The Pulpit Commentary — Galatians — Section 42

■ome words marking the high dignity which widened the sense proper to it in ordinary attached to the communities he is addrese- Greek into the more comprehensive import ing. He is too much displeaeed to do this of the ahaMm, which it we.a regularly em- now. The plurality oftheGa.latian Ohurchee, ployed to represent. J!'rom God the Jl'athe?, eaoh of them apparently forming a dietinct and from our Lord Jesus Christ (l&,rb 8•ou organization, ie expressed again in I Cor. 1ta.-rpo,,,ca) Kvplov f,µ.i#v 'l710'ov Xp10'-rov). These xvi. I, "As I gave order to the Churches of words regularly form e. part in the 11,poetle's Galatia;" and agrees very well with what formula. of greeting. With slight variations we read in Acts xviii. 23, "Went throngh they are found in all his Epistles, except, the region of Galatia and Phrygia in 01·der perhaps, the F~st to the Theesalonians, where, (,ca.8•~>i•), stablishing ell the dieciples." The though read ID the Textns Receptus, they leaven of Judaizing, whether imported by are omitted by recent editors. "Our" i~ visitants from other regione or originating added to "Father" in e.t least seven of St. within these Churches themselves, appears Paul's Epietles(Roma.ns, I and 2 Corinthians, to have been working very exteneively among Epheei&ne, Philippie.ns, Colossians, -Phile- these communities, and not in one or two of mon). This warrants the belief that, when them only. If the latter ha.d been the case, as in I Timothy, Titus, and here, he wrote the apostle would not have involved the col- "God the Father," he most probably did lective Churches in the like censure, but, a.s so with reference to God's fatherly relation in the case of Colossie, compo.red with the to the mombers of Christ's Church. Tre- " Ephesians," have singled out for warning gelles a.nd the margin of the revised Greek those actually pecca.nt. Thie fa.et, of the text, in fact, read f,µ.wv after ,ra.,,.p,,. here, general diffusion among them of one parti- omitting it after Kvplov. Uniformly in this cular taint, warrants the belief that certain formula of greeting we find only one preposi- persons ha.d been at the pa.ins of going a.bout tion, "from" (l&1r6), before the two names, among these Churches to propagate it. Who "God" and "Jesus Christ;" a.sin the first these persons were, or where they ea.me from, verse in this Epistle there is only one pre- there is nothing to show. It has, indeed, position, "through," before "Jesus Christ" been assumed by many that, like those dis• and " God." The apostle, looking upwards, turbere of the Antiochia.n Church men- discerns, as St. Stephen did, in the ineffable tioned in Acts xv. I and oh. ii. 12, they had glory, the supreme God in whom he recog- come from Judiee., or rather Jerusalem. But nizes "our Father," a.nd with h.1.10 Jesus the Epistle gives no hint of this in respect to Christ, "our Lord;" that is, our Mo..ster, the Galatie.n Churches. What the apostle Head, Mediator, "through whom a.re all writes in oh. vi. 12, 13 points ro.ther to the things, a.nd we through him." Grace and surmise that this particular distraction was peace coming down from heaven, must come ea.used by some Churchmen of their own, who from God our Father and Jesus Christ our had given themselves to this heretical prose- Lord. From the very nature of the case it lytizing in order to truckle to non-Christian is obvious that the blessings referred to come Jews living in their neighbourhood. Com- to us through Christ, though also " from " pare the apostle's foreboding respecting the him; e.s also th11ot St. Paul's delegation a.s future of the Ephesian Church, in Aots :u:. e.postle, spoken of in the first verse, origi- 30. (See note on oh. vi. 12, 13.) nated fr<m1 a volition and appointment of Ver. 3.-0raoe be to yon and peaoe (xJ.p,. God the Father, a.s well a.s was brought {,µ.'iv ,ea.I •lp-li1111) ; grace to you and peace. e.bout " through" the ordering of his provi- Here, as often, we have combined the form dence. But in ea.eh ea.so the preposition of salutation prevalent among Greeks, xa.lp«v used by the apostle preserves its proper (found in its unaltered form in Jas.i. l, "wish- force, uot to be confused by our thrusting ing joy"), Christianized into xa.pis, grace, into it another notion not just then in the which denotes the outpouring of Divine be- writer's view. nignity in a.11 such spiritual blessings as Ver. 4.-Who gave himself (-rou o&na< sinful creatures need; and the Hebrew greet- fov,,.&11 ). This is the strongest imaginable ing, shalom, which in its transformation into description of what Christ did to redeem us. <lp1/1111 may be supposed to have dropped in The phrase occurs iu I Maec. vi. H, with its Christianized signification some of its reference to the Eleazar who rushed upon originally comprehensive meaning, which certain death to kill the elepho.n t which was comprised a.11 " health e.nd wee.Ith" as well carrying theking,Antiochus: "lie gave him- a.s "peace," and to have generally expressed self (fo.,,cev <e&v-rhv) to save his people." It the more limited ide11, oftha.tca.lm sense of re- is applied to Christ o.lso in Titus ii. l 4, "Who conciliu.tion and th11,t perfect security 11gainot gave himself for us ; " e.nd 1 Tim. ii. 6, evil which constitute the peculiar hnppinees "Who gave himself a ronsom for all." In the of a soul whioh believes in Christ. It is next oha.pter, ver. 20, the apostle writes," Who nevertbeless conceivable that <lp~117J, e.s loved me, e.nd gave himself up (1rup ..0611,,.a, used in Hellenistic Greek, may 11,t times have l1111Th11) for me." Si.mi.larly, St. Paul write~  6 THE EPISTLE TO Cl"HE GALATIANS. [cu. L 1-24,