2 Corinthians 11:15
New International Version
It is not surprising, then, if his servants also masquerade as servants of righteousness. Their end will be what their actions deserve.

New Living Translation
So it is no wonder that his servants also disguise themselves as servants of righteousness. In the end they will get the punishment their wicked deeds deserve.

English Standard Version
So it is no surprise if his servants, also, disguise themselves as servants of righteousness. Their end will correspond to their deeds.

Berean Standard Bible
It is not surprising, then, if his servants masquerade as servants of righteousness. Their end will correspond to their actions.

Berean Literal Bible
Therefore it is not surprising if his servants also masquerade as servants of righteousness, whose end will be according to their deeds.

King James Bible
Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers also be transformed as the ministers of righteousness; whose end shall be according to their works.

New King James Version
Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers also transform themselves into ministers of righteousness, whose end will be according to their works.

New American Standard Bible
Therefore it is not surprising if his servants also disguise themselves as servants of righteousness, whose end will be according to their deeds.

NASB 1995
Therefore it is not surprising if his servants also disguise themselves as servants of righteousness, whose end will be according to their deeds.

NASB 1977
Therefore it is not surprising if his servants also disguise themselves as servants of righteousness; whose end shall be according to their deeds.

Legacy Standard Bible
Therefore it is not surprising if his ministers also disguise themselves as ministers of righteousness, whose end will be according to their deeds.

Amplified Bible
So it is no great surprise if his servants also masquerade as servants of righteousness, but their end will correspond with their deeds.

Christian Standard Bible
So it is no great surprise if his servants also disguise themselves as servants of righteousness. Their end will be according to their works.

Holman Christian Standard Bible
So it is no great thing if his servants also disguise themselves as servants of righteousness. Their destiny will be according to their works.

American Standard Version
It is no great thing therefore if his ministers also fashion themselves as ministers of righteousness, whose end shall be according to their works.

Aramaic Bible in Plain English
It is not a great matter if also his Ministers imitate Ministers of righteousness, those whose end will be like their works.

Contemporary English Version
So why does it seem strange for Satan's servants to pretend to do what is right? Someday they will get exactly what they deserve.

Douay-Rheims Bible
Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers be transformed as the ministers of justice, whose end shall be according to their works.

English Revised Version
It is no great thing therefore if his ministers also fashion themselves as ministers of righteousness; whose end shall be according to their works.

GOD'S WORD® Translation
So it's not surprising if his servants also disguise themselves as servants who have God's approval. In the end they will get what they deserve.

Good News Translation
So it is no great thing if his servants disguise themselves to look like servants of righteousness. In the end they will get exactly what their actions deserve.

International Standard Version
So it is not surprising if his servants also masquerade as servants of righteousness. Their doom will match their deeds!

Literal Standard Version
[it is] no great thing, then, if his servants also transform themselves as servants of righteousness—whose end will be according to their works.

Majority Standard Bible
It is not surprising, then, if his servants masquerade as servants of righteousness. Their end will correspond to their actions.

New American Bible
So it is not strange that his ministers also masquerade as ministers of righteousness. Their end will correspond to their deeds.

NET Bible
Therefore it is not surprising his servants also disguise themselves as servants of righteousness, whose end will correspond to their actions.

New Revised Standard Version
So it is not strange if his ministers also disguise themselves as ministers of righteousness. Their end will match their deeds.

New Heart English Bible
It is no great thing therefore if his servants also masquerade as servants of righteousness, whose end will be according to their works.

Webster's Bible Translation
Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers also are transformed as the ministers of righteousness; whose end shall be according to their works.

Weymouth New Testament
It is therefore no great thing for his servants also to disguise themselves as servants of righteousness. Their end will be in accordance with their actions.

World English Bible
It is no great thing therefore if his servants also masquerade as servants of righteousness, whose end will be according to their works.

