2 Corinthians 11:19

THE MESSAGE

Parallel Translations

New American Standard Bible (1995)
For you, being so wise, tolerate the foolish gladly.

Legacy Standard Bible
For you, being so wise, are bearing the foolish gladly.

Simplified Cowboy Version
Y'all are the wise ones, so put up with me for a little spell.

Bible in Basic English
For you put up with the foolish gladly, being wise yourselves.

Darby Translation
For ye bear fools readily, being wise.

Christian Standard Bible®
For you, being so wise, gladly put up with fools!

World English Bible
For you bear with the foolish gladly, being wise.

Wesley's New Testament (1755)
For ye, being wise, suffer fools willingly. For ye suffer, if a man inslave you,

Weymouth's New Testament
Wise as you yourselves are, you find pleasure in tolerating fools.

King James Version (1611)
For ye suffer fooles gladly, seeing ye your selues are wise.

Literal Translation
For you with pleasure endure fools, being wise.

Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
For ye suffre foles gladly, in so moch as ye youre selues are wyse.

Mace New Testament (1729)
for as wise as you are your selves, you easily bear with the folly of others.

Amplified Bible
For you, being so wise, gladly tolerate and accept the foolish [like me]!

American Standard Version
For ye bear with the foolish gladly, being wise yourselves.

Revised Standard Version
For you gladly bear with fools, being wise yourselves!

Tyndale New Testament (1525)
For ye suffre foles gladly be cause that ye youre selves are wyse.

Update Bible Version
For you bear with the foolish gladly, being wise [yourselves].

Webster's Bible Translation
For ye suffer fools gladly, seeing ye [yourselves] are wise.

Young's Literal Translation
for gladly do ye bear with the fools -- being wise,

New Century Version
You are wise, so you will gladly be patient with fools!

New English Translation
For since you are so wise, you put up with fools gladly.

Berean Standard Bible
For you gladly tolerate fools, since you are so wise.

Contemporary English Version
And since you are so smart, you will gladly put up with a fool.

Complete Jewish Bible
For since you yourselves are so wise, you gladly put up with fools!

English Standard Version
For you gladly bear with fools, being wise yourselves!

Geneva Bible (1587)
For ye suffer fooles gladly, because that yee are wise.

George Lamsa Translation
For you endure fools readily, knowing that you yourselves are wise.

Hebrew Names Version
For you bear with the foolish gladly, being wise.

International Standard Version
You are wise, so you will gladly put up with fools.1 Corinthians 4:10;">[xr]

Etheridge Translation
For you are content to listen to the feebleminded, you yourselves being wise.

Murdock Translation
For ye hear with indulgence them who lack reason, seeing ye are wise.

New King James Version
For you put up with fools gladly, since you yourselves are wise!

New Living Translation
After all, you think you are so wise, but you enjoy putting up with fools!

New Life Bible
You are so wise! You put up with fools!

English Revised Version
For ye bear with the foolish gladly, being wise [yourselves].

New Revised Standard
For you gladly put up with fools, being wise yourselves!

J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
For, gladly, do ye bear with the foolish, being yourselves , discreet, -

Douay-Rheims Bible
For you gladly suffer the foolish: whereas yourselves are wise.

King James Version
For ye suffer fools gladly, seeing ye yourselves are wise.

Lexham English Bible
For because you are wise, you put up with foolish people gladly!

Bishop's Bible (1568)
For ye suffer fooles gladly, seyng ye your selues are wyse.

Easy-to-Read Version
You are wise, so you will gladly be patient with fools!

New American Standard Bible
For you, being so wise, tolerate the foolish gladly.

Good News Translation
You yourselves are so wise, and so you gladly tolerate fools!

Wycliffe Bible (1395)
For ye suffren gladli vnwise men, whanne ye silf ben wise.

