Some scholars have thought that verses 18-31 are from a sermon based on the quotation from Jer 9.24 in verse 31. Jewish preachers sometimes put their text at the end of the sermon. However, Paul seems to link his thinking more closely to the quotation from Isa 29.14 in this verse, especially to its keyword “wisdom.”
Revised Standard Version‘s For should be omitted in translation, as in New Jerusalem Bible, Revised English Bible; it is vague and possibly misleading. Paul seems to mean “What I have just said is confirmed by scripture when it says….”
It is written is literally “it has been written.” The tense of the verb in Greek implies that what has been written in the past remains valid in the present. Paul often uses this phrase to introduce quotations from the Old Testament. Revised Standard Version‘s rather literal translation it is written may not be enough to tell some readers that the quotation is from the Old Testament. Good News Bible renders this phrase as “the scripture says.” In a number of languages, though, one cannot talk about scripture’s “talking” or “saying” something. In these languages only humans can normally talk. In such cases the translator may say “In a passage of the Scriptures (or, Holy Writings) we find the following” or “One may read in the Scriptures the following.” Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch has the excellent translation “God has said.” Parola Del Signore: La Bibbia in Lingua Corrente has “the Bible says,” but has to add a glossary note explaining that this is not the whole Bible, but what Christians would now call the Old Testament. It is better to avoid the word “Bible” and to translate “the holy writings” or to follow the example of Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch.
Like most of Paul’s quotations, this one is taken from the Septuagint (the Greek Old Testament), though Paul as a rabbi could have quoted the Hebrew text (see Acts 22.3; Phil 3.5). Books were bulky and expensive, and Paul very likely could not take them with him on his frequent travels. So he made many of his quotations from memory. Sometimes, therefore, he gave the general sense rather than the exact wording. This is what he does here. At the end of the quotation, in place of the Septuagint’s rendering “I will hide,” Paul writes “I will set aside.” He may be thinking of Psa 33.10 (Psa 32.10 in Greek), where the phrase “set aside” is used twice in the Greek text about God’s “setting aside” the plans of the Gentiles.
As often in Old Testament poetry, the two lines of the quotation mean the same:
I will destroy — the wisdom — of the wise
I will thwart — the cleverness — of the clever
In some languages, including English, it is not natural to write poetry in pairs of synonymous parallel lines. It may be better, then, to combine the two lines into one. The keyword wisdom must be kept because it is important in the following verses. But Paul does not use cleverness again in 1 or 2 Corinthians. If a translator decides to translate both halves of the quotation, the and should be omitted if it suggests that something new is about to be said. In this case, I will may be repeated.
Destroy in this context may also be rendered as “cause to be of no effect” or “make useless.” Thwart has a very similar meaning to destroy. Other possible renderings are “defeat,” “frustrate,” “put a road block in the way of,” and so on.
On wisdom, see comments on verses 5 and 17. Wisdom and cleverness are used in an ironic, negative sense, of human intelligence used without God’s help. Both halves of the sentence imply that God will prevent the plans made by this kind of human wisdom from being realized. It may be necessary to make this explicit by translating, for example, “I will prevent the plans of those who think they are wise or clever from coming into effect.”
Translators should also consider whether the subject of this quotation is one about which poetry would naturally be written in their own languages. Good News Bible translates this verse as prose in the Old Testament (Isa 29.14). Speakers of each languages normally have their own views of what subjects are suitable for poetry.
Quoted with permission from Ellingworth, Paul and Hatton, Howard A. A Handbook on Paul’s First Letter to the Corinthians, 2nd edition. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1985/1994. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .