Paul's Thorn

Paul’s Thorn - a closer look
By Rev. Joseph C. Muscato


One of the most prolific assumptions in Christianity today is that Paul’s thorn was a disease that God said He would not heal. This assumption has been integrated into religious denominations for years and has in fact become a matter of tradition. Look at one commentary said about it.


The writer then backs this up with two scripture references which we will address in just a moment. The first thing I would encourage you to do is read the entire 12th chapter of 2Corinthians at least three times. Do this at your leisure, don’t rush through it, but read it in completion. We must read the context of a statement along with the statement to have a clear picture of what the writer is talking about.

The second thing I would encourage you to do is pray before reading further on. In the Epistle of James 1:5 we read:

God would not have us ignorant of His Word, and it is He who brings illumination to our understanding. The first thing we need to do is look at the scripture.


By reading the entire chapter we can come to the conclusion that Paul is writing of an actual experience that has happened and not metaphorically. That’s important to know because if it were in metaphor than we would interpret it differently. But being a literal account of an event, then we have to interpret it literally to be correct. I’ve broken the text down to a line by line description so the meaning will be clear. Let’s look at the first segment:

A key word in this phrase is exhalted and to better understand it, we have to look at the Greek word it came from.

Exhalted - huperairomai - to raise one self over, to become haughty-exhalt self.


This is the same as pride. It is interesting that this verse is the only place in the New Testament that huperairomai is used. All other references to being exhalted come from root words that show that God was the one doing the exhalting. In this case huperairomai literally means becoming haughty, or if your from Alabama, “getting a case of the big head”.

The phrase “abundance of the revelations” is in direct reference to the preceding verses where we read:


Paul had just had an intense spiritual experience, where he was shown things that no one on earth had ever seen. He had seen into heaven itself and had heard directly from the throne of God.

How easy it would have been to become haughty or proud. Can you imagine!! Knowing heaven and the realm of God personably. Being in the presence of the Father and then returning to this world. It’s easy to see why so much of this chapter deals with humility.


If our enemy had any brains at all, he would have left Paul alone and let the self exhaltation or pride be his downfall. You see, God works through the humble hearted and resists the proud. The Apostle Paul walked humbly before man and God and his ministry flourished and was laced with power. We all could learn a lot through Paul’s example.


A very important key word in this phrase is given. Let’s look again to the Greek.

Given is translated from the Greek word didomi and is used in a very wide application, prop. Or by implication, literally or figuratively; greatly modified by connection. This means that there is a very wide application of the word didomi and is used in a variety of ways according to its connection in the sentence structure. The word didomi has a long list of possible meaning including - to suffer, to take, to utter, and to yield. The translators had these options to place in this verse, and they are basically interchangeable because of their wide application. we could also translate this verse - there was given to me or there was yielded to me.


I think what is most interesting about this phrase is that it is used only two other places in scripture, and neither refer to sickness or disease. First let’s look at the word thorn.

The word translated thorn is skolops - withered at the front, i.e. a point or a prickle. (Figuratively - a bodily annoyance or disability) In other words skolops is used as a figure of speech. That seems to bear out in the other two times this word is used.


And again in:


As you can see by the context, the thorns scripture speaks of are not diseases or illnesses, but people who were a hindrance to the chosen ones of God. To put this phrase into modern terms would be to say “pain in the neck”. A contemporary translation of these two phrases could be “there was yielded to me, a pain in the neck”.


The word translated messenger here is aggelos - (to bring tidings) a messenger esp. an “angel”, by implication.

This Greek word aggelos if ound a total of 171 times in the New Testament and is always a messenger, or angelic being (demon or angel). There is no place where aggelos is translated sickness or disease. This scripture is showing us that there was an “angelic being” yeilded to Paul. But what type of “angelic being” was it? We see here by implication that it was a demon, because of who sent it, Satan, and what it did, buffet.

