Bulletin Articles
“One for Good Measure”
Categories: Iron sharpens iron“Five times I received at the hands of the Jews the forty lashes less one” (2Co 11.24). Paul includes this in his list of sufferings, and then moves on without explanation. In front of “forty lashes less one,” which is an unnecessarily verbose way to say thirty-nine, he places a definite article: the forty lashes less one—you know, the ones we’re all familiar with. That’s the idea, at least, but we’re not so familiar, anymore. So what does he mean?
“…if the guilty man deserves to be beaten, the judge shall cause him to lie down and be beaten in his presence with a number of stripes in proportion to his offense. Forty stripes may be given him, but not more, lest, if one should go on to beat him with more stripes than these, your brother be degraded in your sight.” (Deuteronomy 25.2-3)
God limited floggings to forty strokes, and by Paul’s time tradition further limited it to thirty-nine, to avoid transgressing the law by accidentally miscounting. This became so ingrained, that Paul could say, “the forty lashes less one,” and his audience knew exactly what he meant.
English has an expression, a baker’s dozen, with a strikingly similar origin. In 13th-century England, there was concern over vendors shorting their customers, by making their products smaller, without decreasing the price. This happens today, by the way, and is sometimes called, “shrinkflation.” It helps to explain your ever-increasing grocery bills, and God had covered this in the Law of Moses as well, saying later in the same chapter,
“You shall not have in your bag two kinds of weights, a large and a small. You shall not have in your house two kinds of measures, a large and a small. A full and fair weight you shall have, a full and fair measure you shall have, that your days may be long in the land that the Lord your God is giving you. For all who do such things, all who act dishonestly, are an abomination to the Lord your God.” (Deuteronomy 25.13-16)
In 13th-century England, the Law of Moses wasn’t in force, but English law established price and weight controls for things like bread. The penalty for shorting a customer was often, coincidentally, a flogging. When a customer ordered a dozen loaves, an easy way for the baker to make sure he didn’t inadvertently skimp on the total weight, was to include an extra—hence, a baker’s dozen.
We have another expression, that grew out of the same problem: one for good measure. There’s no specific backstory this time, but we’ve all encountered situations in which we’re not sure what is enough, but would rather err on the side of too much, than to come up short. “One for good measure,” then, means an extra thrown in, to make sure the total is at least what it ought to be. And here, we come back to the Apostles, although before Paul was included in their number. In the early days of the church in Jerusalem, the Jewish council took exception to the gospel of Christ, and told the Apostles to stop preaching it. They went right back to preaching, and were hauled back before the council, most of whose members
were enraged and wanted to kill them. But a Pharisee in the council named Gamaliel, a teacher of the law held in honor by all the people, stood up and gave orders to put the men outside for a little while. (Acts 5.33-34)
Gamaliel served as the voice of reason, and while he was far from convinced Peter and the rest were right about Jesus, he advised leaving them alone and letting this Christianity thing fizzle out like other Messiah cults that had arisen around that time.
So they took his advice, and when they had called in the apostles, they beat them and charged them not to speak in the name of Jesus, and let them go. (Acts 5.39b-40)
This seems like a strange way to take Gamaliel’s advice, which was to “let them alone” (v38). It only makes sense in light of the fact that most of them were ready to kill the Apostles, probably in the same fashion as they did, in fact, kill Stephen a short time later—as an out-of-control mob, dressed up in a thin veneer of legal proceedings. They were convinced to back away from this approach, for the moment, but that wouldn’t entirely stop them from lashing out—with literal lashes, in this case. This unnecessary measure could be rationalized—we’re just trying to dissuade them from spreading false prophecy!—but while Gamaliel explicitly entertained the possibility the Apostles’ teaching came from God (v39a), the others obviously weren’t on board with that part, and they weren’t about to let them walk away unscathed, after ignoring the council’s previous warning (Ac 4.18). The punishment was for the gratification of the council, not for the good of the community, and certainly not for the good of the Apostles. It was thrown in, as we say, for good measure.
When we see Satan at work in these men, we’re left with a warning against this kind of bitter and selfish motivation, particularly when it’s covered up in self-righteousness. We begin to see more clearly why God imposed a strict limit on this type of punishment, because it’s so easy to abuse, and none of us is immune to that temptation! Better, instead, to follow the example provided by the Apostles, who suffered this punishment unjustly, and nevertheless “left the presence of the council, rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer dishonor for the name” (v41). That kind of thing isn’t an unfortunate cost of being a Christian—it’s a stated goal! Jesus said,
“they will deliver you over to councils, and you will be beaten in synagogues, and you will stand before governors and kings for my sake, to bear witness before them.”(Mark 13.9)
Jeremy Nettles
