THE EPISTLES OF ST. PAUL
TO THE
THESSALONIANS, GALATIANS, ROMANS.
WITH CRITICAL NOTES AND DISSERTATIONS.
VOL. I,
Preparing for publication.
THE BEPUBLIC of PLATO. With a revised Text and
English Notes. By the Rev. B. JOWETT.
The following DIALOGUES are also in course of preparation
on the same plan.
THE PHILEBTJS. By EDWAKD POSTE, M.A., Fellow of
Oriel College.
THE SYMPOSIUM, APOLOGY, PHJEDO. By the Bev.
JAMES RIDDELL, M.A., Fellow and Tutor of Balliol College.
THE THE^ETETUS. By the Eev. L. CAMPBELL, M.A., late
Fellow and Tutor of Queen s College.
AT THE UNIVERSITY PRESS.
THE EPISTLES OF ST, PAUL
TO THE
THESSALONIANS, GALATIANS, ROMANS,
WITH CRITICAL NOTES AND DISSERTATIONS
BY THE REV. BENJAMIN JOWETT, M.A,
REGIUS PROFESSOR OF GREEK IN THE UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD.
IN TWO VOLUMES. VOL. I.
dbftimr.
LONDON
JOHN MURRAY, ALBEMARLE STREET.
1859
The riaht of translation is reserved.
LONDOIf
PRINTUD BY SPOTTISWOODE AND CO.
NEW-STREET SQUARE
TO
THE REV. FREDERICK TEMPLE, D.D.
CHAPLAIN TO THE QUEEN AND HEAD MASTEB OF ETJGBT SCHOOL
% Wiotk b affotitonatdg
January 1859.
INTRODUCTION.
No one who is acquainted with Sophocles or Thucydides
in the volumes of Dindorf or Bekker, would be willing
to reprint the text of those authors as it is to be found
in editions of two centuries ago. No apology is there
fore needed for laying aside the " Textus Receptus " of
the New Testament.
The text of Lachmann, which has been adopted
instead, has many claims to be considered as the most
perfect that has hitherto appeared. It is the first, most
consistent, and, with one exception, the only recension
of the New Testament, drawn entirely from the earliest
manuscripts and authorities. It is the work of a scholar
of the highest genius, and of the greatest knowledge
and experience as an editor. Any advance which can
hereafter be made in the text of the New Testament is
A 4
yiii INTRODUCTION.
not likely to be as great as that by which Lachrnann is
separated from previous editors.
The merits of Lachmann s text would have been more
generally acknowledged, had he distinctly stated the
principles on which it was based. Like other great
editors, he either could not, or would not, fully explain
his method of procedure. The peculiarities of his
edition, so far as they can be gathered from his preface,
are as follows :
I. He aims at reproducing the text, not as it ought
to be, but as it was : that is, not as it may be supposed
to have come from the autograph of the writers them
selves, but as it actually existed in copies of the fourth
century.
II. The text which he seeks to restore is based (a) on
the most ancient Greek manuscripts.
(/3.) On citations of Origen.
(y.) On the most ancient Latin manuscripts, both of
the Vulgate and of earlier versions. These, especially
the versions older than the Vulgate, are considered as
the representatives of an original Latin text, agreeing
with that known to the translator of Irenasus and to
INTRODUCTION. IX
Tertullian ; and which before the time of Jerome had
passed from Africa into Gaul and Italy ; the stream of
testimony thus parting into two heads " Yetus Afra,
and Yetus Itala."
(8.) On citations of the most ancient Latin Fathers ;
that is, the translator of Irenaeus, Tertullian, Cyprian,
Lucifer and Hilary.
Widely separated as these Fathers are by country,
the latest of them is not divided from the earliest by a
greater interval of time than two centuries. The same
remark applies to the manuscript authorities , also ;
within a short time they are spread over a wide space.
The one class of testimonies falls between the second
and the fourth century; the other (with scarcely an
exception) between the fourth and the sixth ; and the
value of both is greatly increased by distance, that is,
by their combining the testimonies of different churches
and countries.
Lachmann s text might be briefly described as the
text of the most ancient and most independent au
thorities ; the proof of independence being remoteness
of origin, or in other words, agreement or disagreement,
of Eastern (that is, Alexandrian) and Western (that is,
X INTRODUCTION.
Italian or African) manuscripts. With the exception
of a single manuscript of the Epistles of St. Paul, his
Western authorities are exclusively Latin.
The principles which Lachmann applied to the selec
tion of readings cannot be more briefly stated than in
his own words. His summary of degrees of certainty
is as follows: (1.) Nothing is better attested than that
in which all authorities agree. (2.) The agreement is
of less weight if part of the authorities are silent or
defective. (3.) The combined evidence of witnesses
brought together from different countries in favour of
a reading is a stronger testimony than that of witnesses
from some particular locality, either carelessly or de
signedly differing from one another. (4.) But the
testimonies must be considered to be doubtfully balanced
when witnesses from countries wide apart stand opposed
to others equally distant in locality. (5.) Headings
are uncertain which are uniformly the same in one
country, and uniformly different in another. (6.) Read
ings are of slender authority as to which not even the
same country presents a uniform testimony.
These rules are not equally observed by Lachmann
in both editions. In the smaller one he professed to
INTRODUCTION. XI
follow the Eastern, that is, the Alexandrian authorities,
wherever they agreed ; and only where they disagreed
to balance them by the consent of the West. Somewhat
more weight is given to the latter element in the larger
edition, which contains his more matured judgment;
but the increased value is not such as to make any con
siderable difference in the selection of readings.
Lachmann, as has been already remarked, was the
first who based the text on the most ancient authorities,
solely on grounds of evidence, without regard to doc
trinal considerations, or claims of authority, and irre
spective even of the meaning of the words. The result
has shown that the most ancient text is also in every
other sense by far the best.
It is obvious that the principle of " the most ancient
and widely diffused text " might be carried yet further
by a comparison of the Oriental versions, which are
either prior or represent a text which is prior to the
fourth century. It would seem as if both they and the
Latin versions, so far as they are regarded as containing
the evidences of a more ancient text, must also be main
tained as superior in authority to the Greek manuscripts
themselves. Lachmann has not carried out his prin-
Xli INTRODUCTION.
ciple to this extent ; probably because the materials are
too slender, and the manner of using them too uncertain
and difficult, to justify him in doing so.
The various readings of the third edition of Robert
Stephens, 1550, are placed under the text ; they will be
found to agree very nearly with the Textus Receptus
and the authorised English translation. The latter is
added on the opposite page with slight corrections;
which, where they are occasioned by variation of read
ing, are marked by numbers referring to the autho
rised text, which is retained underneath ; and by
asterisks where they are the corrections of supposed
mistranslations.
The author of this book is under great obligations to
several German theologians, especially Usteri, F. Baur,
Ewald, Neander, Winer, Tholuck, Olshausen, Fritsche,
Meyer, and in the essay on Philo, to Gfrorer. The
plan of the work, which excludes the mention of former
commentators, renders it necessary that he should state
explicitly the nature of these obligations. He is indebted
to the writers named above for numberless references,
for a great portion of his materials, and for several
thoughts and observations; which latter, not having
INTRODUCTION. Xlll
been taken directly from their works, he would find it
impossible to separate from his own remarks, or to
assign to their original owners.
He need hardly say that he is far from always agreeing
with writers who differ so widely from one another as
the distinguished persons whose names have been men
tioned : he is not the less sensible of the debt which he
owes them.
The author has to thank many critics, unfavourable
as well as favourable, for the attention which they have
bestowed on his work. He regrets that the publication
of the new edition has been delayed by other occupa
tions.
January, 1859
CONTENTS
OF
THE FIRST VOLUME.
THE FIEST EPISTLE TO THE THESSALONIANS.
Page
INTRODUCTION ........ 3
Genuineness of the First Epistle 18
Thessalonica 30
Date and Place of Writing 34
Subject of the Epistle 37
CHAPTERS I. IV 42
Evils in the Church of the Apostolical Age 86
CHAPTER V. 96
On the Belief in the Coming of Christ in the Apostolical Age . 108
Is it possible for the Same Word to have Two Meanings in the
Same Passage ? 125
THE SECOND EPISTLE TO THE THESSALONIANS.
INTRODUCTION 139
Genuineness of the Second Epistle 143
Time and Place of the Second Epistle 150
CHAPTERS I. Ill 154
On the Man of Sin 178
On the Probability that many of St. Paul s Epistles have been lost 1 95
On Paley s Horae Paulina 202
XVI CONTENTS OF THE FIRST VOLUME.
THE EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS.
Page
INTRODUCTION . . . .... 231
Galatia ..... .... 237
Subject of the Epistle . . . ... . . . .239
Genuineness of the Epistle . . . . . . 245
Time and Place of the Epistle 248
CHAPTERS I. II. 251
On the Chronology of St. Paul s Life and Writings . . . 272
CHAPTERS III. IV 309
On the Character of St. Paul 351
CHAPTERS V. VI. 370
Paley on the Galatians 396
On the Quotations from the Old Testament in the Writings of
St. Paul 401
St. Paul and the Twelve 417
St. Paul and Philo 448
THE EPISTLES
TO
THE THESSALOfflANS,
VOL. I. B
THE
FIRST EPISTLE TO THE THESSALONIANS.
INTRODUCTION.
THE greater number of the Epistles of St. Paul may be arranged
conveniently in two groups : the first comprehending the Galatians,
Corinthians, Romans ; the second, the Epistles of the Imprisonment,
including under this term the Ephesians, Colossians, Philippians, and
Philemon. At either end of the series, and at a distance from the
rest, may be placed the two Epistles to the Thessalonians, and the
Pastorals, the first of which is shown by internal evidence to bear the
earliest, while tradition and internal evidence alike assign to the latter
the latest date in the list of St. Paul s writings.
Reading the Epistles in chronological order, many will be tempted
to trace in them a gradual development of idea and doctrine. Others,
again, will seek to impress upon them the same fixed type of truth
held from the beginning, " the faith once delivered to the saints."
Could a person lay aside previous conceptions, and resign himself to
the letter of the text, he would not find either of these views sup
ported by an examination of the Epistles themselves. There is no
system which is presupposed in them ; nor can any be constructed
out of them without marring their simplicity. They have almost
wholly a practical aim, and are fragmentary and occasional. Or
dinary letters arise out of the incidents of the day ; so these have to
do with real events and feelings passing between the Apostle and
the churches. There is a growth in the Epistles of St. Paul, it is
true ; but it is the growth of Christian life, not of intellectual pro
gress, the growth not of reflection, but of spiritual experience,
B 2
4 FIRST EPISTLE TO THE THESSALONIANS.
enlarging as the world widens before the Apostle s eyes, passing
from life to death, or from strife to peace, with the changes in the
Apostle s own life, or the circumstances of his converts. There is a
rest also in the Epistles of St. Paul, discernible not in forms of
thought or types of doctrine, but in the person of Christ himself,
who is his centre in every Epistle, however various may be his modes
of expression, or his treatment of controversial questions.
A general comparison of the first with the second of the two
groups of the Epistles which have been mentioned above, will show
the nature of this rest and of this progress in the teaching of the
Apostle. The course of events wrought on his life, which in turn passed
into his writings. Such an one as Paul the aged, the prisoner of
the Lord, regarding the strife of the world and of the Church from
his cell at Caesarea or Rome, is another man from the same Paul,
when immersed in the strife itself, bearing the cross of Christ from
place to place in contests and trials everywhere, from the Jews,
from false brethrenUet in unawares, from the fickleness of his own
converts, ever " ready to affect others rather than himself," yea,
and from those that " seemed to be pillars," the Apostles at Jerusalem.
No person under such different circumstances would write and express
himself in exactly the same way. There is one mode of expression
we naturally adopt when near, another at a distance one in the
fulness and vigour of life, another in the near approach of death
one in joy, another in sorrow one in sympathy with others, another
when at variance with them. Change of sphere will often produce
a corresponding change in the style and cast of our thoughts. What
we have long or often meditated upon, we express differently from
what flashes upon us for the first time ; what comes to us sealed by
the experience of many years, assumes a different character in our
minds from what with equal confidence we believed and acted upon
in the fervour of first conviction.
These are the kind of differences which separate the first from the
second of the two main divisions of the writings of St. Paul. In
the Epistles of the Imprisonment we have shifted the scene, and are
arrived at a new stage in the Apostle s life, a stage in which he
has entered into rest, and can no more be ruffled by the current of
INTRODUCTION. O
human affairs. He seems to be no more striving for a principle,
but to have established it, and to look back upon it ; the new rela
tions of things, which are at first struggling into being, at length
adjust themselves in a divine order, no longer as the elements of
controversy, but as parts of the whole counsel of God. His mind is
filled with the image of the Church, as of a temple having many
parts, " an habitation of God through the Spirit," Eph. ii. 22. He
is already " sitting in heavenly places," with his converts, Eph. i. 3.
Now that the Apostle is withdrawn from the field of his labours, the
powers of good and evil seem idealised to him ; he sees the com
munities among which his life had been spent, at a distance, more
as they ought to have been, less as they actually were ; he wrestles
not " against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against
powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against
spiritual wickedness in the heavenly places," Eph. vi. 12. He enters
more and more into communion with Christ, " in whom dwells all
the fulness of the Godhead bodily," Col. ii. 9.; "he fills up that
which is behind of the afflictions of Christ in his flesh, for his
body s sake, which is the Church," Col. i. 24. The conflict
of the law no more stirs in him ; the cloud of evil overshadows him
no more : he is dead and risen with Christ, and translated into his
kingdom, CoL i. 13., iii. 1. Not only circumcision, but all other
ordinances are ready to vanish away, Col. ii. 20. 23. Earthly ties
are transfigured before him into the likeness of Christ and his Church,
Eph. v. 32. And the person of Christ himself seems to assume, not
a more intimate relation to the individual soul, but a more universal
relation to mankind and to the world.
So we trace the workings of the Apostle s .mind in the later years
of his life, as his ministry is drawing to a close, and he wearing out
in his Master s service. A different image is presented to us by the
Epistles to the Galatians, Corinthians, Romans an image (in the
two first especially) of much greater trial, and sorrow, and per
plexity "without are fightings, within are fears" lest he himself
" should run in vain," lest other men " should build up the things
that they had pulled down." And before this there is a prior stage,
in which he is on the threshold of the conflict, and not wholly (shall
B 3
6 FIRST EPISTLE TO THE THESSALONIANS.
we say ?) aware of the great thoughts which were hereafter, by the
will of God, to spring up within him. Such is the inference which
we are led to draw when, from the perusal of the later Epistles, we
turn to those which are universally agreed to be first in date, the
Epistles to the Thessalonians, and read them not as " dead words,"
but as witnesses of the Apostle s mind and life.
It is a comparatively short period of time which can be allowed
not more than four or five years at the utmost between the date of
the First Epistle to the Thessalonians, written from Athens or Corinth,
and the Epistle to the Galatians, written probably during the
Apostle s stay at Ephesus or in its neighbourhood. More than half
the Apostle s ministry had already elapsed ere he set his hand to this
the first of his extant writings, one among many, as he implies in a
passage in the Second Epistle, iii. 17., and therefore not to be looked
upon too curiously, as part of a scheme which was to be completed
in the series of Epistles. It is a fragment, the earliest we possess, of
the Apostle s life and the History of the Church. Nothing is gained
for the interpretation of the Epistle, by attempting to combine it
artificially with his later writings. No such connexion could have
been present to the mind of the Apostle. The real light which
they receive from one another is that of contrast. Two writings of
the same author could not be more different than the Epistles to the
Thessalonians and that which follows next in order, the Epistle to
the Galatians. The latter is fervid and abrupt, full of interrogation
and argument, and abounding in allusions to the Old Testament ; it
has the tone of one speaking with authority ; parts of it are written
under what may be termed the feeling of persecution (vi. 14 18.),
the subdued, painful sense that " he bore in his body the marks of
the Lord Jesus." The Epistles to the Thessalonians are perhaps the
least impassioned, and most regular in style, of any of St. Paul s
Epistles : they contain no single quotation from the Old Testament,
and very few questions ; they are not argumentative at all ; they
advise rather than command ; nor are they marked by any of the
Apostle s deepest and most inward feelings.
The difference of subject is quite as marked as the difference of
style. There is no mention in the Thessalonians of the great
INTRODUCTION. 7
question of circumcision and uncircumcision of faith and works
of the relation of Jew and Gentile of union with the mystical body
of Christ of death unto life of the mystery of past ages, that had
been now revealed. All that we are accustomed to regard as pecu
liarly characteristic of the Apostle, the great themes of his other
Epistles, are wanting here. Instead of them, we find him dwelling
on the immediate coming of Christ, with whom "we that are alive"
are to meet in the air, in a manner unlike his allusions in other
places, either to a future life, or to the union of the believer with
Christ. Many times he returns to the same subject, of which he
had spoken to them "while he was yet with them," 2 Thess. ii. 5. ;
and this not merely in general outline, but in detail, for he had
told them of the coming of Antichrist, and of " that which let."
It was the leading thought of his mind at that time, The gospel
which he preached in both Epistles might be described, not as the
Gospel of the Cross of Christ, but of the Coming of Christ.
It would be hard indeed to suppose that St. Paul, when he wrote
the Epistles to the Thessalonians, could have felt and thought ex
actly as the same St. Paul in writing the Epistle to the Romans or
the Galatians, or to maintain that in the former case he purposely
reserved and kept back what in the latter he was commissioned to
reveal. Such a supposition would involve the further difficulty that
in the later Epistles he also withheld what in the earlier formed
the substance of his teaching. Are we to conceive that "the man of
sin," and "that which let," which he had preached to the Thessalo
nians, even before he wrote to them, was still latent in his mind
throughout his subsequent ministry? that he Was daily living in
expectation of them, but that no occasion arose in his later writings
for him to speak of them to his converts? More naturally we
should imagine that the Epistle to the Thessalonians was separated
from the Epistles which immediately followed it by a difference
greater in degree, but the same in kind with that which separated
the Epistles to the Romans, Galatians, and Corinthians from
the Epistles of the Imprisonment. We should argue that the same
Apostle, in the style of whose letters we see a remarkable correspon
dence to the circumstances of his life, may have yet gone through
B 4
8 FIRST EPISTLE TO THE THESSALONIANS,
further changes which may account for the greater difference; that
he who constantly received visions and revelations of the Lord, who
spake with tongues more than they all, could hardly have remained
stationary in his view of Christian truth ; that one whose life was
spent in conflict with his own nation, must in the course of that
conflict more and more have laid aside the garb of Judaism, " the
weak and beggarly elements " of the law. We should observe, as
worthy of note, that the greater part of the interval between the
composition of the Galatians and the Thessalonians was spent by
the Apostle in three of the most cultivated cities of the world,
Athens, Corinth, and Ephesus. And we should infer that in the
short period of three or four years, surrounded as the Apostle was by
So many influences, pouring himself out daily in prayer and exhor
tation to all the Churches, perhaps coming in contact more nearly
than before with the Alexandrian learning, such a change might
very well have taken place as divides the Thessalonians from the
later Epistles.
That some change did -take place in the Apostle himself, is not a
mere a priori theory based upon the common nature of the human
mind ; nor is it merely an a posteriori result derived from the exa
mination of the Epistles when arranged in chronological order ; it is
implied further in a passage of the Apostle s own writings: "Yea,
though we have known Christ according to the flesh, yet now
henceforth know we him no more," 2 Cor. v. 16. It is hard to conceive
that in this passage the Apostle is speaking of the time before his
conversion. His state then could not have been described in so
gentle a manner ; nor could the term, "knowing Christ according to
the flesh," have been applied with any propriety to Paul the perse
cutor of the Church; nor would such an allusion have had any
meaning to the disciples of Corinth, nor will the connexion allow
us to suppose that he is speaking, in his own person, of Christians
generally. The context shows that he is speaking of himself, not of
his converts, and not of what happened in those days when " he per
secuted the Church ignorantly through unbelief," but of his manner
of preaching either among the Corinthians themselves or among
others, from whom report was brought to them. There was a
INTRODUCTION. 9
Judaising party at Corinth, who maintained that in a special sense
they were the divsciples of Christ, and of whom elsewhere the
Apostle says that he is as much Christ s as they are, 2 Cor. x. 7.
He had been led beyond them, or they had gone back from him ;
and he was conscious of the chasm which separated him from them.
It seemed to him an increasing chasm; he acknowledged a time
when he had more nearly approximated to their Judaising tenets,
or, in other words, had known Christ according to the flesh. What
ever softening the skill of interpreters may introduce into these
latter words, even though compared with 1 Cor. ii. 2. ("I determined
not to know anything among you, save Jesus Christ and him cruci
fied "), they must still have a meaning ; that meaning is that there was
something which the Apostle had left behind him, which he had once
thought, and no longer thought, to be a part of the faith of Christ.
But what was the nature of this change in the Apostle s
preaching ? How did " Christ according to the flesh " differ from
that Christ which the Apostle, when writing the second Epistle
to the Corinthians, was seeking to infuse into the hearts of
his converts ? Could there have been a time when he preached a
Christ of the Jews only, and not also of the Gentiles ? Such a sup
position is contradictory to all that is told us of the Apostle in the
Acts, and to all that he tells us of himself in the Epistles. From
the first moment of his conversion he was the Apostle of the
Gentiles. He could never have taught that Christ was the Christ
of the Jews only, or that without circumcision there was no entering
into covenant with God. However naturally such a meaning may be
assigned to the words " Christ according to the flesh," it is so incon
sistent with the whole tenor of the Apostle s life, as to compel us to
adopt a different interpretation.
The remarkable expression in the Second Epistle to the Corin
thians is not absolutely isolated, but derives confirmation from other
places in the writings of the Apostle. Some time before, in writing
to the Galatians he says (v. 2.), "And I, brethren, if I yet preach
circumcision, why do I yet suffer persecution? then is the offence of
the Cross ceased." These words certainly imply that St. Paul had
once preached what his opponents declared to be the doctrine of the
10 FIRST EPISTLE TO THE THESSALONIANS.
circumcision. That he was conscious also of a certain progress in
his life, " forgetting those things that are behind, and reaching forth
to those things that are before," is manifest from such passages as
Phil. iii. 13., Eph. iv. 13, 14. That there was a difference in his
mode of preaching to the Jew and to the Gentile to the weak and
to the strong he himself asserts, where he says, "To the Jews
became I as a Jew ; " and, (i I, brethren, could not speak unto you as
unto spiritual, but as unto carnal, as unto babes in Christ." Compare
1 Cor. ii., Heb. vi. 1 3. It may be remarked also, that long after
wards, in writing to the Philippians, he has described that period of
his life in which he first preached in European cities (though more
than fourteen years after his conversion) as " the beginning of the
Gospel," iv. 15.
All these passages have some bearing, more or less near, on the
expression which we are considering, " If we have known Christ
according to the flesh ; " they do not, however, enable us distinctly
to determine its meaning. We could not, indeed, expect that the
Apostle should allude more clearly to a change which was half
concealed from himself, and which it was needless for him to detail
to his converts. The allusions, though obscure, are real ; but they
throw us back again on the connexion of the words in the Second
Epistle to the Corinthians itself, for their interpretation. Now it is
observable that, in the original passage, the Apostle is not speaking
of the admission of the Gentiles, or of the universality of the Gospel,
but of " death with Christ." " We thus judge, that if one died for all,
then all died; and that he died for all, that they which live should not
henceforth live unto themselves, but unto him which died for them
and rose again. Wherefore henceforth know we no man after the
flesh : yea, though we have known Christ after the flesh, henceforth
we know him no more." And the rest of the chapter speaks of " the
absence from the body which is presence with the Lord," of the "house
not made with hands, eternal in the heavens" (v. 1 8.), "of Christ
becoming sin for us, that we might be made the righteousness of God
in him," v. 21.
To this is opposed the knowledge of Christ according to the flesh,
which cannot consist with the inward witness of such things, which
INTRODUCTION. 1 1
in modern language might be described as unmystical, unspiritual,
different from that communion of his life and death which is the
leading principle of the Apostle in his later teaching. In general
terms it may be explained as the knowledge of Christ, in a more
Jewish and less Christian manner, more from without and less
from within, a knowledge of him, the opposite of that which St.
Paul speaks of in his later Epistles, as " the life hidden with Christ in
God;" such as St. Paul had himself had in "the beginning of the
Gospel ;" such as he imparted to his converts, " when he was not able
to speak unto them as unto spiritual but as fleshly, as babes in Christ,"
1 Cor. iii. 1. More than this, the connexion of the words will not
justify us in assuming. But here the Epistle to the Thessalonians
comes in to supply the deficiency. For if we find allusions in the
Epistles to the Corinthians to a change in the Apostle s teaching ; if,
further, a change is traceable in his extant writings, and if dates are
consistent, it can hardly be thought fanciful or far-fetched to bring
one into connexion with the other.
That such a change is capable of being traced has been already in
timated. Both Epistles to the Thessalonians, with the exception of
the personal narrative and of a few practical precepts, are the ex
pansion and repetition of a single thought "the coming of Christ."
It was the absorbing thought of the Apostle and his converts, quick
ened in both by the persecutions which they had suffered. It does
not follow that with this expectation of Christ s kingdom there
mingled any vision of a temporal rule over the kingdoms of the earth ;
it did not even imply the hope suggested in the question of the
Apostle s, " Lord, wilt thou at this time restore the kingdom to Israel."
But there was that in it which fell short of the more perfect truth.
It was not, " the kingdom of God is within you ; " but " lo here,
and lo there." It was defined by time, and was to take place
within the Apostle s own life. The images in which it clothed itself
were traditional among the Jews ; they were outward and visible,
liable to the misconstruction of the enemies of the faith, and to the
misapprehension of the first converts, imperfectly, as the Apostle saw
afterwards, conveying the inward and spiritual meaning. The king
dom which they described was not eternal and heavenly, but very near
12 FIRST EPISTLE TO THE THESSALONIANS.
and present, ready to burst forth everywhere, and by its very nearness
in point of time seeming to touch our actual human state. After
wards the kingdom of God appeared to remove itself within, to with
draw into the unseen world. The earthen vessel must be broken
first, the believer unclothed that he may be clothed upon, and
mortality swallowed up of life. He was no longer " waiting for
the Son from heaven:" but "desirous to depart and be with Christ,"
Phil. i. 23. Such is the change, not so much in the Apostle s belief
as in his mode of conception, a change natural to the human mind
itself, and above all to the Jewish mind, a change which, after it had
taken place, left the vestiges of the prior state in the Montanism
of the second century, which may not improperly be regarded as the
spirit of the first century overliving itself. Old things had passed
away ; and behold, all things became new. And yet the former
things the material vision of Christ s kingdom have ever been
prone to return : not only in the first and second century, but in
every age of enthusiasm men have been apt to walk by sight and
not by faith. In the hour of trouble and perplexity, when darkness
spreads itself over the earth, and Antichrist is already come, they
have lifted up their eyes to the heavens, looking for the sign of the
Son of Man.
We do not pretend precisely to draw the line between the earlier
and later teaching of the Apostle. Some elements of the earlier mode
of thought may be traced in the later Epistles, but, as it were, ready to
vanish away, and attaching themselves less to the substance and more
to the form of the Apostle s writings. When the things spoken of are
such as "eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, nor hath it entered into the
heart of man to conceive," it would be an error to dwell too much on
the manner in which they are presented to us. Neither is it pos
sible exactly to describe the nature of the Apostle s preaching " in
the beginning of the Gospel," or to determine how much of it may
have been based upon popular or traditional beliefs of the Jews, or
what it had in common with the Montanism of the second century.
The only sources from which we can gather even a conjectural
answer to questions like these, are the Epistles to the Thessalonians
themselves, the difference of which from the later Epistles is too
INTRODUCTION. 13
plain to be mistaken. Not that they are wanting, any more than the
words of Christ in the Gospels, in the essential elements of
Christian Truth, but they have less of the peculiar teaching of the
Apostle. Whether the passage in the Second Epistle to the Corin
thians be connected with them or not, this difference remains the
same.
The Second Epistle to the Thessalonians, though agreeing with
the First in its general character, yet points in the direction of the
later Epistles. It speaks, indeed, of the day of the Lord, under the
same outward imagery ; but it defers its advent : the course of
this world is to go on for a time ; the daily occupations of life .are
to be pursued ; the day of the Lord is not at hand in any such sense
that sudden confusion should arise ; even if a letter under the Apos
tle s hand had said, or seemed to say (ii. 2.) the opposite of this, the
converts were not to be shaken in their minds. It is in this respect
that it agrees with the later writings of St. Paul, viz., in withdrawing
the mind from an expectation of an immediate as well as outward
coming of the Lord Jesus.
That our Lord should have been called King of the Jews, that the
early expectation of the disciples should have been the restoration
of the kingdom to Israel, that St. Paul should in his two first
journeys have been carried before Roman governors as an enemy to
Csesar, that he and his fellow teachers should be designated as
"they that turned the world upside down," affords a general confir
mation of the view proposed in these remarks. True it is, that ac
cusations may be utterly false, but more generally they have a
colour of truth ; there is something which, though in one sense
false, supplies groundwork and support to the accusation. It is
hardly likely, for example, at Thessalonica itself, that the Jews
would have said, " These all do contrary to the decrees of Csesar,
saying that there is another king, one Jesus," had the Apostle
spoken only of a kingdom not of this world. It is remarkable, that on
his third journey the persecution of the Roman governors has
wholly ceased. Neither at the places which he then visited, nor on
his trial at Jerusalem, is any suspicion urged of his teaching con
trary to Caesar.
14 FIRST EPISTLE TO THE THESSALONIANS.
Not to weary the reader with pursuing the subject of this digres
sion into conjectures, we shall briefly sum up the inferences which
have been drawn ;
1. That the difference between the earlier and later preaching of
St. Paul was analogous to the difference which separated him from
the Apostles of the circumcision, though not absolutely the same with
it, as from the first St. Paul was set apart as the Apostle of the
Gentiles. As they were the Apostles of the circumcision to those
of the circumcision, so he might, in this earlier part of his course,
have been described in his own words as the Apostle of the circum
cision to the uncircumcised, the Jew to Gentiles.
2. That though the period of St. Paul s life here referred to is
almost wholly unknown to us, it is indicated by himself in 2 Cor.
v. 16., and may be fairly gathered from Gal. v. 11., that there was
such a period, when he knew Christ according to the flesh, and
might be thought to be a preacher of the circumcision.
3. That the earliest of his extant Epistles shows a corresponding
difference from his later ones. Not that the expression " according to
the flesh " need be applied to the Epistles themselves, or that in the
language of the Reformer they are Epistles of straw. But the change
that is implied in these words gives them a natural place in the life of
St. Paul. Admit in him, what the Apostle himself acknowledges,
a spiritual growth ; and there is a point at which the Epistles to
the Thessalonians fitly come in. They are no longer an excrescence
on the Gospel which he preached, but a stage of it. They are not
parts of a supernatural design, the pattern of which is to be re
stored after many ages, but simple and easy words going from one
man s heart to touch those of others.
Supposing, then, that there was a time when the Apostle, in his
own language, knew Christ according to the flesh (that is, more in
a Jewish and less in a spiritual manner), a new light breaks on the
Epistles to the Thessalonians. The difference of subject which
distinguishes them from the other Epistles of St. Paul, is only
what we should expect. They are full of practical precepts, and in
this respect remind us of the Epistle of St. James ; other portions
of them approach more nearly than any other part of the New
INTRODUCTION. 1 5
Testament to the book of Revelation, the first vision of the Church
descending from heaven to earth, the image of the hope and faith of
the earliest believers. They breathe the spirit of the earlier chapters
of the Acts of the Apostles, in which the Apostles of Jerusalem are
described as waiting for their Lord, watching the signs of those
things that were coming to pass upon the earth. They say nothing
of justification by faith and not by the works of the law, or of the
mystical union with Christ, or of the Church which is his body ; but no
more does the earliest narrative of the primitive Church, or the
Epistle of St. James, or the book of Revelation. They exhibit the
Revelation of Christ in an external form, " descending from heaven
with a shout/ " in flaming fire taking vengeance ; " also as present
and immediate "for we which are alive shall be caught up to meet the
Lord in the air." Such figures recall to us the prophecies of Daniel.
Lastly, they set before us the likeness of a Gospel, simple, moral,
practical, looking to Christ as its author and finisher, but not yet
entering into the deepest recesses of the human soul, nor in open
antagonism with the law, nor reading the Old Testament as the
allegory of the New.
All this is unlike the. other Epistles of St. Paul, and has therefore
been made a ground for doubting the genuineness of the Epistles to
the Thessalonians. According to the view here taken, the very
difference from the other Epistles tends in some degree to establish
their genuineness, because it is a difference of a kind for which we
are prepared by the remarkable expression which St. Paul uses
respecting himself, "If we have known Christ according to the
flesh, yea henceforth know we him no more." It is a difference
that he himself indicates as it were by chance in another of his
Epistles ; and the earlier lesson as well as the later has been preserved
to us.
Biblical criticism is, from the very nature of its subject matter,
peculiarly liable to the error of stating as a certainty that which
is no more than a probable conjecture. Anything short of certainty
seems hardly worth having ; and yet when facts are few and con
clusions brought from afar, uncertainty will always remain. The
16 FIRST EPISTLE TO THE THESSALONIANS.
scantiness of our materials in the present instance is sufficient to
warn us against too great a confidence in any hypothesis whatever.
We have been stepping from one fragment to another ; no one can
tread firmly on such a footing. It would be equally erroneous to
maintain the absolute certainty of the connexion which has been
suggested, as to object to the attempt to trace such a connexion on
grounds of doctrine. Whether the conjecture offered be sound or
otherwise (and the peculiarity, it may once more be observed, of
the Epistles to the Thessalonians, as well as the meaning of 2 Cor.
v. 16., are quite independent of it), it cannot be refuted on grounds
of doctrine. Objections of this kind lie without the range of an
historical inquiry. That St. Paul saw the truth more clearly at one
period of his life than another, is simply a statement of his own. It
is a fact of the same nature as his greater enlightenment than the
Apostles at Jerusalem, or the preparation of John the Baptist for
Christ s coming, or the relation of the Old Testament to the New.
As in the world, so in the individual, we witness the formation of
the Gospel, the preparations for it, the anticipations of it. If it be
hard to imagine an inspired Apostle growing in the knowledge of
Christian truth, it would be still harder (would it be more reverent?)
to imagine him standing still. To deny differences of thought arid
character in the first teachers of Christianity, or in any one of
them, at different times, or to deny the still greater differences of
ages and states of society, renders the Scripture unmeaning, and,
by depriving us of all rule of interpretation, enables us to sub
stitute, for its historical and grammatical sense, any other that we
please.
The perception of this growth and self-enlarging power of the
truths of the Gospel, either as seen in the lives of the Apostles,
or in the after history of the Church, is not inconsistent with the
conviction of its Divine origin. All admit premises of which this
is the conclusion. Those who shrink from such a view, should ask
themselves which precept of the Gospel it takes away ? or what duty
of life it renders them unable to fulfil? That can hardly be a
dangerous interpretation of Scripture, which leaves Christian prac-
INTRODUCTION. 17
tice unimpaired. Do the Epistles of St. Paul become more valuable
to us if we deny that there is a progress in the Apostle s life, or less
so if we affirm it ? No words with which we may overlay them, or
doctrines which may be maintained respecting them, can make them
other than they are. The only way to increase their value, either
to the cause of the truth or to our own souls, is to seek to discover
nothing in them but the meaning of their author.
VOL. I.
