2 Corinthians 11:30

THE MESSAGE

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.

Parallel Translations

Easy-to-Read Version
If I must boast, I will boast about the things that show I am weak.

Revised Standard Version
If I must boast, I will boast of the things that show my weakness.

Tyndale New Testament (1525)
Yf I must nedes reioyce I will reioyce of myne infirmities.

Hebrew Names Version
If I must boast, I will boast of the things that concern my weakness.

New American Standard Bible
If I have to boast, I will boast of what pertains to my weakness.

New Century Version
If I must brag, I will brag about the things that show I am weak.

Update Bible Version
If I must surely glory, I will glory of the things that concern my weakness.

Webster's Bible Translation
If I must needs glory, I will glory of the things which concern my infirmities.

English Standard Version
If I must boast, I will boast of the things that show my weakness.

World English Bible
If I must boast, I will boast of the things that concern my weakness.

Wesley's New Testament (1755)
Since I must glory, I will glory of the things that concern my infirmities.

Weymouth's New Testament
If boast I must, it shall be of things which display my weakness.

Wycliffe Bible (1395)
If it bihoueth to glorie, Y schal glorie in tho thingis that ben of myn infirmyte.

English Revised Version
If I must needs glory, I will glory of the things that concern my weakness.

Berean Standard Bible
If I must boast, I will boast of the things that show my weakness.

Contemporary English Version
If I have to brag, I will brag about how weak I am.

Amplified Bible
If I must boast, I will boast of the things that reveal my weakness [the things by which I am made weak in the eyes of my opponents].

American Standard Version
If I must needs glory, I will glory of the things that concern my weakness.

Bible in Basic English
If I have to take credit to myself, I will do so in the things in which I am feeble.

Complete Jewish Bible
If I must boast, I will boast about things that show how weak I am.

Darby Translation
If it is needful to boast, I will boast in the things which concern my infirmity.

International Standard Version
If I must boast, I will boast about the things that show how weak I am.2 Corinthians 12:5,9-10;">[xr]

Etheridge Translation
If I must boast in my infirmities, I will boast.

Murdock Translation
If I must glory, I will glory in my infirmities.

King James Version (1611)
If I must needes glory, I will glory of the things which concerne mine infirmities.

New Living Translation
If I must boast, I would rather boast about the things that show how weak I am.

New Life Bible
If I must talk about myself, I will do it about the things that show how weak I am.

New Revised Standard
If I must boast, I will boast of the things that show my weakness.

Geneva Bible (1587)
If I must needes reioyce, I will reioyce of mine infirmities.

George Lamsa Translation
If I must needs boast, I will boast of my sufferings.

J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
If, to boast, is needful, in the things that concern my weakness, will I boast.

Douay-Rheims Bible
If I must needs glory, I will glory of the things that concern my infirmity.

Bishop's Bible (1568)
If I must needes glory, I wyll glory of the thynges that concerne myne infirmities.

Good News Translation
If I must boast, I will boast about things that show how weak I am.

Christian Standard Bible®
If boasting is necessary, I will boast about my weaknesses.

King James Version
If I must needs glory, I will glory of the things which concern mine infirmities.

Lexham English Bible
If it is necessary to boast, I will boast about the things related to my weakness.

Literal Translation
If it is right to boast, I will boast of the things of my infirmity.

Young's Literal Translation
if to boast it behoveth [me], of the things of my infirmity I will boast;

Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
Yf I must nedes make my boast, I wil boast my selfe of myne infirmyte.

Mace New Testament (1729)
If I must be compell'd to glory, I will glory on the account of my sufferings.

New English Translation
If I must boast, I will boast about the things that show my weakness.

New King James Version
If I must boast, I will boast in the things which concern my infirmity.

Simplified Cowboy Version
But if I'm going to brag, it's going to be about the things I am weak at.

New American Standard Bible (1995)
If I have to boast, I will boast of what pertains to my weakness.

Legacy Standard Bible
If I have to boast, I will boast of what pertains to my weakness.

