especially the apostle's words in eh. vi. 12, 13 favour the belief that the trouble originated with certain who were themselves Galatians. They arc spoken of as " undergoing circumcision " (-rrEpi-rEp.vop.Evoi : see note ; the competing reading, -rrEpi-rETJJ-TJP.tvoi, comes to the same result: they had evidently not been circumcised until they engaged in this movement) ; moreover, they have no real care for the Law themselves, but only wish to save themselves from the risk of being persecuted-persecuted, that is, through the instigation of Jewish neighbours ;-a description wholly inap- plicable to persons coming from James or from Judrea. The features of the noxious movement. The mischievous movement, then, appears to have originated with certain Gentile members of these Churches, who had loosened the hold which they had once appeared to have on the fundamental truth, that faith in Christ is the alone and the sufficient ground of justification before God, and were blindly and, so to speak, flounderingly casting about for other means of obtaining jnstification. The means they were grasping at consisted in obedience to certain selected prescriptions of the ceremonial Law. That they did not mean the adoption of the entire ceremonial institute is shown by eh. v. 3. They had plainly not got to that as yet. Circumcision was indeed being seriously talked about (eh. v. 2), and the passage in eh. vi. 13 favours the belief that some of those most forward in the movement had already made a beginning of submitting to the rite in their own persons. It is distinctly stated that, under their leading, Galatian Churchmen were toying with the observance of "days, and months, and seasons, and years" (eh. iv. 10), with a sort of ignorant but solemn pedantic earnestness which mllSt have been piteollS to witness. In what sort of doctrinal statement they formulated their " strange gospel " does not appear. One thing, however, is clear-by some means or other they were instilling the sentiment that faith in Christ needed, in order to com- pletely justify, to be supplemented by some degree of conformity to the ceremonial Law given through Moses. That such was the spirit of their teaching is apparent from the teaching which St. Paul puts forward for the purpose of counteracting it; for to that end he insists upon these two theses -that faith in Christ Jesus is the sole ground on which any, whether Jews or Gentiles, are made sons of God; and that the ceremonial Law was a purely pedagogic and provisional institution, for which there is no longer any place at all in the relations between God and his people. The genius of the movement is also illustrated by the apostle's relating the incident of St. Pater's misguided action at Antioch, and the reasoning by which he himself openly convicted his error. For the mention of this incident would have been irrelevant if it had not involved as its basis the emergence of a similar mode of thought and feeling. The similarity consisted in the fact that Cephas was treating those Gentile believers who did not conform to the ceremonial Law as if they were not standing on the like footing of accept- ableness with believers who were conforming thereto-the very misappre- hension which wa.s now working in the minds of these Ge.latians, both the xiv lNTHODUU'l'lON 'l'O
misleaders and the misled. Since 011 that occasion at Antioch Cephas lmd most certainly not enunciated in words the doctrine that faith without ceremonial observances was insufficient for gaining acceptance, but only appeared by his actions to be teaching it, it may be surmised that perhaps neither did these Galatian subverters of the gospel in words preach their "strange gospel," but simply preached it by their actions; namely, by themselves practising, and by encouraging others to practise, certain Mosaistic obser.ances; by studiously vau11ting and glorying in such prac- tices; and by discountenancing and putting out of the pale of fraternal fellowship those who kept aloof from such Mosaism. They perhaps did not directly disown Christ as their Hope of acceptance, but they were turning elsewhere for comfort and joy. Such movements of thought and feeling, especially when embodying themselves in distinguishing badges of outward ceremonial action, n.re apt in general to be very catching with nn wary and unstable souls; and we need, in particnla.r, not wonder that among people of Celtic warmth, fickleness, and impetuosity of temperament, it shonld have spread with great rapidity from Chnrch to Church, as it- seems to have done. The attitude of the disevangelized party towards St. Paul. No tendency of the kind now described could be followed out by any without its rending them away more or less consciously from the guidance of St. Paul. It may, in fact, be considered in no small degree probable that the open detaching of themselves in the eyes of the Jews from discipleship to Paul was, with some of the ringleaders in the movement, one of the objects directly aimed at. It is in this way, as is explained in the notes on the passage, that the otherwise enigmatical statement in eh. vi. 12 meets with its satisfactory interpretation. They therefore allowed themselves to speak detractingly of his apostolic mission : an apostle of some sort, they said, he might be; but no such apostle as Cephas was; an authority attached to his leadership of infinitely less account than attached to James, the Lord's brothe1•; there were scores and scores of apostles going about, with quite as much claim to be listened to. If any showed themselves unwilling to renounce one who had once been so highly esteemed and loved, they were plied with other con- siderations. Paul himself, they said, was aiming at the introduction of the adopting of circumcision by his disciples, in the end, when circumstances were ripe for it (eh. v. 11, on which see note): when among Jews, who indeP.d was more of a Jew than Paul? and then again, let them look nt his circumcising Timothy! If any would fain hold fast by Paul, very likely they would, after all, find themselves to be not running counter to his real feelings and purposes, though it might be perhaps something like forcing his hand, if they took the bold step of at once being circumcised. At all events, they might with some plausibility, though certainly with utter falsity, pretend that nothing would be more pleasing to James and the other venerable pillars of the holy mother Church of Jerusalem. Oomparison of Galatian with Oolossian and later defecUon. With much '£HE EPISTLE '£0 'rllE GALATIANS. xv