chapter 1
chapter 1
THE SALUTATION
1:1–5
1 Paul, an apostle (not from men, neither through man, but through Jesus Christ, and God the Father, who raised him from the dead),
2 and all the brethren that are with me, unto the churches of Galatia:
3 Grace to you and peace from God the Father, and our Lord Jesus Christ,
4 who gave himself for our sins, that he might deliver us out of this present evil world, according to the will of our God and Father:
5 to whom be the glory for ever and ever. Amen.
The exordium of this letter contains the three customary elements which were found at the beginning of an ancient letter: namely, the announcement of the writer, the designation of the readers, and the opening salutation. Not that in practice such an exordium need take on a stereotyped quality. Rather, it is oriented to the readers and to the particular purpose of the letter. This is very evident in the letter to the Galatians. The way in which Paul designates himself (verse 1) immediately places the emphasis on his divine calling, something that in the sequel proves to be one of the main themes of the letter. The designation of the readers (verse 2) is uncommonly short, something, in turn, that is in keeping with the tense relationships between Paul and the churches of Galatia. The salutation (verses 3 and 4) describes the grace of God in such a way that the intelligent reader will immediately detect from the centrality of the work of Christ in it what the decision must be in the big issue which dominates the letter. Semina sparguntur tractationis (Bengel).
1 Together with his name, Paul immediately thrusts his apostleship into the foreground, and he does it with penetrating, antithetical force. An apostle is a minister plenipotentiary (cf. John 20:21 ff.). The source of his ambassadorship is first indicated negatively: not from men, neither through man. He does this certainly as defense against his challengers in the churches of Galatia, who have attacked or undermined his authority. Over against them the apostle lays claim to having been directly called through Christ. He refers in that connection to Christ the Lord according to His human manifestation and according to His office. Both had been revealed to Paul in his calling by Christ (cf. 1 Cor. 9:1). The directly appended and God the Father announces that Paul’s calling of Christ was simultaneously a calling of God. The one is not to be separated from the other. Being called of God gives expression to the profoundest and most essential nature of the calling. Divine authority stands behind it. Paul is God’s own and special ambassador. The Galatians must understand that! And the addition, who raised him from the dead, reinforces still more the connection between Christ and the Father, and between both of these and Paul’s calling. What the readers must do first of all is to grasp the divine and the glorious in Christ’s work, for the Judaizers have blurred these things. And now, think of it, of that Christ, raised of God, Paul is the apostle! So it was, and therefore, although he was not a disciple of Jesus like the others, he could, nevertheless, after Jesus’ death, be sent of Him. And so his mission and his full authority were determined by the glory of the One who sent him.
2 By the brethren mentioned here Paul’s co-workers are probably meant, and not the believers at the place where he wrote (cf. Phil. 4:21–22). Who these co-workers were cannot be ascertained. One’s idea of that depends upon one’s idea of the place at which the letter was written (see Introduction). These brethren are not named as fellow-authors but are nevertheless included in the address and salutation. Together with Paul they know the lay of the land, and reckon themselves co-responsible. For the rest, there is neither here, nor in the whole letter, any allusion to reciprocal relationships. The atmosphere is too tense and business-like (cf., for contrast, e.g., Rom. 1:7; 1 Cor. 1:2; 2 Cor. 1:1; and Col. 1:2). Remarkable, too, is the plural: the churches. It pertains to the various local churches in the province (or the territory) of Galatia. It is singular in verse 13.
3 This constitutes the salutation proper. Grace and peace give general expression to the reconciling relationship between God and His people and to the full salvation included in it. Here again is the reference to God the Father (cf. verse 1), this time to be thought of specifically as expressing His relation to the believers. God is also a Father apart from this relationship (verse 1). His fatherhood cannot be explained by analogy with human fatherhood. But in Christ His fatherly disposition in a special sense goes out to the believers. Coming from the mouth of the fully authorized apostle of Christ, this salutation is not only a wish, but an efficient blessing given in the name of Christ (cf. Mark 5:34; Matt. 10:12 ff.; and John 14:27).
4 By way of exception to the usual pattern of the salutation, the apostle attaches a long description of the work of Christ to his mention of the name of Christ. This at once thrusts the purpose of the letter to the fore: the issue between Paul and the Galatians is the significance of Christ. It is He who gave himself for our sins. The active verb suggests the voluntariness, and the reflexive pronoun speaks of the personal and the total in His surrender (cf. Mark 10:45). It is above all Christ’s death that the apostle chooses to stress. This death was necessary because of our sins: Christ’s self-surrender had a reconciling significance. The idea is not at this point worked out in detail; the overture hints at the grand theme only in a general way. True, a particular phase of the purpose and effect of this self-surrender is designated: that he might deliver us out of this present evil world. This world (which really means: world-period) is a world qualified by sin; the devil is its God (2 Cor. 4:4; cf. 1 Cor. 2:6, and Eph. 2:2). Hence, because of its sin, it will go to its doom. The purpose of the purging of sin through Christ is therefore also a redemption from this world as a doomed place (cf. Gen. 19:16 ff.). All the same this deliverance spoken of here has more than a local, eschatological significance. It consists also of a loosing of the saints from the sinful ties of this world, and of a liberation from the divine curse and wrath which rest on this world, so that for believers their share in the suffering and death of this world gets to have a different meaning (cf. Rom. 8:18, 35 ff.). And all this happens according to the will of our God and Father. He is the author of the reconciliation and redemption in Christ. His revealed will is the norm for it.
5 The doxology here at the very beginning, followed by the stately confirmation of the Amen!, right from the start denominates the divine work of redemption as transcendent and beyond praise, high and lifted up above the realm of criticism and objection such as, at bottom, the churches of Galatia are directing against it. The doxology serves not only to declare that the heavenly glory is due to God, but also to summon men to join in with it and to conduct themselves accordingly. The objectivity of God’s glory is, however, the dominant emphasis, as can be seen also from the for ever and ever. For comment on the Amen, see the exposition of 6:18.
NO OTHER GOSPEL
1:6–9
6 I marvel that ye are so quickly removing from him that called you in the grace of Christ unto a different gospel;
7 which is not another gospel: only there are some that trouble you, and would pervert the gospel of Christ.
8 But though we, or an angel from heaven, should preach unto you any gospel other than that which we preached unto you, let him be anathema.
9 As we have said before, so say I now again, If any man preacheth unto you any gospel other than that which ye received, let him be anathema.
Right at the beginning the apostle raises the issue of the threatening apostacy of the churches of Galatia. It is the matter with which his heart is full. There is no occasion to express gratitude for the loyalty of the churches. For an expression of interest in the fortunes and the struggle of those churches, this is not the place. The painful and dangerous alienation between the apostle and the churches must be discussed forthwith and headon.
6 The expression of wonder with which the apostle makes his contact with the readers has in it something painful, almost ironical. An incredible right-about-face has taken place among them in which the whole gospel is at stake. And that so quickly after they had accepted the gospel. True, this about-face gets its impetus from others; but they, the Galatians, are not purely passive in the matter either: they are allowing themselves to be drawn away, and this process is now in full swing. It is all the more incredible and culpable when one marks the him that called them. This him refers not merely to the proclaimer of the Gospel, Paul himself, but to God also. So much can be inferred from the term called, the technical term for the divine activity with the gospel (cf. Rom. 8:30; 9:12, 24; 1 Cor. 1:9, and others). This at the same time implies something about the nature of this calling. As divine calling it is full of power and effect (cf. Rom. 11:29), never a single, innocent invitation, carrying no obligation with it. All the same, it does not realise itself outside the pale of human responsibility, but places precisely those who pay no attention to this calling in a highly culpable position. Thus the apostle confronts his readers with the seriousness of the reversal that is materializing itself among them. The words in the grace of Christ must be interpreted as referring to the purpose of the calling; thus the contrast with the legalism of the Judaizers comes into the clearest light. And when, finally, the apostle speaks of a different gospel, he does so in a distinctive manner. He is alluding to the heresy of those who want to deflect the Galatians from the one and only gospel. And so he immediately dismisses the thought that he might have implied that the other teaching deserved the name of gospel (verse 7).
