2 Corinthians 11:23-33

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 concern⁹ for all the churches. 11:29 Who is weak, and I am not weak? Who is led into sin,¹⁰ and I do not burn with indignation? 11:30 If I must boast,¹¹ I will boast about the things that show my weakness.¹² 11:31 The God and Father of the Lord Jesus, who is blessed forever, knows I am not lying. 11:32 In Damascus, the governor¹³ under King Aretas was guarding the city of Damascus¹⁴ in order to arrest¹⁵ me, 11:33 but I was let down in a rope-basket¹⁶ through a window in the city wall, and escaped his hands.

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

²sn 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.

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

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

⁵tn Or “desert.”

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

⁷tn 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.

⁸sn 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.

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

¹⁰tn Or “who is caused to stumble.”

¹¹tn Grk “If boasting is necessary.”

¹²tn Or “about the things related to my weakness.”

¹³tn Grk “ethnarch.”

sn The governor was an official called an ethnarch who was appointed to rule over a particular area or constituency on behalf of a king.

¹⁴tn Grk “the city of the Damascenes.”

¹⁵tn Or “to seize,” “to catch.”

¹⁶tn In Acts 9:25 the same basket used in Paul’s escape is called a σπυρίς (spuri"), a basket larger than a κόφινος (kofinos). It was very likely made out of rope, so the translation “rope-basket” is used.