17. They zealously affect you (fyrovow wuas). They are zealously paying you court in order to win you over to VOL. 1v.— 10
146 WORD STUDIES IN THE NEW TESTAMENT. [Cu. IV,
their side. Affect, in this sense, is obsolete. It is from affectare, to strive after, earnestly desire. So Shaks. Zam. of Shr. I. i. 40:
‘(In brief, sir, study what you most affect.’’
Ben Jonson, Alchem. iii. 2: ‘¢ Pray him aloud to name what dish he affects.”
As a noun, desire. So Chaucer, Zroil. and Cress. iii. 1391:
*¢ As Crassus dide for his affectis wronge’’ (his wrong desires).
Comp..1-Cor.-xii. 51; x1, 1. Not well (ov cadas). Not in an honourable way. Nay (adda). So far from dealing honourably.
They would exclude you (éxxrg«cioat tyas Oédovewy). From other teachers who do not belong to their party — those of anti-Judaising views who formed the sounder part of the church.
That ye might affect them (iva avdrovs &yrotvre). So that in your isolation from others, you might be led to seek affili- ation with them.
18. It is good—in a good thing. Znrodcbaz to be zeal- ously sought, in the same sense as before. It is passive. It is good for you Galatians to be zealously sought. Jn a good thing (é€v kaX@) answers to od Karas not honourably, ver. 17. In a good matter —the interest of the gospel. Thus Paul would say: “These Judaisers zealously strive to win you over to their views; but they do not do this in an honourable way. There is no harm in seeking to interest and enlist you, pro- vided it is in a good cause.”
19. My little children (rexvia wov). Only here in Paul, but often in John. See J. xiii. 88; 1 J. ii. 1, 12, 28; iii. 7, 18, etc.* See on ch. iii. 26.
* The reading, however, is doubtful. Tischendorf, Weiss, Tregelles, read réxva, Which Westcott and Hort give in margin.
Ca. IV.] THE EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS. 147
| travail in birth again (vad advo). Better as Rev. of whom I am again in travail. *OQdivw only here and Apoe. xii. 2. Gal. iv. 27 is a quotation. The metaphorical use of the word is frequent in O. T. See Ps. vii. 14; Sir. xix. 11; xxxi. 5; xliii. 17; Mic. iv. 10; Isa. xxvi. 18; lxvi. 8. Paul means that he is for the second time labouring and distressed for the Galatian converts, with the same anguish which at- tended his first efforts for their conversion. The metaphor of begetting children in the gospel is found in 1 Cor. iv. 15; Philem. 10. It was a Jewish saying: “If one teaches the son of his neighbour the law, the Scripture reckons this the same as though he had begotten him.”
Until Christ be formed in you (néypis 0b poppwln Xpioros év uyuiv). The forming of Christ in them, their attainment of the complete inner life of Christians, is the object of the new birth. By their relapse they have retarded this result and renewed Paul’s spiritual travail. The verb wopfotv. N.T.°. The idea under different aspects is common. See Rom. viii. 9; 1 Cor. ii. 16; vi. 15; 2 Cor. iii. 18; Gal. ii. 20; Eph. nie 17s, Col 1.21.
20. I desire (70eAov). Better, I could wish, the imperfect tense referring to a suppressed conditional clause, as if it were possible. Comp. Acts xxv. 22; Rom. ix. 3.
To change my voice (a4AAdEat THY Povyy wov). To address you, not with my former severity, so.as to make you think me your enemy, but affectionately, as a mother speaks to her. children, yet still telling them the truth (adnGevor).
| stand in doubt of you (aopoduas év dyiv). Lit. Tam perplexed in you. For this use of év, comp. 2 Cor. vil. 16 ; Gal. i. 24. Paul’s perplexity is conceived as taking place zn. the readers. For the verb, see on Mk. vi. 20; 2 Cor. iv. 8. Paul means: “I am puzzled how to deal with you; how to, find entrance to your hearts.”