2 Corinthians 11:3

NET Bible® (New English Translation)

But I am afraid that just as the serpent deceived Eve by his treachery, your minds may be led astray from a sincere and pure devotion to Christ.

📖 Grammatical Analysis

Original Text

Φοβοῦμαι δὲ, μή πως, ὡς ὁ ὄφις Εὕαν ἐξηπάτησεν ἐν τῇ πανουργίᾳ αὐτοῦ, οὕτως φθαρῇ τὰ νοήματα ὑμῶν ἀπὸ τῆς ἁπλότητος τῆς εἰς τὸν Χριστόν.

Transliteration

I phoboumai but, lest somehow, as the ophis Heuan exēpatēsen in the panourgia of him, thus might be phtharē the noēmata of you from the haplotētos that is toward the Christon.

Grammar Details

• *phoboumai*: present middle/passive indicative, 1st singular - fear/am afraid
• *ophis*: nominative, masculine, singular - serpent/snake
• *Heuan*: accusative, feminine, singular - Eve
• *exēpatēsen*: aorist active indicative, 3rd singular - deceived/beguiled completely
• *panourgia*: dative, feminine, singular - craftiness/cunning
• *phtharē*: aorist passive subjunctive, 3rd singular - might be corrupted/ruined
• *noēmata*: nominative/accusative, neuter, plural - minds/thoughts
• *haplotētos*: genitive, feminine, singular - simplicity/sincerity
• *Christon*: accusative, masculine, singular - Christ

Word Meanings

• *phoboumai*: fear/am afraid/am concerned
• *ophis*: serpent/snake
• *exēpatēsen*: deceived completely/beguiled/seduced
• *panourgia*: craftiness/cunning/trickery
• *phtharē*: might be corrupted/ruined/led astray
• *noēmata*: minds/thoughts/mental perceptions
• *haplotētos*: simplicity/sincerity/singleness/purity

