therefore, behold, I will proceed to do a marvelous work among this people, even a marvelous work and a wonder; and the wisdom of their wise men will perish, and the understanding of their prudent men will be hidden.”
⛓ Read Isaiah 29 forward — the whole chapter and its afterlife →Where this passage surfaces again, sorted by the strength of the link. Each kind of reuse — formal quotation, deliberate allusion, faint echo, figural pattern — carries its own mark. Follow any reference to read it in place.
Quotation1
A formal citation — high verbal volume, often introduced by a saying-formula.
Verse 19 quotes with formula ('it is written') Isaiah 29:14 LXX: 'I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and the discernment of the discerning I will thwart/bring to nothing.' Volume is maximal (verbatim citation), and the thematic coherence is exact: God's overturning of human sagacity is the engine of Paul's whole cross-versus-wisdom argument.
High confidenceAllusion2
A deliberate verbal borrowing without a citation formula.
Hiding these things from the wise and understanding but revealing them to little children reverses human wisdom in line with Isaiah's threat that the wisdom of the wise shall perish. The pointed wise-and-understanding wording matches Isaiah closely, supporting a deliberate allusion.
Medium confidence'the wisdom of their wise men shall perish' grounds the reversal in which God hides 'these things from the wise and understanding' — the same Isaianic critique of human wisdom.
Medium confidenceEcho2
A fainter, low-volume reuse, carried by recurrence or thematic coherence.
Having quoted Isaiah 29:14 at v.19, Paul continues its logic here: God destroys the wisdom of the wise by choosing the foolish 'to shame the wise.' The recurrence of the same Isaianic oracle across the unit (criterion of recurrence) confirms that the wisdom-reversal of vv.27-28 is still being read through Isaiah 29.
Medium confidenceIsaiah declares that the wisdom of the wise shall perish and the discernment of the discerning be hidden, the prophetic plank already cited at 1 Cor 1:19 and standing behind 'the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God.' Its recurrence in the letter's wisdom polemic gives this echo coherence within 3:18-20, reinforcing the divine overturning of human wisdom.
Medium confidence