The Pulpit Commentary — Galatians — Section 57

plicitly named therewith. But we have bume.n in its cho.racter, because that he had t.o observe that in every other passage in not received it from mo.n nor been taught it whioh the Apostle Paul uses a genitive by man, but only "thro11t9h. the revelation oj with the noun "revelation" (d,ro1ed..\v"1«), Je= Ohrut." Then in the five verses the genitive denotes the object which is which follow, to make this afllrme.tion good, reveAled. These a.re Rom. ii. 5," Revelation he states that up to the time of hie con- of tbe righteousjudgment of God;" viii. 191 version he had been wholly o,verse to the "Revelation of the sons of God;" xvi. 25, Christie.n doctrine and intensely devoted to "Revelation of the mystery; " and the pas- Pharisee..n Judaism, and that when God, sages in wai.eh be designates our Lord's calling him by his grace, " revealed his Son second CQGlmg as "his revelation ; " l Cor. in him that he might preach him among the i. 7; 2 Thess. i. 7; with which comp. Gentaes," he applied to no human being for l Pet. i. 7, 13; iv. 18. That in these five mental direction, but kept himself aloof from last passages the genitive is objective and even those who were apostles before him. not subjective, if it could otherwise be called Now, in setting the eto.tement of ver. 12 in que&tion, is iM.icated by the circum- over e.ge.inst the professedly illustre.tive stance that in I Tim. vi. 14, 15, where the statement which follows, we observe that apostle nsesthe word "appearing"(<11r,,pdv,11x) "the revelation of Jesus Christ" in the instead of" revelation," he adds, "which in former occupies precisely the same position its own times he shall show who is the in the line of thought which in the latter is blessed and only Potentate," etc., manifestly held by "God's revealing his Son in him;" meaning the Father. One other passage re- for the apostle attributes his possession mains to be mentioned, namely, 2 Cor. xii. 1, of tha truth of the gospel in the one to "the •' rieione and revelations of the Lord," revelation of Jesus Christ," and in the other which many critics take as meaning" vouch- to God's revealing his Son in him, and in safed by the Lord," and which in consequence each case to nothing else. Surely it follows is commonly referred to in support of a. "that the revelation of Jesus Christ" which similar int.erpretation of the passage now gives him the gospel in the one case, is before 118. But it may be questioned identical with "God's revealing his Son in wllether the apostle does not there denote him " which gives him the gospel in the by "visions" (orrTa11la.s) a somewhat dif- other. Thus both the sense in which the ferent class of spiritual phenomena from genitive is ordinarily found when joined with those denoted by" revelations of the Lord;" the word "revelation," and the guide.nee by the former intending such visions as of the context, concur in determining for those, e.g. in which he seemed t.o hlmself to the genitive in the present ce.ee the objective be transported into Paradise, or into the sense. This interpretation seems at first third heaven; and by the latter, appearances sight to labour under the inconvenience vouchsafed to him of the Lord Jesus in that, so construed, the sentence lacks the personal presence. Tbese latter, it is true, clearly expressed e.ntithethon to the fore- might be alsofitlystyled "risione" (brrTd.rna,), going noun "man," which we might natur- as, in fact, the most important of them all ally expect to find. But fa reality the is styled in the speech before Agrippa (Acts required antithesis is quite distinctly though :a::vi 19); whilst on the other hand, the implicitly indicated in the very term "reve- former may be justly supposed to be included lation;" for this essentially carries with it under the term " revelations," as employed the notion of an agency not merely super- presently after in ver. 7. But the addition, human, but Divine. It would be an alto- " of the Lord," has at least much more point, gether contracted and indeed erroneous view if we assume the above-stated discrimination of this "revelation" to suppose that it to he.ve been intended between the two mee.ne no more than the manifestation to clnsses of phenomena ; if, indeed, it is not a. Saul's bodily senses of the personal presence quite superfluous adjunct on the other view; and glory of Christ. Beyond 9-uestion this for the " visions e.nd revelations" referred was of itself sufficient to convince Saul of to would be, of course, conceived of wt the truth that Jesus, though once,crucified, coming 1rom "the Lord," without the was now both living and highly exalted in aposile's saying so. Instead of being avail- the supersensuous world. and by conse- able in support of the subjective view of the quence to furnish the necessary basis for genitive before us, the passage 2 Oor. xii I further discoveries of truth, But more was rather favours the other interpretation. And required than the mere bodily sight of the this interpretation of the words, "of Jesus glorified Jesus. This might confonnd and Christ," as objective is favoured by the crush down his antagonism, but would not subsequent contex:t. For comparing this of itself impart converting and bee.ling faith. twelfth verse with the five verses which Men might " see" and yet '' not believe " follow, we observe the.t in this verse the (John vi. 36). There we.a required also the apostle e.flinwl the.t his gospel was not true and just perception of the relation. whioh  THE EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS. 21