2 Corinthians 11:20

11:16-21 It is the duty and practice of Christians to humble themselves, in obedience to the command and example of the Lord; yet prudence must direct in what it is needful to do things which we may do lawfully, even the speaking of what God has wrought for us, and in us, and by us. Doubtless here is reference to facts in which the character of the false apostles had been shown. It is astonishing to see how such men bring their followers into bondage, and how they take from them and insult them.

Bringeth you into bondage (καταδουλοῖ) Only here and Galatians 2:4, where it is used of the efforts of the Jewish party to bring the christian Church under the ceremonial law. Compare Galatians 5:1. Devour (κατεσθίει) Your property. Compare Matthew 23:14. Take (λαμβάνει) A.V. supplies of you, evidently with reference to property, which has already been touched upon in devour. The meaning is to take as a prey, as Luke 5:5. Exalteth himself (ἐπαίρεται) As 2 Corinthians 10:5. It is noticeable that these are the only two instances out of nineteen in the New Testament where the word is used figuratively. Smite you on the face The climax of insult. Compare Matthew 5:39; Luke 22:64; Acts 23:2. Also the injunction to a bishop not to be a striker, 1 Timothy 3:3; Titus 1:7. Stanley notes the decree of the Council of Braga, a.d. 675, that no bishop, at his will and pleasure, shall strike his clergy.

{8} For ye suffer, if a man bring you into bondage, if a man devour you, if a man take of you, if a man exalt himself, if a man smite you on the face. (8) Before he comes to the matter, he talks directly to the Corinthians, who persuading themselves to be very wise men, did not mark in the meanwhile that those false apostles had abused their simplicity for advantage.

If any domineer over you, as if you were their slaves, or if any bring you into subjection to the rites of the ceremonial law; if they devour and make a prey of you, take wages of you, and do nothing without hire; if they carry themselves proudly, exalting themselves above you; nay, if they smite you, you will suffer and bear with such: this is more than to bear with a little folly and indiscretion in me. This is observable, that men of corrupt hearts and loose lives will better bear with teachers that will humour and spare them in their lusts, than with such as are faithful to their souls in instructing and reproving them, though they carry themselves with the greatest innocency and justice towards them.

2 Corinthians 11:20 . Γὰρ , for ) An intensive particle; ye suffer fools; for ye even suffer oppressors. Cleon in Thucydides, lib. iii.— πέφυκεν ὁ ἄνθρωπος τὸ μὲν θεραπεῦον ὑπερφρονεῖν · τὸ δὲ μὴ ὑπεῖκον θαυμάζειν , the man was naturally disposed to treat with contempt flattering attentions, but to admire independence .— εἴ τις , if any one ) as the false apostles, who were given to much boasting.— καταδουλοῖ , bring you into bondage ) The genus; two pairs of species follow.— κατεσθίει ) So LXX., Psalm 53:5 .— λαμβάνει , takes ) viz. from you; for ὑμᾶς , you , is not necessarily to be supplied, as appears if we compare the following clause.— ἐπαίρεται , exalt himself [ is exalted ]) under the pretext of the apostolic dignity.— εἰς πρόσωπον δέρει , smite you on the face ) under the appearance of divine zeal. That may have happened to the Corinthians: comp. Isaiah 58:4 ; 1 Kings 22:24 ; Nehemiah 13:25 ; 1 Corinthians 4:11 ; 1 Timothy 3:3 .

2 Corinthians 11:20 . ἀνέχεσθε γὰρ κ . τ . λ .: for ye bear with a man if he (we cannot press τις so as to point to any special individual; cf. 2 Corinthians 10:7 ) enslave you (in contrast to any such tyranny, St. Paul describes himself as the δοῦλος of the Corinthians; see 2 Corinthians 4:5 , and cf. Acts 15:10 ); if he devour you, i.e. , robs you of your substance by greedily demanding maintenance, as these “superfine Apostles” did (see on 2 Corinthians 11:12 , and cf. Romans 16:18 , Php 3:19 ); if he take you captive ( λαμβάνειν is thus used of catching fish, Luke 5:5 ; cf. chap. 2 Corinthians 12:16 . Field defends the A.V. “taketh of you,” i.e. , takes money, by appealing to the Peshitto, and also by the usage of good Greek writers); if he exalt himself ( cf. 2 Corinthians 10:12 , 2 Corinthians 11:18 ); if he smite you on the face . A blow in the face was, and is, a common form of insult in the East ( cf. 1 Kings 22:24 , Matthew 5:39 ; Matthew 26:67 , Acts 23:2 , 1 Corinthians 4:11 ); and the despotic teachers whom the Corinthians tolerated had very likely inflicted this last indignity upon them, Cf. 1 Timothy 3:3 , Titus 1:7 , where it is forbidden to the ἐπίσκοποι to be “strikers”. “Such are your teachers,” he says to them, “ I am but weak in comparison with these strenuous spiritual directors.”

