What is the thorn in the flesh given to Paul and the messenger of Satan?

Identity of the thorn in the flesh

2 Corinthians 12:7 And lest I should be exalted above measure by the abundance of the revelations(Not heightened is a mistake, as it is rendered in the Greek passive voice.), a thorn in the flesh was given to me, a messenger of Satan to buffet me, lest I be exalted above measure. 8 Concerning this thing I pleaded with the Lord three times that it might depart from me. 9 And He said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness." Therefore most gladly I will rather boast in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. 10 Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in needs, in persecutions, in distresses, for Christ's sake. For when I am weak, then I am strong.

Original language of 1 Corinthians 12:7.

The Greek word for thorn in the flesh appears only once in that passage. So we look for the identity of the 'thorn' in the Old Testament.

Numbers 33:55 But if you do not drive out the inhabitants of the land from before you, then it shall be that those whom you let remain shall be irritants in your eyes and thorns in your sides, and they shall harass you in the land where you dwell.

Joshua 23 :13 know for certain that the Lord your God will no longer drive out these nations from before you. But they shall be snares and traps to you, and scourges on your sides and thorns in your eyes, until you perish from this good land which the Lord your God has given you.

Judges 2 :3 Therefore I also said, 'I will not drive them out before you; but they shall be thorns in your side, and their gods shall be a snare to you.' "

Ezekiel 28 :24 "And there shall no longer be a pricking brier or a painful thorn for the house of Israel from among all who are around them, who despise them. Then they shall know that I am the Lord God."

Firstly, Paul's thorn in the 2 Corinthians 2 pertinent passage is the σκόλοψ (scalops) of G4647. A thorn in the Old Testament means a man on Satan's side, exactly the same original Greek word scalops is used in the Septuaginta translation of the above passage. It is not a fatal disease that Paul was constantly afflicted with on a regular basis, or an auditory hallucination caused by Satan's messenger, the evil spirit. Some have quoted the following passage from Galatians and interpreted it as a fatal problem in Paul's eyes. Some believe that he had a visionary experience in which he came face to face with Christ and his eyes were damaged, but his eyes were completely restored by Ananias in Acts 9:19.

In Galatians 4:13-15, where it says that Paul preached the gospel to the Galatians of Derbe, Listera and Iconium 'through the weakness of his body', we read that they took Paul's side and helped him 'to the point that they were willing to gouge out his eyes and give them to him'. In Zechariah 2:8, where it is expressed that 'those who hurt Israel touch God's eye', it means that Paul was not literally suffering from a fatal eye disease, but that his allies, the Galatians, nursed him as dearly as if he were their own.

Rom 16:22, "I, Tertius, who scribbled this letter, also greet you in the Lord." It is clear that there was a substitute scribe, since I Corinthians 16:21 "Paul writes his greetings in his own hand." Galatians 6:11 "As you can see, I am writing this letter to you with my own hand in such a large volume (or it can be translated as large or a large number of letters)." II Thessalonians 3:17 "Paul writes his greetings with his own hand. This is a sign in all my letters. This is how I write my letters." As it says, it is often interpreted that Paul writes in large letters because of his poor eyesight, but he simply enlarges the letters in the same way we do in our blogs for emphasis.

This event of Paul's 'infirmity of his body, including his eyes' originated in Acts 14:19, when he was stoned to death or fainted by his Jewish persecutors in the Galatian town of Lystra. It says that he was raised up and resurrected, albeit with a fatal wound, by a miracle of God, and the next day he went to another city, Derbe. Because of this, Paul's 'body, including his eyes, had become infirmity ', as Galatians 4:13-15 says. Still, it was 'before', as verse 13 says, 'I was faint before', and he seems to be fine at that time when he was writing to the Galatians. The aid and protection of the Galatians, who were Paul's allies at the time, and the miraculous healing in those days of the Holy Spirit's activating age, brought him back from the temporary fatal wound of the stoning to his full strength, and he was well again. The healing in chapter 19 below is after the injury in Galatia, so he was not affected by some fatal eye disease all the time. Paul's handwriting in large type is his writing style and would not imply extreme weakness of vision.