Contextual Overview

¹⁶Let me come back to where I started—and don't hold it against me if I continue to sound a little foolish. Or if you'd rather, just accept that I am a fool and let me rant on a little. I didn't learn this kind of talk from Christ. Oh, no, it's a bad habit I picked up from the three-ring preachers that are so popular these days. Since you sit there in the judgment seat observing all these shenanigans, you can afford to humor an occasional fool who happens along. You have such admirable tolerance for impostors who rob your freedom, rip you off, steal you blind, put you down—even slap your face! I shouldn't admit it to you, but our stomachs aren't strong enough to tolerate that kind of stuff. Since you admire the egomaniacs of the pulpit so much (remember, this is your old friend, the fool, talking), let me try my hand at it. Do they brag of being Hebrews, Israelites, the pure race of Abraham? I'm their match. Are they servants of Christ? I can go them one better. (I can't believe I'm saying these things. It's crazy to talk this way! But I started, and I'm going to finish.) I've worked much harder, been jailed more often, beaten up more times than I can count, and at death's door time after time. I've been flogged five times with the Jews' thirty-nine lashes, beaten by Roman rods three times, pummeled with rocks once. I've been shipwrecked three times, and immersed in the open sea for a night and a day. In hard traveling year in and year out, I've had to ford rivers, fend off robbers, struggle with friends, struggle with foes. I've been at risk in the city, at risk in the country, endangered by desert sun and sea storm, and betrayed by those I thought were my brothers. I've known drudgery and hard labor, many a long and lonely night without sleep, many a missed meal, blasted by the cold, naked to the weather. And that's not the half of it, when you throw in the daily pressures and anxieties of all the churches. When someone gets to the end of his rope, I feel the desperation in my bones. When someone is duped into sin, an angry fire burns in my gut. If I have to "brag" about myself, I'll brag about the humiliations that make me like Jesus. The eternal and blessed God and Father of our Master Jesus knows I'm not lying. Remember the time I was in Damascus and the governor of King Aretas posted guards at the city gates to arrest me? I crawled through a window in the wall, was let down in a basket, and had to run for my life.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

seeing: 1 Corinthians 4:10, 1 Corinthians 8:1, 1 Corinthians 10:15, Revelation 3:17

Reciprocal: Acts 8:10 - they Romans 1:14 - both to 2 Corinthians 11:1 - in 2 Corinthians 11:16 - receive me Galatians 5:20 - heresies

Gill's Notes on the Bible

For ye suffer fools gladly,.... They bore with the false apostles, who were fools; were continually proclaiming their folly, boasting of themselves, ascribing that to themselves which did not belong to them, and were puffed up by their fleshly minds; they indulged these men in their folly, and that with pleasure and delight; they not only winked at it, and overlooked it, but were pleased with it: seeing ye yourselves are wise; acting like men who count themselves wise, and keep fools for their pleasure, diversion, and sport. These words may be considered either as spoken seriously by the apostle, and as wondering that they should suffer such fools to go on in their vain boasts, and especially with pleasure; since they were men of wisdom, who were otherwise taught of God, and by the word; they had been made wise unto salvation, and were enriched in all utterance, and in all knowledge; they had been instructed by the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Christ, and in the mysteries of his Gospel; and therefore it was surprising that they could bear with such vain and foolish men, and especially with delight; for though it is the part of a wise man to bear with fools, yet not with pleasure; so that this carries in it a tacit reproof to them: or else the last clause may be considered as spoken ironically, and as a severe jibe upon their folly for tolerating such a parcel of fools among them; as if he should say, you show yourselves to be men of wisdom, as you would be thought to be; you act the wise part, do not you, in suffering such empty headed men to converse with you, and delight in their vain talk and conversation? however, the whole furnishes out an argument for the apostle, and which he means to improve; that if they could suffer and bear with such fools, and so many of them, and that gladly, then they might and ought to bear a little with him in his folly, which is what he entreats of them.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

For ye suffer fools gladly - You tolerate or endure those who are really fools. This is perhaps, says Dr. Bloomfield, the most sarcastic sentence ever penned by the apostle Paul. Its sense is, “You profess to be wondrous wise. And yet you who are so wise a people, freely tolerate those who are foolish in their boasting; who proclaim their own merits and attainments. You may allow me, therefore, to come in for my share, and boast also, and thus obtain your favor.” Or it may mean, “You are so profoundly wise as easily to see who are fools. You have great power of discernment in this, and have found out that I am a fool, and also that other boasters are fools. Yet knowing this, you bear patiently with such fools; have admitted them to your favor and friendship, and I may come in among the rest of the fools, and partake also of your favors.” They had borne with the false apostles who had boasted of their endowments, and yet they claimed to be eminent for wisdom and discernment.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse 19. Ye suffer fools gladly, seeing ye yourselves are wise. — A very fine irony. Ye are so profoundly wise as to be able to discern that I am a fool. Well, it would be dishonourable to you as wise men to fall out with a fool; you will therefore gladly bear with his impertinence and foolishness because of your own profound wisdom.