Chapter Eleven

The Apostle compares himself with his opponents (1–21). The Apostle’s boast of his merits and his trials and sufferings (22–32).

2 Cor 11:1-21. In order to restore his authority in the eyes of the Corinthians, the Apostle finds himself compelled to speak of his merits. If this seems somewhat foolish to the Corinthians, let them indulge the Apostle just as they indulge his opponents, who continually boast before them. The Apostle here points only to his knowledge of Christian teaching and to his selflessness, which he demonstrated by refusing the support that was properly due him as a preacher. Then the Apostle again says that he is well aware of the foolishness of self-commendation, but nonetheless he is compelled to it by circumstances.

2 Corinthians 11:1. I wish you would bear with me in a little foolishness! But you already do bear with me. 2 Corinthians 11:2. For I am jealous for you with a godly jealousy; for I betrothed you to one husband, to present you as a pure virgin to Christ. 2 Corinthians 11:3. But I am afraid that, just as the serpent deceived Eve by his cunning, so your minds may be corrupted and turn away from simplicity in Christ. The Apostle returns to his favorite theme — defending himself against the charge of self-praise. He asks his readers to be indulgent toward this self-commendation, which he calls foolishness, and he already sees that they are being indulgent. And he has a right to such indulgence: after all, he is guided in his self-commendation not by any personal human advantage, but by his zeal to keep the Corinthians — just as God Himself is zealous for this. Just as God once created Eve for Adam, so the Apostle has prepared a pure virgin for a husband. This pure virgin is the Corinthian church in its new, life-filled state, and the husband is Christ, the Lord of the Church. He must present her to Christ spotless at the time when the “wedding of the Lamb” takes place, that is, at His second coming (Rev 19:7). He is therefore extremely troubled by the thought that the Corinthian church — this virgin destined to be the bride of Christ — might be led astray by tempters. Such tempters may appear in the Judaizers, who want to draw the Corinthians away from simple and pure Christianity toward a Judaized Christianity, which held it necessary for all believers to observe the law of Moses. This form of Christianity thus implied that the work of Christ was insufficient for people’s salvation and consequently diminished Christ in the eyes of the bride being prepared for Him — the Corinthian church.

2 Corinthians 11:4. For if someone comes and preaches another Jesus whom we have not preached, or if you receive a different spirit that you have not received, or a different gospel that you have not accepted — you readily put up with that. 2 Corinthians 11:5. But I consider that I am not in the least inferior to the most eminent Apostles. 2 Corinthians 11:6. Even if I am unskilled in speech, I am not so in knowledge. But in every way we have been clearly made known to you in all things. To dispose the Corinthians toward receiving his self-commendation, the Apostle points out that they have already been accepting quite a few people who deserved none of it. — “If someone comes.” In the Greek text the tone is not hypothetical but confident. The Apostle says that the Corinthians are already eagerly accepting teachers who preach a different Jesus to them — that is, who tie Christianity inseparably to the ceremonial law of Moses — and who bring with them a new spirit, the “spirit of bondage” (Rom 8:15) instead of the “Spirit of the Lord,” the Spirit of freedom (2 Cor 3:17). “All the same,” the Apostle says with irony, “I am no inferior to these people who dare to call themselves higher Apostles” (more precisely: “these exceedingly great apostles or envoys from the oldest Jerusalem church”). Even if the Apostle lacks the eloquence that these newcomers probably boasted of: he has sound knowledge of Christian teaching, and the Corinthians know him well in everything — that is, in all his works that he undertakes — and know him well, undoubtedly on his good side, as the Apostle wishes to say.

