2 Corinthians 11:25

11:22-33 The apostle gives an account of his labours and sufferings; not out of pride or vain-glory, but to the honour of God, who enabled him to do and suffer so much for the cause of Christ; and shows wherein he excelled the false apostles, who tried to lessen his character and usefulness. It astonishes us to reflect on this account of his dangers, hardships, and sufferings, and to observe his patience, perseverance, diligence, cheerfulness, and usefulness, in the midst of all these trials. See what little reason we have to love the pomp and plenty of this world, when this blessed apostle felt so much hardship in it. Our utmost diligence and services appear unworthy of notice when compared with his, and our difficulties and trials scarcely can be perceived. It may well lead us to inquire whether or not we really are followers of Christ. Here we may study patience, courage, and firm trust in God. Here we may learn to think less of ourselves; and we should ever strictly keep to truth, as in God's presence; and should refer all to his glory, as the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who is blessed for evermore.

Beaten with rods Roman scourgings. Stoned At Lystra, Acts 14:19. Thrice I suffered shipwreck The shipwreck at Malta, being later, is, of course, not referred to; so that no one of these three is on record. A night and a day (νυχθήμερον) A compound term occurring only here in the New Testament, and rarely in later Greek. Have I been in the deep (ἐν τῷ βυθῷ πεποίηκα) Lit., I have made (spent) a night and a day in the deep. For a similar use of ποιέω to make, see Acts 15:33; Acts 18:23; Acts 20:3; James 4:13. βυθός bottom or depth occurs only here. Of the event itself there is no record.

Thrice was I beaten with rods; this was by the pagans, for the Jews whipped malefactor with a whip which had three cords. We read of one of these times. Acts 16:23 ; and of a second, Acts 22:24 , when the captain commanded he should be so punished, but he avoided it, by pleading he was a citizen of Rome. Once was I stoned: of his stoning, read Acts 14:19 , it was by a popular tumult at Lystra. Thrice I suffered shipwreck: we read but of one time that Paul suffered shipwreck, Acts 27:18 ; which was none of the three times here mentioned, for it was after the writing of this Epistle. But though many of the acts and sufferings of this apostle were written, yet all were not. A night and a day I have been in the deep: some by the deep here understand the inner prison, mentioned Acts 16:24 , or some deep dungeon; but more probably he means, some time when, after a shipwreck, he might be put twenty-four hours to swim up and down the sea upon some broken part of the ship. It refers to some eminent danger Paul was in, of which the Scripture in no other place maketh mention particularly.

2 Corinthians 11:25 . Τρὶς ἐναυάγησα , thrice I was shipwrecked ) before the shipwreck at Melita (Malta).— ἐν τῷ βυθῷ ) ὁ βυθὸς denotes anything deep: but when it is used absolutely, the sea , especially here, as being connected with the mention of shipwrecks. The LXX. generally translate מצולה by βυθός .— ἐπόιησα ) I have spent, swimming. Many persons, who have been shipwrecked, thus contend with the waters for many hours, so that they may at last escape.

2 Corinthians 11:25 . τρὶς ἐραβδίσθην κ . τ . λ .: thrice was I beaten with rods, i.e. , “virgis caesus sum,” a Roman , as distinct from the Fewish , method of scourging—distinct too from flagellation with thongs ( Matthew 27:26 ). It was forbidden in the case of a Roman citizen by the Lex Porcia, but nevertheless St. Paul had endured it at Philippi ( Acts 16:23 ; Acts 16:37 ), and barely escaped it at Jerusalem ( Acts 22:25 ). We do not know the other two occasions alluded to.— ἅπαξ ἐλιθάσθην κ . τ . λ .: once was I stoned, i.e. , at Lystra ( Acts 14:19 , and almost at Iconium, 2 Corinthians 11:5 ), thrice I suffered shipwreck , of the circumstances of which we have no record, for the shipwreck on his voyage to Rome (Acts 27.) was subsequent to this, a night and a day have I been (there seems to be no special reason here for the perf. in preference to the aorist) in the deep , probably after one of the shipwrecks ( cf. Acts 27:44 ). For ποιεῖν with words of time cf. Acts 15:33 ; Acts 20:3 , Jam 4:13 .

Verse 25. - Thrice was I beaten with rods. This alludes to scourgings inflicted by Gentile magistrates with the vitis , or vine stick, of soldiers, or with the fasces of lictors. Only one of these horrible scourgings, which likewise often ended in death, is narrated in the Acts ( Acts 16:22 ). We do not know when the others were inflicted. In any case they were egregious violations of St. Paul's right of Roman citizenship; but this claim (as we see in Cicero's various orations) was often set at nought in the provinces. Once was I stoned . At Lystra ( Acts 14:19 ). Thrice I suffered shipwreck. Not one of these shipwrecks is narrated in the Acts. The shipwreck of Acts 27 , took place some years later. A night and a day I have been in the deep. An allusion, doubtless, to his escape from one of the shipwrecks by floating for twenty-four hours on a plank in the stormy sea. We have no right to assume that the deliverance was miraculous . The perfect tense shows St. Paul's vivid reminiscence of this special horror. "In the deep" means "floating on the deep waves." Theophylact explains the words ἐν βυθῷ to mean "in Bythos," and says that it was a place near Lystra, apparently like the Athenian Barathrum and the Spartan Caeadas - a place where the bodies of criminals were thrown. The word does not occur elsewhere in the New Testament. 2 Corinthians 11:25

