Galatians 4:13-15

PAUL'S THORN IN THE FLESH.

Excursus on Chap. Galatians 4:13. Comp. 2 Corinthians 12:7. [1]

[1] Comp. Dean Stanley, Com. on Corinth, (a Cor. 12:1, pp. 547-552 (4th ed. 1876). Bp. Lightfoot, Com. on Gal., Excursus, pp. 183-188. Thomas Lewin, Life and Epistles 0f St. Paul, ( 1875) i. 186-189. Canon Farrar, Life and Work 0f St. Paul, i. 652-661. J. J. Lias, Com. on Second Corinth xii. 7. (‘Cambridge Bible,' 1879). Dr. Plumptre, Com. on Second Corinth., 12:7 (in Ellicott's N. T. Com.).

Among older commentators, Poole, Calov, and Wolf have collected the various interpretations. Meyer gives only a brief summary on a Cor. 12 pp. 337, 338 (fifth Germ, ed., 1870).

Paul did his great work in constant struggle against trials and difficulties from without and from within. His lire was a continuous battle with Jews, Gentiles, and false brethren. He stood almost alone, one against a world in arms. Not even a wife, or a son, or a daughter cheered him on his way, or shared with him his troubles and cares. But he had Christ on his side, who is mightier than the host of hell. This warlike aspect gives to his work the character of a heroic poem.

Among the difficulties which Paul had to contend with was that mysterious ‘infirmity of the flesh,' to which he alludes in the fourth chapter of the Galatians, and the ‘thorn in the flesh,' of which he speaks in the twelfth chapter of the Second Corinthians. These Epistles were written in the same period of his life (A. D. 54 to 57), and the passages refer no doubt to the same trouble. We will place them beside each other.

Galatians 4:13; 2 Corinthians 4:7 ‘Ye know that on account of an infirmity of the flesh I preached unto you the former time [on the first of my two visits among you]; and your trial in my flesh [that which was a trial to you in my flesh] ye did not scorn, nor loathe [lit. spit out], but as an angel of God did ye receive me, [even] as Jesus Christ. Where is then your self-congratulation? for I bear you witness that you would have plucked out your eyes, if possible, and given them to me.'

‘And that I might not be exalted too much by this superabundance of revelations, there was given to me a thorn in the flesh, an angel of Satan to buffet me, that I should not be exalted too much. For this thrice did I entreat the Lord that it might depart from me. But he hath said unto me: “My grace is sufficient for thee; for my strength is being perfected in weakness.” most gladly then will I rather glory in my weaknesses, that the strength of Christ may rest upon me.'

The first attack of which we are informed took place fourteen years before the composition of the Second Corinthians (57), that is, A.D. 43 or 44, probably after that trance in the Temple of Jerusalem which determined his career as the Apostle of the Gentiles, 2 Corinthians 12:2; comp. Acts 22:17. Then again he was seized by a prolonged attack in 51 or 52, during his first visit to Galatia, Galatians 4:13. He seems to refer to a similar attack, when in 52 or 53 he wrote to the Thessalonians (1 Thessalonians 2:18) that ‘Satan had hindered him' from visiting them, and when a few years afterwards (57) he reminded the Corinthians that he was with them ‘in weakness and in fear, and in much trembling' (1 Corinthians 2:3). In the second Epistle he informs them of an affliction which befell him in Asia and which was so severe that he ‘despaired even of life' (2 Corinthians 1:8-9). If we press the words ‘thrice I prayed the Lord,' we may infer that down to the year 57 he had at least three severe attacks of this peculiar infirmity, and that it was after the third that the Lord pointed out to him the practical design of the trial and assured him of grace sufficient to bear it.

Allusions to the same trouble, but less certain, have been found in other passages where Paul speaks more generally of his sufferings in the cause of Christ, and more particularly his persecutions, namely, Galatians 6:17 (the sacred stigmata or marks of Jesus branded on his body); 2 Corinthians 4:10 (‘always bearing about in the body the dying of Jesus, that the life also of Jesus may be manifested in our body'); Colossians 1:24 (‘I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and fill up on my part the deficiencies of the afflictions of Christ in my flesh for His body, which is the church').

