I wish that you could bear with me a little in my folly: and indeed bear with me.
All Commentaries on 2 Corinthians 11:1 Go To 2 Corinthians 11
Cornelius a Lapide
AD 1637
Would to God ye could bear with me a little in my folly. In my boasting, which sounds like folly. It Isaiah , however, a mark of the highest wisdom on my part, for I do it out of zeal to protect the faith of the Gospel against the false apostles (Chrysostom and Anselm). S. Paul anticipates an objection: he is about to praise himself, and he meets beforehand any charge of vainglory or self-seeking. The last clause, "and indeed bear with me," may be also indicative, and then it is a correction to his request for forbearance: "I need hardly make such a request: you do indeed bear with me."
At the commencement of his self-praise he thrice excuses himself: (1.) by saying, "Would ye could bear with me;" (2.) by calling himself foolish; (3.) when he says. "I am jealous over you"—he takes such pains to excuse himself that the Corinthians may see the violence he does to his feelings when he descends to self-praise. Chrysostom says: "Just as a horse, when about to leap some deep and precipitous ravine, collects its strength, as though it would cross it at a bound, but when it looks down on the yawning gulf refuses the leap; then, under the spur of the rider, approaches again and admits its ability to leap and the necessity of it by standing still for a time, till at last it takes courage, and of its own accord boldly makes the attempt; so too S. Paul, like one about to throw himself over a precipice, when going to sing his own praises, retreats once, twice, and thrice, and at length falls to the task of praising himself."
