The Pulpit Commentary — Galatians — Section 70

tnrriecl with him," is with the greatest proba- overcome through the interposition of the bility ta.ken to indicate e. sojourn at Bt.Peter'e generons-hee.rted Be.me.bas his ardent zee.l house. Else, why did not St. Pe.ul write, thru~t him forth ,without d~lay upon giving "I turiad in J eruee.Iem " ? And this cir- pubhc proof of hIS consecration to the causo cumetBnce the apostle, e.s it should seem, of Christ. He owed it to that cause the.t, in indicates, with e. le.tent reference to its signi- the pie.ea where he had eo grievously and ficance. The fact was significant in various publicly sinned against it, he should try we.ye. It testified most openly and emphatic- what he could to undo, if only he might ally to a wondrous tre.nsforme.tion in the the mischief which when last at Jenise.le~ mutual sentiments with which the two men he had bot too well succeeded in effecting. regarded one another. It we.a but a short For this end he addressed himself to that while a.go, only some two or three years more very portion of the population amongst or less, that Se.ul was viewecl by St. Peter whom in those days of sin his hostility had with repugnance and dread, as the bitter and been so conspicuously shown. He soun-ht influential persecutor of that flock of Christ out the Hellenist Jews, whom he had then which the Lord had so pointedly committed been so active in hounding on to their especially to his affectionate tendence. Even assault upon the holy Stephen, eagerly personally on hie own behalf Peter" must striving now by exhortation and argument have feared him, perhaps even have hidden to win them to believe. The endeavour himself from him, when he forced his way was, however, fruitless. The evil which he into Christian homes" (Dr. Farrar, 'Life of had wrought in the past it was not given St. Paul,' vol. i. p. 231). Only quite lately had him in this field to repair. Christ himself, the scattered members of the Church ceased nppearing in vision, warned him to desist. to fear fresh onslaughts of the persecution Earnestly he entreated to be permitted thus which Saul had so eagerly pressed forward, to plead for him; but his Master peremp- and begun once more to openly assemble at torily commanded him to leave the city. Jerusalem. Yet now there were here to be "Depart quickly: they will not receive of seen, on the one side Cephas, forgivingly, thee testimony concerning me" (Acts xxii. affectionately welcoming Saul to his house; 18). The wish was natural, and to his and on the other, the late scornful and hostile honour; but it was not for this that his Pharisee submitting to be beholden to steps had been directed to Jerusalem.. He Cephas for hospitality I to Cephas for public should work for Christ extensively else- recognition as a brother in Christ I That where, and not ineffectually; but here he it was with a lively recollection of that new- was forbidden to stay. The eager, and for born mutual brotherliness that the apostle himself fearless, champion obeys, curbing penned this brief record of his visit to his resolute spirit to compliance with the Cephas, dry and colourless matter-of-fact arrangements which the brethren e.t Jeru- as it at first seems, we cannot doubt when salem me.de for his safe transmission to we look back upon the highly coloured Cmse.rea, from whence he sailed for Tarsus picture of his previous animosity against (Acts ix.). the Church of God, and hie intense Pharisa- Ver. 19.-But other of the apostles saw I ism, and also observe that immediately after none, save James the Lord's brother (fr,pov he brings directly into view the sentiments BE -rWv ii1rotr-r&Awv oV,c elOov, el µ.:,, 1 Id1ull/3ov -rOv of wonder and adoring gratitude to God a.6,>..<1>bv Tov Kuplou); but no one besides of with which the Churches of Judwa beheld the apostles saw I, unless it were James the the change which had taken place in him. Lord's broth.er. The words,•• unless it were," His mind is too intent upon the pressing are here proposed as a rendering of ,l µ.,f, o.s business of the hour to allow itself in melt- betokening e. certain degree of hesitancy on ing mood to loiter upon mere reminiscences the apostle's part e.s to the perfect justness of the past; it takes in, nevertheless, with of the exception which he makes. The however rapid a glance, the remembrance of reason of this will appear if wo consider those days; how strange, and withal how the.t "James the Lord's brother" w11s not affecting, his position had then been felt to really one of the apostles; but nevertheless, be I We are not, however, to suppose that through the position which he held in the St. Paul devoted this most noteworthy fort- Church of Jerusalem, e.nd through various night altogether, or perhaps even princi- ciroumstances attaching to him, stood in pally, to fraternal intercourse with Cephas general estimation so nee.r to the revered and James and the other newly found twelve, that St. Pe.ul felt he was required, brethren in Christ residing in the