The contemporaries of St. Paul who were personally acquainted with him knew at once what he meant by his ‘infirmity' and by his ‘thorn in the flesh;' but we who live at such a distance are largely left to conjecture as to its precise nature. The apocryphal literature is silent on this point. The ‘Acts of Thecla' give us a description of the personal appearance of Paul, but no account of his special infirmity. The magnifying glass of the legend enhances only the virtues of its heroes, while the defects disappear or are remembered only indistinctly. There is, however, a vague tradition, first briefly mentioned by Tertullian, that Paul suffered from severe headache.

What we can gather with some degree of certainty from his Epistles are the following particulars:

1. The infirmity of Paul was a bodily ailment or physical malady. It was an ‘infirmity of the flesh,' Galatians 4:13, or ‘ in his (my) flesh,' Galatians 4:14, ‘a thorn in the flesh,' 2 Corinthians 12:7, that is, not a literal thorn, but a physical pain, as sharp as that caused by a thorn or pin thrust in the flesh. [1] It is true, ‘flesh' often means, in Paul's vocabulary, the corrupt carnal nature of man, but in these passages it must refer to the body; for a check on the sinful nature would be a spiritual blessing rather than a hindrance to get rid of.

[1] The dative τῇ σαρκί , a Cor. 12:7, is the dative of appropriation, ‘a thorn for the flesh.' So Meyer in loc, but he misunderstands σαρξ of that part of the spiritual man which is most inclined to sin. This is inconsistent with the ‘infirmity of the flesh' in Gal., and Paul would not have prayed for a removal of a check on his sinful inclination.

2. It must have been very painful. This is implied in the Greek word ο ϰ όλοψ, which only occurs once in the New Testament, but frequently elsewhere, and means either a wooden ‘stake,' or a sharp ‘thorn,' a splinter; the latter meaning prevails in Hellenistic Greek (LXX. Hosea 2:6; Ezekiel 28:24; Numbers 33:55; Sir 43:19), and is decidedly preferable here, for the idea of a stake driven through the flesh is exaggerated and coarse. [2] The Apostle moreover prayed again and again to be delivered from this pain. A man of his energy and zeal would not have minded or mentioned an ordinary ailment.

[2] Against Lightfoot, Plumptre, and Farrar, who all prefer the meaning ‘ stake,' misled by the prevailing classical usage. The Vulgate translates σκόλοψ by stimulus.

3. It was of a repulsive and even loathsome character, and offered a strong temptation to the Galatians to ‘despise' and ‘spit out' the Apostle. But it created also pity and compassion on the sufferer.

4. It was not a continuous, but an intermittent trouble. It seized him while passing through Galatia and detained him there, so that he involuntarily became the evangelist and spiritual father of the Galatians, Galatians 4:13 (according to the correct rendering of δι᾿ ἀσθενείαν τῆς σαρκὸς, ‘on account of an infirmity of the flesh'). The intermittent character is also implied in the word ‘buffet.'

5. It was not hereditary, but dated, it would seem, from the time of his conversion or afterwards; as Jacob's lameness came from his wrestling with Jehovah. He says: ‘There was given to me (ἐ δόθη) a thorn in the flesh.' And it was given to him by God through Satan for his humiliation. It is possible, however, that the disease dated from the earlier life of Paul, and was aggravated and also graciously overruled after his conversion.

6. It had a mysterious background, and was connected with demoniac influences; for he describes the trouble as an ‘angel of Satan,' [3] who did ‘buffet ' him or strike him with the fist. But Satan was here, as in the case of Job, only an instrument in the hands of the permissive and overruling providence of God, and had to serve against his will the moral end of guarding the Apostle against spiritual pride.

