How to read this page

An Intertextuality Pair — one connection between two passages, shown as linked verse cards: the Later text and the Earlier text it quotes, alludes to or echoes. The Significance essay explains why the link matters and where it points in Christ.

Reference Type— how explicit the link is: Quotation, Allusion, or Echo
Connection Method(s)— how it carries meaning: e.g. Typology, Promise-Fulfillment, Analogy, Longitudinal Theme
Found via— where the connection was identified, e.g. the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge or an Anchor-Text Network

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Intertextuality Pair

1 Corinthians 3:19 → Job 5:13

Quotation

Later text

1 Corinthians 3:19BSB

For the wisdom of this world is foolishness in God’s sight. As it is written: “He catches the wise in their craftiness.”

Earlier text

Job 5:13BSB

He catches the wise in their craftiness, and sweeps away the plans of the cunning.

Walk the Square · a single-voice walk of this pair around the Clowney square7:58

Significance

Job 5:13 comes from Eliphaz's speech describing God's sovereign reversal of human plans. Paul applies this to show that God actively frustrates worldly wisdom's schemes. The original context in Job addresses the fate of the wicked whose clever plots backfire. Paul uses this to warn the Corinthians: their factional "wisdom" (dividing into parties, boasting in human leaders) is precisely the kind of craftiness God overthrows. This quotation reinforces chapter 1's theme from Isaiah 29:14 - God doesn't merely ignore human wisdom, He actively destroys it. Applied to Corinth, this warns that their party divisions, though appearing "wise" by worldly standards, are doomed to divine judgment.

Found via: Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Reference Type: Direct Quotation
Connection Method(s): Contrast