A piece of my intellect always cringes when a single verse is pulled out in isolation. Context is so important.
From the Peshitta:
"
12But this that I do, I also shall do to cut off the accusations of those who seek a pretext, so in that by which they brag, they will be found like us.
13For these are false Apostles and treacherous workers and they liken themselves to the Apostles of The Messiah.
14And not to wonder at this, for if he who is Satan resembles an Angel of light,
15It is not a great matter if also his Ministers imitate Ministers of righteousness, those whose end will be like their works.
16But again, I say, no man should think of me as if I am a fool; otherwise, even as a fool receive me, so that I may brag a little.
17Everything that I speak, it is not by our Lord that I speak, but as in folly on this occasion of boasting.
18Because many boast in the flesh, I also shall brag.
19Are you of those who are listening to the stupid, while you are wise?
20And do you submit to the one who is subject to you and to him who embezzles you and to him who takes from you and to him who exalts himself over you and to him who strikes you on your face?
21I speak as one in dishonor, as if we are poor through stupidity. I say that in all things that a man presumes, I also presume.
22If they are Hebrews, I am also; if they are Israelites, I am also; if they are the seed of Abraham, I am also.
23If they are Ministers of The Messiah, in stupidity I say that I am greater than they, in more toil than they, with more wounds than they, in chains more than they, in death many times.
24And I have been whipped by the Judeans five times with 40 stripes minus one. 25Three times I have been scourged with rods, one time I was stoned, three times I have been shipwrecked, a day and a night I have been in the sea without a ship,
26On many journeys, in dangers of rivers, in dangers of robbers, in dangers from my kindred, in dangers from the Gentiles, in dangers in the city, in dangers in the desert, in dangers in the sea, in dangers by false brethren,
27In toil and in fatigue, in many vigils, in hunger and in thirst, in many fasts, in cold and in nakedness,
28Aside from much more, the crowds who are with me everyday, and my care which I have in my person for all the churches.
29Who is suffering, and I do not suffer? Who has been subverted and I do not burn?"
I took the liberty of bolding the one verse you mention.
Frankly its been a while (some would say too long) and this passage escaped my memory. Seeing it again in context, I think there is a good bit more going on than a solid whipping (and if memory serves, I think 40 lashes was considered a death sentence, and why "minus one" {39} was just a good stout corporal punishment). Paul admits as much as "bragging" about all he has been through, which includes a good bit more than the one verse lets on. I get the sense, in context, that he is making the point to his audience that he's been through a lot to bring the Gospel (Good News) to them, and that if what he was up to were not "of G-d" he could have easily succumbed to any of these adversities.
Galatians, from the Peshitta:
"
1Paulus an Apostle, not by the children of men, neither by a son of man, but by Yeshua The Messiah and God his Father, he who raised him from among the dead,
2And all the brethren who are with me, to the assembly that is in Galatia.
3Grace be with you and peace from God The Father and from our Lord Yeshua The Messiah,
4He who gave himself for the sake of our sins to set us free from this evil world, according to the will of God Our Father,
5To whom be glory to the eternity of eternities. Amen.
6I marvel how quickly you have been turned away from The Messiah, he who called you by his grace, unto another gospel
7Which does not exist, but there are some who trouble you and wish to change The Gospel of The Messiah.
8But even if we or an Angel from Heaven should evangelize you outside of that which we have evangelized you, we or he would be damned;
9Just as I said to you from the first and now again I say to you, that if anyone evangelizes you outside of what you have received, he shall be damned.
10Do I plead now before the children of men or before God, or do I seek to please the children of men? For if until now I have been pleasing men, I have not been a Servant of The Messiah.
11But I notify you my brethren, that The Gospel that was preached by me was not from a human;
12For I neither received nor learned it from a man, but by the revelation of Yeshua The Messiah.
13For you have heard of my way of life, which from the first was in Judaism, that I was greatly persecuting the Church of God and destroying it. 14And I was greatly surpassing many associates in Judaism who were of my people, and I was very zealous in the teaching of my ancestors;
15But when he who separated me from my mother's womb chose and called me by his grace
16To reveal his Son in me, that I would proclaim him among the Gentiles, immediately, I did not reveal it to flesh and blood,
17Neither did I go to Jerusalem to the Apostles who were before me, but I went to Arabia and returned again to Dramsuq.
18And after three years I went to Jerusalem to see Kaypha (Cephas -jt3), and I stayed with him 15 days.
19But I saw none of the other Apostles except Jacob, the brother of Our Lord.
20But these things that I write to you, behold, before God, I do not lie.
21After these things I came to the regions of Syria and Qiliqia.
22And the churches in Judea, these who are in The Messiah, did not know me by face,
23But they had heard only this: “He who from the first persecuted us, now, behold, he preaches that faith which from earlier times he had overthrown.”
24And they were praising God for me."
Again the implied verse is bolded.
Seems to me here he is admonishing the Galatians from falling away from what they originally were given. In an effort to drill the point home, he says those who teach a different method or message are "damned." That he, in the beginning, hid out for 3 years in Arabia before meekly coming back to Jerusalem to meet privately with Cephas and James.
I'm not sure what "some scholars" are on about. I think a lot of them toy with semantics.
