The Pulpit Commentary — Galatians — Section 181

Vc-rsion renders," there cnn be," and Dishop the plensuro which ho felt in dilating on Lightfoot, " t hC'ro is no room for;" but the large catholicity of the Divine gmco. Erolus. xxxvii. 2 and l Cor. vi. 5 do not In the clause, ou1< tv, lip<T•v 1<al 6ijAv, "there much favour this particular modification. is hero no mitlo and female," the neuter In Col. iii. l l we ha,·e a ,cry similnr pas- is used (remarks Alford) as .being tho only sage; there, after describing Christians as gender which will express both. The "lrndng put on (lv8v<Tape,,01) tlie new m1m, change of form, " male and female " from 'll"hieh is being renewed unto knowledge "no Jew nor Gentile," "no bondm~n nor after the imnge of him that created him," freeman,:• was :perhaps sugge~ted by the the apostle ndds, " Where there is ' not passage lU Gen. 1. 27 (11.po-ev 1<al 6ijAv), "malB Gentile [Greek, 'Greek'] a.nd Jew, cir- and female crel\ted he them," which is cumcision and uncircnmcision, barbarian, quoted in Matt. xix. 4; Mark x. 6. If so, Scvthian, bondman, freeman ; but Christ t~e clause may be regarded (11s Bishop is ·an [literally, • all things'] and in all." Lightfoot says) 11s forming e. elim11x : We may group with tl:cm also l Cor. xii. "even the primeval distinction of. male and 12, 13, "So also is Christ ; for in one female." But perhaps the change is simply Spirit were we all baptized into one body, made for the sake of variety ; as in the wh~ther Jews, whether Gentiles [literally, way in which several of the classes a.re 'Greeks'], whether bondmen, whether free- introduced in the Colossians. For ye are all men." In all thrrc of these passages we one in Christ Jesus (1r!lnes -yap ou,is efs see the reference both to "Jew and Gen- i<TT< Iv Xp<<T'T<p 'l11<Toii) ; for all ye 'are onB tile" and to" bondman and freeman." The and the same man in Christ Jesus. The particular mention of these two forms of pronoun oµeis, ye, is inserted to recite outward classification was suggested by emphatically the qualification alre11dy ex- the circumstances of the Christian Church pressed; as if it were, " ye being what ye generally at that time. Wherever the are, believers baptized into Christ." The apostles went, they were sure to be con- apostle's object here is not, as in I Car, fronted by questions and difficulties arising xii. 13; Col. iii. 11-15, to exhgrt to the both from the one and from the other. In perform11nce of certain mutual duties on the kin!?;dom of God were Jew and Gentile, the ground of the unity which in Christ were circumcised and uncircumcised, to is established among all believers, but to stand on the same footing? Shonld be- enforce the view that each indi vid u11l's title lievers as such be concerned to vary their to the inheritance is altogether irrespe.ctive treatment of one another or to modify their of external distinctions, and is based entirely, own condition from regard to these circum- in ·one case as well as in another, upon his stances? Questionings of this description being clothed with Christ. The word ,Ts is were being agitated e'l'erywhere, and most "one and the same," as i)J, 'Tb fv t/>povouv'TES, especially just now in the Galatiau Churches. "of one mind" (Phil. ii. 2); and in ,Is 0,&r, And, on the other point, the universal ,Ts µ«rl-r11s, " One and the same God, one existence of sla,ery more or less through- and the same Mediator" (I Tim. ii. 5). So out the civilized world would necessarily Cbrysostom : "That is, we have all one give occasion to a ,ariety of questions form and one mould, even Christ's. What," relati'l'e to the position which bondmen he adds, "can he more awful tlian these should hold in the Christian community ; words? He that was a Gre·ek, or Jew, or how a bondman on becoming a Christian bondman yesterday, carrie~ a.bout with him should stand, or what he should do, in the form, not ot e.n angel or archangel, l;mt respect to obedience to his owner or to of the Lord of all, yea, displays in his own seeking a cha,,ge in his condition. St. person the Christ." The distributio.n of the Paul, in his Epiotles, has briefly discn!sed universal qu111ity to each individual, so far some of these points, as in 1 Cor. vii. 20-24; as the grammar of ihe sentence is con- Eph. vi. 5-!I. So often had the apostle cerned, is imperfectly' expressed. But the occasion to affirm the perfect identity of grammatical inadequacy of the verbal expo- Christian privilege possessed by all believers sition is not greater than in I Cor. vi. 5, ID Christ, that the statement would natlll'ally " Decide ( avi't µ<O'OV 'TOU lt6eA4>oii a~'Tov) be- mould itself into a sort of formula. In tween his brethren," literally," bet)Veen hie Colos;;ians he varies the form by inserting brother;" and in vers. 19, 20 of the sarne "barbarian, Scythian ; " degrees of national chapter, o-wµa 6µ.wv, "your borly;" not "thy civilization made no diflerence. In place body," nor '' your bodies." Tlie apo•tle has of this, he here adds the particular, that in view the subjective application only of tliversity of sex made no difference. We the principle here stated; ea.eh wo.s to feel C6Il.llot tell what e~pecial reason he had for that, having the qualification whicl1 h~ ho's introducing these modifications in writing explained, ho himself is a son of Goel o.nd to the Culossians and the Galatians re- full inheritor, without casting about for any spectively. l'ossib!y he had none beyond further qualification, as, for cxumple, from Cll,UI. 1-29.J Tilt EPISTLE TO THE GALA'flANS. 147