Local legend at Paphos lays claim to a Column known as St Paul’s Pillar upon which it is said that Paul was tied and given the forty lashes minus one by the Jews, in other words he was scourged with 39 lashes, according to the Judaic system.
There is no actual historical evidence for this claim and it is one of those historical legends which could be true, or could be false. However, we do have a reference to Paul being beaten and given the forty lashes minus one for a total of 5 times, according to the composition date of that letter which is believed to have been written sometime around 53-57 AD we could conclude that Paul is referring to this event and since Acts of the Apostles which concludes around the year AD 60 and was most likely written around 60-61 AD, mentions not the events written in 2 Corinthians 11: 24 in AD 53-57, we can conclude that the book of Acts does not contain everything that happened during this period but contains a brief or record of important events that took place. Thus, it is possible that the events Paul writes about 2 Corinthians 11: 24 may include the scourging event at Paphos?
However, which columns or columns that Paul was tied upon, is subject to debate, if it matters, which I think it does from a historical perspective. The problem is that H V. Morton in his 1936 book “In the steps of St Paul” records that he visited Paphos and refers to this area where the Column now stands and concludes the area to be what must have been either a Roman Temple or a market place and refers to the “Two granite columns” and also “a broken Roman pillar surrounded by a whitewashed wall and covered with iron bands to prevent people from chipping off fragments as a cure for malaria. This is called St. Paul’s pillar.” (In the footsteps of St Paul. H V, Morton. Page 140.)
The point being that he adds a photograph in the book of the two larger granite columns and labels them, “St Paul’s Pillars”. I wonder if they too are also connected?
Simon Peter Sutherland 