2 Corinthians 11:23-25

Expanded Bible

²³ Are they servants of Christ? I am serving him more. (I am crazy to talk like this.) I have worked much harder than they. I have been in prison more often [Acts 16:23–40]. I have been ·hurt more in beatings [flogged more severely; Acts 16:22]. I have been near death many times. ²⁴ Five times the Jews have given me ·their punishment of thirty-nine lashes with a whip [^Lforty minus one; ^Ca shorthand phrase for the standard Jewish punishment; Deut. 25:1–3 allowed a maximum of forty lashes; the Jews gave thirty-nine to avoid breaking the law]. ²⁵ Three different times I was beaten with rods [^Ca Roman punishment]. One time I was almost stoned to death [Acts 14:19]. Three times I was in ships that wrecked, and one of those times I spent a night and a day in the sea [^CPaul’s shipwreck in Acts 27 occurred after writing this (c. ad 60), so he experienced at least four shipwrecks].