ACC ~ 1 Corinthians 1 v21b

PREACHING THAT SEEMS FOOLISH. AMBROSIASTER: The world has not recognized God but has attributed divine majesty to his creatures and to the elemental powers of the universe, thinking that visible things ought to be worshiped.8 God has therefore chosen a form of preaching which will seem foolish to such people. Those who reject what the apostles preach will be condemned, while believers are being saved. COMMENTARY ON PAUL’S EPISTLES.9

HUMAN WISDOM DOES NOT CONVERT. CHRYSOSTOM: To believe in the one who was crucified and buried and to be fully convinced that he rose again does not need more reasoning but faith alone. The apostles themselves were converted not by wisdom but by faith. Once they had that, they surpassed the heathen wise men in both wisdom and intellectual depth. … Plato was cast out not by another philosopher of more skill but by unlearned fishers. HOMILIES ON THE EPISTLES OF PAUL TO THE CORINTHIANS 4.4.10

THE FOLLY OF THE CROSS DISTINGUISHED FROM TWO OTHER KINDS OF WISDOM. THEODORET OF CYR: Paul enumerates two or even three different kinds of wisdom here. First there is what the world calls folly, wisdom greater than the others. Then there is the wisdom given to human beings by which we reason and act, by which we develop and invent things and by which we can know God. Finally, there is a third kind of wisdom, which is found in the contemplation of the creation. The wisdom which is folly to the world is given to us by the Savior, so that people who know God by natural wisdom and who are led to him by contemplating the created order may attain the salvation which neither of these kinds of wisdom can provide and be delivered from error. COMMENTARY ON THE FIRST EPISTLE TO THE CORINTHIANS 171.11

1 Cor