It appears from this and the following verses that the illness occurred under the eyes of the Galatians, who watched its progress, were familiar with its repulsive symptoms, and displayed tender sympathy with the sufferer. They were aware also of the alteration it had made in his plans. The inference from these facts is clear, that he did not intend at the time of his arrival in Galatia to preach there at all, but was prostrated immediately after by sudden illness, and so forced to relinquish his previous project and abandon for the present any further journey. The only conceivable way, in short, in which an attack of illness in Galatia can have occasioned his preaching there was by in-
ὡς ἐγὼ, ὅτι κἀγὼ ὡς ὑμεῖς, ἀδελφοὶ, δέομαι ὑμῶν. ἠδικήσατε' οἴδατε δὲ ὅτι δι᾽
13. οὐδέν με ἀσθένειαν τῆς σαρκὸς εὐηγγελισάμην
voluntary detention. Here, accordingly, the motive for mentioning it is to show how little claim he had on the gratitude of the Galatians at that time, and how little he had deserved the tender sympathy which they exhibited. The historical con- nection of this illness with the ministry of Paul and Barnabas is investigated in the Introduction (pp. 135-7).
It has been suggested that this attack was perhaps identical with the σκόλοψ τῇ σαρκί mentioned in 2 Cor. xii. 7, and this may be true, but the real nature of the σκόλοψ is unknown. Some features of this attack on the contrary may be inferred from the description given of its effects: it incapacitated the patient for travel, produced disfigurement and offen- sive symptoms, but allowed free inter- course with those around him. His success in winning the hearts of those who visited him in his sick chamber suggests a chronic ailment prolonged for a considerable time, as does also the complete change in his plans. The only definite hint given of a specific malady is the language of ver. 15: from which I gather that the eyesight was imperilled by a virulent attack of ophthalmia. That disease was notoriously prevalent in the lowlands of Pamphylia through which he had been travelling, and if so con- tracted, would produce the symptoms described. The pathetic appeal to Gala- tian sympathy on the score of imperfect sight in vi. 11 confirms this view. If his sight had been impaired by an illness to which they had themselves ministered with tender solicitude, they would be quick to feel for his privation.—rd πρό- τερον. Lightfoot contends with justice that this phrase cannot on account of the prefixed article refer to an indefinite period in time past. The author clearly had in his mind two distinct periods, an earlier and a later, during the earlier of which he states that his preaching had been occasioned by illness. Lightfoot suggests that he referred perhaps to the two visits which he had paid to the Galatian Churches: and the suggestion is reasonable if his theory be accepted of sites in Northern Galatia, for no details are known of either visit. But it is quite incompatible with the history of his ministry in Southern Galatia recorded in Acts xiii., xiv. That lasted over two winters at the very least, comprised two visits at considerable intervals to eacb of
13—17.