does not feel a certain air of freshness and recency hanging abont the fa.et alluded to in the words, "as I gave order t.o the Churches of Galatia. " - whether the apostle does not mean something like this, "The other day I received from the Churches of Galatia a similar reqnest that I would state to them in what. manner I wished this business of the collection t,o be managed, and the reply which I made to them I now make to yon." This is, at all events, the impression which the words convey to my own mind. li it be a. just impression, then, taking into account the entire absence in this Epistle to the Galatians of any reference to a proposal of such a collection having been up to that time made to them, the following interpretation of the whole circumstances would seem a. coherent and probable one. Towards the close of the apostle's long abode at Ephesus, but some while before he wrote his First Epistle to the Corinthians, he had formed the plan, after he had visited the Churches in Macedonia and .Achaia, of taking a journey to Jerusalem; and having this before him, he wished to set on foot a collection for the poor in Jud~a among the Gentile Churches of which he had the oversight in .Asia Minor and Europe, the proceeds of which should be taken by himself or by "apostles " of the Churches accompanyin~ himself, when he repaired to the Jewish capital. This plan was in his mind when that painful account reached him of ~ wavering allegiance of his Galatian converts to the gospel, which made it necessary to write this letter. With such a danger threatening the vita.I interests of the Christian cause in that region, it did not seem seasonable to directly moot the question of a collection just then; their attachment to the gospel and to himself as its apostle needed to be re-established in the first instance ; not until this had been effected could he hope £or a satis- factory response on their part to an appeal of his for a charitable contribution to be forwarded in connection with himself. He refrains, therefore, from asking them in his letter for a contribution. Bnt having, as it were by the way, told them of the request which James, Cephas, and John had made t.o him that he would remember their poor, and having added how greatly he himself was concerned to do so, he contents himself for the present with taking occasion, from the niggardliness with which they assisted their teaching ministers, to insist emphatically upon the evil consequences to themselves of sowing only to their own selfish gratification, and upon the blessed reward which awaits a persistent course of beneficence; and there leaves it. If the confidence, which he tells them he felt towards them in the Lord that they would after . all prove faithful to the gospel, were realized, the hints which he had let fall tending towards the appeal he desired to make would be sure of themselves to hear fruit; they would at any rate pave the way for making it. Meanwhile he must wait in anxious hope for the result, which at present was a matter of infinitely greater importance, of their return to a cordial faith in Christ Jesus. How deeply the suspense affected him we may in some degree imagine QALATUNS, xvi.ii INTRODUCTION· 'l'O
from the account which he has himself given :in hie Second Epistle to tb& Corinthians of the anxiety with which he had awaited Titus's return, when he ha,cl despatohed him to Corinth to ascertain the effect' produced by h~s first letter, and of the unspeakable relief with which he had heard of their eage'r and impassioned submission to his remonstra.nces concerning the incestuous offender (2 Cor. ii. 12, 13; vii. 4- -16). W eeb and weeks would he have to wait before the return of •his mes• sengers to Galatia. Who these were we know not, but our minds naturally gla.nce at Timothy, who probably was of Iconium, and Gains of Derbe,' both places in the adjoining district of Lycaonia; also at Luke, of perhaps Antioch; for these with others were in St. Paul's compiny ·in this jo11rt1ey (Acts xx. 4); at Titus, too, the reliable messenger later on under somea what similar circumstances to Corinth. Naturally .the apostle would send hie letter by one qualified to help forward its effect by wise, faithful, and strong-hearted words of hie own. But time would have to be :allowed for his letter to do its proper work after it reached Galatia; for it was not• one single congregation, but a number of detached:Chu.rches, these perhaps not situated very near together, in which the evil leaven had been working ; and Galatia was a long way off from Ephesus, Ancyra (Angora), the principal city, being as the crow flies three or four hundred miles distant. We cannot doubt, however, that the period of anxious expectation was ended by the receipt of joyful tidings. What he wrote some months later, on the occasion of Titus's return from· Corinth, was (very supposably) dictated by the very remembrance of this happy hour. " Thanks be unto God, which always leadeth us in triumph in Christ, and maketh manifest through us the savour of his knowledge in every place" (2 Car. ii. 14). The drooping faith of the Galatians in Christ Jesus their Lord had been revived; they had shaken off the "bewitchment" which had dimmed their view of his -all-sufficient grace and had lured them away to the va,nities of Judaizing ceremonial.ism. Breaking with those who had misled them, their personal attachment to the apostle had reasserted itself with even a measure of its former Celtic enthusiasm. And now their cry was what they could do to teRtify to their Lord and Saviour the sincerity of their repentance and devotion to him; what also to convince their wise and- loving father in the gospel that his confidence towards t;hem in the Lord had not been misplaced. For one thing he had incidentally, but perhaps significantly, alluded in his letter to his anxious desire to assist his needy brethren in Judiea. · Gladly would they take part in this. In what way would he advise them to make the collection of their contribution? And how should they forward it to J udma when made r In some such way as this, it may with• probability be surmised, had the apostle been led to give to the Galatian Churches those directions which be, ~on after as I think, repeated-in his First Epistle to the Corinthian~, THE EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS.
DATE OJ' THE EPISTLE.