The Pulpit Commentary — Galatians — Section 282

of" ii We foolishness of mine! [might I hope led now to allude to it ae he seems to do for it 0J:" Rei'. iii. 15,"0q,EAOV tuxpos ~ •• etc., in this malediction. For it is a malediction "Would tlrnt thou ,vcrt cold," eto. With an as Chrysostom describes it; a. malediction' indfonth·e j,iture (an extremelv rare com- however, which in sevority falls for short ot' binntion), it may still be regarded as ex- the anathema whioh has been prel'iously pressing a longing that something mirht be pronounced. Good were it (he means) for looked forwnrd to, "·hich in reality is not the (.)hurch, and even pei·haps themselves, if to be anticipated; different from a simple they would have the rashness to go a littlt desire that a thing n.ay be, unaccompanied further with what they call "circumcision," by the feeling that it cannot be, which is its which in their case is mere concision (Phil. iii. force with an optatirn, as in Ps. cxix. 5. 2), and make it clear to nll men how The tone of especially ferrid Rspiration, the purely senseless and unchristian their action vivncitv, which usuallv marks wishes intro• 0 in this matter is. " Casting you out of dnced by li(/>EAOV, is perhaps unduly tamed country and home." The verb avarTTa.Toiiv down by the rendering "I would that." occurs besides only in Acts xvi i. 6 (" turned In respect t<, the verb k,ro,,&,i,ov-ra,. Greek upside down") and Acts xxi. 38 (" madest scholars are pretty well agreed that the an uproar"). It is not found in classical passive rendering of our Authorized Version, Greek, in which we have in its stead "were cut off." cannot be defended. There kva1TT1hous ,ro&ei'v or ..-.8eva., : the verbal ad- is no certain instance (Bishop Ellicott jective dv<iuTa.Tos, when it is applied, 11s remarks) of a similar interchange of the it frequently is, to populations, meaning, middle voice with the passive. The sense "made to rise up and depart," "driven of the verb is shown by the Septuagint from house and home ; " applied to cities, rendering of Deut. xxiii. I, Oi,,c elue>..e6,nTa., "ruined," "laid waste" (Liddell and Scott). 8/\a.1iia.s ,ca.J k1ro1<E1<0µµevos els ll,c1<}1:11ula.v 8eou: Chrysostom observes, "Well does he say, where the word k1ro1<elloµµevos answers to the ava.CTTa.TovvT« vµ.as : for they compelled Hebrew 1ceru1h sh(fphlcah, rightly rendered them to abandon their own proper country in the Vulgate and in our English Bible and liberty and heavenly kindred, and to (cf. Gesenius's' Thesaurus,' and Furst, under seek an alien and strauge one ; casting sh/Jphkah). "This meaning is assigned to them out of 'Jerusalem which is above and. ti1ro1<&>/twra.,," observes Bishop Lightfoot, free,' and forcing them to wander abroad "by all the Greek commentators, I believe, as captives and perforce emigrants." The without exception (the Latin Fathers, who present tense of the participle points to read 'abscindantur' in their t.ext had more the action of these perverters as oue which, latitude), and seems alone tenable." (See if successful, would have this result; which Grotius, in Poole's 'Synopsis.') This inter- (ver. 10) the apostle hopes to defeat. The pretation gives its full force to 1<a.i (" not selection of this particular verb, which goes only circumcise, but even," etc.): it explains far beyond the Ta.p&.uuovT« before used,. the form of the aspiration 1111 one not likely and which the word "unsettle" adopted to be realized ; whereas the excision from here by the Revisers, does not, as commonly the Church of these extremely aberrant used, completely represent, betokens the members, falling nearly if not quite under apostle's intense feeling of the ruinous the anathema of the first chapter, was a consequences of the proposed Judaizing. thing quite within the apostle's own power: reaction. It shows that he adds tl:!e worcls it harmonizes with the intense resentment retiologically, that is, to justify his strong which colours the phrase, oi kvarTTa.TovvTes words, 6,pe>..ov k,ro,c&,i,ovTa.1, The euergy of l,µas (see below). The sentiment, it is both expressions suggests the feeling that true, seems one which it would be impos- probably the apostle would not have written sible for a public speaker, or even a writer, as he bas here done except for his burning amonn-st ourselves to give such open ex- resentment on behalf of Uhrist's people pressi~n to. Nernrtheless, when viewed threatened with so great a hurt. In 1 Cor. as framed in amid the surroundings which vi. 4 indignant feeling carries him awai environed it at the time, it wears none of beyond himself to an utterance which iu that aspect of coarseness which would the next verse he virtually retracts, remark- confessedly be felt to attach to it under the ing, '' I say it to move you to shame." conditions of modern life. That tile worship Perhaps we have here something of the of Cybele at Pessinus, one of the principal same kind. cities of G1i.latia, was deformed by the Ver. 13.-l!'or, brethren, ye have been. prnctice of such self-mutilation on the part called 11llto liberty ( vµ.ei's -yap /,r' lAEu8epl'¾ of some of its devotees, was a matt.er of l1<A~871T<, MeAq,ol) ; for ye, brethren, were universal notoriety, and we may confidently called unto (Greek, for) freedom. The assume that the apostle, when in the neigh- " for " points back to the closing words bourboocl, heard frequent mention of those of the preceding verse, which implied a apocopi e..e they were called, and thus was setthid "1'>.te of well-beiug from which those en. v. 1-26.] THE EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS. 240