gregor

Paul had some medical malady, as he states in 2 Corinthians 12:

"7To keep me from becoming conceited because of these surpassingly great revelations, there was given me a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me. 8Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. 9But he said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me. 10That is why, for Christ's sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong."

Could this be more evidence of epilepsy?

Toto

It's possible, but this doesn't sound like a description of epilepsy. It sounds like some cosmetically embarrasing condition like a rash.

This particular passage in Paul is part of what appears to be a stand up routine, where Paul is playing the Fool out of the Greco-Roman theater ("I have made a fool of myself"), so it is hard to know what it really means.

GakuseiDon

Completely OT, I know, but: there was a show where someone says, "Oh my god, I'm in an episode of Star Trek... and I'm wearing a red uniform!!!" Does anyone know what show that was?

Jehanne

Did you ever notice in the original Star Trek series how everyone wearing a red uniform ends up getting killed? (Okay, off topic, but this thread appears to be over.)

CX

This would certainly shed some light on the "thorn in [his] flesh" Paul talks about but never describes. Epilepsy certainly is an irksome affliction for those who suffer from it. Still it's pure speculation and not really amenable to scholarly inquiry. People have religious visions all the time without there being any apparent organic cause.

Chris Weimer

oh, I thought the thorn was all the lies he was writing about...

Amaleq13

I think that is from an episode of Futurama.

I once heard a Bible commentator on the radio suggest that Paul was a widower and that this explained both the "thorn" as well as his apparently unmarried status and views on marriage.

Magdlyn

Some think he is describing his own homosexuality. Esp when he goes on about his "members" not obeying his will.

Chili

No, "the thorn" was the nagging question with regard to his identity. Paul, like Joseph, was an "upright man" and like Jonah was "running away from God." When Paul saw the light he "fell of his high horse" and got his "hip out of joint" when he first realized that "he was a persucutor of Christians."