^11:16I say again, let no one think that I am a fool.³⁰ But if you do, then at least accept me as a fool, so that I too may boast a little. ^11:17What I am saying with this boastful confidence³¹ I do not say the way the Lord would.³² Instead it is, as it were, foolishness. ^11:18Since many³³ are boasting according to human standards,³⁴ I too will boast. ^11:19For since you are so wise, you put up with³⁵ fools gladly. ^11:20For you put up with³⁶ it if someone makes slaves of you, if someone exploits you, if someone takes advantage of you, if someone behaves arrogantly³⁷ toward you, if someone strikes you in the face. ^11:21(To my disgrace³⁸ I must say that we were too weak for that!)³⁹ But whatever anyone else dares to boast about⁴⁰ (I am speaking foolishly), I also dare to boast about the same thing.⁴¹^11:22Are they Hebrews? So am I. Are they Israelites? So am I. Are they descendants of Abraham? So am I. ^11:23Are they servants of Christ? (I am talking like I am out of my mind!) I am even more so: with much greater labors, with far more imprisonments, with more severe beatings, facing death many times. ^11:24Five times I received from the Jews forty lashes less one.⁴²^11:25Three times I was beaten with a rod.⁴³ Once I received a stoning.⁴⁴ Three times I suffered shipwreck. A night and a day I spent adrift in the open sea. ^11:26I have been on journeys many times, in dangers from rivers, in dangers from robbers,⁴⁵ in dangers from my own countrymen, in dangers from Gentiles, in dangers in the city, in dangers in the wilderness,⁴⁶ in dangers at sea, in dangers from false brothers, ^11:27in hard work and toil,⁴⁷ through many sleepless nights, in hunger and thirst, many times without food, in cold and without enough clothing.⁴⁸^11:28Apart from other things,⁴⁹ there is the daily pressure on me of my anxious concern⁵⁰ for all the churches. ^11:29Who is weak, and I am not weak? Who is led into sin,⁵¹ and I do not burn with indignation? ^11:30If I must boast,⁵² I will boast about the things that show my weakness.⁵³^11:31The God and Father of the Lord Jesus, who is blessed forever, knows I am not lying. ^11:32In Damascus, the governor⁵⁴ under King Aretas was guarding the city of Damascus⁵⁵ in order to arrest⁵⁶ me, ^11:33but I was let down in a rope-basket⁵⁷ through a window in the city wall, and escaped his hands.

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Footnotes

30 Or “am foolish.”
31 Grk “with this confidence of boasting.” The genitive καυχήσεως (kauchēseōs) has been translated as an attributed genitive (the noun in the genitive gives an attribute of the noun modified).
32 Or “say with the Lord’s authority.”
33 Many is a reference to Paul’s opponents.
34 Grk “according to the flesh.”
35 Or “you tolerate.”
36 Or “you tolerate.”
38 Or “my shame.”
39 It seems best, in context, to see the statement we were too weak for that as a parenthetical and ironic comment by Paul on his physical condition (weakness or sickness) while he was with the Corinthians (cf. 2 Cor 12:7–10; Gal 4:15).
40 The words “to boast about” are not in the Greek text, but are implied. Direct objects were often omitted in Greek when clear from the context, and this phrase serves as the direct object of the preceding verb.
41 Grk “I also dare”; the words “to boast about the same thing” are not in the Greek text, but are implied. Direct objects were often omitted in Greek when clear from the context, and this phrase serves as the direct object of the preceding verb.
42 Grk “forty less one”; this was a standard sentence. “Lashes” is supplied to clarify for the modern reader what is meant.
43 Beaten with a rod refers to the Roman punishment of admonitio according to ῥαβδίζω. Acts 16:22 describes one of these occasions in Philippi; in this case it was administered by the city magistrates, who had wide powers in a military colony.
44 Received a stoning. See Acts 14:19, where this incident is described.
45 Or “bandits.” The word normally refers more to highwaymen (“robbers”) but can also refer to insurrectionists or revolutionaries (“bandits”).
46 Or “desert.”
47 The two different words for labor are translated “in hard work and toil” by L&N 42.48.
48 Grk “in cold and nakedness.” Paul does not mean complete nakedness, however, which would have been repugnant to a Jew; he refers instead to the lack of sufficient clothing, especially in cold weather. A related word is used to 1 Cor 4:11, also in combination with experiencing hunger and thirst.
49 Apart from other things. Paul refers here either (1) to the external sufferings just mentioned, or (2) he refers to other things he has left unmentioned.
50 “Anxious concern,” so translated in L&N 25.224.
51 Or “who is caused to stumble.”
52 Grk “If boasting is necessary.”
53 Or “about the things related to my weakness.”
54 Grk “ethnarch.” The governor was an official called an ethnarch who was appointed to rule over a particular area or constituency on behalf of a king.
55 Grk “the city of the Damascenes.”
56 Or “to seize,” “to catch.”
57 In Acts 9:25 the same basket used in Paul’s escape is called a σπυρίς (spuris), a basket larger than a κόφινος (kophinos). It was very likely made out of rope, so the translation “rope-basket” is used.

Cross references

37 See L&N 88.212.