VINDICATION OF HIS APOSTOLIC AUTHORITY AGAINST TRADUCERS. The tone of these concluding Chapter s is so very different from that of all that precedes them, that though it is impossible to doubt that both came from the same pen (only two or three of the wildest critics have ever alleged the contrary),... [ Continue Reading ]
2 Corinthians 11:1. WOULD THAT YE COULD BEAR WITH ME IN A LITTLE FOOLISHNESS: NAY INDEED BEAR WITH ME or (with other interpreters) ‘but indeed ye do bear with me.' The former, however, suits better, we think, with what follows.... [ Continue Reading ]
2 Corinthians 11:2. FOR I AM JEALOUS OVER YOU WITH A GODLY JEALOUSY: FOR I BETROTHED YOU TO ONE HUSBAND, THAT I MIGHT PRESENT YOU AS A PURE VIRGIN TO CHRIST. The apostle here speaks, like the Baptist, as “the friend of the Bridegroom,” who having betrothed them to Christ at their conversion, hoped t... [ Continue Reading ]
2 Corinthians 11:3. BUT I FEAR, LEST BY ANY MEANS, AS THE SERPENT BEGUILED EVE IN HIS CRAFTINESS, YOUR MINDS SHOULD BE CORRUPTED FROM THE SIMPLICITY (the single-mindedness) THAT IS TOWARD CHRIST. The Revised Version adds “and purity,” on good, but not preponderating evidence, and (with Meyer) we thi... [ Continue Reading ]
2 Corinthians 11:4. FOR IF HE THAT COMETH (any one so coming) PREACHETH ANOTHER JESUS, WHOM WE DID NOT PREACH, OR _IF _ YE RECEIVE A DIFFERENT SPIRIT WHICH YE DID NOT RECEIVE, OR A DIFFERENT GOSPEL WHICH YE DID NOT ACCEPT, YE DO WELL TO BEAR WITH HIM. The import of this verse is not quite clear, and... [ Continue Reading ]
2 Corinthians 11:5. FOR I RECKON THAT I AM NOT A WHIT BEHIND THE VERY CHIEFEST APOSTLES or (according to others, and the margin of the Revised Version) ‘those pre-eminent apostles.' In this last case, pretended but false apostles (those of 2 Corinthians 11:13-15) are meant; but to us it appears pret... [ Continue Reading ]
2 Corinthians 11:6. BUT THOUGH. _BE _ RUDE IN SPEECH. Probably his detractors, pandering to that tinsel rhetoric which he disclaimed, talked of his want of polish, and no doubt those profound truths which he announced would not flow smoothly through the current forms of Greek speech. But granting th... [ Continue Reading ]
2 Corinthians 11:7. Or changing their ground of complaint DID I COMMIT AN OFFENCE (_Gr._ ‘sin') IN ABASING MYSELF THAT YE MIGHT BE EXALTED, BECAUSE I PREACHED THE GOSPEL OF GOD FOR NOUGHT? He had claimed for apostles the right to temporal support from their converts (1 Corinthians 9:13), but, consci... [ Continue Reading ]
2 Corinthians 11:8. NAY, I ROBBED OTHER CHURCHES, TAKING WAGES OF THEM THAT I MIGHT MINISTER (gratuitously) TO YOU;... [ Continue Reading ]
2 Corinthians 11:9. AND WHEN I WAS PRESENT WITH YOU, AND WAS IN WANT, I WAS NOT A BURDEN ON ANY MAN, BUT THE BRETHREN FROM MACEDONIA SUPPLIED THE MEASURE OF MY WANT. From the Macedonian brethren of Philippi and Thessalonica he accepted support, expressly that no breath of suspicion, as to any mercen... [ Continue Reading ]
2 Corinthians 11:10. AS THE TRUTH OF CHRIST IS IN ME not quite an oath, but a very solemn asseveration, NO MAN SHALL STOP ME OF THIS GLORYING IN THE REGIONS OF ACHAIA (of which Corinth was the capital). There seems to have been something about that locality which rendered it peculiarly desirable tha... [ Continue Reading ]
2 Corinthians 11:11. WHEREFORE? BECAUSE I LOVE YOU NOT? GOD KNOWETH.... [ Continue Reading ]
2 Corinthians 11:12. BUT WHAT I DO, THAT I WILL DO, THAT I MAY OUT OFF OCCASION from them WHICH DESIRE OCCASION; THAT WHEREIN THEY GLORY, THEY MAY BE FOUND EVEN AS WE. Opinions differ as to what is meant here. But since it is clear that his opponents were irritated at his declining that temporal sup... [ Continue Reading ]
2 Corinthians 11:13. FOR SUCH MEN ARE FALSE APOSTLES, DECEITFUL WORKERS, FASHIONING THEMSELVES INTO APOSTLES OF CHRIST. He now tears off the mask, giving his opponents their true name in which character they but copy their real master, as next verse says.... [ Continue Reading ]
2 Corinthians 11:14. AND NO MARVEL; FOR SATAN FASHIONETH HIMSELF INTO AN ANGEL OF LIGHT. His own element is darkness (2 Peter 2:4; Jude 1:6), and all his power over men lies in his power to keep them in the dark (a Cor. 2 Corinthians 4:4; Ephesians 6:12; Colossians 1:13). But knowing that men love t... [ Continue Reading ]
2 Corinthians 11:15. IT IS NO GREAT THING THEREFORE (nothing surprising) IF HIS MINISTERS ALSO FASHION THEMSELVES AS MINISTERS OF RIGHTEOUSNESS: WHOSE END SHALL BE ACCORDING TO THEIR WORKS “for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap” (Galatians 6:7; Romans 6:21; Philippians 3:19). Advanci... [ Continue Reading ]
