THE
APOSTLE PAUL WROTE TO THE CORINTHIAN believers, "And lest I
should be exalted above measure through the abundance of
the revelations, there was given to me a thorn in the
flesh, the messenger of Satan to buffet me, lest I
should be exalted above measure." So what exactly was
Paul’s thorn in the flesh?
The
Interpretations of the Verse
Few verses of
Scripture have generated as many interpretations as has
this one. The speculation has, in fact, been enormous.
Albert Barnes puts it well, “Every one who has become
familiar with commentaries knows that almost every
expositor has had his own opinion about this, and also
that no one has been able to give any good reason for
his own. Most of them have been fanciful; and many of
them eminently ridiculous.”[i]
He is
correct. I read over twenty commentators and at least
half that many opinions. The most popular has been some
kind of eye trouble, brought on by his being blinded at
his conversion, citing Galatians 6:11 as proof (“Ye see
how large a letter I have written unto you with mine own
hand”). But there is quite clearly nothing in that verse
that directly connects it with the apostle’s thorn in
the flesh; to connect them must be
assumed, for it is not
revealed. Additionally, the reason he wrote in large
letters could have simply been for emphasis or dramatic
effect.
Other theories include: migraine
headaches (which might or might not have been connected
with eye trouble), malaria, epilepsy, gallstones, gout,
rheumatism, an intestinal disorder, sexual temptation
(the Roman Catholic view), or even a speech impediment.
One old Scottish commentator said Paul’s thorn in the
flesh might have been his wife, a comment we will just
leave alone, but one that is really no more speculative
(or sillier) than any of the others. I heard one old
preacher make it even simpler: “What was Paul’s thorn in
the flesh? Well, maybe Paul just had a thorn in his
flesh.”
Another popular
view, as one expositor puts it, is that this was “a
demonic messenger of Satan sent to torment him by using
the deceivers to seduce the Corinthians into a rebellion
against him.” In other words, the language can simply be
taken figuratively to refer to the false teachers that
plagued the Corinthians and burdened Paul to such an
extent that it became like a thorn. Such a view is an
obvious stretching of the language. In my view, there is
no warrant whatsoever to make the language figurative
instead of taking it in its normal sense. That leads us
right to our next point.
The Language
of the Verse
If words mean
anything, whatever this thorn was, it simply had to be
something physical. This simply cannot be denied; the
Greek permits no other possibility when taken in its
normal sense. As the late Dr. David Cooper summed up the
matter:
When the plain
sense of Scripture makes common sense, seek no other
sense; therefore; take every word at its primary,
ordinary, usual, literal meaning unless the facts of the
immediate context, studied in the light of related
passages and axiomatic and fundamental truths, indicated
clearly otherwise.[ii]
Again, there seems
to us no justifiable reason to take the language here in
a figurative manner, much less to virtually spiritualize
it into something more.
We would submit,
then, that the first word that proves this normal
sense is the word flesh. The Greek here is sarx,
which Paul used in three ways in his letters: 1)
physical or that which pertains to the body (37 times;
e.g., Eph. 5:29); 2) general term for humanity (25
times; e.g., Eph. 6:12); 3) inherent evil in the human
nature (27 times; e.g., Eph. 2:3; often inaccurately
called the “old nature,” a term that never appears in
Scripture; the accurate term is flesh, which Paul uses
in this sense 11 times in Rom. 7 and
8).[iii]
So, as flesh in
our text obviously does not refer either to humanity in
general or inherent evil in the human nature, it clearly
refers to the physical body.[iv] There was
obviously something in Paul’s physical body that ailed
him with great severity.
The
second word that indicates something physical is
thorn itself. The term hapax
legomenon refers to a word that
occurs only once in either the written record of a
language, the works of an author, or in a single text.
Such words in Scripture are often very instructive, or
at least significant.
The Greek
skolops (thorn) is such a word. Not only does it
appear only once in the New Testament, but it’s also not
all that common even in Classical Greek (the Greek used
prior to the Koine [common] Greek of NT times). As one
Greek authority tells us:
It means
something pointed, and is probably connected with
skallo, hack. Originally, it meant a pointed
stake, used in defense (Homer, The Odyssey, 7,
45; The Illiad, 8, 343) or upon which the head of
an enemy could be stuck (Homer, The Illiad, 18,
176). It was used in a similar sense to stauros,
cross. But it is also found in the sense of a thorn or
splinter in Aesop’s Fables
(279, 11), and in this sense well
attested.[v]
Another
Greek authority adds that skolops also referred to stakes used for the
fortification of walls as well as ones used for impaling
enemies in execution.[vi]
What, then, is
Paul expressing? It would certainly seem that he is
saying that there is a severe physical issue plaguing
him, something that causes him such savage pain that it
is similar to a stake impaling him.
The
third word that indicates something physical is
buffet. The Greek here is
kolaphizo. This word is one of several that are
used to indicate literal physical violence, both in
Classical and New Testament Greek. For example,
dero (to beat, scourge, or flay; Lk. 22:63,
“smote”), phragelloo (to whip or scourge, Matt.
27:26, “scourged”), and mastigoo (to whip or
scourge, Jn. 19:1, “scourged”) are all used of the Lord
Jesus in His passion sufferings.
