Interpreters have long debated the sense in which Christ Jesus “becomes” wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption “for us” in 1 Corinthians 1:30.

1 Corinthians 1:30 ἐξ αὐτοῦ δὲ ὑμεῖς ἐστε ἐν Χριστῷ Ἰησοῦ, ὃς ἐγενήθη σοφία ἡμῖν ἀπὸ θεοῦ, δικαιοσύνη τε καὶ ἁγιασμὸς καὶ ἀπολύτρωσις

Is his “becoming” a forensic category? Does the appearance of “righteousness” suggest that the “becoming” involves the imputation of Christ’s own righteousness to sinners? N. T. Wright has quipped that if the imputation of Christ’s righteousness is in view, “we must also be prepared to talk of the imputed wisdom of Christ; the imputed sanctification of Christ; and the imputed redemption of Christ” (What Saint Paul Really Said, p. 123; cf. Paul and the Faithfulness of God, p. 951).

Wright’s comments reflect a common misunderstanding of the syntax of 1 Corinthians 1:30—a misunderstanding that also afflicts many other interpreters with whom he interacts.

The aim of this paper is to demonstrate that the meaning of the dative ἡμῖν has been widely misunderstood by interpreters on all sides of the debate about the imputation of Christ’s righteousness in 1 Corinthians 1:30. Most interpreters take ἡμῖν to be a dative of advantage, so that Christ becomes something “for us.” I have uncovered evidence that the syntactical construction in view appears elsewhere in the New Testament and the Septuagint not as a dative of advantage but as an ethical dative (see LXX Judges 17:5, 11, 12, 13; 18:4; Psalm 42:4; 69:10; 109:25; Odes 14:39; Isaiah 1:14; Jeremiah 12:8; 15:18; 17:17; 20:8; 23:14; 31:26; Lamentations 4:10; Matthew 21:42; Colossians 4:11; 1 Thessalonians 1:5; 2:8; 2:10).

This paper will show that ἡμῖν in 1 Corinthians 1:30 fits the syntactical pattern of ethical datives in the texts listed above. Understood as an ethical dative, ἡμῖν “indicates the person whose feelings or viewpoint are intimately tied to the action (or state) of the verb” (Wallace, Greek Grammar beyond the Basics, p. 146). As such, the personal noun in the dative case indicates “Christ Jesus has become wisdom from God as far as we are concerned.”

This understanding of ἡμῖν fits best with the context of 1 Corinthians 1:30. Earlier in chapter 1, Paul tells the Corinthians that unbelievers regard Christ as foolish and unworthy. Only Christians regard Christ as the very wisdom and power of God (1 Cor. 1:23-24). In verse 30, Paul now applies this reasoning to all the elect. None of the elect can boast before God because the elect are in Christ Jesus “by his doing.” What did God do? God enabled them to regard Christ Jesus as “wisdom from God” rather than as foolishness. Thus, the text is not about the imputation of righteousness or any of the other attributes listed in verse 30. It is about how God transformed the elect’s regard for Christ from contempt to honor.