25. The beating by Roman magistrates at Philippi (Ac 16:23) is the only one recorded in Acts, which does not profess to give a complete journal of his life, but only a sketch of it in connection with the design of the book, namely, to give an outline of the history of the Gospel Church from its foundation at Jerusalem, to the period of its reaching Rome, the capital of the Gentile world. once was I stoned—(Ac 14:19). thrice … shipwreck—before the shipwreck at Melita (Ac 27:44). Probably in some of his voyages from Tarsus, where he stayed for some time after his conversion, and from which, as being a seafaring place, he was likely to make missionary voyages to adjoining places (Ac 9:30; 11:25; Ga 1:21). a night and a day … in the deep—probably in part swimming or in an open boat.

25. Thrice was I beaten with rods ] See Acts 16:22-23 , and note on 2 Corinthians 11:23 . This punishment is also said frequently to have caused the death of the victim. It was inflicted by the Romans on those who did not possess the privilege of Roman citizenship, Acts 22:25 . A precisely similar scene to that in the Acts is recorded in Cicero in Verrem v. 62, where the victim is said to have uttered the well-known words, Civis Romanus sum . Cicero here invokes the ‘lex Porcia,’ by which the beating a Roman citizen with rods, which had been formerly lawful, was forbidden. See Livy, 2 Corinthians 10:9 , “gravi poena si quis verberasset necassetve civem Romanum,” and cf. Sallust, Catilina , c. 51. once was I stoned ] See Acts 14:19 . Clement of Rome, St Paul’s companion and friend ( Php 4:3 ), says in a somewhat obscure passage ( Ephesians 1:5 ) that St Paul was “ seven times imprisoned, put to flight and stoned.” thrice I suffered shipwrack ] The shipwreck related in Acts 27 is not one of these, but occurred some time afterwards. We have no other account of those referred to here. a night and a day ] The Apostle here speaks of some terrible peril, compared to which even the shipwreck related in Acts 27 was a trifling one. Probably for twenty-four hours he was exposed to the dangers of the ocean, with but a plank between him and death.

The Acts of the Apostles, we are once more constrained to remark, gives us but a scanty account of the labours and perils undergone by this undaunted soul. The word translated ‘a night and a day’ is but a single word in the original, and signifies a period of twenty-four hours, commencing with sunset. Some have thought that the expression here, ‘in the deep,’ is the same as the LXX. of Exodus 15:5 , and that St Paul went down with the ship, and was delivered by a Divine interposition. So Wiclif, Tyndale and the Geneva and Rheims versions, following the Vulgate, seem to have interpreted this passage ( in the depnesse of the see , Wiclif; in the depe of the see , Tyndale). But the expressions here and in Exodus 15:5 (LXX.) are not identical. Cranmer renders, in the deepe see . So Chrysostom, who explains it, ‘ swimming on the sea ,’ and the Syriac version, which translates, ‘without a ship in the sea.’

(25) Once was I stoned. —Here the Acts ( Acts 14:19 ) give us the solitary instance at Lystra. The accuracy of the Apostle in referring to this form of suffering, where we can compare it with the history, may fairly be urged as evidence of a like accuracy in his other statements. Thrice I suffered shipwreck.—Again we have a picture of unrecorded sufferings, which we must refer either to the period of his life between his departure from Jerusalem (Acts 9:30) and his arrival at Antioch (Acts 11:26), or to voyages among the islands of the Ægean Sea during his stay at Corinth or at Ephesus, or to that from Ephesus to Cæsarea in Acts 18:22. A night and a day I have been in the deep.—Taken in their natural sense the words probably point to one of the shipwrecks just mentioned, in which, either swimming or with the help of a plank (as in Acts 27:44), he had kept himself floating for nearly a whole day, beginning with the night. They have, however, been referred by some writers to a dungeon pit, like that into which Jeremiah was cast (Jeremiah 38:6), in which the Apostle was either thrown or hid himself after the stoning at Lystra.

Bede (Qucest. iii. 8) relates, on the authority of Archbishop Theodore of Canterbury—whose evidence, as a native of Tarsus, has here a special interest—that there was such a dungeon known by the name of Bythos (the word used here for “deep”) in his time at Cyzicus, and, if so, it is probable enough that the same use of the word may have prevailed in other cities. So at Athens there was a dungeon known as the barathron—a word used also for a “gulf.” On the whole, however, though the conjecture is interesting enough to deserve mention, there seems no adequate reason for adopting it.