The forty lashes less one: according to Deut 25.1-3, the maximum number of whip strokes that could be given a guilty person when punished by a Hebrew court was forty. In order that the number not surpass forty by accidental miscounting and the law be violated, tradition limited the maximum number to thirty-nine. These whippings were done with leather straps. Good News Translation and Revised English Bible say simply the “thirty-nine lashes.” Possible restructurings of this verse are as follows: “I received punishment with the whip at the hands of the Jews five different times. Each time they gave me thirty-nine strokes” or “Five times the Jews whipped me, using thirty-nine strokes each time.”

Quoted with permission from Omanson, Roger L. and Ellingworth, Paul. A Handbook on Paul’s Second Letter to the Corinthians. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1993. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .