2 Corinthians 11:25

τρὶς ἐραβδίσθην. This beating with rods is a Roman punishment. We know of only one of these three cases, the one at Philippi (Acts 16:23; comp. 1 Thessalonians 2:2). Possibly the protest that he and Silas were Roman citizens, which frightened the praetors afterwards (Acts 16:37-38), was not heard in the tumult (Ramsay, St Paul the Traveller and the Roman Citizen, p. 219). It was recognized by the tribune, when S. Paul urged it in a quiet interview at Jerusalem (Acts 22:25). Comp. the case of Attains at Lyons (Eus. H. E. v. i. 44, 50). But the δ-text suggests that it was the earthquake which caused the change in the Philippian praetors; ἀναμνησθέντες τὸν σεισμὸν τὸν γεγονότα ἐφοβήθησαν καὶ�.τ.λ. Cicero (in Verrem, v. 62) tells us that brutal magistrates sometimes ignored this plea. Gessius Florus, who succeeded Albinus as procurator of Judaea A.D. 64 or 65 (Lewin, Sacri Fasti, p. 334), behaved in this way (Joseph. B. J. II. xiv. 9). On the single ρ in ἐραβδίσθην see WH. II. App. p. 163.

ἄπαξ ἐλιθάσθην. This was at Lystra, where Barnabas and Paul had been taken to be gods, until malignant Jews came all the way from Antioch and Iconium and changed the fickle people (Acts 14:11-19). The Apostles had been nearly stoned at Iconium, but escaped (Acts 14:5-6). See Paley, Horae Paulinae, iv. 9. For λιθάζειν comp. Acts 5:26; Acts 14:19; John 11:8; Hebrews 11:37; καταλιθάζειν, Luke 20:6 : λιθοβολεῖν is more common, especially in the LXX.

τρὶς ἐναυάγησα. We know of several voyages made by S. Paul before the shipwreck on the way to Rome; and in some of these, or in others of which we know nothing, the three shipwrecks took place. It was very likely after one of these shipwrecks that he ‘passed a night and a day in the deep,’ probably floating upon wreckage (comp. Acts 27:44). In 1 Timothy 1:19 ναυαγεῖν is used metaphorically of shipwreck περὶ τὴν πίστιν. It is found in Hdt., Xen., Dem., but nowhere else in Biblical Greek.

νυχθήμερον. A very rare word, meaning a full day of twenty-four hours.

πεπροίηκα. The change from the preceding aorists is noteworthy. The perfect gives the terrible experience as vividly before the writer’s mind. For ποιεῖν of spending time comp. Acts 15:33; Acts 18:23; Acts 20:3; James 4:13; Tob 10:7.

ἐν τῷ βυθῷ. This of course does not mean that he was super-naturally preserved for twenty-four hours under water, although the Vulgate’s in profundo maris has encouraged this interpretation. To say nothing of other objections, S. Paul would hardly have classed so miraculous a deliverance among his sufferings. By βυθός is here meant, not ‘the depth of the sea,’ but ‘the deep,’ i.e. the sea. Comp. αὐτοὶ εἴδοσαν τὰ ἔργα Κυρίου καὶ τὰ θαυμάσια αὐτοῦ ἐν τῷ βυθῷ (Psalms 106:24): Pompeius tellure nova compressa profundi Ova videns (Lucan, Phar. II. 680).