---
title: "1 Corinthians 2 – Catholic Bible (CPDV) & Latin Vulgate"
url: https://blessbible.app/bible/1-corinthians/2/
description: "His preaching was not in loftiness of words, but in spirit and power. And… 1 Corinthians 2 in the Catholic Public Domain Version, with the Latin Vulgate."
---

# 1 Corinthians 2

1 Corinthians 2 is chapter 2 of 16 in the First Letter to the Corinthians. Here are all 16 verses in the Catholic Public Domain Version, with the Latin of the Clementine Vulgate beside them.

> His preaching was not in loftiness of words, but in spirit and power. And the wisdom he taught was not to be understood by the worldly wise or sensual man, but only by the spiritual man.
>
> — Bp. Richard Challoner, chapter summary

## 1 Corinthians 2 (Catholic Public Domain Version)

1. And so, brothers, when I came to you, announcing to you the testimony of Christ, I did not bring exalted words or lofty wisdom.
2. For I did not judge myself to know anything among you, except Jesus Christ, and him crucified.
3. And I was with you in weakness, and in fear, and with much trembling.
4. And my words and preaching were not the persuasive words of human wisdom, but were a manifestation of the Spirit and of virtue,
5. so that your faith would not be based on the wisdom of men, but on the virtue of God.
6. Now, we do speak wisdom among the perfect, yet truly, this is not the wisdom of this age, nor that of the leaders of this age, which shall be reduced to nothing.
7. Instead, we speak of the wisdom of God in a mystery which has been hidden, which God predestined before this age for our glory,
8. something that none of the leaders of this world have known. For if they had known it, they would never have crucified the Lord of glory.
9. But this is just as it has been written: “The eye has not seen, and the ear has not heard, nor has it entered into the heart of man, what things God has prepared for those who love him.”
10. But God has revealed these things to us through his Spirit. For the Spirit searches all things, even the depths of God.
11. And who can know the things that are of a man, except the spirit which is within that man? So also, no one knows the things which are of God, except the Spirit of God.
12. But we have not received the spirit of this world, but the Spirit who is of God, so that we may understand the things that have been given to us by God.
13. And we are also speaking of these things, not in the learned words of human wisdom, but in the doctrine of the Spirit, bringing spiritual things together with spiritual things.
14. But the animal nature of man does not perceive these things that are of the Spirit of God. For it is foolishness to him, and he is not able to understand it, because it must be examined spiritually.
15. But the spiritual nature of man judges all things, and he himself may be judged by no man.
16. For who has known the mind of the Lord, so that he may instruct him? But we have the mind of Christ.

## 1 Corinthians 2 in Latin (Clementine Vulgate, 1592)

1. Et ego, cum venissem ad vos, fratres, veni non in sublimitate sermonis, aut sapientiæ, annuntians vobis testimonium Christi.
2. Non enim judicavi me scire aliquid inter vos, nisi Jesum Christum, et hunc crucifixum.
3. Et ego in infirmitate, et timore, et tremore multo fui apud vos:
4. et sermo meus, et prædicatio mea non in persuasibilibus humanæ sapientiæ verbis, sed in ostensione spiritus et virtutis:
5. ut fides vestra non sit in sapientia hominum, sed in virtute Dei.
6. Sapientiam autem loquimur inter perfectos: sapientiam vero non hujus sæculi, neque principum hujus sæculi, qui destruuntur:
7. sed loquimur Dei sapientiam in mysterio, quæ abscondita est, quam prædestinavit Deus ante sæcula in gloriam nostram,
8. quam nemo principum hujus sæculi cognovit: si enim cognovissent, numquam Dominum gloriæ crucifixissent.
9. Sed sicut scriptum est: Quod oculus non vidit, nec auris audivit, nec in cor hominis ascendit, quæ præparavit Deus iis qui diligunt illum:
10. nobis autem revelavit Deus per Spiritum suum: Spiritus enim omnia scrutatur, etiam profunda Dei.
11. Quis enim hominum scit quæ sunt hominis, nisi spiritus hominis, qui in ipso est? ita et quæ Dei sunt, nemo cognovit, nisi Spiritus Dei.
12. Nos autem non spiritum hujus mundi accepimus, sed Spiritum qui ex Deo est, ut sciamus quæ a Deo donata sunt nobis:
13. quæ et loquimur non in doctis humanæ sapientiæ verbis, sed in doctrina Spiritus, spiritualibus spiritualia comparantes.
14. Animalis autem homo non percipit ea quæ sunt Spiritus Dei: stultitia enim est illi, et non potest intelligere: quia spiritualiter examinatur.
15. Spiritualis autem judicat omnia: et ipse a nemine judicatur.
16. Quis enim cognovit sensum Domini, qui instruat eum? nos autem sensum Christi habemus.

## Catechism of the Catholic Church

Paragraph numbers and the Catechism's own section headings (never quoted); text at vatican.va.
- CCC ¶ 401: The Fall ([vatican.va index](https://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0015/_INDEX.HTM))
- cf. CCC ¶ 1998: Grace ([vatican.va index](https://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0015/_INDEX.HTM))
- CCC ¶ 411: The Fall ([vatican.va index](https://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0015/_INDEX.HTM))
- CCC ¶ 598: Jesus Died Crucified ([vatican.va index](https://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0015/_INDEX.HTM))
- cf. CCC ¶ 446: Lord ([vatican.va index](https://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0015/_INDEX.HTM))
- CCC ¶ 1027: Heaven ([vatican.va index](https://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0015/_INDEX.HTM))
- CCC ¶ 152: "I Know Whom I Have Believed" ([vatican.va index](https://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0015/_INDEX.HTM))
- cf. CCC ¶ 2038: Moral Life and the Magisterium of the Church ([vatican.va index](https://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0015/_INDEX.HTM))
- CCC ¶ 687: "I Believe in the Holy Spirit" ([vatican.va index](https://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0015/_INDEX.HTM))
- cf. CCC ¶ 389: The Fall ([vatican.va index](https://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0015/_INDEX.HTM))

## Bishop Challoner's notes

Bp. Richard Challoner, notes on the Douay-Rheims (1750); they comment on its older wording.
- Verse 14: The sensual man is either he who is taken up with sensual pleasures, with carnal and worldly affections; or he who measureth divine mysteries by natural reason, sense, and human wisdom only. Now such a man has little or no notion of the things of God. Whereas the spiritual man is he who, in the mysteries of religion, takes not human sense for his guide: but submits his judgment to the decisions of the church, which he is commanded to hear and obey. For Christ hath promised to remain to the end of the world with his church, and to direct her in all things by the Spirit of truth.

## Read at Mass (US)

- Mon, Sep 4, 2028 (computed): Monday of the Twenty-second Week in Ordinary Time — First Reading, 1 Corinthians 2:1-5
- Tue, Sep 5, 2028 (computed): Tuesday of the Twenty-second Week in Ordinary Time — First Reading, 1 Corinthians 2:10b-16

Dates after May 31, 2027 are computed by Bless from the US Lectionary cycle — confirm with your parish.

Source: Catholic Public Domain Version (Ronald L. Conte Jr., 2009), public domain; Latin: Clementine Vulgate (1592).