The precise meaning of 1 Cor. 2:13b, p?e?µat????? p?e?µat??? s????????te?, has long troubled commentators. Whether the two uses of the term pneumatikos have the same meaning is unclear, and the precise sense of sugkrinein is much debated. Ancient thinkers from as early as the archaic Greek period conducted an ongoing debate on the nature of perception and knowledge, and the relationship between the properties of the knower and the thing known. We are aware that we "feel cold" because we are warmer than our environment; paradoxically, we feel cold because we are hot. Do we see because we are dark? From the Presocratic philosophers into the 2nd C. C.E. and later, the question whether perception and knowledge functioned due to similarity or due to difference was debated. An understanding of this debate and its ongoing ramifications may help to clarify Paul's language here. Paul is arguing that perception and knowledge of spiritual things requires the spirit; perception and knowledge are by similarity, not by difference.