The Pulpit Commentary — 2 Corinthians — Section 267

22. etc.; Rom. ix. 4; xi. l). The 1eed or martyrdom? Had St. Paul, In hie humblo Abraham. Alike literally and spiritue.lly reticence, never cared to speak of them? or (see John viii. 33-58; Rom. ix. 7; xi. I). were the Acts only intended for 11, sketoh It me.y eeem strange that St. Paul ehould which made no pretonei.on to oompletonees, hnve found it necesea.ry to me.ke this ste.te- and only related carte.in scenes and events by ment; but his Tarsian birth and Rome.n "1ay of specimen o.nd example? Forty stripes franchise may have led to whispered in- save one (Deut. xxv. 3). On this instance nuendoes which took form long afterwards of Jewish scrupulosity, and for all tho.t is in the wild calumny that he was a Gentile known of the rationale of Jewisluoourginge, who had only got himself circumcised in soe ' Life of St. Paul,' ttbi supra. order that he might mRrry the high priest's Ver. 25.-Thrioe was I bee.ten with rods. daughter (Epiphan., • Hmr.,' x:a:. 16). This alludes to scourgiugs inflicted by Ver. 23.-I speak as a fool. Not merely Gentile magistrates with the 1/itiB, or vine- as before aphron, but paraphronon, " I speak stick, of soldiers, or with the fasces of liotors. as a madman." It is downright insanity Only one of these horrible scourgings, which on my part to enter into this contest of liktJwise often ended in death, is no.mi.ted rival egotidm. The verb does not occur in the .Acts (xvi. 22). We do not know when elsewhere in the New Testament; the sub- the others were inflicted. In any oase they stantive is used of•• downright infatuation" were egregious violations of St. Paul's right in 2 Pet. ii. 16. I am more. I may claim of Roman citizenship; but this claim (as we to be something beyond an ord.ine.ry servant eee in Cioero's various oratious) WM often set of Christ (comp. eh. id. 5). This is the at nought in the provinces. 0noe was I "frantic" boast which he proceeds to stoned. At Lystra (Acts xiv. 19). Thrioe justify in a fragment of biography which I sufferec!. shipwreok. Not one of these must ever be accounted as the most remark- shipW?ecks is narrated in the Acts. The able and unique in the world's history. And shipW?eck of Acts· xxvii. took ple.oe some when St. Paul lived the life was, as Dean years later. A night and a day I have Stanley says, "hitherto without precedent been in the deep. An allusion, doubtlesij, in the llistory of the world." No subsequent to bis escape from one of the shipwrecks by life of saint or martyr has ever surpassed floating for twenty-fonr houre on a plank in St. Paul's, as here sketched, in self-devotion; the stormy sea. We have no right to assume and no pre~ious life even remotely resembled that the deliverance was miraculous. The it. The figure of the Christian missionary perfect tense shows St. Paul's vivid remini- w:u;, nntil then, unlmown. In labours more scence of this special horror. "In the deep" ablllldant ; literally, more abwndanay. The means "floating on the deep waves." Theo- best comment is I Cor. xv. 10. In stripes phy lact explains the words 111 {Ju6,j to mean above measure. The expression is partly " in Bythos,'' and says that it was a place explained in the next verse. In prisons. near Lystra, apparently like the Athenian St. Clement of Rome says that St. Paul was Barathrum and the Spartan Cmadas-a place imprisoned seven times. The ocly imprison- where the bodies of criminals were thrown. ment up to this date recorded in the Acts The word does not occur elsewhere in the is that at Philippi (Acts xvi 23). Theim- New Testament. prisonments in JerUJ!alem, Cresarea, and Ver. 26.-In journeyings often. In those Rome all took placelater. He says later," The days and in those countries journeys were Holy Ghost wi.tnesseth in every city that not only periloW:1 and fatiguing, but also bouds and imprisonment await me" (Acts xx. accompanied with many severe hardships and 23). In dee.the oft. He alludes to the discomforts. In perils of waters ; rather, of incessant opposition. peril, and anguish rif!era. In all couutries which, like parts of which make him say in 1 Cor. xv. 31, "I Greece and Asia Minor, abound in unbridged die daily " (comp. eh. iv. 11 ; Rom. viii. mountain torrents, journeys are constantly ::16). With the whole pe.sse.ge we may com- accompanied by deatlls from drowning iu the pare eh. vi. 4, 5. sudden rush of swollen streams. In perils Ver. :!4.-Five times. Not one of these of robbers. Then, ea now, brigandage Willi Jewish scourgings-which yet were so severe exceedingly common in the mountains ol tho.t tile sufferer often died nnder them-is Greece and Asia. In perils from mine own mentioned in the Acts. This paro.g1:aph is oountrymen; literally, from my race. These the most striking proof of the complete fro.g- are abundantly recorded in the New Testa- meutariness of that narrative, marvellous ment (Acts ix. 23, 29; xiii. 59; xiv. 5, 19; 3.8 it is. On the circumetances wllich xx. 3, etc. ; 1 These. ii. 15, 16; Phil. iii. 2). probably led to these Jewish scourgings, see P'rom the heathen. They were generally • Life of St. Po.ul,' exc. xi ; and comp. insti']ated by the Jews (Acts xvi. 19-39, Acts xxii.. 19; xxvi. 11 ; Me.tL xxiii 34. Tho xvii. 5; xi.x. 23-34, etc.). In the oity. .A.a question arises-Was St. Luke entirely un• at Damascus, Jerusalem, Philippi, Thessa- 11,ware of o.11 these scenes of anguish and daily lonica, Berwa, Ephesus, etc.-" in every OIi. XI, 1-33.] nm sgcoND EPISTLE TO THE CORINTHIANS. 267