Of the Jews five times did I receive forty stripes save one.
υπο ιουδαιων πεντακις τεσσαρακοντα παρα μιαν ελαβον
8 Church Fathers comment on this verse
Why one less? There was an ancient law by which, among the Jews, anyone who received more than forty blows was considered dishonored. Therefore, lest the one striking, in anger and impulse, disgrace the punished man by giving extra blows, they prescribed one less. Thus, even if the striker gave one additional blow, he would not exceed forty. By always remaining within the lawful number, he could not bring dishonor upon the punished man.
Why "save one"? There was a law according to which anyone who received more than forty blows was deprived of honor. Why, then, was it appointed to give forty save one, that is, thirty-nine? So that if the one striking became carried away and gave an extra blow, he would still give no more than forty. The one being beaten would not be deprived of honor, since even then he had been subjected to the lawful number of blows.
“Are they ministers of Christ? I speak not wisely: I am more.” Again he used the expression, “not wisely,” thereby making clear that he is compelled to say this against his will. He explains the very manner of his superiority. He sets forth not miracles, not the raising of the dead, not the lame walking, not the flight of demons, and not the salvation of the world. Rather, he sets forth his sufferings for the Gospel. “In labors more abundantly, in stripes above measure, in prisons more exceedingly, in deaths often. From the Jews five times I received forty stripes less one.
Three times I was beaten with rods; once I was stoned; three times I suffered shipwreck; a night and a day I spent in the deep.” That is, when the boat was broken apart, I was then carried back and forth by the waves for a whole night and a whole day. It was customary among the Jews to inflict forty stripes less one.
"Forty stripes save one I received." The Mosaic Law commanded that, for certain crimes, the guilty person should be punished with no more than forty blows (Deut 25:3). In order not to transgress this Law, that is, not to give an extra blow by mistake, the Jews always punished with only thirty-nine blows.
The severity of this punishment may be judged from the fact that many died under the blows. The book of Acts is silent about when and for what the Apostle underwent these punishments.
“I was far more in labors, beyond measure in stripes, more frequently in prisons, and often near death. From the Jews five times I received forty stripes less one.” Why “less one”? The ancient law stated: forty blows may be given to one deserving bodily punishment, and no more, “lest your brother be disfigured before your eyes by many blows” (Deut 25:3). From fear that an extra blow might violate the prescribed law through mistaken counting, custom later established that one blow should be withheld. This is according to Theophylact and Chrysostom. “Three times I was beaten with rods.” Then the Apostle lists again and again the tortures he endured from the Jews and his many kinds of danger. Clearly these are far from fully numbered or narrated in the Acts of the Apostles.
This is what Saint Paul the Apostle boasts in as a true minister of Christ. Would that all successors of the Apostle and sacred ministers of the New Covenant, like Paul, placed their true dignity not in luxury and worldly comfort, nor in the splendor of their position. Rather, let them place it in sorrows and labors for the Gospel of Christ.
At the end of the chapter the Apostle proves the truth of his apostleship by what he endured in the Gospel. After a concluding and transitional qualification, he lists here many of his afflictions. Some of them are mentioned in the Acts of the Apostles. Others are found only here, or in other epistles, in the form of hints. The starting point here is also comparative, but the comparison is strange, because it is not greatness that is compared, but suffering. “Why so?” asks Bishop Theophan. “Because it would somehow be offensive to the extraordinary gifts themselves to prove the false apostles’ falsity, and his own true apostleship, by their absence from them.
