2Cor 11:24-27 | Abbott | STEP | Forty—save one. By a command recorded in , , the punishment of scourging is limited to forty stripes. It was the custom of the Jews to stop short, by one, of the permitted number, in token of their desire to keep unquestionably within the law. Very few of the instances of suffering and danger here referred to are mentioned in the book of the Acts.

2 Corinthians 11:24-27

Forty—save one. By a command recorded in Deut. 25:2, 3, the punishment of scourging is limited to forty stripes. It was the custom of the Jews to stop short, by one, of the permitted number, in token of their desire to keep unquestionably within the law. Very few of the instances of suffering and danger here referred to are mentioned in the book of the Acts.

With rods. One case of this nature is mentioned Acts 16:22, 23.—Stoned; Acts 14:19. Besides this, the apostle, on another occasion, narrowly escaped being stoned. (Acts 14:5.)—Shipwreck. He suffered shipwreck after this, on his voyage to Rome, (Acts 27:) which makes four instances in which he encountered this terrible form of danger.—In the deep; floating in the sea, sustained by some frail support, probably after shipwreck.

In reading this formidable catalogue of perils and calamities, (24-27,) we cannot but be impressed with the care of divine Providence manifested in the wonderful preservation of the apostle through a series of dangers of so extraordinary a number and character. We must remember, too, that the apostle persisted in a course of life which uniformly led to these results, in simple attestation of the fact of his supernatural interview with the Savior, as recorded Acts 9:3-8, and as repeatedly narrated and alluded to by himself. (Acts 22:6-11, 26:12-19, 1 Cor. 9:1.) This interview was the origin and foundation of his belief. The circumstances were such that he could not have been mistaken in regard to it, and the description which he here gives of the mode of life which he had led in consequence of his testimony, is evidence, which it would be difficult to question, that he was honest and sincere. So that here is a point where the question of the miraculous origin of Christianity is brought within a very narrow compass.