2 Corinthians 3:5

οὐχ ὅτι ἱκανοί κ. τ. λ.: not that we are sufficient of ourselves to judge anything as from ourselves; sc., to judge rightly of the methods to be followed in the discharge of the Apostolic ministry; there is no thought here of the natural depravity of man, or the like. For the constr. οὐχ ὅτι … cf. 2 Corinthians 1:24 and reff. λογίζεσθαι is here used in its widest sense of carrying on any of the ordinary processes of reasoning (cf. 2 Corinthians 10:7; 2 Corinthians 12:6). The repetition ἀφʼ ἑαυτῶν … ἐξ ἑαυτῶν emphasises the statement of the need of God's grace. St. Paul's habit of dwelling on a word and coming back to it again and again (an artifice which the Latin rhetoricians called traductio) is well illustrated in this passage. We have ἱκανοί, ἱκανότης, ἱκάνωσεν; γραμμα (following ἐγγεγραμμένη in 2 Corinthians 3:2); διακονηθεῖσα, διάκονος, διακονία; and δόξα eight times between 2 Corinthians 3:7-11. With the sentiment ἡ ἱκανότης ἡμῶν ἐκ τοῦ Θεοῦ, cf. 1 Corinthians 15:10 and chap. 2 Corinthians 12:9.