18 FIRST EPISTLE TO THE THESSALONIANS.
GENUINENESS OF THE FIKST EPISTLE.
THE First Epistle to the Thessalonians is not deficient in external
evidence for its genuineness. It is quoted by Irenaeus, Clement, and
Tertullian ; is named in the Muratori fragment ; and had a place
among the ten Pauline Epistles, which were admitted into the Canon
of Marcion, by whom it was ranked fifth in the list of St. Paul s
writings. Like all the other books of the New Testament, it is said
to have been corrupted by him, or rather, if Epiphanius may be
trusted (Hereses, p. 371.), he left nothing of the original. The
question of the relation of Marcion to the canon of Scripture is
obscure, and one which, as we have no means of determining it
from the Epistle to the Thessalonians, it would be out of place to
discuss here. The fact, however, that he inserted the Epistle in
his canon, is a proof that a writing under this name, identified by
quotations of Irenaeus, Clement, and Tertullian, as the one which
we possess, must have been received as a genuine work of St. Paul,
at least as early as the middle of the second century.
It is not in consequence of any deficiency of external, but, as is
supposed, of internal evidence, that doubts have been raised of late
years respecting the genuineness of the Epistle. In some respects it
has been thought too like, in others too unlike, undoubted writings
of the Apostle, for us to maintain that it is from his hand. The
critic by whom these difficulties have been chiefly urged, is Dr.
Baur, of Tubingen, whose objections may be regarded as a summary
of all that can be said on that side of the argument.* They may be
conveniently arranged under the following heads :
i. Absence of individuality, and of doctrinal statements.
* Baur, Paulus, pp. 480 492.
GENUINENESS OF THE FIRST EPISTLE. 19
ii. The tone of a later age discernible in ii. 14 16.
iii. Inconsistency with the Acts of the Apostles, in relation to
some points of fact,
iv. Perpetual reference to the events recorded in the Acts of the
Apostles, indicative of the sources whence the Epistle was
compiled.
v. Verbal similarities to passages in the other Epistles of St. Paul,
leading to a suspicion of designed imitation,
vi. Discrepancies from the other Epistles in modes of thought,
especially traceable in iv. 13 18.
i. Absence of individuality (eigenthumlichkeit) and of doctrinal
statements. " It is made up of nothing but wishes, instructions, ad
monitions contains no doctrinal subject matter at all, with the
single exception of the mention of the coming of Christ, iv. 13 18."
There is a difficulty in meeting such objections as these, because,
whatever real weight they may have, they ultimately resolve
themselves into the impression of an individual critic, who, if he
be gifted with the faculty of writing clearly, easily masters the judg
ment of his reader. Sometimes they come to us with overwhelming
force ; at other times we wonder that we can have been influenced
by them at all. How an author ought to have written, is a ques
tion in which imagination has a wide range ; a meagre induction
gathered from a few short works, is not a sufficient criterion of how
he must have written everywhere and at all times. Baur s ob
jections labour under the fallacy of presenting one side of
the question only. Grounds of suspicion are endless ; and in
answer we can only accumulate the probabilities opposed to them.
On the same ground with Baur, it may be argued with great truth,
that the very absence of individuality agrees with the incidental
character of the Epistles. Why should we expect them all to
bear marks of " originality ? " Might not the Apostle write as a
man writes to his friends, without seeking to impart any new truth?
Does not the First Epistle to the Thessalonians arise naturally from
a real occasion the return of Timothy with news respecting the
converts an occasion just similar to that of the Second Epistle
c 2
20 FIRST EPISTLE TO THE THESSALONIANS.
to the Corinthians? Is not one doctrine enough in the space of
five short chapters ? And is the disproportion between the doc
trinal and practical sections any greater than in the case of some
of the other Epistles ?
Slight as these presumptions are, they may be fairly placed in the
scale against an argument such as Baur s. If it were admitted that
the absence of doctrinal ideas makes the Epistle unworthy of
St. Paul, it makes it also a forgery without an object.
ii. The tone of a later age discernible in chap. ii. 16.: "For the
wrath is come upon them to the uttermost ; " which is supposed to be
an after-reflection on the destruction of Jerusalem.
To the Apostle, reading the future in the present, the state of
Judea at any time during the last thirty years before the destruc
tion of the city, would have been sufficient to justify the expression,
" wrath is come upon them to the uttermost." The fearful looking
for of judgment was natural, not only to Christians, but to Jews
themselves, to Josephus as well as to St. Paul. The passage must
not, however, be strained beyond its natural meaning, The word
opy/7, wrath, in other places (Rom i. 18. ; ii. 8.) refers at least as much
to final impenitence and hardness of heart, " the spiritual wrath of
God," as to temporal judgments. And the connexion in which it
occurs here, " forbidding us to speak to the Gentiles, that they might
be saved to fill up their sins alway," shows the Apostle to be speak
ing, not of punishment, but of reprobation.
iii. Inconsistencies with the Acts of the Apostles in some points
of fact. These are: (1.) The statement of the Acts that Silas
and Timotheus, after being left behind at Berea, came up with the
Apostle at Corinth, after he had left them (Acts, xviii. 5.), com
pared with the fact recorded in the Epistle that Timothy was sent
back from Athens to Thessalonica, 1 Thess. iii. 1. ; and (2.) The
impression conveyed by the Acts, xvii. 1. 5., that the Thessalonian
Church was of Jewish origin, compared with the impression con
veyed by 1 Thess. ii. 14. that it was Gentile ; (3.) The statement that
the persecution which the Thessalonians endured was of their own
GENUINENESS OF THE FIRST EPISTLE. 21
countrymen, which is nevertheless recorded in the Acts to have
been stirred up by Jews.
What reconciliation of these opposite views is possible will be
considered in a note on Paley s Horse Paulina?. It is sufficient here
to observe, that the discrepancies alluded to, are not greater than
those between the Acts of the Apostles and the Epistle to the Ga-
latians, in the account of the council. If these latter discrepancies
have never led any critic to doubt the Epistle to the Galatians,
neither is there any reason why similar discrepancies should be as
sumed as fatal to the Epistle to the Thessalonians.
Another objection is based on the indications afforded by the
Epistle, that the Church to which it is addressed had been already
long established. Their faith is known in every place, i. 9. ; they
had a regular Church government, v. 12. ; and some of their mem
bers had died since the Apostle s visit to them, iv. 13., although, ac
cording to the narrative of the Acts, but a few weeks, or at the most
afewmonths, could haveelapsed. Compare Acts, xvii.l 8..xviii.l 5.
The answer to this objection is to be sought, in the peculiar
circumstances of the early Church, in which a year might be said
to be like a day, and a whole life to be crowded into the moment of
conversion. Men living in expectation of the coming of the Lord
lost their measure of time ; every hour was fraught to them with
feelings and events. Nor must the language of the Apostle himself
be too strictly interpreted when speaking of the Church, as seen
by the eye of faith and love idealised before him. Compare 1 Cor.
i. 9. especially as contrasted with the after tone of the Epistle ; Rom.
i. 8. Further it may be observed, that some kind of organisation was
established by St. Paul, immediately on his first declaration of the
Gospel everywhere among the new converts, Acts, xiv. 23. ; and
that nothing is implied in the word Trjooiora/zej oi but what must have
existed in the Jewish Synagogue, and would naturally spring up in
the Christian Church. The death of even one or two members of
the Church might be sufficient to suggest the inquiry what became
of the departed.
iv. Reference to the events recorded in the Acts of the Apostles,
indicative of the sources whence the Epistle was compiled.
c 3
22 FIRST EPISTLE TO THE THESSALONIANS.
Baur supposes the forger of the Epistle to have had before him,
either the Acts of the Apostles themselves, or earlier documents
from which the Acts of the Apostles were compiled. The Epistle
appears to him to add nothing to the events narrated there.
Opposite probabilities are : (1.) The natural manner in which the
events referred to are introduced. To go back to what happened
while he was yet with them, is quite in character with the writings
of the Apostle. In 1 Thessalonians, as in the Epistle to the Gala-
tians, he recalls his converts to the moment of their first conversion ;
as in the Corinthians he appeals to the witness of his own life, and
awakens their sympathies by the mention of persecutions which he
suffered for their sakes. There is scarcely one of his Epistles which
has not several allusions of this kind. Hence there is no sort of im
probability that many such might occur in the Thessalonians. But,
on the other hand, it must be observed, (2.) That these resemblances
to the Acts relate only to the persecution which the Apostle had en
dured at Philippi (ii. 2.), to the persecution of the Thessalonian
Church (ii. 14.), and to his own stay at Athens ; and, (3.) That the
discrepancies just noticed are of themselves opposite probabilities.
For is it likely that a forger, carefully reading the Acts of the
Apostles when compiling his Epistle, could have committed so clumsy
an error as to send back Timothy and Silas, not from Corinth, but
from Athens ? or would he have lighted upon so crude an invention
as to send back Timothy at all, to satisfy the longing desire of the
Apostle about his converts, when Timothy had just come from the
place to which he was sent ? Or again, is it probable that he would
have fallen into the inconsistency of representing that a Gentile
which the Acts rather intimates to have been a Jewish Church?
Or, that persecution as raised by Gentiles, which the Acts informs
us originated with Jews ? The greatest carelessness must be attri
buted to him, to account for such oversights. But the greatest in
genuity would have been required to imitate the style and topics of
St. Paul, as he must be supposed to have done. It is a refinement
not to be thought of, that he purposely differed from the Acts of the
Apostles, with the view of concealing the sources from which his
information was derived.
GENUINENESS OF THE FIRST EPISTLE.
23
v. The next argument of Baur is of a more subtle kind, and can
only be justly appreciated by a careful comparison of the passages
on which it is based. He thinks that in 1 Thessalonians he can
trace a repetition of the same thoughts that occur elsewhere in the
writings of St. Paul ; or, in other words, he supposes the Epistle to
be a sort of cento ingeniously made up from other places.
The instances given by him are as follows :
1 Thess. i. 5.
TO EvayyiXiov ijpaiv OVK iyEvtjdri
Trpog vpdg iv Xoyw povov, dXXd
Kal iv SvvdpEi, Kal iv TtvEvpaTi
dytw Kal iv TrXrjpofyopia TroXXrj.
i. 6.
Kal
6r)T Kal TOV Kvplov,
\6yov iv $\l\l>ei TroXXrj
i. 8.
TOV
acpi" vfj,(t)V yap e^ j^rjTai o \oyog
TOV Kvpiov ov H.OVQV kv Trj Ma^t-
Sovia Kal kv Trj A^a / ct, aXXa Kal kv
Travrl TOTTW r; Tr/orig vpuiv / irpoc;
TOV $tbv iL,eXr]Xvdev, wore
i)fJLa XaXelv TI.
ii. 410.
4 aXXa KaOwQ
VTTO TOV -S fou TUffTEvdrjvai TO svay-
ye Xtov, ovrwe XaXovfAtv, ovy^ &G
avdpu)7roig apeffKOVTEQ, aXXa [rw]
9^60) rw ($OKi[jiaovTt Tag Kapfiiag
rjuuiv. 5 ovTe yap TTOTE iv Xoyw KoXa-
1 Cor. ii. 4.
Kal 6 Xoyoc pov Kal TO K^pvypd
pov OVK iv TTEiOolg crofyiag Xdyotc,
dXXd iv a7ro(5aet TTVEVUCLTOQ KOI
xi. 1.
uijJirjTai pov ytveffOe, KaQatQ fc^iyw
Rom. i. 8.
>/ iriffTiQ V/J.CJV fcarayyeXXtrat iv
oXo) rw K0fffj.a).
1 Cor. ii* 4. see above.
1 Cor. iv. 34.
i CE EIQ iXa-^iffTOV iffTiv tva
v<p vjJi&v avaKpiduj r) VTTO avdpuiTri-
vrjc rjuepag dXX ovdi ifiavTov dva-
(OV^EV yap ipavTu) ffvvoida,
KEiag iyEvyOripEV, /ca0wg o idaTE OVTE dXX OVK iv TOVTU $$iKai(i)pai), o
iv 7rpo(f>dffi
vaKptvwv p Kvptog
c 4
Z FIRST EPISTLE TO
1 Thess. ii. 410.
Tvg, OVTE
TTWV %6av, OVTE a(j) vjjitiv ovre air*
a\\(t)v, SvvapEvoi iv fiapti Eivai
we "XpiaTov cnroffToXoi, 7 dXX
EyvrjOr)[jLv VIITTLOL EV f*ff(t) vpwv
we EO.V rpofyoQ $a\7rr) ra
TEKVCt, 8 OUrwe 6fJ,lp6fJLVOL V
EV^OKOV^EV fjLETaftovvai vfjdv ov po-
vov TO evayylXiov rov Seov, aXXa
Kalrcig eavTa>v
roi r/yuTv Ejvi]Qr]Te. 9
yap, d$X(poi, TOV KOTTOV >/^uwv KCL\
rov [jLO^dov VVKTOQ Kcu rjpEpag ip-
ya^o^jiEvoL Trpog TO prj
TLVCL vjjiGJv EKrjpv^afjiEy tg
ro evayyiXiov TOV SEOV. 10 VJJ,E~IQ
teal 6 S EOQ, a>e bffiwQ Kdl
/cat a jutjUTrrwg vfjdv
THE THESSALONIANS.
ix. 15.
eyw c"e ov Kiyjprjuai. OV^EVL TOV-
Twv, ovKEypa^acETcivTa, iva ovrwe
ylvrjTat EV EJJLOL KaXov yap /.tot
dirodavEtv, f/ TO Kav
2 Cor. ii. 17.
ov yap kffUEV we 01 TroXXot
XEVOVTEC; TOV \6yov TOV ^eoO, a XX
we % EiXiKpivEiag, a XX we EK SEOV
KaTEvivavrt SEOV EV ^otorw XaXoi7-
V. 11.
Et^dree ouv TOV fyu&ov TOV Kvpiov,
dvdpljJTTOVQ TTEldofJiEVy $0) C 7T(f)a.V-
pwjueQa* eXTT/^w e Kal iv rate crvv-
VU&V 7T(b
xi. 9.
fait iv TTCLVT! d&apfj kuavTov v
That these are striking similarities is not to be doubted. The
whole question turns upon the point, Of what nature is the simila
rity ?
There is one kind of resemblance between two passages which
indicates that one of them is an imitation or transcript of the other,
while another kind proves them only to have been the production of
the same mind. Even exact verbal agreements do not necessarily
show more than that the same words have been used twice over by
the same person. St. Paul, when writing nearly at the same time to
the Ephesians and Colossians, might to both Churches repeat the
same topics expressed in the same words, without this repetition
necessarily shaking the genuineness of either Epistle. On the other
hand, the portion of the Second Epistle of St. Peter and of the
Epistle of St. Jude which is common to both is such as to demand a
different explanation.
GENUINENESS OF THE THESSALONIANS. 25
Which of these two alternatives we adopt, will depend chiefly on
what we know of the author. The recurrence of the same thoughts
or topics in two different works, may or may not be a presumption
against the genuineness of both or either of them. Whether it is so,
depends on some prior considerations which must be first brought
into view.
i. Is it the way of an author to repeat himself? If we were able
to say no, a strong presumption would be raised against the genu
ineness of a work which seemed to be but a repetition of his
other writings. But if he were in the habit of repeating himself,
the repetitions would be no disproof of the genuineness of the work
in which they occurred.
They would be a slight presumption in its favour, or even a con
siderable one if made in a manner which was characteristic of the
writer.
ii. The argument from similarity against the genuineness of one
of two writings has a very different force when applied to a classi
cal author or to the fluent rhetorician of a later age, and to a writer
like St. Paul, whose style is constrained and vocabulary limited.
Great masters of language are never at a loss for words ; it is other
wise with those who are stammering in a foreign tongue.
iii. Similarities in words and terms only are not a presumption
in favour of forgery, but rather the reverse, in the case of two works
bearing the name of the same person. The forged book in ancient
times was not a tessellated work of phrases and expressions derived
from other writings of the supposed author. "Whole passages were
interpolated with an object, or perhaps without one, as they chanced
to be remembered. But nothing would have been gained by
stealing words.
Now, it must be observed : (1.) That the parallel which we have
quoted in no instance extends to whole verses, like that of St. Jude
and St. Peter ; (2.) That they occur in a writer who, in his un
doubtedly genuine Epistles, is remarkable for such repetitions.
Not to mention the parallelism of the Ephesians and the Colossians,
26 FIRST EPISTLE TO THE THESSALONIANS.
the very passages, which we have already quoted from the two
Epistles to the Corinthians, closely resemble similar expressions in
the Epistles to the Galatians and Romans. Compare 1 Cor. ii. 4.,
iv. 3, 4. with Gal i. 10. ; or 2 Cor. xii. 7. with Gal. iv. 14. ; or
Rom. xiv. with 1 Cor. viii. ; or the deferred intention in 2 Cor. xiii.
1. with Rom. i. 13. ; or the unwillingness to enter on another man s
labours in Romans xv. 18 24. with 2 Cor. x. 14 16. ; or Gal.
iii. 6 12. with Rom. iv. 3 11. Almost every Epistle of St. Paul
has a network of thoughts and expressions derived from the rest.
And hence we infer that the passages in the Thessalonians quoted
by Baur are rather to be regarded as an indication of the genuine
ness than of the spuriousness of the Epistle ; because they are quoted
in the manner in which St. Paul repeats himself ; and, (3.) They
are not of a kind which a forger could easily have invented.
It might be truly said of the early Ecclesiastical forgeries that
nothing could exceed the readiness with which they were received ;
but, on the other hand, nothing could exceed the clumsiness of their
falsification. They made no attempt to imitate the style of the
author whose name they bore ; they commonly carried on their face
the object with which they were written. A forgery so ingenious
as the First Epistle to the Thessalonians, containing so many latent
resemblances to the genuine writings of the Apostle, would be
unique in Ecclesiastical literature.
Paley remarks, that a writer of the second century would never
have thought of attributing to St. Paul the expectation of the imme
diate end of the world, which had already been refuted by the
course of events. Put in a slightly different point of view, the ar
gument is perfectly just. He who may be supposed to have written
the First Epistle to the Thessalonians in the second century, was
probably a believer in the immediate advent of Christ. But what
ever may have been his own belief, he would have felt the anachro
nism of putting into the mouth of one long since dead, words that
implied that he would be alive when it took place. And the whole
spirit of such a belief would have led him to have supported it by
present immediate inspiration rather than by the testimony of an
Apostle who had himself fallen asleep.
GENUINENESS OF THE FIRST EPISTLE. 27
Lastly. Many positive evidences may be urged in favour of the
genuineness of the First Epistle to the Thessalonians. Among
these we reckon the last of Baur s objections.
vi. The discrepancy in subject and modes of thought from the
other Epistles, as accounted for in the preceding essay. Without
laying greater stress on this argument than it deserves, we pass on
to enumerate other internal evidences that the Epistle is St. Paul s.
Such are :
(1.) The desire to see the face of his converts, iii. 6. 10., and de
layed intention to come to them, ii. 18. Compare Rom. i. 13.,
xv. 22. ; 1 Cor. xvi. 1. ; 2 Cor. i. 16., xiii. 1. ; Phil. i. 8. ; Philem. 22.
(2.) The lively sympathy with them throughout the Epistle.
Such passages as ii. 17., iii. 5. 10., are good instances of this. He
is taken from them in presence, not in heart ; he lives if they stand
fast in the Lord ; they desire to see him, even as he them. These
expressions show the same sort of reciprocity between the Apostle
and his converts as is traceable in the Second Epistle to the Corin
thians. In both there is the same sensitiveness to every human as
well as spiritual consolation, the same loneliness when separated
from them, and the same joy at the good news of Titus and
Timothy. Compare 1 Thess. ii. 17., iii. 6., with 2 Cor. vii. 5. 7.,
ii. 12, 13. ; also Phil. iii. 25. 29. ; Col. i. 7, 8. Yet great as is the
similarity of thought, there is no similarity of language, such as that
into which an imitator would naturally have fallen.
(3.) The frequent and characteristic mention of himself. As in
the Galatians he perpetually recurs to the time when he was yet
with them. It is through himself, in the remembrance of himself,
that he would implant in them the image of Christ. And yet that
which he especially seeks to recall, is the very absence of any claim
or pretension on his part. He did not seek praise when he might
have done so ; he did not receive the maintenance to which, as an
Apostle, he had a right, 2 Cor. xi. 9., xiii. 13, 14. Does not this
remind us of him who did glory and did not glory, seeming, as it were,
to assert and deny himself at once ? And yet the favourite word
no where occurs in the First Epistle to the Thessalonians.
28 FIRST EPISTLE TO THE THESSALONIANS.
(4.) The delicate manner in which reproof and admonition are
conveyed, as what they already knew and practised, and had no need
that the Apostle should teach them, iv. 9., v. 2.
(5.) The germs of thoughts and of precepts which may be traced
in a more developed form in later Epistles (compare remarks at
p. 3.). Thus the practical exhortations at the end of the Epistle,
are more fully worked out in the twelfth chapter of the Romans ;
the figure in v. 8. is expanded in Eph. vi. 13 17. A slighter ex
ample of the same growth is traceable in the expression " Whether
we wake or sleep we may live together with him," in v. 10., com
pared with the common phraseology of the Romans, Galatians, and
the later Epistles. Another is the reference to the heathen origin
of the Thessalonians, in i. 9. ; compare 1 Cor. xii. 2. ; Eph. ii. 11. ;
Gal. iv. 8. ; also the mention made of the relation of the Church to
those that are without, iv. 12. (compare Col. iv. 5. ; Cor. vi. 1.) as
well as of unity within, v. 13. A similar growth is observable in
the allusion to the duty of the Church to support the teachers of
the Gospel, when placed side by side with the larger manner in
which the same subject is treated in 1 Cor. ix. ; 2 Cor. xi. 8, 9. ;
xii. 13. In all these instances there is the kind of difference that
we should expect to find between a thought or precept often dwelt
upon and frequently repeated, and the same thought expressed for
the first time in few words by a comparatively unpractised writer.
It has been objected against the genuineness of this Epistle, that
it contains only a single statement of doctrine. But liveliness,
personality, similar traits of disposition, are far more difficult to in
vent than statements of doctrine. A later age might have supplied
these, but it could hardly have caught the very likeness and por
trait of the Apostle. The strength of this argument is considerably
increased when it is placed side by side with another of a wholly
different kind, derived from mannerisms of style and language.
Such are :
(1.) The expansion and association of words traceable in passages,
such as i. 26, 7, 8. ; "Going off upon a word " or thought, ii. 18., v.
4.; "harping back upon one," ii. 1.; cf. i. 9., iii. 5.; cf. 1.; elucidation
of one expression or one verse by another in apposition with it,
GENUINENESS OF THE FIRST EPISTLE. 29
as in i. 9., iv. 3. 6. ; the aggravation and accumulation of language in
such passages as i. 2, 3. 5. 8. ; the apparent unmeaningness of some
emphatic expressions, ii. 5., iii. 11. v. 27.; the recurrence of the
same forms of speech and thought at the commencement of successive
verses and paragraphs, i. 9., ii. 1., ii. 3. 5., ii. 7. 11., iii. 1. 5., often
traceable at a great distance, as in i. 6., ii. 14. ; play of words, iv. 9. ;
exaggeration, iv. 10. ; climax, ii. 8., i. 5., in the latter passage with
the favourite ov povov d\\a Kai ; negative and positive statements of
the same thought, ii. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7. ; interrogative and positive
statements, ii. 19, 20.
(2.) Peculiarities of another class, found in the Epistles to the
Thessalonians as well as in other writings of St. Paul, are the fol
lowing :
The play of words dedoa/jaoy/cda, ^oKipa^ovn, in ii. 4. ; the
paradox in i. 6., iv SXtyei TroXX?/ fjiera x a l<* irvev/ioroc nylov (com
pare Col. i. 24. ; 2 Cor. vii. 10., viii. 1.); the mixed metaphor respect
ing the day of the Lord in v. 5., also in the same passage the double
use of KrXeTrnje, fcXeVrae (compare Rom. xiii. 12. ; 1 Cor. iii. 15. ; and
the inversion of thought in Rom. vii. 1 7.); the substitution of the
present for the future, in iii. 19. (compare Rom. ii. 16.) ; verbal
antithesis of prepositions, i. 5., iv vp.1v It vjudc, iv. 7. ini ttKadapvlfy
a\X iv ayiao-juw, ii. 3. OVK EK TrXavrje ovde iv f)oXw ; pleonasms as in
i. 3., ii. 9., v. 23. ; repetition of -yap in several successive verses,
i. 8 ii. 1. ; use of yap in question, ii. 19., iii. 9. ; resumption of
sentence after a digression with ia roi/ro, iii. v., iii. 7. ; the use of
the double Iva, iv. 1. ; peculiar uses of words and expressions such as
EvayytXiov for the preaching of the Gospel, 1 Thess. i. 5. ; aywv,
Col. iii. 1. ; 1 Thess. ii. 2., to express the passionate earnestness of
his feelings towards his converts ; yap* */ ffre^avog, 1 Thess. ii. 19. ;
Phil. iv. 1., said also of his converts ; Iva pri tTrtgapw, 2 Cor. iii. 5. ;
SvvapEvoi iv (3apEi elvai, 1 Thess. ii. 6., of his burdening the Church
with his maintenance. Compare also the following :
cnrwv ry ffaj^ian, Trapuv le rw TrvevjjLari ; 1 Cor. V. iii. iv TrpoawTru
Koi nn iv KapSiq., 2 Cor. V. 12. TTjOoo-wTrw ov KapSiq, 1 Thess. ii. 17.
Such intricate similarities of language, such lively traits of cha
racter, it is not within the power of any forger to invent, and, least
of all, of a forger of the second century.
30 FIRST EPISTLE TO THE THESSALONIANS.
THESSALONICA.
THESSALONICA, called in more ancient times Halia, Emathia,
and Therma, now Salonichi, was a populous city, the capital
of one of the Roman divisions of Macedonia, situated at the north
east corner of the Thermaic Gulf. It was celebrated for
its commerce and for the luxury of its inhabitants. Many
notices of its history occur in classical authors ; none of them, how
ever, are such as connect with the subject of the Epistle. From
the Acts of the Apostles we learn that there was a synagogue in the
place, which may fairly be regarded as an indication of a large
population of Jews (Acts, xvii. 1.). The first Christian Church
there was founded by St. Paul, on his second Apostolical journey,
after being shamefully entreated at Philippi, the first European city
in which he preached the G-ospel. The Epistle (1 Thess. ii. 14.)
seems to imply that the predominant element was a Gentile one; the
Acts of the Apostles, on the other hand, chiefly mentions Jewish
proselytes. Whether heathen converts are also included in the
words of Acts, xvii. 4., according to Lachmann s reading (r&v re
arE^ojjLevMv Kal EXA.j/rwi TrXijdos TroXu), is uncertain. The first visit of
St. Paul to Thessalonica was probably the occasion on which the
Philippians (Phil. iv. 15, 16.), "in the beginning of the Gospel . .
sent once and again to his necessity." Once more at least, the
Apostle visited Thessalonica, in the year which preceded his last
journey to Jerusalem.
It is not one of the objects of the present work to enter minutely
either into the history of the cities to which the Epistles were
addressed, or into the local features of the country in which they
THESSALONICA. 3 L
were situated. To fill the mind with historical pictures or descrip
tions of scenery, will not in any degree help us to feel as the Apo
stles felt, or think as they thought, any more than the history of the
reign of George the Third, or a description of the scenery of
Somersetshire or Cornwall, would enable us to understand the life
and character of Wesley or Whitfield. Interesting as such pictures
may be, they tend to withdraw us from a higher interest, which
is to be found only in the private character of the Gospel narrative
itself.
It is not in the first, but in the second century, that the Church
comes into contact with the world. The life of Christ and his
Apostles stands in no relation to the public history of their time.
None of the great events of the world appear to touch them ; no
edict of the Roman emperors, with the single exception of the
command of Claudius that the Jews should depart from Rome, has
the least effect on the fortunes of the infant communion. Even in
this case, we arrive at no other result than that Aquila and Priscilla
met with St. Paul at Corinth, and may conjecture of the possible
influence of the dispersion of so many Jews throughout the empire.
No name of any Christian convert in the New Testament can be
certainly identified with the name of any one known to us from
profane history.
Neither are the descriptions of particular cities or countries at all
more instructive. The fact, that at Thessalonica there were many
thousand Jews, is of very slight importance in connexion with an
Epistle addressed to Gentiles ; it is not more than a probability, that
we can trace in the erring Galatians the spirit of the worshippers of
Cybele or of the followers of Montanus. No amount of research
into the history of the time, would inform us of the first question
respecting all the Epistles, whether they were addressed to Jews
or Gentiles.
Such historical or topographical inquiries are of interest to the
antiquarian ; they are like the relaxation of foreign travel after
severe study: but they have no real connexion with the inter-
32 FIRST EPISTLE TO THE THESSALONIANS.
pretation of Scripture ; and they tend to withdraw the mind from
the true sources of illustration of the Epistles, and the true nature
of the earliest Christianity. They lead us away from the internal
relation of all Jewish and heathen thought to the truths of the
Gospel, to a relation between the Church and the world which is
purely accidental and external. They tend to give a national and
historical character to Christianity, ere yet it appeared to the eye of
man as a phenomenon of history. It is not the least danger of such
inquiries that they fill up the void of materials by innumerable
conjectures.
The traveller in Greece or in Asia who has followed in the foot
steps of the Apostles, who has beheld with his own eyes the same
scenes that were looked upon by St. Paul and St. John, is loth to
believe that he can add nothing to our knowledge of the Seven
Churches, or of the labours of the Apostle of the Gentiles. Those
scenes have a never-dying interest ; but it is for themselves alone.
Fain would we imagine the sight upon which St. Paul looked, when
standing on Mars Hill, he beheld " the city wholly given to
idolatry ; " fain would we see in fancy the desert rocks of the sea
girt isle, on which St. John gazed when he wrote the Apocalypse.
But we must not transfer to the ancient world our own impressions
of nature or of art. Of that sensibility to the beauties of scenery, or
of that romantic recollection of the past, which are such remarkable
characteristics of our own day, there is no trace in the writings of
the New Testament, nor any reason to suppose that they had a place
in the minds of its authors.
Taking the other aspect of the subject, we are far from denying
that the birth of Christianity is the most interesting of historical
facts ; but its interest is also for itself alone : it is not derived from
any political influence which the Gospel at first exercised, or from
any political causes which may have favoured or given rise to it.
In the vastness of the Roman world, it is as a small isolated spot,
the light, as it were, of a candle, which must be sought for, not in
the court of Caesar, nor amid the factions of Jerusalem, but in the
THESSALONICA. 33
upper chamber in which the disciples met when " the number of the
names together was about an hundred and twenty, and the doors
were shut for fear of the Jews." It is one of those minute facts
which escape the eye of the contemporary historian, and must not be
drawn before its time into the circle of political events. Its first
greatness is the very contrast which it presents with the greatness of
history. Strange it is to think of the contemporary heathen world,
of Tiberius at Capreae, of the Roman senate, of the solid framework
of the Roman empire itself. But when this first feeling of surprise
has passed away, we become aware that the page of Tacitus, or even
of Josephus, adds nothing worth speaking of to our knowledge of the
earliest Christianity. The most remarkable fact supplied by them is
their unconsciousness of its importance.
VOL. I. D
34 FIKST EPISTLE TO THE THESSALONIANS.
DATE AND PLACE OF WRITING.
NEITHER the date at which the First Epistle to the Thessalonians
was written, nor the place from which it was written, can be deter
mined with exact certainty ; but little doubt can be entertained that
it must have been written either at Athens or Corinth, and there
fore either before the Apostle went to Corinth or during the
eighteen months stay in that city which closes his second Apos
tolical journey. The only other possible supposition, that it was
written from Asia Minor, is not, indeed, directly contradicted by
any fact mentioned in the Epistle, but is inconsistent with its
general tone and character ; for, from 1 Thess. iii. 6., it is obvious
that the Epistle was written shortly, if not immediately, after the
return of Timothy (" But now, when Timotheus came from us to
you "). But Timothy was sent to Thessalonica during the Apostle s
stay at Athens, after which intervened the eighteen months sojourn
at Corinth. Hence, if the Epistle was written from Ephesus or
some other place in Asia Minor, the Apostle would be referring, in
the expression just quoted, to what had taken place two years
before. But no one would use such an expression, or refer so pre
cisely to his feelings at the time as St. Paul does in the preceding
verses (iii. 1 5.), if he were speaking of what was separated from
him by so long an interval.
Still we have not determined whether the Epistle was written
from Athqps or Corinth. In the examination of this question,
another is involved, which will be more fully discussed elsewhere.
The third chapter of the First Epistle to the Thessalonians is com
monly thought to be, in some particulars, inconsistent with the
DATE AND PLACE OF WRITING. 35
corresponding passage in the Acts. In the Epistle, Timothy
appears to be sent back from Athens, while, in the Acts, he is left
behind at Berea (Acts, xvii. 14., " But Silas and Timotheus abode
there still "), and comes up with the Apostle again at Corinth after
he has left Athens. (1.) This discrepancy has been regarded by
Paley as an undesigned coincidence, the Epistle, as he conceives,
supplying a circumstance (viz., the return of Timothy from Athens
to Thessalonica) which makes statements in the history more na
tural and probable. For a fuller investigation of this question, and
an examination of the difficulties in which Paley s hypothesis is
involved, the reader is referred to the note on the Horae Paulinas.
(2.) It may be further maintained that the discrepancy itself is not
real, but apparent ; for it is not expressly asserted that it was from
Athens that Timothy was sent back. St. Paul s solitude at Athens
might be the consequence of Timothy s visit ; but the sending may
have been from Berea to Thessalonica. And it might be further
suggested, that the words "but Satan hindered me," in ii. 18., re
ferred to the persecutions which prevented the Apostle himself
returning from Berea to Thessalonica. This is a possible hypo
thesis ; but it must be admitted to run counter to the first and most
obvious meaning of the words of the Epistle. (3.) We may suppose
an inaccuracy in the Acts, the writer of which may not have known
of the lengthened stay of the Apostle at Athens.
Taking the language of the Epistle only, our natural inference
would be, that the time at which it was written was not long after
the conversion of the Thessalonians, very shprtly after the Apostle
had sent Timothy from Athens, and immediately after the return
of Timothy from visiting his converts. Whether, on the return
of Timothy, St. Paul was at the same place from which he sent
Timothy, or not, at Athens, that is, or at Corinth it would be
idle to inquire. He may have been at Athens, he may have been
at Corinth ; he may have returned from one to the other, he may
have been in the neighbourhood of either. This is the real, though
not very precise, result of an examination of the Epistle itself. A
D 2
36 FIRST EPISTLE TO THE THESSALONIANS.
probability or two might be added from a comparison of the Acts ;
but we shall do better to confine ourselves to the natural meaning of
the Epistle, without seeking to form a tortuous harmony by the un
certain insertion of additional circumstances derived from other
sources. The statements of the Epistle are a real confirmation of
the narrative of the Acts ; and the degree of coincidence in the
narrative of the Acts is a sufficient evidence that the Epistle must
have been written on the second Apostolical journey.
37
SUBJECT OF THE EPISTLE.
LIKE the other writings of St. Paul, the First Epistle to the Thessa-
lonians may be divided into two parts : the one personal, the other
doctrinal or practical. The one relating to them, chap, i., and to
himself, chap. ii. and iii. ; the other comprising practical exhorta
tions, iv. and v., to sanctification, to quietness, to obedience, to peace,
combined with instruction as to the coming of Christ, iii. 12., and
the duty of watchfulness against his appearing.
