The Cost of Revelation: Paul’s thorn in the flesh and
Jacob’s Hip (2 Cor 12)
Recently, I
was considering Paul’s thorn in the flesh. We don’t know what it is of course.
Ralph Martin in his 2014 revision of his Word Commentary on 2 Corinthians notes
these possibilities.
1.
Opponents
(Chrysostom, Martin).
2.
Sexual
temptation (Medieval thinkers from Gregory the Great to Aquinas)
3.
Spiritual
temptation (Calvin, Luther, and other Reformers)
4.
Agony
that people reject the gospel (Menoud)
5.
Suffering
from his rejection as an apostle (McCant)
6.
A
pain in the ear or head (Tertullian, Jerome, Pelagius)
7.
An
eye-condition (commonly, e.g. Witherington)
8.
Epilepsy
(Lightfoot)
9.
Malaria
(Ramsay)
10.
Nervous
disorder (Clavier)
11.
Defective
speech (Clark, Barrett)
In my view, as it is referred to as a weakness or illness (astheneia)
in v. 9, I suspect it is not something external but some physical or psychological
hindrance. Hence, I have grouped the possibilities 6–11 together. It may be
linked to the criticism of his opponents referred to in 2 Cor 10:10: “his
physical presence is weak (asthenēs) and his speech is of no account.”
If so, it is likely something observable to others. It could be a speech
impediment like stuttering, or, some form of disability observable to others. In
a world where imperfections were often attributed to a person’s sin and
enamored with perfection of form, Paul’s opponents may have used this in
various ways to demean him.
Whatever it was, and God alone truly knows, what interests me in this
blog is not the exact nature of the thorn, but its relationship to his spiritual
revelation and a comparison that can be arguably made with Jacob.
Paul’s suffering from the thorn is
placed after his amazing visionary experience of 2 Corinthians 12:1–6. The passage
is a part of Paul’s boast against his opponents. They are clearly Jewish people
who value greatly spiritual experience. Paul’s boast is ironical. He does not
like boasting other than in Christ (2 Cor 10:17), but, as his opponents are
boastful and demeaning him, he turns their tactics back on them. In 2 Cor 11:16 taking on
the foolishness of boasting, he boasts of his Jewish descent (11:22) and his suffering
as he serves Christ (11:23–33).
Despite there being nothing
gained by boasting, he goes on. He turns to his spiritual experiences. He uses
the third person to distance himself from the person in mind who is clearly himself.
He speaks of an experience some fourteen years prior (ca. AD 43 [M. Harris]) in
which he was caught up into the heavens and heard unimaginable things. We can
only speculate on what he experienced, but it was clearly amazing.
In 2 Cor 12:7, Paul speaks of his
thorn. It is given to keep him from being arrogant (NET) because of this
amazing spiritual experience. He interprets it as a messenger (angelos)
of Satan. For Paul,
its origin and cause are demonic. Despite Paul thrice asking God to remove it,
God refused, telling him that his grace was sufficient and that his power would
be made perfect in Paul’s weakness. God’s power is seen in him, despite this
problem.
One can say then that Paul, the
price of his amazing spiritual experience is God striking him through Satan to
cause him suffering that is ongoing. God deemed it important to strike him with a weakness to ensure he did not fall prey to the arrogance that can come to those
who genuinely believe that God has gifted them with an experience other people have
not had. This type of spiritual arrogance is frequent among the greatly gifted
of God’s people (a warning to us who have such experiences to remain humble and
not think of ourselves more highly than we ought).
This all made me think of Jacob and his experience of God near the ford
of the Jabbok in Gen 32:22–32). In this memorable event, Jacob was alone by the
river. A man came and wrestled with him. The man was unable to defeat Jacob, so
touched Jacob’s hip causing it to be put out of joint. Jacob would still not let
the man go despite him asking him to do so. On the basis of his contention with
the man, he renamed Jacob “Israel,” meaning “He fights with God” or “God fights.”
Jacob sought the man’s name, but he refused. The place was named Peniel (face
of God). As a result of this, Jews do not eat the sinew of the thigh on the hip
socket. For Jacob, then, the price of his experience of God was a dislocation of
his hip.
It seems that when one has a dramatic spiritual experience, it can be
costly. In Paul’s case, it cost him some sort of ongoing suffering to keep him
humble. For Jacob, he had a dislocated hip. Jesus, of course, had strings of
spiritual experiences such as his baptism and Transfiguration. They cost him his
life. Spiritual experiences are interesting and great; yet, they can come with
a cost.
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