The Pulpit Commentary — Galatians — Section 52

tion on the one hand of the fickleness and written under a vivid sense of how brief the impressionableness which cbe.rncterized this interval is which separates the present state people, e.nd on the other by tho frequency of things from that of the life to come. with which perversions of Ohristie.n doctrine I Pet. i. 8, "On whom, though just now were alree.dy seen to be infesting the (lf.rn) ye see him not"---another outcome of Churches. Compare also the apostle's the same feeling. Similarly, in l Cor. iv. warning to the Ephesians (Acts xx. 28-31). 13; viii. 7, {c,,s 11.pn means" until this very If e.ny man preach any other gospel unto you hour;" and, on the other side of the point than the.t ye he.ve received, let him be a.coursed of time indicated t.-rr' t.p.-, is "from this (,f.,.., flµa.s ,ua:yyell.l(e.-a, 1rap' IJ 1rapell.dfJne, very hour" in Matt. xxvi. 64; John i. 52. a.vd9eµa l,r.,.,.,) ; if any man is peaching Many have supposed that the apostle is unto you a gospel other than that which ye speaking of certain characteristics of his received, let him be anathema. The verbal present course of behaviour as a belie'l"er variations in these words, as compared with and a servant of Christ, viewed in contrast those in ver. 8, are slight. One, however, with the life which he had once lived when deserves e.ttention : "If any one is peaching" an ardent disciple of Judaism. But the compe.red with " If . . . an e.ngel should narrowly restrictive form of the adverb . . . preach." By this che.nge in the form resists this interpretation. He could hardly of making the supposition, the denunciation with this reference in view have used the seems to come down out of the region of phrase "just now," or "at this very hour," bare hypothesis to that of, perhaps, present of a tenor of life which he had been pursu- ree.lity. If so, the tlmnder of the apostle's ing for now more than twenty years. Some, anathema would be felt by his ree.ders eminent critics (Alford, Ellicott, Lightfoot, approaching nee.rer and nearer to the head Sanday) take this lzpT< as pointing to tile of some particular individual among them- style of langnage which the apostle is" just selves, towards whom their eyes would at now" adopting: "Now, when I nse such once be directed with the feeling that it uncompromising language;" or, "There! L~ was, perhaps, his doom that the apostle was that the language of a man-pleaser? Nmo now pronouncing. The construction in the do I," etc. It is an objection to this view Greek of the verb " preach the gospel" that it gives the adverb a somewhat di'l"erse ( eua-y-y,71.f(oµ,u), with the accusative of the sense to that which it bears in ver. 9; for person to whom the message is brought, whereas in ver. 9 tzpn points to the circum- is found also in.Acts xiii. 32; xiv. 21. In stances of the present hour as prompting sense there seems to be no apprecie.ble the apostle to the utterance of bis anathema, difference between this construction of the according to the view referred to it here verb and that with the dative 1111 found in points to the present hour as exhibiting the the preceding verse and often. apostle himself in a. certain aspect. It is Ver. 10.--'-For do I now (ll.p.-, ;,&.p); for at more obvious, and indeed gives the present this hour. This "for" points back either use of the adverb more force, to fake it in to the fact of the apostle's he.ving now so both verses with the like reference. In solemnly pronounced afresh the awful both the apostle refers to the present hour anathema which at some former time he aa a juncture in which he felt that it hacl had uttered; or which, in effect, is nearly become necessary to depart from his cus- the same thing, to the tone of feeling which tomary manner of using a winning style ,,f he in so doing evinced, and to his method address. At other times he will persna<lu of 11postolic action which he therein exem- and please ; just now he cannot. l'ersuade plified. The adverb ll.p.-,, as used in the men, or God 1 or do I seek to please men 1 New Testament, is distinguished from the (a.v9pclnrovs ,re(9,., i'j .-lw E!e&v; ~ (1JTw a.v9pOJ1ro1< more common" now" (viiv), as denoting that cip,cr1mv;); do I persuade men or Go,l? or space of time which is most closely present. do I 6eelc to please men? Expositors hav,, This shade of meaning is conspicuous, e.g. endeavoured to establish, ns one sense of tho in the "Suffer it to be so just now" of Greek verb rendered "persuade," that of Matt. iii. 15, that is, during that brief, "ma.king So-and-so one's friend." No doubt quickly vanishing moment in which the it often means to prevail, or endeavour to Messiah was by Divine appointment to prevail, upon others, by coaxing, persuasion, appear subordinate in position to his fore- bribery, or anyhow, to go along with you in runner. So Matt. xxvi. 53, "Thinkest thou some partioular course of thinking or a.cling that I cannot beseech my Father, nnd he indicated by the context; but it can nowhere shall (lf.pn) at this very moment send me be shown to mean, when standing alone," to more than twelve legions of angels?" John win So-and-so's friendship." In Acts xii. xvi. 12, 11 Ye cannot bee.r them (l!pT,) just 20, "Having persuaded Blastus" means now;" in a very short while they would be "Having got Blustus to concur with them." enabled to bear them. I Cor. xiii. 12, "Just Similarly, Matt. x:s:viii.14, ''We will persuade now (lfpn) we see in 11 mirror, dlll'kly;" words him," an,l 2 l\lncc. iv. 15, "With ,1 ,·icw tu  18 THE EPISTLE TO 'l'HE GALATIANS. [OH. I. 1-24.