Referenced Verses

• 1 Tim 2:14 : 14 And Adam was not deceived, but the woman, because she was fully deceived, fell into transgression.
• Rev 12:9 : 9 So that huge dragon– the ancient serpent, the one called the devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world– was thrown down to the earth, and his angels along with him.
• Gal 1:6 : 6 Occasion of the Letter I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting the one who called you by the grace of Christ and are following a different gospel–
• Col 2:4 : 4 I say this so that no one will deceive you through arguments that sound reasonable.
• Col 2:8 : 8 Be careful not to allow anyone to captivate you through an empty, deceitful philosophy that is according to human traditions and the elemental spirits of the world, and not according to Christ.
• John 8:44 : 44 You people are from your father the devil, and you want to do what your father desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not uphold the truth, because there is no truth in him. Whenever he lies, he speaks according to his own nature, because he is a liar and the father of lies.
• Gen 3:4 : 4 The serpent said to the woman,“Surely you will not die,
• Gen 3:13 : 13 So the LORD God said to the woman,“What is this you have done?” And the woman replied,“The serpent tricked me, and I ate.”
• Gal 3:1 : 1 Justification by Law or by Faith? You foolish Galatians! Who has cast a spell on you? Before your eyes Jesus Christ was vividly portrayed as crucified!
• 2 Cor 1:12 : 12 Paul Defends His Changed Plans For our reason for confidence is this: the testimony of our conscience, that with pure motives and sincerity which are from God– not by human wisdom but by the grace of God– we conducted ourselves in the world, and all the more toward you.
• Heb 13:9 : 9 Do not be carried away by all sorts of strange teachings. For it is good for the heart to be strengthened by grace, not ritual meals, which have never benefited those who participated in them.
• 2 Pet 2:1-9 : 1 The False Teachers’ Ungodly Lifestyle But false prophets arose among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you. These false teachers will infiltrate your midst with destructive heresies, even to the point of denying the Master who bought them. As a result, they will bring swift destruction on themselves. 2 And many will follow their debauched lifestyles. Because of these false teachers, the way of truth will be slandered. 3 And in their greed they will exploit you with deceptive words. Their condemnation pronounced long ago is not sitting idly by; their destruction is not asleep. 4 For if God did not spare the angels who sinned, but threw them into hell and locked them up in chains in utter darkness, to be kept until the judgment, 5 and if he did not spare the ancient world, but did protect Noah, a herald of righteousness, along with seven others, when God brought a flood on an ungodly world, 6 and if he turned to ashes the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah when he condemned them to destruction, having appointed them to serve as an example to future generations of the ungodly, 7 and if he rescued Lot, a righteous man in anguish over the debauched lifestyle of lawless men, 8 (for while he lived among them day after day, that righteous man was tormented in his righteous soul by the lawless deeds he saw and heard) 9 – if so, then the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from their trials, and to reserve the unrighteous for punishment at the day of judgment, 10 especially those who indulge their fleshly desires and who despise authority. Brazen and insolent, they are not afraid to insult the glorious ones, 11 yet even angels, who are much more powerful, do not bring a slanderous judgment against them before the Lord. 12 But these men, like irrational animals– creatures of instinct, born to be caught and destroyed– do not understand whom they are insulting, and consequently in their destruction they will be destroyed, 13 suffering harm as the wages for their harmful ways. By considering it a pleasure to carouse in broad daylight, they are stains and blemishes, indulging in their deceitful pleasures when they feast together with you. 14 Their eyes, full of adultery, never stop sinning; they entice unstable people. They have trained their hearts for greed, these cursed children!
• 2 Pet 3:3 : 3 Above all, understand this: In the last days blatant scoffers will come, being propelled by their own evil urges
• 2 Pet 3:17 : 17 Therefore, dear friends, since you have been forewarned, be on your guard that you do not get led astray by the error of these unprincipled men and fall from your firm grasp on the truth.
• 1 John 2:18 : 18 Warning About False Teachers Children, it is the last hour, and just as you heard that the antichrist is coming, so now many antichrists have appeared. We know from this that it is the last hour.
• 1 John 4:1 : 1 Testing the Spirits Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to determine if they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world.
• Jude 1:4 : 4 For certain men have secretly slipped in among you– men who long ago were marked out for the condemnation I am about to describe– ungodly men who have turned the grace of our God into a license for evil and who deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ.
• Gal 2:4 : 4 Now this matter arose because of the false brothers with false pretenses who slipped in unnoticed to spy on our freedom that we have in Christ Jesus, to make us slaves.
• Rev 20:2 : 2 He seized the dragon– the ancient serpent, who is the devil and Satan– and tied him up for a thousand years.
• Col 2:18 : 18 Let no one who delights in false humility and the worship of angels pass judgment on you. That person goes on at great lengths about what he has supposedly seen, but he is puffed up with empty notions by his fleshly mind.
• 1 Thess 3:5 : 5 So when I could bear it no longer, I sent to find out about your faith, for fear that the tempter somehow tempted you and our toil had proven useless.
