions: (1) It seems best to treat the relatives, , , as in apposition to the foregoing clauses of 1Co 2:7-8 (the form of the pronoun being dictated by the LXX original), and thus supplying a further obj [356] to the emphatically repeated of 1Co 2:6-7 : “but (we speak), as it is written, things which eye,” etc. (so Er [357] , Mr [358] , Hn [359] , Al [360] , Ed [361] , El [362] , Bt [363] ). (2) Hf [364] , Ev [365] , after Lachmann, prefix the whole sentence to of 1Co 2:10 ; but this subordination requires the doubtful reading (for ) in 1Co 2:10 , to which it improperly extends the ref [366] of the formula , while it breaks the continuity between the quotation and the foregoing assertions ( cf. 1Co 1:19 ; 1Co 1:31 ). (3) Bg [367] , D.W [368] , Gd [369] , Lt [370] , and others, see an anacoluthon here, and supply , factum est , or the like, as a peg for the ver. to hang upon, as in Rom 15:3 “But, as it is written, (there have come to pass) things which eye,” etc. This, however, seems needless after the prominent , and weakens the concatenation of 1Co 2:6-9 . The follows on the of 1Co 2:8 , as in 1Co 2:7 (see note) on the of 1Co 2:6 . The entire sentence may be thus arranged:

[356] grammatical object.

[357] Erasmus’ In N.T. Annotationes .

[358] Meyer’s Critical and Exegetical Commentary (Eng. Trans.).

[359] C. F. G. Heinrici’s Erklrung der Korintherbriefe (1880), or 1 Korinther in Meyer’s krit.-exegetisches Kommentar (1896).

[360] Alford’s Greek Testament .

[361] T. C. Edwards’ Commentary on the First Ep. to the Corinthians . 2

[362] C. J. Ellicott’s St. Paul’s First Epistle to the Corinthians .

[363] J. A. Beet’s St. Paul’s Epp. to the Corinthians (1882).

[364] J. C. K. von Hofmann’s Die heilige Schrift N.T. untersucht , ii. 2 (2te Auflage, 1874).

[365] T. S. Evans in Speaker’s Commentary .

[366] reference.

[367] Bengel’s Gnomon Novi Testamenti.

[368] .W. De Wette’s Handbuch z. N. T.

[369] F. Godet’s Commentaire sur la prem. p. aux Corinthiens (Eng. Trans.).

[370] J. B. Lightfoot’s (posthumous) Notes on Epp. of St. Paul (1895).

. ,

. . .,

. . . .

. .

The words cited do not appear, connectedly, in the O.T. Of the four clauses, the 1James , 2 nd, and 4th recall Isa 64:4 f. (Hebrews , Isa 64:3 f.) after the Hebrew text; the 3rd occurs in a similar strain in Isa 65:17 (LXX, 16); see other parls. In thought , as Hf [371] and Bt [372] point out, this passage corresponds to Isaiah 64 : in P. God does, as in Isaiah He is besought to do, things unlooked for by the world, to the confusion of its unbelief; in each case these things are done for fit persons Isaiah’s “him that waiteth for Him,” etc., being translated into Paul’s “those that love Him”; is changed to , in conformity with (1Co 2:7 ). A further analogy appears between the “terrible things in righteousness” which the prophet foresees in the coming theophany, and the that P. announces for “the rulers of this world”. Clement of Rome ( ad Cor [373] , xxxiv. 8) cites the text briefly as a Christian saying, but reverts from Paul’s . to the Isaianic . , manifestly identifying the O. and N.T. sayings.

[371] J. C. K. von Hofmann’s Die heilige Schrift N.T. untersucht , ii. 2 (2te Auflage, 1874).

[372] J. A. Beet’s St. Paul’s Epp. to the Corinthians (1882).

[373] Corinth, Corinthian or Corinthians.

Or [374] wrote (on Mat 27:9 ), “In nullo regulari libro hoc positum invenitur, nisi in Secretis Eli prophet ” a lost Apocryphum; Jerome found the words both in the Ascension of Isaiah and the Apocalypse of Elias , but denies Paul’s indebtedness to these sources; and Lt [375] makes out (see note, ad loc [376] ) that these books were later than Paul. Origen’s suggestion has been adopted by many expositors, but is really needless; this is only an extreme example of the Apostle’s freedom in adopting and combining O.T. sayings whose substance he desires to use. The Gnostics quoted the passage in favour of their method of esoteric teaching.

[374] Origen.

[375] J. B. Lightfoot’s (posthumous) Notes on Epp. of St. Paul (1895).

[376] ad locum , on this passage.

, of the last clause, is a climax to of the first “so many things as God prepared for those that love Him”: cf. a Cor. 1Co 1:20 , Phi 4:8 , for the pronominal idiom. In . . . Paul is not thinking so much of the heavenly glory (see note on , 1Co 2:7 ), as of the magnificence of blessing, undreamed of in former ages, which comes already to believers in Christ ( cf. 1Co 1:5-7 ). . . affirms the moral precondition for this full blessedness ( cf. Joh 14:23 ) a further designation of the , , , of chap. 1.

Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson

is = has been. The quotation is from Isa 64:4. App-107.

hath not seen = saw not. App-133.

nor ear heard = and ear heard not (Greek. ou).

neither have, &c. = and went not (Greek. ou) up.

into = upon. App-104.

hath. Omit.

love. App-135.

Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics

9 f.] But (opposition to 1Co 2:8) as it is written, The things which eye saw not, and ear heard not, and which came not up (reff.) upon heart of man, how many things God prepared for them that love Him, to us God revealed through His Spirit. There is no anacoluthon (as De W.) nor irregularity of construction, as some suppose, supplying after , (Estius, &c.) or (Theophyl., Grot., al.); the in the consequent clause after in the antecedent, which has occasioned these suppositions, is by no means unexampled;-so Herod. iii. 37, , ,-and Soph. Philoct. 86, , , . See Hartung, Partikellehre, i. 184 f.

Whence is the citation made? Origen says, In nullo regular libro invenitur, nisi in secretis Eli prophet, a lost apocryphal book:-Chrys., Theophyl., give the alternative, either that the words are a paraphrase of Isa 52:15, , . , or that they were contained in some lost book, of which Chrys. argues that there were very many,- , . Jerome, Ep. lvii. (ci.), ad Pammachium, de optimo genere interpretandi, 9, vol. i. p. 314, says, Solent in hoc loco apocryphorum quidam deliramenta sectari, et dicere quod de Apocalypsi Heli testimonium sumptum sit: cum in Esaia juxta Hebraicum ita legatur: A seculo non audierunt, nec auribus perceperunt, oculus non vidit, Deus, absque te, qu prparas tu expectantibus te. Hoc LXX multo aliter transtulerunt: A seculo non audivimus, neque oculi nostri viderunt Deum absque te: et opera tua vera, et facies expectantibus te misericordiam. Intelligimus, unde sumptum sit testimonium: et tamen Apostolus non verbum expressit e verbo, sed eundem sensum aliis sermonibus indicavit. I own that probability seems to me to incline to Jeromes view, especially when we remember, how freely St. Paul is in the habit of citing. The words of Isa 64:4, are quite as near to the general sense of the citation as is the case in many other instances, and the words may well be a reminiscence from Isa 65:17, not far from the other place, . Such minglings together of clauses from various parts are not unexampled with the Apostle, especially when, as here, he is not citing as authority, but merely illustrating his argument by O. T. expressions.

Fuente: The Greek Testament

1Co 2:9. , but) viz. it has happened, comp. Rom 15:3; Rom 15:21, and 1Co 1:31.-, as) He shows that the princes of the world knew not wisdom.- ) Isa 64:4, in the LXX., , , , . Since the beginning we have not heard, nor have our eyes seen any god besides Thee and Thy works, which Thou wilt do to them that wait for mercy.-, which) what eye hath not seen are those things, which God hath prepared.-, , the eye, the ear) of man.- ) neither have ascended [entered], that is, have not come into the mind.-, prepared) Hebr. , he will do; what was future in the time of Isaiah, had been actually accomplished in the time of Paul. Hence the one was speaking to them that were waiting for Him [Isa 64:4], the other to men that love [Him, who has appeared, 1Jn 4:19]: comp. things that are freely given, 1Co 2:12, by the grace of the New Testament, the fruits of which are perfected in eternity.-[Rom 8:28; Jam 2:5.]

Fuente: Gnomon of the New Testament

1Co 2:9

but as it is written,-This was done in fulfillment of the prophecy.

Things which eye saw not, and ear heard not, and which entered not into the heart of man, whatsoever things God prepared for them that love him.-The things spoken of in this passage that eye had not seen nor ear heard were the great blessings of salvation through Jesus Christ our Lord. Before he came no human being by human wisdom ever had any conception of what these blessings would be; but they are now revealed to us by the Holy Spirit through the New Testament. Hence they are no longer mysteries, but matters of plain revelation.

Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary

Divine Revelation

1Co 2:9-13

But as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him. But God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit: for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God. For what man knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of man which is in him? even so the things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God. Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of God; that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God. Which things also we speak, not in the words which mans wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth; comparing spiritual things with spiritual. (vv. 9-13)

The apostle declared that in making known the gospel he sought to use all simplicity of speech, but when it came to opening up the truth of God to believers, there are deep things, wonderfully precious things, that cannot be given to the world at large, which form the hidden wisdom of God. The world has its various schools of philosophy, its deep things to which the average man on the street does not pay much attention; and so God has His deep things which are not for the world outside, but for those who have already received the gospel message. The Lord Jesus Himself warned His disciples against casting pearls before swine. What did He mean by that? Simply this, the unsaved man, the man who has never been regenerated, has no more ability to appreciate, to enter into and enjoy spiritual unfoldings than the swine has ability to set a value on beautiful pearls, and therefore, the message for the unsaved is the gospel; but to the Lords own people He would impart this hidden wisdom, that which none of the princes of this world knew, for he says, Had they known it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. But as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him.

