Many believe Paul's thorn in the flesh was physical illness or speech problems? How is that scriptural?

Question

Satan has no authority or power to dwell within Believers filled with the Holy Spirit, which would be a requirement to inflict one with an illness.

Also, there are many scriptures which describe a "thorn in the flesh" as being persecution from Unbelievers who harass, attack, or attempt to persecute Christians in any way. Unbelievers are not filled with the Holy Spirit, so they are open to demonic influence.

Here are a few scriptures which describe thorns in the flesh as unbelievers: Joshua 23:13, Numbers 33:55, Judges 2:3, Ezekiel 2:6, Luke 6:44

So it would seem, that Satan Buffets Christians, in this case Paul, by causing "others" to persecute the Believer to weaken their Faith or cause fear. So why do many insist Paul's thorn in the flesh was a physical illness or speech problem? What scriptural basis is there for that interpretation? Or have many assumed the word "flesh" implies it is physical. It seems clear that "flesh" is symbolic in nature. Thanks.

Note: I'm looking for answers with scriptural support and not just opinion.

Answer 1

the Bible plainly says it was a messenger of satan to buffet him. Nothing is mentioned of a physical condition, that's just tradition

Answer 2

First, you would have to prove to me that "thorn in the flesh" is really what Paul meant, a literal translation, I mean, from the Greek. (And Paul spoke and wrote Greek and was either speaking to a transcriber doing the actual writing or Paul wrote the document himself.)

Second, these other passages you mentioned were not written (or spoken) by Paul. The context may be completely different in each book they come from. You may literally be comparing apples to oranges.

Still, the English phrase "thorn in the flesh" means exactly what it is supposed to mean: Something very unique and bothersome was afflicting Paul. It could be stuttering. It might have been an addiction he had but had so far been able to resist its temptation. It might have been that he was tempted to go back to his old life of being a pious religious orthodox Jew. He might have been a widower and really wanted to marry and have a sexual life again. The list of possibilities goes on and on. Whatever the thorn was, it was just something that threatened to get in the way of Paul's mission on Earth, but he, with God's help, resisted it or got around it and got the job done -- as we are all to do.

I think the first thing you should do is get a Bible scholar from your denomination and find out what the Greek words (in the New Testament) were for that particular verse. What is the literal translation? Does it have anything to do with the "thorns" or is all of this a very shadey translation (from the original Greek), or a translation of a translation (from Latin to English)?

A good discussion of the topic:
http://blog.360.yahoo.com/blog-zJqtwWswYqdnsxdQeLJlnLhN?p=630

Another:http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0021-9231%28195712%2976%3A4%3C299%3APTITF%3E2.0.CO%3B2-H&size=SMALL

Answer 3

Paul’s “thorn in the flesh” (2Co 12:7) may have been an affliction of his eyes or another part of his body (see Ac 23:1-5; Ga 4:15; 6:11) or perhaps the false apostles and other disturbers who challenged Paul’s apostleship and work. (See 2Co 11:5, 6, 12-15; Ga 1:6-9; 5:12; 6:17.)

Answer 4

Pauls thorn was homosexuality. Many biblical scollars agree on this.

In ancient Jewish tradition Satan is simply an angel doing the work that God assigned to Satan to do.

The word Satan means challenger. With the idea of Satan challenging us, or tempting if you will. This description sees Satan as the angel who is the embodiment of man's challenges. This idea of Satan works closely with God as an integral part of Gods plan for us. His job is to make choosing good over evil enough of a challenge so that it becomes clear to us that there can be only one meaningful or logical choice.

Contrast this to Christianity, which sees Satan as God's opponent. In Jewish thought, the idea that there exists anything capable of setting itself up as God's opponent would be considered polytheistic or setting up the devil to be an equally powerful polarity to god or a demigod.

Oddly, proof for The Christian satan/devil mythology is supposedly found in the ancient Jewish texts that were borrowed to create the bible. One can’t help but wonder how Christians came up with such a fantastically different interpretation of Gods assistant Satan in their theology.

Other hints about Satan’s role in human relations can be seen if you look at the name Lucifer. It’s meaning in the original tongue translates as Light bearer or light bringer. Essentially the bringer of enlightenment. The temptations of the Satan idea bring all of us eventually into Gods light. Hardly the Evil entity of Christian mythology.

Love and blessings
don

Answer 5

What really is a thorn in the flesh?"

In the desert, if you get a thorn under your skin, it will go septic with time, thus it has been used to indicate a messenger (an evil spiritual being) of Satan that you don't need or have to have hanging around you or your land! Nu.33:55.

The main problem witbh the pre-rabbatical Judasim, was that every major descision the Jews made, was directed by god, and translated by the Pharacees. The radical (I speak here as an unbiased Athesist) step of early christianity was to make the individual responsible for his own salvation.

Paul had no intention of permitting this thorn in the flesh to remain with him. We know this because he says, "Concerning this thing I pleaded with the Lord three times that it might depart from me." 2Cor.12:8.

Obviously he pleaded for deliverance and nothing happened! This man of faith who was so used his petitions getting a result must have been at a lose as to know why this was. God graciously helps him out and says to him, "My grace is sufficient for you!" 2Cor.12:8.

You see, Paul had been going entirely the wrong way about getting delivered of this messenger of Satan. If he'd been under Jesus ministry with the other apostles he would certainly have known this but he wasn't. He really could have done with catching up on the lecture notes they had! Jesus had been simplifying the Jewsh faith, one big rule instead of ten, self governing, all accepted, regardless of birth...

Thus during his ministry Jesus demonstrated and taught the twelve apostles - and thus the seventy disciples that the way to deal with the devil and his spirits was to command them directly!

Jesus never asked the father to deal with a demon and neither did the disciples. They were trained to commanded the evil spirit to come out and to depart with the authority given to them by God. In other words, God's grace was sufficient for them to deal with the demons themselves!

Of course the self detirmination of the early church was rapidly removed as the church became a means of population control. Thus by 300ad, the church was telling all the christians what to do - and thinking died out for the next 15000 years.

Answer 6

If satan can't dwell in beleiver's bodies, then why are there exorcisms still?