Big Healing Book - Thayer's Greek Lexicon Says That the Greek Word for Paul’s

Objection: Thayer’s Greek Lexicon Says That the Greek Word for Paul’s “Thorn” Means an Illness

While it is true that Thayer said this, what he said is not provable from the Greek itself. His exact definition includes this wording: “…appears to indicate some constant bodily ailment or infirmity, which, even after Paul had been caught up in a trance to the third heaven, sternly admonished him that he still dwelt in a frail and mortal body.”

For starters, Thayer stated earlier in his definition that the Greek word means a pointed piece of wood, a pale, a stake, a sharp stake, a splinter or a thorn. The best you can say is that the particular word (skolops) refers only to a sharp object, with no explicit connotation of sickness. After that, Thayer said that it “appears” to indicate a bodily ailment, which shows that this was his interpretation, not the literal meaning of the word, which it isn’t.

The particular Greek word only appears in the passage about Paul’s thorn. There is certainly NO indication from Scripture itself that it could ever mean sickness. You have to be careful of such reference works, as they sometimes have definitions colored by the author’s predispositions. In fact, Thayer’s predispositions included not believing in the inerrancy of Scripture or the Trinity, and Thayer was not even a born-again Christian! See a related objection for more thoughts along this line.

As stated in my reply to the Paul’s Thorn objection, you could use the same illogic about this once-used word to “prove” that Paul’s thorn was a swarm of African killer bees!

The point of the phrase “thorn in the flesh” was that something was an annoyance to Paul, not necessarily a bodily one. It is similar to saying, “Dealing with unbelieving literature is a pain in the neck,” which does not mean that reading objections to divine healing literally causes neck pain. Some claim that “in the flesh” proves that the phrase must literally refer to bodily trouble, but to be consistent, you would have to say that “thorn” must literally mean a sharp splinter or thorn in Paul’s body.

Books like Thayer’s Greek Lexicon are highly regarded in some circles, but they do not have the same weight as Scripture itself!