Young's Literal Translation
no great thing, then, if also his ministrants do transform themselves as ministrants of righteousness -- whose end shall be according to their works.

Additional Translations ...
Audio Bible



Context
Paul and the False Apostles
14And no wonder, for Satan himself masquerades as an angel of light. 15It is not surprising, then, if his servants masquerade as servants of righteousness. Their end will correspond to their actions. 16I repeat: Let no one take me for a fool. But if you do, then receive me as a fool, so that I too may boast a little.…

Cross References
Romans 2:6
God "will repay each one according to his deeds."

Romans 3:8
Why not say, as some slanderously claim that we say, "Let us do evil that good may result"? Their condemnation is deserved!


Treasury of Scripture

Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers also be transformed as the ministers of righteousness; whose end shall be according to their works.

no.

2 Kings 5:13
And his servants came near, and spake unto him, and said, My father, if the prophet had bid thee do some great thing, wouldest thou not have done it? how much rather then, when he saith to thee, Wash, and be clean?

1 Corinthians 9:11
If we have sown unto you spiritual things, is it a great thing if we shall reap your carnal things?

his.

2 Corinthians 11:13
For such are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into the apostles of Christ.

Acts 13:10
And said, O full of all subtilty and all mischief, thou child of the devil, thou enemy of all righteousness, wilt thou not cease to pervert the right ways of the Lord?

Ephesians 6:12
For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.

the ministers.

2 Corinthians 11:23
Are they ministers of Christ? (I speak as a fool) I am more; in labours more abundant, in stripes above measure, in prisons more frequent, in deaths oft.

2 Corinthians 3:9
For if the ministration of condemnation be glory, much more doth the ministration of righteousness exceed in glory.

whose.

Isaiah 9:14,15
Therefore the LORD will cut off from Israel head and tail, branch and rush, in one day…

Jeremiah 5:31
The prophets prophesy falsely, and the priests bear rule by their means; and my people love to have it so: and what will ye do in the end thereof?

Jeremiah 23:14,15
I have seen also in the prophets of Jerusalem an horrible thing: they commit adultery, and walk in lies: they strengthen also the hands of evildoers, that none doth return from his wickedness: they are all of them unto me as Sodom, and the inhabitants thereof as Gomorrah…

Jump to Previous
Accordance Actions Correspond Deeds Disguise End Fashion Great Ministers Ministrants Reward Righteousness Seem Servants Strange Surprising Themselves Transform Transformed Works
Jump to Next
Accordance Actions Correspond Deeds Disguise End Fashion Great Ministers Ministrants Reward Righteousness Seem Servants Strange Surprising Themselves Transform Transformed Works
2 Corinthians 11
1. Out of his jealousy over the Corinthians, he enters into a forced commendation of himself,
5. of his equality with the chief apostles,
7. of his preaching the gospel to them freely, and without any charge to them;
13. showing that he was not inferior to those deceitful workers in any legal prerogative;
23. and in the service of Christ, and in all kinds of sufferings for his ministry, far superior.














(15) If his ministers also be transformed as the ministers of righteousness.--The words seem to point to one of the special characteristics of the Apostle's rivals. They represented themselves as the preachers of a righteousness which was, they asserted, neglected in St. Paul's teaching. They claimed the authority of one who was known as James the Just, or Righteous, and who had insisted emphatically on the necessity of a righteousness showing itself in act. They presented themselves as a kind of revival of the Chasidim, or righteous ones. (See Note on Acts 9:13.) It may be noted that the latter developments of the same school, as seen in the Clementine Homilies and Recognitions, present, in the midst of much that is both false and malignant, an almost ostentatiously high standard of morality.

