2 Corinthians 11
The full text of 2 Corinthians 11 in the Trinity Bible Version — clear modern English, translated from the original Greek. Free to read.
1 I hope you will put up with me in a little foolishness. Yes, please put up with me!
2 I am jealous for you with a godly jealousy. I promised you to one husband, to Christ, so that I might present you as a pure virgin to him.
3 But I am afraid that just as Eve was deceived by the serpent's cunning, your minds may somehow be led astray from your sincere and pure devotion to Christ.
4 For if someone comes to you and preaches a Jesus other than the Jesus we preached, or if you receive a different spirit from the Spirit you received, or a different gospel from the one you accepted, you put up with it easily enough.
5 I do not think I am in the least inferior to those 'super-apostles.'
6 Even though I may not be a trained speaker, I do have knowledge. We have made this perfectly clear to you in every way.
7 Was it a sin for me to lower myself in order to elevate you by preaching the gospel of God to you free of charge?
8 I robbed other churches by accepting support from them so as to serve you.
9 And when I was with you and needed something, I was not a burden to anyone, for the brothers who came from Macedonia supplied what I needed. I have kept myself from being a burden to you in any way, and will continue to do so.
10 As surely as the truth of Christ is in me, nobody in the regions of Achaia will stop this boasting of mine.
11 Why? Because I do not love you? God knows I do!
12 And I will keep on doing what I am doing in order to cut the ground from under those who want an opportunity to be considered equal with us in the things they boast about.
13 For such people are false apostles, deceitful workers, masquerading as apostles of Christ.
14 And no wonder, for Satan himself masquerades as an angel of light.
15 It is not surprising, then, if his servants also masquerade as servants of righteousness. Their end will be what their actions deserve.
16 I repeat: Let no one take me for a fool. But if you do, then tolerate me just as you would a fool, so that I may do a little boasting.
17 In this self-confident boasting I am not talking as the Lord would, but as a fool.
18 Since many are boasting in the way the world does, I too will boast.
19 You gladly put up with fools since you are so wise!
20 In fact, you even put up with anyone who enslaves you or exploits you or takes advantage of you or puts on airs or slaps you in the face.
21 To my shame I admit that we were too weak for that! Whatever anyone else dares to boast about, I am speaking as a fool, I also dare to boast about.
22 Are they Hebrews? So am I. Are they Israelites? So am I. Are they Abraham's descendants? So am I.
23 Are they servants of Christ? (I am out of my mind to talk like this.) I am more. I have worked much harder, been in prison more frequently, been flogged more severely, and been exposed to death again and again.
24 Five times I received from the Jews the forty lashes minus one.
25 Three times I was beaten with rods, once I was pelted with stones, three times I was shipwrecked, I spent a night and a day in the open sea.
26 I have been constantly on the move. I have been in danger from rivers, in danger from bandits, in danger from my fellow Jews, in danger from Gentiles; in danger in the city, in danger in the country, in danger at sea; and in danger from false believers.
27 I have labored and toiled and have often gone without sleep; I have known hunger and thirst and have often gone without food; I have been cold and naked.
28 Besides everything else, I face daily the pressure of my concern for all the churches.
29 Who is weak, and I do not feel weak? Who is led into sin, and I do not inwardly burn?
30 If I must boast, I will boast of the things that show my weakness.
31 The God and Father of the Lord Jesus, who is to be praised forever, knows that I am not lying.
32 In Damascus the governor under King Aretas had the city of the Damascenes guarded in order to arrest me.
33 But I was lowered in a basket through a window in the wall and slipped through his hands.
Translation notes (9)
- 2 Corinthians 11:3a Paul's exepatesen, 'deceived', is an intensified form of the verb Eve herself uses in the Septuagint of Genesis 3:13, tying this warning directly to the Eden narrative. The words behind 'and pure' (kai tes hagnotetos) are attested in Papyrus 46, Codex Sinaiticus and Codex Vaticanus, but are absent from the later manuscripts underlying the King James tradition, which speaks only of simplicity toward Christ.
- 2 Corinthians 11:5a The Greek phrase hyperlian apostolōn (ὑπερλίαν ἀποστόλων), literally 'exceedingly apostles', combines hyper, 'beyond', with lian, 'exceedingly', and appears only here and in 2 Corinthians 12:11. The coinage is ironic, mocking the inflated claims of Paul's rivals in Corinth rather than conceding their authority.
- 2 Corinthians 11:14a The Greek verb metaschematizetai, 'changes his form', rendered here as 'masquerades', appears three times in verses 13-15. Paul may draw on a Jewish tradition, attested in the Life of Adam and Eve, that Satan took the appearance of a shining angel to deceive Eve, a fitting allusion given the reference to the serpent's deception of Eve in verse 3.
- 2 Corinthians 11:20a Paul stacks five conditional clauses, each opening with ei tis, 'if anyone'. The verb rendered 'exploits' is katesthiei, literally 'devours', a common image for consuming another's resources, while 'slaps you in the face' translates eis prosopon derei, a picture of humiliating abuse that may be literal or figurative.
- 2 Corinthians 11:24a Deuteronomy 25:3 caps judicial flogging at forty lashes; Jewish practice reduced the count to thirty-nine as a safeguard against exceeding the legal limit through miscounting, a custom later codified in the Mishnah (Makkot 3:10). Greek tesserakonta para mian, 'forty minus one', reflects this synagogue penalty, which Paul endured five times.
- 2 Corinthians 11:25a None of these three shipwrecks appears in Acts, whose one recorded wreck (Acts 27) occurred years after this letter was written, a reminder that Acts narrates Paul's travels selectively. Rabdizo, 'to beat with rods', denotes a Roman magistrate's punishment; Acts 16:22 records one such beating at Philippi. Nychthemeron, 'a night and a day', measures his time adrift in bythos, literally 'the deep'.
- 2 Corinthians 11:29a The Greek verb pyroumai (πυροῦμαι), 'I am set on fire', leaves the emotion unstated: Paul may burn with indignation at whoever causes the stumbling, or with grief and shared distress for the one who falls. The rendering 'inwardly burn' preserves this openness. The preceding verb skandalizetai means literally 'is made to stumble'.
- 2 Corinthians 11:32a Greek ethnarchēs (ἐθνάρχης), 'ethnarch', rendered here as 'governor', designates an official ruling on behalf of a people or king. The king is Aretas IV of Nabataea, who reigned until about AD 40, making this episode a fixed point for dating Paul's early ministry. Acts 9:23-25 recounts the same escape from Damascus.
- 2 Corinthians 11:33a The Greek sarganē (σαργάνη), 'braided rope basket', appears only here in the New Testament; Luke's account of the same escape uses spyris, a large hamper (Acts 9:25). The final clause, exephygon tas cheiras autou, is literally 'I escaped his hands', referring to the governor named in the previous verse.
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