Suffer Fools Gladly?
You gladly put up with fools since you are so wise! (II Corinthians 11:19, NIV) Dirk Willems rescues his naive pursuer. This saying from Paul’s letter to the Corinthians is rendered in such a variety of ways in translations and paraphrases that it’s hard to know whether he’s for or against putting up with “fools.” Or likely, whether any current interpretation does his comment justice. Certainly, politicians who use it to denigrate opponents should stop, read the verse in context and consult Bible scholars before saying, “I don’t suffer fools gladly.” Perhaps Paul (who was skillful in exercising soft persuasion, even humour in his preaching and writing) was employing political skill to endear himself and his cause to the Corinthian audience. Corinth, a Greek city, was a centre of learning in Paul’s time, comparable to a university city like Oxford, UK in ours. We mustn’t forget that Paul also wrote, “but we preach Christ crucified, to the Jews a stumbling block and to the Greek