2 Corinthians 11:23-33

2. By incomparably greater sufferings, 2 Corinthians 11:23-33.

With consummate skill St. Paul, (in whose ears are echoing the retorts of his foes, “What a boaster!”) shows off here, not his victories and conquests, not the oratory he had displayed, the converts he had gained, the Churches he had founded; but the unparalleled sufferings and disgraces he had undergone. He enumerates them almost statistically, classifying their sorts, and giving their figures. But, all the while, the more profoundly he thus humbles himself, the more transcendent is his superiority over his easy-living adversaries.

Of a large number of the sufferings here undergone, Luke’s brief sketch in the Acts gives no account. This confirms Paley’s argument for the truth of Christianity, drawn from the sufferings of the early Christian preachers. It shows, too, that in accounting for the writing of some of the epistles we may easily suppose voyages and journeys unmentioned by Luke. When, for instance, Luke informs us (Acts 20:31) that Paul spent three continuous years at Ephesus, it is as when we say that a young man spends four years at college; that is, without counting three months each year of vacation.

As both a catalogue and a picture the present section is strikingly parallel to 2Co 4:8-12 ; 2 Corinthians 6:5-10.

The endurances enumerated are, 2 Corinthians 11:23-27, bodily; 2 Corinthians 11:28-29, mental; 2 Corinthians 11:32-33, a single notable event.

2 Corinthians 11:23 gives four general bodily endurances, of which all that follow are specials.