Galatians 2:4

διὰ δὲ κ.τ.λ. “But it was because of” R.V. marg. (a) This verse and the next most naturally are to be connected closely with Galatians 2:3, as explanatory of the reason why Titus was not circumcised. St Paul was going to say, But because of the nature of the arguments advanced I did not yield to them, but he alters the form of his sentence in describing the character of those who desired the circumcision of Titus. Jowett writes: “Altogether, three ideas seem to be struggling for expression in these ambiguous clauses: (1) Titus was not circumcised; (2) though an attempt was made by the false brethren to compel him; (3) which as a matter of principle we thought it so much the more our duty to resist. The ambiguity has arisen from the double connexion in which the clause διὰ τοὺς παρεισάκτους ψευδαδέλφους stands, (1) to ἠναγκάσθη which precedes, and (2) to οἷς οὐδὲ πρὸς ὥραν εἴξαμεν which follow.”

(b) It is possible however that St Paul here begins to say “on the contrary, the attempt to get Titus circumcised led to my official recognition by the recognized leaders of the Church at Jerusalem.” But if so St Paul is a long time in arriving at the point of saying so (Galatians 2:7).

τοὺς παρεισάκτους ψευδαδέλφους (2 Corinthians 11:26[66]), “the false brethreu who had been brought in secretly”: παρεισάκτους[67], cf. παρεισῆλθον infra and παρεισάγω 2 Peter 2:1. They had doubtless been brought into the Christian Church by over-zealous lovers of the Law. In Strabo XVII. p. 794 “it denotes the treacherous introduction of foreign enemies into a city by a faction within the walls” (Rendall). Cf. Polyb. I. 18. 3. It should be noted that Zahn thinks their introduction was not into the Christian Church generally, but into the sphere that belonged in a special sense to St Paul and Barnabas, the Gentile Church of Antioch and its dependent congregations of Syria and Cilicia. Cf. Galatians 1:21; Acts 15:1; Acts 15:23.

[66] Is affixed it means that all the passages are mentioned where the word occurs in the Greek Bible.
[67] Is affixed it means that all the passages are mentioned where the word occurs in the Greek Bible.

οἵτινες, “who in fact,” justifying the term ψευδαδέλφους. Romans 2:15; Colossians 2:23 note.

παρεισῆλθον. Romans 5:20[68]. Cf. παρεισεδύησαν Jude 1:4, and 2Ma 8:1 Judas Maccabaeus and his friends παρεισπορευόμενοι λεληθότες εἰς τὰς κώμας.

[68] Is affixed it means that all the passages are mentioned where the word occurs in the Greek Bible.

κατασκοπῆσαι[69]. Cf. Hebrews 11:31. To spy out, with the object as it seems of finding out any weak points and thus to injure.

[69] Is affixed to a word it means that all the passages are mentioned where that word occurs in the New Testament.

τὴν ἐλευθερίαν ἡμῶν ἣν ἔχομεν ἐν Χ. Ἰ. The first occurrence of the word which best sums up the fundamental thought of the epistle; cf. Galatians 5:1; Galatians 5:13; Galatians 4:22-31. The metaphor would be readily suggested by the universal presence of slaves, cf. Galatians 3:28, and there is no need to see in it a trace of the influence exerted on St Paul by the important school of Stoics at Tarsus (see Clemen, Religionsgeschichtliche Erklärung des N.T. 1909, p. 45). It is perhaps not wholly accidental that we have here also the first occurrence in this epistle of the compound Name in this order: “in Christ, yes even Jesus.”

ἡμῶν … ἵνα ἡμᾶς. St Paul felt his own liberty, both of action and spiritual life, bound up with that of his converts. Contrast ὑμᾶς Galatians 2:5.

καταδουλώσουσιν. Acts of manumission frequently forbade, under severe penalties, making freedmen slaves again (see Deissmann, Licht vom Osten, p. 235). Fut. indic, after ἵνα, certainly in 1 John 5:20. But as ου is often confused with ω in the popular Egyptian dialect there is some doubt which is here intended (Winer-Schmiedel, § 5. 21 f.). Cf. Galatians 4:17 note on ζηλοῦτε. καταδ., 2 Corinthians 11:20[70]. The middle voice of the Received Text is the common classical form, but both here and in Cor. the thought is that they enslave others, not to themselves, but to the Law.

[70] Is affixed to a word it means that all the passages are mentioned where that word occurs in the New Testament.