1 I hope you can put up with a little more foolishness from me—well you already do put up with me! 2 I agonize over you with a divine kind of jealousy, for I promised you to a single husband—Christ—so that I could present you as a pure virgin to him. 3 I worry that in some way, just as the serpent deceived Eve with his devious cunning, that you might be led astray in your thinking from your sincere and pure commitment to Christ. 4 If anyone comes and tells you about a different Jesus to the one we shared with you, you easily go along with them, accepting a different spirit to the one you received, and a different kind of good news to the one you believed. 5 I don't believe I'm inferior to these “super-apostles.” 6 Even though I may not be skilled in giving speeches, I do know what I'm talking about. We have made this absolutely clear to you in every way. 7 Was it wrong of me to humble myself so you could be elevated, since I shared the good news with you at no charge? 8 I robbed as it were other churches, taking pay from them so I could work for you. 9 When I was there with you and needed something, I wasn't a burden to anyone because the believers who came from Macedonia took care of my needs. I was determined never to be a burden to you and I never shall. 10 This is as certain as the truth of Christ that is in me: nobody in all Achaia will stop me boasting about this! 11 And why? Because I don't love you? God knows that I do! 12 I'll continue to do what I've always done, so as to remove any opportunity for those who want to boast that their work is the same as ours. 13 These people are false apostles, dishonest workers, who pretend to be apostles of Christ. 14 Don't be surprised at this for even Satan himself pretends to be an angel of light. 15 So it's no wonder then if those who serve him pretend to be agents of good. But their final end will be in accordance with what they've done. 16 Let me say it again: Please don't think I'm being foolish. However, even if you do, accept me as someone who is foolish, and let me also boast a little. 17 What I'm saying is not as the Lord would say it—all this foolish boasting. 18 But since many others are boasting in the way the world does, let me boast too. 19 (You're happy to put up with fools, since you are so wise!) 20 You put up with people who make you slaves, who take what you have, who exploit you, who arrogantly put you down, who hit you in the face. 21 I'm so sorry that we were too weak to do anything like that! But whatever people dare to boast about, I dare to do too. (Here I'm talking like a fool again.) 22 Are they Hebrews? Me too. Are they Israelites? Me too. Are they descendants of Abraham? Me too. 23 Are they servants of Christ? (I know I'll sound like I'm crazy, talking like this.) But I have done so much more. I've worked harder, been imprisoned more often, whipped more times than I can count, faced death time and again. 24 Five times I received from the Jews the forty lashes less one. 25 Three times I was beaten with rods, once I was stoned, three times I was shipwrecked. Once I spent twenty-four hours adrift on the ocean. 26 During my many journeys I have faced the dangers of crossing rivers, robber gangs, attacks from my own countrymen, as well as from foreigners. I have faced danger in cities, in the deserts, and on the sea. I have faced the danger of people who pretend to be Christians. 27 I have faced hard labor and struggles, many sleepless nights, hunger and thirst, often going without food, cold, without enough clothing to keep warm. 28 Besides all this, I face the daily concerns of dealing with all the churches. 29 Who is weak, and I don't feel weak too? Who is led into sin, and I don't burn up? 30 If I have to boast, I will boast about how weak I am. 31 The God and Father of the Lord Jesus—may he be praised forever—knows I am not lying. 32 While I was in Damascus, the governor under King Aretas had the city guarded in order to capture me. 33 But I was lowered in a basket from a window in the city wall, and so I escaped from him.
2 Corinthians · Free Bible Version
2 Corinthians 11 Free Bible Version
Audio: World English Bible (WEB), read by Winfred W. Henson · About the recordings
People & places in this chapter
From this site's family tree and Bible maps, only where those guides cite this chapter.
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Aretas
The king whose governor guarded Damascus to seize Paul; Paul escaped in a basket through a window in the wall.
Cited in the guide: 2 Corinthians 11:32
Cross references (33)
Related passages for each verse, from the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge as collected and ranked by readers at OpenBible.info.
