Ver. 6. The author here resumes the broken thread of the narrative, which he interrupted after νετ. 2 in order to show that his conciliatory attitude at Jerusalem was not due to weakness or irresolution. He now proceeds to relate the sequel of the advances which he made at Jerusalem to the Pharisaic party. The repetition of the phrase ot δοκοῦντες, and the fresh transition from the plural εἴξαμεν to the singular ἐμοί, indicate the fresh shifting of the scene from Antioch back to Jeru- salem. The first clause is left unfinished, for the mention of these men who seemed to be anything leads the author to in- terrupt his narrative again that he may challenge their right to be heard; he breaks, accordingly, into the disparaging comment, what manner of men they had once been, maketh no matter—a forcible expression of his disappointment at find- ing so little Christian sympathy or life where he had hoped to find so much. After this parenthesis he remoulds the
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ἦσαν οὐδέν por διαφέρει - πρόσωπον Θεὸς ἀνθρώπου οὐ AapBdver)—
ἐμοὶ γὰρ οἱ δοκοῦντες οὐδὲν προσανέθεντο.
7. ᾿Αλλὰ τοὐναντίον,
ἰδόντες ὅτι πεπίστευμαι τὸ εὐαγγέλιον τῆς ἀκροβυστίας, καθὼς
Πέτρος τῆς περιτομῆς 8. (ὁ γὰρ ἐνεργήσας Πέτρῳ εἰς ἀποστολὴν
τῆς περιτομῆς ἐνήργησε καὶ ἐμοὶ εἰς τὰ ἔθνη), 9. καὶ γνόντες τὴν
χάριν τὴν δοθεῖσάν μοι, ᾿Ιάκωβος καὶ Κηφᾶς) καὶ Ἰωάννης, οἱ 11, και Κηφας NBCKLP; Πετρος και |. DEG.
form of his sentence; and οἱ δοκοῦντες, the subject of ἦσαν, becomes the subject of the verb προσανέθεντο. Instead, there- fore, of concluding the sentence in its original form, and stating that from those who so seemed he got no response, he writes, to me, I say, those who so seemed communicated nothing further.—rév δο- κούντων εἶναί τι. These are identified with τοῖς δοκοῦσιν in ver. 2. They are there described as men whom it was thought advisable to approach in private, here as men who were thought to be anything, i.¢., to have any weight in the Church. The English version somewhat suggests that they held high office and were in positions of dignity, perhaps Apostles; but the Greek order in that case must have been τί εἶναι, nor can that emphasis be justified in rendering the enclitic τι after εἶναι. They were probably party-leaders, but the Apostle writes of them with scant respect as men who were now little better than a name. -ὁποῖοί ποτε ἦσαν . « «: What manner of men they had once been maketh no matter to me. The margin of the Re- vised Version rightly renders ὁποῖοι as an indirect interrogative dependent on διαφέρει, and gives to ποτε its true sense of formerly, in time past (as in i. 13, 23). Coupled as it is here with wore, ἦσαν has the force of a pluperfect, and con- trasts the character of these men as reported from past time with what Paul actually found them to be: he could get no brotherly help or counsel from them. Therefore he pronounces the adverse judgment upon them (7 ον...
αμβάνει); for, like his Master (Luke xx. 21), he regarded no man’s person, if weighed in the balance and found wanting.—4pol... προσανέθεντο. This clause forms an antithesis to ἀνεθέ τοῖς δοκοῦσιν in ver. 2. Paul had laid before them an account of his successful ministry among the Greeks, but they had no further response to make in the shape of Christian sympathy, or of fresh argu- ment in justification of their prejudices against him and his teaching.
Ver. 7. The emphatic opening of this verse, ᾿Αλλὰ τοὐναντίον, gives promi- nence to the thorough contrast pre- sented by James, Cephas and John to the cold reserve of these suspicious and prejudiced opponents. It is fectly clear in the Greek text, though unfor- pera | not in the English versions, that they are the subject throughout vv. 7-9, and that the participles ἰδόντες and γνόντες refer to them as well as the verb ἔδωκαν. But contrariwise Fames and Cephas and Fohn ... when they saw ... and perceived the grace that was given unto me, gave to me and Barnabas right hands of fellowship. They saw in the marvellous success of Paul and Barnabas a visible token of their divine commission and of the grace bestowed uponthem. These were doubt- less the real authors of the final resolution adopted by the Council; and its hearty appreciation of their beloved Barnabas and Paul, men that have hazarded their lives for the name of the Lord Fesus Christ coincides with the language of the Epistle.—Nérpos. In this and the next verse the Greek name is used to designate the Apostle of the circumcision, probably because he was already known to the whole Greek world as an Apostle under that name. In Jerusalem, however, and as a man, he habitually went by his Hebrew surname Cephas, and that name is accordingly given him elsewhere in the Epistle.