Translation & Sermon by
Nate Wilson for Christ The Redeemer Church, Manhattan, KS, 12 July
2026
Underlined words in Scripture quotes indicate words that
are in common with the Greek text of the sermon passage. Otherwise,
underlining indicates words to emphasize when reading this transcript
out loud.
In Second Corinthians, the Apostle Paul writes about his philosophy on bragging and does a little bragging in the process in order to help the church in Corinth reject false teachers and realize the qualities they should be looking for in a church pastor. In this passage, Paul states his philosophy on bragging by saying that although it would be ideal not to have to boast at all, if he does have to boast, he will only brag concerning his weaknesses.
This does not mean that he tries to one-up everybody on calamities. Perhaps you’ve seen people do that: You mention that you have a scar from an accident, and then they show off an even bigger scar from an even worse accident just to put you down.
It might seem that Paul was doing something like that in verses 23-28, listing all the calamities he had been through, but there’s a subtle difference. Those who are proud of being able to top other’s stories have the attitude of, “Look at me, I’m better than you, and I endured worse than you; if you could only be as great as I am, you’d be all right.”
This attitude fuels countless diets, exercise routines, healthcare products, childrearing programs, and lifestyles. “For the low, low price of only $99, I will share with you my secret for what I did to look and feel great, and then you can be beautiful and strong and smart like me!”
The Apostle Paul turned that attitude on its head by saying, “When I boast, it’s going to be about my weaknesses. You see, I am weak, and if it hadn’t been for the Lord Jesus, I’d be a wreck. But I trusted in Jesus and He saved me, and if you will trust in Jesus like I do, then you’ll be all right.”
Let’s
explore together how he did that in 2 Corinthians 11:28-33. (Read my
translation):
Apart from the peripheral things, there is the
daily pile-on – my concern for all of the churches. Who is
weak without me being weak? Who is scandalized without me myself
being set on fire? Since it is necessary to brag about myself, it
will be about the issues of my weakness that I will brag about
myself. The One who is blessed for ever – the God and Father of
our Lord Jesus Christ knows that I am not lying. In Damascus, King
Areta’s ethnarch was keeping watch in front of the city of the
Damascenes, because he was wanting to seize me, yet it was through a
window through the wall that I was let down in a basket and escaped
from his hands!
In my last sermon which ended with verse 28, I stated that it was Paul’s “concern/care for all the churches” which drove him to risk dangers in new frontiers to preach the Gospel and then to risk his life staying to disciple converts in the midst of violent opposition, so that all the discomforts and dangers and run-ins with the law were just background “noise” for Paul as he remained laser-focused on being an apostle to the Gentiles.
I still think that’s the case, but verse 29 offers an additional way that Paul’s “concern for all the churches” expressed itself, and that is through sympathy – even empathy – with weak, easily-scandalized believers. (The Greek word σκανδαλίζεται is translated “scandalized/offended/stumbled/led into sin.”)
We saw several different kinds of “weakness” in First Corinthians:
the weakness of low social class, in 1 Corinthians 1:26-27,
the weak appearance of Godly humility in the midst of a self-exalting world, in 1 Cor. 4:10,
the weakness of ignorance – not having a Biblically-informed conscience, in 1 Cor. 8:9,
and the weakness of physical sickness or of brokenness due to sin, in 1 Corinthians 11:30.
And we saw in 1 Corinthians 12:21ff that such “weak” members of our churches are “necessary/indispensable.”
Paul says that when they are weak, he is “weak.” I like how the NASB translated it: “Who is weak without me being weak?”
The spiritual leader is not the “knight in shining armor” who rescues and fixes the weak. That is Jesus’ job. The spiritual leader is connected to Jesus and then reaches out to connect and identify with the weak so that the weak are connected with Jesus and Jesus saves them.
1 Corinthians 9:22 “I became weak to the weak in order that I might win the weak. I have become all things to all men always in order that I might save some.” (NAW)
Paul is especially concerned for those who are “tripped up” by other Christians – who “fall into sin” and get their faith shaken because of the carelessness of other Christians. It is a source of anger for him – he uses the Greek word for “being set on fire” – he “burns with indignation” when someone has been “offended/led into sin.”
We should not interpret this in terms of Paul being a perfectionist who “flew off the handle” whenever someone made a little mistake. Rather we know that this strong emotion was born out of his deep love for his church folks and a deep desire that they follow Jesus without being tripped up by stumbling blocks.
Paul couldn’t be apathetic towards his church people. When they were scandalized, he couldn’t help getting fired up. This is the Biblical use of anger, to use it to give us energy and determination to call evildoers to repentance.
