Galatians 1 - Introduction
ΠΡΟΣ ΓΑΛΑΤΑΣ [6] [6] א ABDEFGK 17, etc.... [ Continue Reading ]
ΠΡΟΣ ΓΑΛΑΤΑΣ [6] [6] א ABDEFGK 17, etc.... [ Continue Reading ]
APOSTOLIC ADDRESS, BENEDICTION AND DOXOLOGY. The Epistle opens with the author's name and the designation of his office, _Paul, an Apostle_. So far it follows the regular practice of Apostolic Epistles in advancing at the outset a claim to attentive hearing. But circumstances gave in this case a spe... [ Continue Reading ]
οἱ σὺν ἐμοὶ. No name is mentioned: neither Timothy nor Silas, nor any other companion of Paul known to the Galatians can have been with him when he wrote, nor is the name mentioned of any Christian congregation; probably he was residing in some Greek city in which no Church had yet been formed. The... [ Continue Reading ]
The apostolic blessing is here as elsewhere summed up in the comprehensive words _grace and peace_. These include the lifegiving power of the spirit as well as the assurance of God's forgiving love in Christ and peace with an accusing conscience. This verse affirms once more the co-operation of the... [ Continue Reading ]
περὶ τ. ἁμαρτιῶν. The sin offerings of the Law were designated περὶ ἁμαρτίας (_cf._ Hebrews 10:6; Hebrews 10:8), but περί and ὑπέρ were equally applicable with reference to Christ's offering of Himself for our sins; the former fixing attention on the effect of His sacrifice in doing away sin, the la... [ Continue Reading ]
ᾧ ἡ δόξα, _sc._ ἐστιν. Our versions supply ἔστω and turn the clause accordingly into an invocation of praise. But the insertion of the article points rather to an affirmation, _whose is the glory_. The verb is usually omitted in the doxology, but ἐστιν is added in 1 Peter 4:11. _The glory_ consists... [ Continue Reading ]
μετατίθεσθε : _ye are removing_ (not _removed_ as in A.V.). The agitators had not yet achieved any decisive success, though the Galatians were disposed to lend too ready an ear to their suggestions. It was not so much their actual progress, as the evidence afforded of the instability of the Galatian... [ Continue Reading ]
THE APOSTLE EXPRESSES SURPRISE AT THE SUDDEN DEFECTION OF HIS CONVERTS FROM THE ONLY TRUE GOSPEL, AND PRONOUNCES ANATHEMAS ON ALL PERVERTERS OF THE TRUTH. Paul is evidently startled at the tidings of a sudden revolution in Galatian feeling. His intense indignation is evinced by the vehemence of his... [ Continue Reading ]
ὃ οὐκ ἔστιν ἄλλο. The translation of this clause in A.V. and R.V. (_which is not another_) has caused great embarrassment by its apparent identification of the spurious Gospel with the true. Lightfoot pleads ingeniously that ἄλλο may mean another besides the true Gospel, and so interprets the clause... [ Continue Reading ]
ἡμεῖς. Paul here associates with himself the colleagues Barnabas, Silas, Timothy, who had combined with him to preach the Gospel. He desires to impress on his disciples that the controversy is not between one teacher and another, but between truth and falsehood: no minister of Christ, not even an an... [ Continue Reading ]
προειρήκαμεν. The contrast between this plural and the singular λέγω proves that Paul is here referring, not to previous warnings of his own by letter, but to joint warnings given by his companions Silas and Timothy as well as himself during his visit to the Churches. He never speaks of himself in t... [ Continue Reading ]
The order of words in the Greek text forbids the stress laid in our versions on the alternative _men or God_; the meaning of which is besides a little obscure in this connection. The true rendering of ἤ is _rather than_ (= μᾶλλον ἤ), as in Matthew 18:8; Luke 15:7; Luke 17:2; 1 Corinthians 14:19 : _A... [ Continue Reading ]
REPUDIATION OF CORRUPT MOTIVES. EVIDENCE FROM PAUL'S PERSONAL HISTORY THAT HIS CONVERSION WAS DUE TO GOD, AND THAT HE WAS TAUGHT THE GOSPEL BY GOD INDEPENDENTLY OF THE TWELVE AND OF JERUSALEM.... [ Continue Reading ]