The apostle is quoting from the sixty-fourth chapter of the book of the prophet Isaiah. The singular thing is that a great many people stop here with the Old Testament quotation and say, You know we cannot understand, we cannot be expected to understand or enter into the things which God hath prepared for us, because the Word tells us that, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love Him. And so they settle back and conclude that we must be content to be ignorant of these things, for God has said that they are not for us to know. Let us look at the passage in the Old Testament and see the connection in which it is found. In verse 4 we read, For since the beginning of the world men have not heard, nor perceived by the ear, neither hath the eye seen, O God, beside thee, what he hath prepared for him that waiteth for him. This is the translation from the Hebrew. That which we find in the New Testament is the translation of the Greek version of the Old Testament, hence the difference in words, though the meaning is exactly the same. What is it that Isaiah tells us? It is that no man apart from divine revelation can understand what God has in store for His people in times to come. That was true in Old Testament days, but when we come to the New Testament, since God has revealed Himself in the Person of His Son and given this new revelation of the new covenant in the Gospels and in the Epistles, we must not stop with the verse in Isaiah. We must not be content to take for granted that we are still where they were in the Old Testament days, for that is the very thing the apostle tells us is not the case.

But God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit: for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God. In other words, the Old Testament speaks of times when there were great and wonderful mysteries which were kept hidden from all men. Even the prophets themselves, as enlightened as they were, knew nothing of the special truths of this dispensation, but God has made them known now. Read the books of the Old Testament, read the Psalms, for instance, which give you the highest inspiration of the saints before the veil was rent, and you get no inkling of the heavenly calling or of believers entering through the rent veil into the very presence of God without an officiating priest between. You get nothing of Christ exalted at Gods right hand and of believers linked with Him so that we can say, He hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus (Eph 2:6). The Old Testament gives us the preparation time. There we have Gods people as children going to school, learning through symbols and types and shadows, but with no realization of the wonderful truths now made known, and therefore, Isaiah could say, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him. But all that has changed today. Now our eyes do see, our ears do hear, and our hearts should be able to comprehend the wonderful things which God hath prepared for those linked up to Himself through the Lord Jesus Christ. God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit, and so we still need the Old Testament, for the things written there were for our learning.

We go back in the Old Testament and see the exercises of the people of God in years gone by, but we do not stay there; we learn wondrous lessons, but we move on to the full and glorious revelation that God has given in the new dispensation. It is here our souls revel in the precious truths now made known. Christians sometimes imagine that if they come to God in worship, for instance in singing, in the very words of Holy Scripture, like some of our friends who sing the Psalms, their worship takes a higher character than that of Christians using what they call man-made hymns, and yet what is the fact? We might gather together and sing the Psalms week after week and year after year, and always be conscious of the fact that we are singing the very words of Scripture, but there would not be a syllable that would give us our place within the holiest, accepted in the Beloved; and you will find that where Christians are content thus to approach God in worship, they have no realization of the fullness of the Christians position. It could not be, because the Psalms as all other Old Testament Scripture lead us up to the door, but they do not carry us inside into the fullest blessing. Therefore, you will generally find people who are wedded to the Psalms, precious as they are, a legal people, knowing very little of the fullness of grace, and most of them are content to go through life thinking it is altogether too much to believe that a man can be saved and know it in this life, just let them go on trusting and hoping, and perhaps God will give them dying grace at last.

You have heard of the good old Scotch woman who said, We will not sing any of these man-made hymns, we will sing just the Psalms of David to the tunes that David wrote! The fact is that a Spirit-taught Christian today can enjoy in a hymn precious and wonderful truths which would have been amazing to David, truths of which he knew absolutely nothing. What a wonderful thing it is to think that we live in the dispensation of the grace of God. By the Holy Spirit God has now revealed these things formerly hidden unto us, for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God. That may seem like a peculiar expression. The Holy Spirit is One with the Father and with the Son; our Lord Jesus puts the Trinity all on an equality when He tells His disciples to teach and to baptize in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. You could not think of putting a creature in there and saying, In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the blessed Virgin Mary, or, In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the holy apostles. You could not do that, for you would be bringing His creatures on a level with God. But when you say, In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, everything is in keeping because all are coequal and coeternal.

In what sense does the Holy Spirit have to search to find out the mind of the Lord? For the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God. In Himself He does not need to search, He does not have to study to learn the mind of God. But the wonderful thought is that in our dispensation the Holy Spirit has come to dwell in us, and it is through Him that we do the searching and the studying, and the Spirit of God opens the truth of God to us. People say, I do not know how it is that some folks get such wonderful things out of their Bibles. I do not get them out of mine. I know I ought to read my Bible, and I do read it, perhaps a chapter a day, but I do not have much appetite for it, I do not get much out of it. I will tell you why. It is because you do not sit down over your Bible in a self-judged, broken spirit, putting out of your life everything carnal, everything worldly, everything unholy, and then depending absolutely on the Holy Spirit who dwells within you to search into the Scriptures for you, to open the truth of God to you. God has given you the Holy Spirit for that very purpose. The Lord Jesus Christ said, Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth: for he shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak: and he will show you things to come. He shall glorify me: for he shall receive of mine, and shall show it unto you (Joh 16:13). Take a poor, simple, ignorant Christian who can barely read or write and put him down over his Bible in dependence on the Holy Spirit of God, and he will get more out of a given passage of Scripture in half-an-hour than a Doctor of Divinity or a Doctor of Psychology, who studies it with a lot of learned tomes about him depending upon his intellect instead of upon the Holy Spirit. The Spirit of God opens the truth to those who depend on Him. I am afraid that many of us are absolutely careless of the Holy Spirit who dwells within us. We are trying to make our own way through the world, trying to find out what is right and wrong in spiritual things instead of handing over everything to the Spirit of God and depending on Him to guide and lead and unfold the Scriptures. He came to do this very thing and He delights to fulfill this mission.

How strikingly the apostle illustrates this in verse 11: For what man knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of man which is in him? even so the things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God. What does he mean by the spirit of man which is in him? Materialists tell us that the spirit of a man is the breath of a man. It is a striking thing that in Greek and Hebrew the same word may be translated spirit, air, breath, wind. They say the spirit is the air that you breathe, there is no personality about it, the body is all there is of man as far as personality is concerned. If that were true, would it not be absurd for the apostle to speak as he does here? Translate the word spirit by breath and you would read, What man knoweth the things of a man, save the breath of man which is in him? Is that not remarkable?-an intelligent breath! Is it your breath that knows things? Is it your breath that reasons and weighs evidence? Surely not. It is the spirit of a man. And what is the spirit of a man? It is the real man.

When God created man He created him a spirit living in a human body, and therefore God is called The Father of spirits. Translate that, God, the Father of breaths, how would that sound? No, God is a Spirit and man is a spirit, and therefore, in that sense, even unregenerated men are Gods sons. The spirit is the personality. It is that which differentiates him from the lower creation, enables him to think, to weigh evidence, to reason, to investigate. What man knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of man which is in him? I cannot read your thoughts, you cannot read my thoughts. We find people who profess to be able to do so, but they always make a botch of it. We try to read peoples minds by their faces, but we often accuse them of things that are not so, as Eli falsely accused Hannah.

What man knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of man which is in him? I might talk as humbly as possible and you might be foolish enough to go away and think, What a lowly man that is! and all the time I might be a kind of Uriah Heep, of Charles Dickenss David Copperfield, with a false humility. Another might seem to you to be proud while in reality he might be very humble. So Jesus said, Judge not that ye be not judged. We are not to try to read other persons minds for we will often be mistaken if we do. What man knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of man which is in him? If my human spirit understands my thoughts, if my human spirit knows what is going on in my mind, do you not see the apostles argument? The Holy Spirit knows everything that goes on in the mind of God. Is not that a wonderful thought?

Even so the things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God. And He has chosen to make them known to us. I can make known my thoughts to you, and you can make yours known to me. Very well, the Holy Spirit of God makes known the thoughts of God to us. Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of God; that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God. This blessed Holy Spirit has been received by believers. He has come to indwell us, to control us, for the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ in order that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God. That is the secret of learning the Bible, and understanding the truth. You come to the Book and study it in dependence on the Holy Spirit who dwells within and He will open it up. But let me give you another secret. He wont do that if you are grieving Him. As long as the Spirit is happy within you because you are living in a godly, unworldly, consistent manner, it is His delight to take the things of Christ and open them up; but the moment you grieve Him, the moment you give yourself to unholy thoughts or worldly behavior, yield to carnality, to things contrary to the Lord Jesus Christ whom you are called upon to represent here, then you grieve the Spirit of God and instead of the Holy Spirit being free to do what He delights to do, take of the things of Christ and show them unto you, He has to occupy you with your own failure and sins and shortcomings, in order to bring you to repentance and confession where you will seek to put everything right before God. So the secret of getting the mind of God as you study His Word is to live in the power of an ungrieved Spirit and go to the Book in dependence on Him.

We have received, not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of God; that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God. We have them here, but do we know them? It is one thing to have a vast amount of knowledge shut up between the covers of a book, it is another thing really to know it.

You may have a large library. Everything in all those books is yours. But it is quite another thing to make all that accumulation of knowledge yours practically. It requires diligent study and careful reading. So with Gods wonderful library, the Bible. We need the illumination of the Holy Spirit as we meditate upon its wondrous truths, for it is only in this way we can enter into its treasures. This Book was not written by men, except as they were used as penmen; it was given by God. Holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost (2Pe 1:21). And think of the folly of expecting to understand it if I just approach it from a carnal or intellectual standpoint. That is not the way to get Gods truth. He has given it to me, but if I would appreciate it the Spirit must open it up, and I must walk in the Spirit.

