Galatians 2
HAMMGalatians 2:1
After this, some fourteen years after my conversion, (mentioned ch. i. 16,) I went a second time to Jerusalem, Barnabas and I together, and Titus also attended me.
[a] fourteen years after] What διὰ δεκατεσσάρων ἐτῶν here signifies, is by learned men made a matter of some question. The time to which St. Paul refers must be that of his going (with Barnabas here mentioned) from Antioch to Jerusalem, on the question here discoursed of, about the necessity of the Gentile Christians being circumcised; that so first, it may connect with the spaces mentioned, ch. i. 18, 21, (so as the word πάλιν, again, seems to import,) to denote the next time of his going to Jerusalem after that mentioned, ver. 18; and, 2dly, so as to denote a time wherein Peter may be supposed still to reside at Jerusalem, and wherein Titus may be supposed to be with St. Paul as a neophytus, and a companion, (and so in danger of being pressed to be circumcised,) not yet employed or sent out by him on any service in the churches. Now this is thought so unlikely to be fourteen years after the space last mentioned, ch. i. 21, (his going to Syria and Cilicia, Acts ix. 30,) that it hath been thought probable, that (as in numeral letters it oft happens) fourteen should be here set instead of four. For which emendation, seeing there appears not any ground in the ancient manuscripts, it will surely be more reasonable to observe, 1st, that διὰ doth not distinctly signify after, (as μετὰ, ch. i. 18, had done,) but by or about, that is, near that space, though not precisely fourteen years: 2dly, that the ἔπειτα, afterward or then, refers not to that which was mentioned immediately before, his passing through Syria and Cilicia, so as to affirm this to have been fourteen years after that; no, nor to the former epochas, either his going up to Jerusalem, ver 18, or departing into Arabia, ver. 17, but to that great epocha, so considerable to him, the time of his conversion, which, immediately succeeding the death of St. Stephen, may reasonably be placed (in the first year after Christ’s assumption) an. Ch. 34. From whence to the time of that council, which is ordinarily placed an. Ch. 47, it was about thirteen or fourteen years. And then there will be no more need of an emendation than there is authority for the imagining any.
[a] bewitched you] These two words, ἀνόητοι and ἰβάσκανε, foolish
and bewitched, being applied by the apostle to these Galatians, refer to
the prevailing of the Gnostics’ infusions upon them, the sorceries used
by the leaders of that sect, and the follies of those that were seduced
by them: or, if the time would agree, it is not improbable that the
former of these, ἀνόητοι, should refer to some beginnings of the heresy
of the Ebionites, the spreading of which not long after this (in Tra-
jan’s time) is set down by Eusebius at large, l. 3. c. κζ, but so as it is
uncertain whether the original of it were not more ancient, as early as
might be taken notice of by this apostle. Of them it is Eusebius’s observation, that their name was given them from the Hebrew אבינו, poor,
διὰ τὴν πτωχείαν διανοίας αὐτῶν, “because of the poverty of their under-
standings,” the men being very silly men, and their heresy accordingly a senseless one. They did πτωχῶς καὶ ταπεινῶς περὶ Χριστοῦ δοξάζειν, saith he, “entertain very mean and poor thoughts and opinions of Christ,” and that he was λιτὸς καὶ κοινὸς ἀνὴρ, “a mere and common
man,” κατὰ προκοπὴν ἤθους δεδικαιωμένος, “by proficiency in virtue justi-
fied,” but yet not more than a man; and moreover, δεῖν πάντως τῆς
νομικῆς θρησκείας, &c., “that Christians had need of legal observations,
Galatians 2:2
And by God’s appointment, either first signified or after confirmed to me by vision, (such as Paul often had about several matters,) I went up at this time to Jerusalem, and gave the church there an account of my preaching (and the success of that) among the Gentiles. This I thought fit to do, and yet first to do it to those that were the principal men among them, James the bishop of Jerusalem, and Peter and John, ver. 9, who were all apostles of the circumcision, or Jewish converts; and my reason of doing so was,
[b] to them which were of reputation] For the notion of δοκοῦντες here, and δοκοῦντες εἶναί τι, ver. 6, it must be observed, that it signifies not the men’s own opinion of themselves, or their assuming any great authority over others, (as of Simon Magus it is said, Acts viii. 9, that he did λέγειν εἶναί τινα ἑαυτὸν μέγαν, say, or take upon him, that he was some great one,) but that they were so in the reputation and esteem of others, and that the great opinion that at that time all Christians had of them, above the rest of the apostles, was it that moved Paul to go
Galatians 2:3
And by what I then did, they did all so fully consent to my doctrine, (that Gentile Christians were not bound to the Jewish observances,) that, as I would not yield, so they did not force Titus to be circumcised, though he were known to be a Greek, and familiarly conversed with me, and was employed by me.
