What Does 2 Corinthians 11:21 Mean?
I speak of dishonor, as though we had been weak. But in whatever anyone is bold, I speak in unthinking, and I am bold also.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
I speak as concerning reproach, as though we had been weak. Howbeit whereinsoever any is bold, (I speak foolishly,) I am bold also.THE KEY
The word translated “bold” repeats: the speaker answers the charge of weakness by daring the same contest his rivals dare.
THE MEANING
Here, reproach names a loss of honor, while weakness is the appearance being assigned to the speaker. He meets that charge with the repeated claim that he, too, dares; “I speak foolishly” keeps the answer edged with irony. The verse lays bare how quickly a contest over standing becomes a contest in boasting.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the assumption that being called weak means being unable to answer those who boast: the speaker says, “I am bold also.”
THE ROOT
τολμᾷ
tolmā
GROWS FROM
τολμ-
to dare, venture, or risk an act
The same verb appears in “any is bold” and “I am bold also,” making the answer an echo of the very daring it challenges. “Bold” here is not simply a settled quality; it is the act of entering a risky contest.
ALSO GROWS
tolma: daring, boldness
τόλμα
This noun names the daring that the repeated verb enacts in the verse.
tolmēma: a daring deed
τόλμημα
It shows the root can name not only daring as a stance but the act that follows from it.
ἀτιμία
atimia
GROWS FROM
τιμ-
honor, value, worth
The word translated “reproach” carries the sense of dishonor or loss of standing: it is formed with a negating prefix from the word for honor or value. That makes the verse’s exchange sharper: the accusation concerns status, and the response meets the accuser on the ground of daring.
ALSO GROWS
timē: honor, value, worth
τιμή
This is the honor or value whose absence is carried by the verse’s word for reproach.
atimos: dishonored, without honor
ἄτιμος
This related form makes explicit the loss of standing implied by “reproach.”
ἠσθενήκαμεν
ēsthenēkamen
GROWS FROM
σθεν-
strength; with the negating prefix, lack of strength
The word translated “weak” belongs to a family built around strength and its absence. In this sentence, weakness is presented as something the speaker is said to have been, then set beside the daring he claims in the present exchange.
ALSO GROWS
astheneia: weakness, lack of strength
ἀσθένεια
This noun names the condition implied when the speaker is described as weak.
sthenos: strength, might
σθένος
This is the strength at the center of the word family, making the contrast inside “weak” visible.
THE PATTERN
A label of weakness does not settle where strength or daring can appear.
But God picked out the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; and God picked out the weak things of the world to shame the strong.Therefore I delight in weaknesses, in outrages, in bindings, in being pursued, and in narrow places, for the sake of the Anointed One. For when I am weak, then I am strong.They put out the strength of fire, fled the mouth of the sword, were made strong out of weakness, grew strong in war, and bent back the camps of others.THE THREAD
For we do not dare to count ourselves among, or compare ourselves with, some who set themselves beside. But they, measuring themselves by themselves and comparing themselves among themselves, are not wise.The same verb translated “dare” appears here and in 11:21. In one verse the speaker refuses the comparison game; in the other he uses its language ironically to answer those who boast.
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