2nd Corinthians Chapter 11 verse 23 Holy Bible

Pulpit Commentary

Pulpit CommentaryVerse 23. - I speak as a fool. Not merely as before aphron, but paraphronon," I speak as a madman." It is downright insanity on my part to enter into this contest of rival egotism. The verb does not occur elsewhere in the New Testament; the substantive is used of "downright infatuation" in 2 Peter 2:16. I am more. I may claim to be something beyond an ordinary servant of Christ (comp. 2 Corinthians 11:5). This is the "frantic" boast which he proceeds to justify in a fragment of biography which must ever be accounted as the most remarkable and unique in the world's history. And when St. Paul lived the life was, as Dean Stanley says, "hitherto without precedent in the history of the world." No subsequent life of saint or martyr has ever surpassed St. Paul's, as here sketched, in self-devotion; and no previous life even remotely resembled it. The figure of the Christian missionary was, until then, unknown. In labours more abundant; literally, more abundantly. The best comment is 1 Corinthians 15:10. In stripes above measure. The expression is partly explained in the next verse. In prisons. St. Clement of Rome says that St. Paul was imprisoned seven times. The only imprisonment up to this date recorded in the Acts is that at Philippi (Acts 16:23). The imprisonments in Jerusalem, Caesarea, and Rome all took place later. He says later," The Holy Ghost witnesseth in every city that bonds and imprisonment await me" (Acts 20:23). In deaths oft. He alludes to the incessant opposition, peril, and anguish which make him say in 1 Corinthians 15:31, "I die daily" (comp. 2 Corinthians 4:11; Romans 8:36). With the whole passage we may compare 2 Corinthians 6:4, 5.

Ellicott's Commentary

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers(23) Are they ministers of Christ?--It is obvious that this title was claimed by the rival teachers in some special sense. They were "ministers of Christ" in a nearer and a higher sense than others. This again falls in with all that has been said as to the nature and pretensions of those who said, "I am of Christ." (See Notes on 2Corinthians 10:7; 1Corinthians 1:12.)I speak as a fool.--The form of the Greek verb is slightly varied, and means, more emphatically than before, I speak as one who is insane; I speak deliriously. In this instance, as before, we must believe that the Apostle is using, in a tone of indignant irony, the very words of insult which had been recklessly flung at him.In labours . . .--All that follows up to 2Corinthians 11:28, inclusive, is a proof of his claim to call himself a minister of Christ. The word "labours" is, of course, too vague to admit of more than a general comparison with the picture of his life presented in the Acts of the Apostles. The more specific statements show us that the writer of that book tends to understate rather than exaggerate the labours and sufferings of the Apostle. It tells us, up to this time, only of one imprisonment, at Philippi (Acts 16:23), and leaves us to conjecture where and under what circumstances we are to look for the others. In the "deaths oft," we trace an echo of the "sentence of death," the "dying daily" (see Notes on 2Corinthians 1:9; 2Corinthians 4:10); but the words probably include dangers to life of other kinds as well as those arising from bodily disease. . . .