An epistle is apt to appear to us irrelevant if we ask too precisely
for its object. It is not a treatise, nor a sermon, nor necessarily
written with any particular design, or confined to a particular sub
ject. It is the natural outpouring of the Apostle s soul to those
whom he esteems " very highly in love for Christ s sake." It says
much of them in thankfulness for their conversion ; it says much of
himself to awaken their sympathy. The exact bearing of each
verse on a particular end, is not to be considered. The best lessons
and the highest truths are often taught in the most indirect manner,
arising many times from the most incidental occasions, gleaming
through natural affection, suggested often by .commendation rather
than by rebuke of the persons to whom they are addressed. Nothing
can be more indirect, or occasional, than most of the Epistles of
St. Paul : they seem to have hardly any set purpose ; they are the
fragments or remains of his life, not the exposition of his system.
Unmeaning they can only appear when we judge them by a modern
standard, and when, losing sight of him and his converts, we attempt
to elicit from them notions of philosophy, or revelations of the
unseen world.
D 3
38 FIRST EPISTLE TO THE THESSALONIANS.
It does not detract from the value of the First Epistle to the
Thessalonians to say that it is without an object. That is, it has no
other object but to confirm their faith and remind them of what
they owed to the Apostle, as a motive for their continuance in the
lesson which he had taught them. The greater part of it is a
simple narrative of "his manner of entering into them" and its
results. As though he had said, "Remember who it was who
showed you these things; who spoke to you disinterested words;
who drew you towards him with cords of love, as a nurse among
her children, as a father with his sons." The burden of the first
three chapters is his love to them and theirs to him ; his anxiety to
hear of them and to see them. But love cannot abstain from ex
hortation ; not that it has new commands to give, or fresh lessons
to impart, but the very excess of love pours itself forth in thrice-
told admonitions and consolations. Trite precepts are repeated by
the Apostle as by a parent, not because his children know them not,
but in the hope that this time they may strike home upon them
with some peculiar force or influence.
From the personal narrative which, in the first half of the Epistle,
he has made the vehicle of his instruction, he passes on to a more
general lesson. There is no peculiar appropriateness in the manner
in which the topics of the fourth and fifth chapters follow one
another. They are, first, purity ; secondly, love of the brethren ;
thirdly, the state of the departed, and the coming of Christ; fourthly,
peace and order ; these are followed by particular and apparently
disjointed precepts. It is not impossible to trace a connexion of the
second and fourth with the third in the series ; for affection for one
another may have led to an inquiry " concerning them which are
asleep," and the belief in the approaching Advent, with which the
anxiety about the dead was connected, was probably the source of
disorder in the Church. Compare 2 Thess. ii. 2. But however
interesting such an association may be, we cannot feel certain that
it had any real existence in the Apostle s mind. More naturally we
may suppose that, as in the First Epistle to the Corinthians, he
SUBJECT OF THE EPISTLE. 39
writes without connexion, as the several subjects occur to him, or
may have been suggested by the news of Timothy, as in the former
case by certain of the household of Chloe.
The subject which stands out most prominently in this latter por
tion of the Epistle, is the state of the departed. The formula with
which it is introduced reminds us of the similar formula at the com
mencement of the tenth chapter of the First of Corinthians, " More
over, brethren, I would not have you ignorant ;" which, in the same
way, forms a transition to a fresh topic. It is closely connected
with that which is the under current of the whole Epistle, the near
approach of the coming of Christ ; and probably arises out of some
inquiry made of the Apostle by those who were sorrowing for lost
friends or kinsmen, who seemed to them not only to have passed,
like the Israelites of old, from the presence of God, but from the
hope of Messiah s kingdom.
The ground of consolation is the same as that of 1 Cor. xv. 21.,
" Since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of
the dead;" 1 Thess. iv. 14., "If we believe that Jesus died and rose
again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will Christ bring
with him ; " though the form is different. It is the object of the
Apostle to do away with the dreary thought which we infer the
Thessalonians to have entertained, that they were for ever separated
from the dead. Their heaven was on earth, where they were
expecting the reign of the Lord Jesus Christ. The Apostle com
forts them with the assurance that, even if they should not go to
the dead, the dead should return to them ; that in that kingdom
they were not to be parted, but together, the living with the dead
and both with Christ.
IIPO2 0E22AAONIKEI2
A.
42
FIRST EPISTLE TO THE THESSALONIANS. [Cii. I.
IIPOS 0ESSAAONIKEIS A.
IIATAO2 Kal ^tXovaws Kal TijJiodeos, rrj KK\rjcria 1
Sea-(ToXoviK.o)v iv $ea> Trarpl Kal Kvpia) Irjcrov yjp terra).
X&/H9 vpA,v Kal elpTjvT) [0,770 Oeov Trarpos rjjjitov Kal Kvpiov
I. Hav\OQ KCU SiXouavoc KO.I Ti-
, Paw/ awt? Silvanus and Ti-
motheus.~\ St. Paul omits the title
of Apostle, either because he had
not yet assumed it, or because his
name here, as in the Epistle to
thePhilippians, is associated with
others; or in accordance with the
absence of the tone of authority
which generally marks the Epis
tle. The manner and the steps by
which he came to be recognised
as on a level with the Twelve, and
" not a whit behind the chiefest
of the Apostles/ can no longer be
traced. In the Epistle which fol
lows next in chronological order
we find him earnestly asserting
his claim to apostolical authority,
and appealing to the success of his
teaching as the seal of his mission.
Whether the enforcement of such
a claim in the Galatians, or the
omission of the titlein the Epistles
to the Thessalonians, can be re
garded as indications that there
was a time at which his apostle-
ship was not universally recog
nised, or the right to it asserted
by himself, are questions which
may be suggested, but cannot be
satisfactorily answered. Probably
the name Apostle, which in its
general sense was used of many,
was gradually, and at no definite
period, applied to him with the
same special meaning as to the
Apostles at Jerusalem. Cf. 2 Cor.
viii. 23. ; xi. 5. ; 1 Cor. iv. 9. ;
Eom. xvi. 7., and below, ii. 6. He
is not mentioned with the Twelve
in the book of the Revelation
(c. xxi. 14.).
Silvanus is the Silas of the Acts,
first mentioned in chap. xv. 22.
32., as a chief man and a prophet
among the brethren at Jerusalem.
He was sent down to Antioch on
a mission relating to the disputes
about circumcision. After his mis
sion was fulfilled he remained with
St. Paul, whom he accompanied
on his second Apostolical journey.
The last mention of him in the
Acts is found in xviii. 5., on the
occasion of his overtaking the
Apostle at Corinth, where he
joined him in preaching the Gos
pel (2 Cor. i. 19.). Once more
the name occurs, in 1 Pet. v. 12.
If it be the name of the same
person, he must be supposed to
have left St. Paul, and to have
followed St. Peter to Babylon
(v. 13.). <
That Silvanus here as elsewhere
is placed before Timotheus, may
be considered as what Paley terms
an " undesigned coincidence "
(though a slight one) with the
narrative of the Acts, in which
Silas is spoken of as a leader in
the church at Jerusalem before
the call of Timothy.
Timotheus is mentioned in Acts,
xvi. 1 . as " the son of a certain
VER. 1.] FIRST EPISTLE TO THE THESSALONIANS. 43
I. THESSALONIANS.
PAUL, and Silvanus, and Timotheus, unto the Church of
the Thessalonians in God the Father and the Lord
Jesus Christ ; Grace unto you, and peace [from God our
Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ].
woman which was a Jewess, and
believed ; but his father was a
Greek." It was at Lystra, in Ly-
caonia, St. Paul met with him, on
his second Apostolical journey
(whether after a previous ac
quaintance on his first journey
or not, is not stated), and, intend
ing him to go forth with him, had
him circumcised, to obviate the
prejudice with which, as a preach
er of the Gospel, he might be re
garded among the Jews, in con
sequence of his half Gentile ex
traction. He accompanied Paul
on his two journeys into Greece,
was probably with him at Phi-
lippi andThessalonica(thoughnot
expressly mentioned as sharing
in the persecutions of the Apostle
and Silas), and certainly at Co
rinth (Acts, xviii. 5.). On the
occasion of St. Paul s last journey
he sent on Timothy from Ephesus
into Macedonia (Acts, xix. 22.). ;
thence to Corinth (I Cor. iv.
17.); from which latter place he
returned and met the Apostle on
his journey thither, in Macedonia
(2 Cor. i. 1.). He was with him at
the time of writing the Epistle to
the Romans, that is, in Corinth
or its neighbourhood (Rom. xvi.
21.); was sent forward to Troas
on his return through Macedonia
(Acts, xx. 5.), and reappears as
the companion of St. Paul dur
ing his imprisonment at Rome
(Phil. i. 1.; Col. i. 1.; Philem. 1.).
The last mention of his name oc
curs in Heb. xiii. 23. : " Know
ye that our brother Timothy is
set at liberty."
No one so much as Timothy
bore the image of St. Paul him
self : " He worketh the work of
the Lord, as I also do." (1 Cor.
xvi. 10.) " For I have no man
like minded, who will naturally
care for your state." (Phil. ii.
20.). " As a son with the father,
he hath served with me in the
Gospel " (22.).
TYJI tKKXrjaiq, to the church, ]
Thess., Gal., Cor. ; but ro/c ayioic
* K\r)TO~i ayioiQ, in Romans,
Ephesians, Philippians, and Co-
lossians. It cannot be inferred
from this difference of expres
sion, that the latter Epistles
were addressed to private per
sons, as Philippi and Ephesus
were quite as likely to have lu.d
regular Churches as Galatia and
Thessalonica. Yet it is remark
able that the change of form
should occur in all the later
Epistles ; perhaps because to the
Apostle, in his later years, the
Church on earth seemed already
passing into the heavens. The
word KxXr?crm (church) is used
in the LXX. forthe congregation,
indifferently with o-ui aywy/y (con
gregation). It is found also in
the Gospel of St. Matthew ; in
44
FIRST EPISTLE TO THE THESSALONIANS. [Cn. I.
TOJ
TrdvTorc irepl
vpwv, 2
3
i Add
the Epistles of St. John and St.
James, as well as in the Epistle
to the Hebrews and the Book
of the Eevelation. It could not,
therefore, have belonged to any
one party or division of the
Church. In the time of St.
Paul it was the general term,
and was gradually appropriated
to the Christian Church. All
the sacred associations with
which that was invested as the
body of Christ, were transferred
to it, and the words, ffwayuyri
and iKK\rjffia, soon became as dis
tinct as the things to which
they were applied. The very
rapidity with which iKK\r)<ria
acquired its new meaning, is a
proof of the life and force which
from the first the thought of
communion with one another
must have exerted on the minds
of the earliest believers. Some
indication of the transition is
traceable in Heb. ii. 12., where
the words of Ps. xxii. 23., "in
the midst of the church will I
sing praise unto thee," are adop
ted in a Christian sense ; also in
Heb. xii. 23., where the Old and
New Testament meanings of
tKK\r](ria are similarly blended.
ev Ssw Trarpt, in God the
Father] is closely connected
with the preceding words. All
things in their highest aspect,
churches, individuals, the ac
tions, feelings, and words of men,
are in God and Christ ; they
pass out of themselves into union
with the Divine nature; they
rest in God, have their place in
Him, " take up their abode " in
Him (compare John, xiv. 10. 20. ;
Phil. iv. 2. ; Eph. vi. i.). The
nearest approach in classical
Greek to this " Christian " signi
fication of the preposition kv is
its use with the person (iv <ro/,
tfjioi, tavrf) in the sense of " in
the power of." Language of
this sort can hardly be said to
exist among ourselves ; it is only
repeated from the New Testa
ment. Yet so it was the early
Church thought and felt.
Xp l vfuv Kcuelpfivri, graceunto
you and peace.~\ The Christian
form of salutation being, an
adaptation of the Greek
united with the Hebrew
OLTTO $eov Trarpoc; IIJJL&V KOI Kvpov
Irjffov XJOIOTOV, from God our
Father, and the Lord Jesus
Christ.^ These words are omit
ted by about half the MS. autho
rities, and are probably interpo
lated from the salutations of
other epistles. It may be ar
gued, that either their omission
or insertion was occasioned by
the iv e&5 Trarpi, which pre
cedes.
A similar omission or insertion
(probably the latter and arising
from the same cause) occurs in
Rom. viii. i. ; Matt. vi. 13., and
elsewhere.
2 10. Few passages are more
characteristic of the style of St.
Paul than that on which we are
entering. First, as it is the over
flowing of his soul in thankful
ness for his converts, about whom
he can never say too much. Se
condly, in the very form and
structure of the sentences, which
VBR.2,3.] FIRST EPISTLE TO THE THESSALONIANS. 45
2 We give thanks to God always for you all, making
3 mention of you at* our prayers ; remembering without
seem to grow under his hand,
gaining force in each successive
clause by the repetition and ex
pansion of the preceding. A clas
sical or modern writer distin
guishes his several propositions,
assigning to each its exact rela
tion to what goes before and fol
lows, that he may give meaning
and articulation to the whole.
The manner of St. Paul is the
reverse of this. He overlays one
proposition with another, the se
cond just emerging beyond the
first, and arising out of associa
tion with it, but not always stand
ing in a clear relation to it. Thus
in the passage which we are con
sidering, adiaXetTrrwQ fJtvrjftoyev-
in ver. 3., is a repetition of
aTovfjiev iravTore and fjiveiav
/, in ver. 2. Again, with
reference to the latter words
themselves, it is not clear whe
ther yuvet av 7roiovfj.evoi is an ad
dition to, or a limitation on, ev-
Xapiffrovfj.ev. A little lower down,
ver. 5., the clause on TO evay-
yc Xiov, ic. r. X., is a sort of after
thought on rt)v EK\oyi]v. In like
manner, whether in the words
KOI vfjLEie pipriral, in the 6th verse,
the Apostle carries in his thoughts
the preceding otdare, or not, is
uncertain. Ver. 8. is an ampli
fication of ver. 7., and in ver. 8.
itself the language of the second
clause is varied from that of the
first, without any variation of
meaning ; in v. 9. the words, Sov-
\eveii -vw HOVTL KCU ctXrjQtvw, are
an extension of the preceding
e-rcsffrptyare vposrov $ebv CLTTO r&v
EtSwXwv. At the commencement
of chap. ii. we appear to break
off and pass on to a new subject,
and yet are but resuming the
thread of ver. 5. and 6. in the pre
ceding.
Leaving the form, let us go on
to the substance. The Apostle is
full of thankfulness to God for
the conversion of the Thessalo-
nians, which has brought forth
such unmistakeable fruits of righ
teousness. These are just in
accordance with the manner of
their reception of the Gospel, the
manner in which he preached
and they believed. It seemed to
have a peculiar power over them,
received with joy amid persecu
tions; they were as burning and
shining lights in all that land.
Their conversion was in all men s
mouths, who could not help, of
their own accord, telling even the
Apostle himself how these idola
ters had come to the knowledge
of the true God ; and how they,
like the other disciples, had
learned to sit waiting for the day
of the Lord. In such manner
does the Apostle, in the excess of
his affection for them, not with
out knowledge of the way in
which to approach human nature,
transform the language of compli
ment into a spiritual lesson.
2. ev)(apt0Tou/iej , we give
thanks. ~\ The plural, as in chap,
ii. 13. 17. 18., iii. 1., is most natu
rally explained by being referred
exclusively to St. Paul. The per
sonal feelings of thankfulness as
here, the desire to see them
(ii. 18.), the sense of weakness
(iii. 1.), can hardly refer to others
than himself.
TraiTore, with
Compare 2 Thess. ii. 13.
l TTCLVT(t)V Vfjltil , /Or all of
46
FIRST EPISTLE TO THE THESSALONIANS. [Cn. I.
VfJLOJP TOV tpyOV TTS TTKTTetoS KOil TOV KO7TOV
dyaTTTjs, Kal rrjs vTro/xo^? r^s eXTuSos TOV Kvpiov rjfJLOJv
Irjcrov xpicrTov efJLTrpocrOev TOV Oeov Kal iraTpos rjjjLOJV
etSdre9, dSeXc^ot ??y 0/7777/^01 VTTO Oeov, TT)I> efcXoyr)^ vfjiojv, 4
on TO evayyeXcoz rjfjLaiv OVK lyevijOrj irpbs VJJLOLS iv Xdycj 5
dXXa KOL iv Swa/xei Kal iv 7n>ev/xaTi ayioj Kal iv
you.~\ Forgetting none ; such is
our never failing habit.
fjiveiav Troiovpevot, making men
tion. ] Either (1.) we give thanks as
often as we make mention of you or
remember you in our prayers; or
better (2.), we give thanks in
prayer; the second clause only de
veloping, not limiting, the first.
7T r<Dj> TTjOoffeu^wj , at our pray-
ers.]t7rtnot "iii"or "among," but
"at," in the sense of "at the
time of," " during ; " as in the use
with the participle tVt Kvpov /3ao-t-
XEVOVTOQ. The expression iv
ralg K^offEv^cuQ, which occurs in
Col. iv. 2., aywyt^o^ueroe vTrep
vfjitiv kv ra~iG Trpofftvycuc changes
the point of view, though hardly
the sense ; the preposition iv re
presenting a closer relation be
tween the substantive and the
verb without any idea of time.
3. Here, as in 1 Cor. xiii.,
faith, hope, and love meet to
gether in one.
rov epyov r/jjc irioreuG, work of
faith,~\ has been variously ex
plained as meaning the reality of
your faith, or the fact of your
receiving the Gospel, or the work
ing of your faith. Better your
work of faith, that is, the Chris
tian life which springs from faith.
(Comp. 2 Thess. i. 11.)
TOV KOTTOV TYJQ ayaTr^c, labour of
love.~\ The labour which love
undergoes, a love that avoids no
sacrifices and shuns no toils for
the good of others. Such as their
own Jason had shown amid per
secutions, in Acts, xvii. Comp.
Heb. iii. 10. : " For God is not
unrighteous to forget your work
and love which ye have shewed
towards his name, in that ye have
ministered to the saints and do
minister."
vTTopovrJG TrJQ e\7r/Boc, patience
of hope."] The patience which is
sustained by hope. (Comp. Eom.
iv. 18., viii. 24.) Remembering,
the Apostle would say, your faith,
hope, and love ; a faith that had
its outward effect on your lives ;
a love that spent itself in the ser
vice of others ; a hope that was
no mere transient feeling, but
was content to wait for the things
unseen, when Christ should be
revealed. Compare v. 10. ; also
2 Thess. iii. 5. t?g TYIV VTTOJJLOVYIV
TOV xpHrTov ; and Apoc. ii. 2.,
where the first triplet of words
occurs in the same order ; olca TO.
f pya <rov KCU TOV KOTTOV /cat T^V
VTTO^.Ovi]V (TOV.
It is most natural to explain
all the three genitives in the
same way, " your work springing
from faith, your labour spring
ing from love, your patience
springing from the hope " of the
coming of Christ, although it is
true that patience and hope oc
cur in a different order in Rom.
v. 4. Were it not for the parallel
ism, hope might be taken either as
the source of patience or the mode
in which it shows itself; and yet
VER. 4, 5.] FIRST EPISTLE TO THE THESSALONIANS. 47
ceasing your work of faith, and labour of love, and
patience of hope of* our Lord Jesus Christ, in the sight
4 of our God * and Father ; knowing, brethren beloved of*
5 God, your election, that * our gospel came not unto
you in word only, but also in power, and in the Holy
Ghost, and in much assurance ; as ye know what man-
the lover of grammatical niceties
might argue that the parallelism
is destroyed by the words that
follow, TOV Kvpiov rjpair Ir)<Tov\pL<r-
rov, which cannot equally apply
to all which precedes.
epTrpoaOev TOV Seov KOL TrciTpoQ
?//iwj , in the sight of God and
our Father. ] These words may
be either connected with pvrjpo-
vevovTEQ, "remembering you in
the presence of God our Father ; "
and regarded as answering to
" making mention of you in our
prayers," in the preceding verse ;
or the Apostle may intend to ex
press that their faith, hope, and
charity were in the presence of
God, and had gone up before
Him. (Cornp. note on ver. 1.)
The latter is confirmed by the
order of the words and the com
mon use of language in St. Paul
(Rom. iv. 17., xiv. 22.).
4. VTTO Seov is to be taken with
as 2 Thess. ii. 13. :
VTTO Kvpiovj cf. Eccl.
xlv. 1.
i)o r TYJV *rXy^x, knowing
your election."] Either (1.) know
ing that ye are elect, the proof
of which is the power with which
the Gospel came to you ; or (2.)
knowing the manner of your
election, of which the following
verse serves as a further elucida
tion. Compare o icciTf TYIV E KTO^OV
OTL ov Ktvfi yeyovei , ii. 1. ; and /3Xf-
7Tr TYjV K\i]aLV VLIU)V OTL OV TTflXXoi
K. T. \. 1 Cor. i. 26. ; Rom.
xiii. 11. The idiomatic usage of
on after a substantive in the accu
sative and the resumption of
elcoTEQ in oiSare in ii. 1., where a
similar construction follows, are
in favour of the second mode of
construing the passage. The
Apostle calls to mind their, re
ception of the Gospel, which
showed that they had received
the Spirit and were elect of God.
Compare Gal. iii. 1. 2., for a
similar appeal, though in a different
spirit, to the hour of conver
sion.
5. TO evayyiXiov >/ftwj , OUT
Gospel."] Our preaching of the
Gospel. Compare Rom. xvi. 25. ;
Gal. ii. 7.
f.yeri]6r]. Either(l.)didnotcome
unto you, without emphasis, as
below, v. 5 ; or (2.) did not take
effect, come to pass, as in 2 Kings,
xvii. 23., OTL OVK eyerijOr] rj /3ovX>)
auTov. Compare also eyevydrj Hv
Ufy in 2 Cor. iii. 7, 8.
fV Xo yw judVo* , in ivord only^\
is to be referred to the influence
of his preaching on the Thessa-
lonians. Our preaching was not
a mere word with you.
iv cwa/jifi, in power.~\ But had
a power over your hearts, and
was followed by gifts of the Spi
rit. Compare 1 Cor. ii. 4., OVK
vofylag Xoyoic, ct\X iv
3-fou : also 1 Cor. iv. 19.
It has been said that the words
" in the Holy Spirit " could only
refer to the Apostle s mode of
48
FIRST EPISTLE TO THE THESSALONIANS.
TT\7)po<f)Opia 7ro\\fj, KaOcos otSare OLOL lyevrfOrjiJLev iv v
SL vju,a?, /cat v/x-eis /u/Aiyral r]p.a)v eyevijOrjTt Kal TOV Kvpiov, 6
Sefa/x,o>oi TOV \6yov Iv OXiifjei 7ro\\fj jnera )(apas Tr^eufcaros
aytov, (Scrre yevecrOat. i5/>ia,g rvTro^ 1 Tracriv roi? TncrTevovcrw 7
; T7? MaKeSovia /cal e^ r^ 2 ^A^ata. d< VJJLOJV yap ef^^rai 8
6 Xoyos TOV Kvpiov ov povov ev rrj MoLKt&ovla Kal iv rfj 2
a, dXX 3 iv TravTi TOTTM rj TTICTTIS vpwv rj Trpos TOV 6tbv
1 rvirovs.
2 Omit eV TV.
Add
preaching, not to the gifts by
which it was accompanied, and
which were beyond his power
to produce. But does the Apostle
thus separate himself from the
Spirit working in him ? rather
lv TrvEvfjLaTi ayiy implies the
communion of the Spirit with
himself and them, or, in other
words, the inspiration of the
speaker caught by the hearers,
whose acceptance of it was the
evidence of its spiritual power.
iv 7rA77po0opt TroXXr/ in much
assurance J\ also refers to the
Apostle first, afterwards to his
converts. According to the two
principal meanings of TrXr/po^OjOtw,
to fulfil or to assure, the word
TrXrjpo^ofjia in this passage may
have two senses, either (1.) assu
rance, or (2.) fulfilment ; though
from the Apostle blending him
self and his converts they can
hardly be kept distinct.
The preposition iv is equally
translatable by the English
* in," with all the four substan
tives which precede. Yet a
slight change of meaning is per
ceptible : from the " manner "
with the two first to what may
be termed the closer relation of
"inherence "in the third (cf.v. 2.),
and the weaker one of result or
accompaniment in the fourth.
For still more various uses of iv
in the same sentence, compare
2 Cor. vi. 4 7.
/caOwc otc)ar, as ye know.~\ In
the preceding words the Apostle
has been describing the effect of
his preaching on the hearts of
his hearers : " It came to you
not in word merely, but in
power." It was a mutual influ
ence, "so we preached, and so
ye believed." In what follows,
the Apostle expresses this more
clearly. "Ye know what we
were among you for your sakes
(oC vfJia.Q\ and ye followed our
example, and the Lord s." KaOue
oiSciTE contains also a faint oppo
sition to eldoTEQ. We know the
manner of your election, as ye to
whom we appeal bear witness of
our behaviour among you.
6. KOI v/ztt, in the next verse
may be regarded, either as a
continuation of the preceding
oi ot, or as a new sentence. Com
pare 1 Cor. xi. 1. : yu^uTyrcu JJ.QV
kv $\i\lsei TToXXj/, in much af
fliction.^ Compare the words of
Christ, Matt. v. 11.; Luke, vi.
22. ; Mark, x. 30. The narrative
of their persecutions is given in
Acts, xviii., arising, as in most
places, from the enmity of the
Jews.
VER. 68.] FIRST EPISTLE TO THE TIIESSALONIANS. 49
ner of men we were among you for your sake ; and ye
became followers of us, and of the Lord, having received
the word in much affliction, with joy of the Holy
Ghost : so that ye were an ensample l to all that believe
in Macedonia and in 2 Achaia. For from you has * been
sounded out the word of the Lord not only in Macedonia
and in 2 Achaia, but 3 in every place your faith to God-
Ensamples.
2 Omit in.
3 Add also.
The suffering that comes from
without, cannot depress the
spirit of a man who is faithful in
a good cause. It is only when
" from within are fears " that
the mind is enslaved. For in
the spiritual world joy and
sorrow are not two, but one.
The servant of Christ feels a
sort of exhilaration at the con
trast between himself and the
world, similar to that of the
soldier on the battle field, in the
presence of danger and death.
He is not like another man, but
at once above and below others ;
he has the sentence of death in
himself, and is yet more than a
conqueror. It is this peculiarity
of the Christian character that
the Apostle expresses by "joy
of the Holy Ghost," " glorying in
the Lord," " fulness of consolati
on : " "rejoicing in his sufferings,
and filling up what was wanting
of the afflictions of Christ in his
flesh." See also the alternations of
feeling in 2 Cor. vi. 10.: "As
sorrowful, yet alway rejoicing."
Herein too the Thessalonians
were "followers of St. Paul as
he was of Christ." Compare
John xii. 23., " The hour is come,
that the Son of man should be glo
rified ; " and the double character
of the discourse in the folio wing
VOL. I. E
chapters which precedes our
Lord s passion.
XOjOci TrvEVfJiciTOQ ayiov is a
stronger expression for x a p vvev-
yuarto/, 01* lv Trvf.vjj.arL ayiu.
7. It is an over-curious refine
ment on the use of the article in
this passage to say that it has
a collective force. Better with
the Authorised Version, " All
that believe." Compare Rom. x.
12., 1 Cor. i. 2.
8. a0 vp&v yap g ^^rcu, for
from you has been sounded out.~]
Not you became preachers of the
Gospel to others, or you were an
example to others, or, beginning
with you first, I preached to
others ; but from you first the
word has made itself felt, as it
were, with the sound of a trum
pet, and your conversion was so
remarkable that it attracted the
eyes of men : the light shone
upon all Macedonia and Achaia,
and in all other places.
MaK f^or/a Kat A^a/a, Macedo
nia and Achaia. ] The proconsu
lar divisions of Greece under the
Komans.
ev 7ravr\ TOTTU), in evert/ placed]
How could it be said, that the
faith of the Thessalonians was
known everywhere? It has
been sometimes attempted to re
move this difficulty by taking
50
FIRST EPISTLE TO THE THESSALONIANS. [Cii. I.
wcrre p,r) yj)dav fytw ^/xas 1 \a\tlv TL. Avroi
yap Trepl r^^v aTrayyeXXovcriP, oTroiav euroSoz ecr^o/xe^
vrpbs vjJias, Kal TTWS e7r<TT/)ei//aTe TT^OS rw $eo> aVo ra>i>
vov avrov K TMV ovpavvv, ov Tyapev K rwv v
TQV pvo^tvov rjfJias airo rfjs
3 Omit
ov novov (not only) with s//x^"
rot (for from you lias not only
been sounded out), which is ob
jectionable, however, both upon
the ground of the order of the
words and the poorness of the
sense. It is better to admit that
the language of St. Paul, uttered
in the fulness of his heart, is not
to be construed strictly, any
more than where he says, in like
manner, that the faith of the
Romans was known over the
whole world (Rom. i. 8.), or that
the Gospel of which he was a
minister was preached to every
creature under heaven. He
means x in other words, that not
only in Greece, but in Asia,
wherever there were believers,
the news of the Thessalonian
conversion had spread, or rather
must have spread ; he had no
need to speak of them, for the
report of them had preceded him
on his way.
It is not necessary that these
latter words should be connected
with kv Karri TOTTW ; the meaning
would be assisted if, instead of
adopting Lachmann s punctu
ation, the clause, wore /^?) yjitiav
i\iv //juac \a\tiv n, were sepa
rated by a colon from l^eX^XvO^r,
and closely joined with the fol
lowing verse.
9. Ai>Toi } they themselves J\ They
whom you might expect to be
asking questions of us, come
instead to us, and tell us of your
friendly reception of us and
of your conversion. For a si
milar turn of expression, com
pare John xvi. 27. Here, as
elsewhere in the New Testament,
more frequently than in classical
Greek (Rom. ii. 26., &c.), CIV-OQ
is used with an imperfect ante
cedent, to be supplied from the
context.
OTroiav ei<ro?or, what an en
trance ive had to you^\ i. e. with
what success we preached the
Gospel.
KO.I TTWC 7T<7Tpe\l>a.T, and how
ye turned. ] And how ye turned
from idols to serve the living God
of Jew and Gentile. Compare
Gal. iv. 8. : " Howbeit, then,
when ye knew not God, ye did
service to them which by nature
are no gods." Yet in both
Churches there must have been
a Jewish as well as a Gentile
element, Acts, xvii. 4. ; Gal. iv.9.
SovXevuv, ta serve."] Infinitive
of the object, a use of it which be
comes more and more frequent in
the later language, until, by a sort
of reaction, as if the vague sense of
the mood were not worth keeping,
it is superseded by Ira with the
subjunctive
10. It appears remarkable that
VER. 9, 10.] FIRST EPISTLE TO THE TIIESSALONIANS. 51
ward is spread abroad ; so that we need not to speak any
9 thing. For they themselves shew of us what manner of
entering in we had unto you, and how ye turned to
10 God from idols to serve the living and true God, and to
wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the
dead, Jesus, which delivereth* us from the wrath to come.
St. Paul should make the essence
of the Gospel consist, not in the
belief in Christ, or in taking up
the cross of Christ, but in the
hope of his coming again. Such,
however, was the faith of the
Thessalonian Church, such is the
tone and spirit of the Epistle.
Neither in the Apostolic times,
nor in our own, can we reduce all
to the same type. One aspect of
the Gospel is more outward, an
other more inward; one seems to
connect with the life of Christ,
another with his death ; one with
his birth into the world, another
with his coming again. If we
will not insist on determining the
times and the seasons, or on know
ing the manner how, all these dif
ferent ways may lead us within
the veil, The faith of modern
times embraces many parts or
truths ; yet we allow men, accord
ing to their individual character,
to dwell on this truth, or that,
as more peculiarly appropriate
to their nature. The faith of the
early Church was simpler and
more progressive, pausing in the
same way on a particular truth,
which the circumstances of the
world or the Church brought be
fore them.
TOV pv6jj.vov >//*ac, which de
liver eth us.~\ The Saviour from
the wrath that is coming and now
is (comp. ii. 16. ; 2 Thess. i. 8.) ;
not so near in Rom ii. 5. ; v. 9. ;
more general yet no less certain
in Eph. v. 6. ; Col. iii. 6. So, even
before the preaching of the Gospel,
John the Baptist : " who hath
showed you to flee from the wrath
to come?" The wrath of God was
coming upon the Jewish people
and all mankind ; the world was
closing in upon them, as life and
its hereafter on ourselves.
II. The personal narrative
which follows, may be compared
with that in the Galatians, i. 11.
to ii. 14. Alluding to the spirit
in which he preached to them,
he glances, for an instant, at
the persecution which he had
just before endured at Philippi,
and which had not deterred him
from speaking the truth boldly,
though at Thessalonica too the
conflict was hot. He had spoken
as to God and not to men, with
out covetousness, or guile, or
flattery, or vain glory, or any
such thing. He had given up
his right to support as an Apo
stle from the excess of his love
to them; a love, which would
fain have made him lay down
his life for their sake. They
must surely remember how they
had seen him toiling day and
night to get his own livelihood ;
they were the witnesses (and there
was a higher witness) of the inno
cence of his life, and of his gen tie
and fatherly admonitions to them.
Then changing the person, he
E 2
52
FIRST EPISTLE TO THE THESSALONIANS. [Cn. II.
AvTol yap oiSare, aSeX^oi, TTJV eicroSoz rjfJLOJV ryv 77/505 2
on ov Kevr) yzyovzv, aXXa l TrpoTraOovres KOLL v/3pL- 2
#0)5 otSare e^ $1X17777015, l7rappr)o-Lao-dp.0a iv TOJ
\a\rjo~ai 77^005 v/>ca,5 TO evayyeXtoz^ TOV ^eov e^
77oXXc5 dyco^t. ^ yap 77apdfcX^crt5 ^JJLOJT/ OVK IK TrXdvrjs 3
1 Add /caf.
gives thanks to God as at first,
for their reception of the Word
of God; they had become fol
lowers of the Churches in Ju-
dea, and stood in the same
relation to their own country
men, as these did to the Jews.
The persecutions that they suf
fered, did but recall the thought
of what these latter had done to
the Lord Jesus, and to their own
prophets ; enemies, as they were,
of God and man, forbidding to
preach to the Gentiles that they
might be saved. Their evil was
tending to a consummation, and
the wrath of God was fulfilled
upon them.
In the verses which follow,
there appears to be an abrupt
transition to the longing desire
that the Apostle had to see them,
and the efforts that he had made
to accomplish this purpose. The
15th and 16th verses are a digres
sion which may be regarded as
an outburst of indignation at the
Jews. As in conversation we
sometimes ask, " What leads an
other to say that ? "so here we can
but guess the secret thread of as
sociation which carries on the
mind of the Apostle from one
topic to another. The real con
nexion in what follows may pro
bably be the persecutions of the
ThessalonianChurch, j ust slightly
touched upon in verse 14., which
quickened the Apostle s desire to
see theni ? and increased his sense
of loneliness in being parted from.
them. This thread reappears
again in the following chapter, iii.
29.
1. avTol yap o t^arf, for ye your
selves knowJ\ After narrating
what he knew himself, and what
others told him, the Apostle goes
on to appeal to their own con
sciousness. As though he said :
" I need not quote other, for you
yourselves are my best witness
es." The words
and etcro-
Sov are a connecting link with
verses 5. and 9. of the preceding
chapter.
