Charles Ellicott Commentary 2 Corinthians 11

Would to God.—As the words “to God” are not in the Greek, it would be better to treat them as the general expression of a wish: Would that you could bear.

You could bear with me a little in my folly.—There are two catch-words, so to speak, which characterize the section of the Epistle on which we are now entering. One is “bearing with,” or “tolerating,” which occurs five times (2 Corinthians 11:1; 2 Corinthians 11:4; 2 Corinthians 11:19–20). The other is “folly,” which, with its kindred “fool,” is repeated not less than eight times (2 Corinthians 11:1; 2 Corinthians 11:16–17; 2 Corinthians 11:19; 2 Corinthians 11:21; 2 Corinthians 12:6; 2 Corinthians 12:11). It is impossible to resist the inference that here also we have the echo of something which Titus had reported to him as said by his opponents at Corinth. Their words, we must believe, had taken some such form as this: “We really can bear with him no longer; his folly is becoming altogether intolerable.”

And indeed bear with me.—The words, as the marginal reading indicates, can be taken as either imperative or indicative. Either gives an adequate meaning, but the latter, it is believed, is preferable. It is one of the many passages in which we trace the working of conflicting feelings. Indignation prompts him to the wish, “Would that you could bear.” Then he thinks of the loyalty and kindness he had experienced from them, and he adds a qualifying clause to soften the seeming harshness of the words that had just passed from his lips: “And yet (why should I say this? for) you do indeed habitually bear with me.”

For I am jealous over you . . .—The word is used with the same sense as in the nearly contemporary passage of Galatians 4:17, and the whole passage may be paraphrased thus: “I court your favour with a jealous care, which is not a mere human affection, but after the pattern of that of God.” There is probably an implied contrast between the true jealousy which thus worked in his soul and the false jealousy of which he speaks in the passage just referred to.

For I have espoused you . . .—The word is not found elsewhere in the New Testament. It appears in this sense in the LXX version of Proverbs 19:14: “A man’s wife is espoused to him from the Lord.” Strictly speaking, it is used of the act of the father who gives his daughter in marriage; and this, rather than the claim to act as “the friend of the bridegroom” (see Note on John 3:29), is probably the idea here.

He claims the office as the “father” of the Corinthian Church (1 Corinthians 4:15). The underlying idea of the comparison is that the Church at large, and every separate portion of it, is as the bride of Christ. On the earlier appearances of this thought, see Notes on Matthew 22:2; Matthew 25:1; John 3:29; and, for its more elaborated forms, on Ephesians 5:25-32; Revelation 19:7–9; Revelation 21:2; and Revelation 21:9.

What the Apostle now urges is that it is as natural for him to be jealous for the purity of the Church which owes its birth to him, as it is for a father to be jealous over the chastity of the daughter whom he has betrothed to a kingly bridegroom.

But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent . . .—This is an allusive reference to the history in Genesis 3, which we encounter again in 1 Timothy 3:13–15. St. Paul either takes for granted that the disciples at Corinth will recognize the “serpent” as the symbol of the great Tempter, as in Revelation 12:9; or, without laying stress on that identification, simply compares the work of the rival teachers to that of the serpent. The word for “subtilty” is not the one used in the Septuagint of Genesis 3:1. Literally, it expresses the mischievous activity of a man who is capable de tout—ready, as we say, for anything.

Corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ.—The Greek word for “corrupt” has the same special sense as in 2 Corinthians 7:2, implying something incompatible with the idea of purity. The Apostle seeks, as it were, a chastity of mind as well as of body. Many of the better manuscripts read, from the simplicity (that is, singleness of affection) and chastity; and some, chastity and simplicity.

For if he who comes preaches another Jesus.—The singular points, like the “any man,” “such a one,” of 2 Corinthians 10:7 and 2 Corinthians 10:11, to an individual teacher who had made himself conspicuously prominent. The words throw light on Galatians 1:7-8. The false teachers in Galatia and those at Corinth were doing the same thing. In the absence of fuller knowledge of what they taught, it is difficult to define accurately what precise form of error is alluded to. One thing, at least, is clear—that their Jesus was not his Jesus—not the Friend and Brother of mankind who had died for all men, that He might reconcile them to God. Reasoning from probabilities, we may, perhaps, infer that they spoke of Him as the head of a Jewish kingdom, requiring circumcision and all the ordinances of the Law as a condition of admission to it.

If you receive another spirit.—Better, a different spirit, as showing that the word is not the same as in the previous clause. The words point, it is clear, to a counterfeit inspiration, perhaps like that of those who had interrupted the praises of the Church with the startling cry, “Anathema to Jesus!” (See Note on 1 Corinthians 12:3). Such as these were the “false prophets” of 2 Peter 2:1 and 1 John 4:3, simulating the phenomena of inspiration, perhaps thought of by the Apostles as really acting under the inspiration of an evil spirit.

Which you have not received.—Better, did not receive, as referring definitely to the time of their conversion.

Another gospel, which you have not accepted.—Better, as before, a different gospel, which you did not accept—i.e., different from that which you did accept from me. His gospel, he seems to say, was one of pardon through faith working by love: theirs was based on the old Pharisaic lines of works, ritual, ceremonial and moral precepts, standing in their teaching on the same footing.

You might well bear with him.—Better, the adverb being emphatic, and intensely ironical, nobly would you bear with him. He means, of course, that they have done much more than tolerate the preachers of the false gospel, and have paid them an extravagant deference. On a similar use of irony in our Lord’s teaching, see Note on Mark 7:9.

For I suppose I was not a whit behind the very chiefest apostles.—The verb with which the sentence opens is the same as the “I think,” “I reckon,” which characterizes these chapters, and which, being characteristic, ought to be retained. I reckon I have not fallen short of those apostles-extraordinary. The whole tone of the passage ought to have made it impossible for any commentator to imagine that the words referred to Peter and James and John as the pillars of the Church of Jerusalem (Galatians 2:9).

Of them he speaks, even in his boldest moments, with respect, even where respect is mingled with reproof. He is glad to remember how they gave to him and Barnabas the right hand of fellowship. He presents himself at Jerusalem a few months after writing these words, and almost submissively follows the counsel which James gives him (Acts 21:26). It is, accordingly, simply the insanity of controversy to imagine that these words have any bearing on the question of the primacy of St. Peter. Those whom he holds up to scorn with an almost withering irony, as “apostles-extraordinary” (he coins a word which literally means, “these extra-special or over-extra apostles”), are the false teachers, claiming to stand in a special relation to Christ, to be His Apostles—perhaps, also, to have a double title to the name, as delegates of the Church of Jerusalem. Of these he speaks more fully in 2 Corinthians 11:13.