II. (1-10) The argument proceeds, still taking the shape of vivid personal retrospect: — The next visit at which I had any communication with the elder Apostles was after an interval of fourteen years. That, too, only served to bring out at once the independence and the soundness of my teaching. I s... [ Continue Reading ]
FOURTEEN YEARS AFTER. — From what date is this fourteen years to be reckoned? The phrase “I went up _again”_ seems to be decisive in favour of reckoning it from the visit to Jerusalem just mentioned. We should therefore have to add the three years of Galatians 1:18, in order to reach the date of the... [ Continue Reading ]
BY REVELATION. — Revelations seem to have been vouchsafed to the Apostle in various ways — most frequently in dreams or nocturnal visions (Acts 16:9; Acts 18:9; Acts 23:11; Acts 27:23), but also in a state of trance (Acts 22:17), and through other undefined modes of intimation (Acts 16:6; Acts 20:22... [ Continue Reading ]
BUT NEITHER TITUS... — This and the two following verses are parenthetical. The result of the private conference with the Judaic Apostles is not given till Galatians 2:7; but without waiting for this, the Apostle turns aside to give one emphatic piece of evidence that his practice in regard to the G... [ Continue Reading ]
AND THAT BECAUSE OF... — The sense is here, in any case, broken and imperfect. It seems, on the whole, best to supply the missing clause thus: “But (or, _though_) on account of false brethren... [I was urged to have him circumcised].” The leaders of the Church at Jerusalem took the ground, not of in... [ Continue Reading ]
TO WHOM — _i.e.,_ to the Jewish agitators, though probably not so much in their own persons as through the Apostles who advocated concession to their views. WE GAVE PLACE. — St. Paul himself, with Barnabas and Titus. BY SUBJECTION. — By yielding to them the submission which they claimed of us. NO... [ Continue Reading ]
The Apostle returns from his digression on the case of Titus to give the result of his experience with the elder Apostles, in continuation of Galatians 2:3. “I did indeed hold conference with them privately; but with all their advantages, real or assumed, I learnt nothing from them that I did not al... [ Continue Reading ]
GOSPEL OF THE UNCIRCUMCISION — _i.e.,_ a gospel for the uncircumcised. The elder Apostles recognised St. Paul because they saw that his teaching was fundamentally the same as their own. At the same time, the success of St. Paul among the Gentiles proved that his mission to them had the divine sancti... [ Continue Reading ]
(7-9) So far from contributing anything _new_ to my stock of doctrine, they were content to confirm and ratify what I taught already.... [ Continue Reading ]
HE THAT WROUGHT EFFECTUALLY IN PETER... THE SAME WAS MIGHTY IN ME. — This is an instance of that capriciousness in our translators which was due to their free poetic handling and superabundant command of words. “Wrought effectually” and “was mighty” are the same word in the Greek, and there does not... [ Continue Reading ]
JAMES, CEPHAS, AND JOHN. — In some few MSS. and patristic quotations the reading is _Peter and James and John._ This doubtless arose from the tendency to exalt St. Peter, though the reading (which is found in Tertullian and Origen, and therefore must run up into the second century) is too early to b... [ Continue Reading ]
THE POOR — _i.e.,_ at Jerusalem and in Judaea. St. Paul had already been the means of bringing contributions from the wealthier churches of Antioch to Jerusalem (Acts 11:29). This seems to have been gracefully received, not only as an act of charity, but as a recognition of the claims of the mother... [ Continue Reading ]
WHEN PETER... — The true reading here is undoubtedly _Cephas._ The visit alluded to probably took place soon after the return of Paul and Barnabas, in the interval described in Acts 15:35, shortly before the separation of these two Apostles and the departure of St. Paul on his second missionary jour... [ Continue Reading ]
(11-14) The next phase in this question was at Antioch. On his coming thither Peter was guilty of a great inconsistency. He began by eating freely with the Gentile converts, but the arrival of a party of the stricter Jews from Jerusalem was enough to make him alter his practice. He gradually withdre... [ Continue Reading ]
CERTAIN CAME FROM JAMES. — The expression used leaves it an open question whether the persons intended brought, or claimed to bring, any sort of official authorisation from St. James (comp. Acts 15:24), or whether they merely belonged to the Church of Jerusalem, in which, if St. James was not actual... [ Continue Reading ]
THE OTHER JEWS... — _i.e._ converts from Judaism, as distinct from Gentile converts, in the Church at Antioch. DISSEMBLED. — The “dissimulation,” or “hypocrisy” (the literal sense of the Greek word), consisted in suppressing their real convictions, and acting as if from a set of convictions differe... [ Continue Reading ]
WALKED NOT UPRIGHTLY. — This is a single word in the Greek, and found here alone in the New Testament. It means, literally, “to walk on straight feet” — _i.e.,_ erect and straightforwardly, as opposed to “shuffling.” UNTO PETER BEFORE THEM ALL. — The true reading is again _Cephas._ The Apostle lays... [ Continue Reading ]
WHO ARE. — It will be seen that these words are in italics, and have to be supplied in the Greek. The Received text, which is followed in our version, also I omits a connecting particle, found in the best MSS., at the beginning of Galatians 2:16. Restoring this, a better way of taking the whole pass... [ Continue Reading ]
(15-21) The section which follows is, in form at least, still a continuation of the rebuke addressed to St. Peter; but the Apostle soon drifts away from this, and begins imperceptibly a comment upon his own words, which is addressed directly to the Galatians. We are thus led, without any real break,... [ Continue Reading ]
IS NOT JUSTIFIED. — Here the Apostle introduces, for the first time in the Epistle, the word which plays so prominent a part in the Epistle to the Romans — “pronounced just or righteous” — free from guilt, and therefore from punishment — in the sight of God. This condition could not be produced by w... [ Continue Reading ]
We sought justification in Christ. But if, with all our seeking, something more was needed: viz., a rigid performance of the Law — that Law which we had abandoned — then there was still something wanting to our justification. We were sinners on a par with the Gentiles, and all that Christianity seem... [ Continue Reading ]
But Christ is not a minister of sin. The thought is not to be tolerated. For, on the contrary, the sin is seen, not in leaving the Law for Christ, but in going back from Christ to the Law. The sin is seen doubly: for on one theory — the theory that the Law is valid — it was wrong to give it up; whil... [ Continue Reading ]
In the last verse the Apostle had been putting a supposed case, but by a not unnatural process of thought he gradually takes the “I” rather more in earnest, and appeals directly to his own personal experience. The “I” of Galatians 2:18 is really St. Peter or the Judaisers; the “I” of this verse is S... [ Continue Reading ]
In the last verse the Apostle had spoken of himself as “dead to the Law, and living unto God.” The prominent idea in the first half of this clause had been the release from that burdensome ceremonial which the Judaising party wished to bind upon Christian consciences. By a natural transition, the Ap... [ Continue Reading ]
In thus attaching himself devotedly to Christ, the Christian escapes the charge of refusing and thwarting the free gift of justification which God has offered to him in His Son. He has made his choice of Christ, and not of the Law. On the other hand, if he had chosen the Law, and gone to it, and not... [ Continue Reading ]