[3] Άγγελος Σαταν ᾶ is in apposition to σκόλοψ . Satan has under him a host of fallen angels, Matthew 25:41, and uses them as agents for all sorts of evil and mischief of which he is the prime author, comp. 1 Corinthians 2:12; 2 Corinthians 4:4; 2 Corinthians 11:14; 1 Thessalonians 2:18, etc., and also Job 2:2 ff.

7. It was apt to break out after some special revelation or exaltation with which Paul was favored from time to time. For he mentions it after the account of his rapture into the third heaven where he heard ‘unspeakable words which it is not lawful for a man to utter,' and he represents the thorn in the flesh as a counter-action to the inflation and boastfulness which such exceptional insight into the mysteries of divine truth might otherwise have produced. Sudden transitions from a taste of heavenly glory to earthly misery are not infrequent in the lives of saints. The disciples had to come down from the Mount of Transfiguration to be confronted with hideous maladies, a contrast so admirably reproduced by Raphael in his last and greatest picture. Peter after he had, by revelation, confessed Christ as the Son of God, and earned the name of ‘Rock,' was rebuked and called ‘Satan,' because, under the influence of his flesh and blood, if not of Satan himself, he had, presumed to warn his Lord and Master against the path of suffering which alone could lead to the redemption of the world.

So far exegesis may go with the data before us. Some of the ablest commentators stop here, and say that Paul's infirmity was a painful physical malady which he derived from Satan, but which cannot now be definitely determined. [4]

[4] So Olshausen, De Wette, Meyer, Neander, Stanley, and others.

But it is very interesting to examine the various theories and conjectures. Some are fanciful, some probable, none certain. They reflect the various personal experiences and trials of Christian men. We may classify them under three heads: physical evils; external calamities; spiritual trials.

I. PHYSICAL MALADIES.

Almost every ailment or disorder to which human flesh is subject has been named by commentators as the thorn in the flesh, such as headache, earache, blindness, or sore eyes, dyspepsia, gravel, epilepsy, hypochondria, impediment of speech, diminutive figure, nervous prostration, a general sickly condition (rather than a particular disease), but those only deserve special consideration which combine more or less the characteristic features which are required by the text. These are ophthalmia, epilepsy, and sick headache.

1. Inflammation of the eyes, or acute ophthalmia. [5] This disease is still very prevalent in the Orient, especially in Egypt, among children and adults, and often presents an aspect almost as distressing as leprosy and epilepsy. In every street of Alexandria and Cairo, you may see children suffering with eyes inflamed and besieged by flies, on the arms or shoulders of the mother, who from superstitious fear of evil spirits makes no attempt to drive the flies away. The Egyptian ophthalmia, so called, is contagious and accompanied by severe burning pain, headache, and prostration. ‘When the disease is unchecked, it is liable to produce ulceration or sloughing of the cornea, with the escape of the aqueous humor and protrusion of the iris; and even when these results do not follow, vision is often destroyed by permanent opacity of the cornea.'

[5] So very positively Lewin, Plumptre, Farrar, and other English and American writers. It is strange that Meyer in his summary of views docs not even mention the theory of ophthalmia.

In favor of this theory the following arguments have been urged, none of which, however, is conclusive:

(a.) Paul was struck with blindness by the dazzling light of glory which appeared to him at his conversion. But this blindness lasted only three days, and was as it would seem, permanently cured by Ananias, Acts 9:8-9; Acts 9:17-18.

(b.) The Galatians in the first flush of their gratitude for Paul, who, notwithstanding his severe affliction, preached to them the good tidings of salvation, were willing, if possible, to pluck out even their eyes [1] and to give them to the suffering messenger of God, Galatians 4:15. But the eyes, the most precious members of the body, represent here figuratively the greatest sacrifice.

[1] Not ‘your own eyes,' as King James' version has it. The Greek ύμ ῶ ν is not emphatic, and the stress lays on ‘e yes,' not on ‘your.'

