in itself, as it was made a yoke by the law ; and the law itself was much more a yoke. Therefore Paul, by a weighty meto nymy, puts the consequent for the antecedent : Be not circum cised, for he who is circumcised, along with this part of it, comes under the whole law, and revolts from Christ, ver. 2-4. Nor does the apostle oppose Christ so immediately to circumcision as he does to the law. He speaks according to their perverse custom, while he refutes their Galatism and Judaism ; and yet he does not at all deviate from the truth. Peter also, Acts xv. 10, calls it a yoke. — evs^sffde) evs-yj^ai, in the middle voice, / hold fast by, obstinately. That passage in Xiphil. in Epit. Dion, concerning a pole fixed in the ground, and which cannot be pulled out, shows the import of the word : sv rfi yfi ?vsff%sro, ugffp e/jwrspvxus, "it held a fast hold in the earth, as if it had grown there."
2. 'Eav tfspirs/jsvqffQs, if ye be circumcised) This should be pro nounced with great force. They were being circumcised, as persons who were seeking righteousness in the law, ver. 4. — ovdev, nothing) ch. ii. 21.
3. ' OpsiXsrr, £, a debtor) Endangering salvation. — oXov, the whole) A task which he will never be able to perform.
4. Karrlf>'yr/drlrs a^b rot Xpirtrov [Engl. Vers. Christ is become of no effect^) Your connection witli Christ is made void: so the Vul gate.1 One might be inclined to say in German, ohne werden, " to become without." Comp. ver. 2 ; Rom. vii. 2, 6. — dixaiovfffa, are justified) Seek righteousness. In the middle voice. — rqs ^dpirog e!*£<7rsffars, ye have fallen from grace) Comp. ver. 3. You have fallen from the New Testament, in all the wide compre hension of that expression. It is we that are and stand in grace, rather than grace is in us ; comp. Rom. v. 2.
5. 'H^g/g /dp, for we) I and all the brethren, and as many of us as are in Christ. Let those, who differ from us, keep their views to themselves. — crveu^ar/, in the spirit of grace) Without circum cision, etc. — l/c xigrsus) from the faith of Christ ; comp. the pre ceding verse. — l\-~iba 8ixonoc{jv^S) hope of righteousness) Righteous ness is now present ; and that aifords us hope, for the time to
1 " Evacuati estis a Christo." Wahl renders it, <( divelli et prorsus dimo- veri a Christo," to be torn off and utterly parted asunder from Christ. Comp. aot-T'/ip'/riTau aTro rov vo^bV) Rom. vii. 2. — ED.