Acts 19:11 Now God worked unusual miracles by the hands of Paul, 12 so that even handkerchiefs or aprons were brought from his body to the sick, and the diseases left them and the evil spirits went out of them.

1 Peter 2:24 who Himself bore our sins in His own body on the tree, that we, having died to sins, might live for righteousness--by whose stripes you were healed.

The Greek word for ‘weakness’ in chapter 12:9 is ‘astheneia’, but Romans 8:26 says: ‘Likewise also the “Spirit” helps us who are weak. For we do not know how to pray, but the ‘Spirit’ himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express.’ The word ‘weak’ is also used for ‘weak’ in Weakness here refers to a deficiency in spiritual thinking, not knowing what to pray for, and has nothing to do with sickness. Paul was constantly worried about ‘weaknesses’ in his mind during the time of persecution and wanted God to remove them, just as Jesus prayed in Gethsemane, ‘Take away this cup from me’. But persecution never left Paul, and each time he was healed by God's miraculous healing, resulting in ‘the power of God manifesting itself in the time of weakness’.

2 Corinthians 11:22 Are they Hebrews? So am I. Are they Israelites? So am I. Are they the seed of Abraham? So am I. 23 Are they ministers of Christ?--I speak as a fool--I am more: in labors more abundant, in stripes above measure, in prisons more frequently, in deaths often. 24 From the Jews five times I received forty stripes minus one. 25 Three times I was beaten with rods; once I was stoned; three times I was shipwrecked; a night and a day I have been in the deep; 26 in journeys often, in perils of waters, in perils of robbers, in perils of my own countrymen, in perils of the Gentiles, in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils in the sea, in perils among false brethren; 27 in weariness and toil, in sleeplessness often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, in cold and nakedness-- 28 besides the other things, what comes upon me daily: my deep concern for all the churches. 29 Who is weak, and I am not weak? Who is made to stumble, and I do not burn with indignation? 30 If I must boast, I will boast in the things which concern my infirmity.

The thorn in the flesh brought about by Satan's messenger is more specific if we go back to chapter 11:22, while in chapter 12 we read a simplified description. It is a multitude of tribulations and hardships, including persecution and privation and internal church troubles. He would have experienced more persecution than the Jewish Christians as he was labelled a heretic by the Pharisees for preaching ‘the abolition of the Law of Moses and the establishment of the Law of Christ through renewal’.

Indeed, the Greek word ‘kolaphizō ’, translated ‘to buffet ’ in verse 7, refers to a violent hostile attack from another person. (Matthew 26:67 ; Mark 14:65 ; 1 Corinthians 4:11 ; 1 Corinthians 12:7 ; 1 Peter 2:20) Satan's messenger is the original word used for ‘fallen angel’ or ‘evil spirit’, as will be discussed under the next heading. Also, the original word for ‘depart’ in verse 8 is ‘aphistēmi’, which is often used in the sense of a person actually departing from someone.

From this we can understand how Satan himself sent false teachers posing as angels of light to relentlessly attack Paul, hoping that he would make them go away. (1 Corinthians 11:13-15 ; 1 Timothy 4:1) It is also evident from verses 28-29 that he is actually concerned about the Church.

In the flesh (in)? Meaning of.

Galatians 5:24 And those who are Christ's have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.

1 Peter 4:1 Therefore, since Christ suffered for us in the flesh, arm yourselves also with the same mind, for he who has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin,

In the KJV it is rendered in, meaning in the flesh, but the corresponding Greek word is ὁ (pronounced ho), which is an article emphasising a noun meaning ‘which (413x), who (79x), the things (11x), the son (8x), miscellaneous (32x).’ The word translated as ‘in’ is a word added as a supplement to the English text as a guess at what would be appropriate to express in the English text. The KJV has the word ‘in’, which is not appropriate for the expression ‘in the flesh’. The result of the deeple translation is ‘12:7 "And the superabundance of revelations, that I may not glory, was given to me to kill the flesh, the angel Satan, to flatter me, that I may not glory.", which does not confirm the in. 

Furthermore, as listed above, especially in 1 Peter 4:1, both the KJV and the Greek manuscripts firmly use the original word ἐν (pronounced en) meaning ‘in’. Since the above describes the life of a Christian who has suffered persecution and suffering from Satan in the flesh, it is not so much that there is an evil spirit within Paul, but rather that he, like Peter, suffered more persecution than usual from fallen angels and evil spirits for the purpose of hindering evangelism, even if we add a supplementary "in" that is not present in the original text, we can recognise as above. 

Who sent the messenger of Satan?

In the passage where the thorn in the flesh was brought to Paul, one Japanese Bible renders it as ‘God gave it’. Checking the original text, the word ‘God’ does not appear at all. In 1 Thessalonians 2:18 it says: ‘So I thought I would go there. Particularly, I, Paul, tried to go there more than once, but was hindered by Satan.’ and Satan is prominently depicted as hindering Paul.

Therefore, if you interpret the Living Bible by adding ‘God’ on your own, as the Living Bible does, when it is not in the original text that God sends Satan's messenger, the evil spirit, to Paul, then God is obstructing Paul's evangelism. Even if Paul were to become prideful, God would not send curses as compensation for over-revelation. Just as King Solomon was given excessive wealth by God and left to apostatise in pride, God does not send curses on the eyes or any other part of the body to make people humble.

1 Peter 5:6 says: ‘Therefore be humble under the mighty hand of God. Then [God] will raise you up in due time.’ and also in Acts 5:13, where the apostles were used for the glory of God and ‘the people praised them’. Also in the Old Testament period, Joshua is ‘magnified’ and exalted before the people. (Joshua 3:7) Certainly not all exaltation is bad, and believers can be exalted before the people for the glory of God.

However, in this Corinthians 12:7, the Greek word ‘hyperairō’ appears only three times in the Bible, which can also be translated as ‘to be exalted above a subject’ or ‘to be haughty’. However, the Hebrew word for ‘to be exalted above, to become great’ in Joshua 3:7 is ‘gāḏal’, which can also be used to mean ‘to be haughty towards’. ‘gāḏal’ is ‘hypsoō’ in the Greek of the Seventy Translations, and is certainly used in the good sense of ‘to be exalted’ in 1 Peter 5:6, but it is also used in the Old Testament to mean ‘to be arrogant, conceited, exalting oneself’. Therefore, it cannot be concluded that ‘hyperairō’, like ‘gāḏal’, should necessarily be translated ‘exalted pridefully’ in 1 Corinthians 12:7.

And in verse 6, ‘lest any man should think of me above’, Paul himself is not ‘exalted’, but rather, when he succeeds in evangelising people because of Christ's direct revelation to them, he receives their praise and welcome, and is inevitably ‘exalted’, as the KJV renders it in the passive voice. Satan, who was displeased with this and did not like the easy increase of believers, sent fallen angels and demons to discourage him.

The evidence to support this, interestingly, is that the original spelling of the passage where the huperailo is inserted is ὑπεραίρωμαι. The Greek verb ‘active’ is based on word forms ending in -ω or -ώ and the ‘passive’ in -μαι, each with a completely different pattern of word change. In other words, rather than Paul himself being exalted, he was to be welcomed by the people and ‘exalted by glory’, and the devil constantly attacked Paul to prevent him from succeeding easily in his missionary expansion by violently preventing him from doing so. If Paul had been ‘exalted’, the devil might have been pleased and would not have persecuted him, since his state of mind was dominated by sin.

As a result, Paul was never gloriously exalted by such glory, but experienced weakness and privation and relied more on God. And a further check of the context solves the mystery.

