The Pulpit Commentary — Galatians — Section 15

The chief point of discussion, however, in relation to this passage lies in the worde 1 "or not~ [or,' distinction'] among the apostles." Their most obvious sense is that they were apostles distinguished among others who were s1<1ch; the form of e,xpression being like" blessed among women,"" among those born of women none greater," etc,;: and this Tiew is confirmed by its being the interpretation, which was without ,hesitation adopted by the Greek commentators. But the difficulty of exph\ining how Andronicus, and J unia.s could have been "apostles," both perplexed ancient iuterpretc.rs, lea\iing so~e. of them to the very improbable surmise that they w.cre two of the seventy .sent fortlr,by the Lord-a surmise which would make the following clans!! very lame and super, fluous-and has induced some modern critics of eminence t(! tak11 ,the clause differently, Yiz. as pointing to the estimate formed by the twelve apostles of thes11 two discip)es; Jn confirmation of this latter view, reference is made to two passages, in Eu~ipidejl (' Hippo!.' 103; 'Hee.' 379), in which the phrase,: hr(U71µos i,• /Jpo-r.ais, occ.urs, .,ip, !he former with reference to a goddess who could not be reckoned rSmong "mortals,'.' The difficulty, however, found in the more obvious interpretation disappears if '1[8 consider that, when a person had been .::ommissioned by a Church as its delegatjli and especially if so commissioned more than once, the circumst.ance would natµ,~afly, attach to him a special title to respect among the brethren, in consequence of, ,w,hicb. hi! might, e,en after his envoyship had been discharged, sti).I continue tQ b!l so styled1 Thus high priests who had been deposed from their office still continued to bear tb,e, title of high priest. At least, we need not hesitate to adm~t that ~t .. P~ul might use the words in question in the.sense of" men distinguished ~mong.t~ose mess~ngers the.~ Churches are wont to depute to brethren living elsewhere." , It is very supposable that Andronicus and Junia~ had be~n the~se,lves deputed b,: the Church at Jerusalem to visit Jewish believers in Rome, converted when visiting Jerusalem. Compare the brifi11i,ovv-ru 'P0>µ«i'o1, "sojourners from Rome," spoken of in Acts ii. 10. Such a supposition, when we take into our view the delicate positton which St. Paul himself held towards the ruling minds of .the Jerusalemite Churc::h, would seem to accord well with the respectfulness which he so stud~.ously evince~, The term "fellow-captives" does not necessarily infer any personal reuitioqs pr,e;: u viously .subsisting between these two ".apostles ap.d himself; it may> ,dep.ote,.111,q more than that, they having like himself suffered imprisonm~nt1 in• th.e ~e~yic;8;, pf Christ, he was desirous of testifying a~ once the sympathy a~d the respept wliich o,n tilll,t account he felt towards them. . . .,, The passage viewed in this aspect serves to i)lushate th,e mani;i~r ,in wh,ich the office or Church envoy was in th.ose days regard!ld. In particular ,it Jrapsp\~e-~,fro~ it that the title of "apostle" was a highly honorific one. This tinctur~, of. s,entimeµ.~ qplouring it and distinguishing it from the more commonplace designa,tio,n .of 'rr•'-os, ;messenger, may perhaps be discerned even in the two iI1Stances in wqich it OCCj,!!S in. Herodptus. But at any rate this certainly appears to have been t~e c,ase "\'hen th,,,t~r,m as de11oting a messenaer came to be revived in the later Greek ; the fact that it,:i USll in tJ:iis aens11 was in s;me degree an archaism very possibly helpiug to invest it witll ~ certain ~itqc respectfulness; and it m11,y very supposab)y have. been on th,is ,afe?UDt that it was i:;on- sidered the fitting designation to appropriate to persons receiving a. commission relat~~9, to sacred things. . .. At 1111 cveuts, in actual fact, not only is this the sense in which 11lope i.t is applied in  DISSERTATION I. xxvii