Cambridge Greek Testament Commentary

Galatians 2:10

μόνον (Galatians 1:23) τῶν πτωχῶν. Position for emphasis. The poor Jewish-Christians at Jerusalem for whom in fact St Paul carried alms at least twice, once earlier than this agreement (Acts 11:29-30) and again on his last journey (1 Corinthians 16:3; 2 Corinthians 9:1 sqq.; Romans 15:26-27; Acts 24:17) when he wrote this epistle. Perhaps the mention of the subject here is due to its occupying his mind at the time. See Introduction, p. xxi.

ἵνα. “An innovation in Hellenistic is ἵνα c. subj. in commands, which takes the place of the classical ὅπως c. fut. indic.” (Moulton, Proleg. 1906, p. 178). So Ephesians 5:33. Here the command is indirect (2 Corinthians 8:7), still representing the object of the implied compact, Galatians 2:9. ἵνα follows μόνον also in Galatians 6:12 (where however see note), and Ignatius ends his solemn enumeration of the torments that are coming on him μόνον ἵνα Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ ἐπιτύχω.

μνημονεύωμεν. On the one hand he and Barnabas were not to be so absorbed in Gentile work as to forget the needs of the poor believers of their own nation, and, on the other, mercy as twice blessed would foster the sense of unity in both Jewish receivers and Gentile givers.

ὃ … αὐτὸ τοῦτο ποιῆσαι. The pleonastic use of the pronoun after the relative is essentially a semitism (Mark 7:25), but the αὐτὸ τοῦτο is more than this, explaining and emphasizing the relative; cf. Blass, Gram. § 50. 4. For αὐτὸ τοῦτο see 2 Peter 1:5.

καὶ ἐσπούδασα, “I was even anxious.”

The singular is employed probably because Barnabas had left him before he was able to carry it out. But the emphasis is not on “I” (as though ἐγὼ were expressed) but on the verb. The reason for his use of the aorist is not clear. Apparently it regards the whole of his life from his conversion to the present time as belonging to the past. Ramsay strangely limits it to the incidents of his visit to Jerusalem then (Gal. p. 300). It perhaps suggests some acquaintance on the part of the Galatians with his feelings on the subject, and so far illustrates 1 Corinthians 16:1, but throws no light on the relative dates of the two epistles.

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Cambridge Greek Testament Commentary

Galatians 2:10

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