1. St. Paul's use of the word. — (1) By the
' stigmatn of Jesus ' Bonaventura and many others have supposed the Apostle to refer to bodily marks resemblmg the nail - prints and other insignia of the Saviour's Passion — thus making him affirm an experience, in his own person, of the phenomena of ' stigmatization ' (see 2). But the technical .sense in which tiie word stigmata was used in the time of St. Paul — viz. as denoting marks of ownership (either brands made with hot irons, or cuts Avhich, as they healed, were prevented from closing, and so became broad scars), as well as the meaning of the whole verse when considered in the light of the context and its analogies in other parts of the Apostle's writings (esp. 2 Co IP^"'-) — shows that 'I7;<ro0 must be taken as the gen. of possession, and that the reference is not at all to the wounds on the Lord's body, but solely to certain marks on St. Paul's own body that stamped him as belonging to Jesus Christ.
(2) A few commentators, following Augustine (Com. on Gal., in loc), have transformed St. Paul's stigmata into his manifestation of the fruits of the Spirit, with special reference to his Christian asceticism (cf. 1 Co 9''). But the technical sig- nification of stigmata, as well as the expression 'on my body,' seems to put such an interpretation altogether out of the question.
(3) Assuming, then, that the stigmata were marks of ownership, what is the particular figure that St. Paul means to suggest? (a) Soldiers, in honour of an adored commander, sometimes branded on their bodies the initial letter of his name. But though the idea of the Christian life as a military service is a familiar one in the Pauline writings (1 Co 9^ 2 Co 10^ 1 Ti 6^^ 2 Ti 4^), it is not in keeping with the present context, which brings Jesus before us as Lord (vv.'"*- "), not as Captain, (b) Slaves attached to the service of a heathen temple (lepoSouXoi) were branded with the names of the deities to whom they ministered ; and Lightfoot (Com. on Gal., in loc.) and others (e.g. Westcott in Expos, vi. [1887] 241) have thought that the metaphor is most apjjropriately understood in the light of this fact. But, as Meyer pointed out (Com. in loc), the references to the branding of iep65ov\oi. found in Herod., Plut., Lucian, etc., bear upon the usage of other nations, and we have no evidence for Galatia itself. Even if Ave had, a reference to the branding of the slaves in heathen temples would be needlessly recondite, in view of the much more familiar practice of branding domestic slaves. And, above all, as the iepoSovXoL were very frequently women attached to a temple for immoral purposes, it seems unlikely that the Apostle would have in his mind a term that carried associations so degrading, (r) It is most likely, therefore, that St. Paul is alluding to an ordinary domestic custom. In the East (not in Rome, where branding was the mark of a runaway slave, and so a badge of disgrace) slaves were regulaily branded by their owners, and Artemidorus Daldianus bears witness to the practice in Galatia (Oncirocritica, i. 8. The verb he uses is ctL^cj, from Mhicli ariyna. comes. See W. M. Ramsay, Hist. Com. on Gal. \^\). 84, 472, who tells us that this ancient custom is familiar even yet to the observant traveller in Turkey). St. Paul never calls himself a ifpoSouXos, but tlie tlionght that he was the SoOXos of Jesus Christ was one of his ruling ideas (Ro 1', I Co 7". 2 Co 45, Gal l'», Ph 1'). And when he says, 'I bear branded on my body the marks of Jesus,' he means certain marks that bore witness to the fact that Jesus was his Master and he was Jesus' slave.
(4) But what were these marks that St. Paul bore branded on his body ? Without doubt, he meant the scars he had earned in the service of Christ — perhaps tlie general signature upon his face .and whole person of all bis toils and trials.
6';8
STONE
STOXE
but, at all events, the laceration and disfigurement produced by Jewisli scourges and lictors' rods and the cruel stones of the multitude (Ac 14^^ 16^^, 2 Co jp4. 25j These marks of his servitude to his Lord the Apostle looked upon not only as a badge of honour, but (and this is his reason for referring to them here) as seals set upon his claim to be the Apostle and minister of Jesus Christ (cf. 2 Co IP^^), and so as tokens of his right to sjieak with author- ity. (For the idea of authority as springing out of complete subjection to a greater, cf. the centurion's ' I also am a man under authority,' Mt 8^, Lk 7^). The ver.se thus falls into line with the whole Epistle as an intensely personal message of remonstrance and appeal. Once more, at the end as at the be- ginning (cf. 1'), St. Paul exalts his Apostleship. And what he says here is, ' Let no man trouble me after this, by challenging my right to declare the truth of the gospel ; for I bear branded on my body the marks which testify that I am the slave of Jesus — that He is my Master and my Lord.'