2 Corinthians 11:23-26
11:23 Are they servants of Christ? (I am talking like I am out of my mind!) I am even more so: with much greater labors, with far more imprisonments, with more severe beatings, facing death many times.
11:24 Five times I received from the Jews forty lashes less one. 1
11:25 Three times I was beaten with a rod. 2 Once I received a stoning. 3 Three times I suffered shipwreck. A night and a day I spent adrift in the open sea.
11:26 I have been on journeys many times, in dangers from rivers, in dangers from robbers, 4 in dangers from my own countrymen, in dangers from Gentiles, in dangers in the city, in dangers in the wilderness, 5 in dangers at sea, in dangers from false brothers,
1 tn Grk “forty less one”; this was a standard sentence. “Lashes” is supplied to clarify for the modern reader what is meant.
2 sn Beaten with a rod refers to the Roman punishment of admonitio according to BDAG 902 s.v. ῥαβδίζω. Acts 16:22 describes one of these occasions in Philippi; in this case it was administered by the city magistrates, who had wide powers in a military colony.
3 sn Received a stoning. See Acts 14:19, where this incident is described.
4 tn Or “bandits.” The word normally refers more to highwaymen (“robbers”) but can also refer to insurrectionists or revolutionaries (“bandits”).
5 tn Or “desert.”