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2Co_11:23. In the case of those three Jewish predicates the aim was reached and the emotion appeased by the brief and pointed κἀγώ . Now, however, he comes to the main point, to the relation towards Christ; here κἀγώ cannot again suffice, but a ὑπὲρ ἐγώ must come in (comp. Theodoret), and the holy self-confidence of this ὑπὲρ ἐγώ gushes forth like a stream (comp. 2Co_6:4 ff.) over his opponents, to tear down their fancies of apostolic dignit.
παραφρονῶν λαλῶ ] also ironical, but stronger than ἐν ἀφροσ . λέγω : in madness (Herod. iii. 24; Dem. 1183. 1; Soph. Phil. 804) I speak! For Paul, in the consciousness of his own humility as of the hateful arrogance of his foes, conceives to himself a: παραφρονεῖ ! as the judgment which will be pronounced by the opponents upon his ὑπὲρ ἐγώ ; they will call it a παράφρον ἔπος (Eur. Hipp. 232)!
ὑπὲρ ἐγώ ] He thus concedes to his opponents the predicate διάκονοι Χριστοῦ only apparently (as he in fact could not really do so according to 2Co_11:13-15); for in ὑπὲρ ἐγώ there lies the cancelling of the apparent concession, because, if he had granted them to be actually Christ’s servants, it would have been absurd to say: I am more! Such, however, is the thought: “servants of Christ are they? Well, if they are such, still more am I!” The meaning of ὑπὲρ ἐγώ is not, as most (even Osiander and Hofmann) assume: “I am a servant of Christ in a higher degree than they” (1Co_15:10), but: I am more than servant of Christ; for, as in κἀγώ there lay the meaning: I am the same (not in reference to the degree, but to the fact), so must there be in ὑπὲρ ἐγώ the meaning: I am something more. Thus, too, the meaning, in accordance with the strong παραφρονῶν λαλῶ , appears far more forcible and more telling against the opponents.[335] ὑπέρ is used adverbially (Winer, p. 394 [E. T. 526]); but other undoubted Greek examples of this use of ὑπέρ are not found, as that in Soph. Ant. 514 ( ὁ δʼ ἀντιστὰς ὑπέρ ) is of doubtful explanatio.
ἐν κόποις περισσοτέρως κ . τ . λ .] Paul now exchanging sarcasm for deep earnest, under the impulse of a noble μεγαληγορία (Xen. Apol. i. 2) and “argumentis quae vere testentur pectus apostolicum” (Erasmus), begins his justification of the ὑπὲρ ἐγώ , so that ἐν is to be taken instrumentally: through more exertions, etc. The comparative is to be explained from the comparison with the κόποι of the opponents. The adverb, however, as often also in classic writers, is attached adjectivally (sc. οὖσι ) to the substantive. So also de Wette.[336] Comp. Luk_24:1; 1Co_12:31; Php_1:26; Gal_1:13; see Ast, ad Plat. Polit. p. 371 f.; Bernhardy, p. 338. Billroth, Osiander, Hofmann, and the older commentators incorrectly hold that εἰμί is to be supplied: “I am so in a yet much more extraordinary way in labours.” Apart from the erroneous explanation of ὑπὲρ ἐγώ , which is herein assumed, the subsequent πολλάκις is against it, for this with εἰμί supplied would be absurd. Hofmann would make a new series begin with ἐν θανάτ . πολλάκις ; but this is just a mere makeshift, which is at variance with the symmetrical onward flow of the passage with ἐν . Beza, Flatt, and many others supply ἦν or γέγονα ; but this is forbidden by 2Co_11:26, where (after the parenthesis of 2Co_11:24-25) the passage is continued without ἐν , so that it would be impossible to supply ἦν or γέγονα furthe.
ἐν πληγ . ὑπερβαλλ .] by strokes endured beyond measure.
ἐν φυλακ . περισσοτ .] by more imprisonments. Clement, ad Cor. i. 5 : ὁ Παῦλος ὑπομονῆς βραβεῖον ἀπέσχεν ἑπτάκις δεσμὰ φορέσας , in which reckoning, however, the later imprisonments (in Jerusalem, Caesarea, Rome) are include.
ἐν θανάτοις πολλάκις ] πολλάκις γὰρ εἰς κινδύνους παρεδόθην θάνατον ἔχοντας , Chrysostom. Comp. 1Co_15:31; 2Co_4:11; Rom_8:36; and Philo, Flacc. p. 990 A: προαποθνήσκω πολλοὺς θανάτους ὑπομένων ἀνθʼ ἑνὸς τοῦ τελευταίου , Lucian, Tyr. 22; Asin. 23. See on this use of θάνατος in the plural, Stallbaum, ad Plat. Crit. p. 46 C; Seidler, ad Eur. El. 479.
[335] So that the absolute ὑπέρ is not to be explained ὑπὲρ αὑτούς , but ὑπὲρ διακόνους Χ . Our view is already implied in the plus (not magis) ego of the Vulgate. Luther also has it, recently Ewald; and Lachm. writes ὑπερεγώ as one word. Comp. also Klöpper, p. 97.
[336] In the Vulgate this view has found distinct expression at least in the first clause; “in laboribus plurimis.”