The Greek noun moria means foolishness or absurdity — the quality or state of being moros (foolish). In ordinary Greek usage it described stupidity. Paul in 1 Corinthians 1 transforms the concept entirely: the gospel appears as moria to the perishing, but it is in fact the dynamis (power) and sophia (wisdom) of God.
Paul's use of moria is deliberately paradoxical and offensive to natural human wisdom. The cross — an instrument of execution for criminals and slaves — appeared as sheer moria to educated Greeks and scandalous (skandalon) to religious Jews. Yet precisely in this apparent foolishness, God accomplished what all human wisdom could not: the redemption of sinners. This is not anti-intellectualism but a radical recalibration of what counts as wisdom.