7 But there is no such thing as another gospel. There are only certain persons who constantly busy themselves in their effort to confuse the Galatians. To trouble means, in this connection, to bring about spiritual schism and an obscuration of the insight of faith (cf. 5:10). They were doing this, as becomes evident in more detail later, by trying to lay down a different basis for salvation, or, at least by calling the gospel preached by Paul an inadequate one. Those who propagated this are denominated in the plural here. They apparently constituted a group of persons who, from the outside, and also probably under alien influence, resisted Paul’s preaching. Their intent was nothing less than to overturn the gospel that had Christ as its content and to live out an opposing principle. This happens when the cross of Christ is no longer recognized in its all-sufficiency (cf. 5:2 ff.). Then the gospel is turned upside-down and robbed of its strength.
8 By means of a sharp turn in the course of his argument, the apostle next puts up a hypothetical case: that not certain quite unqualified persons merely (such as they of verse 7), but he himself, or even an angel from heaven, were to preach another gospel from the one he had brought them. Then the curse of God would have to be pronounced upon him or upon such an angel. To this extent the truth of the gospel transcends all else in importance, and to this extent that man is culpable who, in preaching it, modifies it on his own authority. On the one hand, this gives expression to how deeply conscious the apostle was of the divine truth of the gospel he preached and of his apostolic authority; on the other, it gives expression to how entirely subjected as a person he wanted to be to this truth and to the commission assigned him. The same would be true even for an angel from heaven. And not only is the truth more than the highest-ranking minister of God, but as the gospel—which constitutes the norm of the divine redemption in the world—it is so holy that anyone who independently modifies it brings the curse of God down upon his head. This, then, is something the Galatians can pause to consider, now that they have given place in their midst to “another” gospel, preached not by Paul, nor by an angel, but by a number of unauthorized persons.
9 The apostle had previously already made such a statement. The Galatians, therefore, are well aware of the gravity under which the gospel had been preached to them. The fact that the apostle had earlier issued such a warning indicates that he knew the fatal danger involved in falsifying the gospel. He had had experience of it before (see below). Now he is no longer speaking, as in verse 8, in terms of future supposition but rather of the present concrete situation. The threat of the overthrow of the gospel confronts them directly here. That gives the curse which is called down upon such falsification high concreteness and reality. The apostle is not appalled into timidity in applying that curse concretely. This should induce the readers who know better to keep themselves far from the threatening heresy. It has been justly observed that Paul, who is tolerant with regard to opposition is not so in objective matters of fact.
The word is used in the first place for the twelve disciples, whom Jesus also calls apostles (Luke 6:13). At other places in the New Testament, however, it is also applied to other persons who carried out a mission in the proclamation of the gospel (cf. Acts 14:4, 14, Gal. 1:19, and Rom. 16:7). See also the exposition of 1:19.
There is no article for the word in the Greek. The accent is on the human as such, on man. The word from (ἀπό) designates in the main the derivation and origin. These are not men (notice the plural!), whoever and wherever they may be. The word through (διά) points rather to the medium. Then follows man, the singular form this time, because a single human being could serve as that medium. The expression is not in conflict with such passages as Acts 9:17 and 13:2. Christ Himself had appeared to Paul (Acts 9:5, 6; cf. 22:8). Ananias simply informed him what he had to do in carrying out Christ’s commission (cf. Acts 22:8).
Here the through (διά) has not merely an instrumental, but also a causative significance, in which the means can be regarded as being understood. When used for God and for Christ διά can have a richer content than ἀπό.
The original is Θεοῦ πατρός, without the intervening καί (cf. verse 5). God’s fatherhood is part and parcel of His divine being. His existence is the source of all life.
The rather emphatic all which modifies the brethren can, in this connection, refer to the positiveness and finality with which they supported Paul in his case against the churches of Galatia.
Concerning the problem of whether the province or the territory (the South Galatian and the North Galatian hypotheses) is intended, see the Introduction.
We cannot be sure whether this grace (χάρις) was typical of the general Greek manner of greeting. As a rule, the salutation of a Greek letter uses χαίρειν rather than χάρις (cf. O. Roller, Das Formular der paulinischen Briefe, 1933, p. 61 ff.) It is quite possible, therefore, that the χάρις employed here and elsewhere represents an early Christian (or specifically Pauline?) mode of greeting, and that it was rather the Jewish form of greeting (שלום peace) which formed the point of contact in the frequent greetings of Paul’s letters (cf. TWNT, II, p. 412 εἰρήνη). In any event, the word χάρις is used in the New Testament in a specific sense. In profane usage χάρις refers to something which arouses a person’s joy or desire: beauty, for instance, or grace, or fame. Or, in the social relationship of a higher to a lower class or status, it means favor or approbation. In the New Testament, however, it refers to God’s favor towards His people in Christ—a favor which rests on forgiveness, on reconciliation.