(c.) Paul did not recognize the high-priest, when he called him a ‘whited wall,' Acts 23:3-5. But this may have been owing to nearsightedness, rather than to diseased vision.

(d.) His handwriting was awkward, Galatians 6:11 (‘See what large letters, or characters, I write with mine own hand'), and he usually employed an amanuensis, Romans 16:22. But the former passage refers only to the large size of the letters, which is often characteristic of boldness; and even bad and illegible handwriting is not infrequent among men of genius with sound eyes. [2]

[2] I may mention, as instances, Napoleon, Neander, Bean Stleany.

(e.) The term ‘thorn in the flesh' naturally suggests the image of a sharp splinter run into the eye, and an ocular deformity caused thereby, which might well be compared to the brand fixed on a slave, Galatians 6:17. But this passage refers to permanent marks of persecution from without rather than an inherent trouble.

If Paul suffered from blindness, or blurred vision, he would involuntarily remind us of the two greatest epic poets, Homer and Milton, of the eminent divine Dionysius of Alexandria, and of the historian Prescott. His vision of the outward world was dimmed that he might see the mysteries of the spiritual and eternal world. Milton wrote his ‘Paradise Lost' and ‘Paradise Regained' in midnight darkness, yet full of faith and hope:

‘These eyes,

Bereft of light, their seeing have forgot;

Nor to their idle orbs doth sight appear

Of son, or moon, or star, throughout the year,

Or man, or woman. Yet I argue not

Against Heaven's hand and will, nor bate a jot

Of heart or hope, but still bear up, and steer

Right onward.'

2. Epilepsy, or the falling sickness. [3] This answers nearly every condition of the text. It is painful; it is recurrent; it suspends all voluntary action; it is exceedingly humiliating, distressing, and repulsive, and makes the sufferer an object of loathing to others. It is often connected with delicate sensibility, nervous excitement, visions, and trances. It is characterized by sudden insensibility, spasmodic movements of the muscles, violent distortions of the face, protrusion of the tongue, foaming at the mouth, and ghastly expression of countenance. The fits last usually from five to twenty minutes and are followed by a state of stupor. Epilepsy was considered by the ancients as a supernatural and ‘sacred disease,' and derived from the influence of the gods or evil spirits; the Jews traced it to demoniacal possession; the Welsh call it ‘the rod of Christ.' Mohammed often had trances and epileptic fits, during which he foamed at the mouth, and uttered guttural sounds like a camel; at first he and his followers derived them from evil spirits, but afterwards from the angel Gabriel who inspired his messages. The faintings and ecstasies of St. Bernard, St. Francis of Assisi, St. Catherine of Siena, St. Teresa of Spain, George Fox, and Emanuel Swedenborg may also be mentioned as illustrations or analogies. Recent English commentators have called attention to the case of King Alfred, the greatest and best of English kings. It is said that God sent him in his youth a malady which had all the symptoms of epilepsy, in answer to the prayer for some corporal suffering or other protection against the temptations of the flesh. For many years it caused him terrible tortures and led him to despair of his life, but then it left him, in answer to his fervent prayers for deliverance, until it suddenly reappeared in the midst of his marriage festival, to the dismay of the guests, and rudely silenced their loud joy. To a good old age he was never sure against its recurrence, and it was under the load of this bodily infirmity that he discharged, most energetically and faithfully, the duties of a sovereign in a most trying time. [4] I knew an eminent and celebrated Christian scholar of high moral and religious character, who in his younger years was subject to this terrible disease; but his friends concealed it. The only serious objection to this theory is the repulsive character of epilepsy. But Paul himself describes his infirmity as loathsome. It is also urged that he must have had a powerful constitution to make so many journeys by land and by sea, to preach in the day and to work at his trade in the night, and to endure all sorts of hardship and persecution. But physical infirmity is sometimes combined with great nervous vitality and tenacity.

[3] Ziegler, Ewald (‘fallende Sucht oder so was aknliches'). Hausrath, Holsten, and especially Lightfoot.

