The Pulpit Commentary — Galatians — Section 152

EXPOSITION. recent days derive it from fJ6,(.,, {Jda,co,, OHA.1:''l'Jm m. speak ; as if it were '' to bespeak a Ver. 1.-0 foolish Galatians (.?. liv61) ..o, man." The nouns {Jda,c"vor, {J<&ll',cavla, r'"d'Ta,). In thus apostrophizing them, the following the senses of the verb, express apostle brands their present behaviour, not the ideas, either of envious detraction or any lack of intelligence on their part in of sorcery (see Schneider; Passow; Liddell general (comp. Luke x.xiv. 25). "Foolish" and Scott). In the New restament the -to allow yourselves to be thus robbed of word occurs only here. In the Septuagint your happiness. The transporting feeling we meet with it in Dent. xxviii. 54, where, of elevation and joy with which, in eh. ii. for the words, " His eye shall be evil to- 19-21, the apostle describes himself as wards his brother," we have Baa,cavei ..q; crucified with Christ to the Law, and as 0<1>8all.µ.<ji aV'TOV 'Tbv li.liell.,pov av'Tov, meaning living in Christ and through Christ, makes apparently, "He shall grudge with his eye. bim the more keenly sensible of the sense- his brother; " and so again in ver. 56, the less folly shown by the Galatians in ta.king same phrase is used analogously of the up the observance of the Law. Who hath tender woman, "She shall grudge with her bewitohed you, that ye should not obey the eye her husband;" Ecclus. xiv. 6, "There truth 1 (Tlr {)µ.us ?{J6.a,cave; [Receptus adds, is not a worse mau ( ToiJ {Jaa,ca(voVTor <<&v'Tov) 'Tp li.11.118el<f µ.¾ ,re{Bea6a,]); who in his envy than he that grudges his own self;" ibid. did bewitch you 'I With respect to the ver. 8, " Evil is ( d {Jaa,calvo,v 0<1>8'"µ.qi) he Greek text, there is now no doubt amongst that grudgeth with his eye." In Scripture, editors thnt the words, -rji li.11.116,(Cf µ.¾ 1rei6,- both in the Old Testament and the New, a8a,, "that ye should not obey the truth," and in the Apocrypha, the phrases, "the aro not genuine here, being in all proba• eye being evil," '' the evil eye," following Lility foisted in from ver. 7. We have, the Hebrew, always denote envy, ill nature, therefore, to omit them and to rend e/34• niggardliness (Deut. xv. 9; x.xviii. 54, 56; a,cavev as before ofr. 'E/3da,cavev is a remnrk• Prov. xxiii. li [comp. Prov. xxii. 9, "a able word, o.nd calls for co=ent. In common bountiful eye"]; Matt. xx. 15 ; l\Iark vii. Greek, {Jaa,ca(vew Tivci., to treat one with 22). Nowhere either in the Scriptures or malignant words, means either to slander, in the Apocrypha is there any reference belie, blacken character, or to cast upon to " forelooli:ing,'' unless perchance the, him primarily words conveying baleful me'onen, Deut. xx. 10 (Authorized Yersion, spells, and then, in later usage very fre- "observer of times"), is etymologically quently, baleful spells of nny kind, o.nd connected with the Hebrew wor,l for "eye,'' more especially s1)ells from the " evil eye" which, however, few critics suppose. Igna- (Aristotle, Plutarch): in the langunge of tius, • Ad Rom.', 3, has O/,li,1r0Te l{Jaa1<a.va'T~ old English superstition, "forelook" or ovli,va, &/1./1.ovr ili,lid!an, "never grudged " overlook." Indeed, so closely did this any mnn." This Sephrngintal use of the Inst notion cling to the verb, as to h11. ve verb presents, as the reader will observe, a suggested to Greek grammarians for its somewhat different shade of meaning to etymology, <1>d.ea1 ,ca(vew, "to kill with the any of those cited above from the lexicons. eyes." 'rhe more soientific ctymologista of Following, however, its guiLhrnce, we may  118 'l'HE EPISTLE TO TIIE GALATIANS. [cu. m. 1-29.