---
title: 1 Corinthians 2:16
url: https://jw-apologetics.app/verses/1-corinthians-2-16/
markdown: https://jw-apologetics.app/verses/1-corinthians-2-16.md
type: verse
perspective: Protestant (historic Nicene) response to Jehovah's Witness teaching
reference: 1 Corinthians 2:16
testament: NT
section: Letters
index: https://jw-apologetics.app/llms.txt
---

# 1 Corinthians 2:16

## Text (Berean Standard Bible)

> “For who has known the mind of the Lord, so as to instruct Him?” But we have the mind of Christ.

## NWT Wording of the Key Phrase

- NWT (2013 revision): "For "who has come to know the mind of Jehovah, so that he may instruct him?" But we do have the mind of Christ."

## JW Usage

Read as a statement that Christians share Christ's outlook and thinking — his viewpoint, formed by accurate knowledge. Because the first half of the verse says "the mind of Jehovah" in the NWT and the second says "the mind of Christ," the natural Watchtower reading takes them as two different things: no one can instruct Jehovah, and believers have Christ's mental attitude.

## Protestant Usage

Read the whole verse in one breath, in their own Bible. Paul asks a question quoted from Isaiah 40:13 — who has come to know the mind of Jehovah, so as to instruct him? The expected answer is nobody. And then, without pausing or explaining, Paul answers his own question: but we do have the mind of Christ. The argument only works if the second phrase answers the first. Paul is not changing the subject halfway through a sentence. He asks who has the mind of the LORD and replies that believers, in Christ, do. This is one of the cleanest examples of the pattern that runs through the New Testament: an Old Testament text about Yahweh quoted, and then Jesus placed in the position the quotation assigned to Yahweh. Compare 1 Corinthians 2:11, John 16:15.

## NWT Issue

The NWT prints "who has come to know the mind of Jehovah," where the Greek of 1 Corinthians reads kyriou. Paul is quoting Isaiah 40:13, where the Hebrew has the divine name, so the substitution has a defence. But its effect here runs against the Watchtower's own reading: by printing "Jehovah" in the first half of the verse and "Christ" in the second, the NWT places the two names three words apart in a sentence whose logic requires the second to answer the first. Read aloud from the NWT, the verse makes the identification more visible than most translations do, not less.

## Arguments Using This Verse

- [Until Now You Have Not Asked in My Name](https://jw-apologetics.app/arguments/john-16-23-26-prayer-trap.md) — John 16:23-26 — the unitarian collapse on prayer [Deity of Christ]