2 Corinthians 11:14

θαῦμα (אBDFGPR) rather than θαυμαστόν (D2D3KLM).

14. καὶ οὐ θαῦμα. See critical note. Comp. ΠΛ. πολλοῦ γὰρ αὐτοὺς οὐχ ἑώρακά πω χρόνου. ΧΡ. καὶ θαῦμά γʼ οὐδέν· οὐδʼ ἐγὼ γὰρ ὁ βλέπων (Aristoph. Plut. 98, 99).

αὐτὸς γὰρ ὁ Σατανᾶς. The αὐτός prepares us for what is coming,—that these false apostles are his ministers. What the master does, his servants will do. It may be doubted whether S. Paul is here alluding to anything in Jewish tradition or in the O.T., as to Satan appearing among ‘the sons of God’ (Job 1:6). A reference to the Temptation of Christ is less unlikely. More probably he is appealing to the common experience (present tense), that in temptations what is sinful is sometimes made to look quite innocent, or even meritorious: solet se transformare (Bengel). Comp. τέκνα φωτός (Ephesians 5:8), νἱοὶ φωτός (1 Thessalonians 5:5), and contrast ἡ ἐξουσία τοῦ σκότους (Luke 22:53; Colossians 1:13). That “the Judaising teachers had claimed the authority of an angelic message for the gospel which they preached, and set this against the authority of the angelic visions which St Luke had recorded in the case of Cornelius,” is not probable. And had these Corinthians read Acts? It was not yet written.

Of the various names for the evil one which are used in the N.T., four are found in 2 Corinthians 1. Σατανᾶς (2 Corinthians 2:11, here, 2 Corinthians 12:7); 2. ὁ Θεὸς τοῦ αἰῶνος τούτου (2 Corinthians 4:4); 3. Βελίαρ (2 Corinthians 6:15); 4. ὁ ὅφις (2 Corinthians 11:3). The other names which are used by S. Paul are: ὁ διάβολος (Ephesians 4:27; Ephesians 6:11, &c.); ὁ πονηρός (Ephesians 6:16); ὁ ἄρχων τῆς ἐξουσίας τοῦ� (Ephesians 2:2); ὁ πειράζων (1 Thessalonians 3:5).