Contextual Overview

²²Pseudo-Servants of God Will you put up with a little foolish aside from me? Please, just for a moment. The thing that has me so upset is that I care about you so much—this is the passion of God burning inside me! I promised your hand in marriage to Christ, presented you as a pure virgin to her husband. And now I'm afraid that exactly as the Snake seduced Eve with his smooth patter, you are being lured away from the simple purity of your love for Christ. It seems that if someone shows up preaching quite another Jesus than we preached—different spirit, different message—you put up with him quite nicely. But if you put up with these big-shot "apostles," why can't you put up with simple me? I'm as good as they are. It's true that I don't have their voice, haven't mastered that smooth eloquence that impresses you so much. But when I do open my mouth, I at least know what I'm talking about. We haven't kept anything back. We let you in on everything. I wonder, did I make a bad mistake in proclaiming God's Message to you without asking for something in return, serving you free of charge so that you wouldn't be inconvenienced by me? It turns out that the other churches paid my way so that you could have a free ride. Not once during the time I lived among you did anyone have to lift a finger to help me out. My needs were always supplied by the believers from Macedonia province. I was careful never to be a burden to you, and I never will be, you can count on it. With Christ as my witness, it's a point of honor with me, and I'm not going to keep it quiet just to protect you from what the neighbors will think. It's not that I don't love you; God knows I do. I'm just trying to keep things open and honest between us. And I'm not changing my position on this. I'd die before taking your money. I'm giving nobody grounds for lumping me in with those money-grubbing "preachers," vaunting themselves as something special. They're a sorry bunch—pseudo-apostles, lying preachers, crooked workers—posing as Christ's agents but sham to the core. And no wonder! Satan does it all the time, dressing up as a beautiful angel of light. So it shouldn't surprise us when his servants masquerade as servants of God. But they're not getting by with anything. They'll pay for it in the end. Let 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.) ²³I'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. ²⁸And 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. ³⁰If 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

must: 2 Corinthians 11:16-18, 2 Corinthians 12:1, 2 Corinthians 12:11, Proverbs 25:27, Proverbs 27:2, Jeremiah 9:23, Jeremiah 9:24

I will: 2 Corinthians 12:5-10, Colossians 1:24

Reciprocal: Romans 4:2 - he hath 1 Corinthians 2:3 - General 2 Corinthians 10:1 - base 2 Corinthians 12:9 - glory 2 Corinthians 13:9 - when Galatians 4:13 - through 1 Thessalonians 3:1 - when Hebrews 5:2 - is compassed

Cross-References

Genesis 11:1
At one time, the whole Earth spoke the same language. It so happened that as they moved out of the east, they came upon a plain in the land of Shinar and settled down.

Genesis 11:3
They said to one another, "Come, let's make bricks and fire them well." They used brick for stone and tar for mortar.

Genesis 11:12
When Arphaxad was thirty-five years old, he had Shelah. After Arphaxad had Shelah, he lived 403 more years and had other sons and daughters.

Genesis 25:21
Isaac prayed hard to God for his wife because she was barren. God answered his prayer and Rebekah became pregnant. But the children tumbled and kicked inside her so much that she said, "If this is the way it's going to be, why go on living?" She went to God to find out what was going on. God told her, Two nations are in your womb, two peoples butting heads while still in your body. One people will overpower the other, and the older will serve the younger.

Genesis 29:31
When God realized that Leah was unloved, he opened her womb. But Rachel was barren. Leah became pregnant and had a son. She named him Reuben (Look-It's-a-Boy!). "This is a sign," she said, "that God has seen my misery; and a sign that now my husband will love me."

Judges 13:2
At that time there was a man named Manoah from Zorah from the tribe of Dan. His wife was barren and childless. The angel of God appeared to her and told her, "I know that you are barren and childless, but you're going to become pregnant and bear a son. But take much care: Drink no wine or beer; eat nothing ritually unclean. You are, in fact, pregnant right now, carrying a son. No razor will touch his head—the boy will be God's Nazirite from the moment of his birth. He will launch the deliverance from Philistine oppression."

Luke 1:36
"And did you know that your cousin Elizabeth conceived a son, old as she is? Everyone called her barren, and here she is six months pregnant! Nothing, you see, is impossible with God." And Mary said, Yes, I see it all now: I'm the Lord's maid, ready to serve. Let it be with me just as you say. Then the angel left her.

