Galatians 2:16

δὲ is omitted by the Text. Rec. with ADc.

16. εἰδότες. The acquired knowledge (γνόντες, Galatians 4:9) has become so intimate a part of his elementary knowledge that St Paul can write εἰδότες (Galatians 4:8) even here.

δὲ. See notes on Textual Criticism.

It suggests the contrast to natural privileges and prejudices.

ὅτι οὐ δικαιοῦται ἄνθρωπος. δικ. the first occurrence of this word (or its derivatives) which is so characteristic of this epistle. It is used throughout in its “forensic” sense of “pronouncing righteous,” “justifying,” not in the ethical sense of “making righteous,” a meaning which some scholars think it never possesses. See Sanday and Headlam, Rom. pp. 30 sq.

ἐξ. Three times in this verse the thought is of the source (whether false or true) of “righteousness,” “justification,” but in Galatians 2:17 of the one Sphere in which it is to be found (ἐν), and both in the next clause and in Galatians 2:21 of the means (διά), true or false, by which it is obtained.

ἔργων νόμου. The genitive νόμου is neither subjective, as though the Law produced works, nor objective, as though the aim of works were to fulfil the Law, but possessive, works which belong to, and are required by, the Law (Sieffert). On the meaning of νόμος without the article see Appendix, Note E.

ἐὰν μὴ, “save,” R.V. rightly as a verbal translation, though misleading. To be joined with οὐ δικαιοῦται. “But only” gives the sense. St Paul had intended to write οὐ δικαιοῦται ἐὰν μή, but to make his meaning clearer inserted ἐξ ἔργων νόμου, wrecking the grammar. Cf. John 5:19 and εἰ μή Galatians 1:19. Similarly in Revelation 21:27 the words εἰ μὴ mark the exception “not to ὁ ποιῶν βδέλυγμα καὶ ψεῦδος but to all who seek to enter, as if the sentence had run οὐ μὴ εἰσὲλθῃ οὐδείς, εἰ μή κ.τ.λ.” (Swete).

The Roman Catholic commentators join ἐὰν μή to ἐξ ἔργ. νόμ. explaining that we are justified by works done by means of faith. But this is to make under other terms that mixture of Law and Grace against which this epistle is directed, cf. Galatians 3:11-12. Compare the Introduction, c. 6.

διὸ πίστεως Χρ. Ἰης., “by means of faith in Christ Jesus.”

καὶ ἡμεῖς, “even we” with all our privileges, taking up the ἡμεῖς of Galatians 2:15.

εἰς Χρ. Ἰης. ἐπιστεύσαμεν. πιστεύω εἰς, though common in St John’s writings, occurs in St Paul’s only here and Romans 10:14; Philippians 1:29. It has, as it seems, with him the same strong sense as with St John, to cease to lean on oneself and to place one’s entire trust on Christ. Observe the “ingressive” aorist, like ἐβασίλευσε … Γύγης, Gyges became king, Herodot. I. 13 (Gildersleeve, § 239).

ἴνα δικαιωθῶμεν ἐκ πίστεως Χριστοῦ. ἐκ is stronger than the preceding διά, and excludes all sources of justification other than faith on Christ.

The omission of Ἰησοῦ may be due only to a wish to avoid repetition, but perhaps to a desire to emphasize the thought that a true Jew finds his justification in Messiah. Cf. Galatians 2:4 note on ἐν Χρ. Ἰης.

καὶ οὐκ ἐξ ἔργων νόμου, “and not from works of the Law” (vide supra). No, not even from the moral works. Indeed, from one point of view, the burden of the Law lies in its moral, not its ceremonial side (cf. Romans 7:7 sqq.). “Neque per se intolerabile jugum erat lex ceremonialis, sed robur ex morali habuit, Acts 15. Itaque lex moralis est legalior, ut ita dicam, quam ceremonialis, quae simul erat quasi evangelium elementare et praeliminare” (Bengel).

This is a hard saying to Jews who wonder that St Paul can speak of the burden of the Law, when their Rabbis rejoice in learning a fresh duty of it for their accomplishment (Güdemann, Jüd. Apologetik, 1906, pp. 190 sq., cf. Schechter, Some Aspects of Rabbinic Theology, 1909, pp. 149 sqq.), as though the Law were a bundle of laws by which to acquire merit. But St Paul is thinking of the inner demands on conscience and the soul made by the Law as the revelation of holiness, and the Rabbis show little sense of humility or self-knowledge.

Observe the difference of St Paul’s language from 4 (2) Ezra 9:7 “every one that shall be saved, and shall be able to escape by his works, or by faith, whereby he hath believed, shall be preserved,” or 2Es 13:23 “even such as have works, and faith toward the Almighty” (see examples of pre-Christian Jewish statements of the value of faith in Bousset, Religion des Judentums, 1906, pp. 223 sqq.). Compare the notes on Galatians 3:10.

ὅτι. Introducing a proof from Scripture for his assertion of the insufficiency of the Law.

ἐξ ἔργ. νόμ. “from the source of works of the Law.”

οὐ δικαιωθήσεται πᾶσα σάρξ. Psalms 143 :(142) 2. Literally “there shall not be justified—any flesh at all.” A Hebraism for our more prosaic “no flesh shall be justified.” See Winer-Schmiedel, § 26. 10. πᾶσα σάρξ is itself a Hebraism for “all men,” Genesis 6:12.