What Does 2 Corinthians 11:25 Mean?
Three times I was struck with rods, once I was pelted with stones, three times I was broken at sea, a night and a day I have been in the depth.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
Thrice was I beaten with rods, once was I stoned, thrice I suffered shipwreck, a night and a day I have been in the deep;THE KEY
The Greek word for “deep” belongs to the same word family as “sink,” placing the body inside the sea’s downward pull.
THE MEANING
When suffering comes in several forms, this verse gives each its own name: beating, stoning, shipwreck, and a night and day in the deep. It leaves the body inside the account instead of turning pain into an abstraction. Even the time spent in danger is counted.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The belief that severe suffering can be reduced to a vague “hard time” falls away here: the verse names the blows, wrecks, depth, and duration separately.
THE ROOT
βυθῷ
bythōi
GROWS FROM
βυθ-
byth-
The depth beneath the surface, especially the sea’s depths.
“deep” in this verse is bythōi. βυθῷ is a form of βυθός, “depth”; its word family includes βυθίζω, “to sink.” English gives the depth as a place, while Greek also echoes the motion of going under. The same family can describe both a vessel sinking and people being drowned in ruin.
ALSO GROWS
bythízesthai: To sink or go under.
βυθίζεσθαι
In Luke 5:7, this verb describes the ships beginning to sink, making the connection between the sea’s depth and the movement downward explicit.
bythízousin: To sink or drown someone.
βυθίζουσιν
In 1 Timothy 6:9, the same verb describes desires that drown people in destruction and ruin, extending the image of going under beyond the sea.
THE PATTERN
Scripture lets bodily peril keep its physical particulars: water, wreckage, impact, and time spent in danger.
To the chief Musician upon Shoshannim, A Psalm of David. Deliver me, O God, for the waters have come up to my living soul.The waters surrounded me up to my living soul; the deep closed in around me, and reeds wrapped about my head.And the rest, some on planks, and some on pieces of the ship. And so it came about that they were all delivered safely to land.THE THREAD
And they nodded to their partners in the other boat, that they should come and take hold with them. And they came and filled both boats, so that they began to sink into the deep.The verb “began to sink” comes from βυθίζω, the same word family as “deep” in this verse. Here the depth is where the shipwreck leaves the speaker; in Luke, boats are moving down into it.
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