capital. in connection with his present statement, to We learn from the history of the Acts that, me.ke this reference to him, when affirming after the misgiving, which not unnaturally so solemnly the.t Cephas we.s the only had been at first felt by even the leaders apostle that he then saw. For a fuller of the Christian community, e.s to the reality discussion of the personality of "James of hie conversion to tho faith, he.d been the Lord's brother," the reader is referred GALATIANS. D  THE EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS., [ CII, I, 1-24, --------------------------------- to the ndditional note nt the end of this was wl'itten, he wn.s no longer alive. And chapt<-u·. How it oame about that St. Peter the tone in .which he is spoken of in the was the onl~- one of the twelve that St. book, whose author, •IIS we know, w11s in raul then saw, there are no oertain grounds close association ,vith St. Paul, 1111d no for d~termining. The intimation in Aots doubt both drew from the apostle's inspirn- ,·iii. 1 that, in the persecution which ensued tion many of the particulars he rel11tes 11nd upon the martyrdom of Stephen, tbe apostles reflected his feelings, is generally so kindly 8till remained at Jerusalem when they aud respectful as to accord w,ell with the of the Church there were all soe.ttered supposition of Barnabas's decease, and evon 11 broad throughout the regions of Judroa and of his then recent decease. The pensivo Samaria, relates to a period two or three touching reference to his character in xi'. years previous. The state of things was no 24, introduced in the narrative in· so un-. doubt now quite different; the Church wonted a manner as it is, betokens this. had come together a 6rain; but the apostles Carefully does the historian indicate, that may for the most part have been absent in Barnabas was the new convert's sponsor the country, engaged in their apostolio with the at first distrustful brethren. ot labow-s, as St. Peter himself is soon after Jerusalem; 11.lso that it was he that went described as being (cf. Acts ix. 81, 82). The and fetched Soul from his distant retirement surmise that this was the cause appears more at Tarsus to co-operate with him at Antioch; probable than the view which supposes them also that he linked him to himself in thA to have continued disa-ustful, now that the eleemosynary journey to ,Jerusalem, and two great leaders, Cephas and James, had again under Divine direction in .their groat been won over to fra.nkly and publicly recog- evangelistic tour in Asia Minor,-in both of nize the new convert. A difficulty has been which expeditions Barnabas at the first ap- thought to result from a comparison of these pears as the leading figure of the two; after words of St. Paul with St. Luke's statement which comes the mournl'ul disruption recorded in Acts ix. 15, 16, that Barnabas took and at the close of the fifteenth chapter, tbe brought him to "the apostles," and that he last reference to Barnabas in the Acts.• 'fhat, "was with them" going in and out at Jerusa- however, this interruption of their brotherly lem. That he was not with them for long was attachment did not last long is shown by a fact not unknown to St. Luke, as we may the respectful and sympathetic manner in gather from what we read in Acts xxii. 18. which St. Paul, in writing to the Corinthians There is, therefore, no discrepancy in that (ix.), six or seven years after, speaks of respect between the two representations. the oneness in sentiment subsisting between But is there no discrepancy between St. Barnabas o.nd himself in labo~ring for Luke's mention of "tho apostles" as then the gospel at their own charges. Since the admitting Paul into partnership with them time that St. Paul sent that letter to the in public work, and St. Paul's so emphatic- Corinthians as well as this to the Galo.tians, ally affirming that it was Cephas alone of some five years had elapsed when St. Luke the apostles that he saw? We must acknow- wrote the Book of the Acts. All these con- ledge that tbere is-the same kind and the siderations taken together agree perfectly same amount of discrepancy as e.g. obtains well with the conception tbat Luke h11d between St. Matthew saying tbat those who heard bis master, perhaps 1·epeatedly, make were crucified with Jesus reviled him, and pensive reference to his old relations with. St. Luke specifying that one did so, but that llarnabas now gone to his rest. " When the the other rebuked him. In all such cases, the apostles at Jerusalem," he might say, "looked more vag11e and general statement must in upon me coldly and distrustiugly, he it was al I fairness be accepted, but with the modi- that took me by the haud [the reader will fir.ation supplied by the one which is the note the pathos in the expression, lir,J..a{Joµ.,vos more particular and definite. It seem.a to alrrbv 1,-ya-y,] and led me into their presence, the present writer that there is a way of quite naturally accounting for the form in 1 In respect to this particular incident,