Fire On Your Head

I have never watched people live in defeat from misunderstanding a passage as much as this one misinterpreted passage of Scripture. Of course I’m talking about how people try telling themselves that God gave them a thorn just like Paul’s, which I politely hope to show is terrible misinterpretation of Scripture.

It is not disputed that Paul may have had an eye problem in his older age. Numerous scholars and theologians teach this, and research can be found easily on the internet I would imagine. However, it would be bad exegesis to use the passage where Paul talks of a thorn in his flesh to arrive at that conclusion. This passage teaches nothing of the sort, and I hope to unravel a few common traditional thoughts that are tied to it.

This will be the first of three posts, because I favor writing in a series as opposed to really long blog posts.  In general, our study will follow like such : 1) what the thorn was, 2) what God’s reaction was when Paul sought to have it removed,  and 3) and why this subject even matters at all.  I basically will break it down and ask questions, sometimes rhetorical, based on observations on the text.  In a way, I’ve been leading up to this study with my entries on faith as of late.  It seemed natural and obvious to flow into the subject of healing after laying down some of those foundations first.

The text I’m referring to is 2 Corinthians 12:7-10:
So to keep me from becoming conceited because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations, a thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to harass me, to keep me from becoming conceited.  Three times I pleaded with the Lord about this, that it should leave me. But he said to me,  “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me.  For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong. (English Standard Version)

Word study:

First word:
“Thorn” Strong’s number 4647 “skolops”, meaning “withered at the front, that is, a point or prickle (figuratively a bodily annoyance or disability): – thorn.” (emphasis mine)

Something figurative cannot necessarily be treated as literal in the Word of God. For example, texts in the Psalms refer to God being a strong tower (Psa 61:3), also to take shelter in the shadow of His wings (Psa 91:1), and Jesus said “I am the Bread of Life” (John 6:35) which would not literally mean God is a concrete loaf of bread that has wings! But this use of the word skolops means it can be referred to as a bodily annoyance.

Other instances of it being used in Scripture can give an idea of what is likely to be meant.

Joshua 23:12-13: “But if you turn away and ally yourselves with the survivors of these nations that remain among you and if you intermarry with them and associate with them, then you may be sure that the LORD your God will no longer drive out these nations before you. Instead, they will become snares and traps for you, whips on your backs and thorns in your eyes, until you perish from this good land, which the LORD your God has given you.”

In this context, the ‘thorn’ has a negative connotation, and is a source of pain and annoyance as a result of failing to drive out the nations in the land Israel is possessing. Thorns are a result of disobedience. God here allowed them, but was not the author or originator of the whips on their back or thorns in their eyes–it was their disobedience and this would be a reminder to them perpetually in generations to come.

Ezekiel 28:24: ” No longer will the people of Israel have malicious neighbors who are painful briers and sharp thorns. Then they will know that I am the Sovereign LORD .”

Again notice that the Lord promises at one point to remove this thorn. And in both texts used so far, thorns are referred to as people–both in the sense that they are ‘enemies’ of God’s people. For other examples, please look at Isaiah 55:13, Hosea 10:8, Micah 7:4.

Our next word to look at will demonstrate why I personally don’t accept that God was the one who gave Paul the thorn. I’ve had someone tell me recently “if God or Paul wanted us to know what the thorn was, we would have been told so.” Well, if we read the text we can find out it was a ‘messenger of Satan’.

Second Word:
“Messenger [of Satan]“ Strong’s number 32 aggelos: “a messenger; especially an “angel”; by implication a pastor: – angel, messenger.”

First observation: the messenger is clearly stated as being from SATAN. That’s reason enough to conclude that God didn’t put this thorn in Paul’s side!
Second observation about the messenger: it’s a person or angel, and clearly NOT a disease.

This Greek word aggelos appears 188 times in the Bible and is translated “angel” 181 times, and “messenger” the other 7 times.  In all 188 instances, it is a person and not a noun or a thing, without any exception.

Examples of this word being used in Scripture–and translated differently you will notice–will demonstrate what Paul is saying and referring to. The times that the word aggelos is translated as messenger, are verses such as Matt 10:11, Mark 1:2, Luke 7:27 which invariably say “Behold, I send my messenger (aggelos) before your face, who will prepare your way before you.”
But notice how it’s translated in Matthew 25:31: “When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels (aggelos) with him, then he will sit on his glorious throne.”

Consider that the thorn was not a physical disease, but a personal figure. The same with a Messenger of Satan. It’s now twice as easy to understand what Paul was dealing with since we are told two things, not just one. The second qualifies the first.
We learn from this word study and the literal definition is either an angel or it’s implied in the Greek that it could mean a pastor. From reading the context we see Paul is in no way talking about a physical problem, but after reading chapter 11, we’re more inclined to see how he could likely be referring to persecution.

Alternative Explanation

“For if someone comes to you and preaches a Jesus other than the Jesus we preached, or if you receive a different spirit from the one you received, or a different gospel from the one you accepted, you put up with it easily enough. But I do not think I am in the least inferior to those “superapostles”…And I will keep on doing what I am doing in order to cut the ground from under those who want an opportunity to be considered equal with us in the things they boast about. For such men are false apostles, deceitful workmen, masquerading as apostles of Christ. And no wonder, for Satan himself masquerades as an angel of light. It is not surprising, then, if his servants masquerade as servants of righteousness. Their end will be what their actions deserve. “ 2 Cor 11:4-5, 12-15

For almost all of the rest of chapter 11 Paul lists all sorts of things he’s been through as an apostle, such as shipwrecks, imprisonments, etc… Of all the things Paul mentions, not one of them is a sickness or perpetual infirmity (ie, like the eye problem many teach he may have had), but the physical things he mentions in this list are things like beatings, floggings, and fastings.

So with that flow of thought in mind, and after pouring his heart of love out in writing to the Corinthians about his concern, would Paul really suddenly refer to a disease or sickness in an abstract way that has nothing to do with what he’s been talking about? I highly doubt it. Paul’s thorn is popularly taught to be an eye problem, ophthalmia–I don’t dispute whether he had such a problem because there’s credible evidence elsewhere in Scripture that he might have, but I believe this text isn’t one that supports it. I submit to you for consideration, based on the evidence I’ve provided so far, that the thorn was in fact more likely to be a person–maybe a false apostle, or an angelic figure (demon) and judging from reading statements he peppers 1 and 2 Corinthians with–that this person or these people were false messengers of the Gospel who likely were hindering Paul’s Gospel work and scattering his flock.

Also, does God give revelation to us and then change His mind and beat us half to death because He gave us too much? If the revelation of the things of God were what caused him to get the thorn, to keep him from becoming too conceited, why would God have given him or allowed Paul to obtains such ‘greatness of revelation in the first place? Why would God then turn around and then say “oops, I accidentally gave you too much knowledge and revelation–have this thorn in your side“? There are lots of things God can use to keep people from being too highly exalted, but the following texts show it was not God who orchestrated this in Paul’s life or in his physical body.

In my next entry, I will discuss why God’s response to Paul in v.9-10 is not an indication that God wanted Paul to have the thorn, and what we can do in our own situations like Paul’s to be over comers in the midst of our own ‘thorns’.

If this post has been beneficial to you, you may enjoy our podcast show where we discuss Paul’s thorn in the flesh and kill some sacred cows in the process:

Paul’s Thorn in The Flesh
Download mp3 (right click and save)