2 Corinthians 11:17
That which I speak, I speak not according to God, but as it were in foolishness, in this matter of glorying.
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- Vulgate (Clementine)
- quod loquor, non loquor secundum Deum, sed quasi in insipientia, in hac substantia gloriæ.
- Greek New Testament (SBLGNT)
- ὃ λαλῶ οὐ κατὰ κύριον λαλῶ, ἀλλʼ ὡς ἐν ἀφροσύνῃ, ἐν ταύτῃ τῇ ὑποστάσει τῆς καυχήσεως.
Haydock's commentary
On verses 16 to 18
Otherwise take me as one foolish. St. Paul divers times excuses himself for mentioning things in his own commendation: he owns that this in itself, and unless it were necessary, might be blamed as folly, that it would not be according to God, but he declares himself forced by them to it, and that he will speak nothing but the truth. See chap. xii. ver. 6. 11. He tells them that they bear with others that are foolish, even with those false preachers that endeavour to bring them into slavery by their domineering carriage, by making them perhaps subject to the yoke of the Mosaical law. Who devour them, that is, their goods and substance, who take from them, who in a manner strike them on the face, (ver. 20.) he means a metaphorical striking them, that is, by imperious ways, and insolent language. (Witham)
From Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary, 1859, in the transcription made by Todd Easton and kept online by John Paul Wohlschied at johnblood.gitlab.io/haydock.
The Fathers on this verse
St Augustine On Christian Doctrine, Examples of True Eloquence Drawn from the Epistles of Paul and the Prophecies of Amos
12. In the Second Epistle to the Corinthians, again, he refutes certain false apostles who had gone out from the Jews, and had been trying to injure his character; and being compelled to speak of himself, though he ascribes this as folly to himself, how wisely and how eloquently he speaks! But wisdom is his guide, eloquence his attendant; he follows the first, the second follows him, and yet he does not spurn it when it comes after him. “I say again,” he says, “Let no man think me a fool: if otherwise, yet as a fool receive me, that I may boast myself a little. That which I speak, I speak it not after the Lord, but as it were foolishly, in this confidence of boasting. Seeing that many glory after the flesh, I will glory also. For ye suffer fools gladly, seeing ye yourselves are wise. …
St John Chrysostom Homilies on Second Corinthians, Homily XI
And if, saith he, we have uttered any great thing, (for this is what he here calls being beside himself, as therefore in other places also he calls it folly; 2 Cor. xi. 1, 17, 21 .) for God’s sake we do this, lest ye thinking us to be worthless should despise us and perish; or if again any modest and lowly thing, it is for your sakes that ye may learn to be lowly-minded. Or else, again, he means this. If any one thinks us to be mad, we seek for our reward from God, for Whose sake we are of this suspected; but if he thinks us sober, let him reap the advantage of our soberness. And again, in another way. Does any one say we are mad? For God’s sake are we in such sort mad. Wherefore also he subjoins;
St John Chrysostom Homilies on Second Corinthians, Homily XXIV
Ver. 17 . “That which I speak, I speak not after the Lord, but as in foolishness, in this confidence of glorifying.”
St John Chrysostom Homilies on Second Corinthians, Homily XXV
See him again drawing back and using depreciation and correctives beforehand, although he has already even said many such things: “Would that ye could bear with me in a little foolishness;” ( Ver. 1 .) and again, “Let no man think me foolish: if ye do, yet as foolish receive me.” ( Ver. 16 .) “That which I speak, I speak not after the Lord, but as in foolishness.” ( Ver. 17 .) “Seeing that many glory after the flesh, I will glory also;” ( Ver. 18 .) and here again, “Whereinsoever any is bold, (I speak in foolishness) I am bold also.” Boldness and folly he calls it to speak aught great of himself, and that though there was a necessity, teaching us even to an excess to avoid any thing of the sort. …
St John Chrysostom Homilies on Second Corinthians, Homily XXVI
How then saidst thou before, “Would that ye could bear with me a little in my foolishness;” ( Chap. xi. 1 .) and, “That which I speak, I speak not after the Lord, but as it were foolishly;” ( Chap. xi. 17 .) but here, “Though I should even desire to glory, I shall not be foolish?” Not in regard of glorying, but of lying; for if glorying be foolishness, how much more lying?
St Gregory Nazianzen The Last Farewell in the Presence of the One Hundred and Fifty Bishops
12. To those who platted this crown, that which I speak, I speak it not after the Lord, nevertheless I will say it, I also have given assistance. Some of them are the result of my words, not of those which we have uttered at random, but of those which we have loved, nor again of those which are meretricious, though the language and manners of the harlot have been slanderously attributed to me, but of those which are most grave. Some of them are the offspring and fruit of my Spirit, as the Spirit can beget those who rise superior to the body. To this I have no doubt that those who are kindly among you, nay all of you, will testify, since I have been the husbandman of all: and my sole reward is your confession. For we neither have, nor have had, any other object. For virtue, that it may remain virtue, is without reward, its eyes fixed alone on that which is good.
The Fathers are given as they wrote. Where a passage lays the Passion on the Jewish people, the Church teaches that it cannot be charged against all the Jews then living, nor against the Jews of today, and that all sinners were its authors (CCC 597, 598).