I was just reading an article by Dr. John Frame on “Gentleness in the Pastorate.” He wrote: “I think we all know that gentleness is one of the fruits of the Spirit in Galatians 5:22-23. You may know also that it appears again in a similar list of Christian virtues in 1 Timothy 6:11, virtues specifically of Christian leadership. But gentleness is not usually one of the first qualities we look for in a pastor… Certainly the old liberal theologians distorted the concept when they used it in effect to eliminate the wrath and judgment of God from their preaching. … Evangelicals understandably reacted against that misunderstanding of the divine gentleness. They heaped ridicule and scorn upon the ‘gentle Jesus, meek and mild’ of the liberal theologians and set forth Jesus as the risen and ascended Lord of heaven and earth, who would soon return in flaming fire to bring his terrible judgments on the earth… Many Reformed teachers today, fortified by such teaching as Abraham Kuyper’s ‘Life is religion,’ Van Til’s apologetics of antithesis, Jay Adam’s nouthetic counseling, and the dominion theology of the Christian Reconstruction movement, especially emphasize that Christians are not to be wimps. We are not to meekly tolerate the wickedness of our society, but we are to be a true Christian army, putting on the whole armor of God, casting down imaginations, bringing every thought captive to Christ, conquering all human enterprises in the name of King Jesus. So swings the pendulum, from walk-all-over-me liberalism to dominion militancy. I don’t want to turn away from the militancy. I see a lot of value in Kuyper, in Van Til and Adams, indeed in the Christian Reconstruction movement as well. (I don’t see quite as much value in it as they do.) But what has happened to gentleness in all of this? … It slips through the cracks… Jesus did not jump all over people who were guilty of sin… And think of how often Paul emphasizes the importance of gentleness in the ministry...1”
What is your attitude towards others in the church who are weak and confused and falling into sin?
Is it like the Pharisee who said, “Thank you God that I am not like that despicable person! I fast twice a week and give tithes!” (Luke 18:11-12, paraphrased)
Or is it more subtle – an eyeroll and a studied avoidance of the riff-raff in the church.
Or how about this one: “I really do care about this person, but… Again? Really? I’m getting compassion fatigue!”
Disgust, avoidance, and exasperation are not the response God wants us to have toward brothers and sisters in Christ who are weak or stuck in sin. That’s why God gives us the example of Paul.
Paul explained in:
2 Corinthians 2:4 “Indeed, out of much stress and worry of heart I wrote to y'all, through many tears, not in order that y'all might be grieved, but rather in order that y'all might know the love which I have more abundantly with y'all.” (NAW)
1 Corinthians 8:9 & 13 “But keep watching how this authority of yours might not become a stumbling-block to the weak ones… if food scandalizes my brother, I will never eat meat in this age, in order that I might not scandalize my brother.” (NAW)
Galatians 6:2 “Bear one another's burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.” (NKJV)
In 2 Corinthians 5:12, Paul wrote, “We are not endorsing ourselves again to y'all, but rather we are giving y'all a launching-point for celebration [boasting] concerning us, in order that y'all might have something in opposition to those who are [boasting] in the superficial…” (NAW)
Here in chapter 11 verse 30, the Greek conditional grammar indicates that it is true that these circumstances were forcing Paul to bring out his apostolic credentials again, because his legitimacy had been called into question by the so-called “super-apostles.” But notice what he boasted about in verses 22-28:
Was it about his academic degrees? (“When I was getting my Doctor of Divinity at Jerusalem University…”)
Does he boast about how large his following is? (“Yeah, I got a million likes on that letter to the Romans; Simon and Schuster asked if they could publish it as a book.)
Does he boast about his political connections? (“Well, I was just invited to be on a panel with King Herod and the Jewish Sanhedrin, and they said...”)
No. After saying he was just as Jewish as the super-apostles, he lists how hard he had to work, how many times he was beaten, how he had almost died in a shipwreck, and how hungry he was. What odd things to “celebrate/brag about” – in one dreadful setback after another! And yet that’s the content of Paul’s “boasting.”
Eight verses later, Paul states his policy again: “...of myself I will not boast, except in my infirmities [weakness]….” and four verses later, “... I will rather boast in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.” (2 Cor. 12:5, 9, NKJV)
With this policy, Paul stepped away from the one-upmanship of competition with other religious leaders and simply established the fact that God saved him. “Don’t listen to me because I am more educated than you. Don’t accept Jesus because I am more powerful than you. Believe that Jesus saves because He saved me. Let me tell you what He saved me from!”
Notice how Paul did that in the very first chapter of 2 Corinthians: “Now, we don't want y'all to be ignorant, brothers, concerning our distress which happened to us in Asia: that we were weighed down to the extreme – beyond ability – such that we despaired even of life. [“We were weak!”] However, as for us we have had the death-sentence in ourselves in order that we might not rely upon ourselves, but rather upon God: the One who raises the dead, the One who rescued us out of so distressing a death-threat (He also does come to the rescue), into whom we have set hope that He will yet come to the rescue.” (2 Cor. 1:8-10, NAW)
I
am reminded of the testimony of Bill Cutts. At birth, he was so
severely deformed that the doctor set him aside for dead. Some time
later, a nurse noticed that he was breathing, so they sent him home
with his mother after all. His right eye was badly damaged, and the
right side of his body did not develop properly. He was four years
old before he could walk, and at school, the kids made fun of him
and called him the “crooked boy.” His family didn’t know God,
so he grew up agnostic.
Then one day, as a young man, he
was walking down the street past a church building and heard an
audible voice saying, “Go there!” He didn’t know where that
voice came from, but he decided he would check out that church. He
thought it was kind-of enjoyable, and then he heard a missionary
speak, and that’s when he asked Jesus to forgive his sins and
furthermore gave His life to Christ to be a missionary himself.