2 Corinthians 11:7. Did I commit a sin by humbling myself so that you might be exalted, because I preached the Gospel of God to you without charge? 2 Corinthians 11:8. I robbed other churches by accepting support from them in order to serve you; and when I was present with you and was in need, I was not a burden to anyone, 2 Corinthians 11:9. for the brothers who came from Macedonia supplied my need; and in everything I have kept myself from being a burden to you, and will continue to do so. 2 Corinthians 11:10. As the truth of Christ is in me, this boast of mine shall not be silenced in the regions of Achaia. 2 Corinthians 11:11. Why? Because I do not love you? God knows I do! But as I am doing, so I will continue to do, 2 Corinthians 11:12. in order to cut off the opportunity from those who want an opportunity, so that in what they boast about they may be found to be no different from us. The Apostle returns here to the theme he had already addressed in the first Epistle to the Corinthians (chapter 9). His pride was that he had preached the Gospel in Corinth entirely without charge. His opponents turned this against him as a kind of reproach: the Apostle, they said, takes nothing from the Corinthians, but that is because there is nothing worth paying for. The Apostle acted thus in order to “exalt” the Corinthians — that is, to give them no grounds to reproach him for self-interest, and not to alienate them from Christ, in communion with Whom alone the Corinthians can be exalted — in the moral sense, of course. In order not to burden the Corinthians, he received support from the Macedonian churches even while working in Corinth. The Apostle swears by the truth of Christ (he speaks with the same truthfulness with which Christ spoke; cf. Rom 9:1) that the reputation he has throughout all Achaia (see 2 Cor 1:1) will never be taken from him: he will not take anything from the Corinthians in the future either. The Corinthians may say that the Apostle accepts nothing from them because he does not love them. But they should not say such a thing. God knows how much the Apostle loves them. But he does not want to give his enemies — who would be glad of any pretext to accuse and discredit the Apostle in the eyes of the Corinthians — a pretext to accuse him of mercenary motives. Indeed, his efforts to spread the message of Christ in Corinth could be interpreted by the Judaizers as an act of self-interest on Paul’s part.

2 Corinthians 11:13. For such people are false apostles, deceitful workers, masquerading as apostles of Christ. 2 Corinthians 11:14. And no wonder, for even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light, 2 Corinthians 11:15. so it is no great thing if his servants also disguise themselves as servants of righteousness; but their end will be according to their deeds. The Apostle speaks in an extremely sharp tone about his opponents. They are not apostles of Christ, as they claim to be, but servants of Satan. Like their master Satan, who sometimes takes the guise of a radiant angel (light being a symbol of the nature of good angels), these false apostles take on the guise of “servants of righteousness” — that righteousness which the Apostle Paul considered his own calling to proclaim (Rom 1:17). They offer the Corinthians righteousness through fulfilling the law of Moses, but that is a false path to righteousness: one cannot achieve justification by that route (Rom 3:20). For this deception, the false apostles face the punishment they deserve. — As to where the Apostle derived the notion that Satan sometimes transforms himself into a radiant angel, the most correct answer is this: from Jewish tradition.

2 Corinthians 11:16. Again I say: let no one think me to be foolish; but if you do, then receive me even as foolish, that I also may boast a little. 2 Corinthians 11:17. What I speak, I speak not according to the Lord, but as if in foolishness, in this confidence of boasting. 2 Corinthians 11:18. Since many boast according to the flesh, I also will boast. 2 Corinthians 11:19. For you, being so wise, gladly put up with fools! 2 Corinthians 11:20. You put up with it when someone enslaves you, when someone devours you, when someone takes from you, when someone exalts himself, when someone strikes you in the face. 2 Corinthians 11:21. To my shame I must say that we were too weak for that! But if anyone dares to boast of anything — I speak in foolishness — I dare also. Once more the Apostle asks his readers to be indulgent toward the self-commendation with which he must now come forward. It would be well if they would not count him foolish for this, but if they truly cannot look upon him otherwise, let them at least hear him out as a man who is “beside himself” (“foolish”). After all — the Apostle adds with bitter irony — they suffer greatly at the hands of the enemy Judaizers, who exploit them in every way. Why, then, should they not also be indulgent toward the Apostle Paul? They should also remember that the Apostle too has something to boast about, since his opponents find something to boast about. Of course, he did not exploit the Corinthians, but in any case this was not because he felt he had no right to receive support from them, but because doing so would have been shameful — “to their shame,” to the shame of the opponents. 2 Cor 11:22-32. As he embarks on his self-commendation, the Apostle first points to those outward advantages he possesses equally with his opponents, and then speaks of what his opponents cannot claim — that is, his extraordinary feats of service to the Church, his sufferings and trials, and even his weaknesses.

2 Corinthians 11:22. Are they Hebrews? So am I. Are they Israelites? So am I. Are they the seed of Abraham? So am I. 2 Corinthians 11:23. Are they servants of Christ? — I speak as one out of his mind — I am more so. In labors far more abundant, in beatings above measure, in prisons more frequent, in deaths often. The Apostle is as much a Hebrew, a descendant of Israel (Jacob) and Abraham, as his Judaizing opponents. As regards apostleship, however, he is incomparably their superior. In proof of the latter he enumerates the many sacrifices he has made in the course of his apostolic ministry.

