Now, in some constitutions malaria fever tends to recur
g6 Foundation of the Churches of Galatia. Chap. V
in very distressing and prostrating paroxysms, whenever one's energies are taxed for a great effort. Such an attack is for the time absolutely incapacitating : the sufferer can only lie and feel himself a shaking and helpless weakling, when he ought to be at work. He feels a contempt and loathing for self, and believes that others feel equal con- tempt and loathing.
Charles Reade's hero could at least retire to his room, and lock the door, and conceal his weakness from others ; but, in the publicity of Oriental life, Paul could have no privacy. In every paroxysm, and they might recur daily, he would lie exposed to the pity or the contempt of strangers. If he were first seen in a Galatian village, or house, lying in the mud on the shady side of a wall for two hours shaking like an aspen leaf, the gratitude that he expresses to the Galatians, because they " did not despise nor reject his infirmity," was natural and deserved.
Fresh light is thrown on this subject by an observation of Mr. Hogarth, my companion in many journeys. In publishing a series of inscriptions recording examples of punishment inflicted by the God on those who had approached the sanctuary in impurity, he suggests that malarial fever was often the penalty sent by the God. The paroxysms, recurring suddenly with overpowering strength, and then passing off, seemed to be due to the direct visita- tion of God. This gives a striking effect to Paul's words in Gal. IV 14, " you did not despise nor reject my physical infirmity, but received me as an angel of God " : though the Galatians might have turned him away from their door as a person accursed and afflicted by God, they received him as God's messenger. The obvious implication of this passage has led many to the view that Paul's malady was
Sec. 2. The " Thorn in the Flesh ". 97
epilepsy, which was also attributed to the direct visitation of God.
A strong corroboration is found in the phrase : " a stake in the flesh," which Paul uses about his malady (II Cor. XII 7). That is the peculiar headache which accompanies the paroxysms : v/ithin my experience several persons, innocent of Pauline theorising, have described it as " like a red-hot bar thrust through the forehead ". As soon as fever con- nected itself with Paul in my mind, the "stake in the flesh" impressed me as a strikingly illustrative metaphor ; and the oldest tradition on the subject, quoted by Tertullian and others, explains the " stake in the flesh " as headache.
The malady was a " messenger of Satan ". Satan seems to represent in Pauline language any overpowering obstacle to his work, an obstacle which it was impossible to struggle against : so Satan prevented him from returning to Thessalonica, in the form of an ingenious obstacle, which made his return impossible for the time (p. 230). The words " messenger sent to buffet me," imply that it came frequently and unexpectedly, striking him down with the power of the Enemy.
The idea that the malady was an affection of the eyes, resulting from blinding at his conversion, seems inadequate in itself, unsuitable to his own words, and contradicted by the evidence as to the power of his eyes (p. 38).
Paul describes the malady as sent to prevent him from " being exalted overmuch by reason of the exceeding greatness of the revelations " which had been granted to him ; and he clearly implies that it came later than the great revelation, when " he was caught up even to the third heaven " about 43 A.D. (p. 60). The malady certainly did not begin long before this journey; and the attack in Pam- phylia may perhaps have been the first
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98 Foundation of the Churches of Galatia. Chap. V.