No
mission agency in their right mind would have placed Bill, with all
his deformities, in a physically-demanding field like the jungles of
Indonesia, but somehow God made a way. At the time, there were no
roads to drive a car on in Irian Jaya, so they had to travel by
plane, then on canoes, and then hike for three days over mountains
and across rivers in order to get to the land on which the Moni
tribe lived. They had to learn how to acquire food in the jungle and
had to learn the Moni language from scratch – like babies learning
to talk all over again.
The first convert was an old man
named “Thorn Needle.” He was very sick – could barely breathe
– and was about to die, but some missionary friends prayed for God
to heal him, and God healed him. Thorn Needle started going around
telling his fellow tribesmen that the “Chief of the Skies put life
on me… and I believe He is the one true God!” Many more came to
Christ since then, and Bill’s adopted son, John, still carries on
that mission work to this day, but Bill was known as the “Weak
Thing in Moni Land” – a “weak” man that God used to bring
the good news about Jesus to a people who had never heard before.
20th Century evangelical commentator Phillip Hughes noted of 2 Corinthians 11:30 “To give prominence, as Paul does in this epistle, to the frail earthen vessel, the decaying outward man, the disintegrating physical frame, the body absorbing persecution, is to glory of the things that concern his weakness… The present verse is, indeed, in complete harmony with the whole tenor of this epistle, the outstanding and pervading feature of which is, on the one hand, the emphasis on the utter weakness of the human instrument and, on the other hand and in consequence, the magnification of the glorious grace and power of Almighty God.”
Can you incorporate that philosophy into your testimony? Instead of saying, “Listen to me because I know more than you,” say, “Can I share with you how Jesus saved me in my infirmity – when I was weak?”
Romans 5:6 “For when we were still [weak]without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly.” (NKJV)
Galatians 6:14 “But God forbid that I should boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.” (NKJV)
Next, there is an important principle that goes along with this evangelism method of upside-down boasting. It is part of the very character of God, which must be observed in all that we say, and that is in...
If you’re going to tell your story, it had better be the truth – no stretching it or making up things to make it more impressive. Maybe you’ve heard someone do that before: “I was born a low-down, dirty, rotten sinner. I was in a life of drugs and crime, and then on my 5th birthday, I heard the gospel and I got saved! Hallelujah!”
Why is the truth important? Because God is the “God of truth” (Deut. 32:4), the God who commands His people not to “bear false witness” (Ex. 20:16), and the God of truth will hold all men accountable in judgment as to whether or not they told the truth.
Isaiah 65:16 says that “[H]e who blesses himself in the earth will bless himself in the God of Truth, and he who swears in the earth will swear by the God of Truth.” (NAW)
Now, it had become tradition among pious Jews (who ostensibly didn’t want to take God’s name in vain) to refer to God the Father as “the Blessed One” (Mark 14:16), and that tradition, in turn, was based on a much longer-standing tradition of “blessing God” as a way of thanking Him for His blessings to His people.2
So Paul joins that tradition of blessing God (even as he did in the opening verses of this letter – 2 Cor. 1:3), and he appeals to God as the ultimate arbitrator of truth and the ultimate judge of human truth-telling as he swears that what he says about himself is the truth – and nothing but the truth3.
This corroborates with what he had said earlier in:
2 Corinthians 2:17 “But we are not commercializing the word of God (as many are), but rather we are communicating as from sincerity – rather as from God, in the sight of God, in accordance with the Anointed One.” (NAW)
and 2 Corinthians 11:10 “[T]his brag is the truth of the Anointed One in me...” (NAW)
This is in contrast to those “who exchanged the truth of God for the lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever...” (Rom. 1:25, NKJV)
Another aspect of a Christian testimony which comes out in verse 31 is that we should give praise and “blessing” to God for saving us rather than focusing the glory upon ourselves or on any other human agent.
If God is the one who saved us by unilaterally deciding to love us, to send His Son to satisfy justice for our sins by dying on the cross for us, and to send His Spirit to quicken our dead hearts and give us faith, and then intervene in situation after situation throughout our lives to preserve us, the stories we tell about this should all express thanks to Him for saving us!
Next, in vs.32-33, Paul now gives a true account of a time when he was in a vulnerable spot and God protected him:
This happened after Paul’s conversion from Judaism to Christianity on the road to Damascus.
The parallel account of this event (written by Luke) is found in Acts 9:17-25 “And Ananias ... entered the house; and laying his hands on him he said, ‘Brother Saul, the Lord Jesus, who appeared to you on the road as you came, has sent me that you may receive your sight and be filled with the Holy Spirit.’ Immediately there fell from his eyes something like scales, and he received his sight at once; and he arose and was baptized. So when he had received food, he was strengthened. Then Saul spent some days with the disciples at Damascus. Immediately he preached the Christ in the synagogues, that He is the Son of God. Then all who heard were amazed, and said, ‘Is this not he who destroyed those who called on this name in Jerusalem, and has come here for that purpose, so that he might bring them bound to the chief priests?’ But Saul increased all the more in strength, and confounded the Jews who dwelt in Damascus, proving that this Jesus is the Christ. Now after many days were past, the Jews plotted to kill him. But their plot became known to Saul. And they watched4 the gates day and night, to kill5 him. Then the disciples took him by night and let him down through the wall in a large basket6.” (NKJV)
Paul’s account here adds the name of the local “king” whose “governor/army commander/ethnarch” helped the Jews carry out their scheme to “seize/apprehend/arrest” Paul for trying to change their religion.