2 Corinthians 11:24. From the Jews five times I received forty stripes minus one. The provision of the law of Moses (Deut 25:3) about punishing a criminal with forty stripes was modified by the Jews, who, in order to avoid accidentally giving more than forty stripes, established that only thirty-nine stripes should be given: thirteen on the chest and thirteen on each shoulder. From this we learn that by the time of the writing of the Second Epistle to the Corinthians — that is, around the year 58 — the Apostle Paul had already been tried before a Jewish court five times. But the book of Acts says nothing about these circumstances.

2 Corinthians 11:25. Three times I was beaten with rods; once I was stoned; three times I suffered shipwreck; a night and a day I spent in the deep; The book of Acts mentions only one instance of the Apostle Paul being beaten “with rods,” that is, probably with switches (a Roman punishment): this was at Philippi (Acts 16:22). On the stoning of Paul, see Acts 14:19. — The dangers Paul had faced on the sea up to this time are likewise unknown.

2 Corinthians 11:26. in journeys often, in dangers from rivers, in dangers from robbers, in dangers from my own countrymen, in dangers from pagans, in dangers in the city, in dangers in the wilderness, in dangers at sea, in dangers among false brothers, 2 Corinthians 11:27. in labor and toil, often in sleeplessness, in hunger and thirst, often in fasting, in cold and nakedness. The Apostle enumerates the dangers he faced during his apostolic journeys. He endured dangers at rivers that had to be crossed even when they were raging and widely overflowing their banks; he faced attacks from robbers, who were plentiful in those times; he faced danger in cities whose inhabitants sometimes rose up against Paul, and in deserts where he might have perished from hunger, thirst, and wild beasts. He frequently subjected himself to fasting: this probably took place when he had to cast unclean spirits out of people (Matt 17:21), or else to mortify his own body (1 Cor 9:27).

2 Corinthians 11:28. Besides those outward things, there is what presses on me daily: my concern for all the churches. 2 Corinthians 11:29. Who is weak, and I am not weak? Who is made to stumble, and I do not burn with indignation? But all of this is, so to speak, the “external” — the extraordinary — in the Apostle’s life. In his ordinary life, when he acts as shepherd and guide of the churches he has founded, he is equally immersed in cares and experiences everything that torments and troubles his spiritual children. One might say that he constantly burns in a continuous fire for all who face temptations.

2 Corinthians 11:30. If I must boast, I will boast of the things that show my weakness. The Apostle has just spoken about the sufferings he endured during his journeys. He now explains this “boasting” — which seems so strange to many — by the consideration that he is not ashamed to speak of his “weaknesses.” These weaknesses in no way diminish his apostolic dignity; on the contrary, they reveal him as a true servant of Christ who willingly endures every kind of suffering for Christ’s sake.

2 Corinthians 11:31. The God and Father of the Lord Jesus Christ, who is blessed forever, knows that I am not lying. 2 Corinthians 11:32. In Damascus, the governor under King Aretas was guarding the city of Damascus in order to seize me; and I was let down through a window in the wall in a basket, and escaped from his hands. But the Apostle’s enemies evidently mocked him for his “weaknesses.” Apparently they denounced him before the Corinthians for showing his “weakness” — or in other words, for being overly fearful of danger even where there was no real danger. For example, the flight of the Apostle Paul from Damascus, when he left the city in a very unusual manner — by being lowered in a basket along the city wall — might have seemed somewhat strange. “What a strange way for an Apostle to depart — one who boasts of being personally called by Christ Himself!” his opponents might have said. “And was it really necessary to resort to such a hurried flight from Damascus?” To this mockery the Apostle replies that the danger facing him at that time was very real. The Jews living in Damascus had hired an Arab chieftain, who served under the Arab king Aretas, in order to capture Paul and deal with him as the chieftain saw fit. From such a man the Apostle Paul could expect the worst, and therefore the Apostle hastened to leave Damascus as quickly as possible, rather than tempting God by waiting for Him to protect him through some miraculous means. Thus the mockery of his enemies was groundless: the Apostle was right to flee from Damascus. — In Acts 9:25 it is said that Paul fled not from an Arab chieftain but from the Jews. This account, however, can easily be reconciled with the Apostle Paul’s own explanation given here. Evidently the Jews were the instigators in this case, while the Arab chieftain acted only as their instrument.