Galatians 1:15

ὅτε δὲ … εὐθέως. For St Paul’s present aim is not to describe God’s revelation to him but his independence of man. δέ. In contrast to tradition. He received the Gospel by God’s good pleasure and call and revelation.

εὐδόκησεν, “was well-pleased.” See Colossians 1:19 note, and Milligan on 1 Thessalonians 2:8.

ὁ θεὸς. See notes on Textual Criticism. With εὐδόκησεν 1 Corinthians 1:21; 1 Corinthians 10:5[53].

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

ὁ�. Cf. Galatians 2:12. St Paul uses the same term of himself in Romans 1:1. In Acts 13:2 it is also used of him and Barnabas, but with distinct reference to his first missionary journey. The separation is from others of his nation; cf. Numbers 16:9, of the sons of Levi, διέστειλεν ὁ θεὸς Ἰσραὴλ ὑμᾶς ἐκ συναγωγῆς Ἰσραήλ, Numbers 8:14; cf. also Leviticus 20:26. As “Pharisee” = “separated,” it is possible that St Paul consciously contrasted the Phariseeship of his family and training with that of grace, which God had in view for him from the very first. Mr Hart in the illuminating study of Pharisaism contained in his Ecclesiasticus (1909, p. 275), points out that as the root P-R-SH represents in the Targum of Onkelos the Hebrew B-D-L “separate,” the name Pharisee “is directly associated with the action of God Himself, who separated light from darkness (Genesis 1:4), Israel from the nations (Leviticus 20:24), and the Levites from the People (Numbers 16:9).” To an English reader, it may be added, this may seem fanciful, but not to a Jew.

ἐκ κοιλίας μητρός μου. Probably = “even before my birth,” i.e. before I had any impulses of my own; cf. Isaiah 49:1; Jeremiah 1:5. In Luke 1:15 the phrase apparently means from birth onwards.

καὶ καλέσας. When? For “the κλῆσις is never an act in the divine mind, but always an historical fact” (Meyer). Perhaps before birth (Isaiah 49:1), but more probably at his conversion, the call including the whole summons of which the revelation (to be mentioned immediately) was the culminating point.

διὰ τῆς χάριτος αὐτοῦ. Contrast Galatians 1:6. The grace of God as such, not a specific form of it as in Galatians 2:9; Romans 12:3.