Kolaphizo is likewise used of
our Lord’s suffering (note Matt. 26:67 again,
“buffeted,” as well as Mk. 14:65, “buffet”). It means to
strike with the fist, beat, or cuff. It appears also in
1 Corinthians 4:11 and 1 Peter 2:20, both of which again
indicate the physical sense of being “buffeted.” It,
therefore, seems clear once again that Paul is
describing something physical in his life that keeps
striking and beating him.
Physical
infirmity seems all the more apparent in verses 9 and
10, where Paul uses the word astheneia three
times (“weakness” and “infirmities”). This word means
“to be sick or weak.” It, along with the two related
words asthenes and astheneo, “are the most
common expressions for illness and are used in the
comprehensive sense of the whole man. However, it can
also refer to a special form of bodily weakness or
sickness. Figuratively, astheneia can mean general impotence [or] weakness (Rom.
8:26).”[vii]
In addition
to the internal evidence in our text, Galatians 4:13–14
adds some external evidence that Paul was plagued by
something physical: “Ye know how through infirmity
[astheneia] of the flesh [sarx] I preached
the gospel unto you at the first. And my temptation
which was in my flesh [sarx]
ye despised not, nor rejected; but received me as an
angel of God, even as Christ
Jesus.”
The Purpose
of the Verse
What is most
troubling about the various speculations about what this
thorn specifically was is that such conjecture, at least
in my view, misses the main point of the passage. Is the
main point of this verse and its context to tell us what
Paul’s physical problem was? Obviously not, since there
are so many opinions as to what it was.
We would
submit, therefore, that after all such speculation is
noted, the bottom line is that we do not know what the
ailment was—the text simply does not say.
Period. I am convinced that
the reason for this is that it doesn’t matter, and to
speculate is missing the point.
What, then,
is the point? The point is that whatever the
affliction was, it was there to keep Paul humble. As the
words lest I should be exalted above measure through the
abundance of the revelations indicate, Paul had been
given staggering revelations, and such truth could
easily puff him up with pride. Exalted above measure is a single word in the Greek,
huperairo, which means to
lift above, elevate, exalt, be conceited, arrogant, or
insolent. Its only other New Testament appearance is in
2 Thessalonians 2:4, where it is used of the
anti-Christ, who will “[oppose] and [exalt] himself
above all that is called God.”
So, to keep him
from being spiritually proud and self-confident, God
gave Paul a physical affliction to keep him humble.
Nothing, in fact, keeps us humble like a chronic, even
debilitating, illness. Nothing reminds us that we are
weak, frail, and human than does physical affliction.
This would have been especially significant to the
Corinthians. As in our own society, Corinthian society
valued strength and success over weakness and failure.
God loves to work through weakness because this puts his
power on display. In his first letter to the
Corinthians, Paul wrote that God “hath chosen the weak
things of the world to confound the things which are
mighty” (1 Cor. 1:27). And as Paul states later in our
present passage, “when I am weak, then am I strong” (v.
10). In other words, “It is only when I am at my weakest
that God’s power makes me the strongest.”
Another
example of this truth that immediately comes to mind is
Job. Satan directly afflicted Job, though God set limits
for Satan, who could do only what God allowed him to do
(see Job 1:12; 2:6). Likewise, as Satan afflicted Job,
Satan’s messenger[s] afflicted Paul and still afflict
God’s people. “In one sense, “ writes William MacDonald,
this is “an effort on Satan’s part to hinder Paul in the
work of the Lord. But God is greater than Satan, and He
used the thorn to further the work of the Lord by
keeping Paul humble. Successful service for Christ
depends on a weak servant. The weaker he is, the more
the power of Christ accompanies his
preaching.”[viii]
The point of this
passage, and its application for us, should now be
clear. No matter what affliction each of us has, it is
there for our learning and humbling, and it is there so
that God’s grace for our endurance is magnified. In
short, it is all for His glory and our good. As Paul
wrote earlier in this letter, let us be reminded daily
that “our light affliction, which is but for a moment,
worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight
of glory” (2 Cor. 4:17). And as he also wrote the
Romans, “For I reckon that the sufferings of this
present time are not worthy to be compared with the
glory which shall be revealed in us” (Rom.
8:18).
Soli Deo
Gloria!
Dr. J. D.
Watson
Pastor-Teacher
Grace
Bible Church
NOTES
[i]
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible, electronic
edition, comment on 2 Cor.
12:7.
[ii] Cited in J. Vernon
McGee’s Guidelines for the
Understanding of the Scriptures (Thru the Bible
Books), p. 20.
[iii] These totals do
not include the five additional occurrences in
the Epistle to the Hebrews, as some teachers dispute
Pauline authorship (although this author does not; see
TOTT
#11 & 12).
[iv] J. Sidlow Baxter
provides a very helpful chart of all these occurrences
of flesh, divided into their three categories, in his
wonderful book A New Call to Holiness (Zondervan,
1967, 1973), pp. 187–188.
[v] Colin Brown, The New
International Dictionary of New Testament Theology
(Zondervan, 1975, 1986), Vol. 1, p.
726.
[vi] Gerhard Kittel (Ed.),
Theological Dictionary of New Testament
(Eerdmans, 1971, 2006), Vol. VII, p.
409.
[vii] Spiros Zodhiates, The
Complete Word Study Dictionary (AMG Publishers),
electronic edition, word #769.
[viii] Believer’s Bible
Commentary (Thomas Nelson Publishers), electronic
edition.
