2 Korintus 11:16--12:13
Konteks11:16 I say again, let no one think that I am a fool. 1 But if you do, then at least accept me as a fool, so that I too may boast a little. 11:17 What I am saying with this boastful confidence 2 I do not say the way the Lord would. 3 Instead it is, as it were, foolishness. 11:18 Since many 4 are boasting according to human standards, 5 I too will boast. 11:19 For since you are so wise, you put up with 6 fools gladly. 11:20 For you put up with 7 it if someone makes slaves of you, if someone exploits you, if someone takes advantage of you, if someone behaves arrogantly 8 toward you, if someone strikes you in the face. 11:21 (To my disgrace 9 I must say that we were too weak for that!) 10 But whatever anyone else dares to boast about 11 (I am speaking foolishly), I also dare to boast about the same thing. 12 11:22 Are they Hebrews? So am I. Are they Israelites? So am I. Are they descendants of Abraham? So am I. 11:23 Are 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. 11:24 Five times I received from the Jews forty lashes less one. 13 11:25 Three times I was beaten with a rod. 14 Once I received a stoning. 15 Three times I suffered shipwreck. A night and a day I spent adrift in the open sea. 11:26 I have been on journeys many times, in dangers from rivers, in dangers from robbers, 16 in dangers from my own countrymen, in dangers from Gentiles, in dangers in the city, in dangers in the wilderness, 17 in dangers at sea, in dangers from false brothers, 11:27 in hard work and toil, 18 through many sleepless nights, in hunger and thirst, many times without food, in cold and without enough clothing. 19 11:28 Apart from other things, 20 there is the daily pressure on me of my anxious concern 21 for all the churches. 11:29 Who is weak, and I am not weak? Who is led into sin, 22 and I do not burn with indignation? 11:30 If I must boast, 23 I will boast about the things that show my weakness. 24 11:31 The God and Father of the Lord Jesus, who is blessed forever, knows I am not lying. 11:32 In Damascus, the governor 25 under King Aretas was guarding the city of Damascus 26 in order to arrest 27 me, 11:33 but I was let down in a rope-basket 28 through a window in the city wall, and escaped his hands.
12:1 It is necessary to go on boasting. 29 Though it is not profitable, I will go on to visions and revelations from the Lord. 12:2 I know a man in Christ who fourteen years ago (whether in the body or out of the body I do not know, God knows) was caught up to the third heaven. 12:3 And I know that this man (whether in the body or apart from the body I do not know, God knows) 12:4 was caught up into paradise 30 and heard things too sacred to be put into words, 31 things that a person 32 is not permitted to speak. 12:5 On behalf of such an individual I will boast, but on my own behalf I will not boast, except about my weaknesses. 12:6 For even if I wish to boast, I will not be a fool, for I would be telling 33 the truth, but I refrain from this so that no one may regard 34 me beyond what he sees in me or what he hears from me, 12:7 even because of the extraordinary character of the revelations. Therefore, 35 so that I would not become arrogant, a thorn in the flesh was given to me, a messenger of Satan to trouble 36 me – so that I would not become arrogant. 37 12:8 I asked the Lord three times about this, that it would depart from me. 12:9 But 38 he said to me, “My grace is enough 39 for you, for my 40 power is made perfect 41 in weakness.” So then, I will boast most gladly 42 about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may reside in 43 me. 12:10 Therefore I am content with 44 weaknesses, with insults, with troubles, with persecutions and difficulties 45 for the sake of Christ, for whenever I am weak, then I am strong.
12:11 I have become a fool. You yourselves forced me to do it, for I should have been commended by you. For I lack nothing in comparison 46 to those “super-apostles,” even though I am nothing. 12:12 Indeed, the signs of an apostle were performed among you with great perseverance 47 by signs and wonders and powerful deeds. 48 12:13 For how 49 were you treated worse than the other churches, except that I myself was not a burden to you? Forgive me this injustice!
[11:17] 2 tn Grk “with this confidence of boasting.” The genitive καυχήσεως (kauchsew") has been translated as an attributed genitive (the noun in the genitive gives an attribute of the noun modified).
[11:17] 3 tn Or “say with the Lord’s authority.”
[11:18] 4 sn Many is a reference to Paul’s opponents.
[11:18] 5 tn Grk “according to the flesh.”
[11:19] 6 tn Or “you tolerate.”
[11:20] 7 tn Or “you tolerate.”
[11:21] 10 sn 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).
[11:21] 11 tn 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.
[11:21] 12 tn 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.
[11:24] 13 tn Grk “forty less one”; this was a standard sentence. “Lashes” is supplied to clarify for the modern reader what is meant.
[11:25] 14 sn Beaten with a rod refers to the Roman punishment of admonitio according to BDAG 902 s.v. 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.
[11:25] 15 sn Received a stoning. See Acts 14:19, where this incident is described.
[11:26] 16 tn Or “bandits.” The word normally refers more to highwaymen (“robbers”) but can also refer to insurrectionists or revolutionaries (“bandits”).
[11:27] 18 tn The two different words for labor are translated “in hard work and toil” by L&N 42.48.
[11:27] 19 tn 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.
[11:28] 20 sn 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.
[11:28] 21 tn “Anxious concern,” so translated in L&N 25.224.
[11:29] 22 tn Or “who is caused to stumble.”
[11:30] 23 tn Grk “If boasting is necessary.”
[11:30] 24 tn Or “about the things related to my weakness.”
[11:32] sn The governor was an official called an ethnarch who was appointed to rule over a particular area or constituency on behalf of a king.
[11:32] 26 tn Grk “the city of the Damascenes.”
[11:32] 27 tn Or “to seize,” “to catch.”
[11:33] 28 tn In Acts 9:25 the same basket used in Paul’s escape is called a σπυρίς (spuri"), a basket larger than a κόφινος (kofinos). It was very likely made out of rope, so the translation “rope-basket” is used.
[12:1] 29 tn Grk “Boasting is necessary.”
[12:4] 30 sn In the NT, paradise is mentioned three times. In Luke 23:43 it refers to the abode of the righteous dead. In Rev 2:7 it refers to the restoration of Edenic paradise predicted in Isa 51:3 and Ezek 36:35. The reference here in 2 Cor 12:4 is probably to be translated as parallel to the mention of the “third heaven” in v. 2. Assuming that the “first heaven” would be atmospheric heaven (the sky) and “second heaven” the more distant stars and planets, “third heaven” would refer to the place where God dwells. This is much more likely than some variation on the seven heavens mentioned in the pseudepigraphic book 2 Enoch and in other nonbiblical and rabbinic works.
[12:4] 31 tn Or “things that cannot be put into words.”
[12:6] 34 tn Or “may think of.”
[12:7] 35 tc Most
[12:7] 37 tn The phrase “so that I might not become arrogant” is repeated here because it occurs in the Greek text two times in the verse. Although redundant, it is repeated because of the emphatic nature of its affirmation.
[12:9] 38 tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “but” because of the contrast implicit in the context.
[12:9] 39 tn Or “is sufficient.”
[12:9] 40 tc The majority of later
[12:9] tn The pronoun “my” was supplied in the translation to clarify the sense of Paul’s expression.
[12:9] 41 tn Or “my power comes to full strength.”
[12:9] 42 tn “Most gladly,” a comparative form used with superlative meaning and translated as such.
[12:9] 43 tn Or “may rest on.”
[12:10] 44 tn Or “I take delight in.”
[12:10] 45 tn Or “calamities.”
[12:11] 46 tn Or “I am in no way inferior.”
[12:12] 47 tn Or “patience,” “endurance.”
