Note 6 at Gal. 4:13: Some people have taken Paul's mention of an "infirmity of the flesh" here and his reference in verse 15 to the Galatians being willing to pluck out their own eyes for him (see note 8 at v. 15 below), as referring to the sickness that Paul called his "thorn in the flesh" in 2 Corinthians 12:7. However, as pointed out in note 14 at 2 Corinthians 12:7, page 1041, Paul's "thorn in the flesh" was not sickness.

The assumption that this verse and verse 15 are referring to some rare Aramaic eye disease could only be made if someone is already disposed to believe that Paul had some chronic sickness. These passages certainly do not provide evidence for that conclusion on their own.

A much more obvious interpretation would be that Paul is referring to some of the physical effects of a stoning he received while in Galatia. In Acts 14:19 Paul was stoned and left for dead (see note 3 at Acts 14:20, p. 658). This happened in Lystra (Acts 14:8), which was one of the main cities of the region of Galatia (see THE RECIPIENTS OF THE EPISTLE OF PAUL TO THE GALATIANS, p. 1050). Paul was either dead or so close to death that his persecutors thought he was dead. Certainly, he had cuts and bruises all over his body as he preached to these very people to whom he was writing this letter. It would not be unthinkable,then, that he had received injuries to his eyes, which he is referring to here. He did say that this infirmity was "at the first," implying that this was not a permanent, chronic problem, but a temporary thing that had healed. In verse 15, Paul may well have been using a figure of speech just to emphasize that these Galatians were willing to do anything for him at one time (see note 8 at v. 15, below).

Paul is referring to injuries he had sustained through this stoning to make the point that in the beginning, these Galatians didn't despise Paul, as they did now, but received him as they would an angel of God. Why had they changed? Paul hadn't changed. The gospel hadn't changed. It was these Galatians who were inconsistent. He is putting them in remembrance of their original reception of him to rekindle their love for him and to cause them to submit themselves once again to the gospel which he preached.