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2Co_11:24-25. Parenthesis, in which definite proofs are brought forward for the ἐν θανάτοις πολλάκις .
ὑπὸ Ἰουδαίων ] refers merely to πεντάκις … ἔλαβον ; for it is obvious of itself that the subsequent τρὶς ἐῤῥαβδίσθην was a Gentile maltreatment. Paul seems to have had in his mind the order: from Jews … from Gentiles, which, however, he then abandone.
τεσσαράκοντα παρὰ μίαν ] sc. πληγάς . Comp. on Luk_12:47, and Ast, ad Legg. p. 433. παρά in the sense of subtraction; see Herod. i. 120; Plut. Caes 30; Wyttenb. ad Plat. VI. pp. 461, 1059; Winer, p. 377 [E. T. 503]. Deu_25:3 ordains that no one shall be beaten more than forty times. In order, therefore, not to exceed the law by possible miscounting, only nine and thirty strokes were commonly given under the later administration of Jewish law.[337] See Joseph. Antt. iv. 8. 21, 23, and the Rabbinical passages (especially from the treatise Maccoth in Surenhusius, IV. p. 269 ff.); in Wetstein, Schoettgen, Hor. p. 714 ff.; and generally, Saalschütz, M. R. p. 469. Paul rightly adduces his five scourgings (not mentioned in Acts) as proof of his ἐν θανάτοις πολλάκις , for this punishment was so cruel that not unfrequently the recipients died under it; hence there is no occasion for taking into account bodily weakness in the case of Paul. See Lund, Jüd. Heiligth. ed. Wolf, p. 539 f.
τρὶς ἐῤῥαβδίσθην ] One such scourging with rods by the Romans is reported in Act_16:22; the two others are unknown to u.
ἅπαξ ἐλιθάσθ .] See Act_14:19; Clem. 5.
τρὶς ἐναυάγ .] There is nothing of this in Acts, for the last shipwreck, Acts 27, was much later. How many voyages of the apostle may have remained quite unknown to us! and how strongly does all this list of sufferings show the incompleteness of the Book of Acts!
νυχθήμερον ἐν τῷ βυθῷ πεποίηκα ] Lyra, Estius, Calovius, and others explain this of a miracle, as if Paul, actually sunk in the deep, had spent twenty-four hours without injury; but this view is at variance with the context. It is most naturally regarded as the sequel of one of these shipwrecks, namely, that he had, with the help of some floating wreck, tossed about on the sea for a day and a night, often overwhelmed by the waves, before he was rescued. On βυθός , the depth of the sea, comp. LXX. Exo_15:5; Ps. 67:14; Psa_106:24, al.; Bergl. ad Alciphr. i. 5, p. 10; and Wetstein in loc.
ποιεῖν of time: to spend, as in Act_15:33; Jam_4:13; Jacobs, ad Anthol. IX. p. 449. The perfect is used because Paul, after he has simply related the previous points, looks back on this last from the present time (comp. Kühner, § 439, 1a); there lies in this change of tenses a climactic vividness of representation.
[337] This reason for omitting the last stroke is given by Maimonides (see Coccej. ad Maccoth iii. 10). Another Rabbinical view is that thirteen strokes were given with the three-thonged leathern scourge, so that the strokes amounted in all to thirty-nine. See in general, Lund, p. 540 f. According to Maccoth iii. 12, the breast, the right and the left shoulder, received each thirteen of the thirty-nine strokes. But it cannot be proved from the Rabbins that it was on this account that the fortieth was not added, as Bengel, Wetstein, and others assume.