Read It Again
By Professor EM Blaiklock MA DLitt
XLVII.
PAUL'S MODESTY.
Please read Second Corinthians 11.
Does not Il Cor. 11:4 which states:
“Every man who prays or prophesies with something on his head dishonors his head and the One who is his head”
suggest an unusual lack of modesty on Paul's part?
No, the verse is mistranslated. The spirit of the Greek language is irony. Much in its syntax, and hosts of idioms, can only be comprehended by a proper grasp of this principle. The reader of Greek must always be ready for that economy of language, and that habit not unlike our own, of under-expression. Paul shows his Hellenistic spirit by his frequent manifestation of this same quality of mind and language.
Sir William Ramsay was the first to point out the subtle vein of irony in the first four chapters of I Corinthians, and this is another example. Paul's ministry had been discredited by a pest of pseudo-teachers. Again and again he shows by warning and exhortation how common the exponents of false doctrine were in the very earliest days of church history. There was a determined attempt both to Hellenise and Judaise the faith. These are the "apostles" to whom, in this chapter, Paul refuses to give place. The words "very chiefest" represent a Greek expression which is almost invariably ironical. What Paul really says is, "I suppose I am not a whit behind these exalted apostles." No lack of modesty is involved in claiming precedence to these vexatious persons. Note how truly this interpretation aligns verse 5 with the spirit of the whole.