I Appeal To Caesar!

Paul Barnett makes this comment about the “thorn”: “… the difficulty is that skolops was used both for a ‘stake’ and for a ‘thorn.’ By derivation it meant ‘what is pointed,’ hence a ‘stake,’ and was referred to at the time as for example, an instrument of torture or execution….” The Second Epistle to the Corinthians, p. 569. The ESV Study Bible , p. 2238: “The nature of this ‘thorn’ or ‘messenger’ is much disputed. The most frequently proposed possibilities: (1) Paul’s inner psychological struggles, (2) Paul’s opponents, (3) some kind of physical affliction.” The Jeremiah Study Bible: “In the face of the thorn that remained, Paul did not bemoan his state. Rather, he cultivated a new attitude, recognizing that what was weak in him served to magnify what was strong in God. God always allows those who are weak to be channels of His great power.” P. 1615. Author’s Comment: No one knows exactly what the thorn was. It does seem to me that the greatest mistake of Paul’s life (persecuting the Body of Christ) became the greatest sorrow of his life, driving him to reach as many as possible and expand the Church as much as possible. Like Hosea the Prophet who married a wayward woman and was then able to identify with the feelings of God for wayward Israel, Paul’s life was bonded to God’s love for His people. I have expressed that losing his wife was a constant reminder to Paul of how he (Paul) had punished God’s bride. Paul’s memory of his villainous life was “a thorn” that could not be removed—even if the thorn referred to was some physical handicap. P. 10 Paul was called of God to reach the Gentiles , i.e., the non-Jewish peoples of the world. He explains this in Romans 15:14-32, citing as a key verse to explain his position — Isaiah 52:15 (LXX): “They shall see who have never been told of him, and they shall understand who have never heard of him.” You could say this was his “Mission Statement.” Endnotes for Chapter 9, The Mountain P . 5 Mt Sinai. From The Zondervan Pictorial Encyclopedia of the Bible , Vol.5, p. 448: “Since the 4 th cent., the more or less continuous Christian tradition has been that Mt. Sinai is represented by what is now called Jebel Musa