Vincent’s Word Studies of the New Testament explained that king Aretas lived in the rock-city of Petra and that Herod Antipas had taken his daughter Phasaelis in marriage.
When Herod ditched her later for his own niece (Herodias), Aretas (Phasaelis’ father), became a bitter enemy of Herod.
The Roman Emperor also didn’t like Herod Antipas, and it is generally supposed7 that Emperor Caligula gave Damascus to King Aretas to rule, to spite King Herod, whose capitol was actually closer.
So, the distance between Petra (south of Israel) and Damascus (north of Israel) could explain one reason why Aretas needed a governor to represent him in Damascus,
and the differences between the laws and social order of the Jews and of the other ethnic groups living in Damascus may have been another reason why Aretas needed an ethnarch to manage the tens of thousands of Jews in particular living in that city.8
The Greek words in Luke’s account picture the soldiers “hanging out alongside” the city gate – the only way in or out of the fortified city, waiting to capture Paul, and Paul’s account here matches, but with a different verb that pictures the deputy literally “keeping watch in front of” the city while Paul sneaks out through a window in the the wall at the back side of the city, out of sight of the gates at the front of the city. Luke’s account adds that it happened at night.
The window must have been pretty high up in the wall, but the disciples there used a basket – the same sort used to carry all the leftover bread after the feeding of the 5,000 – and some kind of rope to lower him all the way to the ground safely to make his exit.
Paul couldn’t even claim any originality for this strategy of escape. Joshua and Caleb did the exact same thing to escape from Jericho when they were spying it out (Joshua 2:15), and so did David in 1 Samuel 19:12, to escape King Saul’s stake-out of his own home.9
Note that Paul does not attribute his deliverance to how smart, strong, and well-connected he was.
The Greek grammar in v.33 actually emphasizes the “window” more than it does Paul,
and Paul is passive in the Greek verb “I was let down.”
It was a humiliating admission to say that he had to sneak out of the city like that after what had probably been quite an honorable entrance into the city through the gates with an armed escort and letters of recommendation from the high priest in Jerusalem not long before.
Thus Paul tells his own story, but he doesn’t make himself the hero of it; it’s a story of God’s deliverance of him.10
John Chrysostom, in his sermon on this passage around the year 400, remarked, “For this is the brilliant victory, this is the Church’s trophy, thus is the Devil overthrown when we suffer injury. For when we suffer, he is taken captive; and himself suffers harm, when he would fain inflict it on us.”
This has mostly been a lesson on how to do Gospel ministry:
Approach sinners with sympathy because of their weaknesses,
Then boast in your weakness by sharing how God saved you,
Be truthful in what you say, and
Focus your testimony on blessing God and giving Him the glory for saving you.
I’d like to close with some other Biblical examples of God’s people who blessed God for helping them in their weakness as a way of proclaiming God’s salvation to others:
In Genesis 14:20, after Abraham and his servants had defeated an army coalition of 5 city-states, Melchizedek said, “...blessed be the most high God who has delivered your enemies into your hand…” (KJV)
In Genesis 24:27, after Abraham’s servant had found a wife for Abraham’s son, “...he said, Blessed be the LORD God of my master Abraham who hath not left destitute my master …” (KJV)
In Exodus 18:10 “...Jethro said [to Moses], Blessed be the LORD, who hath delivered you out of the hand of the Egyptians…” (KJV)
In Ruth 4:14 “...the women said unto Naomi [after her widowed daughter married Boaz and gave birth to a son], ‘Blessed be the LORD, which hath not left thee this day without a kinsman…’” (KJV)
David said in the Psalms “Blessed be the LORD, because he hath heard the voice of my supplications. (28:6) … Blessed be the LORD: for he hath shewed me his marvellous kindness in a strong city. (31:21) … Blessed be God, which hath not turned away my prayer, nor his mercy from me. (66:20) ... Blessed be the Lord, who daily loadeth us with benefits, even the God of our salvation… (68:19) ... Blessed be the LORD God, the God of Israel, who only doeth wondrous things.” (72:18, KJV)
Later, when God revealed the Babylonian King’s mysterious dream and its meaning to Daniel in exile, “Daniel answered and said, ‘Blessed be the name of God for ever and ever: for wisdom and might are his…” (2:20, KJV)
And when a later Persian King decreed the end of the exile and the re-establishment of the temple in Jerusalem, Ezra said, “Blessed be the LORD God of our fathers, which hath put such a thing as this in the king's heart…” (Ezra 7:27, KJV)
And after Jesus became incarnate in the womb of Mary, the priest Zacharias said, “Blessed be the Lord God of Israel; for he hath visited and redeemed his people…” (Luke 1:68, KJV)
And in 1 Peter 1:3, the Apostle Peter said, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to his abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead...” (KJV)
What deliverances can you bless God for?
(All instances of “blessed be” in the KJV referring to God. There were 15 more referring to blessing God’s people.)
Gen. 9:26 ...Blessed be the LORD God of Shem...
Gen. 14:20 And blessed be the most high God who has delivered your enemies into your hand...
