The Pulpit Commentary — Galatians — Section 45

and this fact should me.ke that redemption ordering of "our God "-and hi, sovereign welcome t.o us. Simile.rly, in 1 Pet. i.18 the "will" who of us she.11 dare to oontravene P epithet" handed from your fathers ( ,ra,,.powa.pa.• -and also thwarting the operation of his i,,-,.oii)," added after" your vain manner of fatherly loving-kindn888, For the laok of life," is a logioal adjunct : the fact that it filial confidence in God's love to us, and we.s ancient and traditional gave it sc strong the slavish ceremonialism whioh charao• a hold upon them 8ll to crave the interven- terized J udaioal legalism, were bot b. of tion of a no ordine.ry ransom to redeem them them adjuncts of the unspiritue.l mind still from it. With the turn of thought, which in bondage to "the flesh' (cf. Rom. vii. e.nd RCCOrding to this view is indicated by the viii.), and therefore part and parcel of "this epithet ,ro,,.,,poii having been added t.o the present world." Comp. oh. iii. 8; iv. 3, noun without the e.rticle, agrees likewise 8-10; e.nd Col. ii. 20, " Why, as living in the the emphatic position of the verb ill>..17,,.,., world, do ye subject yourselves to ordinances, at the head of the sentence. Christ gave Handle not," etc.? .As Professor Jowett his own very self for this end, that he might observes, in this case as well 88 in the d,,,li'IJe'I' llB out of this wretched state of things Epistle to the Romans, "The salutation is to which we belonged. But the reactionary the proem of the whole Epistle." The ell:• movement now showing itself among the pression, "our God and Father," is pathetio; Ga.latie.ns would inevitably, the apostle feels it is an outcome of the deep complacency {see eh. v. 4), have the effect of making with which the apostle cherishes the assur- void this redeeming work of Christ, and e.nee of God's fatherly love given us in the of involv10g them afresh in their origine.l gospel-a sentiment of complacenoy stimu- misery. If we adhere to the reading in the lated into inoreased fervenoy by antagonism Textus Receptns, 'rov ivEJ'riiii'ros aliiiivos ,ro"'I" to the spiritual mischief confronting him. poii, we bad best, perhaps, accept Winer's pro- Of our God and Father. So Revised Ver- posal (' Gram. N. T.,' § 20, 1 a), and explain sion. This rendering appears decidedly the absence of the article by supposing ,.Jc:,., preferable to that given by the Authorized 1ra.,.,,p,bs 88 forming one notion, 88 in the Version, "of God and our Father," though case of {3piii,µ.a. ,rvwµ.a.wcbv and "JT&µa "JTv. in grammatically this latter is confessedly no1; the TextUB Receptus of 1 Cor. L 3. But inadmissible. The like remark applies to this reading, though gra.mmatica.lly it runs e.11 the other passages in the New Testa- more smoothly than the other, is on that ment in which e,bs teal na,,.¾,p is found , very account the less likely to have been followed by a genitive; namely, by ..-(1.,,,.,.,,, •the origine.l one, and seems greatly to blunt (Eph. iv. 6); by 71µ.iiiiv as in the pusage be- the signiftcance of the adjective. May we fore us (1 These, i. 3; iii. 11, 13; Phil. iv. not detect in this epithet "evil" the sound 20); by 'roii Kvplov 7/JLW>' 'I11a-oii Xp1<T'roii (Rom. , of a sigh, drawn from the apostle's heart by xv. 6; Eph. i 3; Col. i. 3; 2 Cor. i. 3 ; 1 Pet. this fresh worry e.nd disappointment now i 3); by 'roii Kvplov 'l17a-oii (2 Cor. xi. 31 ·cropping up for him e.nd for a.II who cared [L. T. Tr. Rev.; Receptus has ,,.oii Kvplov •for the success of the gospel ? His feeling +,µiiii>' 'I71a-oii Xp,a-,,.oii]; and by ab,,.ou (Rev. seems to be-Oh the weary evilness of this i.~ . present state I When will it be brought to Ver. 5.-To whom be glory for ever and an end by the appearing of that blissful hope? ever. A.men (&i 71 ll&{a. Eis ,,.obs a./iii,,,a.s ,,.;;,., (comp. 2 Cor. v. 4). According to the will al~""""· 'Aµ1w), This doxology is not intro- of God e.nd our :Father (1<1,,,.& ,,.~ 8b..11µ.a. 'roii duced 88 merely a reverential closing up of e,oii tea.I ,ra.,,.pbs 71µ.iiiiv); acc0'1'ding to the wi"ll the greeting, before the writer hastens on of our God and Father. It is, perhaps, ofno to the subsequent words of rebuke. It is great consequence whether we understand rather an indignant tender of homage to the this clause as pointing to the whole preced- Most High, flashing forth from a loyal, filial ing sentence," Who gave himself ... world," heart; confronting and seeking, so fo.r as it or to the last clause of it," That he might thus may, to redress the wrong done to" our -ddiver . . . world." But the former is God and Father" by the Judaizing spirit tLe more probable construction : (1) there uprearing itself among the Galatians. It is no reason for restricting it to the last is similar in tone to the indignant doxology -words; (2) it is in perfect accordance in Rom. i. 25. This view of its origin witL the apostle's usual reference of Christ's explains the fact that, as C?nnected with coming into the world and dying for us 11 greeting, such doxology is_ found only to the Father's appointment, that he in this or' all St. Paul's Ep1Btles. The ehould here too be understood e.s referring indignation which pervades the tone of the to tLis work of delivering grace also. whole passage favours the soppletion of (,r,,.., The feeling apparently underlies ihese ratl,er than of lrrrlv. Perhaps, indeed,fo,,..., words of the apostle, that the Judaizing is in general the more natural suppletion. which he has now before his eyes was both In l Pet. iv. 11, where la-,,.lv is added by sclting itself in opposition to the supreme the writer, we have not so much a direot OJI, I, 1-24.] THE EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS. g