Expositor's Greek Testament (Nicoll)

Galatians 2:6

The author here resumes the broken thread of the narrative, which he interrupted after Galatians 2:2 in order to show that his conciliatory attitude at Jerusalem was not due to weakness or irresolution. He now proceeds to relate the sequel of the advances which he made at Jerusalem to the Pharisaic party. The repetition of the phrase οἱ δοκοῦντες, and the fresh transition from the plural εἴξαμεν to the singular ἐμοί, indicate the fresh shifting of the scene from Antioch back to Jerusalem. The first clause is left unfinished, for the mention of these men who seemed to be anything leads the author to interrupt his narrative again that he may challenge their right to be heard; he breaks, accordingly, into the disparaging comment, what manner of men they had once been, maketh no matter a forcible expression of his disappointment at finding so little Christian sympathy or life where he had hoped to find so much. After this parenthesis he remoulds the form of his sentence; and οἱ δοκοῦντες, the subject of ἦσαν, becomes the subject of the verb προσανέθεντο. Instead, therefore, of concluding the sentence in its original form, and stating that from those who so seemed he got no response, he writes, to me, I say, those who so seemed communicated nothing further. τῶν δοκούντων εἶναί τι. These are identified with τοῖς δοκοῦσιν in Galatians 2:2. They are there described as men whom it was thought advisable to approach in private, here as men who were thought to be anything, i.e., to have any weight in the Church. The English version somewhat suggests that they held high office and were in positions of dignity, perhaps Apostles; but the Greek order in that case must have been τί εἶναι, nor can that emphasis be justified in rendering the enclitic τι after εἶναι. They were probably party-leaders, but the Apostle writes of them with scant respect as men who were now little better than a name. ὁποῖοί ποτε ἦσαν …: What manner of men they had once been maketh no matter to me. The margin of the Revised Version rightly renders ὁποῖοι as an indirect interrogative dependent on διαφέρει, and gives to ποτε its true sense of formerly, in time past (as in Galatians 1:13; Galatians 1:23). Coupled as it is here with ποτε, ἦσαν has the force of a pluperfect, and contrasts the character of these men as reported from past time with what Paul actually found them to be: he could get no brotherly help or counsel from them. Therefore he pronounces the adverse judgment upon them (πρόσωπον … λαμβάνει); for, like his Master (Luke 20:21), he regarded no man's person, if weighed in the balance and found wanting. ἐμοὶ … προσανέθεντο. This clause forms an antithesis to ἀνεθέμην τοῖς δοκοῦσιν in Galatians 2:2. Paul had laid before them an account of his successful ministry among the Greeks, but they had no further response to make in the shape of Christian sympathy, or of fresh argument in justification of their prejudices against him and his teaching.

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Expositor's Greek Testament (Nicoll)

Galatians 2:6

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