OTI ov xevf] ytyovf.V) that it was
not in vain."] Compare for the
form of the sentence, Gal. i. 11.:
yi wpi^it) $ V^LU* , aSeXfyoi, TO evay-
yi\wv TO evayy\i(rdev VTT epov,
OTI OVK e<TTl KO.T* afOpOJTTOJ . K J tj
refers both to the power of the
Apostle s preaching, and to its
effect on the mind of the hearers.
Compare 1 Cor. xv. 10. 58. ; also
Gal. ii. 2. In the words that fol
low the opposi t ion i s imperfect ; for
the effect of the Apostle s preach
ing what it was as contrasted
with what it was not is inferred
from his boldness.
2. But although we had suf
fered before, and been injuriously
handled at Philippi, as need not
to be told you, we were bold in
our God, to speak to you the
Gospel of Christ, amid much con
flict: e7rapprj(naffap.e6a XaXfjffai^,
Xa/\7-
VBB. 2, 3.] FIRST EPISTLE TO THE THESSALONIANS. 53
2 For yourselves, brethren, know our entrance in unto
2 you, that it was not in vain : but 1 after that we had
suffered before, and were shamefully entreated, as ye
know, at Philippi, we were bold in our God to speak
3 unto you the gospel of God with much contention. For
1 Add even.
ffai. Compare Eph. vi. 20. ; and
for iTrapprj/Tiacrapeda kv rut $ty,
Acts, ix. 28.
kv TroXXw aywrt, with much
contention!} Corresponds to ?rpo-
TraOoyrec, and alludes to the tu
mult mentioned in the Acts, xvii.
5., and to the Apostle s feelings
in it : " But the Jews which
believed not, moved with envy,
took unto them certain lewd fel
lows of the baser sort, and ga
thered a company, and set all
the city on an uproar, and as
saulted the house of Jason, and
sought to bring them out to the
people." The Apostle means to
say, that they were not deterred,
by persecution at Philippi, from
preaching boldly atThessaloniea,
though there was persecution too
there. For a reference to a simi
lar scene recorded in the Acts,
compare 2 Cor. i. 8 10. In both
it was an inward struggle as well
as an outward one ; as in the
Epistle he says, though in an
other spirit, " Without were
fightings, within were fears."
The word aywV is used else
where in the New Testament
only for a mental or spiritual
conflict (comp. Col. ii. 1., ?/X<-
KOV ayoh a )(w Trtpi VJJLWV^. Here
it glances also at the outward
one.
3. // yap TTapd.K\r](riQ i]^a>r, for
our exhortation^} " For we had
truth to support us, and we spoke
as the ministers of God." Or as
the Apostle has expanded the
thought: For our exhortation
did not arise from erring fancy,
nor from impure motives, nor
was it uttered in craft. This
was the reason why we were
bold to preach. Compare a
similar train of thought in Rom.
1. 15, 16. : OVTO) TO KO.T jLl TTjOo -
Bufjov Kai vf.li v TOIQ iv Pwjur? evuy-
ye\i(Tuv6ai. ov yap eTraiff-^vt opai TO
tvayyeXiov ^vva^LQ yap Seov kanv
i awTtjplav TravTt rig 7rtffTvovTi.
The two senses of TrapajcXT/o-tc,
exhortation and consolation, so
easily passing into one another
(compare ver. 11.), are suggestive
of the external state of the early
Church, sorrowing amid the evils
of the world, and needing as its
first lesson to be comforted, and
not less suggestive of the first
lesson of the Gospel to the in
dividual soul of peace in be
lieving.
* aKadapffiac, ofuncleanness.~\
May be explained in this place
byTrXtoj f& a (ver. 5.) as elsewhere
TrAeore^m by atcaQcLptTia, Eph. v.
3. It is, however, more probable,
that it is used in its original
sense, the same sense in which
the Apostle says, 2 Cor. vii. 2.,
Many passages in the New
Testament lead us to infer, that
there existed, in the age of the
Apostles, a connexion between
the form of spirituality and licen
tiousness. It is this of which the
E 3
54
FIRST EPISTLE TO THE THESSALONIANS. [On, II.
uSe e f aKaOapo-ias ovSe 1 eV SoXo>, dXXa KaOus SeSo/a/xd- 4
a VTTO TOV Oeov TTKTTevBrjvai TO euayye Xio^ OVTWS
L>X d>5 av9pM7roi<$ dpecr/coi Tes, dXXd [rco] 0e(5
ra> SoKipd^ovTi ra? /capStas 07/^0^. ovre yap Trore e^ Xdyw 5
/coXa,Kia9 lyevijOrjiJiev, Ka@a)S ot Sare, ovre e^ irpo(j)do-L
ias (Oeos jadprus), cure
oure d?r
elmi o>9 xpio~Tov aTrocnroXoi, dXX 3 eye^
1 O^Tf.
^ /3dpi
ez/ 7
Apostle declares his innocence,
and with which elsewhere he up
braids the false teachers. Com
pare iv. 7. ; Tit. iii. 8. ; James iii.
13. ; 1 Tim. vi. 3. ; Jude, 418.
For the construction supply l\v
or iv-t : it is not clear at what
point of the sentence the tense
changes.
4. But as God has tried us,
and entrusted us with the Gospel,
we do not betray our trust, even
so we speak not as pleasing men,
that is, but the God who trieth
us. ovrwc \a\ovpe ^ refers both to
jca^wc ^e^oKt^afr^eda and to the
oi/^ we which follows. The Apo
stle means to express two things :
first, that he spoke as one tried
by God and found worthy to be
entrusted with the Gospel ; and,
secondly, that, as God tried him,
it was to Him he sought to be
accepted, and not to man. Com
pare for the meaning, 1 Cor. iv.
3. ; Gal. i. 10. : for the expres
sion, 1 Cor. vii. 25., j/Xe^t roc
VTTO xvpiov TTiaroq f.lvai ; Rom. i.
28. : and for the use of ou-wc,
1 Thess. ii. 8. (j?u:a[jiafrpi)a
is not simply equivalent to >yia*-
but rather to
rat, 1 eapac //^ > our hearts.^
Either here, and below, v. 8., the
attraction of the plural verb
has led the Apostle to use the
plural noun instead of the singu
lar in other words, he con
tinues the metaphor of the plural ;
or he silently includes his com
panions, although what precedes
and follows is too individual
to refer to any one but himself.
5. ovre yap Trore kv Aoyw aAct-
Keias lyej i itirjfjiev, for neither at
any time.~\ For the form of the
expression, compare 1 Tim. ii.
14., // yvi Y] E^aTrarYjOelffa evirapu-
; 1 Cor. ii. 3.,tV . . .
) and below, v. 7. ;
also chap. i. 5 , where the prepo
sition means " in the state of."
" We did not," says the Apostle,
" use words such as flattery uses,
or pretexts, such as avarice."
That this is the true sense of the
genitive is proved by its being
the only one applicable to both
members of the sentence. The
word 7rpo(/>ctcric in the second
clause is a slight variation of
Xoyoe the previous one.
6. Why should the Apostle so
repeatedly repudiate the imputa
tion that he sought glory of men?
He was one of those who instinc
tively know the impression pro
duced by his character and con
duct on the hearts of others.
What was the motive of this
" vain babbler " Avould be a com-
VER. 46.] EIRST EPISTLE TO THE TIIESSALONIANS. 55
our exhortation was not of deceit, nor of uncleanness, nor
4 in guile ; but as we were approved* of God to be put in
trust with the gospel, even so we speak; not as pleasing
men, but God which proveth* our hearts. For neither
s at any time used we flattering words, as ye know, nor a
cloke of covetousness ; God is witness : nor of men
6 sought we glory, neither of you, nor of others, when we
might have been burdensome, as the apostles of Christ.
mon topic of conversation in the
cities at which he preached.
" To get money, to make himself
somebody," would be the ordi
nary solution. Against this the
Apostle protests. His whole life
and conversation were a disproof
of it. It may have been that he
was aware also of something in
his manner which might have
suggested such a thought. It
was not good for him to glory,
and yet he sometimes " spake as
a fool." Rightly understood this
glorying was but an elevation of
the soul to God and Christ, or at
worst the assertion of himself, in
moments of depression or ill-
treatment, but to others he might
have been conscious that it must
have seemed a weakness, and
may have been made a ground of
imputations from his adversa
ries.
The words ^VVCL^VOL tv (3apt
elvai have been referred in dif
ferent senses either to what pre
cedes, or to what follows. In
the first case the sense would be,
although we might have been
oppressive to you with our glory
ing and claims. But even though
the words be thus humoured in
the translation, the antithesis is
not quite sound. Without wholly
losing sight of what has preced
ed, it is better to connect them
with what follows. The Apostle
means to say that he might have
oppressed them with Apostolical
claims and pretensions. He might
have commanded where he en
treated ; he might have " come to
them with a rod," and he came to
them " in love, and in the spirit
of meekness" (1 Cor. iv. 21.);
he might have claimed the right
of support from them as an
Apostle of Christ, and he waives
it for their sake. Compare 1 Cor.
ix. It is true that this last point
is not referred to until after an
interval of two verses, in ver. 9.
But nothing is more in the
Apostle s manner than to drop a
thought and resume it ; and the
words kv fiapet cl^m, repeated in
the ercCapfjkeu of v. 9., afford a
sufficient indication of what was
in his mind. And the existence
of the allusion is further con
firmed by the use of the same or
similar expressions, in reference
to the same circumstance of his
waiving his right to support.
So, eiriape~i)>, 2 Thess. iii. 8. ;
, 2 Cor. xii. 16. : com
pare uapfj e^iavrov v^lf tr//pr/o-a,
in 2 Cor. xi. 9.
7. But we were not what we
might have been while among
you, but were gentle, or were
E 4
56
FIRST EHSTLE TO THE THESSALONIANS, [Cii. II.
jaecrco VJJLOJV, o>g eaz^ 1 rpo^os Odkiry ra eavrrjs re/era, ovrwg 8
2 vfjicjv evSoKovpev /xeraSowai v/uj ov povov TO
TOV 0eov, a\\a KCLL rag eavTwv ifjv^as, Sidri
ayaTrrjTol fjp.lv lyevrjOyTe? p.vrj}JiOVVT yap, aSeX^ot, TCW 9
KoVoz f]jJia)v Kal TOV p.6^0ov WKTo^ Kol T^/i^/xis Ipya^o-
p,evoi, irpos TO /XT) iTTifiaprjcraL TIVOL v
4 Add
children, as a nursing mother
with her own children. As in
Gal. iv. 19., the Apostle repre
sents himself under the image of
a mother, as below, v. 11., and
1 Cor. iv. 15., under that of a
father.
Lachmann s reading VIITTIOI
may perhaps have arisen out of
the preceding iyev^Qrjfiey. It is
supported, however, by a pre
ponderance of authorities, the
confusion which it appears to
occasion in the image, being
rather in favour of its genuine
ness than the reverse, as such
confusions occur elsewhere. Com
pare k-XfTr-^c and K\ITTTCIC, v. 2.
4. ; Trpoffojirov and Trpotrwrw, in
ii. 17. The Apostle would say
" To children I became as a
child."
oi>Tu)Q is here a particle not of
inference, but of comparison, and
belongs neither to bpeipopE^oi nor
(.vdoKovfjiev, but to the previous
clause "in this manner," that is,
as a nurse cherisheth her own
children. bpeipoperoi = ipeipo-
^ue^of, of which, though a very
ancient reading existing in all
the uncial manuscripts, it is pro
bably a pseudo-form, supported
perhaps by an imaginary deriva
tion from bpov and iipeu .
ivdoKovuev is the imperfect,
this verb being generally used in
the New Testament (as in Gal.
i. 15. ; 2 Cor. v. 8., and elsewhere)
without the augment, which,
however, has been almost inva
riably inserted in one or more
manuscripts.
TCIQ envr&y ^/u^at; is by some
regarded as a Hebraism for F.UV-
TOVQ. It is better referred to
the willingness of the Apostle to
lay down his own life for them,
peraSovvat referring, though not
with equal propriety, to both the
words which follow it. On the
plural, see v. 4.
9. -yap refers to the whole
of the previous sentence. The
Apostle gives the proof of his
consideration for them. WKTOQ
Kal >/^ifpac, continually.
The question arises in this
verse, how the statement of St.
Paul s working with his own
hands, agrees with the narrative
of the Acts, according to which
he remained at Thessalonica but
three weeks. We cannot meet
the difficulty by saying that,
though he preached in the syn
agogue only during three Sab
bath days, yet that his stay may
have been much longer, because
the spirit of the narrative im
plies that, after a short stay
there, the unbelieving Jews
drove him forth (Acts, xvii.
19.). If we regard the ge-
. 79.] FIRST EPISTLE TO THE TIIESSALONIANS. 57
7 But we were 1 babes among you, even as a nurse che-
8 risheth her own* children : so being affectionately de
sirous of you, we were willing to have imparted unto
you, not the gospel of God only, but also our own souls,
9 because ye were dear unto us. For ye remember,
brethren, our labour and travail : 2 labouring night and
1 Gentle.
2 Add for.
neral character of this portion of
the Acts to be inaccurate, we
may say that its author was not
acquainted with the real circum
stances of St. Paul s stay at
Thessalonica. If, on the other
hand, we consider its minuteness
as a guarantee for its accuracy,
we may suppose the Apostle to
have commenced his intended
course of life at Thessalonica,
and that it was suddenly inter
rupted by the stirring up of per
secution.
It throws a singular light on the
life of St. Paul, which reflects it
self in some degree on the early
Church, to observe that his labours
as a preacher of the Gospel were
not the sole business which en
gaged him, but were added to his
daily occupation. Such, at least,
we know to have been his custom
at Corinth, at Thessalonica, at
Ephesus, and probably elsewhere.
Of the twelve hours of the day,
perhaps not more than one, of the
seven days of the week, perhaps
only the Sabbath, was devoted to
the exercise of his spiritual call
ing. It is natural to ask, what
motive could have led him, a
man of station and education,
unused to toil, brought up in the
school of a Rabbi, at an age when
the bodily frame refuses to per
form any new office, to submit
himself to manual labour ? Was
it that he desired to set the ex
ample of Christian life, as well as
to teach Christian doctrine, to
show that there was no opposition
between the Gospel and the daily
course of the world ? Or may it
have been to identify himself with
the poorer members of his flock ?
or to provide for their necessities?
or as a religious exercise to keep
under his body, and bring it into
subjection ? or to distinguish him
self from the strolling soothsayers
who wandered over Greece and
Asia, " telling some new thing " ?
or to draw a line between himself
and the Judaizing teachers ? or
from necessity, or, as we should
say, to preserve his independence?
Whatever higher motives led the
Apostle to toil for his bread,
the last-mentioned one falls in
with that peculiar sensitiveness
respecting the charge of receiv
ing money, which is traceable in
the Second Epistle to the Corin
thians, both in reference to him
self and Titus receiving support
from the Church, as in reference
to the collections for the saints.
In the Second Epistle to theThes-
salonians, iii. 4., another motive is
also indicated, the desire to set
an example to his converts. A
third motive, that of charity, is
mentioned in the discourse to the
elders of the Church of Ephesus.
(Acts, xx. 34.)
58
FIRST EPISTLE TO THE THESSALONIANS. [Cn. II.
a>s 11
TO evayytXiov rov Oeov. v/xet? pdprvpes /ecu 6 0e6s, to
a>? ocriws KOI oi/ccuo)? /cal djae/XTrrct)? v//,a> rot? TT
eye^T/^jLte^, KaOdrrep otSare, a>? eVa eKacrrov
irarrjp rlwa eavrov TrapaKaXovvres v/m? Kal ir
KOI p.apTvpovjJiei Oi ets TO Trepnrareiv 1
ets T? eavrov
TOU 12
KOL
Kal Sta TOUTO Kal rjjJieLS ev^apicrrov^ev TO> Oew dSta- 13
, 6Vt 7rapa\af36i>Tes \6yov aKofjs Trap" ra^^v rov
e^ao~^ ov Xoyoi> dvOpojirtov aXXa KaOa
\6yov Oeov, 09 Kal IvepyeuTaL iv vfiv TOI?
10. we b<riu)Q Kal c)t/ccuwc, not
how religiously towards God
and justly towards men, but how
holily and righteously. Like our
word " righteousness," c^cu we
implies not only a moral or legal,
but a religious idea. ape/jTrruQ,
innocently, so that no one had
aught to say against us. cyci/ij-
Orjpey is not a mere verb of ex
istence, it expresses a state which
the adverbs further define : " we
came, behaved, were unto you."
Compare 1 Cor. xvi. 10. Ira
d(j)6[3ii)c; yerrjrai Trpot vpaQ.
TOIQ TTLartvovaiv is without em
phasis. It would be absurd to
suppose that the Apostle means
to say that he was not thus ir
reproachable to unbelievers, and
an over-refinement to maintain
that he specially commends him
self to the judgment of believ
ers as such. Yet the introduc
tion of the pointless word may
have arisen from the desire to
reciprocate, that is, to speak in
praise of them as well as of him
self.
The dative is governed by
the verb and adverbs together ;
ciKaioi vjJiiv i /EyrjOrjjjitv vplv ;
whether it has the sense of " to "
(dat. com.), or " in the opinion
of," is not quite certain. The
first is favoured by the words
which follow, which speak not of
what the Thessalonians thought
of the Apostle, but of what he
did for them ; also by the appeal
w/^fTe paprvpEQ which precedes.
The second is the more idioma
tic construction. The English
version here, as in many other
places, allowably avoids the
doubt by an ambiguous word,
" among."
11. is an expansion of the pre
ceding. From the general the
Apostle passes on to the parti
cular. As if he had said "I
appeal to you individually for the
truth of this." " Each one I con
soled and comforted as though I
had been a father with his chil
dren." Compare Trepl Trarrw^
vfj,u)j , i. 2.
For the construction of this
and the succeeding verse, we must
supply iytt rjdrifu) , which may be
VEB. 1013.] FIRST EPISTLE TO THE THESSALOXIANS. 59
10
11
day, because we would not be burdensome* unto any of
you, we preached unto you the gospel of God. Ye are
witnesses, and God also, how holily and righteously* and
unblameably we behaved* among you that believe :
as ye know how we exhorted and comforted and
12 charged every one of you, as a father doth his children,
that ye would walk worthy of God, who calleth * you
unto his kingdom and glory.
13 And for this cause we * also thank God without ceas
ing, because, when ye received the word of God which
ye heard of us, ye received it not as the word of men,
but as it is in truth, the word of God, which effectually
equally connected with the con
junction, or with the participle.
Or the second we may be regard
ed as arising out of the we in
v. 10., which has been repeated
from the fear of weakening the
emphasis of the sentence.
era BKCWTOV.] The double ac
cusative cannot be explained by
apposition ; the instances Col. ii.
13., Eph. ii. 1. 5., quoted in sup
port of this, are not in point.
Better to say with Erasmus, that
it is " balbuties Apostolicae
charitatis, quse se verbis humanis
sen temulenta non explicat."
TOV $eov TOV xaXovi TOc.^ Here,
as elsewhere, the " calling " is
ascribed, not to Christ, but to God.
The beginning of the work of
salvation is his attribute. The
present participle with the article
is used for the substantive, and
has no notion of time any more
than in Gal. v. 8.
?oar.] Compare Romans iii.
23., v. 2.
13. /cot m TOVTO, and for
this cause.~\ And because of all
this, because God thus enabled
us to preach to you, we give him
thanks without ceasing. The
clause which follows is a further
explanation of why the Apostle
was thankful, m TOVTO referring
to the verses both before and after.
What had been at first the ground,
now becomes the subject matter
of thankfulness. It is true that
it would be tautology to say :
" Because I preached to you with
success, I give thanks because ye
received my preaching." But a
very slight change of phrase, or
difference in point of view, is
sufficient to expand the second
6Y i into a new reason. There arc,
in fact, two grounds of thankful
ness, although so closely con
nected together as to be insepara
ble, First, his success in preach
ing ; secondly, their reception of
it in the true conviction that it
was the word of God. For the
"double face" of cut TOVTO and
similar expression?, compare 2
Cor. xiii. 10. ; liom. iv. 16.
Xtr/ov -Sect/.] As the Divine
word : not the word which tells
of God, but the word of which
God is the author.
oe teal erepyuTai. ] Which proves
itself by its operation in you who
believe it.
60
FIRST EPISTLE TO THE THESSALONIANS. [Cii. II.
OVCTLV. vfjiets yap /xi/x^rcu eyczT^iyre, a8e\<f)oi, T&V IKK\TJ- u
<ri(i)v rov Oeov rcov ovcra)v Iv rfj lovSatct iv ^otcrrw I??o~ou,
on ra at/rot 1 eTra^ere /cal
VTTOT&V I8ia)v
)$ KOI avTol VTTO rwv s Jot>Scua)z>
2
/Cat
, /cat
IOJV, KO)\v6vTQ)V
1 Tauro.
TOP Kvpiov 15
V KOLi TTOLO W
rots Wvww \a\rjo~ai tVa 16
2 Add i
14. The object of the parallel
which follows, is not to meet the
objection that might be made
against the Gospel, that the Jews
\vho were its natural adherents,
rejected it, still less to warn the
Thessalonians against Judaizing
teachers. It was a thought that
arose naturally in the Apostle s
mind as he recollected the perse
cutions which the Thessalonians
had endured at the hand of the
heathen rulers, as the Church of
Jerusalem from the Jews, Reduced
to its simplest form, the train of
ideas is : " The word of God
showed its power in you, for it
enabled you to endure persecu
tion." But this latter clause is
expanded by the Apostle into:
" For ye, brethren, followed the
example of the Churches in Judea
(such, at least, was the result),
for ye have suffered from your
countrymen, what they have from
theirs."
15. Who, as they persecuted
you, also slew the Lord Jesus,
and the prophets ; and going on
in the same course, persecuted us,
and are the enemies of God and
man. Compare the words of the
Apostle at Antioch in Pisidia,
Acts xiii. 27. : " For they that
dwell at Jerusalem, and their
rulers, because they knew him
not, nor yet the voices of the
prophets, which are read every
Sabbath-day, they have fulfilled
them in condemning him."
TOV Kvpwv [r](rovv, the Lord
Jesus."] Him whom they were
bound to serve. The word wpiog
seems to be added, partly to ex
press the reverential feeling of the
Apostle, partly also to heighten
their guilt.
rove Trpo^T/rac.] Compare, for
a similar feeling, St. Stephen s
words, Acts, vii. 52. ; and our
Lord s, Matt, xxiii. 31. 37.
The digression is remarkable ;
the Apostle "goes off" upon the
word Jews, it would seem at first
sight, inappropriately, for it was
not the Jews who had persecuted
the Thessalonians. Some have
supposed that the fact of the
Thessalonian persecution having
been stirred up by Jews, as re
corded in the Acts, was present
to his mind, and that this roused
the outburst which follows. Yet
there is a strangeness in the
Apostle speaking of "their own
countrymen " when he is thinking
of the Jews. It is safer to seek
the motive of the digression in
the general statement of the pas
sage itself, "forbidding us to
speak to the Gentiles that they
may be saved."
VER. 1416.] FIRST EPISTLE TO THE TIIESSALONIANS. 61
H worketh also in you that believe. For ye, brethren, be
came followers of the churches of God which in Judaea
are in Christ Jesus: for ye also have suffered like
things of your own countrymen, even as they have of
is the Jews: who both killed the Lord Jesus, and the
prophets 1 , have persecuted us ; and they please not
16 God, and are contrary to all men : forbidding us to
speak to the Gentiles that they might be saved, to fill
Their own prophets.
Wherever the Apostle had gone
on his second journey, he had
been persecuted by the Jews ; and
the longer he travelled about
among Gentile cities, the more
he must have been sensible of
the feeling with which his coun
trymen were regarded. Isolated
as they were from the rest of the
world in every city, a people
within a people, it was impossible
that they should not be united
for their own self-defence, and
regarded with suspicion by the
rest of mankind. But their inner
nature was not less repugnant to
the nobler, as well as the baser
feelings of Greece and Rome.
Their fierce nationality had out
lived itself; though worshippers
of the true God, they knew him
not to be the God of all nations
of the earth ; hated and despised
by others, they could but cherish
in return an impotent contempt
and hatred of other men. What
wonder that, for an instant, the
Apostle should have felt that this
Gentile feeling was not wholly
groundless? or that he should use
words which recall the expression
of Tacitus : " Ad versus omnes
alios hostile odium"? Hist. v.
5.
For the feelings which the
Apostle entertained towards his
countrymen at a later period,
compare Rom. x. 1 . : " Brethren,
my heart s desire and prayer to
God for Israel is, that they may
be saved." Yet, both states of
mind may have existed together ;
the one on the surface, called
forth by passing events ; the
other in his " heart of hearts/
deep and silent.
16. It has been urged thatfcwXv-
6i/rwr, having no copulative con
junction, must be connected with
ivavTiw, which mode of taking
the words is supposed to soften
the language of St. Paul to
wards his countrymen, by con
fining it to those who had op
posed the Gospel ; " the enemies
of God and man in that they
hinder us," &c. Such a mode of
construction destroys the balance
of the clauses, and is ill suited
to the impassioned style of the
passage. As in the expression
of Tacitus, the first words are
general and not limited by the
particular case of their hindrance
to the Apostle s mission. What
follows is an afterthought, in
which the motive of the Apostle
drops out, and which could not
be connected by a conjunction
because it is not precisely parallel
G2
FIRST EPISTLE TO THE THESSALONIANS. [Cn. II.
, ts TO a,vair\r)pa)crai avrcov ra? d/xaprias TTOLVTOTZ.
Se ITT aurou? rj opyrj eis reXo?.
Se, dSeXc^oi, dTrop^a^KT^eWe? d^> L /^&JZ Trpo? 17
Kaipov a>pas Trpooranra.) ov /capSia, TrepiO croTepa)? ecnrov-
TO Trpocrwirov V\LU>V ISelv iv TroXkfj i
with the preceding. The agree
ment of the words with the de
scription in the Acts of the usual
course of persecution, is the more
remarkable from the apparent
disagreement in this particular
instance.
16. It has been maintained
that this verse must have been
written after the destruction of
Jerusalem. (See Introductory
Essay, on the Genuineness of
the Epistle.) Had it been so, it
is probable that allusions to the
destruction of Jerusalem would
have appeared elsewhere in the
Epistle, and that this very
passage would have spoken mo: e
plainly. In all ages, without
the gift of prophesy, men have
been prone to read the signs of
evil in the world. There was
enough in the outward state of
the Jewish people, as we read
the narrative of it in Josephus,
or in the impenitency and ob
stinacy of the Jewish nature, as
it revealed itself to the Apostle
from within, to be the shadow of
events to come. Yet the lan
guage of the Apostle seems to
indicate, not that they were ac
tually suffering or to suffer pun
ishment, but only that they had
reached their final point of re
probation from whence there is
no more a way back.
elg TO expresses, not the object,
but the object and the result
blended together in one ; the
natural event, as the Apostle re
gards it, in the order of Provi
dence.
di a.7r\r}pwffai rac apaprlac, to
Jill up their sins.~\ Compare
Genesis, xv. 16. : For the
iniquity of the Amorites is not
yet full." In the beginning of
sin and evil it seems as if men
were free agents, and had the
power of going on or of retreat
ing. But as the crisis of their
fate approaches, they are bound
under a curse ; and the form in
which their destiny presents it
self to our minds, is as though it
were certain, and only a question
of time how soon it is to be ful
filled. We look at them from
without, and watch the double
necessity in themselves, and in
the course of events which is
meeting in one ; or sometimes the
ordinary events of life seem to
become to them only occasion
and material of evil. The same
abstract truth finds a deeper and
more religious expression in the
Old and New Testament, as in
this passage St. Paul thinks of
the Jews as hardened in their
impenitence ; the cup was filling,
their opposition to the Gospel
was the drop which made it run
over. TrajTore, before Christ, at
the time of Christ, after Christ.
<^0a/vV $e fcV avrovc // dpy? /.]
>/ Jpy>), either the long-expected
wrath, or the wrath consequent
upon their sins ; compare Rom. i.
VER. 17.] FIRST EPISTLE TO THE TIIESSALOXIANS.
up their sins alway. But * the wrath has 1 come upon
them to the uttermost.
17 BUT we, brethren, being bereaved* in being taken
from you for a short time in presence, not in heart,
were the more abundantly * earnest to see your face with
Is.
18. ; v. 9. ; e^daKe
or reached them, without the
classical sense of anticipation, as
elsewhere in the New Testament,
and everywhere in modern
Greek. Here, as in 1 Cor. ix.
15., the MSS. waver between the
aorist and perfect. If the aorist
is to be strictly construed, the
Apostle must be conceived as
looking upon the punishment of
the Jews to be already an his
torical event. As in some other
passages, the aorist appears to
be put for the perfect, but really
maintains its own signification
of a point of time. $e marks
the opposition of the punishment
and offence. But for all this,"
&c.
ftere Xoc, either "continually,"
so as never to cease, or " utterly,"
so as finally to make an end.
Compare Job, xx. 7. ; Jos. viii.
24.
17. The spiritual interest of
the Apostle about his converts,
is never for a moment separate
from his human tender love for
them. Whether the circum
stances of the Church and the
world admit of our drawing
such a distinction now or not, it
was unknown to those times
when the believers were a fa
mily of love. The feeling of
the Apostle was not a general
concern for the Churches which
he had to govern, but a private
personal love for each one. And
his not weakened by absence,
or changing as he moved from
place to place ; but mindful at
Corinth of those who are at
Thessalonica and Rome ; at
Rome, of those in Asia.]
j]lje~iQ e, but we,~] is a resump
tion, after a pause, of verse 13.
cnropfyavtadti Teg^ has the mean
ing both of bereavement and
separation from. The preposi
tion is repeated according to the
tendency of Hellenistic Greek,
perhaps with some additional
emphasis; cf. Acts xxi. 1.
TTpoQ Kaipov wpac-3 For a brief
moment, for the time of an hour.
TTpoawTro) ov k-ap?iq, in presence,
not in heart.~\ " It was hardly a
separation one of faces, not of
hearts ; but this was the reason
why,"&C. TrpoawTrw ov Kaptiiy may
be regarded as a correction of
TTtplff<TOTf.p<t)C eaTrOvciffa/jer, WCTC
the more earnest. ] With Kaipov
dipac, in reference to the very
shortness of his absence from
them ; " almost immediately," he
would say, "we felt the want
of you, we were so much the
more desirous to see your face,
as we were not yet used to miss
you."
TO TrpoffWTToi vf.iw^ instead of
vpac, in allusion to 7T|Oo<7W7rw,
which precedes : " We wanted
to see you face to face, which is
the only way in which we were
separated from you."
64
FIRST EPISTLE TO THE THESSALONIANS. [Cii. II.
Stem l ^eX^cra/ie^ i\6tiv 77^09 vfjias, eya> fJiV ITauXo9 /cat is
" Kal 819, /cat e^e:oi//e^ 07^0,9 6 araravas. rt9 yap 07/^0)^ 19
rou Kvpiov rjjJLOiv I^crou 2 ez^ TT^ avrou Trapovoria ;
/s eo>/>^ \e N /20
yap ecrre 17 ooga rjfJiajv Kai 77 ^apa. oio /x^/cert ^
crreyo^Te9 et SoACT^cra/xe^ KaTa\L<j)0rjvaL iv * AOrivais ^ovoi,
1 5iJ. 2 Add xp lffT v-
18. tort. Because of which
great desire we were minded to
come to you.
per Ilai/Xoc] is emphatic,
/uev being added with IlavXoc
to draw attention to himself, not
necessarily to distinguish his
earnest wish from that of Timo
thy and Silas, who might be
supposed to be joined with him
in jjdeXiirrafiev. The idiom did
not admit t]f.ielg nevTIavXoG. Com
pare 2 Cor. x. 1. ; also Eph. iii. 1.
Kal is adversative as in English,
" I wanted to come, and he
would not let me." It is not,
however, put for tie ; the oppo
sition is inferred, not expressed.
Compare Rom. i. 13.
6 o-cirardc.] It is not certain
what the Apostle means by
these words ; perhaps some ob
struction, which seemed to be
thrown in his way in preaching
the Gospel, such as the perse
cution of the Jews of Thessalo-
nica. More probably, however,
he refers to some inward impe
diment, analogous to that which
he experienced when " they as
sayed to preach the word in Asia ;
howbeit, the Spirit suffered them
not.* Acts, xvi. We have no
other means of judging what was
the nature of the hindrance, but
from the probable meaning of an
expression which is in itself un
certain.
19. For you are our hope and
joy and crown of glory in the day
of judgment. As he says else
where : " Who is weak, and I
am not weak ? " or, in other words,
who feels, and I do not feel with
him? so in this passage, their
hope is his hope, their joy is his
joy ; they are his crown of glory
at the last day. He does not
mean that he is to be rewarded for
converting them ; it is a higher
thought than this which fills
the Apostle s soul. Remember
ing that hour on which his mind
is dwelling, he transfers them to
it, and is rapt in his love of them.
Compare, for the time, note on
Rom. ii. 16. ; for a similar use
of a figure, 2 Cor. iii. 2., Ye are
our Epistle;" and for the general
meaning, 2 Tim. iv. 8. " Hence
forth there is laid up for me a
crown of righteousness, which
the Lord, the righteous judge,
shall give me at that day;" and,
as the Apostle characteristically
adds, "not to me only, but to all
that love his appearing."
epTTpoffdev TOV f;vpiov.j He
thinks of them as of all other men,
as before the Lord, in the face
of Christ; and thinking of Christ,
he looks forward to His appear
ing as already present. Compare
note, Romans, ii. 16.
20. V/JLEIQ yap tare >/ ^oa fipn>
Kal >i x i ] Yes, he repeats with
earnestness, for ye are our glory
and our joy.
The first verses of the third
chapter are connected with the
VEB. 1820.] FIRST EPISTLE TO THE THESSALONIANS. 65
is great desire. Wherefore we would have come unto
you, even I Paul, once and again ; but Satan hindered
19 us. For what is our hope, or joy, or crown of rejoicing ?
Are not even ye in the presence of our Lord Jesus Christ
at his coming? For ye are our glory and joy. Where
fore when we could no longer contain*, we thought it
20
seventeenth verse of the preced
ing ; as elsewhere (compare v. 13.
of the second chapter) in the
writings of St. Paul, the connect
ing particle refers to the whole
previous subject, and serves to
recall the reader s mind from a
partial digression. Even little
things have an interest for those
whom we love, and accordingly
the Apostle dwells minutely on
the circumstance of his affection
for them. He could no longer
contain himself, and therefore
sent Timotheus to inquire about
their faith (the pleonasm of the
expressions, rbv ah\<pbi Kal avv-
fp-ybv TOV deov (frq/x ^cu KOI TTCI-
pa.Ka\lffat, may be remarked as
bearing a trace of the style of St.
Paul). They were in persecu
tion ; but that, they knew them
selves, was their appointed lot ;
he had told them of it, and they
had the witness of it in them
selves. Then resuming and car
rying on the thought of v. 1. :
" Therefore he had sent Timo
thy," to know whether they were
firm, or whether they had fallen
before the tempter. A.nd now
Timothy had brought him the good
news of their faith and love, and
of their feelings to him, which
are the very reflection of his to
them, he is full of comfort, and
seems to receive a new life in
his own trials, at the thought
of their constancy. How can he
thank God enough for the joy
VOL. I. F
which he feels for them in the
presence of God, which mingles
still with the never ceasing long
ing to see their face and confirm
their faith ? And then, sepa
rating his wish into two parts,
he trusts that God may guide
his feet towards them ; and that
whether this is accomplished for
him or not, he may make them
feel the same love to one an
other and towards all men, that he
does for them, and stablish their
hearts before him in that which
is coming and now is, the ap
pearing of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Compare the return of Titus,
in 2 Cor. ii. 13. ; the desire to
see the Romans, in i. 10. ; the
sending of Tychicus, in Ephes.
vi. 21. ; the coming of Epaphro-
ditus, in Philipp. iv. 18.
