Глава XI

The apostle compares himself with his opponents (1–21). The Apostle praises his virtues and his sorrows and sufferings (22-32). 2 Corinthians 11:1–21. To restore his authority in the eyes of the Corinthians, Apostle. sees himself forced to speak about his merits. If this seems rather unreasonable to the Corinthians, then let them excuse the Apostle, as they excuse his opponents, who constantly boast before them. The Apostle points here only to his knowledge of Christian teaching and to his unselfishness, which he showed in refusing the content befitting him as a preacher. Then Ap. again says that he is well aware of the unreasonableness of self-praise, but, nevertheless, he is forced to it by circumstances. 2 Corinthians 11:1. Oh, if only you would be somewhat lenient towards my folly! But you also condescend to me. 2 Corinthians 11:2. For I am jealous for you with the jealousy of God; because I have betrothed you to one husband, in order to present you to Christ as a pure virgin. 2 Corinthians 11:3. But I am afraid that, just as the serpent deceived Eve with his cunning, so your minds may be damaged, deviating from the simplicity in Christ. Ap. returns to his favorite topic - defending himself against the reproach of self-praise. He asks his readers for forgiveness for this self-praise, which he calls unreason, and he already sees that they are forgiving of him. And he has the right to such condescension: after all, he is guided in his self-praise not by any human, personal benefits, but is jealous of keeping the Corinthians behind him - just as God Himself is jealous of this. Just as God once created Eve for Adam, so the Apostle prepared a pure virgin for her husband. This pure virgin is the Corinthian Church in its new state, full of new life, and the husband is Christ, the Lord of the Church. The Apostle must present her to Christ blameless by the time when the “marriage of the Lamb” will take place, that is, by His second coming (Rev 19:7, 21:2). Therefore, he is extremely worried about the thought that the Corinthian church - this virgin destined to be the wife of Christ - would not deviate towards the seducers. Such seducers may be the Judaizers, who want to distract the Corinthians from simple and pure Christianity to Jewish Christianity, which recognized the observance of the Mosaic Law as necessary for all believers. This Christianity, therefore, believed that the work of Christ was insufficient to save people and therefore humiliated Christ in the eyes of the bride being prepared for Him - the Corinthian church. 2 Corinthians 11:4. For if someone came and began to preach another Jesus, whom we did not preach, or if you received another Spirit, which you did not receive, or another gospel, which you did not accept, then you would be very lenient towards him. 2 Corinthians 11:5. But I think that I have nothing lacking against the highest Apostles: 2 Corinthians 11:6. although I am ignorant in words, I am not in knowledge. However, we are completely known to you in everything. To induce the Corinthians to accept his self-praise, Ap. indicates that they have already accepted many people who did not deserve it at all. - “If only anyone.” In the Greek text the speech is not in a presumptive tone, but in a confident one. The Apostle says that the Corinthians are already eagerly accepting teachers who preach to them another Jesus, that is, they place Christianity in an inevitable connection with the ritual law of Moses, and at the same time they accept a new spirit - the “spirit of slavery” (Rom. 8:15) instead of the “Spirit of the Lord”, the Spirit of freedom (2 Cor. 3:17). “Still,” says the Apostle with irony, “I am no lower than these people who dare to call themselves the highest Apostles” (more precisely: “these overly great Apostles or envoys from the oldest Church of Jerusalem”). Even if the Apostle is not distinguished by his eloquence, which these strangers probably boasted of, he has a correct knowledge of Christian teaching and in everything in general, that is, in all his affairs that he undertakes, he is well known, of course, by the Corinthians and they know him, undoubtedly, the Apostle wants to say, on the good side. 2 Corinthians 11:7. Did I sin by humiliating myself in order to exalt you, because I preached the Gospel of God to you freely? 2 Corinthians 11:8. I caused expenses to other churches, receiving from them maintenance for serving you; and, being with you, although I suffered from lack, I did not bother anyone, 2 Corinthians 11:9. for my lack was filled by the brothers who came from Macedonia; and in everything I tried and will try not to be a burden to you. 2 Corinthians 11:10. According to the truth of Christ in me, I will say that this praise will not be taken away from me in the countries of Achaia. 