2 Corinthians 12:5

5. After ταῖς� אD3FGKLMP, f g Vulg. Aeth. Goth. add μου: BD 17, 67, 109, d e Syrr. Copt. Arm. omit. Such insertions for smoothness or completeness are common; comp. 2 Corinthians 12:9-10; Ephesians 3:6; Ephesians 5:31; Philippians 4:23.

5. ὑπὲρ τοῦ τοιούτου καυχήσομαι. Hoc de se humilitatis causa, quasi in alterius persona loquitur (Sedulius ad loc. Migne, P. L. ciii.). S. Paul speaks of himself throughout as if he were another person; not merely because this glorying about himself was distressing to him, and feelings of modesty suggested to him (as to many writers at the present day) to speak of himself in the third person; but because a person in ecstasy, to his everyday self, is another person. “He who was caught up to the third heaven and heard unspeakable words is a different Paul from him who says, Of such an one I will glory” (Origen on John, Book x. 5). “He speaks of a divided experience, of two selves, two Pauls: one Paul in the third heaven, enjoying the beatific vision: another yet on earth, struggling, tempted, tried and buffeted by Satan” (F. W. Robertson). That τοῦ τοιούτου is neuter, ‘such a matter,’ is improbable, both on account of the contrast with ἐμαυτοῦ and also of τὸν τ. ἄνθρωπον (2 Corinthians 12:3). Of ‘such a one’ he will glory, because in all this he was passive: he did nothing, and could claim no merit; it was all a ‘revelation of the Lord.’ As to his own doings, he will not glory, except in what may be called his weaknesses. He here repeats the principle laid down in 2 Corinthians 11:30.