III. (>io refers to the general
sense of the preceding verses.
Wherefore, i. e. from our great
affection for you.
fi^Kin."] The /a) may be ex
plained as v giving a subjective
turn to the meaning : " Where
fore, feeling that we could," or
" as those who could no longer."
oTf yojTeo, containing. ] a-iyt.iv
means to cover ; hence it acquires
the two senses of holding in and
out, both of which enter into
its metaphorical use. The pre
sent participle has the force of
the imperfect, as elsewhere.
KaraXei^dtirai, K. r. X., to be left,
&c.] It may be remarked, that
66
FIRST EPISTLE TO THE THESSALONIANS. [On. III.
Kal
TipoOeov, TOV aSeXcfrov T^jaoV 1 Kal wvzpyov 2
TOV Otov iv T<y evayyeXio) rov ^otcrrou, 15 TO crn^pi^aL
VJJLOLS KOL irapaKaXecrai 2 vtrep Tr?5 mcrrecos u/>caJ^ ro 3 ju/^SeVa s
cralveo-Oai iv rai? OXiifjecriv Tavrais avrol yap otSare
ort ets TOVTO KeifJieOa Kal yap ore Trpos v/xa5 ^e^, 4
TrpoeXeyofJiev vfuv OTL /AeXXojute^ OXi/BecrOai, KaOws Kal
eyeVcTO /cat oiSare. Sia TOVTO Acayw fJir}KTi o-reyajv e7rejui//a 5
TO VMVai T7)V TTLCrTiV VfitoV, JJLTJ 770)5 7rLpa<TV VjJLa^ 6
SiaKovov TOV i^eou Ktti ffvvepybv ^/xwi/.
these words half agree with the
Acts, and half with the Epistle.
For they imply that the Apostle
was left without companions, and
yet there is no mention of his
sending away Silas, who was with
him at the time of his writing
the Epistle, but only Timothy.
Admitting the genuineness of
the Epistle, and the confirmation
afforded by it to many of the
statements of the Acts, we are
naturally led to speculate by what
arrangement of events the error
may be made smallest.
Suppose Silas only to have
been left in Macedonia, with a
charge to join Paul shortly ;
Paul, impatient to hear of his
new converts, sends Timothy
from Athens, who returns with
Silas. The only incorrectness
then in the narrative of the Acts
arises from the ignorance of the
writer, that Timothy was not
left behind. The account of the
Epistle, that Paul was left alone
at Athens, although he only sent
away Timothy and although Si
las and Timothy were with him
shortly afterwards, as well as
the tone of the Acts, respecting
Paul s eagerness that Silas and
Timothy should follow him, agrees
with this hypothesis. See the
fuller discussion of the question
in note on Paley s Horae Pau
linas.
2. avvepyov TOV Seov, fellow-
worker.^ Not the fellow-worker
with us in the service of God,
but the fellow- worker with God.
Compare 1 Cor. iii. 9. Stoii -yap
i(r/j.ev ffvvep-yoi. As in other places
the Apostle introduces his " true
yoke-fellows " with titles of ho
nour ; not, however, as some of
the Fathers imagine, to express
the extent of the sacrifice he is
making for their good, in sending
away so valued a helpmate as
Timothy.
zv TU fvayyeX/w.] In preaching
the Gospel.
ftc ro ffrr)piaiS] That he may
strengthen you.
Trapa.KaXeffai. ] Either to com
fort, or exhort. In this passage
the latter meaning seems to agree
better with ver. 3.
vtrep riJQ Trtorewc; vpa>i>.~^ virep
in this and similar passages means
" about." Yet not excluding also
the secondary sense of "interest
in a thing or person." Compare
2 Thess. ii. 1., one of the few
places in which the doubtful vtrep
has not been corrected into Trtpt.
3. TO f.irj<jE.i a (raivtadai.^ The
MSS. are almost equally divided
between ro and rw : the first we
may explain as the remoter ob-
VER. 2 5.] FIRST EPISTLE TO THE THESSALONIANS. 67
2 good to be left at Athens alone ; and sent Timotheus,
our brother, and fellow- worker with God *, in the
gospel of Christ, to establish you, and to comfort you
3 concerning your faith, that no man should be moved
by these tribulations * ; for yourselves know that we are
4 appointed thereunto, for verily, when we were with
you, we told you before that we should suffer tribula-
5 tion ; even as it came to pass, and ye know. For this
cause, when I could no longer forbear, I also sent to
know your faith, lest by some means the tempter have
1 Minister of God, and our fellow-labourer.
ject, either of tTrf/u^ajue^ or of
TrapafcaXeVatj " we sent him to
comfort you ; we sent him touch
ing your not being moved by
persecutions;" or, "we sent him
to comfort you about your faith,
touching," &c. The second has
been regarded as a Greek trans
lation of the Hebrew dative;
better, if explainable at all, as a
confusion of the reason with the
object ; " by reason of," i. e. "with
the view that." craivefrOai, though
connected with atUtrQai 9 not sim
ply, moved, but rather moved to
softness. Compare Soph. Ant.
1214., Trai^oQ fie aaivet fyOoyyog.
ir rate $\i^ecrti> rat/rate,] i. e.
the persecutions which they and
the Apostle alike endured, of
which he speaks to them as though
they were present with him.
avrol yap otSare.] Not merely
because the Apostle had foretold
it, as he says in the following
verse, but because all Christians
must have felt the state of per
secution natural to them, yap
supplies the reason why they
ought not to faint ; viz., that per
secution was not a thing unex
pected, but the very appointment
of God respecting them.
"]
n of
eiQ TOVTO refers to
For a similar lax relation o
the same word, compare Rom.
xiii. 6.
4. "For we told you beforehand,
not of any particular trouble, but
that we are to be persecuted, as
has come to pass, and ye know of
your own experience." The plural
peXXo/jLer identifies the Apostle
and his converts with believers
everywhere.
5. For this special reason (in
addition to the general love and
regard I bear for you), feeling
that I could no longer contain
myself, I sent to know your faith,
lest by any means, in time of per
secution, the tempter should have
tempted you, and, as a conse
quence, our labour should have
been in vain. As though the
Apostle had said : " And this
made me anxious to know about
you, and I could endure the sus
pense no longer, so I sent." Kayw,
I also on my part ; in contradis
tinction to the Thessalonians, of
whom he had been speaking in
the previous clause. Compare
K-ai //jLtetr, ii. 13. /.irj TTWQ is con
nected with yrwi cu, and implies
an expansion of the preceding
F 2
68
FIRST EPISTLE TO THE THESSALONIANS. [Cn. III.
Kal el? K&SOV yewjTai 6 KOTTOS rjuwv. apn Se 6
TTpbs T7/xas d< v^wv Kal evayyeXicra-
Trlcmv Kal TJ]V ayoLTT rjv v/xc3j>, Kal on 9(T
dyaOrjV TrdWoTe eViTro^oiWes ^as iSeiz>
KaOdirep Kal ^//-eis v/x/as, Sia rouro 7rapK\rj0r)p,V, dSeX(oi, 7
e$> u/uz eVl wdcry ry dvdyKr) Kal $Xu//(, l r]p.a)v ia TT)$
vfjLuv TTicrrewg, on ^u^ ^MIJLZV lav v/xei? crr^/c^re ez^ Kvpia). 8
riva yap ev^aptcrrta^ Swa/Ae#a ra> ^ew d^raTroSowai Trept 9
v/x-w^ CTTI TrdcTTj rfj X^pa y ^aipo^.v Si v/>tas efJiTrpocrOtv
TOV deov rjiAtov, VVKTOS Kal rjpepas vTrepeKTrepLcrcrov Sed- 10
ets TO iSeiz^ v/^a>z> TO TTpocrcoTrov Kal Karapricrai ra
TTICTTCCOS V/AW^ ; avTo? Se 6 ^eo? Kal Traryp u
thought; "to know your faith,
whether it might have been
that "
6 Trapa^wy, /*e tempter. ] As
in 1 Cor. vii. 5. : pri impa^rj
VJJ.CLQ 6 (raraj af. Compare Matt.
iv. 3. The tempter, as of Christ,
so of his followers.
6. apn e , but now,~] is to be
taken with cm TOVTO irapK\ri-
Gripe v in the next verse. " We
were anxious about you, and
sent Timotheus ; but now that
Timotheus is returned, and we
have good news, we are com
forted."
Timotheus came to us and
brought good news of your faith
and love, and of your remem
brance of us, and your having
a desire to see us, even as we
have to see you.
ayaOtjv five tar, a good remem
brance. ] As with etaric, ffvvsiorjaiQ,
y/jLtpa. As in the Apostle s view
of the relation of the believer to
Christ, the great work of salva
tion is the identity of one with
the other, so in the relation of
believers to each other, they be
come one, having the same feel
ings without distinction of ab
sence or presence ; they rejoice,
sorrow, are comforted, persecuted,
triumph with each other. Phi
losophers have sometimes tried
to resolve our moral nature into
sympathy ; far more nearly true
is this of our Christian feelings,
which are not so much the ex
ertion of one man s good will
towards another, as the com
munication to many of one
spirit.
7- 2m rouro] takes up the sen
tence after the long participial
clauses. For this good news.
apri xapeKXtjOrjutv, now we
are comforted. Implying that
the Epistle was written imme
diately after the return of Ti
mothy. The Apostle, though
speaking now of what was almost
present to himself, still uses the
historical tense ; possibly, like
typa^a in 1 Cor. v. 9., and else
where, in reference to the time
at which the Thessalonians
would receive his letter as in
Latin.
VEB, 611.] FIRST EPISTLE TO THE THESSALONIANS. 69
6 tempted you, and our labour been in vain. But now
when Timotheus came from you unto us, and brought
us good tidings of your faith and love*, and that ye have
good remembrance of us always, desiring greatly to see
7 us, as we also to see you : therefore, brethren, we were
comforted in * you, in all our affliction and distress by
s your faith : for now we live, if ye stand fast in the Lord.
9 For what thanks can we render to God again for you,
for all the joy wherewith we joy for your sakes before
10 our God ; night and day praying exceedingly that we
might see your face, and might perfect that which is
11 lacking in your faith ? Now our God and Father
he was as one " having the sen
tence of death in himself : " but
now in their life he lives.
9. yap.] For we thank God
that you do stand, yap express
ing the reason of what has gone
before. This the Apostle implies
in the question, " For how can
we thank God for you all, for
all the joy with which we joy
on your account in the presence
of our God ? "
10. Seoperoi] is not to be joined
with xa/joo/uT, but arises out of
the idea of his love for them, ex
pressed in the preceding verse.
The Apostle lives in his converts,
he rejoices in their joy, he ex
ults before God to think of them.
Only with N this mingles the hu
man feeling of a desire to see
them again.
vTTfpe/cTrepto-crov.] Not as a work
of supererogation, but only ex
ceedingly.
KaTapTiffcn TU iMTrejO//juara. J To
fill up what is wanting. Com
pare Rom. i. 11., and for the ex
pression, Col. i. 24. Nothing can
be inferred from this, either
one way or the other, on the
duration of the Thessalonian
3
?rt iractr] rr
In ver. 3. the Apostle spoke
of a tribulation, which he had in
common with the Thessalonians.
That was not taken away, but
only alleviated by the news of
Timothy. To this he is here
alluding, and not to his anxiety
respecting the Thessalonians.
The second iirl is taken in the
same sense as the first, " I was
comforted over you." This com
fort which he drew from them is
then passed on to a further object,
" I was comforted in you, in all
my affliction ; " as a further elu
cidation are added the words
" through your faith." Compare
2 Cor. vii. 7. and 13.
8. OTL v\)v wjufr, for now we
live.~\ The Apostle regards his
affliction as a sort of death, from
which he is roused to life by the
news of his converts. Compare
2 Cor. i. 810., and Gal. ii. 20.,
for a similar figure.
vvv refers to the change of
feeling occasioned by the arrival
of Timothy. When he thought
of the persecutions that sur
rounded him, and the possibility
of their falling off from the faith,
70
FIRST EPISTLE TO THE THESSALONIANS. [Cn. III.
Kal 6 Kvpios rjjJLwv I^crovg KarevOvvai rr)v oSov rj
v/xag. v/xas Se 6 Kvpios TrXeo^acrai Kal Trepicrcreucrat 12
aydiry ecs dXX^Xovs KOI eis Trdvras, KaOdtrep Kal ^/xei?
v^as, eis TO crTrjpi^aL V^MV ras KapSias a/xejaTrrous et> 13
community. The Apostle may
or may not be referring to
those special deficiencies of the
Thessalonian Church which he
has elsewhere indicated, their
error about the dead, or their dis
order.
O.VTOQ e)e 6 S toe, now God
Himself. ] May God himself
guide me to you ! avroe is said
in opposition to the Apostle s
going there of himself, and the
hindrances of Satan, which he
had spoken of before. The
thought of the Apostle rises na
turally to God, who can do all
things ; who, though he now
seems cut off from them, can
guide his way to them.
6 Kvpiog hnwv IijerovQ, our Lord
Jesus.~\ Christ as well as God
works in directing the footsteps
of his ministers. Compare Rom.
xv. 18.
12. But whether he grant me
this request or not, may he make
you to abound and increase in
love, The Apostle has availed
himself, however, of the transi
tive as well as intransitive sense
of the two verbs, to give the
thought another turn. "But may
the Lord make you to abound and
exceed in love to one another,
and towards all, even as we do
abound and exceed in love to
you."
6 Ku/uoe.] Whether God or
Christ is uncertain ; perhaps
both are included. Compare
Horn. viii. 9 11., where the
Spirit of Christ, Christ Himself
and the Spirit of Him that raised
up Christ from the dead, occur
in successive verses as different
expressions of the same power
working in the heart of man.
elg a\\Ti\ovQ.^\ To one another
your brother members of the
Church.
etc TTcinrac.] To mankind in
general.
13. <c TO crrrjpilai] may be
either taken as the end of what
preceded, " May the Lord ful
fil you with love to one another,
to the end that he may establish
you in holiness," with which can
be compared such passages as
" love is the fulfilling of the law ; "
or the idea of an object contained
in dg TO or>7pieu may belong to
the form rather than to the mean
ing of the sentence. In other
words, the Apostle might have
said, "May the Lord make you
to abound in grace, make you to
establish your hearts ; " or, with
much the same sense, "May God
make you to abound in grace, so
as to establish your hearts."
is best taken with
i, an allusion to which
latter word is contained in
favTW Ttjjv ayiur.
To what extent did the first
Christians suffer persecution ?
Much has been said of the tole
rant spirit of the Roman govern
ment inclined to let all religions
sleep peacefully under the shadow
of its wings. But it is one thing
to tolerate existing religions, an
other to sanction a new one, and
that too not seeking to insinuate
itself privately, but openly pro-
VER. 12, 13.] FIRST EPISTLE TO THE THESSALONIANS. 71
himself, and our Lord Jesus Christ direct our way
12 unto you. And the Lord make you to increase and
abound in love one toward another, and toward all men,
is even as we do toward you : to the end he may stablish
fessing as its object the conversion
of the world. Probably there has
never been a civilised country
in which such an attempt at pro-
selytism would not have been at
first met by persecution. Every
page of the Acts of the Apostles
is a picture of similar persecu
tions. St. Paul s own account
of his former life (Acts, xxvi. 11.
12.), as well as the words of An
anias in Acts, ix. 13., lead us
to infer that he was himself the
agent of a systematic persecution
in several cities, in which many
persons were put to death. And
more remarkable than any part
of the Acts is the narrative which
the Apostle "born out of due
time " gives us of his own suf
ferings (2 Cor. xi. 2333.), and
which, amid many other reflec
tions, suggests the thought, how
small a part of his life has been
preserved to us.
From the state of Christianity
in the time of Pliny or Tacitus,
we can scarcely form an idea of
its first difficulties. Everywhere
it had to encounter the fierce
spirit of fanaticism, wrought up
in the Jew to its highest pitch, in
the pagan just needing to be
awakened. The Jews, the false
brethren, the heretics, the heathen,
were in league more or less openly,
at one time or other, for its de
struction. All ages which have
witnessed a revival of religious
feeling, have witnessed also the
outbreak of religious passions ;
the pure light of the one becomes
the spark by which the other is
kindled. Reasons of state some
times create a faint and distant
suspicion of a new faith ; the feel
ings of the mass rise to over
whelm it.
The Roman government may
be said to have observed in gene
ral the same line respecting the
first preachers of the Gospel, as
would be observed in modern
times ; that is to say, of matters
of faith and opinion, as such, they
hardly took account, except in so
far as they endangered the safety
of the government, or led to
breaches of the public peace. It
seemed idle to them to dispute
about questions of the Jewish
law in Roman courts of justice ;
but they were not the less pre
pared to call to account those by
whose supposed agency a whole
city was in an uproar. Hence,
when the really peaceable cha
racter of the Gospel was seen,
the persecutions gradually ceased
and revived only at a later period,
when Christianity itself became a
political power.
Allowing for the difference of
times and seasons, the feelings
of the Iloman governors were
not altogether unlike those with
which the followers of John Wes
ley, in the last century, might have
been regarded by the magistrates
of an English town. And making
still greater allowance for the
malignity and depth of the pas
sions by which men were agi
tated as the old religions were
breaking up, a parallel not less
just might be drawn also between
p 4
72
FIRST EPISTLE TO THE THESSALONIANS. [On. III.
Trapovo a TOV
avTov.
TOV Oeov KOL vrarpos TALLOW h rfj
lyjcrov 1 jutera TrdvTW TMV ayicov
Add xP iffr V
the feelings of the multitude.
There was in both cases a kind
of sympathy by which the lower
class were attracted towards the
new teachers. Natural feeling
suggested that these men had
come for their good ; they were
grateful for the love shown of
them, and for the ministration to
their temporal wants. There was
a time when it was said of the
first believers, that they were in
favour with all the people (Acts,
ii. 47.), and that " all men glori
fied God for that which was
done"(iv. 21.). But at the preach
ing of Stephen the scene changes ;
the deep irreconcilable hostility
of the two principles is beginning
to be felt ; " it is not peace, but a
sword ; " not " I am come to fulfil
the law," but " not one stone shall
be left upon another."
The moment this was clearly
perceived, not only would the far-
sighted jealousy of chief priests
and rulers be alarmed at the
preaching of the Apostles ; but
the very instincts of the multitude
itself would rise at them. More
than anything that we have wit
nessed in modern times of reli
gious intolerance, would be the
feeling against those who sought
to relax the bond of circumcision
as enemies to their country, their
religion, and their God. But there
was another aspect of the new
religion, which served to bring
home these feelings even yet more
nearly. It was the disruption of
the family. As our Lord foretold,
the father was against the son,
the son against the father, the
mother-in-law against the daugh
ter-in-law, the daughter-in-law
against her mother-in-law. A
new power had arisen in the
world, which seemed to cut across
and dissever natural affections
(Matt. x. 34.). Consider what
is implied in the words "of
believing women not a few ; "
what animosities of parents, and
brethren, and husbands ! what
hatreds, and fears, and jealousies!
An unknown tie, closer than that
of kindred, drew away the in
dividuals of a family, and joined
them to an external society. It
was not only that they were
members of another Church, or
attendants on a separate worship.
The difference went beyond this.
In the daily intercourse of life,
at every meal, the unbelieving
brother or sister was conscious
of the presence of the unclean.
It was an injury not readily to
be forgotten, or forgiven its
authors, the greatest, perhaps,
which could be offered in this
world. The fanatic priest, led
on by every personal and religious
motive the man of the world,
caring for none of those things,
but not the less resenting the in
trusion on the peace of his home
the craftsman, fearing for his
fains the accursed multitude,
nowing not the law, but irritated
at the very notion of this myste
rious society of such real though
hidden strength would all work
together towards the overthrow
of those who seemed to them to
VER. 13.] FIRST EPISTLE TO THE THESSALONIANS.
73
your hearts unblameable in holiness before l our God and
Father, at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ with
all his saints.
1 God, our Father.
be turning upside down the poli
tical, religious, and social order
of the world. The utterance of
this instinct of dislike, is heard
in the words, " These men being
Jews, do exceedingly trouble our
city, and teach customs which
are not lawful for us to receive,
neither to observe, being Romans."
Acts, xvi. 20, 21. (Compare, to
complete the picture, the des
cription in the previous verses
of the damsel possessed with a
spirit of divination, who cried
after Paul many days, " These
men are the servants of the most
High God.")
These considerations, though
based only on general principles
of human nature, are necessary to
make us understand the under
current of the Apostolical history,
as well as to form a just estimate
of the question which we are con
sidering. The actual persecution
of the Roman government was
slight, but what may be termed
the social persecution and the
illegal violence employed towards
the first disciples unceasing. " Of
the Jews five times received I
forty stripes save one ; " who
would know or care what went on
in the Jewish quarter of a great
city ? How precarious must have
been their fate who, with the
passions of men arrayed against
them, had no protection from the
law ! They were liable to be
persecuted by the Jews, to suifer
persecution as Jews, to arm the
feelings of all nations against
themselves as the professors of
an unnational religion. Little
reflection is necessary to fill up
the details of that image of peril,
which the Apostle presents to us
in all his Epistles. It is the
same vision which is again held
up to us in the Book of the Re
velation, of the common tribula
tion of St. John and the Churches,
of the sufferings that were to
come upon the Church of Smyrna,
of the faithfulness of Pergamos
in the days when the martyr
Antipas was slain, of the two
witnesses, and of the souls be
neath the altar, saying " How
long ? " It is the same which
reappears in the earliest ecclesi
astical history, in the narrative
of Hegesippus respecting James
the Just. It is the state of life
described in the Epistle to the
Hebrews f those who "had not
yet resisted unto blood, striving
against sin" (xii. 4.), whose
leaders seem to have already suf
fered (xiii. 7. 23.). Except on
some accidental occasion, such as
the Neronian persecution, there
is no reason to suppose that the
power of Rome was systemati
cally employed against the first
disciples of the Apostles. But
it does not diminish their suf
ferings, that they were the re-
suit of illegal violence, such as
the tumults at Thessalonica, at
Ephesus, or at Jerusalem.
Ch. IV. The lesson which the
Apostle has to teach the Thessa-
lonians does not admit of any
great variety of statement or par
ticularity of detail. It is a lesson
74
FIRST EPISTLE TO THE THESSALONIANS. [Cu. IV.
ovv, dSeXc^KH, epcoTwpev v/zas /cat 7rapaKa\ovp,ev 4
iv Kvpia) Irjcrov, Iva 2 Kadajs TrapeXaySere Trap ^/x&)z> TO
TTOJS Set v/iag TrepiiraTeiv Kal apecr/ceu> Otto, KaOws Kal
TrepLTrareiTe 3 , Iva irepicrcrevrjTe )LtaXXo^. oiSare yap rivas 2
TrapayyeXia? eSco/ca/Ae^ v/xtz Sia rov KVpiov J^crou. rovro 3
yap ecrTii> [TO] ^eX^/xa rov #eov, 6 dyiao-^os v/x,<z>,
oVo TT^S Trovcias, eiSeVat, eKacrrov vuv 4
\onrbv.
Omit
which they have heard before,
which they are now practising,
and need only to practise more and
more, which is summed up in one
word their sanctification ; that
is to say, first, they are to abstain
from fornication ; and as a re
medy for fornication, every man
is to have his own wife. In
purity of life they are to be un
like the Gentiles, not to defraud,
or invade their brother s right;
for of all such offences the
Lord is the avenger. God, who
called them, called them not to
lasciviousness, but to holiness.
And, therefore, he who despises
this precept, is a despiser, not of
man, but of God who sanctifies us
by his Holy Spirit ; a violator, not
of moral duties only, but of the
first principle of Christian life.
"But respecting another part
of Christian duty, love of the
brethren, ye need not that I write
to you. For ye yourselves have
learned, not of me, but of God,
to love one another. For ye not
only know, but practise it to all
the brethren that are in all Mace
donia. But though you need not
my urging, yet I beg of you to
do it more and more, and (once
more to repeat a former exhor
tation) to live in peace, and do
your own business, that so ye may
Omit Ka6(i>s Kal
set a fair example to the heathen,
and be lacking in no spiritual
grace.
" But as to those who have been
taken from among you, do not let
the thought of them be a source of
disorder in your lives. In this too
I would not have you to be like the
heathen, who are without hope.
For to us the remembrance of
the dead is bound up with the
thought of Christ ; and as we be
lieve that He died and rose again,
so those that are asleep in Christ
will God bring with him. For
hear the exposition of the whole
matter as Christ has revealed
it ; we who survive at that day,
will be after, rather than before
the dead. For the Lord will Him
self descend from heaven with a
shout, and the voice of the arch
angel and the trump of God. And
first the dead in Christ will rise
to be gathered to Him, and then
we the living shall be caught
up to meet the Lord in the air.
And so shall we be ever with Him."
1. TheMSS. vary between Xoi-
7rorand7-o XotTroy, "furthermore,"
and " for what remains : " either
marks a transition, more or less
emphatic, from the personal to
the hortatory portion of the
Epistle, olv connects the verse
with the preceding mention of the
y E . 14.] FIRST EPISTLE TO THE THESSALONIANS. 75
4 FURTHERMORE then we beseech you, brethren,
and exhort you by the Lord Jesus, that as ye received
of us how ye ought to walk and to please God, even as
2 ye do walk 1 , that ye would abound more and more. For
ye know what commandments we gave you by the Lord
3 Jesus. For this is the will of God, your sanctifiea-
4 tion, that ye should abstain from fornication : that every
one of you should know how to get * himself his own
1 Omit even as ye do walk.
appearance of Christ, "seeing
then these things, we exhort
you," &c.
epw-wjUEJ ,] which in classical
Greek means only to ask ques
tions, has here the signification
of request, entreat, as in Acts, x.
48. and elsewhere.
iv Kvpiy. ] Compare the note
at i. 2. on this and similar
expressions. St. Paul exhorts
arid prays them, as he does every
thing, in their common Lord in
whom he and they are united in
one spirit. " We beseech you
that, as ye have received from
us, how ye ought to walk and
please God, or by what manner of
walk ye should please God, as ye
do walk, so ye would do more and
more."
Kal apeffKew. ] Although it is in
correct to say that KCU is like the
Hebrew \ taken for ut, yet the two
ideas, TreptTrarely KCU tipeffKetv &&gt;,
closely adhere to each other, and
are equivalent to TO TTWS Trepnra-
Tovvrac Set vfj.ag dpeffKttv TO) Sey.
JW] is a resumption of the for
mer iVa : the words xadiog KCII -rrtpi-
be regarded as a complimentary
form for ovrai Trepnrariire.
2. oiSare yap, for ye know."]
For ye know what ye did re
ceive from us (with reference to
KitOwg KCU 7rap\a/3er in previous
verse) : the commands that we
gave you, not of ourselves, but
through our Lord Jesus Christ.
The connexion shows that the
Apostle is not here speaking of
the truths of the Gospel, but of
practical rules of life. Yet
these rules of life, as in 1 Cor. vi.
19., runup into a single principle,
which is the gift of the Holy
Spirit, v. 8. Compare also v. 11.,
where the rule that he had given
was " that they should get their
own living."
3. The Apostle goes on to a
further explanation of what the
precepts were. " For this that
I am about to speak of, is what
God wills your sanctification."
This is further defined by the
clause: UTre^effduiv^iu^ aVo Trj<;
TTopreiag.^ Compare the decree of
the Apostles and brethren at Je
rusalem, that the Gentiles should
abstain "from fornication, and
from things strangled, and from
blood." The reason probably was
in both cases the same ; the ex
treme difficulty that there was
in heathen cities in preserving
purity of morals among the con
verts. See note at the end of the
chapter.
76
FIRST EPISTLE TO THE THESSALONIANS. [Cn. IV.
TO eavTov cr/ceuos KTacrdai Iv dytacr/xo) Kal TifJifj, ^ iv ird- 5
#et TTiOvfJLia<s KaOdirep Kal ra tOvr) rd JOLT) etSdra rov Oeov,
TO prj vTrepfiaLvtiv /cat TrXeoz/e/CTetz iv rw TrpdypaTi TOV 6
dSeX<oi> CLVTOV, Start e/cStAcos l Kvpios Trepl TrdvTOJV TOVTMV,
Kadajs Kal TrpoeiTrapev vfjilp Kal SiCfJiaprvpafJieda. ov yap 7
e/caXecrei 17/^0,9 6 #eog evrt aKaOapcria, dXX ez> dytacr/xw.
1 Add 6.
4. ro eaurov ffKsvoQ KTavQai, to
get his own vessel.^ It is doubted
whether under the image of a
vessel is meant "the body" or
"a wife." The meaning of the
word Krdffdat, and the opposition
of eavrov to Tropveiac, and also to
TrXeoveKrelv ro^a^eX^dr, ill ver. 6.,
is decidedly in favour of the
latter interpretation. Compare
1 Cor. vii. 2., for a similar op
position, 3ict e rae iropveiciQ
CJtaaroc r*/^ tavrou yvvaTfca i^lru).
For the figure, compare 1 Peter,
iii. 7. See also parallels in
Schottgen, which prove the com
mon Jewish use of VKEVOQ for a
wife. On the other hand, it may
be urged that there would be no
propriety here, as there is else
where, in the description of the
"body" under the metaphor of a
vessel; when in Rom. ix. 21.,
the term (TKEVOQ dpyr/e occurs, this
is a continuation of the figure of
the potter ; when in 2 Cor. iv.
7., the body is called offrpaKivov
(TKevoc, this is to denote its
frailty; so in 2 Tim. ii. 20, 21.
the metaphor is helped by the
surrounding words. But none
of these uses shows that axtvoQ
in this place could simply mean
body.
The exact force of the whole
passage may be expressed as
follows: "This is the will of
God your sanctification : " by
this is meant, "your abstaining
from fornication, your knowing
how to live chastely in a married
state." This is opposed to verse
6., the general sense of which is
"not to covet another man s
wife." Two difficulties occur,
however, in the attempt to dis
entangle the connexion. First,
it might seem as if St. Paul was
enjoining all men to marry. This,
however, is modified by ver. 6.
Every man is to have his own
wife, rather than to defraud his
neighbour. In other words, the
precept is not absolute ; but re
lative to the sin of adultery and
fornication. The second difficulty
is the insertion of p) iv TraOet ZTTL-
dvplac, in ver. 5., because it might
be said, that though the heathen
were distinguished from Chris
tians by immorality, they were
not so by an abuse of the mar
riage-bed in particular. But the
words, kv TraOet tTriflvjume, though
forming an antithesis to ev aym-
ff/jia) Kal rijuj/, need not necessarily,
when applied to the heathen, carry
us back to Kravdai TO ffKevog. In
ver. 5. these latter words are lost
sight of and some general idea
gathered from them, such as
"living" iv tradei eiriQvpias.
et> ayiaoyzw xai r</L/r}.] Com
pare, as slightly confirming the
interpretation given above, Heb.
xiii. 4., ripiOQ a ya.fj.oQ iv 7rd<n;
also the use of the word dri/mfc-
i, Rom. i. 24.
VEB. 5 7.] FIRST EPISTLE TO THE THESSALONIANS. 77
5 vessel in sanctification and honour : not in the lust of
concupiscence, even as the Gentiles which know not
6 God : that no man go beyond and defraud his brother
in the matter : because that the Lord is the avenger of
all these things, as we also forewarned you and testified.
7 For God called us not unto uncleanness, but in sancti-
5. H.YI iv iradei 7ri0i^u/a, not
in the lust of concupiscence.^
By the word TTO.QOG is implied
the state of yielding to lust, the
state in which lust becomes an
affection of the man. Compare
Rom i. 26., eie Tradrj cm/note, and
Vli. 5., TO. TradrjfjLara TUV ap.apriit)r.
6. TO fj.rj virp&aiviv~] is a fur
ther resumption and definition of
ver. 4. The article only gives
the clause a substantive, instead
of an infinitive form as above, 6
aytafffjios fyutuv, which, though a
substantive, stands in apposition
with airexeffdat. The Apostle is
continuing in his former track,
not passing on to the subject of
covetousness ; a transition which
would be inconsistent with what
follows, and would deprive the
words iv raj wpay/jiaTt of meaning.
Another aspect is thus pre
sented to us of sins of the flesh ;
the wrong done to our neighbour.
It is not necessary to suppose
that any idea of unchastity is con
veyed by the term "covet," any
more than in the tenth command
ment, " Thou shalt not covet thy
neighbour s wife." The meaning
exclusively arises from the con
nexion and application of the
word.
Iv T 7r|0ayjua7-i, not for iv rivi,
nor for iv TOVTWTU 7rpa.yjj.aTi, but
simply in the matter, i.e. of which
we are speaking, as elsewhere,
without a distinct antecedent.
As similarly wanting in a pre
cise antecedent, compare iii. 3.,
iv ralg SXtyeffiv TO.VTO.IQ, and just
belOW, TTfjOt TTCIVTWV TOVT(t)V. Al-
thoughfV TM TTpayfiaTL is not put,
usu modesto, for concubitu, yet it
is probable that the obscurity of
the passage arises partly from the
decency in which the Apostle
clothes it. The expression oc
curs again 2 Cor. vii. 11. ; also
with an imperfect antecedent.
TTEjOt iravTwv TovTd)v, about all
these things."] That is, all sins of
uncleanness.
KOI 7rpot7rafjiv.~^ /cat = too,
moreover ; as moreover we told
you, and, I may say, in still
stronger language testified to
vou. Compare TrpoeXeyopev, iii.
4.
What the Apostle means by dia-
papTvpeartiai might be illustrated
by several characteristic expres
sions in the Epistles, such as Gal.
i. 20.: "Behold before God I lie
not ;" 2 Thess. v. 27. : "I conjure
you by the Lord that this Epis
tle be read to all the brethren."
See also Gal. v.3., Eph. iv. 17.
7. fVi aKadaprria^ for God
calls us not to uncleanness. ~] Com
pare 7r* iXevdepia. iK\r]dr]Te, Gal.
v. 13. The preposition ewl in
such expressions wavers between
the senses of object and condition.
iv signifies the state in which
men are called (compare Gal. i.
6.), or which results from their
calling. It often happens that
modes of thought vary without
78
FIRST EPISTLE TO THE THESSALONIAKS. [Cn. IV.
v d0TL, dXXa TOP Oeov 8
TO ayiov et
2
TOiyCLpOVV 6 OL0TOL)V OVK
TOV 1 SL$OVTOL avTov TO
Ilepl Se T7?5 </>iXaSeX<ias ov
avTol yap vjnets OeoSiSaKToi ecrre 15 TO ayarrav
TjXovs 8 Kalyap Troietre avro 19 TrdvTas rov?
0X17 r]5 Ma/ceSoFta. TrapaKaXovjJLev e
fjiaXXov KOL ^n\oTip.i(r9oiL
ra tSta /cal epyd^eaOau rai? 4 yep&lv vp.)v,
TraprjyyeiXaiJLev, Iva TrepnraTTJTe
10
Km 11
Ov
5 Se vjaas dy^oec^ cxSeX^ot, Trepl
?rpos 12
- 13
1 /cal 8Jj/ra rb Trvev/j.a avrov . . ets
3 Add TOUS. 4 Add iSj
corresponding variations of mean
ing ; the same Christian grace
may be represented indifferently
as a condition, or an object, or a
state, or a result. There is no
need, therefore, to make an an
tithesis between eirl and kv, the
inversion of which would not
have involved any change in the
sense. The appearance of anti
thesis arises, partly from the love
of variety natural to all lan
guage, partly from an awkward
ness in the use of language, in
a late and rhetorical age, by a
writer who was imperfectly mas
ter of it.
