2 Corinthians 1:8

We do not want you to be unaware, brothers, of the hardships we encountered in the province of Asia. We were under a burden far beyond our ability to endure, so that we despaired even of life.

Berean Standard Bible

Follow its threads on the canvas →

Study note

Setting — Paul addresses the Corinthian believers as brothers to explain the extreme trials he faced in the province of Asia. He writes this statement to clarify the origin and severity of his recent affliction.

The words — ἀγνοεῖν (agnoein, to be ignorant) and ἀδελφοί (adelphoi, brothers) frame the apostle’s pastoral command to inform rather than conceal his condition.

The thread — The pattern of human exhaustion yielding to divine reliance appears in 2 Corinthians 1:7 and 2 Corinthians 1:9. The motif of earthly weakness contrasting with heavenly power is echoed in 2 Corinthians 4:7 and the rhetorical despair of 1 Corinthians 15:32.

Why it lands — The text states that the burden exceeded natural endurance and produced despair of life. It requires the reader to acknowledge that human incapacity functions to redirect trust away from self and toward God.

Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.

The Greek words

King James Version

For we would not, brethren, have you ignorant of our trouble which came to us in Asia, that we were pressed out of measure, above strength, insomuch that we despaired even of life:

Cross-references

2 Corinthians 4:7 Now we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this surpassingly great power is from God and not from us.
1 Corinthians 4:8 Already you have all you want. Already you have become rich. Without us, you have become kings. How I wish you really were kings, so that we might be kings with you!
1 Corinthians 15:32 If I fought wild beasts in Ephesus for human motives, what did I gain? If the dead are not raised, “Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die.”
Acts 19:23 About that time there arose a great disturbance about the Way.
1 Corinthians 16:9 because a great door for effective work has opened to me, even though many oppose me.
1 Samuel 27:1 David, however, said to himself, “One of these days now I will be swept away by the hand of Saul. There is nothing better for me than to escape to the land of the Philistines. Then Saul will stop searching for me all over Israel, and I will slip out of his hand.”
1 Samuel 20:3 But David again vowed, “Your father knows very well that I have found favor in your eyes, and he has said, ‘Jonathan must not know of this, or he will be grieved.’ As surely as the LORD lives and as you yourself live, there is but a step between me and death.”