The Pulpit Commentary — Galatians — Section 16

our sacred-books, but its honorific complexion is also in most instances quite distinctly re~gnizable.. •• Very, clearly- may we feel this to be the case in the passage which I before bad occa- sion to cite from the Hebrews (iii. 1). For.both must it have seemed to the writer of that Epistle that the designation of" Apostle" was in itself one which it was nc,t unmeet to apply to Chri_st the Son of God, and also we see it there placed side by side with the title of" High Priest," to the Jewish mind the most exalted of all human functionaries. 'rhll considerate reader also of the passages, 2 Cor. viii. 23 ; Phil. ii. 2G; Roni. xvi. 7, ca1;mot__ ~ut feel that St. Paul regarded it as being a highly honourable distinction among Christians that one should be thought worthy of being an "apostle of a Church," The pseudo-apostles at Corinth. An important illustration of the position held in the Ch_urch by those· who in this secondary Bense were named "apostles," is supplied by the manner in which ~t. Paul, in the tenth and two following chapters of his Second Epistle to the Corinthi~';ls,_ treats of certain persons who had come among those brethren in this character. These particular persons, it appears, were " Hebrews" and " Israelites," belonging, that is, to the highest class of Jewish purists, and had come to Corinth bearing credentials of their apostolic mission in the form of" commendatory letters" (2 Cor. iii. 1). This makes it appear a highly probable supposition that they had been sent forth ~y the Church of Jerusalem, like certain persons referred to in Gal. ii. 12 as having come to .Antioch ' 1 from _James," who through their Israelite prejudices exercised so noxious an influence in the Antiochian Church. Th_is supposition helps to explain their taking so much upon thern,backed as they would be by the "_Cephas" party and perhaps the "Christ" party in the Corinthian Church. These· men St. Paul describes as "sham apostles, treacherous workmen, disguising themselves as apostles of Christ (.,,•uo..1rcla-Toll.01, ,p-ydn, ooll.Lo,, ,..,,... O-X1/l'~T1(&,.~v~, ,Is A,roo--r&ll.ous Xp1C1Toii) '' (2 Cor. xi. 13). These expressions do not at all warrant the_ idea that they had not .really received the commission which they professed they had received. The apostle writes here in the same sense as he does in eh. ii. 4, where he describes certain persons iu the Church of Jerusalem as " sham brethren, unwarrant- ably brought in, who had unwarrantably come in to spy out our liberty (-robs 1rc:pwr- dicT011r .,,.uo.. Blll.tf>ous, o1-rwu 1rapE<0'71J1.6ov ,ca-rao-1Co11'7/0'a1 T¾,v h1.•u6,plav ~,..,v);" who, howe,er, no doubt, really were brethren, that is, outwardly members of the Christian brother- hood; only, their inward habits of feeling and thinking were altogether incongruous with their external position as professed believers in Christ. In like manner, we may confidently assume that these pseudo-apostles also really were" apostles ; "but teaching as they did a different' gospel from that which _the Corinthians had received from Christ through St. Paul; a·falsified gospel which was an inspiration of Satan, and being there- fore' in reality "·ministers of Satan," thwarting Christ's work in Corinth instead of furthering it, their spirit and their mode of action gave the lie to their assuwed cha• racter of being " apostles" in Christ's Church; they were " pseudo-apostles." Coming, then, as we must believe, to Uorinth as " apostles,'' we learn that they claimed from the brethren there in that character an extravagant amount of deference and of shows of respect, fa~ beyond what St. Paul had himself ever thought of claiming; exacting from them in particular, as is dear from several intimations dropped bv the 11postle, payment in no moderate measure for their ministerial service. All this is directly pointed at in the words, "Ye bear with a man, if he reduceth you to the con- dition of slaves, if he eateth you 'up; ithe catcheth you as his prey, if he uplifteth him- self, if he smiteth you on the face'" (2 Cor. xi. 20). '!'heir enormous exaggeration of their importance as "apostles'' suggests to the indignant and disgusted Paul, smarting at the wrong done to his own beloved disdplcs, the use, two sevl'ral times (~ Cur. ~i. 5;  THE; EPISTLE TO TBE GALATIANS.