Ambrosiaster : Paul returns here to what he said at the beginning of the chapter. What he is about to say is true, though it may make him appear to be foolish, because these truths redound to his praise. Paul is not really boasting but merely wants to show that others who boast have nothing more to show for themselves than he has, so that if they are worthy of praise so is he. — COMMENTARY ON PAUL'S EPISTLES John Chrysostom : "Again I say." For he had even already used much preparatory corrective: 'But nevertheless I am not contented with what I have said, but I say yet again,' "Let no man think me foolish." For this was what they did-boasted without a reason.-But observe, I pray you, how often, when about to enter upon his own praises, he checks himself. 'For indeed it is the act of folly,' he says, 'to boast: but I do it, not as playing the fool, but because compelled. But if ye do not believe me, but though ye see there is a necessity will condemn me; not even so will I decline the task.' Seest thou how he showed that there was great necessity for his speaking. For he that shunned not even this suspicion, consider what violent impulsion to speak he must have undergone, how he travailed and was constrained to speak. But, nevertheless, even so he employs this thing with moderation. For he did not say, 'that I may glory.' And when about to do "a little," again he uses yet another deprecatory expression. — Homily 24 on 2 Corinthians