kauchēma

BDAG divides the entry between that which constitutes a ground for boasting and the act of boasting itself, the former covering most of the eleven New Testament occurrences (Romans 4:2; 1 Corinthians 9:15, 16; 2 Corinthians 1:14; 5:12; Galatians 6:4; Philippians 2:16) and the latter accounting for 1 Corinthians 5:6 and 2 Corinthians 9:3. The formation is regular, since Greek nouns in -μα name the result or object of an action, which in principle separates καύχημα from καύχησις, the noun of the action itself. Commentators on 2 Corinthians observe that Paul does not sustain that separation: καύχημα at 1:14 and 9:3 stands beside καύχησις at 1:12 and 9:4 within the same arguments, and Harris allows either the act or its ground at 1:12 to 14. Ten of the eleven occurrences are Pauline, Hebrews 3:6 being the exception. Bultmann's TDNT treatment reads self-referential boasting as the articulation of the self-reliance that stands under judgment, while legitimate καύχημα points away from the self to God; Zmijewski's EDNT article and the Philippians commentaries apply this to the eschatological καύχημα of Philippians 2:16 and 2 Corinthians 1:14, where apostle and congregation are one another's ground of boasting at the day of Christ. At Hebrews 3:6 the phrase τὸ καύχημα τῆς ἐλπίδος is taken by Attridge as the exultant confidence that hope generates, parallel to παρρησία, though the genitive is also construed objectively, the hope in which one boasts.