2 Corinthians 12:7

The thorn in the flesh and its lessons, 7-10.

2 Corinthians 12:7. And by reason of the exceeding greatness of the revelation wherefore (the sentence starts here in a new form), that I should not be exalted overmuch, there was given unto me a thorn in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to buffet me, that I should not be exalted over-much. [1]

[1] The received text makes no such change on the construction of the sentence; it is not accepted by Tischendorf; and it is disapproved by Meyer. But the evidence for it is such as can scarcely be accounted for, if this was not the original form; whereas the greater smoothness of the received text is easily accounted for by the tendency to remove obscurities. Besides, the other repetitions in this verse seem to confirm some change of construction.

What this “thorn in the flesh” was has exercised expositors sorely, and every solution must be conjectural. Spiritual temptations, which some of the Fathers and Romish expositors have imagined, are not to be thought of. Its being “a messenger of Satan” no more implies its being spiritual in its own nature than the obstacles which repeatedly prevented the apostle from visiting Thessalonica when he longed to do so are to be regarded as in their own nature diabolical, because he ascribes them to “Satan” (1 Thessalonians 4:18). Nor can persecutions be the thing here intended, for though such are frequently referred to in his Epistles, they are never spoken of in such terms as here. Beyond all doubt it was something physical, and something involving acute pain. The word in the original [1] signifies ‘anything pointed,' a ‘stake' or ‘thorn.' The word occurs only here in the New Testament, but it is used four times in the LXX., in three of which it seems clearly to mean “thorn,” [2] and in one, probably, “a stake.” [3] In either sense, acute bodily pain is certainly meant. As for habitual sickness, sick headache, nervous trembling, and such like, these seem hardly compatible with that physical vigour which alone could have enabled the apostle to go through such exertions and endurances as are described in chap. 2 Corinthians 11:24-27. Two things seem to bring us a little nearer to it. Evidently it was something visible to others, and, as we shall see, the reverse of attractive. This suggests what has seemed to many, taken in connection with hints here and there, to point to acute inflammation of the eyes. And though one of the grounds on which this conjecture has sometimes been supported (the readiness of the Galatians to have “plucked out their own eyes and given to” their father in the faith, Galatians 4:15) is too far-fetched to have any real weight, a good deal may be said in support of it. The one thing which seems to point to something more extreme than this is, that the apostle himself describes it as something loathsome. To the credit of the Galatians he records it that “their temptation which was in his flesh [4] they despised not nor rejected;” but the Greek is (as in the margin of the Revised Version) ‘spat out;' and it is difficult to suppose' that mere inflammation of the eyes, however acute, would have been so described. This has led to the conjecture that epilepsy is what is here described. But that any such deplorable complaint appeared at Corinth, Ephesus, Jerusalem, or any important sphere of his labours, can hardly be supposed, consistently with no clear hint of it occurring either in the Acts or the Epistles. No doubt, this is so intermittent a complaint, that there are well-known cases of its non-occurrence from childhood onwards for forty years, and then breaking out; and it is conceivable that this occurred to the apostle when he was in Galatia. But we can hardly think this at all probable. We are constrained, therefore, to leave the question as we found it, in the region of pure conjecture. The one thing about it which is certain is its galling, humiliating effect, to express which he calls it “a messenger of Satan to buffet him.” This last word may point to the intermittent nature of the complaint, as some think; but the trial to him, which he bitterly felt it to be, evidently arose from its tendency to prejudice his hearers against him, and so against his ministry. To the Galatians he calls it “their temptation which was in his flesh,” and the very commendation which he bestows on them for rising above it, shews how he felt it to stand naturally in his way, and as such he regarded it as “a messenger of Satan,” subserving his interests.

[1] σκόλοψ

[2] Hosea 2:6; Ezekiel 28:24; Numbers 33:55. See on this whole subject Lightfoot's learned note, in his “Galatians;” Schaff's Excursus, in his “Galatians,” in the present Commentary; and Waite's “Second Corinthians,” chap. 12, in Speaker's Commentary (additional note).

[3] Syr. xliii. 19.

[4] This, which is undoubtedly the true reading, renders the statement clearer.

So much did this sore trial exercise him, that he betook himself to prayer about it.