Which things also we speak, not in the words which mans wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth; comparing spiritual things with spiritual. Some people wonder what we mean when we speak of the verbal inspiration of the Bible. There are those who talk of the Bible being inspired in the sense that God gave to the writers of the different books certain thoughts and they embodied them in their own language to suit themselves, but that is not the truth of inspiration as taught in the Book. Which things also we speak, not in the words which mans wisdom teacheth. They did not take divine truths and write them down in their own words. They expressed divine truths in the words that the Holy Spirit gave. He gave the words as well as the thoughts. Verbal inspiration means inspiration of the words. If the Bible is inspired at all, it is in its words, and that is what the apostle insists upon. When you come to the study of this Book and recognize the fact that the words were given of God, you will have such a conception of the wonder of the Book that you will delight in lingering over every syllable. How often we have studied the Book and one little word seemed to jump at us; we have looked it up and found the original meaning in the Hebrew or the Greek, found what the root is, and as we delved into it we have found there was not any other word that would have expressed that truth. It is like God Himself; it is perfect. Which things also we speak, not in the words which mans wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth.

He concludes this section with an expression that is a bit peculiar, one about which theologians have had a great many different views. Comparing spiritual things with spiritual. That may suggest a comparison of one divinely-imparted line of truth with some other opening up of eternal verities. That is blessedly true, and that was perhaps the thought that the translators had in mind, but there is something deeper than that. Others have translated it, Expounding spiritual things to spiritual minds, and that is surely important. If men are not spiritual, they cannot take in spiritual truth. One might endeavor to give them the deepest and most wonderful revelation from the Word of God, but they would not be able to take it in. It is the same in spiritual things as in natural things. Take music, for instance. If you do not have music in your soul, if you do not have a real sense of music, you cannot understand it.

I heard a man once tell of going to hear Jenny Lind, the famous Swedish Nightingale, who eventually gave up the concert stage for love of Christ. Beside the man sat a sea captain who had paid five dollars for his ticket but who drowsed and slumbered all through the concert. He went, out of curiosity, to see the noted singer, but he had no ear to enjoy her marvelous tones. He was unable to appreciate that wonderful voice that thrilled myriads who had a sense of musical values. To enjoy music one must have music in his own soul. This is just as true in regard to spiritual things. That is why people need to be born again and then they need to walk in the Spirit, for one cannot understand spiritual things unless he is living a spiritual life.

On the other hand, this last expression is not exactly personal in the Greek, it does not necessarily refer to individuals, and a better translation might be, Communicating spiritual things by spiritual methods, or by spiritual words. That seems to be a very satisfactory translation. It is the business of servants of Christ to communicate spiritual things by spiritual methods, not stooping to the cheap claptrap methods of the world as they seek to expound the Word of God, but in a reverent way opening up spiritual truths and using suited words in accordance with the testimony that the Holy Spirit Himself has given men. God give to each one of us a deeper appreciation of this marvelous revelation which we have in His Word.

Fuente: Commentaries on the New Testament and Prophets

Things Prepared for Love

But as it is written,

Things which eye saw not, and ear heard not,

And which entered not into the heart of man,

Whatsoever things God prepared for them that love him. 1Co 2:9.

Nowhere in the Old Testament are these words literally found. But the source of the quotation is undoubtedly the passage, Isa 64:4 combined with Isa 65:17 : Men have not heard, nor perceived by the ear, neither hath the eye seen a God beside thee, which worketh for him that waiteth for him ; and, The former things shall not be remembered, nor come into mind. Similar combinations of several prophetic quotations are not rare in St. Pauls writings.

The context of the verse is the assertion of the Apostle that there is about the Gospel a hidden wisdom, an inner truth; and that this truth was invisible to the minds of those who rejected and crucified the Saviour; for, had they seen it, they would not have crucified Him. And then comes in the text, to prove that such blindness of the soul was recognized long before in the Old Testament Scriptures as a mystery and a fact. The blindness of those who slew the Lord did but answer to what was writtenthat solemn formula of final appeal with the Apostles and their Master. Isaiah had spoken of the acts of God in redeeming mercy as things beyond the reach of priori discovery by human senses, and reason, and imagination. Man could receive them when revealed; there was that in man which could respond to them when revealed; but for that revelation there was needed the action of the Divine Spirit on the spirit of man. No record of facts, no witness of phenomena, without the special action of the Holy Spirit, could bring them home to the heart. But to Christian believers, to St. Paul and his disciples, they were brought home. And it was so, not because their eyes or ears were keener than those of the Lords executioners, or because their hearts were more imaginative or more sympathetic, but because the Holy Ghost had unveiled to them this wisdom, this esoteric wisdom and glory of the ways of God.

The Apostles quotation of the Prophet plainly refers to the whole gift of salvation, not only to the bright eternal future of the saved. The words cannot indeed exclude the thought of the glories of heaven, which assuredly senses have not seen, nor imagination conceived, but which God has prepared for them that love Him. But neither can they exclude the wonders of grace on earth; which equally are things of eternal plan and preparation.

The Things of God are not Revealed to the Natural Man

Things which eye saw not, and ear heard not, and which entered not into the heart of man.

1. The natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God. The preaching of the Apostle Paul was rejected by numbers in the cultivated town of Corinth. It was not wise enough or eloquent enough, nor was it sustained by miracles. The man of taste found it barbarous; the Jew missed the signs and wonders which he looked for in a new dispensation; and the rhetorician missed the convincing arguments of the Schools. To all this the Apostle was content to reply that his judges were incompetent to try the question. The princes of this world might judge in a matter of politics; the leaders in the world of literature were qualified to pronounce on a point of taste; the counsellors of this world to weigh an amount of evidence. But in matters spiritual they were as unfit to judge as a man without ear is to decide respecting harmony; or a man, judging alone by sensation, is fit to supersede the higher truth of science by an appeal to his own estimate of appearances. The world, to sense, seems stationary. To the eye of reason it moves with lightning speed, and the cultivation of reason alone can qualify for an opinion on the matter. The judgment of the senses is worth nothing in such matters. For every kind of truth a special capacity or preparation is indispensable.

2. By the natural man is meant the ordinary faculties of man; and it is said of these that they cannot discover spiritual truth. By combining the three terms seeing, hearing, and entering into the heart, the Apostle wishes to designate the three names of natural knowledge: sight, or immediate experience; hearing, or knowledge by way of tradition; finally, the inspirations of the heart, the discoveries of the understanding proper. By none of these means can man reach the conception of the blessings which God has destined for him.

i. The Eye

Eye saw not.

1. Eternal truth is not perceived through the eye; it is not demonstrable to the senses.

(1) Gods works in nature give us wonderful pleasure. Let us not depreciate what God has given. There is a rapture in gazing on this wonderful world. There is a joy in contemplating the manifold forms in which the All Beautiful has concealed His essencethe Living Garment in which the Invisible has robed His mysterious loveliness. In every aspect of Nature there is joy; whether it be the purity of virgin morning, or the sombre grey of a day of clouds, or the solemn pomp and majesty of night; whether it be the chaste lines of the crystal, or the waving outline of distant hills, tremulously visible through dim vapours; the minute petals of the fringed daisy, or the overhanging form of mysterious forests. It is a pure delight to see. But all this is bounded. The eye can reach only the finite Beautiful. And the fairest beauty is perishable.

(2) Art has many devotees. The highest pleasure of sensation comes through the eye. He whose eye is so refined by discipline that he can repose with pleasure upon the serene outline of beautiful form has reached the purest of the sensational raptures. The Corinthians could appreciate this. Theirs was the land of beauty. They read the Apostles letter, surrounded by the purest conceptions of Art. In the orders of architecture, the most richly graceful of all columnar forms receives its name from Corinth. And yet it was to these men, living in the very midst of the chastely beautiful, upon whom the Apostle emphatically urgedEye hath not seen the things which God hath prepared for them that love him.

(3) Science cannot give a revelation. Science proceeds upon observation. It submits everything to the experience of the senses. Its law, expounded by its great lawgiver, is that if we would ascertain its truth we must see, feel, taste. Experiment is the test of truth. Men have supposed they discovered the law of Duty written on the anatomical phenomena of disease. They have exhibited the brain inflamed by intoxication, and the structure obliterated by excess. They have shown in the disordered frame the inevitable penalty of transgression. But if a man, startled by all this, gives up his sin, has he from this selfish prudence learned the law of Duty? The penalties of wrong-doing, doubtless; but not the sanction of Right and Wrong written on the conscience, of which penalties are only the enforcements. He has indisputable evidence that it is expedient not to commit excesses: but you cannot manufacture a conscience out of expediency: the voice of conscience says not, It is better not to do so, but Thou shalt not.

2. Eye saw not. When He came into this world, who was the Truth and the Life, in the body which God had prepared for Him, He came not in the glory of form: He was a root out of a dry ground: He had no form nor comeliness; when they saw Him, there was no beauty that they should desire Him. The eye did not behold, oven in Christ, the things which God had prepared. This is an eternal truth. There is a kingdom which is appreciable by the senses, and another whose facts and truths are seen and heard only by the spirit.

It was rumoured that underneath a certain piece of ground there was iron to be found, and two men were appointed to go and inspect the land and see whether there was really iron there. One man, a scientist and mineralogist, was very conscious of his own limitations; and, knowing his own weakness, he took with him some scientific instruments. The other man, who was buoyant and self-confident, said, I believe what I can see, and what I cant see I wont believe; and so he walked over the field, and got over it in no time. He said, Iron? nonsense! I see no iron; there is no iron here. This man went to the syndicate and said, There is no iron there: I walked all over the field and I could not see a trace of it. The other man did not trust to his eye at all. He carried in his hand a little crystal box, and in that little crystal box there was a needle, and he kept watching that needle. He paused, for the needle in that crystal box had pointed down like the very finger of God, and he said, There is iron there. He passed on, until again that needle pointed down, and he said, There is iron there, and when he handed in his report he said, From one end of the field to the other there is iron. Oh! said one of the adherents of the first man, how do you know, when you did not see it? Because, he said, that which cannot be seen with the eye can be magnetically discerned.1 [Note: A. G. Brown.]

ii. The Ear

Ear heard not.

Eternal truth is not reached by the sense of hearing; nor does traditional knowledge reveal it.

1. The many beautiful and varied sounds of nature speak to us of God, if Gods existence be already thrilling our hearts, but of themselves they do not reveal the things of God. How many sounds there are that gladden us! Think of the cooling sound of a rippling stream, or a waterfall, or a playing fountain on a hot summer evening. Think of the many pleasing notes and songs of birds. Think of the human voice. There is no sound that we would miss more than that. Then think of music, with all its varied modes of appealing to our feelings. Think of the music of the great masters, how it attracts and fascinates and subdues us, how it inspires and strengthens us, how it makes us glad! But things which ear heard not, and which ear can never hear, are prepared by God for those that love Him.

2. No revelation can be adequately given by man to man, whether in writing or orally, even if he be put in possession of the Truth itself. For all such revelation must be made through words: and words are but countersthe coins of intellectual exchange. There is as little resemblance between the silver coin and the bread it purchases as between the word and the thing it stands for. Looking at the coin, the form of the loaf does not suggest itself. Listening to the word, you do not perceive the idea for which it stands, unless you are already in possession of it. Speak of ice to an inhabitant of the torrid zone, the word does not give him an idea, or if it does, it must be a false one. Talk of blueness to one who cannot distinguish colours, what can your most eloquent description present to him resembling the truth of your sensation? Similarly in matters spiritual, no verbal revelation can give a single simple idea. Talk of God to a thousand ears, each has its own conception. The sensual man hears of God, and understands one thing; the pure man hears, and conceives another thing. So that apostles themselves, and prophets, speaking to the ear, cannot reveal truth to the soulno, not if God Himself were to touch their lips with fire. A verbal revelation is only a revelation to the ear.

3. Traditional knowledge will not reveal eternal truth. There are men who believe on authority. They have heard with the hearing of the ear that God is Love, they have heard that the ways of holiness are the ways of pleasantness and all her paths peace. But a hearsay belief saves not. The Corinthian philosophers heard St. Paul; the Pharisees heard Christ. How much did the ear convey? To thousands exactly nothing. He alone believes truth who feels it. He alone has a religion whose soul knows by experience that to serve God and know Him is the richest treasure.

I have a little kinsman

Whose earthly summers are but three,

And yet a voyager is he

Greater than Drake or Frobisher,

Than all their peers together!

He is a brave discoverer,

And, far beyond the tether

Of them who seek the frozen pole,

Has sailed where the noiseless surges roll.

Ay, he has travelled whither

A winged pilot steered his bark

Through the portals of the dark,

Past hoary Mimirs well and tree,

Across the unknown sea.

Suddenly, in his fair young hour,

Came one who bore a flower,

And laid it in his dimpled hand

With this command:

Henceforth thou art a rover!

Thou must make a voyage far,

Sail beneath the evening star,

And a wondrous land discover.

With his sweet smile innocent

Our little kinsman went.

Since that time no word

From the absent has been heard.

Who can tell

How he fares, or answer well

What the little one has found

Since he left us, outward bound?

Would that he might return!

Then should we learn

From the pricking of his chart

How the skyey roadways part.

Hush! does not the baby this way bring,

To lay beside this severed curl,

Some starry offering

Of chrysolite or pearl?

Ah, no! not so!

We may follow on his track,

But he comes not back.

And yet I dare aver

He is a brave discoverer

Of climes his elders do not know.

He has more learning than appears

On the scroll of twice three thousand years,

More than in the groves is taught,

Or from furthest Indies brought;

He knows, perchance, how spirits fare

What shapes the angels wear,

What is their guise and speech

In those lands beyond our reach

And his eyes behold

Things that shall never, never be to mortal hearers told.1 [Note: Edmund Clarence Stedman.]

iii. The Heart

Which entered not into the heart of man.

Eternal truth is not discoverable by the heart of man, with all its powers of imagination and all its powers of affection.

1. Great thoughts originate from a large heart.It is a grand thing when, in the stillness of the soul, thought bursts into flame, and the intuitive vision comes like an inspiration; when breathing thoughts clothe themselves in burning words, winged as it were with lightning; or when a great law of the universe reveals itself to the mind of Genius, and where all was darkness, his single word bids Light be, and all is Order where chaos and confusion were before; or when the truths of human nature shape themselves forth in the creative fancies of one like the myriad-minded Poet, and you recognize the rare power of heart which sympathizes with and can reproduce all that is found in man. But all this is nothing more than what the material man can achieve. The most ethereal creations of fantastic fancy were shaped by a mind that could read the life of Christ, and then blaspheme the Adorable. The highest astronomer of this age, before whose clear eye Creation lay revealed in all its perfect order, was one whose spirit refused to recognize the Cause of Causes. The mighty heart of Genius had failed to reach the things which God imparts to a humble spirit.

2. The heart has the power of affection.To love is the purest, the serenest ecstasy of the merely humanmore blessed than any sight that can be presented to the eye, or any sound that can be given to the ear; more sublime than the sublimest dream ever conceived by genius in its most gifted hour, when the freest way was given to the shaping spirit of imagination. This has entered into the heart of man, yet this is of the lower still. It attains not to the things prepared by God; it dimly shadows them. Human love is but the faint type of that surpassing blessedness which belongs to those who love God.

There are unexhausted possibilities in our lives, and our human hearts are conscious of unrest. Have you never stood in the presence of a commanding and lovely landscape and had the thought come to you that you could conceive a landscape of infinitely greater loveliness than that which unrolled before your eyes? Have you never, if you are a lover of music, been in the midst of great music and had the thought visit you that you could conceive of harmonies greater and more majestic than the ear of man ever heard? Have you not, although surrounded by many of the joys of life, had thrilling moments visit you, when it seemed to you that you could realize a happiness that was infinite and perfect in its fulness? And so, on the other hand, have not the possibilities of suffering sometimes shot across your consciousness with almost awful force? As the traveller climbing the mountain sometimes comes upon the deep and dark crevice opening at his very foot, so has there not sometimes come to you in the mysterious journey of life a realization of the potential ability of your nature to suffer miserably? It is the sense of unexhausted possibility, the yearning of the heart towards something beyond itself, towards the things which eye saw not, and ear heard not, and which entered not into the heart of man.1 [Note: C. Cuthbert Hall.]

I know tis but a loom of land,

Yet is it land, and so I will rejoice,

I know I cannot hear His voice

Upon the shore, nor see Him stand;

Yet is it land, ho! land.

The land! the land! the lovely land!

Far off dost say? Far offAh, blessed home!

Farewell! Farewell! thou salt sea-foam!

Ah, keel upon the silver sand

Land ho! land.

You cannot see the land, my land,

You cannot see, and yet the land is there

My land, my land, through murky air

I did not say twas close at hand

Butland ho! land.

Dost hear the bells of my sweet land,

Dost hear the kine, dost hear the merry birds?

No voice, tis true, no spoken words,

No tongue that thou mayst understand

Yet is it land, ho! land.

Its clad in purple mists, my land,

In regal robe it is apparelld,

A crown is set upon its head,

And on its breast a golden band

Land ho! land.

Dost wonder that I long for land?

My land is not a land as others are

Upon its crest there beams a star,

And lilies grow upon the strand

Land ho! land.

Give me the helm! there is the land!

Ha! lusty mariners, she takes the breeze!

And what my spirit sees it sees

Leap, bark, as leaps the thunder-brand,

Land ho! land.1 [Note: T. E. Brown.]

The Things of God are Revealed by His Spirit

Whatsoever things God prepared for them that love him.

1. Only the spiritual man can apprehend spiritual truth; and only the spiritual man can comprehend spiritual experience.

(1) Only the spiritual man can apprehend spiritual truth.Just as a blind man cannot possibly form any conception of colour, or a deaf man of music; so the artist, merely as an artist, has no sort of title or qualification to pronounce on questions of scientific research, and in like manner the scientist, as such, is no more competent to discuss matters of religion than the humblest clodman of the land. The man of science, therefore, who loudly vaunts that in all his scientific researches he can find no trace of God, is merely proclaiming to the world his own unreasonableness; for not as a man of science, restricting himself to one set of faculties, but only as a man, giving play and scope to all his faculties, can he learn the things which are hidden from the wise and understanding, and revealed unto babes (Mat 11:25). Still more unreasonable are the thoughtless and careless, who find no God in all their gaiety of life, and then say there is none; for from all such God hides Himself, and His glory is absolutely indiscernible by the wanton eye of worldly pleasure. What, then, is the great law of knowledge of Divine things? If any man willeth to do his will, he shall know. Obedience to spiritual laws, conformity to spiritual conditions, is essential to real knowledge of God, and to true insight into the Divine meaning of the facts and forecasts of human life. Spiritual blessings cannot be attained, cannot even be apprehended, save by the humility of faith.

I remember once being present at the Geological Society, when a bottle was produced which was said to contain certain Zophytes (delicate water-animals, having the form of plants). It was handed round in the first instance among the initiated on the foremost benches, who commented freely with one another on the forms of the animals in the fluid; but when it came to our hands, we could discover nothing in the bottle but the most limpid fluid, without any trace, so far as our eyes could make out, of animals dead or alive, the whole appearing absolutely transparent. The surprise of the ignorant, at seeing nothing, was only equal to that of the learned, who saw so much to admire. Nor was it till we were specifically instructed what it was we were to look for, and the shape, size, and general aspect of the Zophytes pointed out, that our understanding began to co-operate with our sight in peopling the fluid which, up to that moment, had seemed perfectly uninhabited. The wonder then was how we could possibly have omitted seeing objects now so palpable.1 [Note: Captain Basil Hall.]

