Expositor's Greek Testament (Nicoll)

Galatians 6:11

The Greek text admits but one meaning. The use of the instrumental dative precludes the rendering, See how large a letter I write, which would require πηλίκα γράμματα : so that the verse obviously calls attention to the large letters employed by the writer from this point onwards. The statement in 2 Thessalonians 3:17, that he regularly dictated the body of his Epistles (cf. also Romans 16:22), merely attaching his signature by way of attestation, explains this appeal. The size of the letters attested the difficulty which he found in writing with his imperfect sight, and the effort he was now making on their behalf proved his anxiety for the welfare of his Galatian disciples. They were evidently well aware of his infirmity, and needed no explanation of this pathetic allusion to his blindness. It may, therefore, be reasonably read in connexion with Galatians 4:15. Probably the prolonged attack of ophthalmia which had threatened the destruction of his sight had seriously impaired it, and they who had watched his sufferings with such tender sympathy would now be quick to feel for the privation which the attack had entailed upon him. ἔγραψα : I write. The epistolary aorist is constantly used to denote personal acts of the writer at the time (2 Corinthians 9:3; Ephesians 6:22; Colossians 4:8; Philemon 1:19; Philemon 1:21).

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Expositor's Greek Testament (Nicoll)

Galatians 6:11

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