[c] compelled] What οὐκ ἠναγκάσθη, was not constrained, signifies here, is a matter of some difficulty, which being explained will make the next verse perspicuous, which otherwise seems not intelligible. That some pretended Christians looked very jealously on St. Paul, as one averse from the Mosaical law, is sufficiently known. These, when Paul came to Jerusalem, laid it to his charge that he preached to the Gentiles that were not circumcised, conversed freely with them, and Titus (being a Grecian, and at that time with him) they specified to be one of them, and him they would have constrained to be circumcised. But, saith St. Paul, οὐκ ἠναγκάσθη, though he were such as was pretended, and though this were thus pressed by them, and though I was by this means likely to alien the Jews’ minds from the gospel, as it was preached by me, (this being an act of confession that I was guilty of what was laid to my charge,) and so matter of some scandal to the Jews of Jerusalem, yet I, that was willing to yield at some times (to avoid the scandal of the Jews) to perform some ceremonies of the law, Acts xxi. 26, and so circumcised Timothy, was resolved not to do it now, because if I did, it must appear that those false brethren, pretended Christians, had overcome me at Jerusalem, and that the church there judged on their side against me, and so that Titus had been by order of the church or council of Jerusalem forced to be circumcised: which thing must needs have been matter of so much greater scandal and discouragement to the Gentiles, in aliening their minds from the Christian faith, and that scandal have been more considerable to the hinderance of the progress of the gospel, which was to be hoped for more plentifully among the Gentiles than the Jews, that I was very resolute, and took special care that Titus should not be circumcised. And this, ver. 3, διὰ τοὺς παρεισάκτους ψευδοδελφους, because of the false brethren, that came in to watch what I would do, and to carry it against me in the council at Jerusalem, which is expressed by καταδουλώσωνται, bringing under, in the end of the verse. By these Paul resolved he would not be worsted, and therefore though at other times he was content to comply πρὸς ὥρυν, for some short time, yet now he would not do so, that the truth of the gospel might abide toward you,
N 2
Galatians 2:4
This I thus did because of the sly Jews, that making as if they were Christians, came to observe what liberty I took in omitting the observances of the law, that by some means or other they might accuse me, and either by the verdict of the council of Jerusalem, or by some other means, (by bringing persecution &c. upon me,) enforce me to the observation of the Jewish ceremonies.
Galatians 2:5
To these men (though at other times I was content to comply with the weak) I could not think fit to do it never so little while, though but for that space of my staying at Jerusalem, or to yield by any kind of acknowledgment or condescension, that the Gentiles should be obnoxious to that yoke; and this, that we might not betray the gospel of Christ, but preserve it entire to you.
