The Pulpit Commentary — Galatians — Section 122

-yJvo1To ). "Abhorred be the thought I" we marked by the emphatic l"Yw with which ii both say; but (the apostle means his inter- opens. locutor to underst.and) since it cannot Ver. 19.-l!'or I through the Law am dead without horrid impiety be so.id that Christ to the Law (l"/@ "/Cl.p B,o. v&µov v&µq, a.'11'10avov); was a minister to us of sin and not of right- JOT I, JOT my part, through the Law died unto eousness, it follows of necessity that we did the Law. This i"Yw is not the hypothetical not sin against God when we set the works "I" of ver. 18, which in fa.et recites the of the Law aside and sought righteousness personality of St. Peter, but is St. Paul in Christ alone without e.ny respect he.d to himself in hi11 own concrete historical per- them. The Greek phrase is one of several sonality. And the pronoun is in a measure renderings which the Septuagint gives to antithetical; as if it were: for whatever may the Hebrew word chali'lah, ad profana, be your feeling, mine is this, that I," etc. which is frequently used interjectionally to The conjunction "for" points back to the relegate some thought to the category of whole passage (vers. 15-18), which has what is utterly abhorrent and polluted. described the position to which St. Paul had The Hebrew word is discussed fully in himself been brought and on which he still Gesenius's 'Thesaurus,' in verb. St. Paul now, when writing to the Galatians, is uses the Greek phrase twice a.gain in this standing; he here justifies that description. Epistle (once absolutely, iii. 21, e.nd once "Through the Law;" through the Law's inweaved in e. sentence, vi. 14); ten times own procuring, through what the Law itself absolutely in bis Epistle to the Romans (iii. did, I was broken olf from all connection 4, 6, etc.). It occurs also Luke xx. 16. It with the Law. From the words, "I have is impossible to mend the vigorous rendering been crucified with Christ," in the next of our Authorized Version. verse, and from what we read in eh. iii. 13, Ver. 18.-For if I build a.gain the things most especially when taken in connection which I destroyed ( ,l "/a.p &. 1CaTb..vo-a, TaiiTci with the occurrences at Antioch which at • 'll'cl.Aw ol,coaoµw); for if I am building up e.ny rate led to the present utterance, and again the things which I pulled lloum. I with the hankering after Jude.ical ceremo- make myself a transgressor (1rcipa/3cl.T1,v ,µc,v- nialism in Gale.tia which occa.sioned the Tbv avviaT71µ, [or, avv,aTcl.vw, another form of writing of this letter, we may with confi- the same verb]); a transgressor is what I am dence draw the conclusion that St. Paul showing my own self to be. I must be wrong is thinking of the Law in its ceremo- one we.y or the other; if I e.m right now, I nial aspect, that is, viewed as determin- was wrong then ; and from the very natnre ing ceremonie.l purity and ceremonial of the case now in hand, wrong exceedingly; pollution. He is here most immed.io.tely no less than e.n absolute transgressor. This dealing with the question, whether Jewish word" trausgressor" denotes, not one who believers conld freely ussociate without merely happens to break, percha.nee inad- defilement in God's sight with Gentile verdently, some precept of the Law, but one believers who according to the Levitical who, perhaps in consequence of even one Lo.w were unclean, e.nd could partake of the act of wilful transgression, is to be re- like food with them. The notion of becoming garded as trampling upon the authority of dead to the Lo.w through the cross of Christ the Lo.w altogether (comp. Rom. ii. 25, bas other o.spects besides this, as is evinced 27; Jae. ii. 9, 11, which are the only places by Rom. vii. 1-6; e. fact which is indeed of the New Testament in which the word glanced at by the apostle even here; but of occurs; it is therefore e. full equivalent to the several aspects presented by this one the word" sinuer" of ver. 17). The Greek e.nd the so.me many-faced truth, the one verb avv,aTC.vw, " to put forward in a clear which be hero more po.rticulo.rly refers to is light," is used similarly in 2 Cor. vi. 4; vii. tho.t which it bore towo.rds the Law o.s o. ll. It is much deb11ted, e.nd is certainly ceremonio.l institute, That which the Lo.w nowise clear, how for down in the chapter e.s a ceremonial institute did in relation the rebuke addressed to St. Peter extends. to Christ wo.s this-it pronounced him us If it does not reo.ch to the end of the cho.pter, orucified to be in the intensest degree cere- as some think it does, the break may be very monially accursed e.nd polluting; to be well placed at the end of this verse. For most o.bsolutely cherem. But Christ in his this verse clearly relates to St. Peter, death o.nd resurrection-life is appointed by whether actually addressed to him or not; God to be the sinner's only e.nd complete notwithstanding that the verbs are in the so.lve.tion. It follows tho.t ho who by faith hypothetical first person singular, they can- o.nd sacrament is made one with Christ, not be taken as referred to .St. Paul, not does, together with the spiritual life which being e.t all o.pplice.ble to his cnse. On the he draws from Christ, po.rto.ke also in the other hand, with the nineteenth verse the pollution e.nd nccursedness which the Law first person is plainly used by St. Po.ul with fastens upon him; he is by the Law bidden reference to his own self, which is indeed away: he can thenceforth have no connec•  88 Tl:IE EPISTLE '1'0 THE GALATIANS. [ell. II, 1-21.