The Pulpit Commentary — Galatians — Section 348

toliMl euthorit,-, imi,h M be ha4 nft:en eepeotally abhoffllnt to theit rollgioue reel• occasion to deai with, as, for exsrnple, at ingi,, than u an actual consecration of them Corinth. None SU<'h have be11n referred to to Dionysus &8 hia "1lave11." But that it in thi• Epi•tle, though he has found OOOBSion waa in some cnse1 employed ·to sig11ali110 a to ('(>mplain of the alienated aff'eclions of "BBored slave" is a'ttested, by Philo, • De his <'onverts. :For I bear in my body the Mon.,' ii. p. 221, M; attd Lucian, • De Dea marb of the Lord .Teena ( i~ ~P ,-A trrl-yµa-ra. Syr.,' § 59. as oiled by Bi8hop I,ightfoot, 'Toe 'l,ruoii [Receptus, 'Toii Kvpfov 'h1uoii] •~ who rcmn.tks that •• such a pmotico ooul,1. ..,,: <r,l,µo.·d µ.ov /Ja.<f'T&(o,); I am one ,oh1> bear not hnve heen unknown in a country ,which bra,,den on my body Ou fle•h-mat-b of Jm£3. was tho home of tho worship of Cybele.", Th~ I-yo, ie inserted with em:phaeie. Being An example more fo.miliar to the apostle's su.-h 8S he here describes himself, he had mind might, porhape, be oited from Im. xliv. a claim upon hie brethren to be ep,.l'ed un- 5 (~e~tuagint), iw-"Yp••/m xupl 11/rtoi, Toi, ne<'Clle8ry annoyance. The Greek word 0,011 uµ.l, "shoJl write upon his hand,,! am mgma here employed denotes a mark on God's," whioh rendering Gesenius (' Thea./ the fresh, either by p,1,~ture, its pr-0per in verb. katluzbh) consent.s to accept. But sense, with a hot, sharp instrument, very if this rendering be the right one, it me,y often with hot needles (see Prudentius's yet be doubted whether. -it means writing lines quoted by Grotius in his note on the by puncture; for -ypdµ.µ.aT11 <f'TUCT.l appear in xripa-yµ.o., mark, in Rev. xiii. 16), or more Lev. xix. 28 to be forbidden; unleae,. in- summarily by simply branding without deed, the prohibition •be ta.ken to refer to pnncture. It eerved sometimea as a mark idolatrous tattoos only. But even thus the of permanent ownership, 88 upon horses or use of suoh in idol-worshipe has. a further. ealtle (Liddell and Soott, sub uerb. ,rrl(,.,). confirmation. It appears, however, ,to be· Jn respect to slaves, it was not considered a strong objection to our supposing the humane to brand them, a:oept for punish- apostle to be here alluding to either the ment, or 68 security in particular CBSes stigmata of consecration or thqse of ,other ago.inRt running away. Henoe <rrryJ.14Tlo.s, ownership, that such would infer .no more,. brandling, designated a sooundrel or a suffering than would attend simple te.ttoo- runaway slave; as Aristophanes, • Lye.,' ing; whereas it is ,plain ,that. the .apostle 331; • Av.,' 760. Others besides slaves alludes to marks which evidenced the under~, were sometimes branded in ignominioUB going of inflictions of extraordinary severity. punishment: Aristophanes, 'Ran.,' 1507: 'l'he word stigma. had passed into Roman Herod., vii. 288. Thus we have in lEschines usage, being employed both in .a literal (88, 26), l<f'T1-yµ,,vo, auToµ.6~ ••• .. 6 branded sense Bild also in a figur!l,ti ve one 0£ a deserter." Vegetius (quoted by Facciolati, "stigma," as we also speak, co.et upon a aub flerb . .tigma), writing three hundred person's character BB by a poet's lampoon. years la.ter, states (' De Re Milit.,' i 8: il. 'I'hus Martial (' Epigr.,' xii.. 62) writes, 5) tho.t, in the R-OmBn army, raw recruits "Frons lime stigmo.te non meo notanrla," bad to be proved fit for aervice before they " This forehead to be marked with a stigma. were allowed to have the tattoo put upon not of my affixing," where the word /rona. il,em. After due trie.l, they were "punc- indicates a close adh.erence to the original turis in cote pnnctis milites scripti et notiou of a slave's forehead branded. Sue- Illll,triculis inserti." But this testimony toniUB (' Oms,,' 73), "Catullum, a qiJo Iii.bi does not estu.blu;h the fact of such nsRge versiculia de Mamurrll, perpetua stigmata preni.iling in the Roman army in St. Paul's impoaita non dissimulaverat, satisfacientem time; though it is quite supposable that eodem die adhibuit crenm." Reviewing the then, 68 now, soldiers might sometimes evidence now adduced as to the manner in tattoo on their arm or hand the name of a which the term was used, we observe ~ha.• favourite general Instances are cited of the words "brandling" and " branded" consecration to a particular god being (o-,,-,-,µ.aTlo.s and i'1T,-yµ.lvo,) were ueed to signalized by n.igma. Herodotus, writing describe a person made infamou11 to opeµ five Lnndrr.d vea.rs before, BBys of a certain view by brand-marks put upon bis person .. I.ample of Heracles, on the Egyptian coast, It was 1;1at11ral that the word ,tigma would tl.ui.t if a servant, belonging to any man thus acquire the sense of a mBl'k of patent whatever, took BBnctua.ry in it, and put iufamy left upon ~ man's person by some upon l.t.im.self 1!8Cred 61.igmata, gi ring himself corporal abuse wJ.iich he he,d b0l!D supje<1tcd to th~ ,::;od, no one could touch him (ii 113). to, without any other qualifying idea. Now, fo 3 Mace. ii. 29 mentioP is made of a it a.ppeBl's most probable that it is in thia •· mark of Dionysus' ivy leaf being, by &elllle that the apostle here uses the word. ~i,anli of 11.re, put upon the body" of Jews The term points to th()jle scars, seame, 1n Egypl in the time of Pt.olemy Philopator: perhaps long~ntinuing sores, which the but U,is would -m to have been intended long course of ever-recurring Lo.r<lships e.nd ratLur u a barbarous indi.&'nity, beo&U88 ill Ull!ige, tb.rougb which he had ~ . OU. YI, 1-18.] THE EPISTLE 'I'O TBE GALATIANS.