Gill's Notes on the Bible

If I must needs glory,.... The apostle signifies that glorying was not agreeable to him; he was not fond of it, it was a subject he did not delight to dwell upon; what he had done was by force, and through necessity; he was compelled to it by the boasts of the false apostles: and since he must needs glory in order to stop their mouths;

I will glory, says he, of things which concern mine infirmities; meaning not his sins, for these cause shame; but his afflictions and sufferings for Christ, under which he was supported, and from which he was delivered by the power of Christ; and that was the reason he chose to glory of them; for though they rendered him mean and despicable in the eyes of the world, yet his bearing them with so much patience, courage, and pleasure, and his many singular deliverances out of them, served greatly to illustrate the power and grace of Christ, and at the same time proved him to be a true and faithful minister of the Gospel; to whom so much honour was vouchsafed, as to suffer shame for the name of Christ, and to be so singularly marked out by him, as the object of his favour, love, and care.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

If I must needs glory - It is unpleasant for me to boast, but circumstances have compelled me. But since I am compelled, I will not boast of my rank, or talents, but of that which is regarded by some as an infirmity.

Mine infirmities - Greek, “The things of my weakness.” The word here used is derived from the same word which is rendered weak,” in 2 Corinthians 11:29. He intends doubtless to refer here to what had preceded in his enumeration of the trials which he had endured. He had spoken of sufferings. He had endured much. He had also spoken of that tenderness of feeling which prompted him to sympathize so deeply when others suffered. He admitted that he often wept, and trembled, and glowed with strong feelings on occasions which perhaps to many would not seem to call for such strong emotions, and which they might be disposed to set down as a weakness or infirmity. This might especially be the case among the Greeks, where many philosophers, as the Stoics, were disposed to regard all sympathetic feeling, and all sensitiveness to suffering as an infirmity. But Paul admitted that he was disposed to glory in this alone. He gloried that he had sneered so much; that he had endured so many trials on account of Christianity, and that he had a mind that was capable of feeling for others and of entering into their, sorrows and trials. Well might he do this, for there is no more lovely feature in the mind of a virtuous man, and there is no more lovely influence of Christianity than this, that it teaches us to “bear a brother’s woes,” and to sympathize in all the sorrows and joys of others. Philosophy and infidelity may be dissocial, cheerless, cold; but it is not so with Christianity. Philosophy may snap asunder all the cords which bind us to the living world, but Christianity strengthens these cords; cold and cheerless atheism and scepticism may teach us to look with unconcern on a suffering world, but it is the glory of Christianity that it teaches us to feel an interest in the weal or woe of the obscurest man that lives, to rejoice in his joy, and to weep in his sorrows.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse 30. I will glory - which concern mine infirmities. — I will not boast of my natural or acquired powers; neither in what God has done by me; but rather in what I have suffered for him.

Many persons have understood by infirmities what they call the indwelling sin of the apostle, and say that "he gloried in this, because the grace of Christ was the more magnified in his being preserved from ruin, notwithstanding this indwelling adversary." And to support this most unholy interpretation, they quote those other words of the apostle, 2 Corinthians 12:9: Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, my indwelling corruptions, that the power of Christ, in chaining the fierce lion, may rest upon me. But it would be difficult to produce a single passage in the whole New Testament where the word ασθενεια, which we translate infirmity, has the sense of sin or moral corruption. The verb ασθενεω signifies to be weak, infirm, sick, poor, despicable through poverty, c. And in a few places it is applied to weakness in the faith, to young converts, who are poor in religious knowledge, not yet fully instructed in the nature of the Gospel; Romans 4:19; Romans 14:1, Romans 14:2. And it is applied to the works of the law, to point out their inability to justify a sinner, Romans 8:3. But to inward sin, and inward corruption it is never applied. I am afraid that what these persons call their infirmities may rather be called their strengths; the prevailing and frequently ruling power of pride, anger, ill-will, c. for how few think evil tempers to be sins! The gentle term infirmity softens down the iniquity; and as St. Paul, so great and so holy a man, say they, had his infirmities, how can they expect to be without theirs? These should know that they are in a dangerous error; that St. Paul means nothing of the kind; for he speaks of his sufferings, and of these alone. One word more: would not the grace and power of Christ appear more conspicuous in slaying the lion than in keeping him chained? in destroying sin, root and branch; and filling the soul with his own holiness, with love to God and man, with the mind-all the holy heavenly tempers, that were in himself; than in leaving these impure and unholy tempers, ever to live and often to reign in the heart? The doctrine is discreditable to the Gospel, and wholly antichristian.