[4] Pauli's Life 0f Alfred, Engl., transl., pp. 122-125, quoted by Jowett and Lightfoot

3. Sick headache. This has in its favor the oldest tradition. It is first mentioned by Tertullian, who adds to it earache, [5] and is confirmed by Jerome, who mentions the traditional report that Paul often suffered the most severe headache. [6] I would unhesitatingly adopt this view if it were not for the objection that headache, even in its severest form, does not present the feature of such repulsiveness as to make the sufferer an object of contempt. As the argument now stands, the second theory has, exegetically, the advantage above all others.

[5] De Pudic.,c. 13: ‘ per dolerem, ut ainnt, auricula vel capitis.'

[6] Com. in Galatians 4:14 : ‘ Tradunt cum gravissmum capitis dolorem sape perpessum.' Chrysostom, Theophylact, Pelagius, and CEcumenius likewise mention this opinion as held by some.

II. EXTERNAL TROUBLES.

These are ruled out by the text which points to an inherent difficulty inseparable from his person, although it was not always felt with the same force.

1. Persecutions. [1] Chrysostom argues, quite inconclusively: ‘It cannot have been a headache as some suppose; it cannot have been any physical malady. God would not have delivered over the body of His chosen servant to the power of the devil to be tortured in this way. The Apostle is surely speaking of opposition encountered, of suffering endured from enemies.' Paul speaks of his persecutions differently and very plainly in other passages, 2 Corinthians 4:7 ff; 2 Corinthians 11:25 ff. Moreover persecution followed the preaching of the gospel, while the infirmity spoken of in the Galatians preceded the preaching.

[1] Chrysostom and other Greek commentators. Augustine is also quoted in favor of this view, but be suggested different conjectures and had no fixed opinion on this subject.

2. Opposition of the Judaising opponents who embittered his life and were the servants of Satan (2 Corinthians 11:13; 2 Corinthians 11:15), together with the cares and anxieties of his office generally. [2] A modification of the former view. No doubt the intrigues of the Judaizers and other mean people tried the Apostle very sorely, and sometimes provoked him to the use of sarcastic language, but they were necessary conditions of the development of Christian truth and of his own system of doctrine.

[2] Theodoret, Erasmus, Calvin, Beza. Schrader, Reiche, etc.

3. A bad wife (like Job's). But Paul was probably never married (1 Corinthians 7:7-9); and if he had been, he would certainly not have prayed for the removal of his wife. This and similar fancies are only worth mentioning as curiosities of exegesis.

III. MORAL AND SPIRITUAL TRIALS,

1. Carnal temptations. Paul had to contend with a rebellious sensuality, without, however, being overcome by it. This is the ascetic explanation, vaguely suggested by Jerome, favored by the ambiguous Latin rendering of the ‘thorn in the flesh' (stimulus carnis), and adopted by most of the mediaeval and Roman Catholic commentators. Cornelius a Lapide calls it the common interpretation of the Catholics. Cardinal Hugo fancied that the passion was stimulated by the beautiful St. Thecla, one of Paul's converts and companions (according to apocryphal accounts). Many an ascetic saint, beset by the devil in this way, derived comfort from the belief that Paul was tempted in the same way. Passages like 1 Corinthians 9:27: ‘I buffet my body, and bring it into bondage;' Romans 7:23: ‘the law of sin in my members;' Ephesians 6:16 (the ‘firetipt darts of the wicked one'), are quoted in support. But the word ‘thorn' was never used of the sting of sensuous impulse. What is more conclusive, Paul says expressly with reference to marriage and carnal temptations that he wished all men were as free as he, 1 Corinthians 7:7-9. We look in vain for stronger condemnation of all impurity than in his Epistles. It is preposterous to suppose that he who was all-absorbed in the service of Christ should have been pursued by a sinful passion to such an extent as to be hindered in his ministry and to become an object of contempt and loathing to his converts. And how in the world could he glory in shameful lusts? And how could concupiscence be a check and counter-poise to spiritual pride? [3]

[3] Meyer calls this Roman interpretation ‘a crime against the great Apostle.' But it is psychologically interesting, as showing that excruciating carnal temptations may enter into the experience of earnest monks, priests, and holy men. St. Jerome speaks of them rather indelicately in letters to female friends, whom he exhorts to keep the vow of chastity. St. Augustine bewails the recurrence in dreams of the old sensuous pictures after his conversion.

