2 Corinthians · 33 verses
2 Corinthians 11
Every verse links to the people and places named in it, and to the passages readers connect it with.
The chapter
What happens here
Atlas's own reading, written from this chapter and nothing else, and published only once a person has approved it. Each scene names the verses it covers; the names inside it link to the people and places they name.
A governor secured Damascus to catch the speaker, who escaped through a wall in a basket.
A little foolishnessvv. 1–15
The speaker begins with a wedding, a jealous promise, and a fear that Eve’s old serpent may find a new audience. The Corinthians are remarkably accommodating: a different Jesus, spirit, or gospel is admitted with hardly a fuss. Then comes the splendidly awkward account of support: other churches were “robbed” to serve them, while brothers from Macedonia supplied what was needed. The argument ends with impostors dressed as apostles, and Satan himself dressed as an angel of light—a wardrobe department of some consequence.
The boast that bites backvv. 16–33
The speaker now boasts, while carefully announcing that he is speaking as a fool. The Corinthians tolerate masters who enslave, exploit, exalt themselves, and even strike them; with magnificent sarcasm, he concedes that he and his companions were too weak for such treatment. His rival’s credentials are met with a catalogue of labour, prisons, beatings, lashes, rods, stoning, shipwrecks, hunger, cold, danger, and the daily pressure of concern for the churches. Yet the boast finally settles on weakness. Then, after all those perils, the chapter produces its neat little anticlimax: a governor secures Damascus, and the speaker leaves by basket through a window in the wall.
The text
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Berean Standard Bible, public domain. Names the Hebrew and Greek put in the verse link to the person, place or people they name; the address beside each verse is a link to that verse, which is what a reader copies and shares.
2 Cor 11:1I hope you will put up with a little of my foolishness, but you are already doing that.
2 Cor 11:2I am jealous for you with a godly jealousy. For I promised you to one husband, to present you as a pure virgin to Christ.
2 Cor 11:3I am afraid, however, that just as Eve was deceived by the serpent’s cunning, your minds may be led astray from your simple and pure devotion to Christ.
2 Cor 11:4For if someone comes and proclaims a Jesus other than the One we proclaimed, or if you receive a different spirit than the One you received, or a different gospel than the one you accepted, you put up with it very easily.
2 Cor 11:5I consider myself in no way inferior to those “super-apostles.”
2 Cor 11:6Although I am not a polished speaker, I am certainly not lacking in knowledge. We have made this clear to you in every way possible.
2 Cor 11:7Was it a sin for me to humble myself in order to exalt you, because I preached the gospel of God to you free of charge?
2 Cor 11:8I robbed other churches by accepting their support in order to serve you.
2 Cor 11:9And when I was with you and in need, I was not a burden to anyone; for the brothers who came from Macedonia supplied my needs. I have refrained from being a burden to you in any way, and I will continue to do so.
2 Cor 11:10As surely as the truth of Christ is in me, this boasting of mine will not be silenced in the regions of Achaia.
2 Cor 11:11Why? Because I do not love you? God knows I do!
2 Cor 11:12But I will keep on doing what I am doing, in order to undercut those who want an opportunity to be regarded as our equals in the things of which they boast.
2 Cor 11:13For such men are false apostles, deceitful workers, masquerading as apostles of Christ.
2 Cor 11:14And no wonder, for Satan himself masquerades as an angel of light.
2 Cor 11:15It is not surprising, then, if his servants masquerade as servants of righteousness. Their end will correspond to their actions.
2 Cor 11:16I repeat: Let no one take me for a fool. But if you do, then receive me as a fool, so that I too may boast a little.
2 Cor 11:17In this confident boasting of mine, I am not speaking as the Lord would, but as a fool.
2 Cor 11:18Since many are boasting according to the flesh, I too will boast.
2 Cor 11:19For you gladly put up with fools, since you are so wise.
2 Cor 11:20In fact, you even put up with anyone who enslaves you or exploits you or takes advantage of you or exalts himself or strikes you in the face.
2 Cor 11:21To my shame I concede that we were too weak for that! Speaking as a fool, however, I can match what anyone else dares to boast about.
