A ’Thorn in the Flesh’: The Appropriation of Textual Meaning

Abstract

One of the central issues in Pentecostal hermeneutics is how the reader enters into the biblical narrative and appropriates the meaning of the biblical text. The issue of how a reader is to appropriate the biblical text is clearly raised in discussions of Paul’s ’thorn in the flesh’ (2 Cor. 12.10). Does the meaning of this ’thom in the flesh’ apply to Paul alone or does he urge his readers to appropriate that meaning for themselves? After various meanings of the ’thom in the flesh’ are examined, it becomes clear that Paul’s account of his experience is a ’testimony’ that invites his readers to enter into the world of the biblical text. When they do this, they allow their lives to be shaped by the same understanding which has illuminated the meaning of the ’thom in the flesh’ for Paul: ’My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness’ (2 Cor. 12.10).