12. Now I mean this, that each of you is saying, “I am with Paul,” or “I am with Apollos,” or “I am with Cephas,” or “I am with Christ.”
13. Is Christ divided? Paul wasn’t crucified for you, was he? Or were you in fact baptized in the name of Paul?
14. I thank God that I did not baptize any of you except Crispus and Gaius,
15. so that no one can say that you were baptized in my name!
16. (I also baptized the household of Stephanus. Otherwise, I do not remember whether I baptized anyone else.)
17. For Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel – and not with clever speech, so that the cross of Christ would not become useless.
18. For the message about the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.
19. For it is written, “I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and I will thwart the cleverness of the intelligent.”
20. Where is the wise man? Where is the expert in the Mosaic law? Where is the debater of this age? Has God not made the wisdom of the world foolish?
21. For since in the wisdom of God the world by its wisdom did not know God, God was pleased to save those who believe by the foolishness of preaching.
22. For Jews demand miraculous signs and Greeks ask for wisdom,
23. but we preach about a crucified Christ, a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles.