Vv. 12,13. Paul impugns the sincerity of the agitators: their affected zeal for the Law was a pretext with a view to disarming Jewish enmity: they urged the circumcision of Gentiles also to grati their own vanity. They had probably, like the Jewish Christians at Antioch (cf. ii. 13), been guilty of inconsistency
8—16.
13. οὐδὲ γὰρ οἱ περιτεμνόμενοι αὐτοὶ νόμον φυλάσσουσιν - ἀλλὰ θέλουσιν ὑμᾶς περιτέμνεσθαι, ἵνα ἐν τῇ ὑμετέρᾳ σαρκὶ καυχήσωνται. 14. ἐμοὶ δὲ μὴ γένοιτο καυχᾶσθαι εἰ μὴ ἐν τῷ σταυρῷ τοῦ Κυρίου ἡμῶν ᾿Ιησοῦ Χριστοῦ: δι οὗ ἐμοὶ κόσμος ἐσταύρωται, κἀγὼ τῷ
κόσμῳ. ἀκροβυστία, ἀλλὰ καινὴ κτίσις.
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15. ἐν γὰρ Χριστῷ Ἰησοῦ οὔτε περιτομή τι ἔστιν,ὶ οὔτε Ἀ ϱ » ,
16. kal ὅσοι τῷ κανόνι τούτῳ
στοιχήσουσιν, εἰρήνη ἐπ᾽ αὐτοὺς καὶ ἔλεος, καὶ ἐπὶ τὸν Ἰσραὴλ
τοῦ Θεοῦ.
1εστιν SABCDEFG 17, εἴς. ; ισχνει ΝΕΡεΚΙ,Ρ,
in their practice: but Paul apparently relies also on his argument in ii. 16 that Jewish converts had by the mere act of embracing Christ confessed their own inability to keep the Law, and could not therefore be sincere in preaching to others obedience to its rules.— 16 σταυρῷ. This dative cannot surely mean for (i.e., by reason of) the cross. If this had been the meaning, it would have been expressed by διὰ τὸν σταυρόν. The correct translation seems to be, persecuted with the cross, 1.6., the cross of outward suffering which was in those days the lot of so many converted Jews, and notably of Paul himself. The Cross of Christ is here identified with per- secution as it is in Phil iii. 18 with self- denial.
Ver.13. περιτεμνόμενοι. The present participle is more appropriate than the perfect περιτετμημένοι, which is read by some MSS.: for the author has in mind the adoption of a system, as in v. 3.
Ver. 14. Paul contrasts his own spirit with that which his rivals are manifesting. They are animated by selfish desires to glory over the flesh of others, he will glory only in the triumph of the cross over his own flesh, whereby the power of the world over him, and his carnal love of the world, are both done away.
Ver. 15. Circumcision is again de- clared, as in v. 6, to be a mere accident of outward circumstance and of no spirit- ual import: faith working in love was there pronounced essential for Christian life, and here a new creation, the birth of the spirit in the heart of man.
Ver. 16. κανόνι. Men need a rule to guide their lives as the surveyor or the carpenter for the right adjustment of his work. This rule was supplied to the Jew by the Law in a code of morals, but the Spirit quickens in Christians a new life whereby the conscience is enlightened to discern good and evil for the regula- tion of their lives.-—Kal ἐς) τὸν ᾿Ισραὴλ:
yea upon the Israel of God. καί is not properly copulative here, but intensive. Those who walk by the rule of the Spirit are declared to be indeed the true Israel of God, not the Jews who have the name of Israel, but are really only children of Abraham after the flesh.
Ver.17. τοῦ λοιποῦ... In depreca- ting any renewal of the present agitation Paul treats with contempt the prospect of serious danger from it. It had disturbed his peace and the peace of the Church, and must be got rid of, but he describes it aS a wearisome annoyance rather than a real ρετῖ].---στίγµατα. These were in- delible marks branded on the flesh. They might be self-inflicted: instances are re- corded of soldiers branding themselves with the name of their general in token of their absolute devotion to his cause. But they were as a rule inflicted for a badge of lifelong service; the figure in the text is borrowed from the latter, which were either penal or sacred. The penal were stamped on malefactors, runaway slaves, sometimes on captives; but it is clear from the context that the author has in mind the στίγματα ἱρά mentioned by Herodotus in ii., 113, with which the Galatians also were familiar in Phrygian temples. A class of slaves (ἱερόδουλοι) attached for life to the service of a temple were branded with the name of the deity. Paul likens himself to these in respect of his lifelong dedication to the name of Jesus, and of the marks imprinted on his body, by which he was sealed for a servant of Jesus in perpetuity. These were doubtless the scars left by Jewish scourging, by the stones of Lystra and the Roman rods at Philippi, all tokens of faithful service to his Master in which he gloried.