Commentaries:
Adam Clarke
And my speech - ̔ , My doctrine; the matter of my preaching.
And my preaching - , My proclamation, my manner of recommending the grand but simple truths of the Gospel.
Was not with enticing words of man' s wisdom - , With persuasive doctrines of human wisdom: in every case I left man out, that God might become the more evident. I used none of the means of which great orators avail themselves in order to become popular, and thereby to gain fame.
But in demonstration of the Spirit - , In the manifestation; or, as two ancient MSS. have it, , in the revelation of the Spirit. The doctrine that he preached was revealed by the Spirit: that it was a revelation of the Spirit, the holiness, purity, and usefulness of the doctrine rendered manifest: and the overthrow of idolatry, and the conversion of souls, by the power and energy of the preaching, were the demonstration that all was Divine. The greater part of the best MSS., versions, and fathers, leave out the adjective , man' s, before , wisdom: it is possible that the word may be a gloss, but it is necessarily implied in the clause. Not with the persuasive discourses, or doctrines of wisdom; i.e. of human philosophy.
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