Of the Jews five times received I forty stripes less one.
All Commentaries on 2 Corinthians 11:24 Go To 2 Corinthians 11
John Chrysostom
AD 407
There was an ancient law that anyone who received more than forty lashes would be permanently disgraced among the Jews. So in order to prevent this from happening as a result of the impetuosity of the executioner, the law decreed that the forty lashes should be inflicted excepting one, so that even if the executioner overdid it he would not go past forty.
