Biblion Bible Commentary
Read the introduction to 2 Corinthians · About this commentary
In Perils, in Weariness
2 Corinthians 11:26-29
26 I have been in travels often, perils of rivers, perils of robbers, perils from my countrymen, perils from the Gentiles, perils in the city, perils in the wilderness, perils in the sea, perils among false brothers; · WEB
Eight dangers are listed and the last is the worst, and then the daily pressure turns out not to be physical at all.
One word repeats eight times in verse 26, and the effect is of a man running out of ways to say it.
Perils of rivers, perils of robbers, perils from my countrymen, perils from the Gentiles, perils in the city, perils in the wilderness, perils in the sea, perils among false brothers.
The list is arranged to close every exit. Rivers and robbers are the hazards of travel. Then two categories of people, and between them they account for everyone — my countrymen and the Gentiles. Then two locations that between them account for everywhere — the city and the wilderness, so neither crowds nor emptiness is safe. Then the sea.
And the eighth is not a place or a nation: perils among false brothers. It comes last because it is the worst, and it is the only danger on the list that arrives from inside. Rivers can be forded and robbers avoided; a brother who is not one cannot be identified in advance — which is exactly what the previous paragraph said about men who put on the appearance of servants of righteousness 2 Corinthians 11:15.
Verse 27 adds the conditions rather than the events: in labor and travail, in watchings often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, and in cold and nakedness. Work, sleeplessness, hunger, and exposure — the ordinary wear of the life, without a single dramatic incident in it.
Then verse 28 turns the whole catalogue around: besides those things that are outside, there is that which presses on me daily: anxiety for all the assemblies.
After beatings, a stoning, three shipwrecks and a night in open water, the thing named as the daily weight is worry about congregations. The verb means to press or crowd — the same kind of constraint the love of Christ was said to exert 2 Corinthians 5:14 — and daily distinguishes it from everything above, which happened on particular days and ended.
Verse 29 explains why it presses: who is weak, and I am not weak? Who is caused to stumble, and I don't burn with indignation?
The anxiety is not administrative. He describes himself as unable to remain unaffected by anyone else's condition, which makes the number of assemblies the measure of the burden.
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