In the Christian sense, εἰρήνη (which corresponds to the Hebrew שלום, also employed as a greeting) generally refers to the condition of well-being in which the whole world will share through Christ’s coming (Luke 2:14). It can also be used in a restricted sense, and it then means the restored relationship between God and man in which the juridical element is in the foreground (cf. Rom. 5:1), or else the condition of inner peace, or soul’s rest, which Christ grants through the Holy Spirit (cf. Rom. 15:13 and Phil. 4:7), or yet again the Christian peace present among people socially (cf. Rom. 14:17). The first meaning, designating the eschatological state of salvation, is the fundamental one.
In some manuscripts, which have the reading καὶ κυρίου ἡμῶν instead of ἡμῶν καὶ κυρίου this is even more explicit.
The participle τοῦ δόντος has a qualifying significance. Christ’s self-surrender is not an historical deed merely; His whole being is characterized by giving.
Some manuscripts have περί, others ὑπέρ, apparently without a difference in meaning (cf. Rom. 8:3 and 1 Cor. 15:3). In other passages, too, περί is used to designate the idea of reconciliation for sin (for example, in the LXX Ex. 32:20, Lev. 5:6, 26, and others).
ὅπως: so that thus.
Instead of the particle ἐνεστώς used with αἰών other places have ὁ αἰών οὗτος (cf. Rom. 12:2, 1 Cor. 1:20, 2:6, and other places). This is in distinction from ὁ αἰών μέλλων (cf. Eph. 1:2 and Mt. 12:32), and also from the coming (ἐπερχόμενοι) aeons (Eph. 2:7), after the judgment of the world, when there shall be the new heaven and the new earth.
αἰών: period of time, world-period, world.
What is intended by the will (θέλημα) is not God’s counsel, but the will which issues from it: hence, command or commission. This will has been made known in Christ and has been fulfilled by Him in His redemptive work.
καί has distinctive force here: Our God and at the same time our Father. God’s wisdom and omnipotence as well as His fatherly disposition determine His will.
δόξα in the New Testament (unlike its meaning in profane usage, where it refers to the subjective sense, and also to the respect accorded a person) often has the signification of what in the Old Testament is called the kebod Jahwe: the manifestation of the divine glory (cf. G. Kittel, Die Religionsgeschichte und das UrChristentum, 1932, pp. 82–85).
The verb is missing. ἐστιν as well as εἰή is involved.
ἐστιν: compare 1 Peter 4:11, and the like.
εἰή: compare Psalm 112:2 (LXX).
The εἰς τοὺς αἰῶνας τῶν αἰώνων really applies a time limitation to God. Accordingly the idea is here indicated in the plural and is repeated, in order to signify the infinitely enduring: unto eternity.
Although this translation can appeal to the most textual sources, the rendering is nevertheless uncertain. For there is also a very old original which lacks the Χριστοῦ (thus P46G, Marc. Tert.) Because the inclusion of Χρʼ makes for easier explanation than the omission of it, one gives his preference to this rendering. This implies a sort of difference, too, for the exegesis.
This quickly may also be taken to refer to the short time that has elapsed since Paul’s last visit to the Galatians (cf. verse 9). It seems better to us, however, to regard the contrast as absolute, that is, as the contrast between a glorious beginning and what now threatens to take place. So the quickly takes on even profounder meaning.
Compare Isaiah 50:2 (LXX): ἐκάλεσα καὶ οὐκ ἦν ὁ ὑπακούων.
All the same, the relationship between the divine calling by whose efficacia alone the sinner can come to faith and the human obstinacy which resists it remains a mystery for us (cf. Matt. 22:14). Reformed theology distinguishes with reference to the result between vocatio interna and vocatio externa.
