As Good News Bible shows, word refers not to a single word but to the “message” about Christ’s death on the cross.
Of the cross, which Good News Bible translates as “about Christ’s death on the cross,” can also be rendered as “that Christ died on the cross.”
Is folly … is the power of God: the word translated is has rather more emphasis in Greek than in English. This repetition of is helps to balance the two halves of the verse. However, it is used to express a contrast in meaning, as the word but shows. Translators should therefore consider whether is means the same in the two halves of the verse, or whether, in their own language, it would be clearer to translate the clause is folly as “seems folly (or, nonsense).” The underlying thought is that those who are perishing fail to understand the message about the cross, whereas Paul and his readers who are being saved understand it as what it really is, namely “God’s power” (Good News Bible). In a number of languages it may be necessary to place the phrase “those who are being lost” (Good News Bible) at the beginning of the verse, and restructure the whole verse in the following way: “Those who are being lost think that the message about Christ’s death on the cross is nonsense, but we who are being saved see it as the power of God.” Good News Bible‘s “lost” does not refer to someone losing his way, but to someone who is on his way to destruction, and in some languages it will be better to say “those who are to be destroyed,” or “those whom God will destroy.” In a similar way the phrase to us who are being saved may be expressed as “But for us whom God is saving.”
The parallel between the two halves of this verse is partly broken by the addition in the second half of to us, which a few Greek manuscripts wrongly omit. The context shows clearly that these words refer to all Christians, including both Paul and his readers.
The meaning of the word translated power is quite general. Often, especially in the plural, it can mean a “mighty act” in the sense of a miracle; but verse 22 shows that Paul does not mean it that way in this verse. Paul is thinking mainly of the power that God himself has and uses, not the power that he shares with believers. Translators should therefore avoid using a word here that suggests, for example, physical power or physical violence. The word it in the final sentence refers back to the phrase the word of the cross. So it is possible to translate the final part of this verse as “it is through Christ’s death on the cross that God shows how powerful he is” or “we see how powerful God is because of how Christ died.”
Quoted with permission from Ellingworth, Paul and Hatton, Howard A. A Handbook on Paul’s First Letter to the Corinthians, 2nd edition. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1985/1994. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .