THE WEEKLY QUESTION
What Does The Bible Mean By The Term “A Thorn in The Flesh”
Another Bible saying that has passed into popular speech
The phrase “thorn in the flesh” has passed into everyday speech to indicate something in a person’s life — often undeserved — which prevents us from living as we hope.
You might hear something say something like, “Oh, I find him impossible to deal with. He’s a thorn in my flesh.”
An example in the history of literature is when the character, Nawab Bahadur in E. M. Forster’s novel A Passage to India, says,
I can be a thorn in Mr Turton’s flesh, and if he asks me, I accept the invitation.
Unlike some of the common parlance we examine in this series of posts, this one DOES appear in the Bible — albeit one only occasion in 2 Corinthians 12.7.
Therefore, in order to keep me from becoming conceited, I was given a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me.
Many bible commentators have proposed explanations for the meaning of the thorn in the flesh over the years. But the truth is we are still not sure whether Paul refers to an unknown physical ailment, an unexplained emotional affliction, some kind of spiritual issue — or something…