Gen. 24:27 And he said, Blessed be the LORD God of my master Abraham who hath not left destitute my master ...
Exo. 18:10 And Jethro said, Blessed be the LORD, who hath delivered you out of the hand of the Egyptians...
Deu. 33:20 ...Blessed be he that enlargeth Gad...
Rth. 4:14 And the women said unto Naomi, Blessed be the LORD, which hath not left thee this day without a kinsman...
1Sa. 25:32 And David said to Abigail, Blessed be the LORD God of Israel, which sent thee this day to meet me:
1Sa. 25:39 And when David heard that Nabal was dead, he said, Blessed be the LORD...
2Sa. 18:28 Ahimaaz ... said, Blessed be the LORD thy God, which hath delivered up the men that lifted up their hand...
2Sa. 22:47 The LORD liveth; and blessed be my rock; and exalted be the God of the rock of my salvation.
1Ki. 1:48 And also thus said the king, Blessed be the LORD God of Israel...
1Ki. 5:7 ...when Hiram heard the words of Solomon, that he rejoiced greatly, and said, Blessed be the LORD this day...
1Ki. 8:15 And he said, Blessed be the LORD God of Israel, which spake ... and hath with his hand fulfilled it...
1Ki. 8:56 Blessed be the LORD, that hath given rest unto his people Israel...
1Ki. 10:9 Blessed be the LORD thy God, which delighted in thee, to set thee on the throne of Israel...
1Ch. 16:36 Blessed be the LORD God of Israel for ever and ever. And all the people said, Amen, and praised the LORD.
1Ch. 29:10 ….David blessed the LORD before the congregation... Blessed be thou, LORD God of Israel our father, for ever.
2Ch. 2:12 Huram said moreover, Blessed be the LORD God of Israel... who hath given to David the king a wise son...
2Ch. 6:4 And he said, Blessed be the LORD God of Israel, who hath with his hands fulfilled that which he spake...
2Ch. 9:8 Blessed be the LORD thy God, which delighted in thee to set thee on his throne, to be king...
Ezr. 7:27 Blessed be the LORD God of our fathers, which hath put such a thing as this in the king's heart...
Neh. 9:5 Then the Levites... said, Stand up and bless the LORD your God for ever and ever...
Job 1:21 ….the LORD gave, and the LORD hath taken away; blessed be the name of the LORD.
Psa. 18:46 The LORD liveth; and blessed be my rock; and let the God of my salvation be exalted.
Psa. 28:6 Blessed be the LORD, because he hath heard the voice of my supplications.
Psa. 31:21 Blessed be the LORD: for he hath shewed me his marvellous kindness in a strong city.
Psa. 41:13 Blessed be the LORD God of Israel from everlasting, and to everlasting. Amen, and Amen.
Psa. 66:20 Blessed be God, which hath not turned away my prayer, nor his mercy from me.
Psa. 68:19 Blessed be the Lord, who daily loadeth us with benefits, even the God of our salvation. Selah.
Psa. 68:35 ...the God of Israel is he that giveth strength and power unto his people. Blessed be God.
Psa. 72:18 Blessed be the LORD God, the God of Israel, who only doeth wondrous things.
Psa. 72:19 And blessed be his glorious name for ever: and let the whole earth be filled with his glory; Amen, and Amen.
Psa. 89:52 Blessed be the LORD for evermore. Amen, and Amen.
Psa. 106:48 Blessed be the LORD God of Israel from everlasting to everlasting...
Psa. 113:2 Blessed be the name of the LORD from this time forth and for evermore.
Psa. 118:26 Blessed be he that cometh in the name of the LORD: we have blessed you out of the house of the LORD.
Psa. 124:6 Blessed be the LORD, who hath not given us as a prey to their teeth.
Psa. 135:21 Blessed be the LORD out of Zion, which dwelleth at Jerusalem...
Psa. 144:1 A Psalm of David. Blessed be the LORD my strength, which teacheth my hands to war...
Eze. 3:12 ...I heard behind me a voice of a great rushing, saying, Blessed be the glory of the LORD from his place.
Dan. 2:20 Daniel answered and said, Blessed be the name of God for ever and ever: for wisdom and might are his:
Dan. 3:28 Then Nebuchadnezzar spake, and said, Blessed be the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego...
Luk. 1:68 Blessed be the Lord God of Israel; for he hath visited and redeemed his people,
Luk. 19:38 Saying, Blessed be the King that cometh in the name of the Lord...
2Co. 1:3 Blessed be God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies, and the God of all comfort;
Eph. 1:3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings...
