Charles Ellicott Commentary 2 Corinthians 10:12

"For we are not bold to number or compare ourselves with certain of them that commend themselves: but they themselves, measuring themselves by themselves, and comparing themselves with themselves, are without understanding." — 2 Corinthians 10:12 (ASV)

We dare not make ourselves of the number.—The last five words give the meaning of one Greek verb (enkrînai = to insert), the sound of which seems immediately to suggest the cognate verb (synkrînai = to compare). It is, of course, hard to convey the half-playful assonance in English. In some that commend themselves we note a reference to the charge of self-commending, which he has already noticed four times (2 Corinthians 3:1; 2 Corinthians 4:2; 2 Corinthians 5:12; 2 Corinthians 7:11). Before he had defended himself against the charge; now he retorts it on his opponents. In we dare we trace a reference to the charge of cowardice, as in 2 Corinthians 10:2.

Measuring themselves by themselves.—The Greek MSS. present many various readings, some of the best MSS. omitting are not wise, but, and some giving not boasting for we will not boast; and the Greek text, on any reading, presents a grammatical difficulty, arising from the fact that the last word may be either the third person plural of a verb in the indicative present, or a participle in the dative case, agreeing with themselves. It is hardly necessary to discuss here the various possible constructions rising out of the combination of these phenomena.

The English version gives, it is believed, substantially the meaning of the original. In the very act of saying, with a touch of irony, that he will not compare himself with the rival teachers, the Apostle virtually does compare himself. And the point he makes is that they instituted no such comparison. They were their own standards of excellence. Each was “amator sui sine rivali.” Collectively, they formed what has been described in the language of modern literary history as a “Mutual Admiration Society.”

Of all such self-admiration—one might almost say, of all such autolatry—St. Paul declares, what the experience of all ages attests, that those who practise it are not wise. They lose, as the Greek verb more definitely expresses it, all power of discernment.