Galatians 4:15

Galatians 4:15. Where [1] is now your self-congratulation (or, your felicitation of yourselves)? What has become of the boasting of your blessedness, of your rejoicing in my teaching, since you turned away from the freedom of the gospel to the slavery of the law? Have you the same reason now to congratulate yourselves and enjoy that beatitude, which you felt at the time of your first love, when you were ready to make the greatest sacrifices for me in return for the benefit of the gospel? The Apostle asks this Question with painful affection to make the readers feel ashamed. Other explanations: (1.) What [2] then [was] your self-congratulation! i.e., How hollow and unmeaning was your boast of happiness in view of your speedy apostasy! (2.) why, then, did you think yourselves so happy? Answer: On account of the free grace of the gospel. (3.) How great was your happiness! (Ungrammatical on account of the particle and the meaning of the noun.)

[1] Πο ῦ according to the reading of the oldest and best MSS.

[2] According to the received text which reads τίς for πο ῦ, and inserts ῆ ν after ο ῡ ν.

You would have plucked out your eyes and given (them) to me. (Literally, without the ᾶ ν, Having plucked out your eves you gave (them) to me. The Greek more vividly indicates the certainty of the deed if it had been possible and profitable to Paul.) You were ready to make the greatest sacrifice to relieve my sufferings. The eyes are universally regarded as the most precious member of the body. Comp. Psalms 17:8: ‘Keep me as the apple of the eye;' Deuteronomy 32:10; Proverbs 7:2. Hence the expression, ‘dear as the apple of the eye.' The emphasis lies on ‘eyes,' not on ‘your' (‘your awn' is an interpolation of the E. V.). No inference can be drawn from this passage that Paul's infirmity consisted in disease of the eyes (acute ophthalmia), as if to say: ‘Ye would have replaced my diseased eyes with your healthy eyes, if it had been possible.' Such a sacrifice would have been morally impossible, because barbarous, absurd, and useless, and not permissible by Paul.