Albert Barnes Commentary 2 Corinthians 11:24

"Of the Jews five times received I forty [stripes] save one." — 2 Corinthians 11:24 (ASV)

Of the Jews, etc. On this verse and the following verse it is important to make a few preliminary remarks before explaining the phrases.

1. It is admitted that the particulars here referred to cannot be extracted from the Acts of the Apostles. A few can be identified, but there are many more instances referred to here than are specified in Acts.
2. This proves that this epistle was not framed from the history, but that they were written independently of each other. —Paley.
3. Yet they are not inconsistent with each other. For there is no item in the list here that is contradicted by the history; and the history, though silent regarding many of these transactions, has left space enough to suppose that they might have occurred.
   1. There is no contradiction between the accounts. Where Paul says that he was beaten with rods three times, though in Acts only one such beating is mentioned, there is no contradiction. It is only the omission to record all that occurred to Paul. But had the history, says Paley, contained an account of four beatings with rods, while Paul mentions here but three, there would have been a contradiction. The same applies to the other details.
   2. Though the Acts of the Apostles is silent concerning many of the instances referred to, yet that silence may be accounted for by the plan and design of the history. The date of this epistle synchronizes with the beginning of the twentieth chapter of Acts. Therefore, the part preceding the twentieth chapter is the only section where any record of the transactions Paul refers to here might be found. And it is evident from Acts that the author of that history was not with Paul until his departure from Troas, as related in Acts 16:10 (see Barnes on Acts 16:10).
   3. The period of time after Paul’s conversion until Luke joined him at Troas is very briefly covered. That period embraced sixteen years and is contained in a few chapters. Yet in that time Paul was constantly traveling. He went to Arabia, returned to Damascus, went to Jerusalem, and then to Tarsus; and from Tarsus to Antioch, and from there to Cyprus, and then through Asia Minor, and so on. In this time he must have made many voyages and been exposed to many perils. Yet all this is covered in a few chapters, and a considerable portion of them is occupied with an account of public discourses. In that period of sixteen years, therefore, there was ample opportunity for all the occurrences to which Paul refers here. See Paley's Horae Paulinae on 2 Corinthians, No. IX.
   4. I may add, that from the account that follows the time when Luke joined him at Troas , it is altogether probable that he had endured much before. After that time, there is mention of just such transactions of scourging, stoning, and so on, as are specified here, and it is altogether probable that he had been called to suffer them before. When Paul says, Of the Jews, and so on, he refers to this specific point because this was a Jewish mode of punishment. It was customary for them to inflict only thirty-nine blows. The Gentiles were not limited by law in the number they inflicted.

Five times. This was doubtless in their synagogues and before their courts of justice. They did not have the power of capital punishment, but they did have the power of inflicting minor punishments. And though the instances are not specified by Luke in Acts, Paul’s statement here has every degree of probability. We know that he often preached in their synagogues (Acts 9:20; Acts 13:5, 14, 15; Acts 14:1; Acts 17:17; Acts 18:4); and it is highly probable that they would have been enraged against him and would have vented their malice in every way possible. They regarded him as an apostate and a ringleader of the Nazarenes, and they would not have failed to inflict on him the severest punishment they were permitted to.

Forty stripes save one. The word stripes does not occur in the original Greek but is necessarily understood. The law of Moses (Deuteronomy 25:3) expressly limited the number of stripes that could be inflicted to forty. In no case could this number be exceeded. This was a humane provision, and one that was not found among the Gentiles, who inflicted any number of blows at their discretion.

Unhappily, this is not observed among professedly Christian nations where the practice of whipping prevails, particularly in slave countries, where the master inflicts any number of blows as he pleases. In practice among the Hebrews, the number of blows inflicted was, in fact, limited to thirty-nine, lest, by any accident in counting, the criminal should receive more than the number prescribed in the law. There was yet another reason for limiting it to thirty-nine. They usually used a scourge with three thongs, and this scourge was struck thirteen times. That it was customary to inflict only thirty-nine lashes is apparent from Josephus, Antiquities, Book IV, Chapter 8, Section 21.