Galatians 2:6
As for those prime men, intimated ver. 2. and named ver. 9, (James and Peter and John, I need not give any other character of them, God is not moved in this matter with the personal excellencies of any, but can make use of any the meanest as well as most excellent instruments,) for these, I say, though they were persons of great knowledge and dignity and authority, and that most justly, yet when they understood what I had done, they gave me no advice to alter any thing, nor said any more to me than what I knew before:
[d’ But of those—] What hath often been observed of the usage of Greek words in these sacred writers, otherwise than in the propriety of the Greek language belongs to them, must also from words be extended to syntax, which is oft such as the rules of grammar and use of authors doth not admit of. And this for the most part falls out by the interposing of some parenthesis, of greater or lesser length, and then prosecuting what was begun before it in another form of construction, than that in which it had been begun. Some examples of this in an inferior degree are observable Col. i. 10, where, after περιπατήσαι ὑμᾶς, some words interposing, the construction is altered, and goes on with καρποφοροῦντες καὶ αὐξανόμενοι—. And ch. iii. 16, where, after ὁ λόγος ἐνοικεῖτε ἐν ὑμῖν— let the word of God inhabit in you, the construction is soon altered into διδάσκοντες καὶ νουθετοῦντες ἑαυτούς—. So Ephes. iii. 17, where, after κατοικήσαι τὸν Χριστὸν διὰ τῆς πίστεως ἐν ταῖς καρδίαις ὑμῶν, follows, ver. 18, ἐρμιζωμένοι, καὶ τεθεμελιωμένοι· and so ch. iv. 1, where, after παρακαλῶ οὖν ὑμᾶς— ἀξίως περιπατήσαι, &c. (after a few words), follows ἀνεχόμενοι and σπουδάζοντες, which doth not regularly cohere with it. But this is more eminently observable in the beginning of the second and third chapters of that Epistle. In the second, after Ὑμᾶς ὄντας νεκροὺς τοῖς παραπτώμασι καὶ ταῖς ἁμαρτίαις, there follows a long parenthesis to ver. 4, by which means the verb that should govern ὑμᾶς is omitted, and the period again begun, with Ὁ δὲ Θεός—ἠγάπησεν ἡμᾶς, καὶ ὄντας ἡμᾶς νεκροὺς τοῖς παραπτώμασι συνεζωοποίησε τῷ Χριστῷ, which συνεζωοποίησε, hath quickened together with Christ, was sure the verb omitted in the first verse. So ch. iii. 1, after Τούτου χάριν ἐγὼ Παῦλος ὁ δίσμιος,— For this cause I Paul a prisoner of Christ Jesus for you Gentiles, comes in a long parenthesis, εἶγε ἠκούσατε, &c., and another involved in that ver. 3, καθὼς προέγραψα, &c., to the end of the fourth verse, and then the former parenthesis resumed again either unto the end of ver. 7, and then the form of the construction is changed from ἐγὼ to ἐμοί, or perhaps to the end of ver. 12, or possibly the 13th, and then the period begins anew, Διὸ αἰτοῦμαι, that is, For which cause I (that Paul, the prisoner of Jesus Christ, ver. 1.) beseech you that ye be not discouraged at my tribulations, or for this cause I bow my knees, &c., or yet more probably, it concludes not till the end of that chapter, the fourth chapter beginning, I therefore the prisoner in the Lord beseech you—. And by this means the ἐγὼ Παῦλος hath no verb following it, wheresoever the parenthesis be concluded. It is true indeed some have endeavoured to avoid this by acknowledging an ellipsis in that first verse, and supplying it thus, For this cause I Paul am the prisoner—. But there be many inconveniences consequent to that rendering. And the many other examples of the like shew that there is no reason to
[e] in conference added nothing to me] What is the full meaning of οὐδὲν ἐμοὶ προσανίθειτο, they added nothing to me, is, I think, exactly set down by St. Chrysostom in οὐκ ἠναντιώθησαν, ἀλλὰ καὶ συνίπνευσαν καὶ συνιφώνησαν, “they opposed me not, but conspired and accorded with me,” οὐ πλέον τι προσέθηκαν ὧν ᾖδειν, “they added no more to me than I knew before,” μαθόντες ἐμὰ, οὐδὲν προσέθηκαν, οὐδὲν διώρθωσαν, “when they had knowledge of my affairs, they neither added nor altered any thing in my course:” and this as a further explication of what went before, that they gave no appointment for the circumcising of Titus, that went along with Paul, and never had been circumcised. And so in proportion to this sense follows his notion, ἀλλὰ τοὐναντίον, but contrariwise; not that they were taught by Paul, for they needed not that, but that they were so far from blaming or altering any thing in his practice, that they not only approved, but commended his whole course.