For this it was enough to show by deed that they protect themselves and try to extract their own gain from everything, while wearing the mask of ministers of Christ. But suffering for Christ, which is essentially necessary for true ministers of Christ, they never suffered, and they do not know how to set foot on this path.” “In labors, in prisons, in deaths often.” The labors and sufferings of Paul’s apostleship are beyond description. According to Clement, bishop of Rome, he was imprisoned seven times. He was exposed to mortal danger many times. Five times he was beaten with thirty-nine blows, so that no extra blow should be given beyond what the law allowed (Deut 25:3). Of the three beatings with rods, only one is mentioned in Acts. That case, it seems, was a special one (Acts 16:22). He was stoned almost to death in Lystra (Acts 14:19). The Apostle often traveled by sea. During one of three shipwrecks, he was carried by the waves in the deep for a night and a day, probably after grasping some fragment of the ship. The false teachers did not wish to suffer for Christ. Therefore they boasted of certain external distinctions, knowing how to present them as exalted before the inexperienced Corinthians. For example, they said they were the seed of Abraham, heirs of the great promises given to Abraham. But the Apostle had already said that this boasting was fleshly (verse 18). Now he shows that he too possesses all these supposed fleshly advantages. “Having shown his equality with them in this, he shows his superiority in voluntary achievements” (Theodoret).
The Apostles, martyrs, and venerable fathers: how much they endured with longsuffering in preaching the Gospel, in sufferings for the faith, and in the struggles of the spiritual life. Let us listen at least to Saint Paul alone, speaking about himself: “From the Jews five times I received forty stripes less one.” That is, on five different occasions he received thirty-nine blows. “Three times I was beaten with rods; once I was stoned; three times I suffered shipwreck; a night and a day I spent in the deep.
In journeys often: dangers in rivers, dangers from robbers, dangers from kinsmen, dangers from Gentiles, dangers in cities, dangers in the wilderness, dangers at sea, dangers among false brethren; in labor and hardship, in watchings often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, in cold and nakedness” (2 Cor 11:24-27). Finally, let us remember also the longsuffering of the Man of God who has gathered us today in this church. The wondrous Alexius left home, wealth, parents, and bride, choosing the narrow path of salvation. For seventeen years he lived without a dwelling, among the poor, in the church porch. And what is still harder, as the account of his life says, “the ever-memorable one remained unknown in his father’s house, so poor and exhausted, attacked by the enemy, inflamed by love for his relatives, and mocked by his own servants. This was not for ten days or a hundred, but for seventeen whole years” (Prologue). What resolve in the intention of salvation. What constancy in fulfilling it. What patience in temptations. Our sloth looks unwillingly at such examples of longsuffering in faith. It more readily seeks examples of how to be saved more easily and quickly. It is true that the infinitely merciful God has made even this possible, so that no sinner, in any circumstances, should have cause to despair. In the Gospel we see how a few words of repentance and faith opened Paradise to the thief. Yet let us not fail to note that in certain circumstances this example is without parallel. It was unparalleled in the unexpected closeness in which fate placed the dying man to the Savior, with no possibility of departing from Him while nailed to the cross. It was also unparalleled in those wondrous moments of grace. Let us also observe that repentance, not too late for the thief on the cross, was too late for the other in the very same circumstances and in the same moments of grace. The saved thief turned to Christ alone, in contrast to the impenitence of the chief priests, rulers, Pharisees, scribes, elders, and all Jerusalem. Who will dare to say that this swift and irresistible rising from perdition to salvation is easier and more reliable to accomplish? Is it not rather safer to attain salvation by gradual progress on the path of repentance and self-correction, with patience and longsuffering?
He explains how he received stripes. Five times, he says, I was given thirty-nine blows. The law only said that no more than forty blows should be given to those found guilty (Deut 25:3). The elders later removed one blow, lest somehow, through miscounting, they give more than forty and prove to be transgressors of the law (Theophylact). When Saint Paul endured these blows, Acts does not indicate. In Philippi he was beaten, but not by Jews; it was by the civil authority of the Gentiles. This means that the book of Acts is far from depicting all the labors of Saint Paul (Theophylact). “Why less one? There was an ancient law among the Jews that anyone who received more than forty blows was to be regarded as dishonored (Deut 25:3).
Therefore, lest the one beating him, in anger and heat, give an extra number of blows and thus dishonor the punished man, they prescribed forty blows less one. Thus even if the one beating struck one extra time, he would not exceed forty. By always remaining within the legal number, he could not inflict dishonor on the punished man” (Chrysostom).
Passages read together with this verse.
Greek text, 7 words with lemma, transliteration and Strong’s number. Tap to expand.
THEOSIS