(2) Only the spiritual man can comprehend spiritual experience.People say to us: Your joys are imaginary, your perceptions of God are self-delusions, your assurances, and hopes, and peace of mind, and consciousness of forgiveness, are your own creations: they are things which we do not feel, and do not understand, and do not believe. It would be a wonderful thing if they did understand what they have never felt. There are simple things in everyday life that are closely akin to this. There are natures to whom sunsets and flowers and the infinitely varied landscapes of nature are utterly unattractive and meaningless.

Once in a dream I saw the flowers

That bud and bloom in Paradise;

More fair they are than waking eyes

Have seen in all this world of ours.

And faint the perfume-bearing rose,

And faint the lily on its stem,

And faint the perfect violet,

Compared with them.

I heard the songs of Paradise:

Each bird sat singing in his place;

A tender song so full of grace

It soared like incense to the skies.

Each bird sat singing to his mate

Soft cooing notes among the trees:

The nightingale herself were cold

To such as these.

I saw the fourfold River flow,

And deep it was, with golden sand;

It flowed between a mossy land

With murmured music grave and low.

It hath refreshment for all thirst,

For fainting spirits strength and rest;

Earth holds not such a draught as this

From east to west.

The Tree of Life stood budding there,

Abundant with its twelvefold fruits;

Eternal sap sustains its roots,

Its shadowing branches fill the air.

Its leaves are healing for the world,

Its fruit the hungry world can feed,

Sweeter than honey to the taste

And balm indeed.

I saw the Gate called Beautiful;

And looked, but scarce could look within;

I saw the golden streets begin,

And outskirts of the glassy pool.

Oh harps, oh crowns of plenteous stars,

Oh green palm branches many-leaved

Eye hath not seen, nor ear hath heard,

Nor heart conceived.

I hope to see these things again,

But not as once in dreams by night;

To see them with my very sight,

And touch and handle and attain:

To have all heaven beneath my feet

For narrow way that once they trod;

To have my part with all the saints,

And with my God.1 [Note: Christina G. Rossetti, Paradise.]

2. What are the things which God has revealed?

Things is a short way of saying thinkings. Everything was first a thought. This world before it became a thing was a thought in the Creators mind. Every cathedral that has ever been built was a thought in the mind of the architect before it became a thing in the hands of the builder. Every book of poems was first of all a thought in the poets mind. The things here spoken of are Gods thinkings, Gods thoughts; but Gods thoughts are realities; they are no mere myths, they are things. What are these deep things of God to which the Apostle refers? There can be no doubt that St. Paul was thinking of the glorious total of redeeming mercy and the wonders of redeeming grace.

(1) The knowledge of Christ as God was to St. Paul one of the most wonderful revelations of the Spirit. He had known Christ after the flesh; he was aware that He had said and done certain things, and had been crucified; and the crucifixion he had regarded as a triumphant refutation of His claims, and as covering Him with well-merited contempt. But as soon as he was changed, the veil was taken from his eyes; and what eye, and ear, and intellect had sought in vain, God revealed by His Spirit.

If Christ, as thou affirmest, be of men

Mere man, the first and best but nothing more,

Account Him, for reward of what He was,

Now and forever, wretchedest of all.

For see; Himself conceived of life as love,

Conceived of love as what must enter in,

Fill up, make one with His each soul He loved:

Thus much for mans joy, all mens joy for Him.

Well, He is gone, thou sayest, to fit reward.

But by this time are many souls set free,

And very many still retained alive;

Nay, should His coming be delayed awhile,

Say, ten years longer (twelve years, some compute),

See if, for every finger of thy hands,

There be not found, that day the world shall end,

Hundreds of souls, each holding by Christs word

That He will grow incorporate with all,

With me as Pamphylax, with him as John,

Groom for each bride! Can a mere man do this?

Yet Christ saith, this He lived and died to do.

Call Christ, then, the illimitable God,

Or lost!1 [Note: Browning, A Death in the Desert.]

(2) The revelation of God as Love comes also by the Spirit. It is in vain that you reiterate that God is love, if my terrified conscience and cruel temper shut out the very notion of love, and empty the word of all true meaning. The spirit of love must dawn upon our consciousness; no mere description will enable us to understand it; but as soon as its light arises within, a revelation is made, and the spiritual mind apprehends what was hidden from intellect and sense.

O Thouas represented here to me

In such conception as my soul allows,

Under Thy measureless, my atom width!

Mans mind, what is it but a convex glass

Wherein are gathered all the scattered points

Picked out of the immensity of sky,

To re-unite there, be our heaven for earth,

Our known unknown, our God revealed to man?

Existent somewhere, somehow, as a whole;

Here, as a whole proportioned to our sense,

There, (which is nowhere, speech must babble thus!)

In the absolute immensity, the whole

Appreciable solely by Thyself,

Here, by the little mind of man, reduced

To littleness that suits his faculty,

In the degree appreciable too;

Between Thee and ourselvesnay even, again,

Below us, to the extreme of the minute,

Appreciable by how many and what diverse

Modes of the life Thou madest be! (why live

Except for love,how love unless they know?

Each of them, only filling to the edge,

Insect or angel, his just length and breadth,

Due facet of reflection,full, no less,

Angel or insect, as Thou framest things.2 [Note: Browning, The Ring and the Book.]

(3) With the revelation of God as Love comes an understanding of the Divine plan of Salvation, a comprehension of the meaning of the Cross of Christ. And with the sense of sin that this inevitably brings come also the promise of the forgiveness of sin, and the still more blessed promise of the conquest of sin. This boonthe suppression and extinction of sinis one of the great gifts which God has prepared for them that love Him.

Sin! wilt thou vanquish me!

And shall I yield the victory?

Shall all my joys be spoiled,

And pleasures soiled,

By thee!

Shall I remain

As one thats slain

And never more lift up the head?

Is not my Saviour dead!

His Blood, thy bane; my balsam, bliss, joy, wine,

Shall thee destroy; heal, feed, make me Divine.1 [Note: Traherne.]

(4) Union with Christ is one of the deep things of God, and in that union are endless spiritual blessings. To conquer the world by loving it, to be blest by ceasing from the pursuit of happiness, and sacrificing life instead of finding it, to make a hard lot easy by submitting to itthis was St. Pauls Divine philosophy of life. And the princes of this world, amidst scoffs and laughter, replied, Is that all? Nothing to dazzlenothing to captivate? But the disciples of the inward life, the humble of heart, and the loving, felt that in this lay the mystery of life, of themselves, and of God, all revealed and plain.

Eye hath not seen:yet man hath known and weighed

A hundred thousand marvels that have been:

What is it which (the Word of Truth hath said)

Eye hath not seen?

Ear hath not heard:yet harpings of delight,

Trumpets of triumph, songs and spoken word,

Man knows them all: what lovelier, loftier might

Hath ear not heard?

Nor heart conceived:yet man hath now desired

Beyond all reach, beyond his hope believed,

Loved beyond death: what fire shall yet be fired

No heart conceived?

Deep calls to deep:mans depth would be despair,

But for Gods deeper depth: we sow to reap,

Have patience, wait, betake ourselves to prayer:

Deep answereth deep.1 [Note: Christina G. Rossetti.]

3. These things God has prepared. The term used recalls the words of Christ: The kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world (Mat 25:34).

God prepared the things that He knew mans heart would long for. A thing prepared is a thing ready at the moment it is needed and expected. So, when we feel the yoke of sin heavy, then is the moment to accept the prepared deliverance. It was prepared on the Cross, it is found at the Cross. As deliverance from sin is found at the Cross, so also was union with Christ and likeness to Christ prepared at the open grave of Christ, and found by faith in a risen, living Saviour. The hope of our calling, the riches of the glory of our inheritance, the exceeding greatness of His power, these are not future blessings, they are prepared here and now for those who believe and love. And what of the things on before? Truly the glory of them is past mans understandingthe city prepared, the place prepared, the rest, the work, the joy, the crown that God is making ready.

There is a Stream, which issues forth

From Gods eternal Throne,

And from the Lamb,a living stream

Clear as the crystal stone.

The stream doth water Paradise;

It makes the Angels sing;

One cordial drop revives my heart;

Hence all my joys do spring.

Eye hath not seen, nor ear hath heard,

From fancy tis conceald,

What Thou, Lord, hast laid up for Thine,

And hast to me reveald.2 [Note: John Mason.]

4. The things are prepared by God for them that love Him.

Everything is seen by its own glass; everything looks foolish when seen through any other glass. Music is meaningless when addressed only to the eye; painting has no message to the ear. The deep things of man can be seen only by their own faculty. So is it with the deep things of God. There are things in religion which are mysteries to every organ but onethe spirit of love. There are depths which love alone can fathom.

The good things are for those who love. Repentant sinners they may be, like David, yet because they are forgiven much they will love much. Love is the condition without which revelation does not take place. No selected child of grace can remain unloving and cold, and yet see and hear and feel the things which God hath prepared for them that love Him.

For the heart only dwells, truly dwells, with its treasure,

And the languor of love captive hearts can unfetter;

And they who love God cannot love Him by measure,

For their love is but hunger to love Him still better.

For the lack of desire is the ill of all ills,

Many thousands through it the dark pathway have trod;

The balsam, the wine of predestinate wills,

Is a jubilant pining and longing for God.

Oh, then, wish more for God, burn more with desire,

Covet more the dear sight of His marvellous face!

