The Measuring Stick Cannot Be the Person Holding It

“I Paul myself” is emphatic, autos ego Paulos, as in Galatians 5:2, and the change of tone here is so abrupt that many scholars treat chapters 10 to 13 as a separate letter. “Gentleness” is epieikeia, the forbearance of a judge who does not press the letter of the law. “Base” is tapeinos, lowly, very likely his critics’ own word.

“Bold” is tharreo, the courage of 5:6 and 7:16, now pointed at confrontation. The verse plays on logizomai: some reckon that Paul walks after the flesh, and he reckons to be bold against them. “According to the flesh” means by worldly standards and motives.

A play on two prepositions: Paul walks en sarki, in the flesh, as a mortal man, but does not fight kata sarka, by the flesh’s methods. “War” is strateuomai, to serve on campaign, the verb of 1 Corinthians 9:7, “who goeth a warfare any time at his own charges?”

“Strong holds” is ochyroma, a fortress, the word the Greek Old Testament uses in Proverbs 21:22, where “a wise man scaleth the city of the mighty, and casteth down the strength of the confidence thereof”. Paul may have that proverb in mind.

“Imaginations” is logismoi, reasonings, calculated arguments, not daydreams. “High thing” is hypsoma, anything raised up, like a rampart or siege tower. “Bringing into captivity” is aichmalotizo, to take prisoners at spear point: the thoughts are marched out of the fallen fortress as captives.

“In a readiness” is en hetoimo, a military phrase for standing on alert, prepared to act. “Revenge” is ekdikeo, to carry out justice, the verb whose noun appeared in 7:11, where the Corinthians themselves had done it.

“Do ye look” can be read as a question, a statement, or a command, “Look at what is in front of you”; the Greek form allows all three. Some at Corinth claimed to belong to Christ in a special way, perhaps the “I of Christ” faction of 1 Corinthians 1:12.

“Edification” and “destruction” are oikodome and kathairesis, building up and pulling down, the same demolition word as the “pulling down” of strongholds in verse 4. The pair recalls Jeremiah 1:10, the prophet appointed to pull down and “to build, and to plant”, and it returns in 13:10.

“Terrify” is ekphobeo, to frighten out of one’s wits, found only here in the New Testament. The critics seem to have said that Paul could only frighten at a distance, by post, and this sentence answers that charge before he quotes it.

The clearest quotation of his critics anywhere in Paul’s letters. “Weighty” is barys, heavy, and “contemptible” is exoutheneo, counted as nothing. A second-century work, the Acts of Paul and Thecla, describes him as short, bald and bow-legged, with meeting eyebrows and a rather large nose.

“Such an one” is singular, which suggests a single ringleader behind the criticism, as in verses 7 and 10, where the Greek says “says he”. Word and deed, logos and ergon, were the classic Greek pairing of speech and action.

“We dare not” is irony: Paul pretends to be too timid to join the ranks of the self-commenders. “Make ourselves of the number” is enkrino, to class oneself among, a play on synkrino, “compare”, in the same breath. “Are not wise” is literally “do not understand”.

“Measure” is metron and “rule” is kanon, a measuring rod or surveyor’s line, the word that gives English “canon”. Paul pictures a territory marked out by God, a mission field whose boundary line ran as far as Corinth.

“Stretch not ourselves beyond” is hyperekteino, to overreach, found only here in the New Testament: a man reaching past the line to grab what is not his. “We are come” is phthano, to arrive first; Paul got to Corinth before any rival did.

“Other men’s labours” echoes Romans 15:20, where Paul says he aimed to preach “not where Christ was named, lest I should build upon another man’s foundation”. “Enlarged” is megalyno, to be magnified: as Corinth’s faith grows, Paul’s field can extend.

“The regions beyond you” most likely means the west, Rome and then Spain, which Romans 15:24 names as his next goal. “Line” is kanon again, another man’s allotted field, and “things made ready to our hand” means ground someone else had already worked.

The saying is Jeremiah 9:24 in short form, “let him that glorieth glory in this, that he understandeth and knoweth me”. Paul used the same abbreviation in 1 Corinthians 1:31, and it may have been his standing answer to Corinthian boasting.

“Approved” is dokimos, tested and found genuine, like a coin that has passed the assay. The word and its opposite, adokimos, return in 13:3–7, where the question turns round: the Corinthians who asked for proof of Paul are told to test themselves.