Back to 2 Corinthians 11

2 Corinthians 11:20

For you bear with a man if he brings you into bondage, if he devours you, if he takes you captive, if he exalts himself, or if he strikes you on the face.

World English Bible · Public Domain

Parallel Translations

  • WEB World English Bible

    For you bear with a man if he brings you into bondage, if he devours you, if he takes you captive, if he exalts himself, or if he strikes you on the face.

  • TYNDALE Tyndale New Testament (1534)

    For ye suffre even if a man brynge you into bondage: yf a man devoure: yf a man take: yf a man exalt hym silfe: yf a man smyte you on the face.

  • GNV Geneva Bible (1599)

    For ye suffer, euen if a man bring you into bondage, if a man deuoure you, if a man take your goods, if a man exalt himselfe, if a man smite you on the face.

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Cross-references (15)

Passages linked to 2 Corinthians 11:20 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, ordered by reader-vote popularity; verse text shown in World English Bible.

  • Galatians 2:4 This was because of the false brothers secretly brought in, who stole in to spy out our liberty which we have in Christ Jesus, that they might bring us into bondage,
  • Galatians 4:3 So we also, when we were children, were held in bondage under the elemental principles of the world.
  • Galatians 4:9 But now that you have come to know God, or rather to be known by God, why do you turn back again to the weak and miserable elemental principles, to which you desire to be in bondage all over again?
  • Galatians 5:1 Stand firm therefore in the liberty by which Christ has made us free, and don’t be entangled again with a yoke of bondage.
  • Isaiah 50:6 I gave my back to those who beat me, and my cheeks to those who plucked off the hair. I didn’t hide my face from shame and spitting.
  • Lamentations 3:30 Let him give his cheek to him who strikes him. Let him be filled full of reproach.
  • Luke 6:29 To him who strikes you on the cheek, offer also the other; and from him who takes away your cloak, don’t withhold your coat also.
  • 2 Corinthians 1:24 We don’t control your faith, but are fellow workers with you for your joy. For you stand firm in faith.
  • 1 Corinthians 4:11 Even to this present hour we hunger, thirst, are naked, are beaten, and have no certain dwelling place.
  • Galatians 4:25 For this Hagar is Mount Sinai in Arabia, and answers to the Jerusalem that exists now, for she is in bondage with her children.
  • Galatians 5:10 I have confidence toward you in the Lord that you will think no other way. But he who troubles you will bear his judgment, whoever he is.
  • Galatians 6:12 As many as desire to make a good impression in the flesh compel you to be circumcised; just so they may not be persecuted for the cross of Christ.
  • Philippians 3:19 whose end is destruction, whose god is the belly, and whose glory is in their shame, who think about earthly things.
  • 1 Thessalonians 2:5 For neither were we at any time found using words of flattery, as you know, nor a cloak of covetousness (God is witness),
  • Romans 16:17-18 Now I beg you, brothers, look out for those who are causing the divisions and occasions of stumbling, contrary to the doctrine which you learned, and turn away from them. For those who are such don’t serve our Lord, Jesus Christ, but their own belly; and by their smooth and flattering speech, they deceive the hearts of the innocent.

Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)

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Explain this verse (17 sources)

Historical commentary, presented as a primary source — not an endorsement.

John Calvin 1540 · Public Domain 20. For ye bear with it, if any one.…

20. For ye bear with it, if any one. There are three ways in which this may be understood. He may be understood as reproving the Corinthians in irony, because they could not endure any thing, as is usually the case with effeminate persons; or he charges them with indolence, because they had given themselves up to the false Apostles in a disgraceful bondage; or he repeats, as it were, in the person of another, what was spitefully affirmed respecting himself, as if he claimed for himself a tyrannical authority over them. The second meaning is approved by Chrysostom, Ambrose, and Augustine, and hence it is commonly received; and, indeed, it corresponds best with the context, although the third is not less in accordance with my views. For we see, how he was calumniated from time to time by the malevolent, as if he domineered tyrannically, while he was very far from doing so. As, however, the other meaning is more generally received, I have no objection, that it should be held as the true one.

Now this statement will correspond with the preceding one in this way: “You bear with every thing from others, if they oppress you, if they demand what belongs to you, if they treat you disdainfully. Why then will you not bear with me, as they are in no respect superior to me?” For as to his saying that he is not weak, he means that he had been endowed by God with such excellent graces, that he ought not to be looked upon as of the common order. For the word weak has a more extensive signification, as we shall see again ere long.

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It has been the invariable custom, and will be so to the end, to resist contumaciously the servants of God, to get enraged on the least occasion, to grumble and murmur incessantly, to complain of even a moderate strictness, to hold all discipline in abhorrence; while, on the other hand, they put themselves under servile subjection to false apostles, impostors, or mere worthless pretenders, give them liberty to do any thing whatever, and patiently submit to and endure, whatever burden they may choose to impose upon them. Thus, at the present day, you will scarcely find one in thirty, who will put his neck willingly under Christ’s yoke, while all have endured with patience a tyranny so severe as that of the Pope. Those very persons are all at once in an uproar, in opposition to the fatherly and truly salutary reproofs of their pastors, who, on the other hand, had formerly swallowed down quietly every kind of insult, even the most atrocious, from the monks. Are not those worthy of Antichrist’s torturing rack, rather than of Christ’s mild sway, who have ears so tender and backward to listen to the truth? But thus it has been from the beginning.

John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.

Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain Before he cometh to the matter, he toucheth the…
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain 20 For ye suffer, if a man bring you…
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain If any domineer over you, as if you were…
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain I speak as concerning reproach,.... These words may be…
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain For ye suffer - Not only the folly, but…
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain Verse 20. For ye suffer] As you are so…
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain For ye suffer ... - You bear patiently with…
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain St. Paul still continues to speak ironically, that they…
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain For--Ye may well "bear with" fools; for ye even…
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain 20. For ye suffer—Paul now describes, in somewhat figurative…
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain 20. For ye suffer] (susteynen, Wiclif). “This may be…
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain (20) For ye suffer, if a man bring you…
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain For ye suffer, if a man bring you into…
B. W. Johnson 1891 · Public Domain 20. For ye suffer. They must “suffer fools gladly,”…
J. W. McGarvey 1914 · Public Domain For ye bear with a man, if he bringeth…
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 11:20-21a The Corinthian church had welcomed the intruders even…

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