Galatians 2:7
But on the other side, these three discerning (by the account I gave them of my successes) that I had received from Christ the commission of preaching to the Gentiles, and so an equality of office apostolical to Peter, whose commission was to preach to the Jews especially;
[f] when they saw] The three names that lie in the Greek, ver. 9, will in the construction be best placed here, ver. 7, as the nominative case to which ἰδόντες, seeing, agrees. Now who these three were that are here called pillars, and who are by St. Paul found at Jerusalem, may appear by what hath been said (note [a] on 1 Cor. xv.) out of ancient writers, of James the brother of the Lord. Him, saith Clemens Ὑποτυπ. l. 5, Peter, James, and John, chose bishop of Jerusalem, (ἐπίσκοπον Ἱεροσολύμων, not apostolorum, “bishop of the apostles,” as Ruffinus misreads or misrenders it,) and though they were the “three by Christ preferred, and more honoured than all the rest of the twelve, yet did they not contend one with another for this dignity, but after our Saviour’s resurrection” (the next year, saith Eusebius in Chronico, or the 19th of Tiberius) “unanimously conferred it on James the Just.” So before Clemens, Hegesippus; “James,” saith he, “the brother of the Lord, called by all James the Just, received, or undertook the
Galatians 2:8
(For the same God that had enabled Peter, and given him gifts and miraculous powers to discharge that office of an apostle to the Jews, gave me also the like commission and abilities to be an apostle to the Gentiles:)
Galatians 2:9
These three, I say, James the bishop of Jerusalem, and Peter, and John the son of Zebedee, two prime apostles, who were looked on as the pillars of the church, approved and commended all that we did or had done, acknowledged us as their companions, joined with us, and did by consent make an agreement, that they and we should betake ourselves severally, (into what city soever either of us entered,) we to the Gentiles and they to the Jews of the city, and so constitute several congregations in each city of Jews and Gentiles: (see note [b] Rev. xi.)
Galatians 2:10
And all that they insisted on to us was, that we should take into our care the wants of the poor Christians in Judæa, who were sadly spoiled and wasted by their unbelieving countrymen, 1 Thess. xi. 14, Heb. x. 34, (see Chrysostom,) and get collections for them among the Gentiles, which I was as forward to do as they to have me.
Galatians 2:11
But when, after this, Peter came and preached to the Jews at Antioch, I who was there also at the same time preaching to the Gentiles of that city, resisted him, because they that had taken notice of his former actions, and the change that was observable in him, did look upon him as a dissembler, and laid that to his charge, not knowing the true ground of what he did.
[g] was to be blamed] The Hebrew יָקַד, which signifies to find out, to detect, and is sometimes rendered ἰχνεύειν, ἐξιχνιάζειν, δοκιμάζειν, ἐλέγχειν, is also rendered καταγνώσκειν, to condemn; so Prov. xxviii. 11. Σοφὸς παρ’ αὐτῷ ἀνὴρ πλούσιος, ὁ δὲ νοήμων πένης καταγνώσεται αὐτοῦ, The rich man is wise in his own conceit, but the poor man that hath understanding shall detect him. So Ecclus. v. 17. Κατάγνωσις πονηρὰ ἐπὶ διγλώσσῳ, Detection is very grievous or troublesome to a man that is double-tongued. Accordingly the word properly belongs to that charge or blame that falls on an hypocrite when his dissimulation seems to be detected: and that this is the meaning of κατεγνωσμένος here, appears by that which follows, ver. 13. συνεπικρίθησαν, &c., the rest of the Jews dissembled with him. As for the præter tense, wherein here it is set, that ordinarily signifies in the sense of the præteritum plusquam perfectum; and so Theophylact here interprets it, “he had been found fault with, or charged of hypocrisy,” (viz. that specified ver. 12.) not by Paul, but ὑπὸ ἄλλων, by others that saw the fact, but knew not why he did it, and so thought it hypocrisy in him to eat with the Gentiles, when they of Jerusalem were absent, and to withdraw from the Gentiles, when they of Jerusalem were present.
