2 Corinthians 11:16-33
New Catholic Bible
16 Paul’s Boast. I repeat: let no one take me for a fool. However, if you do, then treat me like a fool and let me boast a little. 17 In saying this, I am not speaking according to the Lord but out of foolishness in the conviction that I have something to boast about. 18 Since many boast of their human accomplishments, I will do likewise.
19 Since you are wise yourselves, you gladly put up with fools! 20 For you endure it if someone makes slaves of you, or robs you of all you possess, or takes advantage of you, or puts on airs, or slaps you in the face. 21 To my shame, I must admit that we have been too weak for that sort of thing!
But whatever anyone dares to boast of—I am speaking out of foolishness—I also dare to boast of. 22 Are they Hebrews? So am I. Are they Israelites? So am I. Are they descendants of Abraham?[a] So am I. 23 Are they ministers of Christ?[b] (I am talking now like a madman.) I am too, having endured far greater labors, far more imprisonments, far harsher scourgings, and far more brushes with death.
24 Five times I received from the Jews forty lashes minus one.[c] 25 Three times I was beaten with rods; once I was stoned; three times I was shipwrecked; once I was adrift in the open sea for a night and a day. 26 I have traveled continually and faced dangers from rivers, dangers from robbers, dangers from my own people, dangers from Gentiles, dangers in the city, dangers in the desert, dangers at sea, and dangers from false brethren.
27 I have endured toil and hardship, and sleepless nights. I have been hungry and thirsty, and I have often gone without food. I have been cold, and often all but naked.
28 Apart from these external things, I am burdened each and every day with the anxiety of caring for all the Churches. 29 Who is weak, and I am not similarly afflicted? Who is led into sinfulness, and I am not filled with indignation?
30 If I must boast, I will boast of the things that exhibit my weakness. 31 The God and Father of the Lord Jesus knows—he who is blessed forever—that I am telling the truth. 32 When I was in Damascus, the governor under King Aretas[d] assigned guards around the city of Damascus in order to arrest me. 33 However, I was let down in a basket through a window in the wall, and I thereby escaped from his clutches.
Read full chapterFootnotes
- 2 Corinthians 11:22 Hebrews . . . Israelites . . . descendants of Abraham: apparently, the false apostles are Jewish Christians who feel superior to Gentile Christians. They want to impose distinctly Jewish practices on Gentile converts. Paul is completely opposed to such a thing (see Rom 2:28f; 1 Cor 12:13; Gal 3:28f; Eph 2:11-18; Col 3:11) and emphasizes that he is everything they are—a Hebrew, an Israelite, and a descendant of Abraham.
- 2 Corinthians 11:23 Ministers of Christ: Paul states that though the false apostles can claim the title, he can claim it with far greater force because of his unremitting labor and ceaseless endurance of trials. Far more brushes with death: a biographical fragment about a dramatic series of sufferings of which Acts says nothing, perhaps because they had been endured in the first decade of Paul’s apostolate.
- 2 Corinthians 11:24 Forty lashes minus one: see Deut 25:3; thirty-nine, in order not to risk going beyond the forty allowed by the Law.
- 2 Corinthians 11:32 King Aretas: Aretas IV, father-in-law of Herod Antipas, who ruled over the Nabatean Arabs from c. 9 B.C. to A.D. 40.
