Galatians 5:12

The Apostle gives vent to his righteous indignation.

they were even cut off Two explanations of this expression are given. All expositors however agree in translating the verb as a middle, not as passive.

(1) -I would that they who are such advocates for circumcision would go further and practise self-mutilation, like the priests of Cybele". This is the view of Chrysostom and has the support of the most eminent commentators, ancient and modern. Bp. Lightfoot remarks, that -by glorying in the flesh" the Galatians were returning in a very marked way to the bondage of their former heathenism; and Dr Jowett considers that -the common interpretation of the Fathers, confirmed by the use of language in the Septuagint, is not to be rejected only because it is displeasing to the delicacy of modern times".

(2) -I would that they who are not merely teaching error, but stirring up sedition among you, would go further and even cut themselves off from you", i.e. that instead of remaining as a disturbing element in the Church, they would openly secede and sever themselves. In favour of this interpretation (which seems to be adopted by the R.V. -even cut themselves off" [30]) the following considerations are of weight: (a) The word occurs three times (exclusive of repetitions) in the activevoice in the N. T. and always in the physical sense = -amputate" or cut through. It occurs nowhere else in the middle. And it is common for a verb to undergo a change from the physicalto the ethicalsense with the change of voice. (b) It is not met with in the middlein the LXX. The passiveparticiple occurs once in the sense of -mutilated". (c) The word rendered -trouble" you, is not the same as that used in Galatians 5:10, but a term descriptive of the action of those leaders who stirred up a body of disaffected citizens, inducing them to abandon their homes and live by warfare or depredation, comp. Acts 21:38. What wish more natural than that men with such sectarian aims should sever themselves wholly from the company of believers? (d) The coarseness of the former explanation is heightened by the abruptness of the wish. There is moreover no other allusion in St Paul's writings to the practice in question.

[30] With the alternative in the Margin, -Mutilate themselves".

Between the two interpretations the student must choose that which approves itself to his judgment.