2 Corinthians 11:16-18 . I SAY AGAIN, LET NO MAN THINK ME FOOLISH; BUT IF YE DO SO, YET AS FOOLISH RECEIVE ME, THAT I ALSO MAY GLORY A LITTLE, etc. He feels the conflict between what may be called legitimate boasting and what is mere folly. His boasting was “not after the Lord;” but being wrung from... [ Continue Reading ]
2 Corinthians 11:19. FOR YE BEAR FOR THE FOOLISH GLADLY, BEING WISE YOURSELVES. ‘As the wise, pitying the foolish, put up with their foolishness, so put ye up with me while I tell you what I have to boast of.' The irony here is obvious and keen.... [ Continue Reading ]
2 Corinthians 11:20. FOR YE BEAR WITH A MAN IF, etc. The five things here said to be borne with are clearly just the things which the Corinthians had suffered those deceitful workers to do against himself, IF HE BRINGETH YOU INTO BONDAGE tyrannizing over them, IF HE DEVOURETH YOU alluding to their m... [ Continue Reading ]
2 Corinthians 11:21. I SPEAK BY WAY OF DISPARAGEMENT, AS THOUGH WE HAD BEEN WEAK. YET WHEREINSOEVER ANY IS BOLD (I SPEAK IN FOOLISHNESS), I AM BOLD ALSO. ‘I refer now to the reproach cast upon me, as a “weak” preacher, because, forsooth, I showed none of that proud and insolent bearing which they do... [ Continue Reading ]
2 Corinthians 11:22. ARE THEY HEBREWS? of pure Hebrew descent (compare Acts 6:1; Philippians 3:5), SO AM I. ARE THEY ISRAELITES? children of the covenant, SO AM I. ARE THEY THE SEED OF ABRAHAM and heirs of the great Abrahamic promise? (Genesis 12:3; Genesis 17:7-8; Genesis 22:17-18; Galatians 3:8),... [ Continue Reading ]
2 Corinthians 11:23 _._ ARE THEY MINISTERS OF CHRIST? (I SPEAK AS ONE BESIDE HIMSELF) I MORE. Be it so that his opponents _are_ ministers of Christ, but at least he himself will claim to be one, and a great deal more, referring to the labours and sufferings which he is now to detail, exceeding that... [ Continue Reading ]
2 Corinthians 11:24. OF THE JEWS FIVE TIMES RECEIVED I FORTY STRIPES SAVE ONE. Not one of these cases is recorded in the Acts. The rule, not to exceed forty, was very strict, and for a merciful reason, ‘lest their brother should seem vile unto them' (Deuteronomy 25:3). And to prevent the letter of t... [ Continue Reading ]
2 Corinthians 11:25. THRICE WAS I BEATEN WITH RODS. This was the Roman mode of scourging, and this also sometimes issued in death. Only one of these three cases is recorded in Acts (Acts 21:22-23). In the apostle's case, this was an illegal act, and inflicted barbarously and with cruel aggravations,... [ Continue Reading ]
2 Corinthians 11:26. IN JOURNEYINGS OFTEN, IN PERILS OF RIVERS having perhaps to swim across swollen rivers at the risk of life, IN PERILS OF ROBBERS for some of the mountainous regions which he traversed are known to have been infested with robbers, and indeed are so still, IN PERILS FROM MINE OWN... [ Continue Reading ]
2 Corinthians 11:27. IN LABOUR AND TRAVAIL, IN WATCHINGS OFTEN, IN HUNGER AND THIRST (see 1 Corinthians 4:11 ; Philippians 4:12), IN FASTINGS OFTEN not voluntary fastings, which he would not mention as a privation he had endured, but in the sense of the next clause, IN COLD AND NAKEDNESS such as he... [ Continue Reading ]
2 Corinthians 11:28. BESIDES THOSE THINGS THAT ARE WITHOUT over and above all such external things, THERE IS THAT WHICH COMETH UPON ME DAILY, ANXIETY FOR ALL THE CHURCHES of which see note at close of this chapter.... [ Continue Reading ]
2 Corinthians 11:29. WHO IS WEAK, AND I AM NOT WEAK? WHO IS MADE TO STUMBLE, AND I BURN NOT? Who is there who, ‘weak in the faith,' is troubled with scruples of conscience, does not draw out my sympathy and find me ‘burning' with indignation against abusers of their Christian liberty, and thereby en... [ Continue Reading ]
2 Corinthians 11:30. IF I MUST NEEDS GLORY, I WILL GLORY OF THE THINGS THAT CONCERN MY WEAKNESS. The reference here is thought by many excellent critics to be to the infirmities spoken of in the following chapter. But this seems unnatural, and we cannot well doubt that it is to the whole preceding d... [ Continue Reading ]
2 Corinthians 11:31. THE GOD AND FATHER OF THE LORD JESUS [1] KNOWETH THAT I LIE NOT. [1] Such is the true reading.... [ Continue Reading ]
2 Corinthians 11:32. IN DAMASCUS THE GOVERNOR (_Gr._ ‘ethnarch') UNDER ARETAS THE KING of that division of Arabia which had Petra for its capital, GUARDED THE CITY OF THE DAMASCENES showing that though not within its natural boundaries, it had fallen into the hands of this king, IN ORDER TO TAKE ME... [ Continue Reading ]
2 Corinthians 11:33. AND THROUGH A WINDOW WAS I LET DOWN IN A BASKET BY THE WALL or ‘over' it; that is, from an overhanging house, such as is still to be seen at Damascus (and see Joshua 2:15; 1 Samuel 9:12), AND ESCAPED HIS HANDS. _Note._ The catalogue given by the apostle in this chapter of his la... [ Continue Reading ]