Boasting In GOD
Psa_44:8.
Those That Boast Of A False Gift
Pro_25:14.
What Not To Boast Of
Pro_27:1; Jam_4:13-16.
Who Boasts Of Their Heart’s Desire
Psa_10:3.
This term is employed by Authorized Version with considerable frequency to render the group of words êáõ÷ᾶóèáé, êáý÷çóéò, êáý÷çìá. They are found about 40 times in Septuagint , and about 60 times in the NT (exclusively in St. Paul’s Epistles, except Heb_3:6, Jam_1:9; Jam_4:16). The forms ἐãêáõ÷ᾶóèáé (2Th_1:4) and êáôáêáõîᾶóèáé (Rom_11:18, Jam_3:14) are also found. The group belongs to what Lightfoot (Com. on Php_3:5) calls ‘the tumultuous eagerness of the Apostle’s earlier style’; the words appear most frequently in 2 Cor., where personal feeling is deeply stirred. Whereas in Authorized Version they are rendered by ‘boasting’ and ‘glorying’ in about equal proportions, in Revised Version ‘boasting’ has almost completely disappeared, and ‘glorying’ is found instead. The only place where ‘boast’ is now found is in Jam_3:5 -‘the tongue also is a little member and boasteth great things’; but here the verb is not êáõ÷ᾶôáé but áὐ÷åῖ, and the idea ‘is properly to stretch the neck and hold up the head in pride, and hence to speak with proud confidence’ (Hort, ad loc.). ‘Boastful’ still appears twice in Revised Version (Rom_1:30, 2Ti_3:2, taking the place of Authorized Version ‘boasters,’ and is the equivalent of ἀëáæþí, the abstract noun ἀëáæïíåßá being rendered in Jam_4:16 ‘vaunting’ and in 1Jn_2:16 ‘vainglory,’ the only two places where it occurs. The ἀëáæþí (‘boastful’) has evil associations in both passages-in Rom_1:30 with those who have been given over to a reprobate mind, and in 2Ti_3:2 with the ‘proud,’ blasphemers, and such like. Similarly ἀëáæïíåßá is found in Patristic literature in lists of vices and corrupt practices-in Didache (v. 1) along with ‘self-will,’ ‘covetousness,’ and others; in 1 Clem. xxxv. 5 bracketed with ὑðåñçöáíßá, ‘pride,’ in such a list; and in Ep. to Diognetus (iv. 6) in conjunction with ðïëõðñáãìïóýíç, ‘meddlesomeness.’ Aristotle saw in the ἀëáæþí, ‘not merely one making unseemly display of things which he actually possesses, but vaunting himself in those which he does not possess’ (quoted in Trench, Synonyms of NT8, Lond. 1876, p. 96). In no such category could St. Paul be placed when he speaks of himself, using êáõ÷ᾶóèáé or its cognates, as ‘boasting’ (2Co_7:14; 2Co_8:24; 2Co_9:4), The Revised Version , however, has replaced the word by ‘glorying,’ except in some cases where it uses ‘rejoicing’ (Rom_5:2; Rom_5:11, but in Jam_4:16 ‘rejoice’ of Authorized Version has also given place to ‘glory’). ‘Glorying’ (or ‘boasting’) ‘in the law,’ or ‘in works’ as a ground of acceptance with God, or ‘in men’ as watchwords of sects or parties, is condemned by St Paul (Rom_3:27, Eph_2:9, 1Co_3:21). But the word expresses well the high level at which he lived, exulting in Christ Jesus. He gloried in the Cress (Gal_6:14), in free grace (Rom_5:11), in an approving conscience (2Co_1:12), in his independence as an apostle (2Co_11:10), in his convert (2Th_1:4), and above all in Christ Jesus (Rom_15:17) and in God (1Co_1:31), in the spirit of the Psalmist (Psa_44:8), and of the Prophet (Jer_9:23) who said in the name of God, ‘Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom … but let him that glorieth glory in this, that he understandeth, and knoweth me, that I am the Lord.’
T. Nicol.
One result of pride and self-sufficiency is that people boast of their achievements instead of giving honour to God (Deu 8:11-14; Jer 9:23; Dan 4:30; 1Co 4:7; Jas 4:13-16). Such boasting is hateful to God and will bring from him a humiliating judgment (Isa 10:15-16; Isa 37:23-29; Luk 18:10-14; cf. Mat 6:1-4; Joh 12:43).
Confidence in self is one of the things that prevent people from coming to God and receiving God’s salvation. People cannot earn salvation as a reward for any good deeds they might do. They can only receive it as a gift that God gives freely to those who trust in his grace. They therefore have nothing of themselves that they can boast about (Rom 3:27-28; Rom 4:1-5; Rom 9:30-32; Eph 2:8-9). If they boast at all, they boast in what God has done, not in what they have done (Jer 9:24; 1Co 1:31; Gal 6:14; see also PRIDE).
The Bible records one occasion on which the apostle Paul boasted, even though he knew it was not the sort of thing a Christian should do. But his purpose was to answer certain people in Corinth who opposed him. These people too easily believed the boasting of men who set themselves up as super apostles (2Co 10:8; 2Co 10:13; 2Co 11:1-5; 2Co 11:16-21; 2Co 12:1-11). By contrast, most of the things that Paul boasted of were things that the normally boastful person would be ashamed to speak about, namely, his personal humiliations (2Co 11:23-30).