The Pulpit Commentary — Galatians — Section 54

fidelity to the gospel which he hae com- sively tame; (3) as thus explained, it would mitted to my trust? They scoflingly eay I not harmonize with the apostle's explicit love to • please men;' and I thank God I and repeo.ted declaration that, in ihe dis- have been wont to • plellee men' to the very charge of his high office, he did make a utmost of my power for their good ; 'but is point of pleasing men. it my work jUBt now to be pleasing men by Ver. 11. - But I certify you, brethren ways of sweet tendemese and forbearance? ( ')'VCdpl(c., 6, [L. A. "'fl'Cdpl(c., ')'lip) vµw, a.6,11.rpo[); If at this time I were still le.ying myself n= (or, for) I make kooum unto y011,, out to • please men,' these men, to wit, who brethren. The external evidence, as well as are me.king havoc of the gospel message, and the judgment of critics, is so evenly divided you who nre ignorantly listening to them, between the two readings, 'Y""'P((o, oe and -then were I no true servant of Christ." 'Y""'P/(c., ')'d.p, that the decision as to which is The interrogative form into which the to be preferred seems to lie with exegesis apostle's language suddenly breaks is rather than with diplomatic criticism. On apparently, here also as in 2 Cor. iii. I, the one band, the fact that the gospel which due to his that moment bethinking himself the apostle had delivered to tbe Galatians of those malicious censurers of him. We he.ve came to him by a direct revelation from here an example of the form of sentence Christ, would be properly viewed as a reason which the grammarians call zeugma; that for regarding it as sacred and inviolable. is to say, "God" is named in conjunction Viewed thus, the reading, "now I make with " men," as an object to the action of known to yon," appears justified as introduc- the verb "persuade," whereas this verb, ing a plea warranting the anathema of vers. suitable enough with relation to men, can 8, 9. On the other hand, there is a differ- only by a strain upon its proper sense be ence of tone perceptible between the previons employed with relation to God. The context, which is strongly marked, as we sentence would possibly have expressed have seen, by intense excitement of feeling, what appears to have been the apostle's real and the passage which commences with this meaning with less ruggedness, but certainly verse. The relaxation in the latter of the with less intensity, if its second clause ha.d stem, indignant severity of the former is been (perhaps), "or commend myself to indicated (1) by the phrase, "I make God's approval? (!) crvv,cr-r&vc., iµa.vT1'~ -rcp known unto you,'' which, as well as the ®«p ;)." (For other instances of :.eugma, see equivalent phrase, "I would not have you Luke i. 64; I Cor. iii. 2.) The a.ddition of ignorant (ob 0b,., vµ.as b.')'voe,v)," is with the the article before e,&v, while it is wanting apostle a customary prelude to a context of before cl.v8p'61rovs, gives the noun a more deliberate and measured statement; (2) by gro.ndiose tone, as if it were, "Do I persuade the introduction of the word "brethren,'' men or GoD?" l!'or if I yet pleased men, I even though, perhaps, holding the positiou should not be the servant of Christ ( el fr& in the sentence which it does here, this a.v8p.61ro1s -l!pecr1Cov, Xp,cr-roii 3oii;\os ob1C /£v compellation has not the same pathetic -l!mw); if I still were pleasing m611, I were no affectionateness as marks it wheu heading sen,ant (Greek, bondservant) of Christ's. a sentence; and (3) by the strain of quiet The received text of the Greek has " For narration which the apostle now enters upon. if I still ( el 'Yap fr,); " but the "for" is This change in the tone is somewhat o.dverse omitted by recent editors. It makes no to the supposition that the two passages difference in the sense whether we retain it were, as originally written, linked together or not, for, retaining the "for," we 5hould by the closely connective "for." It suggests have to understand before it, "I trow not," to the careful reo.der the feeling that, after or the like. The word "bondservant" here the apostle had somewhat relieved his sp:rit expresses the official relation of a Christian of the indignant excitement with which he minister, one especially at his Divine Owner's at first addressed himself to the writing of beck and call. So Rom. i. I; Phil. i. 1; the letter, he laid down his pen at the end 2 Tim. ii. 24; Titus i. I; Jae. i. I; 2 Pet. i. I. of the tenth verse, which bad introduced a The apostle means, " I were no servant of topic of thought that threatened to lead him Christ in spirit and reality, whatever I aside from his present business; and, a.fter might call myself." A good many expositors pausing to reflect how he had best pro- suppose the "still" to be said with reference ceed, resumed his work with the purpose to the time before the apostle's conversion: of calmly showing, from the very circum- " I were no apostle or Christian at all." stances of his personal history, that the But (I) there is no indication either in this gospel which tho Galatio.ns had received passage or anywhere that the apostle re- from him bad solely a. Divine origin. This garded his life before his conversion as view of the passage likewise favours the characterized by the desire to please men ; reading, "Now I make known to you." For (2) with the sense thus given to it, the tho conjunction 8, hns here that simply thought, as Meyer observes, seems exces- metabatio or transitionury scnso which it GALATIANS. 0  THE EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS. [on. r. 1-24.