More than once καλέω is connected with ἐν in the sense of εἰς (Cf. 1 Cor. 7:15, Eph. 4:4, and 1 Thess. 4:7 in connection with 2 Thess. 2:14). One can, however, also regard the ἐν as having instrumental force: through, as in Rom. 3:24, and at other places, where the redemption through grace is spoken of. In connection, however, with the immediately following εἰς ἕτερον εὐαγγέλιον, the χάρις would seem to point to purpose (Cf. Bl.-Debr., par. 218).
That is to say, Gospel is not to be regarded as a general class name. It is a term which in an exclusive sense refers to the salvation that has appeared in Christ. The idea has its roots in the Old Testament, especially in the prophecies of Isaiah 40 ff. (in which we read of the messenger of joy announcing the dawn of salvation: Isa. 52:7), not in Hellenism (cf. J. Schniewind, Euangelion, I, 1927, and TWNT, II, p. 705 ff.).
This time it is ἄλλο and not ἕτερον as in verse 6. On the basis of this shift of words, scholars have launched upon all sorts of involved conceptions of the words ὅ οὐκ ἔστιν ἄλλο. Now it is true that ἕτερος originally means: the other, or second, of two; and ἄλλος originally means: another of several. But it is very hard to see what this distinction can mean here. Besides, all kinds of contamination creep into the Koine (cf., e.g., Matt. 5:39). Sometimes both words are used in one and the same connection, but, it would seem, solely for variation, and without significance (cf. 2 Cor. 11:4 and 1 Cor. 12:9 ff.). For this reason, also, it seems to us quite unnecessary to hold that what Paul wishes to say here is that the other gospel (in the enumerative sense), from which the Galatians were in process of turning away, could be no other gospel (in the qualitative sense) (cf. 2 Cor. 11:4). Rather, what Paul wants to do at this point is to reject the whole idea of another gospel as being absurd. True, he used the word himself in verse 6, but as a matter of fact, he means to say, such another gospel does not exist (ἔστιν). Further, ἄλλο seems to have a kind of pleonastic significance here, serving to introduce εἰ μή (cf. nihil aliud nisi). So, also, Bl.-Debr., par. 306, 4.
The εἰ μή which introduces the clause makes it limit what went before: unless, except. Sometimes it has the meaning of a simple contrast: but (cf. Bl.-Debr., par. 376, 488, 8). It can also, however, be somewhat ironically interpreted: such another gospel does not exist except in the imaginations of those who are bringing confusion upon you.
The original τινες is not without disdain.
The original of the verb is progressive present: are troubling.
θέλοντες: with the deliberately intended meaning: not unconsciously or unwittingly.
Although Christ also is and remains the subject of the preaching (cf. Eph. 4:11), the genitive in this connection means: the gospel concerning Christ (Cf. Mark 1:1, Rom. 15:19, 2 Cor. 4:5).
Ἀλλὰ καὶ ἐάν: but even though.
We: literary plural: perhaps the apostle is also thinking of his co-workers (verse 2).
The from heaven modifies an angel, not preached. The prepositional phrase serves to enhance the glory of the angel. It is incredible that an angel should come from heaven with such a message.
The verb comes to us in the conditional aorist, as well as in the indicative and the present conditional forms. In the Koine the distinction is not sharply maintained, even for conditional situations.
παρʼ ὅ: in departure from, in opposition to.
Anathema (ἀνάθεμα) is a cognate of ἀνάθημα, and originally meant something that is offered or dedicated to the deity or to God (cf. Luke 21:5). Later it also meant: something yielded up to the wrath of God, surrendered to the curse of God. It is in this last sense that ἀνάθεμα is usually used (so in the New Testament: Rom. 9:3, 1 Cor. 12:3, 16:22; cf. Acts 23:12, 21). This curse of excommunication is not to be thought of in the sense of ecclesiastical discipline—after all, an angel, too, is hypothetically involved—but as a general curse.
ἔστω: let him be: not a wish merely, but a solemn affirmation of what certainly shall be.
The force of the have said is that of the perfect: once and for all. It holds for the present too.
Presumably the said before refers to an earlier visit, not to the preceding clause, inasmuch as the now (ἄρτι) can hardly designate a period of time other than that of verse 8.
εἰ with the indicative as against ἐάν with the subjunctive.
The force of any man (τις) is general, it is true, but plainly refers to the τινες of verse 7.
The gospel had not merely been preached to them; they had received it, appropriated it as their own also.