8. roiyapovv o a07-wj , there
fore the despiser (that is, of the
commands which have preceded)
despises not man but God, who
gives to you his Holy Spirit.
Compare iii. 13. The latter
clause, rev dt Bovra, K. r. A., is a re
petition of the reason conveyed
by tKraXerrev ; it heightens the
heinousness of the sin, and at
the same time suggests why it
was unnatural that the Thessalo-
nians should commit it. TO
contains an allusion to iv ctyi-
CL(TfJL(t).
9. But (to turn to another
subject) concerning love to the
brethren, I have no need to write
to you ; for that is a lesson ye
already know, being taught of
God himself, to the end that ye
love one another.
The meaning is not simply,
" I need not teach you, for God
himself teaches you ; " but I need
not teach you, for God teaches
you effectually. The rhetorical
turn " I have no need " is cha
racteristic of the Apostle. Comp.
v. 12. ; 2 Cor. ix 1. ; Philemon,
19. te implies at once result
and object: "For ye give the
best evidence of having learnt
it by your actions towards all
the brethren in all Macedonia.
Kctl yap, for ye are not only
taught, but do it ; TroieTre is
emphatic, avro, SC. TO dyaTrav.
10. TrapattaXov/iiEV (Jt, but we
beseech you.~\ The most conve
nient way of taking these words
is to separate them from what has
preceded and connect them with
VER. 813.] FIRST EPISTLE TO THE THESSALONIANS. 79
8 fication. He therefore that despiseth, despiseth not
man, but God, who 1 giveth unto you his holy Spirit.
9 But as touching brotherly love 2 we need not to write
unto you : for ye yourselves are taught of God to
love one another. And indeed ye do it toward all the
brethren which are in all Macedonia : but we beseech
you, brethren, to increase more and more ; and to
study to be quiet, and do your own business, and work
12 with your 3 hands, as we commanded you ; that ye may
walk honestly towards them that are without, and may
have lack of nothing.
But we 4 would not have you to be ignorant, brethren,
10
11
13
1 Who hath also given unto us.
8 Add own.
what follows : " But we beseech
you, brethren, to increase more
and more, and make quietness the
object of your ambition." Trepia-
o-fueivmay refer to brotherly love,
but is not confined to it.
It is not necessary to suppose
that in the words that follow the
Apostle is warning the Thessalo-
nians against the abuse of charity
and brotherly love, for which he
had just before commended them ;
though it is true that evils would
soon creep into a society which
was a family of love.
11. (f)i\oTi[j.~iadai j]ffv%aen>,
K. T. X.] These words derive their
chief illustration from the Second
Epistle. From both together we
infer that the Church had fallen
into disorder, and that some of its
members had given up their
daily occupations. This disorder
may very probably have arisen
from an expectation of the im
mediate coming of Christ. See
note at the end of the chapter.
Supposing this to be the case, a
thread of connexion is supplied
2 Ye need not that I write.
* I.
with the new subject, which sug
gests itself to the Apostle s mind
at ver. 1 3. The Thessalonians are
excited and unsettled, and one
of the causes of their un settle
ment is the state of the dead.
12. tVa irepnraTrjrt tv<ryrifji6vii)g~\
is a counsel of prudence, not of
brotherly love. Comp. Col. iv.
5. ; 1 Tim. iii. 7. ; 1 Cor. xiv.
24. It is characteristic of St.
Paul to ask, "What will the
Gentiles say of us ? " a part of
the Christian prudence, which
was one of the great features of
his life.
Kal /jir]()ei OG yjpticLV f x^ 7 " 5 -] A 17 ?"
Zeros is here the neuter. These
words supply a further reason for
their working diligently, "that
they might not be in want."
13. The Apostle passes on,
with a formula that he employs
elsewhere (ov -vcXo^tv e vptig
ayvotiv, afieXtyoi ), to a new subject,
the state of the departed. The
train of thought may possibly
have been suggested by the pre
vious exhortation to be diligent
80
FIRST EPISTLE TO THE THESSALONIANS. [Cn. IV.
, l Iva /XT) XvTTrjcrOe /caftus Kal ol XCHTTOI ol p
l\.7riSa. el yap Tno-Tevopev on Irjorovs airtOavtv Kal u
Tr], ourws Kal 6 #eos rovs KOLpTjOevTas Sua TOV Irjcrov
<ji)V avT<. TOVTO yap vjj.lv Xeyo/xe^ iv \6ya> Kvpiov, STL 15
in their daily occupations, the
missing link being that their oc
cupations had been interrupted by
the expectation of the coming of
Christ. Compare chap. v. 11,
12. It may also have been a
reply to an inquiry, or may have
originated in the Apostle hear
ing of the anxiety of the converts,
who found that a gloom was cast
upon their faith in Christ, by the
death of some one of their num
ber. Their sadness was not as to
whether or not there was a future
state, but whether those who
were already dead should parti
cipate in the coming reign of
Christ. To the Jew of old, death
seemed sad, because it took men
away from the presence of God.
Yet more sad must it have ap
peared to the uninstructed mind
of the first converts, because it
took them away in the very hour
when it seemed good to live,
" waiting for the Son from hea
ven."
Ou $cX0f*V e v/me a.yvo~n>.~\
Comp. Rom.i. 13. ; xi. 25. ; 1 Cor.
x. 1. ; xii. 1. ; 2 Cor. i. 8., in which
passages it is used to give em
phasis to the subject which the
Apostle is introducing.
7T|0< T(i)\> Koi[jL<jjjj,u u)y, concerning
them which are asleep."] A euphe
mism for the dead which is used
in the Old Testament and some
times in classical writers ; more
than a euphemism in the New
Testament, which speaks also of
their awakening.
KdQitQ Kal ol Xoiiroi, as the
others.~\ The heathen, as in
Ephesians, ii. 3., who sorrow as the
Apostle, regarding them partly
from his own point of view, says
of them, or have reason to sorrow
for their ignorance of the future.
It would be easy to multiply
quotations from classical writers
in illustration of this expression,
like the words of Theocritus,
Idyll, iv. 42., i\Tri^eg zv ^cjolanv,
aviX-rriffToi IE SCLVOVTEC, : or the
mournful strain of Catullus, v. 4.,
" Soles occidere et redire possent.
Nobis quum semel occidit brevis
lux nox est perpetua una dor-
mienda;" or the life-like touch
of Lucretius, iii.942., "Nee quis-
quam expergitus exstat, frigida
quern semel est vitai pausa se-
cuta;"or the sad complaints of
Cicero and Quintilian over the
loss of their children ; or the
dreary hope of an immortality of
fame in Tacitus or Thucydides, or
the still more dreary acquiescence
in the belief of a future state as a
useful terror to man in general,
by Chrysippus and others ; or
the trifling dispute in the Ethics
of Aristotle affecting not the fact
but a question of words. The
silence of the earlier books of the
Old Testament is not less awful ;
and its language where it speaks,
though more religious, is in
many passages hardly more cheer
ing : " The living, the living, he
shall praise thee. What profit is
there in the grave ? Shall they
that go down into the pit, declare
thy truth ? "
VER. 14, 15.] FIRST EPISTLE TO THE THESSALONIANS. 81
KO.I 7TLffTVLV $1 OTl. The
has shortened the expression.
ovT()Q.~\ As Christ rose, so shall
the dead rise through him. Cf.
Acts i. 11., OVTOQ o IrjfftwQ o ava."
a0 vjuiUjv elg TOV ovpavbv,
concerning them which are asleep, that ye sorrow not,
u even as the others which have no hope. For if we
believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them
also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him.
15 For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that
A future state, it has been said,
was discovered by the ancient
world, like the Copernican system,
as one guess among many. Rather
say it was a shadow, a thought,
a hope, a poetical fancy, to which
the traditions of ages had given
a sort of reality. It would be
idle to talk of it as a subject of
belief. That the mythology which
had lost its hold on this world,
should have retained it in refer
ence to the shadowy forms of
another, would be, indeed, in
credible. Even to Plato it was
but the idea of an eternal truth,
before and after, of which mind
was the confluence, and in which
the individuality of man faintly
appeared from time to time. And
Socrates, at the hour of death,
knew not whether he was laugh
ing at himself and others, in
speaking of a world to come and
of the souls of just men made
perfect (Phsedo, 64.). Nor, if
we argue from the analogy of
human nature among ourselves,
is there reason to think that any
natural terror would make itself
a consolation. All men are re
signed to death ; they sorrow in
deed, but not for themselves, but
for the loss of friends or children.
14. The connexion may be
traced as follows : " I would not
have you sorrow for the dead, for
they are one with Christ ; and as
they are dead with him, shall also
rise with him." Cf. Rom. viii. 11.
el -yap Triorevo^i^, for if we be
lieve.^ In the apodosis, we expect
VOL. I.
O.VTQV TTOpeVOptl OV l TOV
u $<>.] He that raised up
Christ from the dead.
3m rov Ir/ffoO.] Not the mar
tyrs, as the Apostle is here
speaking of the whole commu
nion of the dead, as in v. 15. of
the living ; nor will the order of
the thought and the antithesis
of airidavE and KoiprjOlvTaQ allow
us to connect t)t O.VTOV with afct.
According to another ex
planation, c>ta, which with the
genitive commonly means the
instrument, is here used to de
scribe the state. Comp. Rom.
viii. 25., xiv. 20. ; 2 Cor. iii. 11.
Yet in the passages quoted the
idea of the instrument is not
wholly lost ; nor do any of them
apply to a person. It is better
therefore to say, not that <)ta is
put for e^> according to the old
grammatical phraseology ; but
only to compare them as pa
rallel expressions. As all things
are said to be " in Christ," so, al
though the usage is less general,
they may also be said to be
" through Christ," as in Rom. i.
8., ev\api(TToJ Sid irjvov XpiaTov.
afci avv avrw.j The dead are
already risen, and will reappear
with Christ at his reappearance.
15. TOVTO yap vfj.lt . ] The Apo-
82
FIRST EPISTLE TO THE THESSALONIANS. [Cn. IV.
eis
77/1619 ol oWes ol TrepiXecTro/xez ot eis TTJV irapovcraiv rov 16
Kvpiov ov fjirj (J)Odcra)fJiv rous KO 1/^77 Oevras, STL avros 6
Kvpios eV /ceXevcr/^ari, eV <f>(**vy ap^ayyeXov Kal eV o-aXmyyi
6eov /cara^crerai 0,77 ovpavov, KGLL ol vtKpoi eV yjpicrTQ) 17
errei/ra Txeis ot aWes 01 Tre/nXei-
stle adds emphatically: "And
this I say to you not of myself, but
by the word of Christ." It has been
asked respecting this passage,
as well as in reference to 1 Cor.
vii. 10., whether St. Paul is re
ferring to some special saying of
our Lord on these subjects, i. e.
resurrection and divorce, or to a
revelation which he had received
from Him. Neither of the pas
sages supposed to be alluded to
(Matt. xxiv. 31., or John, v. 25.)
is sufficiently near in sense to
make it safe for us to identify
them ; while a strong negative
argument may be urged on the
other side, from the fact of no other
quotations in St. Paul s writings
being apparently derived from
our canonical Gospels. It may
be further adduced as an argu
ment in favour of the supposition
that St. Paul is referring to actual
words of Christ, that he nowhere
speaks of any special truths or
doctrines as imparted to himself.
When he uses the expression,
" not I, but the Lord," 1 Cor. vii.
12., he is speaking of matters f
discipline, not of doctrine.
The question suggests a wider
one, which is equally incapable
of receiving a precise answer :
" What did St. Paul know of the
life of Christ?" Two passages
only throw any considerable light
on this subject. First, 1 Cor. xv.
3 10., in which the Apostle
describes himself, not only as
preaching to the Corinthians the
doctrine of the resurrection of
Christ, but as dwelling on the mi
nute circumstances which attested
it. Had he told them in like man
ner of other events in the life of
Christ? Had the parables and
discourses of Christ interwoven
themselves in his teaching ?
Were the miracles of Christ a
witness to which he appealed ?
It is instructive to put these
questions, even though they re
main without an answer. St. Paul
must have known numberless
persons who had followed the
footsteps of the Lord on earth ;
and yet the only memorial which
he has preserved is the short
fragment, "It is more blessed
to give than to receive," which
forms the second of the two quo
tations alluded to above (Acts,
xx. 35. Compare 1 Tim. vi. 13. ;
the mention of the institution of
the Lord s Supper, in 1 Cor. xi.
24. ; also Phil. ii. 7., 2 Cor. viii. 9.).
Had all the things that were
known of Christ in the days of the
Apostle been written down, " the
world itself," it might be said,
would hardly have contained "the
books that should be written ; " and
yet, as far as we can trace, it was
not the sayings or events of the
life of Christ, but the witness of
the Old Testament prophets, that
formed the larger part of St. Paul s
teaching, the "external" evidence
by which he supported, in himself
and others, the inward and liv
ing sense of union with Christ,
the medium through which he
preached " Christ crucified."
VEB. 16, 17.] FIRST EPISTLE TO THE THESSALONIANS. 83
we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the
16 Lord shall not prevent them which sleep ; because the
Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout,
with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of
17 God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first : then we
on r/jue7c ol WVTEC;.~] Is St.
Paul speaking here of his own
generation only ? or are the
living at a particular time put
for the living in general, these
being spoken of in the first per
son by way of contrast with the
dead from whom they are parted ?
In 1 Cor. xv. 51., if we adopt
Lachmann s reading, the Apostle
seems to number himself, not
among the living, but among the
dead, at the coming of Christ.
The mode of thought in the pre
sent passage is not precisely
similar, but yet not entirely dif
ferent. We may consider >//me
as a figure of the living
in general, just as ol
though primarily referring to the
dead in the Thessalonian Church,
is also put for the dead in gene
ral. It is nevertheless true, that
the words imply the immediate
expectation of Christ s coming.
The Apostle could not have said
" we," if he had had a distinct
perception that the coming of
Christ was still far distant.
ov jj.t] (pBdffwpw, shall not pre
vent ;] i. e. shall not leave behind
those that are asleep.
16. OTl aVTOQ 6 KVplOQ.^ CIVTOQ
is added to give dignity to the
coming of Christ. " The Lord
himself."
fceXevo-juart,] with a cry of com
mand, as of a general to his host.
The words kv fywvri ap^ayyeXov
and (.v ad\7rt.yyi Seov are added
as an epexegesis to express the
mode of giving the command.
As in the Old Testament, the
Lord was to come surrounded by
his saints, with the archangel as
the captain of his host, and the
sound of the trumpet as on Mount
Sinai. Compare 1 Cor. xv. 52. ;
Matthew, xxiv. 42.; Jude, 14.;
where the word adeXoQ also
occurs.
Kal ol veKpol kv xpicrro), and the
dead in Christ.~\ Here, as in 1 Cor.
xv., the Apostle confines himself
to the resurrection of the just.
He does not carry on his thoughts
to the question what destiny was
to be reserved for the wicked,
still less to the further question,
what was to become of the mul
titude of the heathen. The first
act of the last drama, Trptirov, is
the resurrection of the dead who
are to meet Christ ; the second,
the gathering to them of the in
habitants of the earth.
Where the things of which we
are speaking, are such as eye hath
not seen, nor ear heard, neither
hath it entered into the heart of
man to conceive, which can only
be expressed in figures of speech
and types of the Old Testament,
it is vain to attempt to define
exactly the meaning of particular
words, or to fill up the figures
by which the general meaning is
conveyed. Such an attempt is
like painting a picture of the
scenes in the Apocalypse, which,
the moment they are brought to
gether, are seen to have a pro-
G 2
84 FIKST EPISTLE TO THE THESSALONIANS. [On. IV.
crvv aurois ap7rayr}cr6p,e()a iv *><eXais ets
TOV Kvpiov eis aepa, Kal OVTCDS TrdvroTe <rvv
ecrdjute^a. aScrre Trapa/caXeire dXX^Xovs IP rots 18
Xdyois rovrots.
phetic and symbolical meaning, common Lord and with each
not an artistic unity. other, but of the mid-air. Inter-
17. EIQ TOV dfjoa, into the air.~\ preters go on to ask if he sup-
The Apostle speaks not of the posed the air to be the abiding-
earth, or of the heaven, as the seat of Christ s kingdom. Is not
scene of this first meeting of the this a question about the pro-
living and the dead with their priety of figures of speech ? Yet
VER. 18.] FIRST EPISTLE TO THE THESSALONIANS. 85
which are alive and remain shall be caught up together
with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air :
is and so shall we ever be with the Lord. Wherefore
comfort one another with these words.
admitting that we are discussing the other hand the air is appro-
the shadows of those things, and priated to the powers of evil
not the very things themselves, (Eph. ii. 2.).
it agrees better with the Apo- Kal ovrwe,] " and thus, after we
stle s usual language to regard have once met the Lord, shall we
heaven as the final and everlast- ever be with the Lord."
ing home of Christians, while on
86 FIRST EPISTLE TO THE THESSALONIANS.
EVILS IN THE CHUECH OF THE
APOSTOLICAL AGE.
WERE we, with the view of forming a judgment of the moral state
of the early Church, to examine the subjects of rebuke most fre
quently referred to by the Apostle, these would be found to range
themselves under four heads : first, licentiousness ; secondly, dis
order ; thirdly, scruples of conscience ; fourthly, strifes about doctrine
and teachers. The consideration of these four subjects, the two
former falling in with the argument of the Epistle to the Thessa-
lonians, the two latter more closely connected with the Romans and
the Galatians, will give what may be termed the darker side of the
primitive Church.
1. Licentiousness was the besetting sin of the Roman world. Ex
cept by a miracle, it was impossible that the new converts could be
at once and wholly freed from it. It lingered in the flesh when the
spirit had cast it off. It had interwoven itself in the pagan religions ;
and, if we may believe the writings of adversaries, was ever reap
pearing on the confines of the Church in the earliest heresies. It
was possible for men " to resist unto death, striving against sin,"
yet to fall beneath its power. Even within the pale of the Church,
it might assume the form of a mystic Christianity. The very
ecstasy of conversion would often lead to a reaction. Nothing is
more natural than that in a licentious city, like Corinth or Ephesus,
those who were impressed by St. Paul s teaching should have gone
their way, and returned to their former life. In this case it would
seldom happen that they apostatized into the ranks of the heathen :
the same impulse which led them to the Gospel, would lead them
also to bridge the gulf which separated them from its purer morality.
EVILS IN THE APOSTOLICAL CHURCH. 87
Many may have sinned and repented again and again, unable to
stand themselves in the general corruption, yet unable to cast aside
utterly the image of innocence and goodness which the Apostle had
set before them. There were those, again, who consciously sought
to lead the double life, and imagined themselves to have found in
licentiousness the true freedom of the Gospel.
How the consciences of men were aroused to the sense that sins
of the flesh were really sins, may be seen by the manner in which
the Apostle speaks of them. His tone respecting them is very dif
ferent from that of moralists, or of common conversation even among
serious men in modern times. He says nothing of the distrust
which they infuse into society, or the consequences to the individual
himself. It is not in this way that moral evils are presented to us
in Scripture. Neither does he appeal to public opinion as condemn
ing them, or dwell on the ruin involved in them to one half of the
human race. True and forcible as these aspects of such sins are, they
are the result of modern reflection, not the first instincts of reason and
conscience. They strengthen the moral principles of mankind, but
are not of a kind to touch the individual soul. They are a good
defence for the existing order of things ; but they will not purify
the nature of man, or extinguish the flames of lust.
It is a new and hitherto unheard of language in which the
Apostle denounces sins of impurity. They are not moral evils, but
spiritual. They corrupt the soul; they defile the temple of the
Holy Ghost; they cut men off from the body of Christ. Of mora
lity, as distinct from religion, there is hardly a trace in the Epistles
of St. Paul. He cannot appeal to public opinion, for public opinion .
does not exist ; the Gospel itself has to make the standard to the leve ^
of which it will raise the world. Fornication and uncleanness were
mildly, when at all, censured by heathen philosophy. From with
in, not from without, the nature of sin has to be explained; as it ap
pears in the depths of the human soul, in the awakening conscience of
mankind. Even its consequences in another state of being are but
slightly touched upon, in comparison with that living death which
G 4
88 FIRST EPISTLE TO THE THESSALONIANS.
itself is. It is not merely a vice or crime, or even an offence against
the law of God, to be punished here or hereafter. It is more than
this. It is what men feel in themselves, not what they observe in
those around them ; not what shall be, but what is ; a terrible con
sciousness, a mystery of iniquity, a communion with unseen powers
of evil.
All sin is spoken of in the Epistles of St. Paul, as rooted in human
nature, and quickened by the consciousness of law ; but especially is
this the case with the sin which is more than any other the type
of sin in general fornication. It is, in a peculiar sense, the sin
of the flesh, with which the very idea of the corruption of the flesh
is closely connected, just as, in 1 Thess. iv. 3., the idea of holiness
is regarded as almost equivalent to abstinence from the commission
of it. It is a sin against a man s own body, distinguished from all
other sins by its personal and individual nature. No other is at the
same time so gross and so insidious; no other partakes so much of
the slavery of sin. As marriage is the type of the communion of
Christ and his Church, as the body is the member of Christ, so the
sin of fornication is a strange and mysterious union with evil.
But although such is the tone of the Apostle, there is no violence
to human nature in his commands respecting it. He knew how
easily extremes meet, how hard it is for asceticism to make clean
that which is within, how quickly it might itself pass into its oppo
site. Nothing can be more different from the spirit of early ecclesi
astical history on this subject, than the moderation of St. Paul.
The remedy for sin is not celibacy, but marriage. Even second
marriages are, for the prevention of sin, to be encouraged. In the
same spirit is his treatment of the incestuous person. He had com
mitted a sin not even named among the Gentiles, for which he
was to be delivered unto Satan, for which all the Church should
humble themselves ; yet upon his true repentance, no ban is to sepa
rate him from the rest of the brethren, no doom of endless penance
is recorded against him. Whatever might have been the enormity
of his offence, he was to be forgiven, as in heaven, so on earth.
EVILS IN THE APOSTOLICAL CHUKCH. 89
The manner in which the Corinthian Church are described as
regarding this offence before the Apostle s rebuke to them, no less
than the lenient sentence of the Apostle himself afterwards, as well
as his constant admonitions on the same subject in all his Epistles,,
must be regarded as indications of the state of morality among the
first converts. Above all other things, the Apostle insisted on purity
as the first note of the Christian character ; and yet the very ear
nestness and frequency of his warnings show that he is speaking,
not of a sin hardly named among saints, but of one the victory over
which was the greatest and most difficult triumph of the cross of
Christ.
2. It is hard to resist the impression which naturally arises in
our minds, that the early Church was without spot, or wrinkle, or
any such thing ; as it were, a bride adorned for her husband, the
type of Christian purity, the model of Apostolical order. The real
image is marred with human frailty ; its evils, perhaps, arising more
from this cause than any other, that in its commencement it was a
kingdom not of this world ; in other words, it had no political ex
istence or legal support ; hence there is no evil more frequently
referred to in the Epistles than disorder.
This spirit of disorder was manifested in various ways. In the
Church of Corinth, the communion of the Lord s Supper was admi
nistered so as to be a scandal ; " one was hungry, and another was
drunken." There was as yet no rite or custom to which all con
formed. In the same Church, the spiritual gifts were manifested
without rule or order. It seemed as if God was not the author of
peace, but of confusion. All spoke together, men and women, ap
parently without distinction, singing, praying, teaching, uttering
words unintelligible to the rest, with no regular succession or
subordination (1 Cor. xiv.). The scene in their assemblies was
such, that if an unbeliever had come in, he would have said they
were mad. There is no other Church into which we have the same
particular insight ; but it is not likely that more regularity was
observed in the Galatian Church, which was distracted between
90 FIRST EPISTLE TO THE THESSALONIANS.
St. Paul and the false teachers, than in the Corinthian, which still,
though in disorder, acknowledged his authority. In the Church to
which the Epistle of Jude is addressed, the worst heretics are de
scribed as joining in the love feasts of its members, " feeding without
fear." The Second Epistle of Peter uses nearly the same words to
the Jews of the dispersion. (Jude, 12. ; 2 Pet. ii. 13.)
Evils of this kind in a great measure arose from the absence of
Church authority. Even the Apostle himself persuades more often
than commands, and often uses language which implies a sort of hesita
tion whether his rule would be acknowledged or not. The freedom
with which the Church of Corinth challenges particulars in his life
and conduct (1 Cor. ix.) reminds us rather of the license of a modern
congregation in censuring a minister of the Gospel, who was under
its control, than of the position which we should expect an Apostle
to have held in the minds of the first converts. The diverse offices,
the figure of the members and the body, do not refer to what was,
but to what ought to have been ; to an ideal of harmonious life and
action, which the Apostle holds up before them, which in practice
was far from being realised. The Church was not organized, but
was in process of organization. Its only punishment was excommu
nication, which, as in modern so in primitive times, could not be
enforced against the wishes of the majority. In two cases only are
members of the Church " delivered unto Satan " (1 Cor. v. 5. ; 1 Tim.
i. 20.). It was a moral and spiritual, not a legal control that was
exercised. Hence the frequent admonitions given, doubtless, be
cause they were needed : " Obey them that have the rule over you."
A second kind of disorder arose from unsettlement of mind. Of
such unsettlement we find traces in the levity and vanity of the
Corinthians ; in the fickleness with which the Galatians left St. Paul
for the false teachers ; almost (may we not say ?) in the very passion
with which the Apostle addresses them ; above all, in the case of the
Thessalonians. How few, among all the converts, were there capable
of truly discerning their relation to the world around ! or of sup
porting themselves alone when the fervour of conversion had passed
EVILS IN THE APOSTOLICAL CHURCH. 91
away and the Apostle was no longer present with them ! They had
entered into a state so different from that of their fellow-men, that it
might well be termed supernatural. The ordinary experience of men
was no longer their guide. They left their daily employments. The
great change which they felt within, seemed to extend itself without
and involve the world in its shadow. So " palpable to sense " was
the vision of Christ s coming again, that their only fear or doubt was
how the departed would have a share in it. No religious belief
could be more unsettling than this : that to-day, or to-morrow, or
the third day, before the sun set or the dawn arose, the sign of the
Son of man might appear in the clouds of heaven. It was not
possible to take thought for the morrow, to study to be quiet and get
their own living, when men hardly expected the morrow. Death
comes to individuals now, as nature prepares them for it ; but the
immediate expectation of Christ s coming is out of the course of
nature. Young and old alike look for it. It is a resurrection of the
world itself, and implies a corresponding revolution in the thoughts,
feelings, and purposes of men.
A third kind of disorder may have arisen from the same causes,
but seems to have assumed another character. As among the Jews,
so among the first Christians, there were those who needed to be
perpetually reminded, that the powers that be were ordained of
God. The heathen converts could not at once lay aside the licen
tiousness of manners amid which they had been brought up ; no
more could the Jewish converts give up their aspirations, that at this
time " the kingdom was to be restored to Israel," which had perhaps
been in some cases their first attraction to the Gospel. A com
munity springing up in Palestine under the dominion of the Romans,
could not be expected exactly to draw the line between the things
that were Caesar s and the things that were God s, or to understand
in what sense " the children were free," in what sense it was never
theless their duty to pay tribute. The spirit of those Galileans " who
called no man Lord," must have sometimes found its way into the
early Christian Church. When men are " wrestling against princi-
92 FIRST EPISTLE TO THE THESSALONIANS.
palities and powers, and spiritual wickedness in heavenly places,"
they do not find it easy to reconcile their course of action with the
bidding of those " who sit in Moses s seat." That one of the chief ap
prehensions of the Apostle was this tendency to rebellion, is proved
by the frequency of the exhortations to obey magistrates, and the
energy with which he sets himself against it.
3. The third head of our inquiry related to scruples of conscience,
which were chiefly of two kinds ; regarding either the observance of
days, or the eating with unclean or unbelievers. Were they, or
were they not, to observe the Jewish Sabbath, or new moon, or
passover? Such questions as these are not to be considered the
fancies or opinions of individuals ; but, as mankind are quick enough
to discover, involve general principles, and are but the outward
signs of some deep and radical difference. In the question of the
observance of Jewish feasts, and still more in the question of going
in unto men uncircumcised and eating with them, was implied the
whole question of the relation of the disciple of Christ to the Jew,
just as the question of sitting at meat in the idol s temple was the
question of the relation of the disciple of Christ to the Gentile.
Was the Christian to preserve his caste, and remain within the
pale of Judaism ? Was he in his daily life to carry his religious
scruples so far as to exclude himself from the social life of the
heathen world ? How much prudence and liberty and charity was
necessary for the solution of such difficulties !
Freedom is the key-note of the Gospel, as preached by St. Paul.
" All things are lawful." " There is no distinction of Jew or Greek,
barbarian or Scythian, bond or free." "Let no man judge you of
a new moon or a Sabbath." " Where the spirit of the Lord is, there
is liberty." And yet, if we go back to its origin, the Christian
Church was born into the world marked and diversified with the
features of the religions that had preceded it, bound within the
curtains of the tabernacle, coloured with Oriental opinions that
refused to be washed out of the minds of men. The scruples of
individuals are but indications of the elements out of which the
EVILS IN THE APOSTOLICAL CHUECH. 93
Church was composed. There were narrow paths in which men
walked, customs which clung to them long after the reason of them
had ceased, observances which they were unable to give up, though
conscience and reason alike disowned them, which were based on
the traditions of half the world, and could not be relinquished, how
ever alien to the spirit of the Gospel. Slowly and gradually, as
Christianity itself became more spread, these remnants of Judaism
or Orientalism disappeared, and the spirit which had been taught
from the beginning made itself felt in the hearts of men and in the
institutions of the Church.
4. The heresies of the Apostolical age are a subject too wide for
illustration in a note. We shall attempt no more than to bring
together the names and heads of opinion which occur in Scripture,
with the view of completing the preceding sketch.
There was the party of Peter and of Paul, of the circumcision and of
the uncircumcision. There were those who knew " Christ according
to the flesh ; " those who, like St. Paul, knew him only as revealed
within. There were others who, after casting aside circumcision,
were still struggling between the old dispensation and the new.
There were those who never went beyond the baptism of John ;
others, again, to whom the Gospel of Christ clothed itself in Alex
andrian language. There were prophets, speakers with tongues,
discerners of spirits, interpreters of tongues. There were seekers
after " knowledge, falsely so called ; " " spoilers of others with philo
sophy and vain deceit," " worshippers of angels, intruders into things
they had not seen." There were those who looked daily for the coming
of Christ ; others who " said that the Resurrection was passed al
ready." There were some who maintained an Oriental asceticism in
their lives, " forbidding to marry, commanding to abstain from meats."
There were individuals, like Hymenaeus and Alexander, who had
" made shipwreck of their faith ; " like Phygellus and Hermoge-
nes, who had " turned away " from St. Paul ; like Diotrephes,
the leader in the Church of Ephesus, who refused to "receive"
St. John. There were national differences, Jewish Sectarian ten-
94 FIRST EPISTLE TO THE THESSALONIANS.
dencies, heathen systems of philosophy; stones of another work
manship built into the fabric of the Christian Church. There
was the doctrine of the Nicolaitans, the synagogue of Satan, who
" said that they were Jews, and are not," " the woman Jezebel,
which calleth herself a prophetess." There were wild heretics,
"many Antichrists," "grievous wolves, entering into the fold,"
apostasy of whole churches at once. There were mingled anarchy
and licentiousness, "filthy dreamers, despising dominion, speaking
evil of dignities," of whom no language is too strong for St. Paul or
St. John to use, though they seem to have been separated by no
definite line from the Church itself. There were fainter contrasts,
too, of those who agreed in the unity of the same spirit, aspects, and
points of view, as we term them, of faith and works, of the Epistle to
the Romans and the Epistle to the Hebrews.
How this outline is to be filled up must for ever remain, in a great
degree, matter of speculation. Yet there is not a single trait here
mentioned which does not reappear in the second century, either
within the Church or without it, more or less prominent as favoured
by circumstances or the reverse. The beginning of Ebionitism,
Sabaism, Gnosticism, Montanism, Alexandrianism, Orientalism, and
of the licentiousness which marked the track of some of them,
are all discernible in the Apostolical age. They would be more cor
rectly regarded, not as offshoots of Christianity, but as the soil in
which it grew up. We are surrounded by them, in the Epistles of
St Paul, as truly as the Israelites were surrounded by their enemies
when they first took possession of the Promised Land. They are
not errors which arose when men began to speculate on the truths of
the Gospel : Gnosticism, in particular, would be more nearly de
scribed as the mental atmosphere of the Greek cities of Asia, a con
ducting medium between heathenism and Christianity, in the magic
light of which all religions faded and reappeared. None of them
pass away at once ; some even acquire a temporary principle of
life, and grow up parallel with the Church itself. As opinions
and tendencies of the human mind, many linger among us to the
EVILS IN THE APOSTOLICAL CHURCH. 95
present day. Only after the destruction of Jerusalem, with the
spread of the Gospel over the world, as the spirit of the East moves
towards the West, Judaism dies away, to rise again, as some hold,
in the glorified form of a mediaeval Church.
Such is the reverse side of the picture of the Apostolical age ;
what proportions we should give to each feature it is impossible to
determine. We need not infer that all Churches were in the same
disorder as Corinth and Galatia ; or like Sardis, in which only " a
few names had not defiled their garments ; " nor can we say how far
the more flagrant evils were tamely submitted to by the Church
itself. There was much of good that we can never know ; much
also of evil. The first Christians stood alone in the world : many
of them were ready to venture their lives for the faith ; most of them
had probably suffered persecution a difference between ourselves
and them than which none can be greater. And perhaps the
general lesson which we gather from the preceding considerations
is, not that the state of the primitive Church was better or worse
than our first thoughts would have suggested, but that its state
was one in which good and evil exercised a more vital power, were
more subtly intermingled with, and more easily passed into, each
other. All things were coming to the birth, some in one way,
some in another. The supports of custom, of opinion, of tradition,
had given way ; human nature was thrown upon itself and the
guidance of the Spirit of God. There were as many diversities
of human character in the world then as now ; more strange in
fluences of religion and race than have ever since met in one ; a
far greater yearning of the human intellect to solve the problems
of existence. There was no settled principle of morality inde
pendent of and above religious convictions. All these causes are
sufficient to account for the diversities of opinion or practice, as
well as for the extremes which met in the bosom of the primitive
Church.
96
FIRST EPISTLE TO THE THESSALONIANS. [Cn. V.
on 2
Ilepl Se ra)V yjpovtov Kal TUIV Kaipwv, dSeXc^oi, ov
VIM.V ypdfao-Qac avrol yap aKpifltos oiSare
r)fjipa Kvpiov o>s AcXeVn?? eV VVKTI OVTOJS e/o^erat. orav 3
[Se 1 ] Xeycocrw, Elprfvr) Kal dcr^aXeta, rdre cu<^>iSios avrots
cocnrep rj a>Slj> r^ eV yao~Tpl e^ovcr^
The Apostle had been speaking
of the coming of Christ in the
clouds of heaven. The question
would naturally arise in the minds
of theThessalonians, "When shall
these things be ? " But this they
already know as far as it can be
known. (Compare the turn of
iv. 9.) And all that can be known
is that " The day of the Lord
cometh as a thief in the night."