(1) To love God is to love His character.God is Love: and to love men till private attachments have expanded into a philanthropy which embraces all, at last even the evil and enemies, with compassionthat is to love God. God is Purity: and to be pure in thought and look; to turn away from unhallowed books and conversation, to abhor the moments in which we have not been pure, is to love God. God is Truth: to be true, to hate every form of falsehood, to live a brave, true, real lifethat is to love God. God is Infinite: and to love the boundless, reaching on from grace to grace, adding charity to faith, and rising upwards ever to see the Ideal still above us, and to die with it unattained, aiming insatiably to be perfect even as the Father is perfectthat is love to God.

(2) Love is manifested in obedience.Love is the life of which obedience is the form. He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me. Nothing can be love to God which does not shape itself into obedience. We remember the anecdote of the Roman commander who forbade an engagement with the enemy. The first transgressor against his prohibition was his own son, who accepted the challenge of the leader of the other host, met, slew, spoiled him, and then in triumphant feeling carried the spoils to his fathers tent. But the Roman father refused to recognize the instinct which prompted this as deserving of the name of love. Disobedience contradicted it, and deserved death. So with God: strong feelings, warm expressions, varied internal experience co-existing with disobedience, God counts not as Love. Mere weak feeling may not usurp that sacred name.

About this time I had constantly in my mind that wonderful reconciliation of half the theological enigmas which ever have arisen, which Maurice points out in one of his sermons on the Temptation, and expounds more fully (tho, I think, not so forcibly) in one of his latter Prayer-book series on the Consecration Prayer. He reminds us how worldly men in their carnal and proud hearts cannot conceive how the Father commands because the Son obeys, and the Son obeys because the Father commands. This had for some time given to me a most blessed and practical solution of the question of Free Will. I dared not apply the term servile to this loving and willing yet eternal obedience of the Son begotten before all worlds; yet surely it was the fullest, completest obedience, the perfect type of all imperfect obedience on earth, and likewise was the authority of the Father the fullest, completest authority, the perfect type of all imperfect authority on earth. This fundamental doctrine of the filial subordination of the Son from all eternity (in no wise interfering with His co-eternity and co-equality with the Father) is hard to receive, and will always be rejected when the understanding seeks to exert an universal empire; yet I fully believe that it is the keystone of theology and humanity.1 [Note: The Life and Letters of Fenton J. A. Hort, i. 135.]

While abhorring war, M. Coillard always had the strongest sympathy with the military profession. His mind seemed to move in its imagery. Christianity, as he conceived it, was the march of an ever-victorious army; to him it meant a loyalty, not a philosophy, still less a ceremonial system. He had no other ambition than to be a good soldier of Jesus Christ. A French general, he once wrote, told his aide-de-camp that the politeness of a soldier was obedience; and I myself hold that in all circumstances our duty to our Master is fidelity.2 [Note: C. W. Mackintosh, Coillard of the Zambesi, 106.]

Lord of the host of deep desires

That spare no sting, yet are to me

Sole echo of the silver choirs

Whose dwelling is eternity

With all save thee my soul is pressed

In high dispute from day to day,

But, Love, at thy most high behest

I make no answer, and obey.1 [Note: John Drinkwater, Poems of Men and Hours, 21.]

Things Prepared for Love

Literature

Blake (R. E.), Good News from Heaven, 18.

Brown (A. G.),Gods Full-orbed Gospel, 110.

Davies (J. LI.), The Purpose of God, 55.

Dewhurst (E. M.), The King and His Servants, 173.

Drummond (J.), Spiritual Religion, 78.

Gibson (J. M.), A Strong City, 181.

Greenhough (J. G.), The Mind of Christ in St. Paul, 77.

Hodge (C.), Princeton Sermons, 358.

Hopkins (E. H.), Hidden yet Possessed, 1.

Horton (R. F.), The Trinity, 21.

Houchin (J. W.), The Vision of God, 132.

Inge (W. R.), All Saints Sermons, 92.

Lockyer (T. F.), Inspirations of the Christian Life, 44.

Matheson (G.), Thoughts for Lifes Journey, 34.

Matheson Voices of the Spirit, 158.

Moore (E. W.), Life Transfigured, 87.

Morris (W.), in The Welsh Pulpit of To-Day, 396.

Moule (H. C. G.), Christ is All, 107.

Murray (A.), The Spirit of Christ, 214.

Paget (E. C), Silence, 130.

Price (A. C), Fifty Sermons, iv. 249.

Robertson (F. W.), Sermons, i. 1; iii. 26.

Shedd (W. G. T.), Sermons to the Spiritual Man, 315.

Shelford (L. E.), By Way of Remembrance, 184.

Spurgeon (C. H.), New Park Street Pulpit, ii. (1856), No. 56.

Temple (F.), Rugby Sermons, iii. 236.

Westcott (B. F.), The Historic Faith, 142.

Cambridge Review, iii., Supplement No. 56 (Moule).

Christian World Pulpit, xii. 273 (Chown); xxix. 360 (Wickham); xxxii. 193 (Westcott); xxxviii. 424 (Ferrier); lxii. 12 (Hall); lxxx. 150 (Hanson).

Churchmans Pulpit, Sixth Sunday after Trinity; x. 430 (Shelford).

Homiletic Review, xlvii. 189 (Hillis).

Fuente: The Great Texts of the Bible

eye: This passage is not taken from the LXX, nor is an exact translation of the Hebrew; but it gives the general sense. Isa 64:4, Joh 3:16, 1Pe 1:12

the things: Psa 31:19, Mat 20:23, Mat 25:34, Heb 11:16

them: Rom 8:28, Jam 1:12, Jam 2:5, 1Jo 4:19

Reciprocal: Gen 41:32 – established by 1Ki 10:7 – I believed 2Ch 9:6 – the one half Job 11:6 – show thee Job 15:8 – the secret Psa 5:11 – love Son 7:13 – I have Isa 48:6 – showed Isa 66:8 – hath heard Dan 2:19 – was Dan 2:22 – revealeth Mat 13:11 – Because Mat 13:44 – like Mat 16:17 – but Mat 19:29 – every Luk 12:37 – that Joh 6:63 – the words Joh 15:15 – all Rom 8:17 – heirs of 1Co 8:3 – love 1Co 13:9 – General 2Co 4:17 – far Gal 1:11 – that Gal 1:16 – reveal Eph 3:3 – by Eph 3:8 – unsearchable Eph 3:20 – exceeding 2Ti 4:8 – that love 1Jo 3:2 – it 1Jo 4:16 – we

Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge

THE RELATION OF THE SEEN TO THE UNSEEN

Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love Him. But God hath revealed them unto us by His Spirit.

1Co 2:9-10

We belong to two worlds, which are, in very truth, one world. We cannot escape from this necessity of our constitution; but our joy and our strength, our confidence and our inspiration is to know that we do belong to both.

I wish, therefore, to suggest only two thoughts on the relation of the Unseen to the Seen.

I. The Seen is the revelation of the Unseen.In quieter moments we all look forward to the future, and perhaps we ask, Where shall I go hereafter? Shall I be happy? when we ought rather to ask, Where am I now? What is my idea of happiness? Happiness, we can see at once, involves a harmony between a mans capacities and desires and his environment. As Christians, we believe that man was made to know God, and that, in Christ, this knowledge can be gained. Happiness for man, therefore, lies absolutely in conformity to God, and this conformity is in effort, in aim, in inception, in essence, not future, but present. This is, the Lord said, not This will be, or This leads to, or This assures, but This is life eternal, that they should know Thee, the only true God, and Him Whom Thou didst send. This is eternal life, sovereign in its conquering power, invincible in its sustaining energy, now while the conflict is to be waged, now while the lesson is to be learned, no less than when we know even as we are known. Holiness is, in other words, the necessary foundation of happiness here and hereafternow when we see through a mirror in a riddle, and then when we see face to face, it is clear, then, how the present is for us individually the expression of the future, the Seen and the Unseen, because it is the expression of the Eternal in the terms of human life. We are, indeed, wholly unable to give shape to being in another order, and in this respect the reserve of Scripture is in striking contrast with the boldness of human imaginings. But still we can perceive that when our earthly life ceases we are that which we have become.

II. The Unseen which is our future is prepared by the present; the Unseen which is our faith is shown by the present. No reproach has been more frequently brought against Christianity than that it teaches men to disregard the claims of to-day in the contemplation of some distant heaven. So far as the reproach is just, it applies not to our creed, but to the perversion of it. For us, as Christians, our faith is that which is the spring of our life; it brings home to us our immortality, it teaches us that we have already entered on the privileges and powers of the future. Ye are come, and not Ye shall come, unto Mount Zion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to innumerable hosts of angels, to the general assembly and church of the first-born who are enrolled in heaven. Ye are fellow-citizens of the household of God, and not Ye shall be; and even now We have, and not simply We shall have hereafter, a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. Just so far, then, as we use this spiritual endowment which is given us, we shall use it with the conditions of our outward state. When the Lord bade the Pharisees render to Csar the things that are Csars, and to God the things that are Gods, He did not, as we commonly suppose, make a division between the obligations of man: He declared their real unity. He is no Christian who can pass by on the other side, busied with his own aims, where humanity lies before him naked and wounded and half dead; he is no Christian who thinks that any part of his daily work lies outside the transforming influence of his Masters presence. Every human action must assume for the Christian fresh importance, and the same principle which enriches his view of life ennobles, as we have seen before, his view of nature. The sense of the Eternal in the present gives to things transitory a power of meaning for the believer which they cannot otherwise have. God has revealed to him that which eye saw not and ear heard not. For him the kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ, and he confidently demands the attributes of its service. He does not look away from the things of earth, but he looks through them to their Maker.

Bishop Westcott.

Illustration

The Christian, even more surely than the poet, finds in the meanest flower that grows thoughts that often lie too deep for tears, just as he finds in the poorest outcast the throbbings of a brothers pulse. In his estimate of the world he refuses to acquiesce in the surface of things, to disparage the least gift which God has made, to accept the verdict of a barren failure; he knows the conditions of life, the strength of life, and the end of life. I saw, St. John writes, after he had contemplated the Vision of Judgment, I saw a new heaven and a new earth. The heaven and the earth are new, and yet they are not like the former new creation. They always have been, but there is not in us the nature, the ability to behold their veiled beauty. But at last the veil shall be drawn aside, and things shall be seen as they are in the sight of God. This consummation the Apostle shadows forth, and shows how the eternal order follows the order of time, being at once its offspring and glory.