In the latter part of verse 20, Paul is concerned about the Corinthians: ‘Is there not a struggle, envy, anger, quarrelling, backbiting, whispering, hubris, and disorder?‘ Seeing that the Corinthians were speaking in untranslatable tongues in the church, boasting, snarling and competing with one another, Paul rebukes and educates them based on his own experience: ‘I know my weakness, having experienced the physical thorn of persecution, so I have never boasted about my visionary experiences and revelations...’ He is reprimanding and educating based on his own experience.

In 1 Corinthians 9:22, it says: ‘Against the weak we have become like the weak. To gain the weak. To all we became all things to all men. That somehow we might save even some of them.’ As Paul said, he is only contrasting the Corinthians by quoting himself, who could have boasted like them but did not, in order to rebuke their pride. In fact, Paul himself was not proud because he had been shown many revelations by Jesus, and was not afflicted with a vision or some kind of curse because it was sent by God, in case you interpret the thorn in the flesh as an evil spirit.

In Satan's world, persecution from fallen angels, demons and the evil people instigated by them does not go away even after prayer. Preaching to the spiritually immature and pride-prone Corinthians that no matter how much spiritual revelation they have enjoyed, genuine prophets and Christians of God will no longer be able to ‘triumph by excessive glory’. In fact, God had already given the humble Paul an excessive revelation from Christ Himself, elevating him above Joshua before the people and giving him the authority of Christ to the same degree as the 12 apostles. So there are always demonic forces that want to prevent this.

Paul himself said, ‘Excessive revelation was given to me. For this reason (I was specially targeted by Satan to be proved by God as a special apostle to the Gentiles), so that I would not be welcomed by the people and raised to glory and easily succeed in evangelism (because Satan did not like me), his messenger was brought to me from Satan, and I experienced persecution and learned weakness. But in weakness God was made manifest.’ and to the Corinthians, teaching them ‘to be prepared to endure persecution’ and ‘to accept themselves when they are weak’.

Conclusion.

• Even in the Old Testament, ‘thorn’ means a troublesome hindrance, and in the New Testament it means ‘persecutor’ or ‘messenger evil spirits sent by Satan’, and ‘infirmity’ means weariness, privation, lack and weakness of body and mind due to being persecuted by them, and has nothing to do with illness.
  
  
• The word ‘God’ does not exist in the original text and does not mean ‘God sent a messenger of Satan to Paul’, and the Hebrew ‘Gadar’ in Joshua 3:7 ‘to make Joshua great’ and the equivalent Greek ‘hupsao’ in the Septuaginta have the same meaning as ‘huperailo’ in 1 Corinthians 12:7 as in In some cases it is used as a double meaning of ‘to be exalted, to be prideful’, and when ‘huperailo’ is applied to the DeepL translation it is translated ‘to be exalted by excessive glory, to be triumphant’, and the original Greek rendering is passive, not ‘Paul himself is exalted’. It can be interpreted as meaning ‘exalted by excess’, which is necessarily more than Joshua.
  
  
• The translation is: ‘Satan was displeased to know that I may be welcomed by people and easily succeed in evangelising the gospel and be exalted by excessive glory because I have excessive revelation, so he sent fallen angels and evil spirits to inaugurate false teachers and incite persecution. It bothered me and I was reminded of my weakness so I was not exalted by the people. The persecution never stopped even after I prayed, but whenever I was weak, God's power manifested itself (healing, experiencing miracles such as resurrection from the dead, etc.).’ This can be translated as.
  
  
• He also rebukes the Corinthians for their spiritual immaturity and ‘pride’, contrasting them with himself, who experienced much persecution and was ‘not exalted’.

This can be summarised the following. It can be read that Satan was targeting Paul to discourage him from being exalted by the people to an even greater degree of glory than Joshua to prevent the easy spread of the gospel message through the authority and revelation of Christ and the increase of believers. It is not that God did not send Paul a fatal eye disease or curse because he himself was proud. Rather, in the time of the Great Tribulation, even today, true Christians will experience persecution and martyrdom because they are targeted by Satan, and will spend their days without being exalted by excessive glory or even having a moment of human pride.