- 1 2 Corinthians 11:4; 1 Corinthians 1:21; 2 Corinthians 11:21; 2 Corinthians 11:19; 2 Corinthians 5:13
- 2 Hosea 2:19–20; Ephesians 5:26–27; Isaiah 54:5; Colossians 1:28; Leviticus 21:13–15
- 3 Colossians 2:8; Galatians 1:6; Ephesians 4:14; 1 John 4:1; Colossians 2:4
- 4 Galatians 1:6–8; 1 Corinthians 3:11; 1 Timothy 2:5; Ephesians 4:4–5; 1 Corinthians 12:4–11
- 5 1 Corinthians 15:10; 2 Corinthians 12:11–12; Galatians 2:6–9
- 6 1 Corinthians 1:17; Ephesians 3:4; 2 Corinthians 4:2; 1 Corinthians 1:21; 2 Peter 3:15–16
- 7 2 Corinthians 12:13; 1 Corinthians 4:10–12; 2 Corinthians 10:1; 1 Thessalonians 2:9; 1 Corinthians 9:6
- 8 2 Corinthians 11:9; Philippians 4:14–16; Philippians 4:18
- 9 2 Thessalonians 3:8–9; 1 Thessalonians 2:9; 1 Thessalonians 2:6; Philippians 4:10–16; Hebrews 11:37
- 10 Romans 9:1; Acts 18:12; Romans 1:9; 2 Corinthians 1:23; 2 Corinthians 11:31
- 11 2 Corinthians 12:15; 2 Corinthians 7:3; 2 Corinthians 6:11–12; 2 Corinthians 12:2–3; Revelation 2:23
- 12 1 Corinthians 9:12; 2 Corinthians 10:17; Galatians 1:7; 2 Corinthians 11:9; 2 Corinthians 11:18
- 13 Galatians 1:7; Revelation 2:2; 1 John 4:1; Philippians 3:2; Galatians 2:4
- 14 Galatians 1:8; 2 Corinthians 2:11; 2 Corinthians 11:3; Revelation 12:9; Matthew 4:1–10
- 15 Philippians 3:19; 2 Corinthians 3:9; Revelation 9:11; Jeremiah 23:14–15; Jude 4
- 16 2 Corinthians 11:1; 2 Corinthians 12:6; 2 Corinthians 12:11; 2 Corinthians 11:19; 2 Corinthians 11:21–23
- 17 1 Corinthians 7:12; Philippians 3:3–6; 2 Corinthians 9:4; 1 Corinthians 7:25; 2 Corinthians 11:18–27
- 18 2 Corinthians 12:11; 2 Corinthians 12:9; Philippians 3:3–4; 1 Peter 1:24; 2 Corinthians 12:5–6
- 19 1 Corinthians 4:10; 1 Corinthians 10:15; 1 Corinthians 8:1; Revelation 3:17
- 20 Galatians 2:4; Galatians 5:1; Galatians 4:3; Galatians 4:9; Isaiah 50:6
- 21 2 Corinthians 10:10; 2 Corinthians 10:1–2; 2 Corinthians 11:17; 2 Corinthians 11:22–27; 2 Corinthians 13:10
- 22 Philippians 3:5; Romans 11:1; Romans 9:4; Exodus 7:16; Exodus 9:13
- 23 2 Corinthians 6:4–5; Colossians 1:24; 2 Corinthians 6:9; 2 Corinthians 1:9–10; 2 Corinthians 11:24–25
- 24 Mark 13:9; Deuteronomy 25:2–3; Matthew 10:17
- 25 Acts 14:19; Hebrews 11:37; Acts 27:1–44; Acts 16:37; Acts 16:33
- 26 Acts 14:5; Acts 20:19; Acts 25:3; Acts 17:5; Acts 13:50
- 27 2 Corinthians 6:5; Philippians 4:12; 1 Thessalonians 2:9; 2 Thessalonians 3:8; 1 Corinthians 4:11–12
- 28 1 Corinthians 7:17; Romans 15:16; Acts 20:18–35; Romans 11:13; Acts 15:40–41
- 29 1 Corinthians 8:13; 1 Corinthians 9:22; Galatians 4:8–20; Nehemiah 13:23–25; Nehemiah 13:15–20
- 30 2 Corinthians 12:5–11; Proverbs 25:27; 1 Corinthians 2:3; Jeremiah 9:23–24; Proverbs 27:2
- 31 Romans 9:5; Ephesians 1:3; John 10:30; Romans 15:6; 1 Peter 1:3
- 32 Acts 9:24–25; 2 Corinthians 11:26
- 33 Acts 9:25; Joshua 2:18; 1 Samuel 19:12
Cross references: OpenBible.info (CC BY), drawn mainly from the public-domain Treasury of Scripture Knowledge. · Sources & licences
What the Fathers said
Passages from the Church Fathers that expound or quote this chapter, verbatim from the public-domain Schaff edition (19th-century English translations).
How these were chosen
“Commentary” is the opening of a homily or exposition on this chapter (John Chrysostom’s homilies, Augustine’s tractates, sermons and expositions of the Psalms). “Quotes” are sentences where the edition’s own footnotes identify a quotation of a verse here, kept only when the wording matches the verse. Only works whose authorship is not in doubt are used. Psalms follow the Hebrew/English numbering (Augustine numbers them as the Septuagint does: his Psalm 50 is Psalm 51 here).
Being about to enter upon his own praises he uses much previous correction. And he does this not once or twice, although the necessity of the subject, and what he had often said, were sufficient excuse for him.
Read in context · Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, series 1, vol. 12 (1889)
For the devil it was, transforming himself into an angel of light. And he much allured proud flesh, in that he had no fleshly body.
Read in context · Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, series 1, vol. 1 (1886)
Wherefore Paul also said, "That wherein they glory, they may be found even as we." But if when we are in a strange country, and are going unto persons unknown to us, we must seek nothing more than our food for the day, much more when abiding at home.
Read in context · Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, series 1, vol. 10 (1888)
The devil also transfigures himself into an angel of light; not that he may reascend to where he was, for having made his heart hard as an anvil, he has henceforth a will that cannot repent; but in order that he may envelope those who are living an Angelic life in a mist of blindness, and a pestilent condition …
Read in context · Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, series 2, vol. 7 (1894)
… not in his own voice, doth he call on that other deep, for whom being jealous he feareth, lest that, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtilty, so their minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in our Bridegroom, Thine only Son. What a light of beauty will that be when "we shall see Him as He …
Read in context · Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, series 1, vol. 1 (1886)