2. Violent temper. This does not answer the description at all. No doubt Paul, like most great men, had fiery passions, but under the control of reason, and made subservient to his work. He handled good old Peter rather severely at Antioch; he separated even from his friend Barnabas for a while on account of Mark; he nearly lost his temper when he reviled the high priest; and his Epistles generally are full of sacred fire. Nothing great can be done without enthusiasm, guided by reason. Strong temper is as useful as a strong physical constitution when employed in a good cause. Abuse of temper is always humiliating and a sign of weakness. But some people have no temper to control, and hence deserve no credit for moderation.

3. Spiritual temptations, such as doubt, despondency, faint-heartedness in his calling, torments of conscience on account of his former life, disappointed ambition, blasphemous suggestions of the devil. [4] Paul no doubt had constant conflicts with the powers of darkness, and often felt weary of the strife, and home-sick after heaven (comp. 2 Corinthians 5:1-5; Philippians 1:23; 2 Timothy 4:6), but he never shows the least misgiving as to his faith and his ministry. Having seen the Lord personally, and having been favored repeatedly with special revelations, he would rather have doubted his own existence than the truth of the gospel or his duty as an Apostle.

[4] So Gerson, Luther, Calov, Mosheim, and others. Luther often had Satanic suggestions, and traced the gravel, which troubled him very much, to the devil. In his earlier commentary on Gal. (1519), he explained Paul's infirmity with Chrysostom of persecutions; in his fuller commentary (1535), he added high spiritual temptations; and lastly in his Table Talk he mentions the latter only.

PRACTICAL LESSONS.

1. Paul's ‘thorn in the flesh,' no matter what it was, heightens our conception of his heroism and all-absorbing devotion to Christ, for whom he was ready to suffer all things and to sacrifice life itself.

2. The diversity of interpretations arises from the want of definite information and reflects the persona] experiences and trials of the commentators. The impossibility of attaining at a certain result facilitates the applicability and practical usefulness of that undefined ‘infirmity.'

3. Every Christian has a ‘thorn in his flesh' either physical, or spiritual, or external. Some have more than one. It may be sickness, or poverty, or misfortune, or persecution, or doubt, or despondency, or unruly temper, or a bad husband, a bad wife, bad children, or any other kind of trouble.

4. The object and use of a thorn in the flesh is to keep us humble and near the cross. It is a check to pride, vanity, sensuality, and other sins. Human nature is too weak to stand uninterrupted prosperity without injury.

5. The thorn in the flesh aids us in developing the passive virtues, meekness, gentleness, patience, resignation. We are often laid on the back that we may learn to look up to heaven. When Paul was weakest in the flesh, he was strongest in spirit. ‘Ana what his trial was to him and to the world on a large scale, that the trial of each individual Christian may have been ever since, the means, in ways inconceivable to him now, of making himself and others strong in the service of God and man.' [1]

[1] Stanley.

6. The comfort in answer to our prayers for deliverance from our thorn in the flesh is that which was given to Paul: ‘My grace is sufficient for thee; for (My) strength is made perfect in weakness.' The same answer, though we hear it not, is returned to us in similar trials. Prayer is often refused in one form, but answered in a far better form than we can conceive. The cross of Christ is the strength of Christianity. [2]

[2] Compare the couplet of Schiller (his best):

‘Religion des Kreuzes nur da verknupfest in Einem Kranze

Der Demuth und Kraft doppelte Palme zugleich.'