The Pulpit Commentary — Galatians — Section 227

11.eah I preaohed the gospel unto you (8,,., U mentioned in 2 Cor. xii. 7 8 "the stake iu ltrr8'11e1a.v 'l'ijs rra;p1Cbs •b11rr•h1crdµ1,v 6µ7v); the flesh"? Thie latter affii'ction has been that because of an infirmity of the flesh I discussed very fully by Dean Stanley anrJ preached the gospel unto you. "An infirmity Mey~r on.the Corinthians, by Bishop Light- or the flesh;" th11t is, e. bodily illness. The foot m his commentary on the Galatians noun arr8lv<1a. is used for "illness" in ,John and by Dr. Farrar in his 'Life of St. Paul.: x:i. 4; Acts xxviii. 9; l Tim. v. 23; Matt. It appears to have first befallen the apostle viii. 17. It 11lso denotes II nervous disable- after the " revelations" accorder] to him ment, 118 Luke x:iii. 11, 12; John v. 5. The fourteen years before he wrote his Second verb a.cr8,vlw is the common word for" being Epistle to the Cor,nthians, which he is sup- sick," os Luke iv. 40; vii. 10; John xi. 3, etc. posed to have done in the autumn of A.D. It is possible that the apostle meant to say 57. This would bring us back to about that the Galatians might not unnaturally A.D. 43. The apostle's first visit to Galatia have thought themselves treated slightingly according to Bishop Lightroot, p. 22, took in that his remaining among them so long WIIB place about A.D. 51. When we consider owing to illness and not to his own choice; that no doubt many of those wearing labours but th11t yet, for all that, they had shown and hardships, interspersed with frequent themselves most eager in welcoming their suffering of gross personal outrage, recounted involuntary visitor. The words, however, in 2 Cor. xi. 23-27, had been undergone in do not require to be thus construed, and in the eight first of those fourteen years (the all probability intend no more than to bring stoning at Lystra certainly had), it must back to their remembrance the disorder seem Yery precarious to conjecture that the under whi~h he was then suffering. The malady here referred to was a recurrence of illness would seem to have been of e. nature just that particular disorder experienced to make his personal appearance in some eight years before. How many other ail- way unsightly, and even 1·epulsive; for the ments might not the apostle have been sub- /(,.n6rra.n, spat out, of the next verse ject to, amid the cruel allotment of snfferino- suggests even the latter idea. Evidently and hardship which prevailingly marked this disorder, as also the one noted in 2 Cor. his course I It is quite as probable, to say xii. 7, 8, did not disqualify him for minis- the least, that he may then have been suf- terial work altogether. Re adverts to the fering in health or in limb from some assault circumstance, as ma1.-in~ it yet more remark- of personal violence recently undergone. able and more grateful to his feelings, that, St. Luke gives no particulars whatever of notwithstanding the disagreeable aspect this portion of St. Paul's journey, which is which in some way his disorder presented only just mentioned in Acts xvi. 6. 'l'he to those about him, they had cherished his apostle visited Corinth for the first time not presence among them with so much kindness many months after this first sojourn in as they did and also with such reverential Gale.till; and it is interesting to observe respect. How it was that his illness brought that he speaks of his having then ministered about this protracted stay, whether it was to them in "feebleness " ( iirr8,ve!'f, I Cor. ii. that he fell ill wbile journeying through the 3), in a manner strongly suggestive of bodily country so 11s to be unable to pursue his way weakness. At the first ( ,,.b ..-p&,repov); the to his ulterior destination, or whether the first time-an expression plainly im~lying remarkable healthiness of the climate either that there had been a subsequent BOJonrn. first attracted him thither or detained him Respecting this latter visit, all we know i.3 there for convalescence (see Bishop Light- what we have so cursorily stated in Acts foot,' Galatians,' p. 10, note 2, for the cha- xviii. 23; unless, perchance, we may be able racter of the climate at Angora, the ancient : to draw some inferences relating to it from Ancyra), it is impossible for us to determine. what we read in this Epistle itself. Chro- It is noticeable that St. Chrysostom's com- nologers are pretty well agreed in plaoing ments on the passage appear to show that the commencement of this third apostolic:i.l he considered the apostle to be simply stating journey about three years after the com- the circumst11noes undllf' which and not those mencement of the second. in conBequence of which he preached the gos- Ver. 14.-And my temptation whioh was r,el to them; and so also <Ecumenius 1md in my flesh (1<al ,,.bv ,mpa.crµbv 6µo,v [Recep- Theophylact paraphrase Ii,' acrO.v<1a.v by µ.,,.a tus, ..-..parrµ&v µou -rdv] iv -rfi crap,c( µov); and iicrO,v,Ca.s, suggesting the conjecture that that whic11 waB a temptation for you in my they and St. Ohrysostom understood the flesh. "In my flesh; " that is, in my bodily words as equivalent to "during a period of appearance. Instead of ~µow, the Te:xtus infirmity of the flesh." But this gives to Reoeptus gives µov ,,.&,, : but 6µwv is the 3,a with e.n accusative a sense which, to say reading of the best manuscripts, e.nd, as the the least, is not a common one. Is this more diffioult one, was the one most likely illness of body to be connected with the to be tampered with ; it is accordingly ac- affliction, most probably a bodily affliction, c11pted by recent editors with great unaui• GALATIANS. 0  194 THE EPISTLE TO THE .GALATIANS,