2 Corinthians · Majority Standard Bible
2 Corinthians 11 Majority Standard Bible
Audio: World English Bible (WEB), read by Winfred W. Henson · About the recordings
1 I hope you will put up with a little of my foolishness, but you are already doing that.
1 I wish that you would bear with me in a little foolishness, but indeed you do bear with me.
2 I am jealous for you with a godly jealousy. For I promised you to one husband, to present you as a pure virgin to Christ.
2 For I am jealous over you with a godly jealousy. For I promised you in marriage to one husband, that I might present you as a pure virgin to Christ.
3 I am afraid, however, that just as Eve was deceived by the serpent’s cunning, your minds may be led astray from the simplicity that is in Christ.
3 But I am afraid that somehow, as the serpent deceived Eve in his craftiness, so your minds might be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ.
4 For if someone comes and proclaims a Jesus other than the One we proclaimed, or if you receive a different spirit than the One you received, or a different gospel than the one you accepted, you put up with it very easily.
4 For if he who comes preaches another Jesus whom we didn’t preach, or if you receive a different spirit which you didn’t receive, or a different “good news” which you didn’t accept, you put up with that well enough.
5 I consider myself in no way inferior to those “super-apostles.”
5 For I reckon that I am not at all behind the very best apostles.
6 Although I am not a polished speaker, I am certainly not lacking in knowledge. We have been made known to you in every way possible.
6 But though I am unskilled in speech, yet I am not unskilled in knowledge. No, in every way we have been revealed to you in all things.
7 Was it a sin for me to humble myself in order to exalt you, because I preached the gospel of God to you free of charge?
7 Or did I commit a sin in humbling myself that you might be exalted, because I preached to you God’s Good News free of charge?
8 I robbed other churches by accepting their support in order to serve you.
8 I robbed other assemblies, taking wages from them that I might serve you.
9 And when I was with you and in need, I was not a burden to anyone; for the brothers who came from Macedonia supplied my needs. I have refrained from being a burden to you in any way, and I will continue to do so.
9 When I was present with you and was in need, I wasn’t a burden on anyone, for the brothers, when they came from Macedonia, supplied the measure of my need. In everything I kept myself from being burdensome to you, and I will continue to do so.
10 As surely as the truth of Christ is in me, this boasting of mine will not be silenced in the regions of Achaia.
10 As the truth of Christ is in me, no one will stop me from this boasting in the regions of Achaia.
11 Why? Because I do not love you? God knows I do!
11 Why? Because I don’t love you? God knows.
12 But I will keep on doing what I am doing, in order to undercut those who want an opportunity to be regarded as our equals in the things of which they boast.
12 But what I do, that I will continue to do, that I may cut off opportunity from those who desire an opportunity, that in which they boast, they may be recognized just like us.
13 For such men are false apostles, deceitful workers, masquerading as apostles of Christ.
13 For such men are false apostles, deceitful workers, masquerading as Christ’s apostles.
14 And no wonder, for Satan himself masquerades as an angel of light.
14 And no wonder, for even Satan masquerades as an angel of light.
15 It is not surprising, then, if his servants masquerade as servants of righteousness. Their end will correspond to their actions.
15 It is no great thing therefore if his servants also masquerade as servants of righteousness, whose end will be according to their works.
16 I repeat: Let no one take me for a fool. But if you do, then receive me as a fool, so that I too may boast a little.
16 I say again, let no one think me foolish. But if so, yet receive me as foolish, that I also may boast a little.
17 In this confident boasting of mine, I am not speaking as the Lord would, but as a fool.
17 That which I speak, I don’t speak according to the Lord, but as in foolishness, in this confidence of boasting.
18 Since many are boasting according to the flesh, I too will boast.
18 Seeing that many boast after the flesh, I will also boast.
19 For you gladly put up with fools, since you are so wise.
19 For you bear with the foolish gladly, being wise.
20 In fact, you even put up with anyone who enslaves you or exploits you or takes advantage of you or exalts himself or strikes you in the face.
20 For you bear with a man if he brings you into bondage, if he devours you, if he takes you captive, if he exalts himself, or if he strikes you on the face.
21 To my shame I concede that we were too weak for that! Speaking as a fool, however, I can match what anyone else dares to boast about.
21 To my shame, I speak as though we had been weak. Yet in whatever way anyone is bold (I speak in foolishness), I am bold also.
22 Are they Hebrews? So am I. Are they Israelites? So am I. Are they descendants of Abraham? So am I.
22 Are they Hebrews? So am I. Are they Israelites? So am I. Are they the offspring of Abraham? So am I.
23 Are they servants of Christ? (I am speaking as if I were out of my mind.) I am so much more: in harder labor, in worse beatings, in more imprisonments, in frequent danger of death.
23 Are they servants of Christ? (I speak as one beside himself.) I am more so: in labors more abundantly, in prisons more abundantly, in stripes above measure, and in deaths often.
24 Five times I received from the Jews the forty lashes minus one.
24 Five times I received forty stripes minus one from the Jews.
25 Three times I was beaten with rods, once I was stoned, three times I was shipwrecked. I spent a night and a day in the open sea.
25 Three times I was beaten with rods. Once I was stoned. Three times I suffered shipwreck. I have been a night and a day in the deep.
26 In my frequent journeys, I have been in danger from rivers and from bandits, in danger from my countrymen and from the Gentiles, in danger in the city and in the country, in danger on the sea and among false brothers,
26 I have been in travels often, perils of rivers, perils of robbers, perils from my countrymen, perils from the Gentiles, perils in the city, perils in the wilderness, perils in the sea, perils among false brothers;
27 in labor and toil and often without sleep, in hunger and thirst and often without food, in cold and exposure.
27 in labor and travail, in watchings often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, and in cold and nakedness.
28 Apart from these external trials, I face daily the pressure of my concern for all the churches.
28 Besides those things that are outside, there is that which presses on me daily: anxiety for all the assemblies.
29 Who is weak, and I am not weak? Who is led into sin, and I do not burn with grief?
29 Who is weak, and I am not weak? Who is caused to stumble, and I don’t burn with indignation?
30 If I must boast, I will boast of the things that show my weakness.
30 If I must boast, I will boast of the things that concern my weakness.
31 The God and Father of the Lord Jesus Christ, who is forever worthy of praise, knows that I am not lying.
31 The God and Father of the Lord Jesus Christ, he who is blessed forever more, knows that I don’t lie.
32 In Damascus, the governor under King Aretas secured the city of the Damascenes wishing to arrest me.
32 In Damascus the governor under King Aretas guarded the Damascenes’ city, desiring to arrest me.
33 But I was lowered in a basket through a window in the wall and escaped his grasp.
33 I was let down in a basket through a window by the wall, and escaped his hands.
People & places in this chapter
From this site's family tree and Bible maps, only where those guides cite this chapter.
People
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)