What can people in the modern age not understand about the 39 lashes?
People today cannot comprehend the physical devastation produced by thirty-nine lashes. Most victims could not endure that many; many died while being whipped, so authorities often stopped the whipper at twenty-five or thirty. The beaten human body would have been unrecognizable to modern observers, especially in comfortable Western settings.
Les explains that very few victims could take that many lashes. Usually the highest authority, such as the chief priest, had to stop the whipper before reaching thirty-nine, because most men could not endure it and would die while being whipped; often they stopped at maybe twenty-five or thirty. He says people in the modern age can have no concept of what a human being looked like after being beaten thirty-nine times. He also notes that stoning was even worse: the Jews would use rocks so big it took two hands to smash them down, leaving the corpse obscene. The Apostle Paul went through such suffering. Les reminds his western audience that most have never had to suffer for their faith, yet the New Testament came at the cost of what this man had to go through.
Of the Jews five times received I forty stripes save one.
More Questions
Why did the chief priest have to stop the whipper before 39 lashes were finished?
Very few victims could endure 39 lashes; the highest authority, such as the chief priest, usually had to stop the whipper before that point because most men could not take it and would die while being whipped, so the beating often stopped at about 25 or 30.