1 Corinthians 2:8
 1 Corinthians 2:8 
New International Version (©2011)
None of the rulers of this age understood it, for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.

New Living Translation (©2007)
But the rulers of this world have not understood it; if they had, they would not have crucified our glorious Lord.

English Standard Version (©2001)
None of the rulers of this age understood this, for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.

New American Standard Bible (©1995)
the wisdom which none of the rulers of this age has understood; for if they had understood it they would not have crucified the Lord of glory;

King James Bible (Cambridge Ed.)
Which none of the princes of this world knew: for had they known it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.

Holman Christian Standard Bible (©2009)
None of the rulers of this age knew this wisdom, for if they had known it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.

International Standard Version (©2012)
None of the rulers of this world understood it, because if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.

NET Bible (©2006)
None of the rulers of this age understood it. If they had known it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.

Aramaic Bible in Plain English (©2010)
That which none of the Rulers of this world knew, for if they had known it, they would not have crucified The Lord of Glory.

GOD'S WORD® Translation (©1995)
Not one of the rulers of this world has known it. If they had, they wouldn't have crucified the Lord of glory.

King James 2000 Bible (©2003)
Which none of the princes of this world knew: for had they known it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.

American King James Version
Which none of the princes of this world knew: for had they known it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.

American Standard Version
which none of the rulers of this world hath known: for had they known it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory:

Douay-Rheims Bible
Which none of the princes of this world knew; for if they had known it, they would never have crucified the Lord of glory.

Darby Bible Translation
which none of the princes of this age knew, (for had they known, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory;)

English Revised Version
which none of the rulers of this world knoweth: for had they known it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory:

Webster's Bible Translation
Which none of the princes of this world knew: for had they known it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.

Weymouth New Testament
a wisdom which not one of the leaders of the present age possesses, for if they had possessed it, they would never have crucified the Lord of glory.

World English Bible
which none of the rulers of this world has known. For had they known it, they wouldn't have crucified the Lord of glory.

Young's Literal Translation
which no one of the rulers of this age did know, for if they had known, the Lord of the glory they would not have crucified;

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

2:6-9 Those who receive the doctrine of Christ as Divine, and, having been enlightened by the Holy Spirit, have looked well into it, see not only the plain history of Christ, and him crucified, but the deep and admirable designs of Divine wisdom therein. It is the mystery made manifest to the saints, Col 1:26, though formerly hid from the heathen world; it was only shown in dark types and distant prophecies, but now is revealed and made known by the Spirit of God. Jesus Christ is the Lord of glory; a title much too great for any creature. There are many things which people would not do, if they knew the wisdom of God in the great work of redemption. There are things God hath prepared for those that love him, and wait for him, which sense cannot discover, no teaching can convey to our ears, nor can it yet enter our hearts. We must take them as they stand in the Scriptures, as God hath been pleased to reveal them to us.


Pulpit Commentary

Verse 8. - Had they known it; literally, had they recognized; had they got to know it. The apostles often dwell on this ignorance as being in part a palliation for the sin of rejecting Christ (see especially Acts 3:17; Acts 13:27; comp. Isaiah 2:1). Jews and Romans, emperors, procurators: high priests, Pharisees, had in their ignorance conspired in vain to prevent what God had foreordained. The Lord of glory. This is not a mere equivalent of "the glorious Lord," in Psalm 24:10. It is "the Lord of the glory," i.e. "the Lord of the Shechinah" (comp. Ephesians 1:17, "the Father of the glory "). The Shechinah was the name given by the Jews to the cloud of light which symbolized God's presence. The cherubim are called, in Hebrews 9:5, "cherubim of glory," because the Shechinah was borne on their outspread wings (see, however, Acts 7:2; Ephesians 1:17). There would have been to ancient ears a startling and awful paradox in the words "crucified the Lord of glory." The words brought into juxtaposition the lowest ignominy and the most splendid exaltation.


Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

Which none of the princes of this world knew,.... Meaning not the devils, as some have thought, who had they known what God designed to do by the death of Christ, would never have been concerned in bringing it about; nor so much the political governors of the Roman empire, particularly in Judea, as Herod and Pontius Pilate, who also were entirely ignorant of it; but rather the ecclesiastical rulers of the Jewish church state, called , "this world", in distinction from , "the world to come", or times of the Messiah; see Hebrews 2:5 such as the priests, Scribes, and Pharisees, the Rabbins and learned doctors. These knew nothing of the wisdom of the Gospel, or the wise counsels of God concerning salvation by Christ; they knew not the Messiah when he came, nor the prophecies concerning him; the Jews and their rulers did what they did through ignorance, and fulfilled those things they knew nothing of; see Acts 3:17.

for had they known it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. They would have received him, believed in him, and not put him to death: a very great character is here given of Christ, "the Lord of glory", or the glorious Jehovah; reference seems to be had to Psalm 24:7 where he is called, "the King of glory", and is an argument of his true and proper deity: he is so called because possessed of all glorious perfections, and is the brightness of his Father's glory; the same honour and glory are due to him as to the Father; and the same ascriptions of glory are made to him by angels and men. This is an instance of what the ancients call a communication of idioms or properties, whereby that which belongs to one nature in Christ, is predicated of his person, as denominated from the other: thus here the crucifixion of him, which properly belongs to his human nature, and that to his body only, is spoken of his person, and that as denominated from his divine nature, "the Lord of glory"; and he being so, this rendered his crucifixion, sufferings, and death, in human nature, efficacious to answer all the purposes for which they were endured.


Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

8. Which—wisdom. The strongest proof of the natural man's destitution of heavenly wisdom.

crucified … Lord of glory—implying the inseparable connection of Christ's humanity and His divinity. The Lord of glory (which He had in His own right before the world was, Joh 17:4, 24) was crucified.


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Wisdom from the Spirit of God
6However, we speak wisdom among them that are perfect: yet not the wisdom of this world, nor of the princes of this world, that come to nothing: 7But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, even the hidden wisdom, which God ordained before the world to our glory: 8Which none of the princes of this world knew: for had they known it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.

Psalm 24:7 Lift up your heads, you gates; be lifted up, you ancient doors, that the King of glory may come in.
Matthew 13:22 The seed falling among the thorns refers to someone who hears the word, but the worries of this life and the deceitfulness of wealth choke the word, making it unfruitful.
Acts 7:2 To this he replied: "Brothers and fathers, listen to me! The God of glory appeared to our father Abraham while he was still in Mesopotamia, before he lived in Harran.
1 Corinthians 1:20 Where is the wise person? Where is the teacher of the law? Where is the philosopher of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world?
1 Corinthians 1:26 Brothers and sisters, think of what you were when you were called. Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were influential; not many were of noble birth.
1 Corinthians 2:6 We do, however, speak a message of wisdom among the mature, but not the wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age, who are coming to nothing.
Ephesians 1:17 I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better.
Ephesians 4:18 They are darkened in their understanding and separated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them due to the hardening of their hearts.
James 2:1 My brothers and sisters, believers in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ must not show favoritism.