2 Corinthians 11:11. Why am I doing this? Is it because I don't love you? God knows! But as I do, so I will do, 2 Corinthians 11:12. so as not to give a reason to those who are looking for a reason, so that what they boast about may turn out to be the same as us. Ap. returns here to the topic that he spoke about already in the 1st Epistle to the Corinthians (chapter IX). His pride was that he preached the Gospel in Corinth completely free of charge. His opponents blamed him for this or reproached him: The Apostle, they said, does not take anything from the Corinthians, but this is because he has nothing to pay for... The Apostle did this in order to elevate the Corinthians, that is, in order not to give them a reason to reproach him for self-interest and so as not to alienate them from Christ, in whose communion the Corinthians can only elevate themselves - of course, in a moral sense. In order not to bother the Corinthians, he took advantage of benefits from the Macedonian churches even when he worked in Corinth. Ap. swears by the truth or authenticity of Christ (speaks with the same truth with which Christ spoke cf. Rom. 9:1) that the glory about him going throughout Achaia (see 2 Cor. 1:1) will never be taken away from him: he will not take anything from the Corinthians in the future. The Corinthians may say that Ap. because he doesn’t accept anything from them because he doesn’t love them. But they shouldn't say that. God knows how much the Apostle loves them. But he does not want to give his enemies, who are happy to accuse and humiliate the Apostle in the eyes of the Corinthians at any opportunity, a reason to accuse him of some kind of greed. Indeed, his efforts to spread the news of Christ in Corinth could be interpreted by the Judaizers as a matter of self-interest on Paul's part. 2 Corinthians 11:13. For such false apostles, deceitful workers, disguise themselves as apostles of Christ. 2 Corinthians 11:14. And no wonder: because Satan himself disguises himself as an angel of light, 2 Corinthians 11:15. and therefore it is not a great thing if his servants take on the appearance of servants of truth; but their end will be according to their works. The apostle speaks in an extremely harsh tone about his opponents. They are not the Apostles of Christ, as they claim to be, but servants of Satan. Like their master Satan, who sometimes takes on the appearance of a bright angel (light is a designation of the nature of good angels), these false apostles take on the appearance of “servants of truth” - that truth, which Ap. considered it his own calling to proclaim. Paul (Rom 1:17). They offer the Corinthians the truth through the fulfillment of the law of Moses, but this is a false road to the truth: in this way you do not achieve justification (Rom. 3:20). For this deception, the false apostles will receive the punishment they deserve. – To the question where the Apostle borrowed the idea that Satan sometimes transforms into a bright angel, it is most correct to answer this way: from Jewish traditions. 2 Corinthians 11:16. I will also say: almost no one makes me unreasonable; and if not so, then accept me, although as unreasonable, so that I too can boast in some way. 2 Corinthians 11:17. What I say, I will say not in the Lord, but as if in foolishness, given such courage to praise. 2 Corinthians 11:18. As many boast in the flesh, so will I boast. 2 Corinthians 11:19. For you, wise people, willingly tolerate foolish people: 2 Corinthians 11:20. you endure when someone enslaves you, when someone devours you, when someone robs you, when someone exalts you, when someone hits you in the face. 2 Corinthians 11:21. I am ashamed to say that we did not have enough strength for this. And if anyone dares to boast about anything, then (I will say foolishly) I dare too. The Apostle once again asks his readers' indulgence for the self-praise with which he must now appear. It would be good if they did not consider him unreasonable for this, but if they are no longer able to look at him differently, then let them listen at least as a person “not in himself” (“unreasonable”). After all, they - the Apostle adds with bitter irony - are losing a lot from their Judaizing enemies, who exploit them in every possible way. Why shouldn’t they treat the Apostle Paul with condescension? They must remember that the Apostle also has something to boast about, if his opponents find something to boast about. Of course, he did not exploit the Corinthians, but for him, in any case, this depended not on the fact that he did not feel the right to receive support from the Corinthians, but on the fact that it would be a shame to do so (“to shame” - the shame of their opponents). 2 Corinthians 11:22–32. Starting to self-praise, the Apostle refers first of all to those external advantages that he has on an equal basis with his opponents, and then speaks of what they do not have behind them, that is, about their extraordinary exploits for the good of the Church and their sufferings and even about their weaknesses. 2 Corinthians 11:22. Are they Jews? and I. Israelis? and I. Abraham's seed? and I. 2 Corinthians 11:23. Servants of Christ? [in madness I say:] I am more. I was much more in labor, immensely wounded, more in prison, and many times near death. The Apostle is the same Jew, a descendant of Israel (Jacob) and Abraham, like his Judaizing opponents. And in relation to the apostleship, he is incomparably superior to them. To prove his last thought, he points to the many sacrifices he made in the work of his apostolic ministry. 