Galatians 6:17

Henceforth let no man trouble me; for I bear branded on my body the marks of Jesus.

This is doubtless a reference to the scars of such suffering as Paul's stoning at Lystra, among these very Galatians, on the first tour; and he considered such "marks" as positive and undeniable evidence of the genuineness of his apostleship. Any interpretation of this passage as a statement that nail-prints had appeared in Paul's hand and feet in some supernatural manifestations of the Stigmata belongs to the Dark Ages. Nothing like that is in the passage.

There might be, however, some comparison intended with certain practices among the heathen. "The mark of the pagan god Dionysus was that of an ivy leaf burned into the flesh with a branding iron,"[30] and such a practice widely known to the Galatians might have suggested Paul's using the term "branded" here; but beyond that, there could have been no connection. As Ramsay eloquently declared, "The marks that branded Paul as a slave of Jesus were the deep cuts of the lictor's rods of Pisidian Antioch and the stones of Lystra!"[31]

[30] E. Huxtable, op. cit., p. 314.

[31] William M. Ramsay, op. cit., p. 472.