Whose end shall be according to their works.--What the works were is stated, or implied, in 2Corinthians 11:20. Hero he is content to rest on the eternal law of God's government, that what a man sows that shall he also reap. The abruptness with which the next verse opens indicates that here again there was a pause in the dictation of the letter. After an interval--during which, led by the last words he had spoken, his thoughts had travelled to the contrast between their works, of which they boasted so loudly, and his own--he begins again, half-indignant at the necessity for self-assertion which they have forced upon him, aware that all that had been said of his "insane" habit of "commending himself" was likely to be said again, and yet feeling that he must once for all remind the Corinthians of what he had done and suffered, and then leave them to judge between the rival claims.

Verse 15. - Whose end shall be according to their works. Whatever their fashion (schema), they shall be judged, not by what they seem, but by what they are, as shown by their works.

Parallel Commentaries ...


Greek
[It is] not
οὐ (ou)
Adverb
Strong's 3756: No, not. Also ouk, and ouch a primary word; the absolute negative adverb; no or not.

surprising,
μέγα (mega)
Adjective - Nominative Neuter Singular
Strong's 3173: Large, great, in the widest sense.

then,
οὖν (oun)
Conjunction
Strong's 3767: Therefore, then. Apparently a primary word; certainly, or accordingly.

if
εἰ (ei)
Conjunction
Strong's 1487: If. A primary particle of conditionality; if, whether, that, etc.

his
αὐτοῦ (autou)
Personal / Possessive Pronoun - Genitive Masculine 3rd Person Singular
Strong's 846: He, she, it, they, them, same. From the particle au; the reflexive pronoun self, used of the third person, and of the other persons.

servants
διάκονοι (diakonoi)
Noun - Nominative Masculine Plural
Strong's 1249: Probably from an obsolete diako; an attendant, i.e. a waiter; specially, a Christian teacher and pastor.

masquerade
μετασχηματίζονται (metaschēmatizontai)
Verb - Present Indicative Middle or Passive - 3rd Person Plural
Strong's 3345: From meta and a derivative of schema; to transfigure or disguise; figuratively, to apply.

as
ὡς (hōs)
Adverb
Strong's 5613: Probably adverb of comparative from hos; which how, i.e. In that manner.

servants
διάκονοι (diakonoi)
Noun - Nominative Masculine Plural
Strong's 1249: Probably from an obsolete diako; an attendant, i.e. a waiter; specially, a Christian teacher and pastor.

of righteousness.
δικαιοσύνης (dikaiosynēs)
Noun - Genitive Feminine Singular
Strong's 1343: From dikaios; equity; specially justification.

[Their]
ὧν (hōn)
Personal / Relative Pronoun - Genitive Masculine Plural
Strong's 3739: Who, which, what, that.

end
τέλος (telos)
Noun - Nominative Neuter Singular
Strong's 5056: (a) an end, (b) event or issue, (c) the principal end, aim, purpose, (d) a tax.

will correspond to
ἔσται (estai)
Verb - Future Indicative Middle - 3rd Person Singular
Strong's 1510: I am, exist. The first person singular present indicative; a prolonged form of a primary and defective verb; I exist.

their
αὐτῶν (autōn)
Personal / Possessive Pronoun - Genitive Masculine 3rd Person Plural
Strong's 846: He, she, it, they, them, same. From the particle au; the reflexive pronoun self, used of the third person, and of the other persons.

actions.
ἔργα (erga)
Noun - Accusative Neuter Plural
Strong's 2041: From a primary ergo; toil; by implication, an act.


Links
2 Corinthians 11:15 NIV
2 Corinthians 11:15 NLT
2 Corinthians 11:15 ESV
2 Corinthians 11:15 NASB
2 Corinthians 11:15 KJV

2 Corinthians 11:15 BibleApps.com
2 Corinthians 11:15 Biblia Paralela
2 Corinthians 11:15 Chinese Bible
2 Corinthians 11:15 French Bible
2 Corinthians 11:15 Catholic Bible

NT Letters: 2 Corinthians 11:15 It is no great thing therefore if (2 Cor. 2C iiC 2Cor ii cor iicor)
2 Corinthians 11:14
Top of Page
Top of Page