Verse 20. - For ye suffer, if a man bring you into bondage. The verse gives us an unexpected and painful glimpse of the enslaving ( Galatians 2:4 ), greed-loving ( Matthew 23:14 ; Romans 16 ;18), gain-hunting ( 1 Peter 5:2, 3 ), domineering ( 3 John 1:9 ). and even personally violent and insulting character of these teachers; whom yet, strange to say, the Corinthians seem to take at their own estimate, and to tolerate any extreme of insolence from them, while they were jealously suspicious of the disinterested, gentle, and humble apostle. If a man devour you. As the Pharisees "devoured" widows' houses ( Matthew 23:14 ). Take of you; rather, seize you ; makes you his captives. The verb is the same as "caught you," in 2 Corinthians 12:16 . Smite you on the face. They must have brought their insolence with them from Jerusalem, where, as we see, not only from the details of our Lord's various mockeries, but from the accounts of the priests in Josephus and the Talmud, the priests made free use of their fists and staves! The fact that so many of the converts were downtrodden slaves and artisans would make them less likely to resent conduct to which they were daily accustomed among the heathen. Neither Greeks nor Orientals felt to anything like the same extent as ourselves the disgrace of a blow.

That sense of disgrace rises flora the freedom which Christianity has gradually wrought for us, and the deep sense of the dignity of human nature, which it has inspired Christ had been so smitten, and so was Paul himself long afterwards ( Acts 23:2 ), and he had to teach even Christian bishops that they must be "no strikers" ( 1 Timothy 3:3 ; Titus 1:7 ). The "syllogism of violence" has, alas! been in familiar use among religious teachers in all ages ( 1 Kings 22:24 ; Nehemiah 13:25 ; Isaiah 58:4 ; Matthew 5:39 ; Luke 22:64 ; 1 Corinthians 4:11 ). 2 Corinthians 11:20

20. For—Ye may well "bear with" fools; for ye even "bear with" oppressors. Translate, "Ye bear with them." a man—as the false apostles do. bring you into bondage—to himself. Translate "brings," not "bring"; for the case is not merely a supposed case, but a case actually then occurring. Also "devours" (namely, by exactions, Mt 23:24; Ps 53:4), "takes," "exalts," "smites." take of you—So the Greek for "take" is used for "take away from" (Re 6:4). Alford translates, as in 2Co 12:16, "catches you." exalt himself—under the pretext of apostolic dignity. smite you on the face—under the pretext of divine zeal. The height of insolence on their part, and of servile endurance on yours (1Ki 22:24; Ne 13:25; Lu 22:64; Ac 23:2; 1Ti 3:3).

20. For ye suffer ] ( susteynen , Wiclif). “This may be understood in three ways. (1) He may be understood as reproving the Corinthians ironically, because of their inability to bear with anything, or (2) as charging them with sluggishness of spirit, because they had shamefully enslaved themselves to the false Apostles, or (3) he repeats in the person of another what was maliciously affirmed regarding himself, namely, that he claimed a tyrannical authority over them.” Calvin. If, with him and many ancient commentators, we adopt (2), the sense is, as Calvin goes on to say, ‘You bear with all kinds of indignities from others, why not with far less from me, who am in every respect their equal, if not their superior, in the very qualifications by which you set so much store?’ This interpretation agrees best with the context (see next verse). The connection of this verse with the former will then be as follows: ‘You pride yourselves on being sensible people, and certainly you have immense toleration for folly. You even endure the foolish—or worse than foolish—insults of men who have no claim whatever to lord it over you. Why then not bear with me, when I condescend for a moment to the level of their folly? You will crouch to worthless pretenders, why resist the voice of real authority?’ if a man bring you into bondage ] Literally, enslave you . Our translation is Tyndale’s. Cf. Galatians 2:4 ; Galatians 4:9 ; Galatians 5:1 . devour you ] Cf.

Matthew 23:14 ; and the LXX. of Isaiah 9:12 . These false teachers were animated by none of St Paul’s delicacy as regards money matters. It could not be said of them that they were no Apostles, because they had no claim to be maintained by the Churches. take of you ] Rather, seize you, i.e. as a hunter his victim, or a man his property (cf. ch. 2 Corinthians 12:16 ). The earlier versions rendered simply by take , as though doubtful of the meaning. It was the Geneva that first added ‘your goods. smite you on the face ] An utterly extraordinary and inconceivable piece of presumption, according to our modern notions. But we do not habitually realize the immense extent to which Christianity has leavened our habits. Dean Stanley refers us to 1 Kings 22:24 ; Matthew 5:39 ; Luke 22:64 ; Acts 23:2 ; 1 Timothy 3:3 ; Titus 1:7 ; and to the canon of the Council of Braga (a.d. 675), which orders that no bishop at his will and pleasure shall strike (the original, however, seems to imply scourging ) his clergy, lest he lose the respect which they owe him. He might have referred also to the famous Latrocinium, or Robber-Synod of Ephesus, in which one patriarch of the Church and his adherents literally stamped another to death, and even to a period so late as the Council of Trent, in which it is admitted, even by the Jesuit historian Pallavicino, that scenes of personal violence occurred among those who were or should have been teachers of religion.