γνωρίζω. Here, as in 1 Corinthians 12:3; 1 Corinthians 15:1, this verb has the force of _reminding_ rather than of _making known_. In all three passages the author calls attention to forgotten truths, which had once been well known.... [ Continue Reading ]
ἐγὼ. The personal pronoun is inserted, because the author is here laying stress on the special education he had received for his ministry of the Gospel He had not learnt it, like his converts, from human teaching, but by direct communion with God in spirit, as the Twelve had learnt it from Christ's... [ Continue Reading ]
Ἠκούσατε. The Galatians had no doubt heard from Paul himself of his former persecution of the Church. How frequently it formed the topic of his addresses to Jewish hearers may be gathered from his defence of himself at Jerusalem in Acts 22, and before Agrippa in Acts 26 Ἰουδαϊσμῷ. The rendering of t... [ Continue Reading ]
συνηλικιώτας. Saul had been educated at Jerusalem, and this word points to his contemporaries in the schools of the Pharisees. γένει. This term sometimes denotes _family_, but here _race and nation_, as in Acts 18:2; Acts 18:24. So also συγγενής in Romans 9:3; Romans 16:7; Romans 16:21. ζηλωτὴς. Thi... [ Continue Reading ]
ἀφορίσας. Paul looks back on his parentage and early years as a providential preparation for his future ministry: this view is justified by his antecedents. By birth at once a Hebrew, a Greek and Roman citizen, educated in the Hebrew Scriptures and in Greek learning, he combined in his own person th... [ Continue Reading ]
ἀποκαλύψαι … ἐν ἐμοὶ. These words taken alone might denote either an inward revelation to Paul himself, or a revelation through him to the Gentiles. But the context is decisive in favour of the former: for this revelation is not only associated closely with his conversion and his personal history be... [ Continue Reading ]
ἀνῆλθον. The religious position of Jerusalem as seat of the Temple and mother-city of the Church, its political importance, and its geographical position on the central heights of Palestine, combined to suggest the application of the terms _up_ and _down_ to journeys to and from Jerusalem. ἀποστόλου... [ Continue Reading ]
Ἔπειτα. The thrice-repeated Ἔπειτα in this verse, in Galatians 1:21, and in Galatians 2:1, singles out three events in the Apostle's life bearing on his intercourse with the Church of Jerusalem: his first introduction to them, his departure to a distant sphere of labour, and his return to Jerusalem... [ Continue Reading ]
εἰ μὴ Ἰάκωβον. εἰ μή may either state an exception to the preceding negative clause (= _except, save_), or merely qualify it (= _but only_), as it does in Luke 4:26, _to none of them, sc._, the widows in Israel, _but only to Sarepta in Sidon_; and in Galatians 1:7, _no other Gospel, only_ (εἰ μή) _t... [ Continue Reading ]
The solemnity of this appeal to God in attestation of His truth marks at once the importance which Paul attached to his independence of human teachers, and the persistency of the misrepresentation to which he had been exposed. ἰδοὺ. This imperative is always used interjectionally in Scriptures: the... [ Continue Reading ]
About ten years of the life of Paul, between his flight from Jerusalem to Tarsus and his return to Jerusalem for the Apostolic Council, are here passed over. They were spent, partly in and around Tarsus and Antioch, partly in the joint mission with Barnabas to Cyprus and Asia Minor. The Galatians we... [ Continue Reading ]
ἤμην δὲ ἀγν. The correct translation is not _I was unknown_ (as our versions render it), but _I was becoming unknown_. At the beginning of this period he was a familiar figure in Jerusalem, but in the course of ten years' absence he gradually became a stranger to the Christians of Judæa. ἐκκλησίαις.... [ Continue Reading ]
_The faith_ seems to be here identified with the living body of believers, for this verse describes Saul as making havoc of _the faith_, while Galatians 1:13 applies that term to the _Church_.... [ Continue Reading ]
They glorified God in Saul, ascribing the change entirely to the grace of God working on his heart.... [ Continue Reading ]