SEV Biblia, Chapter 12:11
¶ He sido loco (en gloriarme); vosotros me constreisteis; pues yo había de ser alabado de vosotros, porque en nada he sido menos que los grandiosos apstoles, aunque nada soy.
Clarke's Bible Commentary - 2 Corinthians 12:11
Verse 11. I am become a fool in glorying] It is not the part of a wise or gracious man to boast; but ye have compelled me- I have been obliged to do it, in order to vindicate the cause of God. I ought to have been commended of you] You should have vindicated both myself and my ministry against the detractors that are among you.
The very chiefest apostles] See chap. xi. 1.
Though I be nothing.] Though I have been thus set at nought by your false apostle; and though, in consequence of what he has said, some of you have been ready to consider me as nothing-what we call good for nothing.
This must be the meaning of the apostle, as the following verses prove.
A kind of technical meaning has been imposed on these words, of which many good people seem very fond. I am nothing-I am all sin, defilement, and unworthiness in myself; but Jesus Christ is all in all. This latter clause is an eternal truth; the former may be very true also; the person who uses it may be all sin, defilement, &c., but let him not say that the apostle of the Gentiles was so too, because this is not true; it is false, and it is injurious to the character of the apostle and to the grace of Christ; besides, it is not the meaning of the text, and the use commonly made of it is abominable, if not wicked.
John Gill's Bible Commentary
Ver. 11. I am become a fool in glorying , etc..] This is either to be understood conditionally, if he had acted as a fool in commending himself, or was to be reckoned and called so by others, for glorying of himself, his visions and revelations; or as an ironical concession, allowing himself to be a fool for so doing, as he knew he should be traduced by his enemies; which concession he makes with a view to remove the blame from himself, and cast it upon the Corinthians: ye have compelled me: they were not only the occasion of his glorying, but they had forced him to it by their conduct; for he was obliged either to take this method for the vindication of his character, and preserve his future usefulness, or else to suffer the false apostles to triumph over him, to the great detriment of the Gospel, and of this church at Corinth particularly; whereas both might have been prevented, had they acted the part that became them: for I ought to have been commended of you ; when the false apostles reproached him, and insinuated things among them to his disadvantage, they ought not only to have turned a deaf ear to them, and to have checked and reproved them, and so have put a stop to their calumnies; but they should have spoke in commendation of him, and have declared how faithfully he had preached the Gospel to them; how useful he had been to their souls, for conviction, conversion, edification, and comfort; how laborious and indefatigable he had been in his ministry; what success attended him, and what wonderful things were done by him in proof of his divine mission; all which they were conscious of, and could with the utmost safety have affirmed of him: for in nothing , says he, am I behind the very chiefest apostles ; meaning either the false apostles, who set themselves upon an equality with the true ones, and above him; or rather the real apostles of Christ, and those that were of the greatest note among them, as Peter, James, and John; for though he was behind them in time, yet not in gifts, labour, and usefulness: but lest this should be thought to savour of vain boasting, he adds, though I be nothing ; which may be considered either as a declaration of his own thoughts of himself, and an humble acknowledgment of his own nothingness; that he was nothing as a man, as an Hebrew, a Pharisee, with respect to his external privileges and righteousness, not more and better than others; and nothing as an apostle and a Christian of himself, but was wholly and entirely what he was by the grace of God; or as the judgment and opinion of the false apostles concerning him, who spoke of him, and treated him as a worthless man, of no account, and not to be regarded.
Matthew Henry Commentary
Verses 11-21 - We owe it to good men, to stand up in the defence of their reputation and we are under special obligations to those from whom we have received benefit, especially spiritual benefit, to own them a instruments in God's hand of good to us. Here is an account of the apostle's behaviour and kind intentions; in which see the character of a faithful minister of the gospel. This was his great aim and design to do good. Here are noticed several sins commonly found amon professors of religion. Falls and misdeeds are humbling to a minister and God sometimes takes this way to humble those who might be tempte to be lifted up. These vast verses show to what excesses the fals teachers had drawn aside their deluded followers. How grievous it is that such evils should be found among professors of the gospel! Ye thus it is, and has been too often, and it was so even in the days of the apostles __________________________________________________________________
Greek Textus Receptus
γεγονα 1096 5754 V-2RAI-1S αφρων 878 A-NSM καυχωμενος 2744 5740 V-PNP-NSM υμεις 5210 P-2NP με 3165 P-1AS ηναγκασατε 315 5656 V-AAI-2P εγω 1473 P-1NS γαρ 1063 CONJ ωφειλον 3784 5707 V-IAI-1S υφ 5259 PREP υμων 5216 P-2GP συνιστασθαι 4921 5745 V-PPN ουδεν 3762 A-ASN γαρ 1063 CONJ υστερησα 5302 5656 V-AAI-1S των 3588 T-GPM υπερ 5228 PREP λιαν 3029 ADV αποστολων 652 N-GPM ει 1487 COND και 2532 CONJ ουδεν 3762 A-NSN ειμι 1510 5748 V-PXI-1S
Vincent's NT Word Studies
11. I am become a fool in glorying. Ironical. By the record I have presented I stand convicted of being foolish.I ought to have been commended of you. You ought to have saved me the necessity of recounting my sufferings, and thus commending myself as not inferior to those preeminent apostles (ch. xi. 5).
Robertson's NT Word Studies
12:11 {I am become foolish} (gegona afrwn). Perfect active indicative of ginomai. In spite of what he said in verse #6 that he would not be foolish if he gloried in the other Paul. But he feels that he has dropped back to the mood of #11:1,16. He has been swept on by the memory of the ecstasy. {For I ought to have been commended by you} (egw gar wfeilon huf' humwn sunistasqai). Explanation of "ye compelled me." Imperfect active wfeilon of ofeilw, to be under obligation, and the tense here expresses an unfulfilled obligation about the present. But sunistasqai is present passive infinitive, not aorist or perfect passive. He literally means, "I ought now to be commended by you" instead of having to glorify myself. He repeats his boast already made (#11:5f.), that he is no whit behind "the super-extra apostles" (the Judaizers), "though I am nothing" (ei kai ouden eimi). Even boasting himself against those false apostles causes a reaction of feeling that he has to express (cf. #1Co 15:9; 1Ti 1:15f.).