1Pe. 1:3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which... hath begotten us again unto a lively hope…
ByzantineB |
NAW |
KJVC |
RheimsD |
MurdockE |
CopticF |
28 χωρὶς τῶνG παρεκτὸςH ἡ ἐπισύστασίςI μου ἡ καθ᾿ ἡμέραν, ἡ μέριμνα πασῶν τῶν ἐκκλησιῶν. |
28 Apart from the peripheral things, there is the daily pile-on – my concern for all of the churches. |
28 Beside those things that are without, that which cometh upon me daily, the care of all the churches. |
28 Besides those things which are without: my daily instance, the solicitude for all the churches. |
28
besides
|
28 Without the things which are outside, (the) care[sS] of all the churches isB/[whichS] coming upon me daily. |
29 τίς ἀσθενεῖ, καὶ οὐκ ἀσθενῶ; τίς σκανδαλίζεται, καὶ οὐκ ἐγὼ πυροῦμαι; |
29 Who is weak without me being weak? Who is scandalized without me myself being set on fire? |
29 Who is weak, and I am not weak? who is offended, and I X burnX not? |
29 Who is weak, and I am not weak? Who is scandalized, and I am not on fire? |
29 Who becometh weak, and I become not weak? Who is stumbled, and I X burnX not? |
29 Who is [he who isS] weak, andB/XS I am not weak [with himS]? Who is [he who isS] {made to stumbleB/want to be offendedS}, and I {X burnXB/am [want to] be set on fireS} not? |
30 εἰ καυχᾶσθαι δεῖ, τὰ τῆς ἀσθενείαςJ μου καυχήσομαι. |
30 Since it is necessary to brag about myself, it will be about the issues of my weakness that I will brag about myself. |
30 If I must needs glory, I will glory of the things which concern mine infirmit[ies]. |
30 If I must needs glory, I will glory of the things that concern my infirmity. |
30 If I must glory, I will glory in X my infirmit[ies]. |
30 If it is right {that I should boast myselfB/to gloryS}, I would boast myself in X my feebleness[es]. |
31 ὁ Θεὸς καὶ πατὴρ τοῦ Κυρίου [ἡμῶνK] ᾿Ιησοῦ ΧριστοῦL οἶδενM, ὁ ὢν εὐλογητὸςN εἰς τοὺς αἰῶνας, ὅτι οὐ ψεύδομαιO. |
31 The One who is blessed for ever – the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ knows that I am not lying. |
31 The God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which is blessed for evermore, knoweth that I lie not. |
31 The God and Father of [ourP] Lord Jesus [Christ], who is blessed for ever, knoweth that I lie not. |
31
God, |
31
God and [the] Father of our Lord Jesus ChristB/XS
[(is he) who] knoweth, he who is blessed unto the ages,
that I { |
32 ἐν Δαμασκῷ ὁ ἐθνάρχης ᾿ΑρέταQ τοῦ βασιλέως ἐφρούρειR τὴν Δαμασκηνῶν πόλιν, πιάσαι με θέλωνS, |
32 In Damascus, King Areta’s ethnarch was keeping watch in front of the city of the Damascenes, because he was wanting to seize me, |
32 In Damascus the governor under Aretas the king kept the city of the Damascenes with a garrison, desirous to apprehend me: |
32 At Damascus, the governor of the nation under Aretas the king, guarded the city of the Damascenes, to apprehend me. |
32 At Damascus, the commander of the army of Aretas the king, guarded the city of the Damascenes, to seize me. |
32 [that] in Damascos (the) {ruler of the GentilesB/ ethnarchS} of Areta (the) king {was guardingB/ guardedS} (the) city of {them ofB/XS Damascos, wishingB/XS to seize me : |
33 καὶ διὰ θυρίδος ἐν σαργάνῃT ἐχαλάσθην διὰU τοῦ τείχους καὶ ἐξέφυγον τὰς χεῖρας αὐτοῦ. |
33 yet it was through a window through the wall that I was let down in a basket and escaped from his hands! |
33
And through a window in a basket was I let down |
33
And through a window in a basket was I let down |
33
And |
33
and I was let down inB/throughS a window, in
a basket, { |
1The Doctrine Of The Christian Life, pp. 938-940. Frame went on to highlight 1 Thess. 2:6-7, 2 Cor. 10:1, Col. 3:12-14, 2 Tim. 2:24-25, Philemon, 1 Cor. 5, and Philip. 4:5 among Paul’s emphases on gentleness.
2I found 42 instances of people doing that throughout the Old Testament – see appendix.
3Chrysostom’s suggested reason for this oath seems as good as any: “What can be the reason that he here strongly confirms and gives assurance of [his truth], seeing he did not so in respect to any of the former things? Because, perhaps, this was of older date and not so well known; whilst of those other facts, his care for the churches, and all the rest, they were themselves cognisant.”
4παρετήρουν, compare with εφρουρει in 2 Cor. 11:32.
5ανελωσιν (from αναιρεω), compare with πιασαι in 2 Cor. 11:32.
6σπυριδι (used to describe the bread-carrying baskets in the feeding of the 5,000 and 3,000), compare with the hapex legomenon σαργάνῃ in 2 Cor. 11:33.
7By Plummer in his commentary, and considered plausible by Vincent, Robertson, and Hughes.
8F. F. Bruce suggested in his commentary, however, that Damascus wasn’t actually part of the realm of Aretas, but that he only “had jurisdiction over the large Arabian colony in the city.” Hughes explained, “The term ethnarch means literally a ruler of a tribe or race and was commonly used to denote a deputy governor or subordinate ruler responsible for a particular racial section of the population... There is therefore no inherent improbability in the supposition that ‘the ethnarch of Aretas the king’ mentioned by Paul in our text was himself a Jew with particular authority over the Jewish section of the population…” He also cited Josephus, who wrote of 10,000 Jews and 18,000 Jews killed in Damascus not too far from this time in history.
