The Koine Bible

I wish you would bear with me a little in foolishness; but even if you do, bear with me.

For I am jealous for you with a godly jealousy, because I betrothed you to one husband to present you as a pure virgin to the Messiah.

But I fear that, just as the serpent deceived Eve by its cunning, your thoughts may be corrupted from the simplicity and purity toward the Messiah.

For if someone comes proclaiming another Jesus than the one we proclaimed, or if you receive a different spirit than the one you received, or a different gospel than the one you accepted, you tolerate it well.

For I consider that I am not inferior to the most outstanding apostles.

And if I am unskilled in speech, yet not in knowledge, but in everything made manifest to you in all things.

Did I commit a sin by humbling myself so that you might be exalted, because I preached to you the gospel of God free of charge?

I robbed other churches by accepting payment for the service to you,

And being present with you and lacking, I did not burden anyone; for my lack was supplied by the brothers who came from Macedonia. And in everything I kept myself from being a burden to you, and I will keep doing so.

The truth of Christ is in me, that this boasting will not be silenced in me in the regions of Achaia.

Why? Because I do not love you? God knows.

What I do and will do, I do in order to cut off the opportunity of those who desire an opportunity, so that in what they boast they may be found even as we are.

For such are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into apostles of Christ.

And it is no wonder, for Satan himself transforms into an angel of light.

Therefore, it is not a great thing if even his servants are transformed as servants of righteousness, whose end will be according to their works.

Again I say, let no one consider me foolish— but if indeed you do consider me foolish, then accept me as foolish, so that I may also boast a little.

What I say, I do not say according to the Lord, but as in foolishness, in this confidence of boasting.

Since many boast according to the flesh, I will also boast.

For you gladly endure the foolish, being wise.

For you endure if anyone enslaves you, if anyone devours you, if anyone takes from you, if anyone exalts himself, if anyone strikes you on the face.

I speak as to dishonor, as though we have been weak; but in whatever anyone dares, I also dare, speaking in foolishness.

Are they Hebrews? I am too. Are they Israelites? I am too. Are they Abraham’s offspring? I am too.

Are they servants of Christ? I am speaking as a madman—I am more so; in labors more abundantly, in prisons more abundantly, in beatings beyond measure, often in deaths.

I was beaten by the Jews forty-five times in one day,

I was whipped three times, I was stoned once, I was shipwrecked three times, I spent a night and a day in the deep.

often on journeys, dangers from rivers, dangers from robbers, dangers from my own people, dangers from Gentiles, dangers in the city, dangers in the wilderness, dangers at sea, dangers from false brothers,

In toil and hardship, often in sleepless nights, in hunger and thirst, often in fasting, in cold and nakedness.

Besides those things outside, the daily pressure, the concern for all the churches, is on me.

Who is weak, and I am not weak? Who is caused to stumble, and I do not burn with indignation?

If I must boast, I will boast about my weaknesses.

God and Father of the Lord Jesus, who is blessed forever, knows that I am not lying.

In Damascus the ethnarch Areta, the king’s guard, was guarding the city of the Damascenes to seize me,

And through a window in a basket I was lowered through the wall, and I escaped from their hands.