(SECOND OUTLINE)

THE FUTURE LIFE

The spiritual life is so ordered and arranged as to be the first stage of what we are accustomed to call the eternal life; and that consequently, if we are really following in the footsteps of the Lord Jesus Christ, we are possessed of a gift of perception which enables us to penetrate, at least to a certain extent, into the mysteries of the eternal world, and to comprehend their nature.

I. It seems to be part of the scriptural idea of heaven that it is a region or locality in which is gathered together the vast multitude of those whom Christ hath drawn to Himself out of the world at large. They come from all ages, and from every nation, and people, and kindred, and tongue; even from those sections of the human family who have had no opportunity of hearing the Gospel. But whatever may have been their circumstances and antecedents, they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. Consciously or unconsciously, they have taken up the Cross to follow Christ. Consciously or unconsciously, they have gone about doing good as Christ did. They are fit for the society of the holy angelsnay, fit for association with God Himselfand they constitute the general assembly and Church of the firstborn which are written in heaven. The conception is a magnificent one. And when we are weary, as we sometimes are, of the conflict with evil which is ever going on in the world, our keenest feelings of brotherhood and our most earnest desires for the regeneration of humanity will not keep us from wishing that the conception may very speedily become an accomplished fact; for what a blessedness it would be to leave behind us the strife and the tumult and the discord, the vice and the crime, produced by the collision of the human with the Divine will, and to enter into the calm society of the pure and loving and noble; into intercourse with the great and good of all ages; into a state in which every eye beams with the lustre of a Divine intelligence.

II. What do we suppose will be the character of the inhabitants of heaven?I mean, rather, what common characteristic may we expect to find in them all? You say, God-likeness. Yes, God-likeness. But can we not express ourselves more definitely than in this way? Doubtless there will be in the mysterious future state no obliteration of the individuality of the redeemed. Peter, the man of action, will remain Peter still. John, the man of contemplation, will be the man of contemplation for ever, and have his own special task to fulfil in heaven. The substratum of feeling will be, of course, the same in all. There will be devotion to God, and perfect and unsullied holiness; but the idiosyncrasies will abide. Is this not perfectly conceivable? Heavens occupations, for which you and I are training nowfor this world is only a school from which we shall go forth at last to the real work of existencecan hardly be the same for all: let us say, for instance, for the grand poets who have passed away from amongst us, and now lie in the marble majesty of death; or for the great preachers whose voices, not long ago, were stilled into silence; or for the musicians, of whom we have lately heard, who built up a massive structure of tones to express the thoughts that were stirring in their souls; or for the scientists who toiled for mans sake and for Gods sake at the discovery of the secrets of nature, and enlarged to an almost incalculable extent the boundaries of human knowledge. Possibly the service of these men in the hereafter will be, to a very great extent, a continuation of their service here. But in one respect these men will assuredly, all of them, resemble each otherin the spirit of love, which manifests itself in self-sacrifice. And this is God-likeness. The gift of Jesus Christ for us was a stupendous act of self-sacrifice on the part of God.

III.And yet we should expect a close and intimate intercourse with Deity itself to be one of the distinguishing features of the future state of existence. The world in which we are placed is full of traces of moral and material beauty; and if we may judge of the workman by his workmanship, there must be something inexpressibly lovely and attractive about the Divine Artificer Who created all. We cannot, then, be satisfied with the profoundest investigation into the wonders of the universe. The universe is, after all, only the vestibule of the palace; and we long to press forward into the very presence of the King. Besides, a voice within perpetually reminds us that God made man for Himself; and a feeling within is equally explicit in its assurance that we shall be unquiet and restless until we have found our rest in the Heavenly Fathers love. It is not, let it be remembered, mere intellectual acquaintance with Deity, important as that is, that we require. But it is, if I may venture so to speak, personal contact; it is the knowledge which one being has of another where there is a mutual understanding; a true sympathy; a real interchange of loving thought and feeling between them.

Rev. Prebendary Gordon Calthrop.

Illustration

Strange, very strange, is the indifference with which many a man regards his approaching entrance into the unseen world. He is, and cannot but be, under the circumstances, uncertain about the nature of his reception there; but the uncertainty does not trouble him. He does not shudder at the idea of what must be to him a leap in the dark. Strange, I say, very strange! But for us, if we be true disciples, there need be no uncertainty, no misgiving. The sights that will burst upon our view when we enter eternity may be startling, and even awfulwho can tell? But there will certainly be one Person there with Whom we have already made acquaintanceOne Whom we know, and know well, and have learnt to trust; One Whose voice we have heard in the Word; Whose face we have sought in prayer; on Whose arm we have leaned in the perilous journey of life; Whose example we have humbly endeavoured to follow; and He, the centre of all observation and the Lord of the whole domain, will recognise His servants, and bid them enter joyfully into their eternal home.

Fuente: Church Pulpit Commentary

1Co 2:9. This verse has been perverted in song and speech for years, and made to mean that the story of divine love for man, including the reward that is to be given to God’s servants, is still a mystery that is to be revealed at some future time. That idea is not even any part of the meaning of the passage. The eye, ear and heart of man means the natural senses of the human being. No man living, even among the wise sages of the so-called learned world, could discover through his human faculties what the Lord had in store for the faithful.

Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary

1Co 2:9. but as it is written (Isa 64:4, or 1Co 2:3 in Heb., which is here recalled in fragmentary form), Things which eye saw not, etc. The truth here expressed by the prophet and the apostle is, that what God has in store for His people transcends not only all past experience, but all human conception.

This leads the apostle into a new line of thought, an episode which extends to the close of the chapter. The wisdom of the Gospel, being in its nature purely spiritual, can be apprehended only by the spiritual, as even to the apostles themselves it is disclosed through the teaching of the Spirit.

Fuente: A Popular Commentary on the New Testament

These words, Eye hath not seen, &c. do not immediately respect the happiness of heaven and a future state, though very often they are so applied; but they are primarily spoken of the gospel state, and of the blessings to be enjoyed by them that love God here: from whence a good argument may be drawn to prove the inconceivable happiness of the saints hereafter. Though they have felt and tasted joys unspeakable and full of glory, in the actings of their faith and love upon God at present; yet all that they have seen and heard, all that they have tasted and felt, in the way to heaven, falls infinitely short of the perfection and blessedness of that place and state.

Lord! how will thy immediate presence, when we come into it, be a great surprise to those of us that have now the greatest acquaintance with it!

Observe farther, The care and kindness of God towards his servants, in revealing to them by his Spirit those great and good things prepared for them, which surpass man’s understanding: though “eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, nor heart conceived, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him, yet God hath revealed them to us by his Spirit.”

There is a two-fold revelation of the happiness of a future state: Revelatio fidei, et revelatio visionis, a revelation of faith, and a revelation by vision and sight; the former, believers have by the help of the Holy Spirit in this life, as viatores; the latter they shall ere long enjoy in heaven, as comprehensores, where they shall see as they are seen, and know as they are known.

Observe lastly, That the Holy Spirit, which thus revealeth hidden counsels to man, and searcheth the deep things of God, is omniscient, and really God.

Mark , 1. He searcheth deep things; he is not only acquainted with and privy to the surface and outside of things, but searcheth things to the bottom.

And, 2. He searcheth not only the deep things of man, as of kings and princes, whose hearts are a great deep, but the deep things of God: therefore the Spirit is God; for as the apostle argues, ver 11. No man knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of man that is in him; even so, the things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God, or he that is with God, in God, yea, God himself, as intimately with him as the soul is in the body. If the spirit that is in man were not man, it could never know the deep things of man, and if the Spirit of God were not God, he could never search and know the deep things of God.

Fuente: Expository Notes with Practical Observations on the New Testament

1Co 2:9-11. But This ignorance fulfils what is written concerning the blessings of the Messiahs kingdom; eye hath not seen, &c. No merely natural or unenlightened man hath either seen, heard, or known; the things which God hath prepared, saith the prophet, for them that love him These words do not immediately respect the blessings of another world, but are spoken by the prophet of the gospel state, and the blessings then to be enjoyed by them that should love God, Rom 8:28. For all the prophets, say the Jews, prophesied only of the days of the Messiah. Whitby. Indeed, as he adds, both the context and the opposition of these words to the revelation of these things by the Spirit, show the primary intent of the apostle to be, that no human wisdom, by any thing that may be seen, heard of, or conceived by us, can acquaint us with the things taught by the Holy Spirit, without a supernatural illumination. But God hath revealed Yea, and freely given, 1Co 2:12, them to us by his Spirit Who intimately and fully knows them; for the Spirit searcheth Knows and enables us to search and find out; all things Which it concerns us, and would be for our profit, to be acquainted with; even the deep things of God Be they ever so hidden and mysterious; the depths both of his nature and attributes, and of his kingdom of providence and grace. Or, these deep things of God are the various parts of that grand plan which the wisdom of God hath formed for the salvation of mankind, their relation to and dependance on each other, and operation and effect upon the system of the universe, the dignity of the person by whom that plan had been executed, and the final issue thereof in the salvation of believers; with many other particulars, which we shall not know till the light of the other world break in upon us. Macknight. For what man knoweth the things of a man What individual of the human race could know the things belonging to human nature; save the spirit of man which is in him Unless he were possessed of a human spirit? Surely the spirit of a creature inferior to man, can neither discern nor comprehend the things peculiar to the human nature. Even so the things of God Things that belong to the divine nature; knoweth no man No mere man; no man devoid of divine teaching; the teaching of the Spirit of God. In other words, as soon might brute creatures, by the help of the faculties peculiar to them, understand human things, as a man, only possessed of human faculties, could, merely by the aid of them, understand divine things; and indeed much sooner; for God is infinitely more elevated above man, than man is above the brutes.

Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

Vv. 9: but as it is written: things which the eye hath not seen, and which the ear hath not heard, and which have not entered into the heart of man, which God hath prepared for them that love Him.

The grammatical connection of this verse has been variously understood. Erasmus, Estius, Meyer (last ed.), Heinrici, Edwards make , things which, the object of , we speak, 1Co 2:7, and consequently in apposition to the wisdom of God. But this relation is grammatically forced and logically inadmissible: the apostle does not mean to point out what he speaks among the perfect, but to prove the nature of that wisdom to be sublime and inaccessible to man. Hofmann thinks we should begin a new sentence with 1Co 2:9; the verb on which the depends would then be , He revealed, 1Co 2:10 : What eye hath not seen…God hath revealed to us… The of 1Co 2:10 would not be absolutely opposed to this explanation (see on 1Co 1:23). But the , as it is written, would be strangely placed at the beginning of this subordinate sentence. And then, instead of beginning 1Co 2:10 with , but unto us, the apostle ought rather to have written ; for the antithesis between the idea of keeping concealed and that of revealing would alone account for the placed at the beginning of the principal sentence. De Wette and Osiander prefer to hold an anacolouthon; the phrase, things which no eye hath seen, is thrown in, they say, as a description which remains grammatically suspended, being lost, as de Wette says, in a mysterious remoteness. It seems to us more natural simply to understand the notion of the verb to be in this sense: It is indeed this very wisdom which is described in the words: Things which the eye hath not seen, etc.

The , but, signifies, But it could not be otherwise, for Scripture had spoken in these terms. It is difficult to know to what passage of our holy books this quotation refers. Nowhere in the Old Testament are these words literally found. Chrysostom and Theophylact did not know whether they belonged to a prophecy now lost, or if they were taken from Isa 52:15 : They to whom it had not been told shall see, and they who had not heard it shall understand. Origen thought they were taken from an apocryphal writing entitled the Apocalypse of Elias. But nowhere do we find the apostle making similar quotations from uncanonical books, and it cannot be supposed that he would have applied to such books the formula as it is written, which would evidently imply the idea of Divine authority. Meyer acknowledges this; only he holds that, by a slip of memory, the apostle, while quoting this apocryphal book, thought he was quoting Isaiah; so also Weiss (Bibl. Theol., p. 274). I cannot see the necessity of so strange a supposition. Jerome already pointed out the true source of this quotation: it is the passage Isa 64:4 combined with Isa 65:17 : Men have not heard nor perceived, neither hath the eye seen a God beside Thee which worketh for him that waiteth for Him…; and, The former things shall not be remembered, nor come into mind. Clement of Rome, who, in chap. xxxiv. of his Epistle to the Corinthians, quotes this passage from Paul (with the combination of the two sayings of Isaiah), so well understands it is from the book of this prophet that Paul draws, that he substitutes for the last words of our verse: , for them that love Him, the exact expression of Isaiah (in the LXX.: , for them that wait for Him. Similar combinations of several prophetic quotations are not rare in Paul’s writings; comp. Rom 9:33, where are united Isa 28:16; Isa 8:14; and Rom 11:26-27, where Isa 59:20; Isa 27:9 are blended in one). In the first passage, the prophet, speaking of the work which God will accomplish in favour of His exiled people when He will restore them, says to God: We can wait until such a God as Thou, like whom is no other, do for us things which surpass all that has been seen and told until now, and all that can be imagined. Or indeed we may suppose that Isaiah transfers himself to the time when all will be accomplished, and that he means: Never will there have been seen or heard or imagined such things as those which Thou shalt have done for us. No doubt the expression, come into the mind of man, taken from Isa 65:17, refers in the context to the memory of things already accomplished, but accomplished merely in prophetic intuition. By combining the three terms seeing, hearing, and entering into the heart, the apostle wishes to designate the three means of natural knowledge: sight, or immediate experience; hearing, or knowledge by way of tradition; finally, the inspirations of the heart, the discoveries of the understanding proper. By none of these means can man reach the conception of the blessings which God has destined for him. From Irenaeus to Meyer, a host of commentators have applied the , things which, in Paul’s sense, to the felicities and glories of heaven. But we have seen, 1Co 2:6 a, that the Divine wisdom of which Paul speaks embraces the kingdom of God in its present form; and the words of 1Co 2:12 : That we might know the things that are freely given to us of God, clearly show that Paul is thinking of the knowledge the believer receives of all the riches of the Divine plans toward him and toward the Church, of what he himself calls, Eph 3:18, their breadth and length, and depth and height. The blessings to come are of course comprehended in such phrases.

The reading of A B C has been admitted by Lachmann, Tischendorf, Westcott and Hort, and rightly, as it seems to me, for there is somewhat of enthusiasm in the saying: those great things which God has prepared. For the will do, (LXX.), Paul substitutes the word , has prepared, used also by Clement. The idea is the same, for what God will do in the future is precisely what He has prepared in the past. The term , to prepare, recalls the words of Jesus: the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world (Mat 25:34), Instead of , for them that wait for Him with perseverance, the apostle substitutes , for them that love Him. This change arises from the fact that the Christian now enjoys the salvation which the Israelite was still waiting for, and is grateful for it to its Author. Thus is exhausted the development of the idea of wisdom (1Co 2:6 a).

Fuente: Godet Commentary (Luke, John, Romans and 1 Corinthians)

but as it is written, Things which eye saw not, and ear heard not, And which entered not into the heart of man, Whatsoever things God prepared for them that love him. [This passage is taken from Isa 64:4; but it is an exposition, and not a verbatim quotation. The words form an unfinished sentence, and, as is not infrequent with Paul’s quotations, do not fit nicely into the general structure of his discourse. To understand them we should supply the words “we speak” from verse 7; i. e., we fulfill the prophecy by telling those things which God prepared for those that love him (the mystery of the gospel), but which no uninspired man ever in any way surmised or anticipated. The prophecy includes the unseen glories of heaven.]

Fuente: McGarvey and Pendleton Commentaries (New Testament)

9. But as has been written: Those things which eye hath not seen, ear hath not heard, and it hath not entered into the heart of man, i. e., those things which God hath prepared for those who love him. What are those things? Why, they are the deep things of God, the unutterable truths of the Almighty, the sweet, rich and unearthly things of the heavenly kingdom, the transcendent glories of the coming age, the supernal and unutterable realities of spiritual life, immortality and ineffable glory. A popular mistake has generally prevailed in reference to the allusions of this verse, i. e., that we have to die to receive these revelations. This delusion is swept away by the next verse.

Fuente: William Godbey’s Commentary on the New Testament

Verse 9

Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, &c.; that is, the natural faculties of man have not discovered them.–The things which God hath prepared; the plan of redemption from sin, of which the apostle had been speaking above.

Fuente: Abbott’s Illustrated New Testament

1Co 2:9. But we speak according as it is written etc.: parallel with but we speak in 1Co 2:7, and marking a contrast to 1Co 2:8. This verse has no exact counterpart in the Old Testament. But Paul’s favorite phrase, as it is written, is found elsewhere only with Old Testament quotations. Origen thought that Paul was quoting some apocryphal work. Jerome found here a reference to Isa 64:4. And this is confirmed by the Epistle of Clement of Rome, in Isaiah 34, where we read: For He says, Eye has not seen and ear has not heard and into man’s heart it has not gone up, how many things God has prepared for those who wait for Him. This quotation is so similar that either it must have been taken from the Epistle or both from the same source. And its last words, wait for Him, point still more clearly than does the passage before us to Isa 64:4. In 1Co 1:31 we found Paul quoting in his own words the true sense of the Old Testament: and probably he does so here.

In prophetic view of a trodden down sanctuary, Isaiah cries to God for an unexpected and tremendous deliverance. O that Thou hadst rent heavens, hadst come down, that from Thy face mountains had trembled; like fire kindling bushes, fire makes water to boil, to make known Thy name to Thy enemies: from Thy face nations shall be thrown into confusion; when Thou dost terrible things we expect not. The prophet grounds his hope and prayer upon the fact that From of old men have not heard, have not listened to, eye has not seen, a God besides thee; He will act for him that waits for Him. He teaches plainly that in saving His people God surpasses their expectation, and does for them things unheard before. And this is concisely expressed by Paul in the words before us.

For those that love Him, (Rom 8:28,) rather than that wait for Him, was prompted, perhaps, by loving gratitude for benefits so inconceivable. This verse refers probably to the final glory (1Co 2:7) of God’s people, the ultimate aim of the eternal purpose hidden from the world, revealed to Paul and others, and spoken by him among mature Christians. It is already revealed (Eph 1:17 f) as an object of hope; and will soon (Rom 8:18) be revealed as our actual possession. These words find also a fulfillment on earth. For our present spiritual blessedness is a foretaste of our eternal joy.

Fuente: Beet’s Commentary on Selected Books of the New Testament

2:9 {8} But as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the {i} heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him.

(8) Another objection: but how could it be that those intelligent men could not perceive this wisdom? Paul answers: because we preach those things which surpass all man’s understanding.

(i) Man cannot so much as think of them, much less conceive them with his senses.

Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes

The source of this quotation is evidently Isa 64:4; Isa 65:17. It summarizes Paul’s point well. There are many things we can know only by revelation. The more God reveals the more clearly we see that He has designed His plans for humanity for our blessing.

"Paul’s thought is that there is no method of apprehension open to man (eyes, ears, or understanding) which can give him any idea of the wonderful things that God has made ready for them that love him (cf. Rom. viii. 28)." [Note: Morris, p. 57.]

Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)

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