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1 "The two threads which run through this Epistle-the defence of the Apostle's own authority, and the maintenance of the doctrine of grace-are knotted together in the opening salutation. By expanding his official title into a statement of his direct commission from God, he meets the personal attack of his enemies; and by dwelling on the work of redemption in connection with the name of Christ (v. 4) he resists their doctrinal errors."-Lightfoot.-G. A.]
2 [As is narrated, for example, in Acts xxi: 20-26, which was, Baur and his Tübingen critics to the contrary notwithstanding, in accordance with Paul's principle and practice, as announced in 1 Cor. ix: 20.-G. A.]
3 "Not from men as an ultimate, nor through man as a mediate authority."-Ellicott.
"In the first clause, `from men, 0' he distinguishes himself from the false apostles who did not derive their authority from God at all; in the second, `through man, 0' he ranks himself with the twelve who were commissioned directly from God. The singular is used in second clause, `through man, 0' because offices which emanate from a body of men are conferred by their single representative."-Lightfoot
["Paul has in second clause used the singular because the contrast is `through Jesus Christ. 0' "-Meyer.-G. A.]
4 This digression, and others which follow, were occasioned by the controversies of the day; the Arians and Macedonians denying the co-equality and consubstantiality of Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.
5 ["To urge this use of dia$ in connection with Son and the Father as direct evidence for the o\moousia of the Father and the Son (as Chrysostom and Theod. ) may perhaps be rightly deemed precarious. Yet there is something very noticeable in this use of a common proposition with both the first and second persons of the Trinity by a writer so cumulative and yet for the most part so exact in his use of prepositions as St. Paul."-Ellicott.-G. A.]
6 [That is, from the order of the three names.-G. A.]
7 [Meyer agrees with Lightfoot and Ellicott in the view that pa9ntej means not all the Christians of the place where he was (probably Ephesus), but only his traveling companions; but he differs from them in holding that "the impressive effect of the epistle could not but be stengthened by indicating that these brethren collectively desired to address the very same instructions, warnings and exhortations to the Galatians."-G. A.]
8 [The word is paidagwgo/j, the same that is used in Gal. 3:24, 25, and translated `school-master 0' in the A. V., but `tutor 0' in the Rev. Ver.-G.A.]
9 ["The Galatians had practically ignored the atoning death of Christ; compare ii:21 and v:4."-Lightfoot.-G. A.]
10 ["The idea of satisfaction is implied not in the preposition u9pe/r but the whole nature of the case."-Meyer.-G.A.]
11 That is, the Manichees, who considered matter intrinsically evil, and paid divine honors to the sun, moon, and stars. Vid. Epiph. Haer. lxvi. [On Mani and the Manichean heresy see Schaff, Church History, Vol. II. pp. 498-508 where a full account of the literature is given also.-G. A.]
12 ["And not by our own merits. cf. tou= kale/santoj, v. 6"-Lightfoot.
"The salvation was willed by God to whom Christ was obedient (Phil. ii: 9)."-Meyer.-G. A.]
13 ["And not by our own merits. cf. tou= kale/santoj, v. 6"-Lightfoot.
"The salvation was willed by God to whom Christ was obedient (Phil. ii: 9)."-Meyer.-G. A.]
14 [This note of time helps to fix the date of the Epistle as being about 56 or 57 during Paul's two years' stay at Ephesus (Ac. 19:10), So most modern expositors, though Lightfoot and some others put it later.-G. A.]
15 [The Revised version brings out the difference of the words for "another." The e#teron, "a different kind of" gospel, the second is a@llo, "another," simply. "To a different sort of gospel,-nay, it is not another gospel. There cannot be two gospels. Only certain men are troubling you and trying to pervert the gospel of Christ. But a perverted gospel is no gospel at all."-G. A.]
16 Marcion flourished about a.d. 120-130, His doctrine was a compound of various preceding theologies, chiefly the Gnostic. He received only a part of St. Luke's Gospel. Tertull. in Marc. iv. 2-4. He it was who on asking Polycarp to "acknowledge" him, received for answer, "I acknowledge thee as the first-born of Satan."
17 [qe/lontej: On this word Jerome aptly says, Volunt sed non valent. The troubling of the Galatians, however, did actually take place.-G. A.]
18 [There is an eloquent passage on this same subject of foolish and sinful superstitions among Christians in Homily xii. on Ephesians, near the end.-G. A.]
19 [Though this view of Chrysostom that the proeirh/kamen refers to what immediately precedes is held by many others, it is not tenable for two reasons; 1. St. Paul would have used the singular proeirhka, as he does in le/gw, immediately following. 2 The pro/ in composition, and the kai/ a@rti, both, mark some greater distinction of time than this would allow.-G. A.]
20 ["I speak thus strongly, for my language shall not be misconstrued. Will any one now say that careless of winning the favor of God, I seek to ingratiate myself with men?" Lightfoot.-G. A.]
21 "xristou= dou=loj should not be taken in an historical sense, as Chrysostom. This would be feeble and lacking in depth of thought. No, it is to be taken in its ethical character."-Meyer.-G. A.]
22 [The reading ga/r (Rev. Ver. W. H.) gives a reason for what is implied in the sentence preceding, while de/, an inferior reading, means `but, 0' (now to enter more particularly on the subject of my letter) "I make known to you."-So Meyer.-G. A]
23 ["He begins here the historical proof that he was indebted for his gospel to the revelation he had mentioned."-Meyer.
"My early education was such that no human agency could have brought the change (from Judaism to Christianity). It required a direct interposition from God."-Lightfoot.-G. A.]
24 [Chrysostom's interpretation of this passage is hardly sustained by the context. It is not a proof of his sincerity that he is adducing; he is continuing and completing the statement that his former manner of life was proof that he could not have received the Gospel from man.-G. A.]
25 [Vid. Hom. de Mut. Nom. t. iii. p. 98. Ed. Ben.-G. A.]
26 ["In his pre-Christian blindness Paul had known Christ kata\ sa/rka, 2 Cor. v:16."-Meyer.-G. A.]
27 ["En e0moi/ means `in my mind, 0' `in my consciousness. 0' 2 Cor iv: 6," in opposition to Lightfoot who says, "`In me 0' means, as the context shows, not a revelation made inwardly to himself, but through him to others."-G. A.]
28 ["Flesh and blood," is twice used elsewhere (Mat. 16:17 and Eph. 6:12,) to denote "weak human nature," "feeble man."-G. A.]
29 [Paul here simply means he did not go to Jerusalem before he began preaching.-G. A.]
30 Of those who were sent with St. Paul from Antioch to Jerusalem, Barnabas is the only one named in Acts xv:2, and it would rather seem from Ver. 22, that Silas was then at Jerusalem, and did not accompany St. Paul till his return from thence.
31 ["This journey is to be looked upon not as having for its object a quiet preparation, but as a first experiment of extraneous ministry."-Meyer. Farrar, Life and Work of Paul. Ch. xi. takes the opposite view and says, "No one, I think, who reads this passage attentively can deny that it gives the impression of an intentional retirement from human intercourse." So also Schaff, who says it was a sort of substitute for the three years intercourse with Jesus enjoyed by the other Apostles. Ap. Ch. 236.-G. A.]
32 [First visit to Jerusalem, Acts ix:26. For a reconciliation of the two accounts of this visit see Handy Com. on Gal. Excursus A (by Sanday).-G.A.]