2nd Corinthians Chapter 3 verse 5 Holy Bible
not that we are sufficient of ourselves, to account anything as from ourselves; but our sufficiency is from God;
read chapter 3 in ASV
Not as if we were able by ourselves to do anything for which we might take the credit; but our power comes from God;
read chapter 3 in BBE
not that we are competent of ourselves to think anything as of ourselves, but our competency [is] of God;
read chapter 3 in DARBY
Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think any thing as of ourselves; but our sufficiency is of God;
read chapter 3 in KJV
read chapter 3 in WBT
not that we are sufficient of ourselves, to account anything as from ourselves; but our sufficiency is from God;
read chapter 3 in WEB
not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think anything, as of ourselves, but our sufficiency `is' of God,
read chapter 3 in YLT
Pulpit Commentary
Pulpit CommentaryVerse 5. - Not that we are sufficient of ourselves. He here reverts to the question asked in 2 Corinthians 2:16. He cannot bear the implication that any "confidence" on his part rests on anything short of the overwhelming sense that he is but an agent, or rather nothing but an instrument, in the hands of God. To think anything as of ourselves. He has, indeed, the capacity to form adequate judgments about his work, but it does not come from his own resources (ἀφ ἑαυτῶν) or his own independent origination (ἐξ ἑαυτῶν); comp. 1 Corinthians 15:10. But our sufficiency. Namely, to form any true or right judgment, and therefore to express the confidence which I have expressed. Is of God. We are but fellow workers with him (1 Corinthians 3:19).
Ellicott's Commentary
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers(5) Not that we are sufficient . . .--He had not used the word "sufficient" of himself, but it was clearly the implied answer to the question, "Who is sufficient for these things?" In the Greek there are two different prepositions for the one "of" in English. "Not as though we are sufficient of ourselves to form any estimate as originating with ourselves," would be a fair paraphrase. The habit of mind which led St. Paul to emphasise the shades of meaning in Greek prepositions to an extent hardly to be expressed in English, and not commonly recognised, it may be, in colloquial Greek, is seen again in Romans 11:36.Is of God.--The preposition is the same as in the second of the two previous clauses. The sufficiency flows from God as its source: originates with him.
