His "bodily presence was weak, and his speech contemptible" (of no value), in the superficial
judgment of the Corinthians, who missed the rhetorical ornaments, yet could not help admitting
that his "letters were weighty and strong."^360 Some of the greatest men have been small in size, and
some of the purest souls forbidding in body. Socrates was the homeliest, and yet the wisest of
Greeks. Neander, a converted Jew, like Paul, was short, feeble, and strikingly odd in his whole
appearance, but a rare humility, benignity, and heavenly aspiration beamed from his face beneath
his dark and bushy eyebrows. So we may well imagine that the expression of Paul’s countenance
was highly intellectual and spiritual, and that he looked "sometimes like a man and sometimes like
an angel."^361
He was afflicted with a mysterious, painful, recurrent, and repulsive physical infirmity,
which he calls a "thorn in the flesh, " and which acted as a check upon spiritual pride and
self-exultation over his abundance of revelations.^362 He bore the heavenly treasure in an earthly" Yes, without cheer of sister or of daughter—
Yes, w ithout stay of father or of son,
Lone on the land, and homeless on the water,
Pass I in patience till the work be done.
"Yet not in solitude, if Christ anear me
Waketh Him workers for the great employ;
Oh, not in solitude, if souls that hear me
Catch from my joyance the surprise of joy.
Hearts I have won of sister or of brother,
Quick on the earth or hidden in the sod
Lo, every heart awaiteth me, another
Friend in the blameless family of God."(^360) 2 Cor. 10:10ἡ παρουσία τοῦ σώματος ἀσθενὴς , καὶ ὁ λόγος ἐξουθενημένος, or, as Cod. B. reads, ἐξουδενημένος, which
has the same meaning. Comp. 10:1, where he speaks of his " lowly" personal appearance among the Corinthians (κατὰπρόσωπον
ταπεινός). He was little, compared with Barnabas (Acts 14:12).
(^361) This is from the tradition preserved in the apocryphal Acts of Thecla. See the description quoted above, p. 282. Other ancient
descriptions of Paul in the Philopatris of pseudo-Lucian (of the second, but more probably of the fourth century), Malala of
Antioch (sixth century), and Nicephorus (fifteenth century), represent Paul as little in stature, bald, with a prominent aquiline
nose, gray hair and thick beard, bright grayish eyes, somewhat bent and stooping, yet pleasant and graceful. See these descriptions
in Lewin’s St. Paul, II. 412. The oldest extant portraiture of Paul, probably from the close of the first or beginning of the second
century, was found on a large bronze medallion in the cemetery of Domitilla (one of the Flavian family), and is preserved in the
Vatican library. It presents Paul on the left and Peter on the right. Both are far from handsome, but full of character; Paul is the
homelier of the two, with apparently diseased eyes, open mouth, bald head and short thick beard, but thoughtful, solemn, and
dignified. See a cut in Lewin, II. 211. Chrysostom calls Paul the three-cubit man (ὁ τρίπηχυς ἄνθρωπος, Serm. in Pet. et Paul.).
Luther imagined: "St. Paulus war ein armes, dürres Männlein, wie Magister Philippus "(Melanchthon). A poetic description by
J. H. Newman see in Farrar I. 220, and in Plumptre on Acts, Appendix, with another (of his own). Renan (Les Apôtres, pp. 169
sqq.) gives, partly from Paul’s Epistles, partly from apocryphal sources, the following striking picture of the apostle: His behavior
was winning, his manners excellent, his letters reveal a man of genius and lofty aspirations, though the style is incorrect. Never
did a correspondence display rarer courtesies, tenderer shades, more amiable modesty and reserve. Once or twice we are wounded
by his sarcasm (Gal. 5: 12; Phil. 3:2). But what rapture! What fulness of charming words! What originality! His exterior did not
correspond to the greatness of his soul. He was ugly, short, stout, plump, of small head, bald, pale, his face covered with a thick
beard, an eagle nose, piercing eyes, dark eyebrows. His speech, embarrassed, faulty, gave a poor idea of his eloquence. With
rare tact he turned his external defects to advantage. The Jewish race produces types of the highest beauty and of the most
complete homeliness (des types de la plus grande beauté et de la plus complète laideur); but the Jewish homeliness is quite
unique. The strange faces which provoke laughter at first sight, assume when intellectually enlivened, a peculiar expression of
intense brilliancy and majesty (une sorte d’éclat profond et de majesté).
(^362) 2 Cor. 12:7-9; Gal. 4:13-15. Comp. also 1 Thess. 2:18; 1 Cor. 2:3; 2 Cor. 1:8, 9; 4:10. Of the many conjectures only three:
sick headache, acute ophthalmia, epilepsy, seem to answer the allusions of Paul which are dark to us at such a distance of time,
while they were clear to his personal friends. Tertullian and Jerome, according to an ancient tradition, favor headache; Lewin,
Farrar, and many others, sore eyes, dating the inflammation from the dazzling light which shone around him at Damascus (Acts
A.D. 1-100.