2 Corinthians 11:21–30

Verse 21. I speak according to dishonour, as if we had been weak in this part. The interpreters are divided on this verse; the sense seems to be, I speak what others took upon as dishonourable in us, that we had not the like authority over you as these false teachers, and therefore could not keep you in such subjection as they have done. But yet I must tell you, that wherein if any man is bold, I am bold also; that is, I have no less motives to domineer and boast, than they have. And then he proceeds to particulars. Witham.

or, seed

Verse 23. They are ministers of Christ: I am more. To wit, an apostle chosen and sent by Jesus Christ, appointed in a special manner to be the apostle of the Gentiles, your apostle. Witham.

Verse 24. The Jews had power under the Romans to inflict punishments, not indeed capital, but corporal, such as flogging, and so forth See Mark 13:9. The law, in Deuteronomy 25:3 permitted, but did not command, forty stripes to be inflicted; it strictly forbad that number to be exceeded.

Verse 25. Thrice I suffered shipwreck. This was before the shipwreck in his voyage to Rome, by which we make take notice, that Saint Luke, in the Acts, omits a great many things relating to Saint Paul; as also when he adds, [1] a night and a day I was in the depth of the sea. We do not read expressed in the Greek, of the sea; but the Greek word is observed to imply the same: and so it is understood by Saint John Chrysostom who gives these two expositions; first, that he was truly and literally in the middle of the sea. Secondly, that he was floating or swimming in the sea after shipwreck, which seems the more common interpretation. Witham.—Saint Paul could have avoided that disgrace, as a Roman. See Acts 23; but in Acts 16 he refused to claim his privilege, that he might have an opportunity of converting the guard of the prison. P.

Verse 28. My daily instance. The labours that come in, and press upon me every day. Challoner.