Expositor's Bible Commentary Commentary 2 Corinthians 11:32

"In Damascus the governor under Aretas the king guarded the city of the Damascenes in order to take me:" — 2 Corinthians 11:32 (ASV)

After the solemn invocation of v.31, the account of a nocturnal escape from Damascus might seem trivial and out of place. Why he mentions it here is not altogether clear; he is most likely recalling the first attempt on his life, one that was a significant reversal from his former life as persecutor (Acts 9:1–2). This episode forms a suitable backdrop for what follows: an embarrassing descent to escape the hands of people and then an exhilarating ascent into the presence of God (12:2–4).

Aretas IV, the father-in-law of Herod Antipas, ruled over the kingdom of the Nabataean Arabs from c. 9 B. C. to A. D. 40. Why did he or the governor in Damascus want to arrest Paul? Probably because Aretas had been offended by Paul’s evangelistic activity in his kingdom (Galatians 1:17). It is unlikely that Paul’s sojourn in Arabia was simply a spiritual retreat, for Luke mentions that immediately after Paul’s conversion he began to dispute in the synagogues of Damascus (Acts 9:20).

Luke’s account of Paul’s escape (Acts 9:23–25) reveals that the Jews were watching the gates in order to kill Paul; yet here we are told that the governor under King Aretas was guarding the city in order to arrest Paul. What was the relation between the Jews and the governor? Since it seems likely that Damascus was still under Roman rule, the governor was probably the head of a semiautonomous colony of Nabataeans in Damascus. According to this view, a coalition of Jews and Nabataeans, acting through the governor, was trying to arrest and kill Paul. But it is possible that the Jews were watching for Paul inside the walls and the Nabataeans outside.

What stands out, of course, is his providential deliverance.