Letters to the Churches

That which I speak, I speak not according to the Lord, but as in foolishness, in this the confidence of boasting;

since many boast according to the flesh, I also will boast:

for gladly do ye bear with the fools--being wise,

for ye bear, if any one is bringing you under bondage, if any one doth devour, if any one doth take away, if any one doth exalt himself, if any one on the face doth smite you;

in reference to dishonour I speak, how that we were weak, and in whatever any one is bold--in foolishness I say it --I also am bold.

Hebrews are they? I also! Israelites are they? I also! seed of Abraham are they? I also!

ministrants of Christ are they? --as beside myself I speak--I more; in labours more abundantly, in stripes above measure, in prisons more frequently, in deaths many times;

from Jews five times forty stripes save one I did receive;

thrice was I beaten with rods, once was I stoned, thrice was I shipwrecked, a night and a day in the deep I have passed;

journeyings many times, perils of rivers, perils of robbers, perils from kindred, perils from nations, perils in city, perils in wilderness, perils in sea, perils among false brethren;

in labouriousness and painfulness, in watchings many times, in hunger and thirst, in fastings many times, in cold and nakedness;

apart from the things without--the crowding upon me that is daily--the care of all the assemblies.

Who is infirm, and I am not infirm? who is stumbled, and I am not fired;

if to boast it behoveth me , of the things of my infirmity I will boast;

the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ--who is blessed to the ages--hath known that I do not lie! --

In Damascus the ethnarch of Aretas the king was watching the city of the Damascenes, wishing to seize me,

and through a window in a rope basket I was let down, through the wall, and fled out of his hands.

To boast, really, is not profitable for me, for I will come to visions and revelations of the Lord.

I have known a man in Christ, fourteen years ago--whether in the body I have not known, whether out of the body I have not known, God hath known--such an one being caught away unto the third heaven;

and I have known such a man--whether in the body, whether out of the body, I have not known, God hath known, --

that he was caught away to the paradise, and heard unutterable sayings, that it is not possible for man to speak.

Of such an one I will boast, and of myself I will not boast, except in my infirmities,

for if I may wish to boast, I shall not be a fool, for truth I will say; but I forebear, lest any one in regard to me may think anything above what he doth see me, or doth hear anything of me;

and that by the exceeding greatness of the revelations I might not be exalted overmuch, there was given to me a thorn in the flesh, a messenger of the Adversary, that he might buffet me, that I might not be exalted overmuch.

Concerning this thing thrice the Lord did I call upon, that it might depart from me,