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To: drstevej
Paul tells us he was repeatedly beaten [2 Corinthians 11:24, Acts 16:21]. He was beaten for his preaching of Jesus. He was beaten as was Jesus. Isn't this a sufficient explanation of "the marks of the Lord Jesus."

I though at first you might be correct. In Galations 6:11-17 Paul is arguing against those who would be circumcised to " avoid being persecuted for the cross of Christ." But if you look in the Greek text for this verse, you find the word used for mark is stigma. Here is the definition for stigma:

1) a mark pricked in or branded upon the body. To ancient oriental usage, slaves and soldiers bore the name or the stamp of their master or commander branded or pricked (cut) into their bodies to indicate what master or general they belonged to, and there were even some devotee's who stamped themselves in this way with the token of their gods

35 posted on 08/27/2003 9:25:11 AM PDT by Between the Lines ("What Goes Into the Mind Comes Out in a Life")
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To: Between the Lines
What in the text makes you conclude these were supernaturally produced marks?

stigma:

Luow-Nida =
scar, mark (of a slave)

Liddell-Scott =
st°gma st°zw the mark of a pointed instrument, a tattoo-mark, brand, Hdt., Ntest.

Beatings were often done with chords tipped with metal which made whelps and punctures of the skin. The greek term describes well the marks of a scouraging. And Paul proclaimed himself a slave of Jesus Christ.

There is no contextual support for miraculous scars. And Paul's own account of his beatings and claim to be a slave of Jesus Christ make the term very accurate without imagining these marks to be "stigmata" in the sense the term is used in this article.

37 posted on 08/27/2003 9:38:11 AM PDT by drstevej
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