9Reflecting on the ethics of such an escape, St. Augustine commented in his letter #228 to Honoratus, “Let those therefore who are servants of Christ, His ministers in word and sacrament, do what He has commanded or permitted. When any of them is specially sought for by persecutors, let him by all means flee from one city to another, provided that the Church is not thereby deserted, but that others who are not specially sought after remain to supply spiritual food to their fellow-servants, whom they know to be unable otherwise to maintain spiritual life”.
10P. E. Hughes’ commentary discussed at length the controversy among Bible scholars as to the relationship of this story to the previous material in chapter 11 and the placement of the chapter break and concluded, “The man who experienced the ineffable ‘ascent’ even to the third heaven was the same man who had experienced the undistinguished “descent” from a window in the Damascus wall. Paul is determined to keep himself in true perspective, which is that of a weak and unworthy mortal who owes everything to the grace of Almighty God. Hence the relation of his rapture into the third heaven is hemmed in, as it were, on the one side by the narration of his inglorious escape in weakness from Damascus and, on the other, by the reference to the humiliating ‘thorn in the flesh’ which he was called upon to endure (12:7ff.). We venture to suggest that, understood in this way within their immediate context, verses 32 and 33 are not inappropriate or misplaced, but full of significance, and that to see them as deliberately set down by the Apostle at this point in the epistle for the purpose which we have proposed is far more satisfactory than to explain them as an illogical after-thought interrupting the flow of his argument.”
AWhen
a translation adds words not in the Greek text, but does not
indicate it has done so by the use of italics or greyed-out text, I
put the added words in [square brackets]. When one version chooses a
wording which is different from all the other translations, I
underline it. When a version chooses a translation which, in my
opinion, either departs too far from the root meaning of the Greek
word or departs too far from the grammar form of the original text,
I use strikeout. And when a version omits a word
which is in the original text, I insert an X. I also place an X at
the end of a word if the original word is plural but the English
translation is singular. I occasionally use colors to help the
reader see correlations between the various editions and versions
when there are more than two different translations of a given word.
NAW is my translation. My original chart includes annotated copies
of the NKJV, NASB, NIV, and ESV, but I erase them from the online
edition so as not to infringe on their copyrights.
BThis Greek New Testament is the 1904 "Patriarchal" edition of the Greek Orthodox Church. As published by E-Sword in 2016. The Robinson-Pierpont Byzantine majority text of the GNT and the Textus Receptus are very similar. The Westcott-Hort, Nestle-Aland, UBS, and Tregelles editions, however, are a slightly-different family of GNTs developed in the modern era, focusing on the few manuscripts which are older than the Byzantine manuscripts. Even so, the practical differences in the text between these two editing philosophies are minimal.
C1769 King James Version of the Holy Bible; public domain. As published by E-Sword in 2019.
DRheims New Testament first published by the English College at Rheims, A.D. 1582, Revised and Diligently Compared with the Latin Vulgate by Bishop Richard Challoner, Published in 1582, 1609, 1752. As published on E-Sword in 2016.
EJames Murdock, A Literal Translation from the Syriac Peshito Version, 1851, Robert Carter & Brothers, New York. Scanned and transcribed by Gary Cernava and published electronically by Janet Magierra at http://www.lightofword.org, and published on E-Sword in 2023.
FThis is my conflation of the English translations of the Northern Bohairic and Southern Sahidic traditions published by Oxford Clarendon Press in 1905 and 1920 respectively, neither of which named the translator or editor. The beginnings and ends of multiple-word variants are marked out with brackets, with a superscript “S” for Sahidic or “B” for Bohairic. The editor of the Sahidic compilation did not have manuscripts for some verses and I have not discovered a published English translation of the subsequently-discovered manuscripts, so variants in that section for that tradition are not listed.
GThe adverb and three noun phrases which intervene between this definite article (“the things”) and the phrase it modifies (“of all the churches”) is an unusually-large construction. It is generally accepted that the second of the noun phrases (“the according to day”) is adjectival, modifying the first noun phrase (“my crowd/the pressure on me”). The King James, RV, and ASV (following the Vulgate) correctly recognized that the third noun phrase is in apposition to the first (i.e. “the concern/care” is “the daily pressure/that comes on me”), although contemporary versions read as though the third noun phrase were in the genitive case (It’s actually nominative case), adding an “of” to make it dependent upon the first phrase. The Geneva (following the Peshitta), separated it out by inserting an “and,” as though it were a second subject and not the same thing.
HRobertson’s
Grammar states that this “is an adverb used as a
substantive (with the article…)”
Vincent said it should be
translated “the things which are left out in the enumeration,
as Matt. 5:32; Acts 26:29.”
IThis is the reading of the majority of Greek manuscripts (and thus of the Textus Receptus and Greek Orthodox editions), but the oldest manuscript with this traditional reading is 9th century. All the contemporary critical editions read with a simpler form of the same verb ἐπίστασίς μοι, following 7 Greek manuscripts (including the three oldest-known, partially supported by a few more medieval manuscripts). The only other place either form of this verb occurs in the Greek Bible is Acts 24:12, where the variant plays out along the same lines, with the simpler form supported by a minority of the oldest manuscripts and the more complex form supported by the Byzantine majority. The more-complex form adds the idea of “togetherness” to the root idea of “standing on,” but either way it is translated “stir/riot/uproar.”
