Three times I was beaten with rods. Once I was stoned. Three times I suffered shipwreck. I have been a night and a day in the deep.
ExplanationCommentary
Verse 25. Thrice I suffered shipwreck. This was before the shipwreck in his voyage to Rome, by which we make take notice, that Saint Luke, in the Acts, omits a great many things relating to Saint Paul; as also when he adds, [1] a night and a day I was in the depth of the sea. We do not read expressed in the Greek, of the sea; but the Greek word is observed to imply the same: and so it is understood by Saint John Chrysostom who gives these two expositions; first, that he was truly and literally in the middle of the sea. Secondly, that he was floating or swimming in the sea after shipwreck, which seems the more common interpretation. Witham.—Saint Paul could have avoided that disgrace, as a Roman. See Acts 23; but in Acts 16 he refused to claim his privilege, that he might have an opportunity of converting the guard of the prison. P.