Stripes

Flogging or stripes (malkot in Hebrew, mastiges in Greek) was a prescribed judicial punishment in the Mosaic law, limited to a maximum of forty blows so that the offender would not be degraded beyond what the law allowed (Deut. 25:1–3). The later rabbinic practice reduced this to thirty-nine ("forty save one") as a safeguard against miscounting; Paul twice refers to receiving "forty stripes save one" from synagogue authorities (2 Cor. 11:24), indicating this punishment was applied to him five times.

Roman flogging (flagellatio) was far more severe than Jewish stripes, using a whip with lead or bone tips that could lacerate the flesh to the bone. It was administered to Jesus before the crucifixion (Matt. 27:26; Mark 15:15). Paul also received three Roman beatings with rods (Acts 16:22–23; 2 Cor. 11:25). Isaiah 53:5 — "by his stripes we are healed" — became the locus classicus for the substitutionary understanding of Christ's suffering.