2 Corinthians 11


2 Corinthians 11 is the eleventh Chapters and [verses of the Bible|chapter] of the Second Epistle to the Corinthians in the New Testament of the Christian Bible. It was written by Paul the Apostle and Timothy in Macedonia in 55–56 CE. According to theologian Heinrich Meyer, chapters 10–13 "contain the third chief section of the Epistle, the apostle's polemic vindication of his apostolic dignity and efficiency, and then the conclusion".

Text

The original text was written in Koine Greek. [Chapters and verses of the Bible|This chapter is divided into] 33 verses.

Textual witnesses

Some early manuscripts containing the text of this chapter are:

False apostles

In verse 13, Paul writes of "false apostles". In verse 5 he has compared himself with the "super-apostles" or the "apostles-extraordinary" . Meyer asks "Whom does he mean by τῶν ὑπερλίαν ἀποστόλων?". He notes that "according to Chrysostom, Theodoret, Grotius, Bengel, and most of the older commentators, also Emmerling, Flatt, Schrader, Baur, Hilgenfeld, Holsten, Holtzmann, the actual summos apostolos, namely Peter, James, and John" but Meyer argues that "Paul is not contending against these, but against the false apostles" and recommends the translation "the over-great apostles". Meyer lists biblical commentators Richard Simon, Alethius, Heumann, Semler, Michaelis, Schulz, Stolz, Rosenmüller, Fritzsche, Billroth, Rückert, Olshausen, de Wette, Ewald, Osiander, Neander, Hofmann, Weiss, Beyschlag and others as having followed Beza's suggestion, according to which the pseudo-apostles were understood to be Judaistic anti-Pauline teachers.

Verse 1

The King James Version adds "Would to God ye could bear with me a little in my folly". The reference to God is not part of the Greek text.

Verse 14

King James Version
New King James Version

Verse 19

New King James Version
King James Version

Verse 24

  • "Forty stripes minus one" : The number of stripes Paul received at each time agrees with the traditions and customs of the Jews, based on : "forty stripes he may give him, and not exceed". In fulfilling that law, runs the tradition "with forty save one" and this is the general sense of their interpreters, as a settled rule "that scourging according to the law is with forty stripes save one" as Maimonides observes. According to the manner of scourging, a scourge of three cords could be use, that every stroke went for three stripes, so that by thirteen strokes, thirty nine stripes were given, and if a fourteenth had been added, there would have been forty two stripes and so have exceeded what the law allows. Thus Paul received the most severe scourging permitted from the Jews.

Verse 33