◀ All Reading Plans / New Testament in a Year / 2 Corinthians 11:16-33 (New English Translation)

Prev Day

September 18, 2016

Next Day

Use the calendar to view readings from this devotional.

September 2016
Su	Mo	Tu	We	Th	Fr	Sa
				1	2	3
4	5	6	7	8	9	10
11	12	13	14	15	16	17
18	19	20	21	22	23	24
25	26	27	28	29	30

Return to today's reading

New Testament in a Year

Read the New Testament from start to finish, from Matthew to Revelation.

Duration: 365 days

2 Corinthians 11:16-33

Paul’s Sufferings for Christ

¹⁶I say again, let no one think that I am a fool.^[a] But if you do, then at least accept me as a fool, so that I too may boast a little. ¹⁷What I am saying with this boastful confidence^[b] I do not say the way the Lord would.^[c] Instead it is, as it were, foolishness. ¹⁸Since many^[d] are boasting according to human standards,^[e] I too will boast. ¹⁹For since you are so wise, you put up with^[f] fools gladly. ²⁰For you put up with^[g] it if someone makes slaves of you, if someone exploits you, if someone takes advantage of you, if someone behaves arrogantly^[h] toward you, if someone strikes you in the face. ²¹(To my disgrace^[i] I must say that we were too weak for that!)^[j] But whatever anyone else dares to boast about^[k] (I am speaking foolishly), I also dare to boast about the same thing.^[l] ²²Are they Hebrews? So am I. Are they Israelites? So am I. Are they descendants of Abraham? So am I. ²³Are they servants of Christ? (I am talking like I am out of my mind!) I am even more so: with much greater labors, with far more imprisonments, with more severe beatings, facing death many times. ²⁴Five times I received from the Jews forty lashes less one.^[m] ²⁵Three times I was beaten with a rod.^[n] Once I received a stoning.^[o] Three times I suffered shipwreck. A night and a day I spent adrift in the open sea. ²⁶I have been on journeys many times, in dangers from rivers, in dangers from robbers,^[p] in dangers from my own countrymen, in dangers from Gentiles, in dangers in the city, in dangers in the wilderness,^[q] in dangers at sea, in dangers from false brothers, ²⁷in hard work and toil,^[r] through many sleepless nights, in hunger and thirst, many times without food, in cold and without enough clothing.^[s] ²⁸Apart from other things,^[t] there is the daily pressure on me of my anxious concern^[u] for all the churches. ²⁹Who is weak, and I am not weak? Who is led into sin,^[v] and I do not burn with indignation? ³⁰If I must boast,^[w] I will boast about the things that show my weakness.^[x] ³¹The God and Father of the Lord Jesus, who is blessed forever, knows I am not lying. ³²In Damascus, the governor^[y] under King Aretas was guarding the city of Damascus^[z] in order to arrest^[aa] me, ³³but I was let down in a rope-basket^[ab] through a window in the city wall, and escaped his hands.

Footnotes

2 Corinthians 11:16 tn Or “am foolish.”
2 Corinthians 11:17 tn Grk “with this confidence of boasting.” The genitive καυχήσεως (kauchēseōs) has been translated as an attributive genitive (the noun in the genitive functions as an adjective of the noun modified).
2 Corinthians 11:17 tn Or “say with the Lord’s authority.”
2 Corinthians 11:18 sn Many is a reference to Paul’s opponents.
2 Corinthians 11:18 tn Grk “according to the flesh.”
2 Corinthians 11:19 tn Or “you tolerate.”
2 Corinthians 11:20 tn Or “you tolerate.”
2 Corinthians 11:20 tn See L&N 88.212.
2 Corinthians 11:21 tn Or “my shame.”
2 Corinthians 11:21 sn It seems best, in context, to see the statement we were too weak for that as a parenthetical and ironic comment by Paul on his physical condition (weakness or sickness) while he was with the Corinthians (cf. 2 Cor 12:7-10; Gal 4:15).
2 Corinthians 11:21 tn The words “to boast about” are not in the Greek text, but are implied. Direct objects were often omitted in Greek when clear from the context, and this phrase serves as the direct object of the preceding verb.
2 Corinthians 11:21 tn Grk “I also dare”; the words “to boast about the same thing” are not in the Greek text, but are implied. Direct objects were often omitted in Greek when clear from the context, and this phrase serves as the direct object of the preceding verb.
2 Corinthians 11:24 tn Grk “forty less one”; this was a standard sentence. “Lashes” is supplied to clarify for the modern reader what is meant.
2 Corinthians 11:25 sn Beaten with a rod refers to the Roman punishment of admonitio according to BDAG 902 s.v. ῥαβδίζω. Acts 16:22 describes one of these occasions in Philippi; in this case it was administered by the city magistrates, who had wide powers in a military colony.
2 Corinthians 11:25 sn Received a stoning. See Acts 14:19, where this incident is described.
2 Corinthians 11:26 tn Or “bandits.” The word normally refers more to highwaymen (“robbers”) but can also refer to insurrectionists or revolutionaries (“bandits”).
2 Corinthians 11:26 tn Or “desert.”
2 Corinthians 11:27 tn The two different words for labor are translated “in hard work and toil” by L&N 42.48.
2 Corinthians 11:27 tn Grk “in cold and nakedness.” Paul does not mean complete nakedness, however, which would have been repugnant to a Jew; he refers instead to the lack of sufficient clothing, especially in cold weather. A related word is used to 1 Cor 4:11, also in combination with experiencing hunger and thirst.
2 Corinthians 11:28 sn Apart from other things. Paul refers here either (1) to the external sufferings just mentioned, or (2) he refers to other things he has left unmentioned.
2 Corinthians 11:28 tn “Anxious concern,” so translated in L&N 25.224.
2 Corinthians 11:29 tn Or “who is caused to stumble.”
2 Corinthians 11:30 tn Grk “If boasting is necessary.”
2 Corinthians 11:30 tn Or “about the things related to my weakness.”
2 Corinthians 11:32 tn Grk “ethnarch.”sn The governor was an official called an “ethnarch” who was appointed to rule on behalf of a king over a certain region.
2 Corinthians 11:32 tn Grk “the city of the Damascenes.”
2 Corinthians 11:32 tn Or “to seize,” “to catch.”
2 Corinthians 11:33 tn In Acts 9:25 the same basket used in Paul’s escape is called a σπυρίς (spuris), a basket larger than a κόφινος (kophinos). It was very likely made out of rope, so the translation “rope-basket” is used.

New English Translation (NET)