Thorn In The Flesh

Holman Bible Dictionary

 2 Corinthians 12:7

flesh” has been the subject of many speculations. Guesses ranging from epilepsy (a popular conjecture of classical liberalism, which sought to offer rational explanations for Paul's visionary experiences, especially his conversion), malaria (because of its prevalence in some of the regions of Paul's ministry), and eye disease (because of the unusual metaphorical expression in  Galatians 4:15 ) have been suggested.

A more acceptable solution, however, relates to the context of  2 Corinthians 12:1-10 where “thorn in the flesh” parallels both “messenger of Satan” in   2 Corinthians 12:7 and the “weaknesses,” “insults,” “distresses,” “persecutions,” and “difficulties” of   2 Corinthians 12:10 . The Old Testament use of the term thorn also offers some help. In   Numbers 33:55;  Ezekiel 28:24 we read of enemies who are “thorns” in Israel's side, a constant harassment to Israel as the agent of the Lord's redemptive judgments (compare   Joshua 23:13;  Hosea 2:6 ).

Therefore, in  2 Corinthians 12:7 , “thorn in the flesh” refers more to the enemy, the “messenger of Satan,” than to any specific physical ailment. The “messenger of Satan” was a redemptive judgment (as Israel's enemies were also used) of God upon Paul “to keep me from exalting myself.” Thus Paul's entire apostolic experience of suffering (compare  2 Corinthians 1:3-11;  2 Corinthians 4:7-5:10;  2 Corinthians 6:1-10;  2 Corinthians 7:2-7;  2 Corinthians 11:16-33 ), abetted by Satan and operative through the evils of this world, was the “messenger of Satan,” a “thorn in the flesh,” which God gave and used to keep the great apostle humbly obedient. Paul could truly say that he was an earthen vessel ( 2 Corinthians 4:7 ), one who shared the sufferings of Christ ( 2 Corinthians 1:5 ), so that the life of Jesus might be manifested through his very mortality ( 2 Corinthians 4:11 ); “for when I am weak, then I am strong” ( 2 Corinthians 12:10 NIV).

Robert Sloan

Easton's Bible Dictionary

Another view which has been maintained is that this "thorn" consisted in an infirmity of temper, to which he occasionally gave way, and which interfered with his success (Compare  Acts 15:39;  23:2-5 ). If we consider the fact, "which the experience of God's saints in all ages has conclusively established, of the difficulty of subduing an infirmity of temper, as well as the pain, remorse, and humiliation such an infirmity is wont to cause to those who groan under it, we may be inclined to believe that not the least probable hypothesis concerning the 'thorn' or 'stake' in the flesh is that the loving heart of the apostle bewailed as his sorest trial the misfortune that, by impatience in word, he had often wounded those for whom he would willingly have given his life" (Lias's Second Cor., Introd.).

Copyright Statement These dictionary topics are from M.G. Easton M.A., DD Illustrated Bible Dictionary, Third Edition, published by Thomas Nelson, 1897. Public Domain.

Bibliography Information Easton, Matthew George. Entry for 'Thorn in the Flesh'. Easton's Bible Dictionary. https://www.studylight.org/dictionaries/eng/ebd/t/thorn-in-the-flesh.html. 1897.

Morrish Bible Dictionary

This was something that Satan was allowed to inflict on Paul, not because of any fault he had committed, but lest he should be puffed up on account of his having been caught up into the third heaven.  2 Corinthians 12:7-10 .Apparently it was something that made him contemptible in the eyes ofhis fleshly opponents. See  2 Corinthians 10:10;  2 Corinthians 11:30;  Galatians 4:13,14 .

Hastings' Dictionary of the New Testament

See Paul.

Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature

( Σκόλοψ Τῇ Σαρκί ) , an infliction ("a messenger of Satan to buffet me" ) mentioned by Paul as an offset to his extraordinary revelations ( 2 Corinthians 12:7). The expression has called forth very many, and some very absurd, conjectures (see the commentators, ad loc.), which may be resolved into the following heads, the first two of which are, from the nature of the case, out of the question:

1. Spiritual Temptations. — Many have thought that the apostle refers to diabolical solicitations ("interjectiones Satanse"), such as blasphemous thoughts (so Gerson, Luther, Calovius), or remorse for his former life (Osiander, Mosheim, etc.), or-according to Romish interpreters who seek a precedent for monkish legends incitements to lust (so Thomas Aquinas, Lyra, Bellarmine, Estius, Corn. a Lapide, etc.). These are all negatived, not only by their intrinsic improbability, but by the qualification "in the flesh."

2. Personal Hostility. — This we know Paul frequently experienced, especially from Judaizing sectaries, and hence this explanation has been seized upon by many ancient interpreters (e.g. Chrysostom, Theophylact, (Ecumenius, Theodoret), as well as later ones (Calvin, Beza, etc.) and moderns (Fritzsche, Schrader, etc.). But this, too, could hardly with propriety be called a "fleshly" affliction.

3. Bodily Pain. This view has been adopted by very many, who differ, however, as to the particular ailment. The ancients (Chrysostom, Theophylact, AEcumenius, Jerome, On  Galatians 4:14) mention Headache, but without assigning any special ground for the conjecture. Some have supposed hypochondriacal Melancholy, which, however hardly answers the conditions of a Σκόλοψ , whereby Acute suffering seems to be implied. So of other speculations, for which see Poll Synopsis, ad loc.

On the whole (remarks Alford, ad loc.), putting together the figure here used, that of a thorn (or a pointed stake, for so Σκόλοψ primarily signifies see Xenoph. Anab. 5, 2, 5]), occasioning pain, and the Κολαφισμός , or Buffeting (i.e. perhaps Putting To Shame ) , it seems quite necessary to infer that the apostle alludes to some distressing and tedious bodily malady, which at the same time caused him mortification before those among whom he exercised his ministry. Of such a kind May have been the disorder in his eyes, more or less indicated in several passages of his history (see  Acts 13:9;  Acts 23:1 sq.;  Galatians 4:14;  Galatians 6:11). But as affections of the eyes, however sad in their consequences, are not usually (certainly not to all appearance in the apostle's case) very painful or distressing in themselves, they hardly come up to the intense meaning of the phrase. Paul was therefore probably troubled with some internal disease of which the marks were evinced only in languor and physical anguish. There are few who do not thus "bear about in their body" some token of mortal frailty.

See, in addition to the monographs cited by Volbeding, Index Programmatum, p. 81; and by Danz, Wourerb. p. 567, Bagot, Thorn in the Flesh (Lond. 1840); Princeton Review, July, 1863. (See Paul).

International Standard Bible Encyclopedia

thôrn ( σκόλοψ τῇ σαρκί , skólops tḗ sarkı́ ): Paul thus characterizes some bodily ailment which afflicted him and impaired his usefulness (  2 Corinthians 12:7 ). The data are insufficient to enable us to ascertain its real nature, and all the speculations on the point are therefore inconclusive. All that we are told is that it was a messenger of Satan; that thereby he was beaten as with a fist, which might be figurative or actual; that it rendered his bodily presence unattractive. It appears that the infirmity recurred, for thrice he sought deliverance; but, by the help of God, he was able to glory in it. Sir W. Ramsay sees in it some form of recurring malarial fever. It was something that disabled him ( Galatians 4:12-15 ); hence, Farrar supposes that it was ophthalmia, from the reference to his eyes, from his inability to recognize the high priest ( Acts 23:5 ), from his employing amanuenses to write his epistles, and his writing the Galatian letter in large characters with his own hand ( Galatians 6:11 ). Krenkel has at great length argued that it was epilepsy, and thereby endeavors to account for his trances and his falling to the earth on his way to Damascus, but his work is essentially a special pleading for a foregone conclusion, and Paul would not have called his visions "a messenger of Satan." It is also beside the question to heap up instances of other distinguished epileptics. On the whole Farrar's theory is the most probable.

It is probably only a coincidence that "pricks in your eyes" Septuagint skólopes ) are mentioned in   Numbers 33:55 . Any pedestrian in Palestine must be familiar with the ubiquitous and troublesome thorny shrubs and thistles which abound there.