The Seventh Sunday after Pentecost

Reading verses 2-10 in isolation from Paul’s 2nd letter to the Corinthians, it is not easy to pick up the sarcasm in Paul’s words. But given the heavy irony he uses throughout chapters 11 and 12 of the letter, we should at least consider that Paul is not saying exactly what he means in this passage.

This is especially true with the word “weak.” Paul’s preaching was always “a demonstration of the spirit and of power.”(1 Corinthians 2:4) I think in his 2nd letter, Paul is laying claim to the title “weak” as a way of mocking his opponents, who call him weak even though they have never been able to show the kind of power that Paul demonstrated in his ministry. What we see in the later chapters of Paul’s letter is the apostle using very classical ironic rhetoric in order to rebuke and correct the church. It was a common tradition around the Mediterranean to make criticisms using dissemblance so as not to offend the person’s sense of honor. 

What then is the irony Paul is implying about the “thorn in his side?” In the classical Greek model of irony, this would have had to  refer to some event that was familiar to Paul’s audience. I think the “messenger of Satan” may have been a member of the Corinthian congregation who (three times) disputed with Paul openly in the church, and probably did so using similar arguments to what the “super apostles” were using. The ironic aspect would be that when Paul was present, the Holy Spirit convinced the Corinthian church to dismiss this particular “pain in the rear,” while now in Paul’s absence, they are giving credence to the same sort of arguments.

This is all speculation, of course. What we can be sure of is that Paul was determined in his evangelism to “know nothing but Jesus Christ, and him crucified.”(1 Corinthians 2:2)

Charles Fehrenbach