THORN IN THE FLESH (σκόλοψ τῇ σαρκί; in NT and papyri—thorn or sharply pointed sliver for or in the flesh; in classical Gr. also a pointed stake for impaling).

The figure is used (2 Cor 12:7) for a vexatious irritation that troubled Paul. It apparently “was given” to him as late as “the abundance of revelations” and was continuous or repeated, as is indicated by the present tense of “buffet.” Though the people of Corinth, no doubt, knew the nature of his humiliating problem, that knowledge has been lost for nearly two millenia. Many views have been suggested, largely reflecting the trials that beset the interpreters.

Early conjectures related this passage to Paul’s bodily ailment (Gal 4:13). Severe headaches, epilepsy, and ophthalmia are among the more persistent suggestions. Times of severe persecution brought the idea of persecutor (Chrysostom, Augustine, Theodore of Mopsuestia, Theodoret, and Theophylact). The Lat. rendering, stimulus carnis, gave support to the ascetic idea of fleshly longings. Reformers thought of temptations to spiritual ineffectiveness. Nearly all recent commentators support the theory of physical malady. Ramsay adds malaria to the leading options. Mullins, on the other hand, presents a convincing argument from the context and from Jewish lit. for the view that the “thorn” was a person, an enemy.

Bibliography J. Lightfoot, The Epistles of St. Paul to the Galatians (1865), 186-191; W. Ramsay, St. Paul the Traveller and the Roman Citizen (1896), 94-97; T. Mullins, “Paul’s Thorn in the Flesh,” JBL, LXXVI (1957), 299-303; P. Hughes, Commentary on the Second Epistle to the Corinthians (1962), 442-448.