JThe ancient Peshitta and Coptic versions read this as plural, as indeed it does have an ending typical of the plural accusative, and thus the Geneva and KJV read plural, but the definite article which modifies the Greek word is singular, indicating that this is a singular spelling, so the Vulgate interpreted it as singular, followed by all English Bibles published since 1850. Perschbacher’s Analytical Lexicon indicated that (apart from the context of a singular definite article) it could be either plural or singular, but Arndt & Gingrich listed the -ας ending as the genitive singular in their Lexicon.
K“Our” is in the Textus Receptus and 1904 Patristic editions of the GNT, but in no other editions because it is only in about 20 manuscripts (the oldest being from the 6th Century AD, although the Coptic and Syriac Bibles, which are of even older date also contain “our”). The Vulgate follows the majority of Greek manuscripts (including the oldest-known ones from the 3rd and 4th centuries AD) without “our.” But even if it is an editorial insertion, it matches 46 other times in the GNT where the phrase “our Lord Jesus” is not disputed (55 other times if you count the disputed ones), so its inclusion makes for no new doctrine, and it is entirely proper to interpret a Greek definite article as a possessive pronoun (92.11a in the Supplement to Louw & Nida’s Lexicon). The only reason the contemporary English versions translate it “the” instead of “our” is to make a point of not following the traditional GNT.
LThe majority of Greek manuscripts (the oldest of which dates back to the 6th century, although the Bohairic and Syriac versions from centuries prior agree) include the title “Christ,” so this is the reading of the Greek Orthodox editions and the Textus Receptus, but it’s not in any of the contemporary critical editions of the GNT (or the Vulgate or Sahidic versions) because it is missing in 12 Greek manuscripts (including the two oldest-known ones from the 4th Century AD). However, since the phrase “our Lord Jesus Christ” occurs 38 other times indisputably in the GNT (54 other times, including disputed variants) and the phrase “Lord Jesus Christ” occurs 61 other times indisputably in the GNT (84 other times including disputed variants), no new doctrine is introduced by its inclusion.
MCf. same statement in 11:11.
NThis is one of 8 occurrences of this word “blessed,” in the GNT, all of which refer to God the Father: Mk. 14:61, Lk. 1:68, Rom. 1:25, 9:5, 2 Cor. 1:3, 11:31, Eph. 1:3, and 1 Pet. 1:3.
OCommentators debate over whether this oath is taken concerning the previous list of hardships (Tasker, Robertson, Harris, Hodge), concerning the asseveration that he boasts in his weakness (Thrall, Lenski, Barnett, Martin, Hughes), or concerning the story he is about to share (Chrysostom, Plummer, Carson, Garland, Bruce, Kistemacher) or to both the preceding and the anteceding passages (Wilson, Lambrecht). It cannot be untrue in any case since it is inspired Scripture.
PThe word “our” and the word “Christ” are not actually in the Latin Vulgate. They were added by the English translator.
QOn the dating of this incident, concerning the archaeological finding that coins in Damascus at this time in history did not portray Roman emperors, P. E. Hughes commented: “[I]t is ... probable that for the period A.D. 37 to 54 the government of Damascus had been granted by Rome to Aretas IV and those who followed him. If this assumption is correct, then Paul's escape from Damascus must be placed within the limits of the accession of Caligula, March, A.D. 37, on the one hand, and the death of Aretas, A.D. 40, on the other.” He further noted, “In company with most commentators we understand the ‘certain days’ of Acts 9:19 to refer to the short interval between Paul's conversion and his departure into Arabia, and the ‘many days’ of Acts 9:23 to refer to the interval of ‘three years’ starting with his conversion and ending, after his return from Arabia, with his escape from Damascus.” So it could have been a couple of years after his conversion on a return trip to Damascus that this escape happened.
RA compound of Greek words meaning “keep watch” and “before.” Found in the Greek Bible only here and Gal. 3:23, Phil. 4:7, and 1 Pet. 1:5 (plus 1 Esdras 4:56, Judith 3:6, and Wisdom of Solomon 17:15 in the Greek Apocrypha). It is generally used in a military context, and the pro- prefix pictures them waiting “in front of” the city at the city gate to apprehend Paul while he surreptitiously slipped out through the wall of the city by night at another place, out of sight of the gates.
SThe majority of Greek Manuscripts (the oldest-known of which is the 4th Century Sinaiticus) include this verb “wishing/willing/wanting/thinking,” so this is the reading of the Greek Orthodox editions and the Textus Receptus (and the Bohairic Coptic and English Geneva, King James and New King James versions), but it’s not in any of the contemporary critical editions of the GNT or contemporary English translations because it is missing from two Greek manuscripts (the 4th century Vaticanus and the 6th Century Bezae) as well as from the ancient Latin and Syriac versions. It makes little sense for the word to have been added, since the Greek reads fine without it, and extra words meant extra cost, so I am inclined to think it was original.
THapex legomenon. Based on a verb “to braid.”
UBlass & Debrunner interpreted the preposition dia as “along the wall,” but it should be noted that the exact same preposition with the exact same case is used for the “window,” so the same preposition should be used for the window and for the wall, as indeed it was “through” the window that Paul went, in order to get “through” the wall at a spot other than the city gate.