Galatians 2:12
For before the time that some believing Jews of Jerusalem, (James’s see,) who were generally zealous for the Mosaical performances, Acts xxi. 20, came from thence to Antioch, (in like manner as those Acts xv. 1,) he freely conversed with the Gentile Christians and eat with them; but while they were present, out of fear of displeasing and scandalizing
Galatians 2:17
But then it is objected by those that stand so for the Jewish law, that if, seeking to be justified by faith in Christ, we neglect the Mosaical law, and live like Gentiles, we make by this means, or suppose Christ to be an enemy to the law and a favourer of Gentilism (one that assists that against Judaism, makes provision for it). To which we answer, that whatsoever be said of his favouring those that do not bind themselves to the Judaical law, he is yet sure no favourer of Gentilism, or heathen life.
[h] sinners] What ἁμαρτωλοὶ signifies in this place will best be resolved by the context, which enforceth the sense (which I have given it) of Gentiles, in opposition to the Jews; so ver. 15, ἐξ ἐθνῶν ἁμαρτωλοὶ, sinners of the Gentiles, opposite to φύσει Ἰουδαῖοι, Jews by birth. (See note [b] on Luke vii.) It is known that the Jews looked on all Gentiles with an odium, as on those which were of a contrary religion to them, and so they did consequently on all those that conversed with them, and it was that (and not so much their other sins) that made the publicans so odious to them in Christ’s time: and as Christ’s eating with such, and not observing (as they thought) the Judaical law, made them look upon him as an ἁμαρτωλός, a sinner, John ix. 24, so St. Paul’s teaching liberty to lay aside the Mosaical performances, is here looked on by them as Gentilism, and so is objected to him in this phrase, that he being a Jew born, is found ἁμαρτωλός, a sinner, that is, guilty of Gentilism under the name of ἁμαρτία, sin; and that by teaching this to be the doctrine of Christ, he makes Christ διάκονον ἁμαρτίας, one that came to assist and contribute to the setting up of Gentilism against Judaism. This St. Paul, that knew what Judaism truly signified, (the doctrine of good life in the Old Testament, which was by God thought fit to be fenced in by those ceremonies, not placing religion in the bare
Galatians 2:18
But on the other side rather, when a man hath renounced justification by the Mosaical law, and depended only on Christ for it, if he shall again return to that which he hath renounced, and assert justification by that law, affirm that the observance of Mosaical rites is necessary to justification, what doth he then but apostatize in some measure, depart from his former profession, in returning to Judaism again?
Galatians 2:19
But beside him I saw not any apostle of the first rank, that is, of the twelve, no nor any of the other rank, save only James the kinsman of Christ, who was bishop of Jerusalem at that time, and so an apostle of a second rank, (see note [b] Rom. xvi.) though not one of the twelve; see note [a] ch. ii.
We are all taught by the very Old Testament, the law and prophets, that we must seek further than the law, viz. to Christ, and so I have done, and learned by the law itself not to value it too much, but to give over hope of justification or life by those legal performances, that so I may find it in God, through Christ, in the new covenant.
20 21I am crucified with Christ: 22nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and 23the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who
Galatians 2:20
Of the truth of all this that I say, I call God to witness; (as in a matter of greatest weight, on the belief of which the profitable discharge of my office, and reception of my labours, very much dependeth.)
Christ by his death hath abolished the Mosaical law, Ephes. ii. 14; that is, hath taken away the discrimination betwixt Jew and Gentile, brought justification into the world for those that observe not the Mosaical law; and I, by being a Christian, have been made partaker of this fruit of Christ’s death, and so am also dead to the law, ver. 9. and Rom. vii. 4; and now I am no longer the man I was, that is, a Jew, but
Galatians 2:21
After this I went (by admonition from God, Acts xxii. 17, 18,) to Cæsarea which is in Syria, (see note [c] Matt. xvi.) and thence to Tarsus, (my native city in Cilicia, Acts xxii. 3,) Acts ix. 30.
Galatians 2:22
And all this while I was not so much as known to the churches of Judæa that had received the faith, that is, to those other beside that of Jerusalem mentioned ver. 18. (All which I have said to shew (what was undertaken, ver. 11,) how far I was from receiving instructions from any other but Christ himself, ver. 16.)
Galatians 2:23
All that they knew of me was, that they had heard of my preaching the Christian doctrine, which I had persecuted.
Galatians 2:24
And they magnified the name of God for this mercy of his wrought in my conversion.