The word translated buffet is kolaphizo - to rap with the fist. This same word is found describing the guards beating Jesus before His crucifixion. This was a specific demon sent to buffet Paul. We can read this scripture -

there was given to me a thorn in the flesh, the messenger of Satan to buffet me

or

there was yielded to me a pain in the neck, a demon of Satan to buffet me

So far we have looked closely at the Greek translations of some key words. If you look at the scripture alone you would see that this thorn, this pain in the neck, was a demon whose main job was to torment Paul. But we also see that this scripture in no way indicates nor implies that Paul suffered some type of sickness or disease. Paul writes in the 11th chapter of 2Cor what some of the results of this demons buffeting were.

2Cor 11:23-30 “Are they ministers of Christ? (I speak as a fool) I am more; in labors more abundant, in stripes above measure, in prisons more frequent, in deaths oft. Thrice I was beaten with rods, once I was stoned, thrice I suffered shipwreck, a night and a day I have been in the deep; in journeyings often, in perils of waters, in perils of robbers, in perils by mine own countrymen, in perils by the heathen, in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils of the sea, in perils of false bretheren; In weariness and painfulness, in watchings often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, in cold and nakedness. Besides those things that are without, that which cometh upon me daily, the care of all the churches. Who is weak and I am not weak? Who is offended and I burn not? If I must needs glory, I will glory of the things which concerns mine infirmities.”
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The claims of tradition.

This study would not be complete unless we looked at the scriptures quoted to support the view of sickness, particularly the theory that Paul had Chronic Ophthalmia.

Halley’s Bible Handbook quotes the following:


“There are various opinions as to what this was. The view quite generally held, and to us, seems most likely to be correct, is that it was Chronic Ophthalmia, a disease of the eyes, which was not extremely painful, but at times made him look repulsive in appearance. This seems to be borne out of the language of the Epistles. It came upon Paul 14 years before he wrote this Epistle which was about the time of his entrance into Galatia, on his first missionary journey. His entrance into Galatia was occasioned by some sort of physical infirmity, Gal 4:13, so offensive in appearance that it constituted a sore trial to anyone in his presence. Gal 4:14 They would have given their own eyes, Gal 4:15, Why eyes unless that was his particular need? Paul’s customary large handwriting, Galatians 6:11, amy have been due to poor eye-sight. This may have been the reason Paul dictated his epistles to some of his helpers.”


Let’s look at these two main points, (1) The ailment mentioned in Gal 4:13-15 and (2) The “large” handwriting mentioned, and other possible reasons for these.


Here Paul speaks specifically of having a “physical infirmity”, and there is no doubt that he had some type of physical ailment that had something to do with his eyes. From this scripture we can come to three basic conclusions about this ailment.

1. Since this ailment was not specifically named and the word infirmity can mean both sickness and malady (injury), there can be no specific conclusion as to what it was specifically.

2. We can safely assume that this infirmity was healed, because there is no other mention of it in all of scripture. To follow this line of thought you would have to ask if Paul was seriously injured around this time.

3. Did something happen to Paul on his first missionary journey in Galatia. The answer is Yes.

We have to remember that Galatia is an area in the middle east that incorporates a variety of cities. Turn to Acts to see the account of his first missionary journey and your will find:


Just before entering Galatia the Jews stoned Paul to the point they though he was dead. Paul had to be a mass of bruises and welts especially around the head. The head was the main target of those doing the stoning. It is very possible that Paul was beaten so badly that his injuries made him look pitiful.

But what about the “large writing”, the scriptural answer to this is clearer than his ailment. Let’s look at some examples;


We have to remember that during the first century, writing was something not known by everyone. In fact, the Scribes and Pharisees are partnered throughout scripture, because it was the Scribes that wrote the words of the Pharisees. For Paul (a Pharisee) to be able to write was an unusual talent at that time. That is also why he and so many of the other writers had scribes to do their writing.


Because of these, I don’t believe that Paul’s thorn was a sickness or disease, and that Paul’s infirmity was most probably due to the stoning he suffered at the hands of the Jews.