The world is lying in darkness,
asleep, ready to be surprised.
But they are the children of the
day, having a light within anti
cipating the dawn ; they may not
be asleep, they cannot be sur
prised ; they are to arm them
selves as soldiers of Christ, taking
the breastplate of faith and the
helmet of salvation ; for to salva
tion they are appointed through
Christ Jesus, with whom they are
one in life and death.
Many characteristics of St.
Paul are crowded in this passage.
First, the rhetorical turn, ov
Xpdav tx ETm Secondly, the subtle
transition in the use of the meta
phor of the day of the Lord to
the moral lesson that they are
to walk as children of the day.
(Compare Rom. xiii. 1 14.)
Thirdly, the imagery of v. 8.
(compare Ephes. vi.) ; also the
going off upon the word ffwrripia,
which is made the link of the
following verse. Fourthly, the
thought of our identity with
Christ, in which is still retained
the allusion to sleeping and
waking. And lastly, in the llth
verse, the resumption of the pre
cept which closes the preceding
chapter.
Led by some hidden train of
association, either because the
expectation of the day of the
Lord had caused disorder among
them, or as a sequel to the pre
cept, that they should walk soberly
as children of the light, the Apo
stle goes on to exhort his converts
to obey those who are set over
them in the Lord. Then follow
(as towards the close of several
Epistles) isolated precepts suc
ceeding each other in order, some
times of meaning, sometimes of
form, passing from the particular
to the general, or from the gene
ral to the particular, and ending
with a final prayer for their sanc-
tification, by the God who can
heal disorder, and can and will
preserve them blameless against
the day of the Lord Jesus. The
Epistle concludes with the salu
tation of the brethren, the charge
that the Epistle should be read
to all, and the benediction.
V. 1. ov *pdav tyiT^ye have no
need.~\ Perhaps because the Apo
stle had told them, or because
the sudden coming of Christ was
a universal belief with the first
converts. So in modern times
a preacher might say, " There is
no need for me to speak to you of
the uncertainty of life." ypa 0-
VER. 2, 3.] FIRST EPISTLE TO THE THESSALONIANS.
97
5 But of the times and the seasons, brethren, ye have
2 no need that I write unto you. For yourselves know
perfectly that the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief
3 in the night. But 1 when they shall say, Peace and
safety ; then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as
travail upon a woman with child ; and they shall not
1 For.
crdai, impersonal for Ira
a lax usage in later Greek, which
may be compared with the re
verse use of i ret with the subjunc
tive instead of the infinitive,
both arising from the same cause,
the growing indefiniteness of the
latter mood. Compare iv. 9.
2. fjpepa Kvpiov, the day of the
Lord^\ Neither the day of death
to individuals, nor the time of
the destruction of Jerusalem, nor
in the common sense the end of
the world. More truly should we
say that the Apostle meant all
these, ere they had separated
themselves from the indistinct
future. It was the day spoken of
by the prophet Joel, referred to
by St. Peter in the Acts, and
prophesied of by Christ himself,
in which the destruction of Jeru
salem was to be followed by the
sign of the Son of man in the
clouds, and in which wars and
tumults, as well as natural con
vulsions, were to herald the end
of the world. It was the day of
revelation, in which the Apo
stle was to receive his reward
and the work in the hearts of
his converts to be completed.
(2 Thess. ii. 2. ; 1 Cor. i. 8., v. 5. ;
2 Cor. i. 14.; Philipp. i. 6. 10.,
ii. 16.)
d>e /cXeVrrje j vfcrt, as a thief in
the night,~] is emphatic. From this
and similar figures arises the
VOL. I. II
notion which the early Church
entertained in common with the
Jews, that the Messiah would
come on the vigil of a Pascal
festival. The words explain
themselves. Yet they suggest
also a passing commemoration
of those who regarded them not
as a figure, but as a fact ; who
have watched with " their lamps
lighted" in every age, at many
altars, in all lands, waiting for
their Lord.
3. OTO.V c)e Xcyuffcx, but when
they shall say.~] It, if genuine,
expresses the opposition of the
fact to their expectation. " But
they shall be saying peace and
safety when sudden destruction
comes upon them." By an awk
wardness of expression itis joined
to the protasis of the sentence.
The signs of the end of the
world are described elsewhere to
be such as would arrest and
amaze men : here " the kingdom
of God cometh not with observa
tion ; " yet it is not said, as our
Saviour adds, " the kingdom of
God is within you." In different
passages of Scripture, and even
in the same passage, the com
ing of the kingdom of God is
described to us under contradic
tory aspects. It is near, it is
not near ; visible and invisible ;
marked by signs, and yet dis
cernible to God only. It is in
98
FIRST EPISTLE TO THE THESSALONIANS. [CH. V.
ov jjir) K(f>vyG)a-iv. i5//,eis Se, dSeXc^oi, OVK ecrre IP cncdrei, 4
Iva v/x,as rj r)p,epa a>g KXeVras 1 /caraXa/fy* Traces yap 2 5
wo! <J)O)TOS ecrre /cai vtoi rjpepas. OVK ia^v VVKTOS
CT/COTOVS. apa ow ^77 KaOtvScopev a>9 ot XOITTOI, dXXa 6
Kal vridxti^zv. ot yap KafevSo^res VVKTOS 7
KadevSovcnv, Kal ol /xe^vcr/cd/xe^ot VVKTOS p,0vovo~w ^ets 8
fyius as
the clouds of heaven and in the
human soul at once. And every
where the thoughts are drawn off
from the over-curious considera
tion of its form and manner to
the practical lesson which may
be gathered from it.
4. vfic tQ c), afieXtyoi, butye, bre
thren J] There was another point
of view in which the day of the
Lord might be regarded. Though
it would break in with a sudden
light upon the heathen world, to
the Christian the light which it
brought would be that which was
already shed abroad in his heart.
iVa.] Not, that " the purpose
of God may be fulfilled, of coming
suddenly on you," which seems
far-fetched, but simply denoting a
consequence, "for the day of the
Lord to come upon you."
K\i-KTaQ,~] The reading of
Lachmann has equal or rather
greater MS. authority (A. B.)
than fc\7T7-7, which is the read
ing of the " Textus Receptus "
(A. Ci. f. g. v.). The question re
mains somewhat uncertain when
argued further on grounds of in
ternal evidence.
On behalf of Lachmann may be
urged the old canon of the more
difficult reading; the copyist was
far more likely to repeat the same
case which had occurred in a pro
verbial expression just quoted than
to alter it. The change in the
figure itself is also rather in
2 Omit yap.
favour of the accusative
For St. Paul transposes figures of
speech in other places, as, for ex
ample, Rom. vii. 1 6., where the
imnge begins with the law dying,
and ends with men dying to the
law ; or 1 Thess. ii. 7. and 17.; or
2 Cor. iii. 1618. The echo of
the word is still in his ears ; to
avoid repetition, he changes its
use. Lastly, the reading
gives a point lo viol 0wroc.
5. irdvTf.Q yap vfjicig viol
EffTE^for ye are all the children
of light.~\ The Apostle strength
ens and expresses more generally
what had been said in the pre
vious verse. Ye, brethren, are
not in darkness; for ye are all
sons of light and sons of day.
6. As children of the light, let
us be children of the light in our
life and conversation. Others
sleep; but we must watch.
Others may be drunken ; but we
must be sober. The Apostle
gives a similar turn to " the day
of the Lord," in Rom. xiii. 12.:
"The night is far spent, the
day is at hand: let us therefore
cast off the works of darkness,
and let us put on the armour of
light. As in the day, let us walk
soberly." Compare also, for a
parallel association of ideas, what
we may venture to term the
irony of our Lord to his disciples,
in John, xi. 9.: Are there not
twelve hours in the day? If any
VER. 4-8.] FIKST EPISTLE TO THE THESSALONIANS. 99
4 escape. But ye, brethren, are not in darkness, that that
5 day should overtake you as thieves 1 : for 2 ye are all
the children of light, and the children of the day. We are
e not of the night, nor of darkness. Therefore let us not
sleep, as do others ; but let us watch and be sober.
7 For they that sleep sleep in the night ; and they that
s be drunken are drunken in the night. But let us who
1 A thief.
man walk in the day, he stum-
bleth not, because he seeth the
light of this world."
In like manner the Apostle, in
what follows, appeals to the com
mon customs of mankind : "It
is not the manner of men to sleep
in the day."
7. 01 yap KaQevZoi TeQifor they
that sleepJ] Night and day co
exist. They are separated, as it
were, rather by place than by
time. The night of the world is
the day in the believer s soul.
In the words, ol yap KaQzvdovrec,
is implied a latent allusion to the
state of the heathen. Compare
with the whole passage, Eph. v.
8. : " For ye were sometimes
darkness, but now are ye light
in the Lord: walk as children
of light." 13. "But all things
that are reproved are made mani
fest by the light: for whatsoever
doth make manifest is light."
14. "Wherefore he saith, Awake
thou that sleepest, and arise from
the dead, and Christ shall give
thee light."
Dropping the simile in such
passages, their general meaning
may be said to be, "let us be
what we are." There are two
great modes in which the Chris
tian state is represented to us in
Scripture, which, as in this pas
sage, readily pass into each other:
8 Omit for.
the first, as it may be termed,
progressive, in which believers
are spoken of as going on to
perfection, as having faith and
bringing forth its fruits, as not
having yet attained; the second
what may be called anticipatory,
in which the change of state is
already fulfilled in them; they
are the children of the light,
they are one with Christ, and
they need only to be awakened
to the consciousness of what they
truly are. Their final assurance
rests rather on looking at what is
present or past, than in looking
forward to what shall be. Out
of this point of view arise prac
tical precepts, the same in sub
stance, though different in form
from the preceding.
8. St. Paul goes on to describe
the believer under his favourite
image of the soldier. This has
been already suggested by the
mention of watching and sobriety.
The weapons with which he is
armed are faith, hope, and cha
rity. There is no particular ap
propriateness in the several figures
by which they are described,
which in Ephesians, vi. 11 17.,
are varied. The word ffurr)-
piag seems to be used with a
double allusion : First, as a con
tinuation of the martial image.
Secondly, in a Christian sense,
H 2
100
FIRST EPISTLE TO THE THESSALONIANS. [Cn. V.
Se rjfjiepas cWes VTJ(j>a)p,V, eVSvcrajaevoi 6a>paKa Trtcrreco?
Kal ayaTnjs Kal Trepifce^aXcu az eXTTiSa cram^ias, ort ov/c 9
etfero ^fta? 6 #eog eis opyrjv, dXX 5 eis TrepnroLrjcriv crcoT^/Ha?
Sea rot) Kvpiov rjp.a)v Irjcrov ^OICTTOU, rov aTroOavovros 10
VTrep rjiMcov, Iva eire ypyyopufjiev cire KaOevStojJiev apa crw
aurc? 77<rcd/xei>. Sio Trapa/caXeire dXX^Xovs, Kal ot/coSo/Aeire 1.1
els TOZ/ eW, Ka6a)$ Kal Troietre.
Se Vjita?, aSeXc^oi, etSeVat rous KOTrtw^ras e^ 12
crra^vov^ vfJLwv tv Kvpico Kal vovOerovvras
, Kal rjyelcrOai auroug UTrepefCTrepicrcrajs 1 e^ dyaTrrj Sta 13
Km
which is more fully drawn out in
the succeeding verse.
The remembrance of Isaiah
lix. 17. is in the Apostle s mind :
Kcti el eSvcraro ^iKaioavvriv wg 0w-
pcifcct fcai TrepiKefyaXatav erwrr/p ov
7rt rf/c K(pa\rjg. It is remarkable
that the expression in Eph. vi.
14., 6u)paKa fiiKatoffvvrjc;, is nearer
the language of the prophet than
OwpaKa Tn orewe in this passage.
A connecting link between the
words of Isaiah and of the Epis
tle to the Ephesians is found in
Wisdom, v. 19.
. 9. on OVK edero. The connexion
turns upon the word o-wrryjom,
"Because God has appointed us
unto salvation," which the Apo
stle expresses, first, negatively,
because God has not appointed
us for wrath, i. e. for punishment,
and then positively, but for the
attainment of salvation, through
our Lord Jesus Christ.
means to make to remain over,
to save, set apart, and in the
middle also to acquire. In some
passages, Trepuroirjvic also has the
idea of making to survive, as in
Heb. X. 39., EIQ TrepiTroirjffiv rije
; in 1 Peter, ii. 9.,
TreptTroirjmv; and Eph. i. 14.,
eiQ a.7ro\vrpu)fftv rfJQ TrepiTroiriae-
we, it means "making or being
made a possession," with an al
lusion to the use of TrepiTroteTr,
of the chosen people, in Is. xliii.
21.; cf. Mai. iii. 17. Here, as in
2 Thess. ii. 14., the word is taken
generally in the sense of posses
sion, and absolutely ; that is,
without reference either to our
acquiring or God s giving sal
vation. The words 3ta TOV Kvpiov
are to be taken with
10. TOV aTToQctVOVTOQ VTTtp
who died for us."] There is a
double allusion in this verse:
First, the more general thought
so often repeated in the Epistles
of St. Paul, of the identification
of the Christian with his Lord,
" who died for us, that whether
in life or death we may live with
him;" which sometimes assumes
the relation of opposition, at other
times of sameness, either "he
died on our behalf that we may
live," or "he died and rose again,
that with him also we may die
and rise again." But further,
VER. 913.] FIRST EPISTLE TO THE THESSALONIANS. 101
are of the day, be sober, putting on the breastplate of
faith and love ; and for an helmet, the hope of salvation.
9 For God hath not appointed us to wrath, but to* obtain-
10 ing of salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for
us, that, whether we wake or sleep, we may live together
11 with him. Wherefore comfort yourselves together, and
edify one another, even as also ye do.
12 And we beseech you, brethren, to know them which
labour among you, and are over you in the Lord, and
13 admonish you ; and to esteem them very highly in love
the mode of expression is coloured
by what has preceded. Instead
of saying, "whether in life or
death we may live with him," the
Apostle says, "whether we wake
or sleep, we may live with him."
He recalls what he had been
saying before. "If we believe
that Jesus died and rose again,
then also they which sleep through
Jesus will God bring with him."
He died for us, that it might
make no difference whether we
live or die, or as it is here ex
pressed, that whether we are
awake or asleep, at "his coming
we may together live with him."
apa is to be taken with //<rw-
/JEV, not with (TVV avru).
11. eko Trapa/oaXeTre,]] from the
context (compare iv. 18.) shown
to be in the sense of "comfort,"
rather than "exhort." The
Apostle, who had half concluded
at the end of the last chapter,
here finally terminates the sub
ject of the advent.
e!e rov fVa,] one the other ;
like <h Trpog >, tV dv0 evbg, in
classical Greek. (Compare 1 Cor.
iv. 6.)
12. Epwra>/*v c), but we beg.~\
c) is here said to be a particle
of transition ; or, in other words,
the adversative form of sentence
is so natural to the Greek lan
guage, that in later Greek it has
altogether lost its adversative
force.
elSevat, ] to have respect for,
like the English word " know "
in some uses of it. Compare ITTL-
1 Cor. xvi. 18.
The three ex
pressions all equally denote the
elders : (1.) as labourers in the
Church ; (2.) as its rulers ; (3.)
as its instructors.
iv Kvpiu, ] not as a limitation
on Trpoiarapivovg, as though with
allusion to other secular rulers,
not " in the Lord." The rulers
of the Church rule in the Lord,
as the whole Church exists in
the Lord, as the believer is said
to speak, Jive, and die in Him.
Compare i. 2.
13. Kdi fiyelffOcLt CLVTOVQ
iv dyo.7rr/ : not /yyt-
dyaTrr/ (like iytiv iv opyfj,
in Thucyd. ii. 18.), to hold them
in love. The idiom is smoother
and the sense better, if we con
nect f/ytto-flcu with VTrtpEKTrepia-
<rw. " We ask of you to esteem
them highly in love, i. e. loving
them, for their works sake." In
these words is implied the double
H 3
102
FIRST EPISTLE TO THE THESSALONIANS. [Cn. V.
TO epyov OLVTMV. eipTjveveTe v ecurrois. Traoa/caAov/xei/ Se 14
, aSeX<oi, vov0TLTe TOVS CCTCIKTOUS,
dcr^ez/cGz/,
i t / \. / \.
7T/OOS TTCU TaS. 6pOLT. [JiTJ T19 KOLKOV CCZ^Tl /Cd/COV TWt Ct7To8a> 15
dXXd Trdvrore TO dya9bv StwKeTC eis dXX^Xovs /ecu ei? lg
TrdvTore ^aipere t dStaXeiTTTcos
^apto-TetT* TOVTO yap Icmv 1
ITJCTOV eis v/>ia9. TO Trvevpa JU-T)
1 Omit
notion of regard for their autho
rity and love for their persons,
as in the expression Bici TO ipyov
contained a similar two-fold
7rai>Ti
, ez/ 17
is
allusion to their office and their
labour of love. The tie which
binds the believer to the elders of
his Church is a mixed one, partly
of duty, and partly of affection.
eipr]VVTe kv eavTOig = a\X^-
Xoie*] The Apostle following up
the train of thought in the pre
ceding verse, adds a second coun
sel, of peace with one another.
14. 7rapaKaXov[j,V ^e.]j For Si
see above, ver. 12. The Apostle
continues his exhortation to a
performance of Christian duties
in general.
rove ara*.Tove, unruly.^ Who
they were we have no means of
knowing, but from the Epistle
itself; the same probably, who
stood in need of the exhorta
tion in iv. 11. : "That they
should study to be quiet and do
their own business, and work
with their own hands ; " to whom
the Apostle again returns in
2 Thess. iii. 12.
6\iyo4 / v )(ovQ . . dad ev&v, feeble
minded, weak. } Not unconnected
with what preceded, as the dis*
orders themselves might have
arisen from the weakness of some,
or the over-conscientiousness of
others, or the anxiety of a third
class of persons respecting the
state of the departed. If in pagan
times evils had arisen from those
who had sorrowed without hope
and with little thought about the
state of the dead, much more
would this be likely to be the
case where men s hearts were so
moved within them and their re
ligious anxieties so intense.
paKpoOvpeiTeTrpoe Trai Tag. ] Com
pare 1 Cor. xiii. 4. : ?/ aycnrri
lj,a.KpoOviJ,~i. With this is con
nected the following precept, in
which the rule of Christian life
is still further generalised.
15. opdre pi ne.] These words
do not mean, " Take heed of some
one else ; " but " Let each one take
heed not to return evil for evil,
but everywhere pursue after
goodness, both in relation to the
brethren and to those without
the Church."
It is not strictly true to say
that Christianity alone or first
forbade to return evil for evil.
Plato knew that it was not the
true definition of justice to do
harm to one s enemies. The
Stoics, who taught the extirpa
tion of the passions, were far
enough from admitting of re
venge to be the only one which
should be allowed to remain. It
is a higher as well as a truer
claim to make for the Gospel,
VER. 1420.] FIRST EPISTLE TO THE THESSALONIANS. 103
14 for their work s sake. Be at peace among yourselves.
Now we exhort you, brethren, warn them that are
unruly, comfort the feeble-minded, support the weak,
is be patient toward all men. See that none render evil
for evil unto any man ; but ever follow that which is
16 good, both among yourselves, and to all men. Rejoice
is evermore; pray without ceasing; in every thing give
thanks : for this is the will of God in Jesus Christ con-
you. Quench not the Spirit^ despise not
cernmg
that it kindled that spirit of
kindness and goodwill in the
breast of man (which could not
be wholly extinguished even to
wards an enemy), until it became
a practical principle ; and that it
preached as a rule of life for all,
what had previously been the
supreme virtue, or the mere
theory of philosophers.
TO dyaOov, good,~\ in the sense
of goodness. The opposite of
evil inflicted on another.
16. TTCLVTOTE ^aipT f rejoice
evermore."] Philipp. iv. 4. Why
should this be a duty ? Did St.
Paul himself always rejoice ? In
one sense, yes ; as he knew that
all things are working together
for good. And not only so, but
he gloried also in tribulation ;
evermore, he was as sorrowful,
yet alway rejoicing. So the
Christian is to have a better mind
of joy, even in sorrow. There is
no unmixed evil in this world,
and it is his duty to appropriate
the good in all things.
17. ddiaXeiTTTWQ Trpoffev^EffOs,
pray without ceasing. ] A precept
like the last, capable of fulfil
ment in idea rather than in fact.
" It is the Spirit that quickeneth,
the letter profiteth nothing." The
true idea of prayer is prayer in
Spirit, as the old saying has it,
" laborare est or are" not the re
peating of long prayers, but the
diligent service of God, and the
silent reference of all our actions
to Him. Eph. vi. 18.
18. kv TTCLVTI. ] The Apostle
adds another precept, which
may be regarded as uniting
in one the last two : " Give
thanks in everything." TOVTO yap,
K. r. X. Compare iv. 3. These
words may be referred to all
the three previous clauses : re
joice alway, pray without ceasing,
in everything give thanks. For
the will of God is, not that you
should sorrow, but that you should
be fulfilled with a spiritual joy.
19. TO Trvivfj-a pri ffevi>vT,
quench not the Spirit.~\ The first
grace which Christians received
was like a new spirit, coming
down from heaven, as it is de
scribed, in the form of fiery
tongues and sitting upon each of
them. It was not a power which
by long effort they created in
themselves ; but one which over
powered them, which was already
kindled in them, though it might
be extinguished. In this passage,
the word rrrevfjia includes the
power itself and the spiritual
or supernatural gifts which ac
companied it.
20.
ii 4
104
FIRST EPISTLE TO THE THESSALONIANS. [Cn. V.
Se l SoACtjuta^ere, TO KCL\OV 21-
, a?ro Tra^ros eiSovs Trovypov dire^ecrOe. auras Se 22
6 $eos TT^S elpyjvrjs dyiacrat v/^ds oXoreXeis, /cat o\OK\r)pov
vjjL&v TO Trvev^a Kal rj ^JV^rj Kal TO cra>/x,a djue/^7TTCt>9 e*> TT?
Trapovcria TOV Kvpiov rjp,a>v l^crov yjpio~Tov
LS, OS
KCU 7TOi7JO L.
Omit Se .
despise not prophesyings.*\ The
essential part of the gift of pro
phecy was, not the foretelling of
future events, but the delivery of
spiritual oracles. In no place is
the term prophet applied to con
temporaries of the Apostles, in
the modern sense of the word. It
was Jeremiah, Ezekiel, &c., the
elder prophets only, who foresaw
the distant future. Yet prophesy
ing is not exactly synonymous
with preaching or teaching. As
the gift of tongues required in
terpretation, so prophecy was sub
jected to discerners of spirits,
1 Cor. xv. 29.; 1 John, iv. 1.
See below, ver. 21. When it is
said that " the spirits of prophets
are subject unto the prophets,"
these very words imply also that
they were apt to be beyond
the prophet s own power. In
an eastern country, in the hour
of ecstacy or conversion, such
manifestations would be likely to
be very different from the forms
which they would exhibit among
colder tempers. That weakness
or imposture would easily mix it
self up with them is self-evident,
even if it were not indicated in 2
Thess. ii. 2. ; 1 John, iv. 1. Hence
the Apostle, while exhorting his
converts not to despise them, as
elsewhere he places them first
among spiritual gifts, 1 Cor. xiv.
24
25
8 Omit Kai.
1., adds in both places the ex
hortation to try them.
21, 22. The general meaning
of these two verses may be para
phrased thus : " Discern between
good and evil ; choose the good,
avoid the evil." Yet the English
translation, " try all things," na
turally suggests thoughts very
unlike those of the first century.
However apt their application
may sound, the true meaning is
not " make a rational inquiry into
all things." The organ of discern
ment was of another and a spiri
tual kind. In 1 Cor. xii. 10., St.
Paul speaks of a gift of the dis
cernment of spirits, and it is in
a similar connexion the precept
occurs hereafter ; the Apostle has
been speaking of prophecy and of
the spirit, as in the Corinthians
the discerning of spirits is spoken
of with immediate reference to
the spiritual gifts. Bearing in
mind, that the whole state of the
first believers was extraordinary
and spiritual, we shall find the
meaning in both passages much
the same. The distinction of right
and wrong, no less than of matters
of faith was to them a discerning
of spirits. Let us imagine a com
munity of prophets, agitated by
every various spiritual impulse,
yet remaining men of a common
nature with ourselves, and liable
. 2126.] FIRST EPISTLE TO THE THESSALONIANS. 105
21 prophesyings. But 1 prove all things; hold fast that
22 which is good ; abstain from every kind* of evil.
23 And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly, and
may your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved
blameless in the coining of our Lord Jesus Christ.
24 Faithful is he that calleth you, who also will do it.
Brethren, pray for us too. 2 Greet all the brethren
1 Omit but.
to mistake merely physical effects
for spiritual power ; what extra
vagancies must have been the
result, what mixed good and evil
must have blended together under
the name of the spirit ! To se
parate and distinguish this among
those who held the name of Christ,
and yet may have sometimes min
gled with it "the doctrines of de
vils," must have been the chief
office of a discerner of spirits in
the first century. It is this dis
cernment of spirits that is partly
spoken of in the words Travra
So K i pa ere.
22. ctTro TTO.VTOQ i()ovg, from
every kind of evil."] This is op
posed to the previous clause,
both together forming subdivi
sions of iravra SoKipa^eTE, which
is the closing precept : " Try all
things ; hold fast the good, abs
tain from evil." The antithesis is
natural in a writer so fond of anti
thesis as St. Paul. Compare Rom,
xii. 9 21. The punctuation of
Lachmann is therefore preferable
to that of the Textus Receptus,
and of the Authorised Version.
eltioQ = kind rather than ap
pearance, TrovrjpoV) though with
out the article, is probably a
substantive, as in Gen. ii. 9.
23. Still the Apostle is think
ing of the coming of Christ,
2 Omitioo.
against which he prays that thejt
may be preserved, not only in
soul and spirit, but in body.
Had he a distinct thought at
tached to each of these words?
Probably not. He is not writing
a treatise on the soul, but pour
ing forth, from the fulness of his
heart, a prayer for his converts.
Language thus used should not
be too closely analysed. His
words may be compared to simi
lar expressions among ourselves :
e. g. " with my heart and soul."
Who would distinguish between
the two? Neither did the age
in which St. Paul lived admit of
any great accuracy in speaking
of the human soul ; nor does the
fluctuating use of such terms in
other parts of Scripture imply any
precise or exact distinction. Who
could define the difference be
tween soul and spirit in the Alex
andrian, scholastic, or any other
philosophy ? least of all should
we attempt to do so in Scripture,
which no more anticipates the
metaphysical distinctions of later
ages than their discoveries in
astronomy or geology.
24. It is faithfulness on God s
part that man perseveres to the
end, and yet not unfaithfulness
"if some do not believe " (Rom.
iii. 3.).
106 FIRST EPISTLE TO THE THE S SALOPIANS. [Cii. V.
roi5 dSeXc^ous Trdvras iv (^tX^/xart ayia>.
Kvpiov, dvajyvoMrOrivaLi Tr)v lma TO\r)v Travw rots
e H ^apts rou Kvpiov TjiJitov 177 cro v ^ptcrrov
1 Add 071045. 2
27. A similar direction to this, guage ? did he doubt the good
viz., to interchange their own faith of the rulers of the Church ?
Epistle with that to the Laodi- was there some real occasion for
ceans, is given to the Colossians a doubt? or was the expression
(Col. iv. 16.). But why does St. "I conjure you by the Lord" a
Paul use such vehemence of Ian- customary form with him ? or is
VEK. 27, 28.] FIRST EPISTLE TO THE THESSALONIANS. 107
27 with an holy kiss. I charge you by the Lord that
this epistle be read unto all the l brethren.
ss The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you.
Amen. 2
1 Add "holy."
8 Add the first Epistle unto the Thessalonians was written from Athens.
it that he is not completely ground for doubting the genuine-
master of his words, or that they ness of the Epistle, as the Apostle
had not such force to him as they uses elsewhere strong forms of
have to us ? Whatever be the speech, where they appear to us
reason, the use of such an expres- unnecessary; as, for example, Gal.
sion cannot be regarded as any i. 20.
108 FIRST EPISTLE TO THE THESSALONIANS.
ON THE BELIEF IN THE COMING OF CHRIST
IN THE APOSTOLICAL AGE.
" Neither shall they say, Lo here ! or, lo there ! for, behold, the kingdom of God
is within you" (Luke xvii. 21.).
THE belief in the near approach of the coming of Christ is spoken
of or implied in almost every book of the New Testament ; in the
discourses of our Lord himself, as well as in the Acts of the Apostles ;
in the Epistles of St. Paul no less than in the Book of the Revelation.
The remains of such a belief are discernible in the Montauism of the
second century, which is separated by a scarcely definable line from
the Church itself. Nor is there wanting in our own day a dim and
meagre shadow of the same primitive faith, moving around, and
sometimes within, the pale of our own communion. There are still
those who argue, from the very lapse of time, that " now is their
salvation nearer than when they believed." All religious men have
at times blended in their thoughts earth and heaven ; while there are
some who have raised their passing feelings into a system of doctrinal
truth, and have seemed to see in the temporary state of the first con
verts the type of Christian life in all ages.
The influence which this belief exercised on the beginnings of the
Church, and the manner in which it is interwoven in the writings of
the New Testament, render the consideration of it necessary for the
right understanding of St. Paul s Epistles. Yet it is a subject from
which the interpreter of Scripture would gladly turn aside. For it
seems as if he were compelled to allow " that St. Paul was mistaken,
and that in support of his mistake he could appeal to the words of
Christ himself." Nothing can be plainer than the Apostle s meaning ;
BELIEF IN THE COMING OF CHRIST. 109
he says, that men living in his own day will be " caught up to meet
the Lord in the air ; " and yet, after eighteen centuries, the world
is as it was. The language which is attributed in the Epistle of St.
Peter to the unbelievers of that age has become the language of
believers in our own : " Since the fathers have fallen asleep, all
things remain the same from the beginning." No one can now be
looking daily for the visible coming of Christ any more than, in a land
where nature is at rest, he would live in expectation of an earthquake.
Not " the hardness of men s hearts," but the experience of eighteen
hundred years has made it impossible, consistently with the laws of
the human mind, that the belief of the first Christians should con
tinue among ourselves.
Why, then, were the traces of such a belief permitted to appear
in the New Testament ? That is a question which we debate with
ourselves the moment the difficulty is perceived, which receives
various answers. There are some who say, " as a trial of our faith ; *
while others have recourse to the double senses of prophecy, to divide
the past from the future, the day of judgment from the destruction
of Jerusalem. Others cite its existence as a proof that the books of
Scripture were compiled at a time when such a belief was still living,
and this not without, but within the circle of the Church itself. It
may be also regarded as an indication that we were not intended to
interpret Scripture apart from the light of experience, or violently
to bend life and truth into agreement with isolated texts. Lastly,
so far as we can venture to move such a question of our Lord him
self, we may observe that his teaching here, as in other places, is on
a level with the modes of thought of his age, clothed in figures, as
it must necessarily be, to express " the things that eye hath not
seen," limited by time, as if to give the sense of reality to what
otherwise would be vague and infinite, yet mysterious in this respect
too, for of " that hour knoweth no man ; " and that, however these
figures of speech are explained, or these opposite aspects reconciled,
their meaning, breaking through the horizon of earth, has been the
stay and hope of the believer in all ages, who knows, nevertheless,
HO FIEST EPISTLE TO THE THESSALONIANS.
that the Apostles have passed away, and no " sign has yet appeared
in the clouds," and that " the round world is set so fast that it cannot
be moved."
The surprise that we naturally feel, when the attention is first
called to this singular discrepancy between faith and experience, is
greatly lessened, by our observing that even the language of Scrip
ture is not free from inconsistency. For the words of our Lord
Himself are not more in apparent contradiction with the course of
events, than they are with other words which are equally attributed
to Him by the Evangelists. He who says " This generation shall
not pass away until all these things be fulfilled," is the same as he
who tells his disciples " of that hour knoweth no man ; no, not the
angels of God, nor the Son, but the Father." Is it reverent, or irre
verent, to say that Christ knew what he himself declares that he did
not know ? Place, as well as time, is described in language equally
uncertain. For Jerusalem is the scene of the coming events ; and
yet, " wherever the carcase is there will the eagles be gathered to
gether." And once again, in words which are for all time, the Saviour
says, " The kingdom of God cometh not with observation ; neither
shall they say, Lo here, or, lo there, for, behold, the kingdom of God
is within you." The same uncertainty is faithfully reflected in the
Epistles of St. Paul. For, at first, he is waiting for and hastening to
the day of the Lord ; then he anticipates a falling away ; in the course
of years he grows up into a higher truth, that " to depart and be
with Christ is far better." Even in our own ways of thinking we
may trace parallel inconsistencies. For at one time the kingdom of
heaven seems to us to be beyond the stars, at another time to have
its dwelling-place in the heart of man. Conceptions both of time and
space become indistinct as we enter into the unseen world. Whether,
" if God would make windows in heaven, this thing might be," we
cannot tell. But neither Scripture nor reason allow us to pass the
limits of our own faculties in the conception of another life.
But instead of regarding this or any other fact of Scripture as a
difficulty to be explained away, it will be more instructive for us to
BELIEF IN THE COMING OF CHRIST. Ill
consider the nature of the belief and its probable effect on the in
fant communion. In its origin it was simple and childlike, the belief
of men who saw but a little way into the purposes of Providence,
who never dreamed of a vista of futurity. It was not what we should
term an article of faith, but natural and necessary, flowing imme
diately out of the life and state of the earliest believers. It was the
feeling of men who looked for the coming of Christ as we might look
for the return of a lost friend, many of whom had seen him on earth,
and could not believe that he was taken from them for ever. Those
who remembered the Lord would often say one to another, "Yet a
little while, and we do not see him ; and again a little while, and we
shall see him." And sometimes, as years rolled on, they would ask the
question which they had once asked in his lifetime, " What was this
that he said? we cannot tell what this was which he said. * Let us
imagine them, "with their lamps lighted and their loins girded," in
the spirit of our Lord s discourses, waiting for his appearing. The
night is far spent, the day is at hand ; already they see the streaks
of the morning light. And then again the light fails and fades ; it
was the light as of a distant city : the hour is not yet come ; their
own wishes had made them fancy it nearer than it was. Time
passes ; one by one the fathers fall asleep ; at last, " a lingering star
with lessening ray," the beloved Apostle, alone remains ; the saying
goes forth " that that disciple should not die ; " and the daylight
indeed appears, but it is the light not of another world but of this.
So we may trace in a figure the thoughts of the first disciples re
specting the coming of the Lord, towards whom they yearned, and
the end of the world ; the course of events silently rebuking them
and saying, " It is not for you to know the times and the seasons
which the Father hath put in his own power." But the belief in the
expectation of the coming of Christ has other aspects also which are
equally interesting and important. It was the beginning of the
church. It was the feeling of men who, in the_language of St. Paul,
were "baptized into one body and drunk of one spirit ;" the kingdom
of God creating itself in the heart of man, when, in modern language,
FIRST EPISTLE TO THE THESSALONIANS.
it was still an idea and not an outward institution, the liquid ore,
as it were, melted by the heavenly flame, but not cast in the mould.
