2 Corinthians 11:31

ὁ Θεὸς καὶ πατὴρ κ. τ. λ.: the God and Father of the Lord Jesus, who is blessed for evermore (see on 2 Corinthians 1:3, and for ὁ ὤν as applied to God, “the self-existent one,” cf. Exodus 3:14, Wis 13:1, Revelation 1:8), knoweth that I lie not (cf. 2 Corinthians 12:6). This solemn asseveration belongs (see reff.) to what follows, and not to the statements which precede it. If the text is not corrupt, it would seem that the Apostle intended now to illustrate in detail the providence which overruled his life, the “strength which was perfected in weakness,” and that, beginning with one of the earliest and least dignified perils of his career as a Christian missionary, he then is led off through some train of ideas which we cannot trace into the quite different subject of his “visions” and “revelations,” which diverts him from his original intention. If, on the other hand, we might suppose 2 Corinthians 11:32-33 to be a marginal gloss (founded on Acts 9:23-25, and perhaps introduced in reference to the κίνδυνοι ἐκ γένους of 2 Corinthians 11:26) which was not part of the original text though possibly an autograph addition made after the letter was finished the argument would be quite consecutive. He feels the remarkable account in 2 Corinthians 12:2-4 to be so incredible that he thinks it right to prefix the strong asseveration of 2 Corinthians 11:31 that he is telling the truth. But there is no MS. authority for thus treating 2 Corinthians 11:32-33.