2 Cor 11:22Are they Hebrews? So am I. Are they Israelites? So am I. Are they descendants of Abraham? So am I.
2 Cor 11:23Are they servants of Christ? (I am speaking as if I were out of my mind.) I am so much more: in harder labor, in more imprisonments, in worse beatings, in frequent danger of death.
2 Cor 11:24Five times I received from the Jews the forty lashes minus one.
2 Cor 11:25Three times I was beaten with rods, once I was stoned, three times I was shipwrecked. I spent a night and a day in the open sea.
2 Cor 11:26In my frequent journeys, I have been in danger from rivers and from bandits, in danger from my countrymen and from the Gentiles, in danger in the city and in the country, in danger on the sea and among false brothers,
2 Cor 11:27in labor and toil and often without sleep, in hunger and thirst and often without food, in cold and exposure.
2 Cor 11:28Apart from these external trials, I face daily the pressure of my concern for all the churches.
2 Cor 11:29Who is weak, and I am not weak? Who is led into sin, and I do not burn with grief?
2 Cor 11:30If I must boast, I will boast of the things that show my weakness.
2 Cor 11:31The God and Father of the Lord Jesus, who is forever worthy of praise, knows that I am not lying.
2 Cor 11:32In Damascus, the governor under King Aretas secured the city of the Damascenes in order to arrest me.
2 Cor 11:33But I was lowered in a basket through a window in the wall and escaped his grasp.
01 — Also here
Who else the chapter reaches
Names written in the English are linked in the text above. These are the ones that are not: an entity the Hebrew or Greek names under a spelling the translation does not use, or one reached only by an assertion about a verse of this chapter.
Named in the Hebrew or Greek somewhere in this chapter, under a form the English renders differently — the registry's Ludim against the translation's Ludites — so there is no word in the sentence to hang the link on.
Reached by an assertion Atlas extracted from a verse of this chapter rather than by a name written in it — a pronoun, a title, or a participant the sentence carries without naming. This layer is model-read and measured at 88.6–90.3% precision, and it is kept separate from the names above for that reason.
02 — Read alongside
Where this is echoed
Readers' own connections, from OpenBible's crowd-voted cross-references — agreement about relevance, and not scholarly confidence. 468 passages were voted onto 33 verses of this chapter; the 16 shown lead on votes, and each is listed at the verse it was voted onto most strongly.
- 3Colossians 2:8See to it that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deception, which are based on human tradition and the spiritual forces of the world rather than on Christ.
- 3Galatians 1:6I am amazed how quickly you are deserting the One who called you by the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel—
- 3Ephesians 4:14Then we will no longer be infants, tossed about by the waves and carried around by every wind of teaching and by the clever cunning of men in their deceitful scheming.
- 14Galatians 1:8But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be under a curse!
- 31 John 4:1Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God. For many false prophets have gone out into the world.
- 2Hosea 2:19–20So I will betroth you to Me forever; I will betroth you in righteousness and justice, in loving devotion and compassion.
- 3Colossians 2:4I say this so that no one will deceive you by smooth rhetoric.
- 142 Corinthians 2:11in order that Satan should not outwit us. For we are not unaware of his schemes.
- 3Hebrews 13:9Do not be carried away by all kinds of strange teachings, for it is good for the heart to be strengthened by grace and not by foods of no value to those devoted to them.
- 31 Timothy 2:14And it was not Adam who was deceived, but the woman who was deceived and fell into transgression.
- 3Revelation 12:9And the great dragon was hurled down—that ancient serpent called the devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world. He was hurled to the earth, and his angels with him.
- 2Ephesians 5:26–27to sanctify her, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word,
- 3Genesis 3:13Then the LORD God said to the woman, “What is this you have done?” “The serpent deceived me,” she replied, “and I ate.”
- 142 Corinthians 11:3I am afraid, however, that just as Eve was deceived by the serpent’s cunning, your minds may be led astray from your simple and pure devotion to Christ.
- 2Isaiah 54:5For your husband is your Maker—the LORD of Hosts is His name—the Holy One of Israel is your Redeemer; He is called the God of all the earth.
- 32 Corinthians 11:13–15For such men are false apostles, deceitful workers, masquerading as apostles of Christ.
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