For whether we be beside ourselves, it is to God: or whether we be in our right mind, it is for your cause.
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Ambrosiaster
AD 400
What Paul has said is sane from his hearers’ point of view, as long as it is understood in the sense in which it was uttered, but if it is thought to have been spoken out of boastfulness, it is insane. For all pride is a kind of insanity. Commentary on Paul’s Epistles.
For whether we be beside ourselves, it is to God: or whether we be sober, it is for your cause. The Greek verb translated beside ourselves denotes a rapt state, when the mind is carried out of itself, whether by some strong influence of nature, of disease, of melancholy, or of apprehension of new and unwonted objects; or when God throws it into deep contemplation and ecstasy, or when frenzy and insanity drive it into delirious folly. All these senses are applicable here; nay, the Syriac, Chrysostom, Theophylact, Vatablus, and Erasmus render it "whether we be mad." S. Paul opposes "whether we be beside ourselves" to "whether we be sober," as if he meant whether we be foolish or wise. The same contrast is found in Acts 26:25. The same word is applied by His relations to Christ in S. Mark 3:21.
Again, this rapture and folly may be understood either of self-praise or of the love and contemplation of God. The Apostle seems to be speaking primarily of self-praise, according to Ambrose and...
For whether we be transported in mind, and out of zeal for the good of others seem to exceed in speaking of ourselves, it is to God, for God's honour and that of his ministers: or whether we be more moderate, (literally, sober ) that is, if I speak not, even what with truth I might, of my own actions, it is to you, to give you an example of modesty and humility.
And if, says 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 Corinthians 11:1, 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 you 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.
