13. (a) How did the Jews and the Greeks view the preaching of Christ impaled? (b) From what groups of people were not many called to be Jesus’ followers, and why?

¹³ Continuing his discussion of God’s ways, Paul says: “Both the Jews ask for signs and the Greeks look for wisdom;

14. (a) If asked about their credentials, to what do Jehovah’s Witnesses point? (b) Why did Paul refuse to please the Greeks with any display of the world’s wisdom?

¹⁴ When Jesus was on the earth, the Jews asked for a sign from heaven. (Matthew 12:38, 39; 16:1) But Jesus refused to give any sign. Likewise, Jehovah’s Witnesses today display no signlike credentials. Rather, they point to their commission to preach the good news, as recorded in such Bible verses as Isaiah 61:1, 2; Mark 13:10; and Revelation 22:17. The Greeks of old looked for wisdom, higher education in the things of this world. While Paul was educated in this world’s wisdom, he refused to please the Greeks by any display of it. (Acts 22:3) He spoke and wrote in the conversational Greek of the common people, instead of classical Greek. Paul told the Corinthians: “When I came to you, brothers, [I] did not come with an extravagance of speech or of wisdom declaring the sacred secret of God to you. . . . My speech and what I preached were not with persuasive words of wisdom but with a demonstration of spirit and power, that your faith might be, not in men’s wisdom, but in God’s power.”​—1 Corinthians 2:1-5.

1 Corinthians 1:22