And if anyone thinks that he knows anything, he knows nothing yet as he ought to know.
Parallel translations
- WEB But if anyone thinks that he knows anything, he doesn’t yet know as he ought to know.
- KJV And if any man think that he knoweth any thing, he knoweth nothing yet as he ought to know.
- BSB The one who thinks he knows something does not yet know as he ought to know.
- NASB If anyone thinks that he knows anything, he has not yet known as he ought to know;
- NLT Anyone who claims to know all the answers doesn’t really know very much.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
Anyone who imagines he has full knowledge does not yet know as he should. True spiritual knowing is marked by humility, not pride.
Overview
Paul punctures intellectual conceit. The person confident in his own grasp of truth has actually missed the deeper point, because genuine knowledge of God is inseparable from humble love. This rebukes a Corinthian boasting in mere information and points toward a knowing that bows before God. It prepares for the corrective of the next verse: being known and loved by God matters more than our claimed expertise.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 9
- 1 Cor 13:12For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then I will know fully, even as I was also fully known.
- 1 Cor 3:18Let no one deceive himself. If anyone thinks that he is wise among you in this world, let him become a fool, that he may become wise.
- Prov 26:12Do you see a man wise in his own eyes? There is more hope for a fool than for him.
- Gal 6:3For if a man thinks himself to be something when he is nothing, he deceives himself.
- 1 Tim 6:3–4If anyone teaches a different doctrine, and doesn’t consent to sound words, the words of our Lord Jesus Christ, and to the doctrine which is according to godliness,
- 1 Cor 13:8–9Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will be done away with. Where there are various languages, they will cease. Where there is knowledge, it will be done away with.
- Prov 30:2–4“Surely I am the most ignorant man, and don’t have a man’s understanding.
- 1 Tim 1:5–7but the goal of this command is love, out of a pure heart and a good conscience and sincere faith;
- Rom 11:25For I don’t desire you to be ignorant, brothers, of this mystery, so that you won’t be wise in your own conceits, that a partial hardening has happened to Israel, until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in,
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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Christ at the center
Christ crucified is the wisdom and power of God; he is our Passover sacrificed for us, the firstfruits of resurrection, the foundation on which everything is built.
How 1 Corinthians 8:2 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
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