their state; the Apostle was in no hurry to make his voice heard among them—he let three years pass before he revisited them, and then only on his way to Ephesus. Yet an incidental reference in 1 Cor. xvi. 1 attests his confidence in their unshaken loyalty. It appears from that passage that when he appealed to all his Greek Churches for a joint contribution for the poor brethren in Jerusalem, the Galatians were the very first to receive his instructions, even before the Corinthians. It is a slight but sufficient testimony to the unbroken strength of the tie that bound them to their own Apostle.
I. 1. ΠΑΥΛΟΣ ἀπόστολος, (οὐκ ἀπ᾽ ἀνθρώπων, οὐδὲ δι ἀνθρώπου, ἀλλὰ διὰ Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ καὶ Θεοῦ πατρὸς τοῦ ἐγείραντος αὐτὸν
1ΝΑΒΡΕΕΑΚ 17, etc.
CHAPTER I.—Vv. 1-5. APosToLic AD- DRESS, BENEDICTION AND DoxoLocy.— The Epistle opens with the author’s name and the designation of his office, Paul, an Apostle. So far it follows the teguiar practice of Apostolic Epistles in advancing at the outset a claim to atten- tive hearing. But circumstances gave in this case a special significance to this opening; for in the Galatian Churches rival agitators had seriously challenged the author’s right to this title of Apostle, so that the bare mention of his office involved a distinct protest against the slanders which had been circulated in regard to his office and his person. He proceeds, accordingly, to an emphatic vindication of his divine commission, not from men, neither through man. He raises here a twofold issue, evidently corresponding to two specific points in his qualifications for the office, which his adversaries had on their side selected for attack. The transition from the plural in the first clause, to the singular in the second, is significant, and helps to furnish a key to the two particular points in his career on which his enemies had fastened. His mission to the Gentiles had appar- ently been disparaged on the plea that it had emanated from men, i.e., from the Church of Antioch only. Again, the validity of his cornmission was impugned on the ground that he had originally re- ceived the Spirit through a man, i.e., through the agency of Ananias, who had
been deputed to lay his hands upon him at Damascus. By these insinuations an invidious comparison was instituted be- tween Paul and the original Apostles who had been sent forth by Christ Him- self, and had received the Spirit by a miraculous outpouring from Heaven on the day of Pentecost. It was obviously impossible to confute these aspersions by alleging any specific act of the risen Lord. Accordingly Paul contents him- self for the moment with an indignant repudiation of the calumnies, reserving his full vindication for the historical re- view of his conversion and Christian life (i. 10-ii. 14). The tokens by which the risen Lord had attested His presence and His commission to His servant Paul had been very real and certain to the eye of faith; but they had, from the nature of the case, been less tangible than the evidence of His living voice and pre- sence during His earthly sojourn; they had been granted at successive stages of the Apostle’s life, and had often taken the shape of visions, personal revelations, and spiritual communion. At his conversion he had been declared a chosen vessel for future ministry ; three years later the Lord had replied to his prayer in the temple, bidding him depart from Jeru- salem, for (He said) I will send thee far hence unto the Gentiles; afterwards, at Antioch, the Spirit had given command, Separate me Barnabas and Saul for the work whereunto I have called them;
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