2 Corinthians 11:23-28

11:23 Are they servants of Christ? (I am talking like I am out of my mind!) I am even more so: with much greater labors, with far more imprisonments, with more severe beatings, facing death many times. 11:24 Five times I received from the Jews forty lashes less one. 1  11:25 Three times I was beaten with a rod. 2  Once I received a stoning. 3  Three times I suffered shipwreck. A night and a day I spent adrift in the open sea. 11:26 I have been on journeys many times, in dangers from rivers, in dangers from robbers, 4  in dangers from my own countrymen, in dangers from Gentiles, in dangers in the city, in dangers in the wilderness, 5  in dangers at sea, in dangers from false brothers, 11:27 in hard work and toil, 6  through many sleepless nights, in hunger and thirst, many times without food, in cold and without enough clothing. 7  11:28 Apart from other things, 8  there is the daily pressure on me of my anxious concern 9  for all the churches.

1 tn Grk “forty less one”; this was a standard sentence. “Lashes” is supplied to clarify for the modern reader what is meant.

2 sn Beaten with a rod refers to the Roman punishment of admonitio according to BDAG 902 s.v. ῥαβδίζω. Acts 16:22 describes one of these occasions in Philippi; in this case it was administered by the city magistrates, who had wide powers in a military colony.

3 sn Received a stoning. See Acts 14:19, where this incident is described.

4 tn Or “bandits.” The word normally refers more to highwaymen (“robbers”) but can also refer to insurrectionists or revolutionaries (“bandits”).

5 tn Or “desert.”

6 tn The two different words for labor are translated “in hard work and toil” by L&N 42.48.

7 tn Grk “in cold and nakedness.” Paul does not mean complete nakedness, however, which would have been repugnant to a Jew; he refers instead to the lack of sufficient clothing, especially in cold weather. A related word is used to 1 Cor 4:11, also in combination with experiencing hunger and thirst.

8 sn Apart from other things. Paul refers here either (1) to the external sufferings just mentioned, or (2) he refers to other things he has left unmentioned.

9 tn “Anxious concern,” so translated in L&N 25.224.