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This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
NASB (UPDATED) TEXT: 2Co_11:30-33
30If I have to boast, I will boast of what pertains to my weakness. 31The God and Father of the Lord Jesus, He who is blessed forever, knows that I am not lying. 32In Damascus the ethnarch under Aretas the king was guarding the city of the Damascenes in order to seize me, 33and I was let down in a basket through a window in the wall, and so escaped his hands.
2Co_11:30 "If" This is a first class conditional sentence.
▣ "what pertains to my weakness" Paul's trials and criticisms had caused him to realize that his strengths were from God and his weaknesses were an opportunity for God to receive the glory (cf. 2Co_12:1-10).
2Co_11:31 "God and Father of the Lord Jesus" This verse is an oath. Paul uses God's name to assert the truthfulness of his statements quite often (cf. Rom_1:9; 2Co_1:18; 2Co_11:10-11; Gal_1:20; 1Ti_2:7).
▣ "forever" This is literally "unto the ages" (cf. Rom_1:25; Rom_9:5; Rom_11:36; Rom_16:27). The same phrase, but singular, is found in 1Co_8:13 and 2Co_9:9. See Special Topic: This Age and the Age to Come at 1Co_1:20.
2Co_11:32-33 "In Damascus the ethnarch under Aretas" Some say this is anticlimactic, but this was apparently the most embarrassing (i.e., weakest) moment of Paul's life. It could refer to another charge of the false teachers. King Aretas (i.e., Harethath) was king of the Nabatean empire from 9 b.c. to a.d. 40. He was the father-in-law of Herod Antipas. The term "Aretas" is like the term "Pharaoh," a title for all of the Nabatean kings who ruled in Petra. The "ethnarch" would have been Aretus' official representative in Damascus. The account in Act_9:23-25 is somewhat different; possibly the false teachers used this incident to attack Paul's character.
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