2 Corinthians 11:24. Five times the Jews gave me forty stripes minus one; The decree of the Law of Moses (Deut. 25:3) on punishing a criminal with 40 blows was modified by the Jews, who, in order to avoid accidentally giving more than forty blows, established that only 39 blows were given: 13 on the chest and 13 on each shoulder. From here we learn that by the time the 2nd Epistle to the Corinthians was written, that is, around the year 58, the Apostle Paul had already been tried in the Jewish court “five” times. But in the book. The Act says nothing about these circumstances. 2 Corinthians 11:25. three times I was beaten with sticks, once I was stoned, three times I was shipwrecked, I spent a night and a day in the depths of the sea; The Book of Acts reports only one case of beating the Apostle Paul with “sticks,” that is, probably with rods (Roman punishment): this was in Philippi (Acts 16:22). For the stoning of Paul, see Acts 14:19. – Nothing is known about the dangers that Paul had previously been exposed to at sea. 2 Corinthians 11:26. I have been on travels many times, in dangers on rivers, in dangers from robbers, in dangers from fellow tribesmen, in dangers from pagans, in dangers in the city, in dangers in the desert, in dangers at sea, in dangers among false brothers, 2 Corinthians 11:27. in labor and exhaustion, often in vigil, in hunger and thirst, often in fasting, in cold and nakedness. Ap. lists the dangers to which he was exposed during his apostolic travels. He experienced dangers on the rivers, which he had to cross and at a time when they seethed and overflowed widely, he had to be attacked by robbers, of whom there were many in those days, he had to be exposed to danger in cities, the inhabitants of which sometimes rebelled against Paul, and in the deserts, where he could die from hunger, thirst and from wild animals. Often he fasted himself: this probably happened when he had to drive out unclean spirits from people (Matthew 17:21), or by exhausting his own body (1 Cor 9:27). 2 Corinthians 11:28. In addition to extraneous adventures, I have a daily gathering of people, caring for all the churches. 2 Corinthians 11:29. Who is exhausted, with whom would I not be exhausted? Who is tempted, for whom would I not be inflamed? But this is all “extraneous,” so to speak, extraordinary in the life of the Apostle. In ordinary times, when he acts as a shepherd and leader of the churches he founded, he is also constantly immersed in worries and experiences everything that torments and worries his spiritual children. He, one might say, burns in constant fire for all who are tempted. 2 Corinthians 11:30. If I must boast, then I will boast in my weakness. The apostle has just spoken of the sufferings he suffered during his travels. Now he explains this “praise”, which is so strange for many, with the consideration that he is not ashamed to talk about his “weaknesses.” These weaknesses do not in the least humiliate his apostolic dignity, but on the contrary, they reveal in him a true servant of Christ who goes to all kinds of suffering for Christ. 2 Corinthians 11:31. The God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, blessed forever, knows that I do not lie. 2 Corinthians 11:32. In Damascus, the regional governor of King Aretas guarded the city of Damascus to capture me; and I was lowered from the window along the wall in a basket and escaped his hands. But the Apostle, obviously, regarding his “infirmities”, was ridiculed by his enemies. Apparently, they denounced him before the Corinthians for showing his “weakness” or, in other words, being too afraid of danger even where there is no danger. Thus, the flight of the Apostle Paul from Damascus might seem somewhat strange, when he left the city in an unusual way - by going down the city wall in a basket. “What a strange way of removal for an Apostle who prides himself on being called by Christ Himself?” - Ap's enemies could say. Pavel. “And was it necessary to resort to such a hasty flight from Damascus?” To this ridicule the Apostle replies that the danger at that time was the most serious for him. The Jews living in Damascus hired an Arab sheikh, who served under the Arab king Aretas, so that he would capture Paul and deal with him as he thought best. From such a person it was possible to Ap. Paul should expect everything bad, and therefore Ap. He hurried to leave Damascus as quickly as possible, without testing God to see if He would protect him in some miraculous way. This means that his enemies laughed at the Apostle without reason: he should have quickly fled from Damascus. – Acts 9:25 says that Paul fled not from an Arab sheikh, but from the Jews. This testimony, however, is easily reconciled with the present explanation of Paul himself. Obviously, the Jews were the initiators in this case, and the Arab sheikh acted only as their instrument. You might be interested in: