2 Corinthians 11:4 — meaning, Hebrew and Greek word study, commentary
2 Corinthians 11:4
For if he that cometh preacheth another Jesus, whom we have not preached, or if ye receive another spirit, which ye have not received, or another gospel, which ye have not accepted, ye might well bear with him.
to hold oneself up against · verb — present middle or passive deponent indicative, 2nd person plural
well
καλῶςkalōs
G2573
well (usually morally) · adverb
with
ἀνέχομαιanéchomai
G430
to hold oneself up against
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Cross-references
Galatians 1:6-8 I marvel that ye are so soon removed from him that called you into the grace of Christ unto another gospel:
1 Corinthians 3:11 For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ.
Ephesians 4:4-5 There is one body, and one Spirit, even as ye are called in one hope of your calling;
1 Timothy 2:5 For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus;
Acts 4:12 Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.
Galatians 3:2 This only would I learn of you, Received ye the Spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith?
Romans 8:15 For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father.
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on 2 Corinthians 11:1-4
Here we may observe, 1. The apology the apostle makes for going about to commend himself. He is loth to enter upon this subject of self-commendation: Would to God you could bear with me a little in my folly, Co2 11:1. He calls this folly, because too often it is really no better. In his case it was necessary; yet, seeing others might apprehend it to be folly in him, he desires them to bear with it. Note, As much against the grain as it is with a proud man to acknowledge his infirmities, so much is it against the grain with a humble man to speak in his own praise. It is no pleasure to a good man to speak well of himself, yet in some cases it is lawful, namely, when it is for the advantage of…
if, &c.--which in fact is impossible. However, if it were possible, ye might then bear with them (see on Co2 11:1). But there can be no new Gospel; there is but the one which I first preached; therefore it ought not to be "borne" by you, that the false teachers should attempt to supersede me.
he that cometh--the high-sounding title assumed by the false teachers, who arrogated Christ's own peculiar title (Greek, Mat 11:3, and Heb 10:37), "He that is coming." Perhaps he was leader of the party which assumed peculiarly to be "Christ's" (Co2 10:7; Co1 1:12); hence his assumption of the title.
preacheth . . . receive--is preaching . . . ye are receiving.
Jesus--the "Jesus" of Gospel history…
For if he that cometh - The false apostle, who came after St. Paul had left Corinth.
Preacheth another Jesus - Who can save more fully and more powerfully than that Jesus whom I have preached.
Or if ye receive another spirit - And if in consequence of believing in this new saviour ye receive another spirit, the gifts, graces, and consolations of which are greater than those which ye have received from the Holy Ghost, which has been given to you on your believing on the Christ whom we preached.
Or another Gospel - Containing more privileges, spiritual advantages, and stronger excitements to holiness, than that which we have preached and which ye have accepted, ye might well bear with him. Thi…
The Church Fathers
"For if he that cometh preacheth another Jesus whom we did not preach:" showing hereby that their deceivers were not Corinthians, but persons from some other quarter previously corrupted: wherefore he saith, "he that cometh." "If ye receive a different Spirit, if a different Gospel which ye did not accept, ye do well to bear" with him. What sayest thou? Thou that saidst to the Galatians, "If any preach another Gospel to you than that ye have received, let him be anathema;" dost thou now say, "ye do well to bear" with him? And yet on this account it were meet not to bear with, but to recoil, from them; but if they say the same things, it is meet to bear with them. How then dost thou say, "because they say the same things, it is not meet to bear with them?" for he says, "if they said other things, it were meet to bear with them." Let us then give good heed, for the danger is great, and the precipice deep, if men run past this carelessly; and what is here said giveth an entrance to all the heresies. What then is the sense of these words? Those persons so boasted as if the Apostles taught incompletely, and they were introducing somewhat more than they. For it is probable that with much idle talk, they were bringing in senseless rubbish so as to overlay these doctrines. And therefore he made mention of the serpent and of Eve who was thus deceived by the expectation of acquiring more. And alluding to this in the former Epistle also, he said, "Now ye are become rich, ye have reigned as kings without us;" and again, "we are fools for Christ's sake, but ye are wise in Christ." Since then it was probable that using the wisdom which is without, they talked much idly, what he says is this: that "if these persons said any thing more, and preached a different Christ who ought to have been preached, but we omitted it, ye do well to bear with them." For on this account he added, "whom we did not preach." "But if the chief points of the faith are the same, what have ye the more of them? for whatsoever things they may say, they will say nothing more than what we have said." And observe with what precision he states the case. For he did not say, "if he that cometh saith any thing more;" for they did say something more, haranguing with more authority and with much beauty of language; wherefore he did not say this, but what? [If] "he that cometh preacheth another Jesus," a…
The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).
Dictionary and topics
Basket — There are five different Hebrew words so rendered in the Authorized Version: (1.) A basket (Heb. sal, a twig or osier) for holding bread (Gen. 40:16; Ex. 29:3, 23; Lev. 8:2, 26, 31; Num. 6:15, 17,…
Doctrines · FALSE — FALSE
Heresy · Teachers of, among early Christians — Teachers of, among early Christians
Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).
For if he that cometh,.... Meaning either some particular man, the apostle might have had some information of, who came from Judea to Corinth, under the character of a true apostle; or anyone of the false apostles whatever, who came of their own accord, and was never sent by Christ, or by any of his churches:
preacheth another Jesus whom we have not preached; that is, if he proposes and recommends in his ministry, a better Saviour and Redeemer than had been preached by the apostles; one that was better qualified, and more fit for the purposes of salvation; one that they could more safely venture their souls upon, and believe in, as the alone able and all sufficient Saviour, a thing impossib…
2 Corinthians 11:1-6
1. Would to God ye could bear with me a little in my folly: and indeed bear with me.
1. Utinam tolerassetis me paulisper in insipientia mea: imo etiam sufferte me. [792]
2. For I am jealous over you with godly jealousy: for I have espoused you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ.
2. Nam zelotypus sum erga vos Dei zelo: adiunxi enim vos uni viro, ad exhibendam virginem castam Christo.
3. But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtilty, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ.
3. Sed metuo, ne qua fiat, ut quemadmodum serpens Evam decepit versutia sua: ita corrumpantur se…
The false missionaries in Corinth evidently preached a different Jesus, a different kind of Spirit, and a different kind of gospel than the one the Corinthians had believed. It is difficult to know exactly what these false teachers preached; most likely, they promoted a powerful, dominant Christ and sidelined the suffering of the cross. They probably saw themselves as equally powerful preachers, exempt from hardship and trial. Paul’s message, by contrast, centered on Christ crucified (13:4), and Paul’s own sufferings were a mark of true apostleship (12:1-12). The nature of this difference is the heart of Paul’s defense of his apostleship in chs 10–13.
