Nine different Hebrew words are rendered by thorn , for which, in the great majority of cases, Septuagint gives akanqa. The rendering thorn for skoloy has no support. The figure is that of the impaling stake. 159 See further, on Gal. The explanations of the peculiar nature of this affliction are numerous.
Opinions are divided, generally, between mental or spiritual and bodily trials .
Under the former head are sensual desires, faint -heartedness, doubts, temptations to despair , and blasphemous suggestions from the devil . Under the latter, persecution, mean personal appearance , headache, epilepsy, earache, stone , ophthalmia. Very plausible reasons are given in favor of both epilepsy and ophthalmia. Bishop Lightfoot inclines to the former, and Archdeacon Farrar thinks that it was almost certainly the latter. The torment is thus personified.