• 2 Thess 2:3-9 : 3 Let no one deceive you in any way. For that day will not arrive until the rebellion comes and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the son of destruction. 4 He opposes and exalts himself above every so-called god or object of worship, and as a result he takes his seat in God’s temple, displaying himself as God. 5 Surely you recall that I used to tell you these things while I was still with you. 6 And so you know what holds him back, so that he will be revealed in his own time. 7 For the hidden power of lawlessness is already at work. However, the one who holds him back will do so until he is taken out of the way, 8 and then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord will destroy by the breath of his mouth and wipe out by the manifestation of his arrival. 9 The arrival of the lawless one will be by Satan’s working with all kinds of miracles and signs and false wonders, 10 and with every kind of evil deception directed against those who are perishing, because they found no place in their hearts for the truth so as to be saved. 11 Consequently God sends on them a deluding influence so that they will believe what is false.
• 1 Tim 1:3 : 3 Timothy’s Task in Ephesus As I urged you when I was leaving for Macedonia, stay on in Ephesus to instruct certain people not to spread false teachings,
• 1 Tim 4:1-4 : 1 Timothy’s Ministry in the Later Times Now the Spirit explicitly says that in the later times some will desert the faith and occupy themselves with deceiving spirits and demonic teachings, 2 influenced by the hypocrisy of liars whose consciences are seared. 3 They will prohibit marriage and require abstinence from foods that God created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and know the truth. 4 For every creation of God is good and no food is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving.
• 2 Tim 3:1-9 : 1 Ministry in the Last Days But understand this, that in the last days difficult times will come. 2 For people will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy, 3 unloving, irreconcilable, slanderers, without self-control, savage, opposed to what is good, 4 treacherous, reckless, conceited, loving pleasure rather than loving God. 5 They will maintain the outward appearance of religion but will have repudiated its power. So avoid people like these. 6 For some of these insinuate themselves into households and captivate weak women who are overwhelmed with sins and led along by various passions. 7 Such women are always seeking instruction, yet never able to arrive at a knowledge of the truth. 8 And just as Jannes and Jambres opposed Moses, so these people– who have warped minds and are disqualified in the faith– also oppose the truth. 9 But they will not go much further, for their foolishness will be obvious to everyone, just like it was with Jannes and Jambres.
• 2 Tim 3:13 : 13 But evil people and charlatans will go from bad to worse, deceiving others and being deceived themselves.
• 2 Tim 4:3-4 : 3 For there will be a time when people will not tolerate sound teaching. Instead, following their own desires, they will accumulate teachers for themselves, because they have an insatiable curiosity to hear new things. 4 And they will turn away from hearing the truth, but on the other hand they will turn aside to myths.
• Titus 1:10 : 10 For there are many rebellious people, idle talkers, and deceivers, especially those with Jewish connections,
• 2 Cor 2:17 : 17 For we are not like so many others, hucksters who peddle the word of God for profit, but we are speaking in Christ before God as persons of sincerity, as persons sent from God.
• 2 Cor 4:2 : 2 But we have rejected shameful hidden deeds, not behaving with deceptiveness or distorting the word of God, but by open proclamation of the truth we commend ourselves to everyone’s conscience before God.
• 2 Cor 11:13-15 : 13 For such people are false apostles, deceitful workers, disguising themselves as apostles of Christ. 14 And no wonder, for even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light. 15 Therefore it is not surprising his servants also disguise themselves as servants of righteousness, whose end will correspond to their actions.
• 2 Cor 11:29 : 29 Who is weak, and I am not weak? Who is led into sin, and I do not burn with indignation?
• 2 Cor 12:20-21 : 20 For I am afraid that somehow when I come I will not find you what I wish, and you will find me not what you wish. I am afraid that somehow there may be quarreling, jealousy, intense anger, selfish ambition, slander, gossip, arrogance, and disorder. 21 I am afraid that when I come again, my God may humiliate me before you, and I will grieve for many of those who previously sinned and have not repented of the impurity, sexual immorality, and licentiousness that they have practiced.
• Gal 4:11 : 11 I fear for you that my work for you may have been in vain.
• Eph 4:14 : 14 So we are no longer to be children, tossed back and forth by waves and carried about by every wind of teaching by the trickery of people who craftily carry out their deceitful schemes.
• Eph 6:24 : 24 Grace be with all those who love our Lord Jesus Christ with an undying love.
• Phil 3:18-19 : 18 For many live, about whom I have often told you, and now, with tears, I tell you that they are the enemies of the cross of Christ. 19 Their end is destruction, their god is the belly, they exult in their shame, and they think about earthly things.
• Ps 119:53 : 53 Rage takes hold of me because of the wicked, those who reject your law.
• Matt 24:24 : 24 For false messiahs and false prophets will appear and perform great signs and wonders to deceive, if possible, even the elect.
• Acts 20:30-31 : 30 Even from among your own group men will arise, teaching perversions of the truth to draw the disciples away after them. 31 Therefore be alert, remembering that night and day for three years I did not stop warning each one of you with tears.
• Rom 12:8 : 8 if it is exhortation, he must exhort; if it is contributing, he must do so with sincerity; if it is leadership, he must do so with diligence; if it is showing mercy, he must do so with cheerfulness.
• Rom 16:18-19 : 18 For these are the kind who do not serve our Lord Christ, but their own appetites. By their smooth talk and flattery they deceive the minds of the naive. 19 Your obedience is known to all and thus I rejoice over you. But I want you to be wise in what is good and innocent in what is evil.