2 Corinthians 11:32

In Damascus the governor under Aretas the king guarded the city of the Damascenes in order to take me: and through a window was I let down in a basket by the wall, and escaped his hands.

Some scholars have objected to what they call the intrusion of this compact little narrative into Paul's letter at this point, insinuating that it is misplaced, or an interpolation, and that it apparently does not belong here. Such opinions are due to a lack of discerning Paul's evident purpose in the exceedingly significant placement of these verses exactly where they are found.

Before relating the glorious experience of being caught up into the third heaven, Paul would again emphasize his humility, doing so by placing the narrative of his undignified and inglorious flight from Damascus in the dead of night squarely alongside the account of his rapture into heaven, making the incident here a foil of the glorious experience next related. The same purpose is evident in the account of the thorn in the flesh, which account hems in the rapture narrative at the end of it. Hughes commented on this as follows:

Paul's rapture into the third heaven is hemmed in, as it were, on one side by the escape from Damascus, and on the other by the humiliating record of the "thorn in the flesh" (2 Corinthians 12:7ff) ... Paul was determined to keep himself in true perspective, that of a weak, unworthy mortal who owes everything to the grace of Almighty God.[54]

In this connection, it should be remembered that the chapter division here is awkward, tending to obscure the logical connection in the three episodes, the glorious one in the center, and the two inglorious ones on either side of it.

In Damascus ... The account of what occurred here harmonizes perfectly with Luke's record of the same event (Acts 9:23-25) "There is no discrepancy between Luke's assertion that the Jews watched the gates and Paul's that the ethnarch did so."[55] The word here rendered "governor" is actually "ethnarch" (English Revised Version margin). The ethnarch was appointed by the central authority to look after the interests of some particular race, in this case, the Jews. He was most certainly a Jew himself, as were those whom he appointed to guard the city.

Under Aretas the king ... It is this little phrase that gives one of the few solid clues to the chronology of Acts and the Pauline letters. Aretas reigned over Nabatea from 9 B.C. to 40 A.D.[56] The only time during his long reign, however, when he had authority over Damascus was during the reign of Caligula (37-41 A.D.).[57] Both Augustus and Tiberius who preceded Caligula, and Nero and his successors after him were the recognized rulers in Damascus; but the absence of any coins with Caligula's image in the collection of many coins from Damascus bearing images of the other Roman emperors confirms the fact mentioned here by Paul, not that anything Paul said NEEDED confirmation, but as another demonstration of his total accuracy. Paul's escape from Damascus sometime during Caligula's short reign together with the fact of the escape's being three years after his conversion fixes the date of the apostle's baptism between the years 35-40 A.D.

Through a window ... The comment of Tasker is appreciated. He said: "RSV translates this, `through a window in the wall'; and though the window was IN THE WALL, this is not an accurate translation of the original."[58] One might ask what is wrong with giving the true meaning in different words? What is wrong? The translator's integrity is at stake. If the translator is not going to give what the original says, he is not translating at all, but paraphrasing; and heaven knows that in this generation some place is needed where WHAT GOD SAID may be read, and not merely what some people think he meant.

Was I let down ... and escaped ... It is impossible to read the words "was I let down" apart from the sequel "he was caught up" (2 Corinthians 12:4). It is the abasement of his undignified escape that Paul deliberately placed as a foil of his being caught up into heaven.

There also seems to be in Paul's narrative of this event a feeling on his part that it was symbolical, typical and prophetic of all the hardships and sufferings that he was destined to undergo as a Christian, and at the same time a pledge of God's perfect providence and blessing which would inevitably protect and preserve him for the fulfillment of the task to which God had called him. The victory of Christ over the proud persecutor also shines in this event; because nothing could have shown any more dramatically the contrast between Saul of Tarsus and Paul the apostle, than the two situations of his approach to Damascus and his exit from it. He approached breathing out threatenings and slaughter, but he fled as a hunted animal in the dead of night. There at Damascus he sheathed forever the sword of the persecutor and unsheathed the eternal sword of the Spirit, the gospel of Christ. Strangely enough, even in the ignominy of this humiliating withdrawal from Damascus, Paul joined the company of the immortal heroes of Israel. Over the wall of Jericho, Rahab delivered the faithful spies; and David, the shepherd king himself, was delivered from death through a window (Joshua 2:15; 1 Samuel 19:12).

[54] Philip E. Hughes, op. cit., p. 422.

[55] Ibid.

[56] The New Bible Dictionary (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1962), p. 80.

[57] The Encyclopedia Britannica (Chicago: William Benton, Publisher, 1961), p. 599.

[58] R. V. G. Tasker, op. cit., p. 169.