The Pulpit Commentary — Galatians — Section 66

partook of the same;" (8) Epb. vi. 12, the negative. Bo Rom. ix. 16, "Not of him " Our wrestling is not against flesh and that willeth, neither of him that runneth." blood, but ago.inst . . . the spiritual hosts It ie uncertain whether " went up" or of wickedness in the heavenly placea;" (4) "went a.way" is the true reading of the Matt. xvi. 17, "Flesh o.nd blood hath not Greek text. If the latter, the verb ie re- revealed it unto thee, but my Jt'ather which peated after the following "but" (o.Mcf), ie in heaven." In the first two of these o.e Rom. viii. 15, "Ye have received; " Heb. po.see.gee the phro.se denotes the bodily xii. 18, 22, "Ye are come." To them which nature of men viewed ae subject to mor- were apostles before me (1rpb, -roos 1rpiJ iµ.ov tality : which is the tum of thought also in o.1rou-ro;\.ovs). For this "before me," comp. Ecclue. xiv. 18, where the humo.n ro.ce is Rom. xvi. 7. Every reader must feel the styled a "generation of flesh o.nd blood." consciousness of official parity with tbo In the other two it denotes humo.n beings twelve which transpires in this expression themselves, described by their material na- of St. Paul's. The like consciousness is ture, but with reference to their compara- apparent in 1 Cor. xv. 5--11, strongly BB the tive inefficiency as viewed alongside, in (3) writer there expresses his sense of compara- with purely spiritual agents : in ( 4) with tive personal unworthiness. Why, it may be God. In precisely the same way as in the asked,does the apostle thus pa.rticnlady refer last-cited passage, the apostle uses the to the" apostles before him"? The probable pluase here. Knowing that God had him- answer seems to be, for tbe purpose of more self revealed in him his Son, in order that forcibly illustrating the assured conviction, he should proclaim him among the Gentiles, which from the very first he entertained, of he at tho.t crisis of action felt any reference the sufficiency and Divine authority of the for teaching or practical direction to mere gospel which he had already received. But men to be in his case e.ltogether unneces- I went into Arabia (c'r.M.' 111r71,\6ov eis 'Apr1• sary. As the next cle.uee specifies the older f',la.v) ; but I went away inui Arabia. It is apostles, who are mentioned as being at that impossible to determine what was the pre- time at Jerusalem, it may be that the cise locality to which St. Paul then went. phrase, "flesh and blood," in its most imme- "Arabia" was in those days a geographical diate scope, contemplates believers or elders term of very wide significance. Damascus it- (for probably there already were Christian self apperte.ined to Arabia: so J nstin Martyr elders there) of Damascus. Ananias is the writes (' Die.I. c. Tryph.,' 305, A.) "that Da- only Damascene believer named in the his• maecns was of the Arabian country (,.71 , •Apa.• tory, though it speo.ks of others (Acts ix. f',11C71s 'Y71s),o.nd is, even though now [probably, 19): he was a man of remarkably high Bishop Lightfoot suggests, by Hadria.n's estimation even amongst the unbelieving arrangement of those provinces] it has been Jews (Acts x:xii. 12), and he bad been assigned to whati.s called the Syrophamician honoured by Christ with a special vision, country, none even of you are able to deny." and sent by Christ on a special mission to So Tertullian, • Adv. Mare,' iii. 13; • A.dv. S11ul. If Saul had felt it to be incumbent Judmos,' 9. At the time of St. Paul's abode upon him to advise with any servant of at De.me.sous the city was subject to an Christ, whether as to who.t he should be- "ethne.rch of Aretas " (2 Cor. xi. 32) ; and lieve or ae to what he should do, surely to " A.retas," the King of Petra, is in the case An11nias he would naturally have looked. of several euocessi ve princes, sty led II the But not even to an Ananias would S11ul King of the Arabians'' (2 Mace. v. 8; Jose- refer for guidance at this juncture. The phne. • Ant.,' xiv. 1, 4; 'Bell. Jud. ,' i. 6, 2; sense which has frequently been given ;to 'A.ut.,' xvi. 10, B, 9). The e.postle's words the phrase, " flesh and blood," ae meaning may, therefore, describe a withdrawal into " the dictates of one'a own fleshly nature," some district, whether inhabited or unin• i~ neither favoured by its use in any other habited, not for dist11nt from Damascus. passage ( although " the flesh," standing On the other ho.nd, in eh. iv. 25, the apostle olone, might have odmitted of such an in- refers to" Arabia" in connection with Mount terpretation), nor is it in any way suggested Sinai ; so that Arabia Petnea may possibly by the tenor of the context. The apostle is have been the country visited. And here here dealing solely with his relations to the imagination is tempted by recollections other men. of Moses and the giving of the Law, and Ver. 17.-Neither went I up to J'erusa.lem of Elijah, to indulge in speculations with (ovot ari);\.6ov[L.A. c'r.1r,j;1.6ov] .Is 'IEpouo;\.vµ.a.); reference to the especial appropriateness of neither went I up (or, away). This "neither" that vicinity for being Saul's place of sojourn negatives one particular instance of the at this crisis of spiritual illumination and ,::oueral notion of " consulting flesh and call to apostleship. But all this is con• blood," in reference to whioh an exoeption jectnral : there is no solid ground whatever might else have not unnaturally been sup- for our believing that it was thither that his posed likely. It forms a sort of olimax to steps were at this season directed, And we  30 THE EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS. LCH. I, 1-24.