It was the feeling of men who had an intense sense of the change
that had been wrought in themselves, and to whom this change
seemed like the beginning of a greater change that was overflowing
on the world around them. It was the feeling of men who looked
back upon the past, of which they knew so little, and discerned in it
the workings of the same spirit, one and continuous, which they felt
in their own souls ; to whom the world within and the world with
out were reflected upon one another, and the history of the Jewish
race was a parable, an " open secret," of the things to come. It was the
feeling of men who were living not amid the aspirations of prophecy,
but in the hour of its fulfilment ; who clothed their own times in its
glorious imagery ; to whom the veil that was on the face of Moses
was done away in Christ. It was the putting of the garment of the
old dispensation upon the new. It was the feeling of men who were
saying, Lord, how long? whom their own sufferings assured that there
was a righteous judge who would not always delay. It was the feel
ing of men who were living far above and away from earth, in a
spiritual kingdom, who scarcely thought either of the past or the
future in the eternity of the present.
Let those who think this is an imaginary picture recall to mind
and compare with Scripture, either what they may have read in
books or experienced in themselves as the workings of a mind sud
denly converted to the Gospel. Such an one seems to lose his
measure of events and his true relation to the world. While other
men are going on with their daily occupations, he only is out of
sympathy with nature, and has fears and joys in himself, which he
can neither communicate nor explain to his fellows. It is not that
he is thinking of the endless ages in which he will partake of
heavenly bliss ; rather the present consciousness of sin, or the present
sense of forgiveness and of peace in Christ, is already a sort of hell
or heaven within him, which excludes the future. It is not that he
has an increased insight into the original meaning of Scripture; rather
BELIEF IN THE COMING OF CHRIST. 113
he seems to absorb Scripture into himself. Least of all have persons
in such a state of mind distinct or accurate conceptions of the world
to come. The images in which they express themselves are carnal
and visible, often inconsistent with each other, scarcely intelligible
to minds which are not in sympathy with them, yet not the less the
realisation to them of a true and lively faith. The last thing that they
desire, or could comprehend, is an intellectual theory of another life.
They seem hardly to need either statements of doctrine or the reli
gious ministrations of others; their concern is with God only.
Substitute now for a single individual, the three thousand who
were converted on the day of Pentecost, the "multitude of Jews that
believed, zealous for the law ;" conceive them changed at the same
instant by one spirit, and we seem to see on a larger scale the same
effects following. Their conversion is an exception to the course of
nature ; itself a revelation and inspiration, a wonder of which they
can give no account to themselves or others, not the least wonderful
part of which is their communion with one another. The same Divine
power, which originally formed men into nations, forms them into
a church now, and almost literally gives them a new language and
a new speech. They come into being with common hopes and fears,
at one with each other, separated from mankind at large, in new rela
tions to their own country and kindred. They see God looking
upon themselves and other men, not, as heretofore, " winking at the
times of that ignorance," but distinctly conscious of all their acts.
What they feel within themselves spreads itself over the world. All
men are in the presence of God : good and, evil quicken into life
beneath His searching eye ; there is a fellowship of the saints on one
side, and a mystery of iniquity on the other. They do not read
history, or comprehend the sort of imperfect necessity under which
men act as creatures of their age. The same guilt which they ac
knowledge in themselves, they attach to other men ; the same judg
ment which would await them, is awaiting the world everywhere.
In the events around them, in their own sufferings, in their daily
life, they see the preparations for the great conflict between good
VOL. I. I
114 FIRST EPISTLE TO THE THESSALONIANS.
and evil, between Christ and Belial, if, indeed, it be not already
begun. The circle of their own life includes in it the destinies of
the human race itself, of which it is, as it were, the microcosm, seen
by the eye of faith and the light of inward experience. This is what
the law and the prophets seem to them to have meant when they
spoke of God s judgments on his enemies, of the Lord coming with
ten thousand of his saints. And the signs which were to accompany
these things are already seen among them, " not in word only, but
in power, and in the Holy Spirit, and in much assurance."
To us the preaching of the Gospel is a new beginning, from which
we date all things, beyond which we neither desire nor are able to
inquire. To the first believers it was otherwise ; not the beginning
of a new world, but the end of a former one. They looked back to
the past, because the veil of the future was not yet lifted up. They
were living in "the latter days," the confluence of all times, the
meeting-point of the purposes of God. They read all things in the
light of the approaching end of the world. They were not taught,
and could not have imagined, that for eighteen centuries servants
of God should continue on the earth, waiting, like themselves, for the
promise of His coming. They were not taught, and could not have
imagined, that after three centuries the Church, which they saw
poverty-stricken and persecuted, should be the mistress of the earth,
and that, in another sense than they had hoped, the kingdoms of this
world should become the kingdoms of the Lord and of his Christ.
Instead of it they beheld in a figure the heavens opening, and the
angels of God ascending and descending ; the present outpouring
of the Spirit, and the evil and perplexity of the world itself, being
the earnest of the things which were shortly to come to pass.
It has been often remarked, that the belief in the coming of Christ
stood in the same relation to the Apostolic Church that the expecta
tion of death does to ourselves. Certainly the absence of exhortations
based upon the shortness of life, which are not unfrequent in the Old
Testament, and are so familiar to our own day, forms a remarkable
feature in the writings of the New Testament, and in a measure seems
BELIEF IN THE COMING OF CHRIST. 115
to confirm such an opinion. And yet the similarity is rather apparent
than real ; or, at any rate, the difference between the two is not less
remarkable. For the feeble apprehension which each man entertains
of his own mortality, can bear no comparison with that living sense
of the day of the Lord which was the habitual thought of the first
Christians, which was not so much a " coming " as a " presence " to
them, as its very name implied (Trapovaia). How different also was
the event looked for, no less than the anticipation of it ! There is no
thing terrible in death ; it is the repose of wearied nature ; it steals
men away one by one, while the world goes still on its way. We
fear it at a distance, but not near. Only in youth sometimes it seems
hard to die ; the language of old men is, " I have lived long enough."
But the day of the Lord was an inversion of the course of nature ;
it was a change, not to the individual only, but to the world ; a scene
of great fear and great joy at once to the whole Church and to all
mankind, which was in its very nature sudden, unexpected, coming
" as a thief in the night, and as travail upon a woman with child."
Yet it might be said to be expected too, for the first disciples were
sitting waiting for it "with their lamps lighted and their loins girded."
It was not darkness, nor sleep, nor death, but a day of light and life,
in the expectation of which men were to walk as children of the
light, yet fearful by its very suddenness and the vengeance to be
poured on the wicked.
Such a belief could not be without its effect on the lives of the first
converts and on the state of the Church. While it increased the
awfulness of life, it almost unavoidably withdrew men s thoughts
from its ordinary duties. It naturally led to the state described in
the Corinthian Church, in which spiritual gifts had taken the place
of moral duties, and of those very gifts, the less spiritual were
preferred to the more spiritual. It took the mind away from the
kingdom of God within, to fix it on signs and wonders, " the things
spoken of by the prophet Joel," when the sun should be turned into
darkness, and the moon into blood. It made men almost ready to
act contrary to the decrees of Caesar, from the sense of what they
i 2
116 FIEST EPISTLE TO THE THESSALONIANS.
saw, or seemed to see, in the world around them. The intensity of
the spiritual state in which they lived, so far beyond that of our
daily life, is itself the explanation of the spiritual disorder which
seems so strange to us in men who were ready to hazard their lives
for the truth, and which was but the natural reaction against their
former state.
It is obvious that such a belief was inconsistent with an established
Ecclesiastical order. A succession of bishops could have had no
meaning in a world that was to vanish away. Episcopacy, it has
been truly remarked, was in natural antagonism to Montanism ; and
in the age of the Apostles as well, there is an opposition, traceable
in the Epistles themselves, between the supernatural gifts and
the order and discipline of the Church. Ecclesiastical as well as
political institutions are not made, but grow. What we are apt to
regard as their first idea and design, is in reality their after develop
ment, what in the fulness of time they become, not what they
originally were, the former being faintly, if at all, discernible in the
new birth of the Church and of the world.
Nor is it unreasonable to suppose that the meagreness of those
historical memorials of the first age which survived it, has been the
result of such a belief. What interest would be attached to the
events of this world, if they were so soon to be lost in another ? or
to the lessons of history, when the nations of the earth were in a few
years to appear before the judgment-seat of Christ? Even the nar
rative of the acts and sayings of the Saviour of mankind must have
had a different degree of importance to those who expected to see
with their eyes the Word of life, and to us, to whom they are the
great example, for after ages, of faith and practice. Among many
causes which may be assigned for the great historical chasm which
geparates the life of Christ and his Apostles from after ages, this is
not the least probable. The age of the Apostles was an age, not of
history, but of prophecy.
BELIEF IN THE COMING OF CHRIST, 117
Passages in St. Paul s other Epistles bearing on the Belief in the
Coming of Christ.
1 Cor. i. 7, 8. So that ye came behind in no gift ; waiting for the
coming of our Lord Jesus Christ : who shall also confirm you unto
the end, that ye may be blameless in the day of our Lord Jesus
Christ.
iii. 13. Every man s work shall be made manifest : for the day
shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire ; and the fire shall
try every man s work of what sort it is. (?)
iv. 5. Judge nothing before the time, until the Lord come. (?)
vi. 2. Do ye not know that the saints shall judge the world ?
vii. 29 31. But this I say, brethren, the time is short: it re-
maineth, that both they that have wives be as though they had none ;
and they that weep, as though they wept not ; and they that rejoice,
as though they rejoiced not ; and they that buy, as though they
possessed not ; and they that use this world, as not abusing it ; for
the fashion of this world passeth away.
x. 11. Now all these things happened unto them for ensamples:
and they are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the
world are come.
xv. 12. Now if Christ be preached that he rose from the dead,
how say some among you that there is no resurrection of the dead ?
51. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed. Com
pare Lachmann: We shall all sleep, but we shall not all be
changed.
2 Cor. i. 14. We are your rejoicing, even as ye also are our s in
the day of the Lord Jesus.
iii. 18. But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the
glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to
glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.
2 Cor. v. 1 10. For we know that if our earthly house of this
tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, an house not
i 3
118 FIRST EPISTLE TO THE THESSALONIANS.
made with hands, eternal in the heavens Therefore,
we are always confident, knowing that, whilst we are at home in
the body, we are absent from the Lord : (for we walk by faith,
not by sight :) we are confident, I say, and willing rather to be
absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord. Where
fore we labour that, whether present or absent, we may be accepted
of him. For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ ;
that every one may receive the things done in his body, according to
that he hath done, whether it be good or bad.
Rom. ii. 15, 16. Their conscience also bearing witness, and
their thoughts the mean while accusing or else excusing one another ;
in the day when God shall judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ
according to my gospel.
xiii. 11, 12. And that, knowing the time, that now it is high time
to awake out of sleep : for now is our salvation nearer than when we
believed. The night is far spent, the day is at hand : let us there
fore cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armour of
light.
Eph. i. 3. Blessed be the God and father of our Lord Jesus
Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly
places in Christ.
ii. 4 6. But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love
wherewith he loved us, even when we were dead in sins, hath quick
ened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved ;) and hath
raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in
Christ Jesus.
iv. 30. And grieve not the holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are
sealed unto the day of redemption.
Philipp. i. 23. For I am in a strait betwixt two, having a desire to
depart, and to be with Christ ; which is far better.
iii. 11. If by any means I might attain unto the resurrection of
the dead.
20, 21. For our conversation is in heaven ; from whence also we
look for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ: who shall change our vile
BELIEF IN THE COMING OF CHRIST. 119
body, that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body, according
to the working whereby he is able even to subdue all things unto
himself.
iv. 5. The Lord is at hand.
Col. i. 5. For the hope which is laid up for you in heaven,
whereof ye heard before in the word of the truth of the gospel.
12, 13. Giving thanks unto the Father, which hath made us
meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light : who
hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us
into the kingdom of his dear Son.
And now "the fathers have fallen asleep, all things remain the same
as at the beginning." More clearly than in former times, we see
the discrepancy between the meaning of Scripture and the order of
events which history discloses to us. The fact stares us in the face.
We feel no satisfaction or security in attempting to conceal it ; we
cannot do so if we would. It is right, therefore, that we should be
assured, that even if the apostles were mistaken, " our faith " is not
" vain." Our hope of life and immortality is not taken away,
because the language of St. Paul in some passages seems to fix
the times and the seasons which our Saviour, in his last words on
earth, tells his Apostles, " it is not for you to know."
The subject of the preceding essay may be considered apolo
getically ; that is, with a view to meet objections in two ways either
as affecting theology, or belief and practice.
I. Most of the difficulties of theology are self-made, and ready to
vanish away when we consider them naturally. They generally
arise out of certain hypotheses which we vainly try to reconcile with
obvious facts ; often they are the opinions of a past day lingering on
into the present. The belief of St. Paul in the immediate coming
of Christ is not at all different from what we should have expected,
or in any degree inconsistent with the laws of the human mind, or,
again, unlike the analogy of prophecy and of religion generally. It
i 4
120 FIKST EPISTLE TO THE THESSALONIANS.
was a natural interpretation of the old prophetic writings. Our
difficulty is really of a different kind how to reconcile such a belief
with the infallibility of the Apostle. He never claims this infalli
bility ; it is we ourselves who love to ascribe it to him. It is true
that the Apostle, if infallible, could not have erred respecting the
end of the world ; and if we could prove that he was infallible, we
might deny that he was in error. But the ascription of infalli
bility to him involves further and almost endless difficulties. For
it seems, to use an expression of Bishop Butler s, as if "there
would be no stopping," until revelation was wholly different from
what it is. Its truths should no longer be expressed in human lan
guage, or under the limitation of human faculties ; they must have
dropped from heaven ; that is, have found their way into the world
out of the course of nature, unconnected with history, in no relation
to the thoughts of men, and therefore powerless to assimilate the
human heart to themselves.
Not in this way has it " pleased God to reveal his Son in us."
The New Testament came through the Old; it did not rudely
break with the former Dispensation. It appropriated the figures of
the law, it clothed itself in the imagery of the prophets. It was
preached to the poor, and therefore it was on a level with the modes
of thought which prevailed in the age in which it was given. It
is foolish to admit this in words, and to deny the inferences which un
avoidably flow from it. The lesson which it taught was pure and
divine, and so far as it was connected at all with facts of history,
historically true : but it was not supernaturally guarded against
error. It left the Jewish belief in Messiah s kingdom as it had
been before ; only it purified, sanctified, spiritualised it. Herein
is the great difference between what, without detracting from
the divine character of Christianity, we may be permitted to call
the error of the Apostles and erroneous assumptions of modern
interpreters of prophecy respecting the end of the world. The
first was natural, arising out of the circumstances and modes
of thought of the first Christians ; the other is an intrusion into
BELIEF IN THE COMING OF CHRIST. 121
the unseen future, which experience has shown to be irreverent
and unmeaning. The difference is of the same kind as between
voluntary error and the unavoidable imperfection of human know
ledge in a particular age or country.
But neither is the New Testament to be interpreted apart from
the course of events. The world is left to itself to clear up as it goes
on ; many lessons even in divinity are only learnt by experience.
Time may often enlarge faith ; it may also correct it. The belief
and practice of the early Church, respecting the admission of the
Gentiles, were greatly altered by the fact that the Gentiles them
selves flocked in : " the kingdom of heaven suffered violence, and the
violent took it by force." In like manner, the faith respecting the
coming of Christ was modified by the continuance of the world
itself. Common sense suggests that those who were in the first ec
stasy of conversion, and those who after the lapse of years saw the
world unchanged and the fabric of the Church on earth rising
around them, could not regard the day of the Lord with the same
feelings. While to the one it seemed near and present, at any mo
ment ready to burst forth ; to the other it was a long way off,
separated by time, and as it were by place, a world beyond the
stars, yet also having its dwelling in the heart of man : as to our
selves, it is a world inseparably bound up with our consciousness
of a Divine Being. Not at once, but gradually did the cloud
clear up, and the one mode of faith take the place of the other.
Apart from the prophets, through them, beyond them, springing up
in a new and living way in the soul of man; corrected by long ex
perience, as " the fathers " one by one " fell asleep," as the hope of the
Jewish race declined, as ecstatic gifts ceased, as a regular hierarchy
was established in the Church, the belief in the coming of Christ was
transformed from being outward to becoming inward, from being
national to becoming individual and universal, from being Jewish to
becoming Christian.
II. It would be a serious error to rest our belief in a future
life or judgment to come on those expressions of our Saviour or of
122 FIRST EPISTLE TO THE THESSALONIANS.
St. Paul, which, as we are taught by time, have not received a literal
fulfilment. An argument is sometimes used as a sort of lever to
force our assent to the letter of Scripture, or of Church teaching,
when it is too plain that the letter kills. The argument is of this
kind ; it seeks to connect what is accidental and superficial with
what is essential, in the hope that we may be compelled to accept
both from the fear of rejecting both : " Believe this, believe also that ;
if you do not believe that, you cannot believe this." Such an argu
ment we may conceive, in reference to our present subject, taking
the following form ; it would say, " If you will not believe literally
that we shall be caught up to meet the Lord in the air, why believe
that we shall be judged at all? If the Apostle erred respecting the
time of Christ s coming, might he not have erred also respecting the
fact of his coming?" So it is thought that we shall be won back
again to consider the question by such lights only as tradition or
authority supply, and prudently keep away from the letter of the
text.
No doubt it would be possible to draw, from the storehouse of me
taphysical theology, distinctions and modes of expression which
would " skin " or conceal the weak place. It might be said that the
words of St. Paul had an ideal or symbolical meaning that they
become true to the individual as he passes out of life that to the
religious mind the end of the world is ever going " Die Weltge-
schichte ist das Weltgericht." The matter has been stated here without
any of these attempts at disguise or concealment. Does it therefore
follow that our life is really bounded by the horizon of earth ? or
that the belief in a world to come has passed away, because the
language in which St. Paul described it, is seen to be taken from
Jewish prophecy ?
The belief in a future life is not derived from revelation, though
greatly strengthened by it. It is the growing sense of human nature
respecting itself. Scarcely any one passes out of existence fearing
that he will cease to be ; perhaps no one whose mind may be re
garded as in a natural state. Absurd superstitions, even the painful
BELIEF IN THE COMING OF CHRIST. 123
efforts to get rid of self, in some of the Eastern religions, indirectly
bear witness to the same truth. They seem to say, " Stamp upon
the Soul, crush it as you will, the poor worm will still creep out into
the sunshine of the Almighty." Nor is the consciousness of another
life a mere instinct which, however distorted, still remains : to those
who reason it is inseparably connected with our highest, that is, with
our moral notions. We feel that God cannot have given us capaci
ties and affections, that they should find no other fulfilment than they
attain here ; that he cannot intend the unequal measure of good and
evil which he has assigned to men on earth to be the end of all : nor
can we believe that the crimes or sins which go unpunished in this
world, are to pass away as though they had never been ; that the
cries of saints and heroes, and the work of the Saviour himself, have
gone up unheard before his throne. That can never be. Equally
impossible is it to suppose that creatures whom he has endowed with
reason are, like the great multitude of the human race, to be sunk
for ever in hopeless ignorance and unconsciousness. It is true that
the nature of the change which is to come over them and us is not
disclosed : " The times and the seasons the Father has put in his
own power." Had it been otherwise, immortality must have over
powered us ; the thought of another state would have swallowed up
this.
And this sense of a future life and judgment to come has been so
quickened in us by Christianity, that it may be said almost to have
been created by it. It is the witness of Christ himself, than which
to the Christian no assurance can be greater. - He who meditates on
this divine life in the brief narrative which has been preserved of it,
will find the belief in another world come again to him when many
physical and metaphysical proofs are beginning to be as broken
reeds. He will find more than enough to balance the difficulties of
the manner " how " or the time " when ; " he will find, as he draws
nearer to Christ, a sort of impossibility of believing otherwise. When
we ask, " How are the dead raised up, and with what body do they
come," St. Paul answers, " Thou fool, that which thou sowest is not
124 FIRST EPISTLE TO THE THESSALONIANS.
quickened except it die ; " when we raise objections to the narrative
which has been preserved of our Saviour s discourse respecting the
last things and the end of the world, may not the answer to this
as well as to many other difficulties be gathered from his own
words " It is the Spirit that quickeneth, the flesh profiteth
nothing ; the words that I speak unto you they are Spirit, and they
are truth?"
There was a sense in which our Saviour said that it was better
for his disciples that he should be taken from them, that the Com
forter should come unto them. There is also a blessing recorded in the
Gospels on those who had not seen and yet had believed. Is there
not a sense in which it is more blessed to live at a distance from those
events which are the beginning of Christianity, than under their
immediate influence, to see them as they truly are in the light of
this world as well as of another? If it was an illusion in the first
Christians to believe in the immediate coming of Christ, is it not a
cause of thankfulness that now we see clearly ? Of truth, as well as
of love, it may be said there is no fear in truth, but perfect truth
casteth out fear. The eye which is strong enough to pierce through
the shadow of death, is not troubled because the golden mist is dis
pelled and it looks on the open heaven.
And though prophecy may fail and tongues cease, though to those
who look back upon them when they are with the past, they are dif
ferent from what they were to those who melted under their influence,
the pure moral and spiritual nature of Christianity, the " kingdom of
God within," remains as at the first, the law of Christian love be
coming more and more, and all in all.
ON DOUBLE MEANINGS OF WORDS. 125
IS IT POSSIBLE FOR THE SAME WORD TO HAVE TWO
MEANINGS IN THE SAME PASSAGE ?
Note on 1 Thess. ii. 2.; 1 Cor. ii. 10 16.; Rom. vii. 9 viii. 3., viii. 19 22., and
other places.
THE word dywV, in 1 Thessalonians, ii. 2., has been variously ex
plained of the inward conflict and of the outward persecution which
the Apostle underwent in preaching the Gospel at Thessalonica.
Reasons are adduced from the context, and from the use of the
word in other places, in favour of either interpretation. The
opinions of commentators may be urged on both sides of the question.
In the next verse a doubt of the same kind occurs respecting
another word, Trapa/cX^te, which here, as TrapaKaXe iv, in iii. 2. and
elsewhere, admits the sense either of consolation or exhortation. The
observation of these and similar instances leads to the general inquiry,
whether it is possible for the same Greek word to have two meanings
in the same passage the one primary, the other secondary ; the
one expressed, the other implied ; the one presenting itself in front,
the other not far behind? whether, instead of saying "it must
mean this or that," it may not be reasonable also to include both
senses, either because the word which is the subject of controversy
has no corresponding term in another language, or because it is not
denned by use, or because the idea which it is intended to convey
may be incapable of being described with perfect accuracy and
clearness ?
The inquiry here suggested is of considerable importance in the
interpretation of the New Testament. Though it relates only to a
small class of words, those words are characteristic ones and of
common occurrence ; such are, w>/ (Life), Qavarog (Death), fi/nepa
(the Day), KnVie (Creature), irvev^a (the Spirit), Kvpiog (the Lord),
(the Comforter), and, above all, ropog (the Law). The
126 FIRST EPISTLE TO THE THESSALONIANS.
word ayu)v (Contention), already quoted from 1 Thess. ii. 2., and
TreirXrjpdJKevai, in Rom. xv. 19., afford lesser examples of the same
indefinite or uncertain use.
This uncertainty in the meaning of words is not confined to the
New Testament. Similar instances may be remarked in modern
languages and also in classical writers. If a statesman were to say,
in writing to a friend of some political measure which was the crisis
of his fate, " that it was a great struggle," he might mean a great
struggle to himself and to his own feelings, or a great struggle of
parties or opinions ; it might have been also a struggle in which
violence had been resorted to. It is possible that all these three
associations were passing through his mind at the time he wrote
down the word. Some light might be thrown by the context of the
sentence, or by other parts of the letter, on the true sense. But
language is not always used with the degree of exactness necessary
in such cases to enable us to determine the meaning or associations
of meaning which the writer had in his mind. Probably a critical
analysis of the words would only lead to the conviction that the
person who used them was not distinctly conscious of their import
to himself.
An illustration from a modern writer will throw some further
light on the nature of the question which is here raised. The
author of the " Fragment on Government " criticises the confusion
into which Blackstone has fallen respecting words such as " Society,"
" State of Nature," and others, which he affirms his opponent to have
used in different senses in the same paragraph. Yet the ordinary
reader would not have discovered this. To a mind not under the
influence of an "illogical logic," Blackstone appears to be in the
right, and his critic in the wrong, because the latter has not allowed
for that natural play of language which conducts us from one aspect
of a complex idea to another. He is busy pulling to pieces the
several expressions, when he ought to be content with the substan
tial meaning of a whole passage. He exacts more of words than they
are able to bear. He would have language perfect in the logical sense,
ON DOUBLE MEANINGS OF WORDS.
in the attempt to accomplish which, he loses more than he gains, by
losing its poetical element. Logic ruling absolutely over style and
thought, the imagination and feelings would be dried up into the
understanding. The words denoting our higher ideas would lose
their associations ; and the ideas which are denoted by them be re
duced to the dead level of objects of sense. St. Paul himself could
only be regarded as an illogical writer, whose leading terms " chop
and change " their significations, whose train of thought cannot be
reduced to syllogisms, whose bursts of affection are not " logical pro
positions."
Variations of meaning may be observed to be greater than usual
in certain classes of words and in particular stages of language or of
philosophy. The student of the Ethics of Aristotle has often been
puzzled with the numerous senses of the words dpxfj, rtXoc, rove,
aiadrjffic, acxpia, fivvafjLig, tyvffic, avveaiQ, and others. He attempts in
vain to introduce order and fixedness into the flux of meaning. He
feels that no English term is equivalent to any of them. The fact is
that philosophy is creating their meaning ; they are in various stages
of the transition from common use to a technical signification. Some
of them die out (ethical science is afterwards found to have made,
or rather borrowed, more words than it wants) others pass into the
philosophical language of Greece, and are carried down the stream
of human thought. Aristotle himself would have found the same
difficulty that we do in explaining their meaning in the terms of
other systems or of later times. They are a part of his mind ; he
is not above them, but in them. The great .master of metaphysics
is under the influence of language, while organising it for his use.
Owing partly to the decline of the Greek language itself, as well
as to the imperfect command over it possessed by the writers of the
Epistles, the variation in their use of terms is greater and more
striking than in classical writers. The instrument is more inade
quate to the greatness and novelty of the thought ; the expression
more tentative, and therefore more uncertain. The life of words
which " is not quickened except it die," becomes a conducting
128 FIRST EPISTLE TO THE THESSALONIANS.
medium from one Dispensation to another ; the Gospels and the
Epistles are the translation of the law and the prophets. Merely in
a philological point of view this is extremely curious. Many
obscure significations of terms are thus drawn out ; chance phrases
have a new light thrown upon them ; the Spiritual world is peopled
with material images which are not wholly "transfigured," but retain
also their first material notion. Language is growing, winning for
itself a meaning. The phenomenon which has been just described in
the history of Greek philosophy may help us to understand the still
more remarkable development to which the Gospel gave birth.
Only in this latter case it was not a philosopher, the force of whose
mind stamped a new impress on the counters of knowledge, but
apostles and prophets, who poured out the faith of Christ among the
common people. It might be said of the first believers, in another
sense from that in which the text is commonly applied, that "they
spake with other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance." Their
mind was changed, and that framework of the mind which language
is, adapted itself to the change. Common terms passed out of re
ceived uses into higher and spiritual ones ; they became inspired,
sanctified, glorified. Imagine, first, the conversion of St. Paul, the
intellect as well as the heart melting under the influence of the
revelation which he had received ; imagine such an one with a scanty
knowledge of Greek, deriving something from the philosophy of his
time, but much more from the Greek version of the Old Testament
Scriptures, striving to express the unutterable things which he knew
and felt : you have before you, as it were in process of creation, the
germ of the theological diction of after ages.
As it is in vain to look for a regular order of government during
the first half century after Christ, it would be a mistake also
to expect that the language in which the Gospel was first ut
tered had a perfectly fixed and settled meaning. The age of the
Epistles of St. Paul might be described as the age before system, in
which there was no rite or usage to which words conformed any
more than institutions. This is one of the many points in which we
ON DOUBLE MEANINGS OF WORDS. 129
would fain imagine the first century more like ourselves than it
really was. We have a difficulty in conceiving a beginning of the
Christian society, or the mind of Christ in his first followers ;
and we ascribe to the fluctuating elements the definite form which
they could only have received from use and tradition. The same
error reappears in another sphere, in the fixedness which is attributed
to words when employed for the first time in Christian senses. For
language itself also partakes of the plastic nature of the New Crea
tion. It is relative to the first believers. Listening multitudes
hung upon the lips of the first teachers without stopping to dis
tinguish the application of terms from their original sense, or figures
from realities. Much of the comparative inaccuracy of spoken dis
course has passed into the written word also. The Apostle St. Paul
often uses the terms wy, davaroc, fjptpa, in such a way that it is hard
to say where the figure ends, and the meaning of the figure begins ;
or he employs general, where we should expect specific words ; or
specific, where we should expect general ; or he places a connecting
particle in such a double relation, that we are uncertain whether it
refers to what precedes, or to what follows, and incline sometimes to
think that both constructions were intended. His love of " parallels
and conjugates," and antitheses,, leads him to make distinctions where
there is apparently no difference, or to identify terms which we should
naturally distinguish. Two or three favourite words he plays upon
as though he could never have enough of them ; their original
idea is almost allowed to evanesce in the transpositions which
they are made to undergo. The want of an expression often occa
sions the repetition of an old one, the echo of which was ringing
in his ears from a previous verse, where perfect clearness would have
required a new term for a new idea. Another source of uncertainty
is the continuance of the old or common meaning of a word side by
side with the higher or ideal one, the latter, too, being susceptible
of several gradations, as in the word v6poc, which are almost indis
tinguishable from one another. No doubt these difficulties are
increased by the uses of theological terms in later times, which
VOL. I. K
130 FIRST EPISTLE TO THE THESSALONIANS.
often slightly (or even considerably) vary from the use of the same
terms in Scripture, and which, even where they are in general the
same, have this difference, that they are more narrowed and fixed
than in the Scriptural use. For example, many as appear to be
the senses or applications of the word " law " in St. Paul, we
may observe in modern Calvinist divines a meaning which is
different from them all, and which is used with great preciseness.
Nor must one other source of confusion be omitted, a sufficiently
obvious one, yet often forgotten the difference between Greek
and English ; some words which have one consistent meaning
in the Greek appearing to have two meanings in English even
in the same passage, because the Greek word has no single cor
responding English one. The numerous significations which are
attributed to a word in a lexicon to the New Testament are
commonly more than the truth and less ; that is, they add on
associations which are not contained in it, while it is impossible
for them to give a conception of its unity and sphere. The ease
and absolute certainty with which we translate words describing
objects of sense from a dead language into a living one, must not
lead us to imagine that we can have equal certainty, whether in
philosophy or religion, in representing the things "which eye hath
not seen."
The first causes of this fluctuation of meaning are peculiar to the
New Testament, and arise out of the circumstances of its authors : the
last-mentioned difficulty is common to the interpretation of parti
cular classes of words in all dead languages. Even the scholar finds
it an endless task to put his mind back as a " little child " into the
position of the Greek. It remains to show by examples that the un
certainty spoken of is not an imaginary phenomenon, but a real one,
and, if so, an important element in the interpretation of Scripture.
And first as to the fact (compare Rom. vii, 21. viii. 3.) :
" I find then a law, that, when I would do good, evil is present
with me. For I delight in the law of God after the inward man :
but I see another law in my members, warring against the law of
my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is
ON DOUBLE MEANINGS OF WORDS. 131
in my members. O wretched man that I am ! who shall deliver me
from the body of this death ? I thank God through Jesus Christ
our Lord. So then with the mind I myself serve the law of God,
but with the flesh the law of sin. There is therefore now no con
demnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after
the flesh, but after the Spirit. For the law of the Spirit of life in
Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death.
For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the
flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and
for sin, condemned sin in the flesh."
It would be impossible exactly to define all the modifications of
meaning which the word law undergoes in this passage : in ver. 21.,
according to the most probable explanation, it is used for a rule,
or, as we should say. universal fact ; in ver. 22, 23., for the law of God,
with an allusion to the law of Moses ; also for the necessary force
of evil ; in ver. 23., a distinction in its meaning is aimed at
where it is hard to see a difference ; in viii. 2. 3 it is used for the rule
or rather power of the Gospel ; in viii. 3., probably for the Jewish
law only, as certainly in vii. 1. Compare also the paronomasia of
the " Law of Faith," in iii. 27. Which of them would the Apostle
have adopted as the original signification ? Doubtless the law of
Moses ; yet he would not have been conscious of all the inflections
of meaning through which he had allowed the word to pass. Nor
would he, or those to whom he is writing, have understood our
difficulty in understanding him.
It is true that many English words, such as " law, church, princi
ple, constitution, society, nature," might go through several changes
of meaning in the same chapter or section of a book. We might
speak of a good principle, or of a principle of action, or of nature
in the sense of a higher or lower nature, or of the Church in the
sense of the Church visible or invisible. But the use of language
in the passage of the Epistle exceeds these bounds : whatever play
or inaccuracy of phraseology may be allowed among ourselves, we
should not describe " the law of England " and " the law of nature "
K 2
132 FIRST EPISTLE TO THE THESSALONIANS.
under the same general term " the law " in the same passage; at any
rate, the connexion would clearly mark that we were speaking of
two laws, not of one. ISor, if the particular term " law of England "
had preceded, should we use the general term law in a new connexion
in the next sentence, as the Apostle appears to have done in Rom. viii.
2, 3., where he speaks first of " the law of sin and death," and then of
" the law "KUT fox>} , in the next verse. And although some of the
instances quoted appear at first sight like the application of a
general term to a new subject, yet the application is so peculiar as
to amount to a variation of meaning. No similar application of the
word rojuoe could have occurred in classical Greek.
Two other instances one of latitude in the signification of the same
words, the other, illustrative of the same uncertainty of different words
with the same meaning occur also in Romans, viii.
19 23. " For the earnest expectation of the creature waiteth for
the manifestation of the sons of God. For the creature was made
subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of him who hath sub
jected the same in hope. Because the creature itself also shall be
delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty
of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation
groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now. And not only
they, but ourselves also," etc.
Here the word " creature " has had many meanings assigned to it
by interpreters, and has really more than one. It may refer to the crea
ture considered from within, in which sense it is a personified human
nature, which is the best explanation of it in ver. 19. ; or to the
creature considered from without, as the figure of a former dispen
sation, which is the sense to which it inclines in ver. 20,21.; or to the
creation collectively, in the idea of which man has nevertheless the
principal part, as in ver. 22. That this last, however, is not to be
pressed too strictly, may be inferred from ver. 23., in which the
believer is spoken of, from another point of view, as distinct from the
previous circle, which included, or seemed to include, all the world.
9 11. " But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that
ON DOUBLE MEANINGS OF WORDS. 133
the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now, if any man have not the Spirit
of Christ, he is none of his. And if Christ be in you, the body is dead
because of sin ; but the Spirit is life because of righteousness.
But if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in
you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your
mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you."
Here the Spirit of God is first spoken of as dwelling in man ;
then the spirit of Christ takes its place ; then in v. 10. a further
transition is made from the Spirit of Christ to Christ himself,
and in ver. 11., we return to the Spirit of God, that is, "of him who
raised up Jesus from the dead ; " as if, in the Apostle s mind, the
difference of expression was nothing, or at least only served to de
scribe the different aspects of the same idea. Compare 1 Thess. iii.
11, 12., for a similar uncertainty in the use of the word Kvpiog.
Another remarkable instance of fluctuation or transition of meaning
occurs in 1 Cor. ii. 10 16., where the Spirit of God, which searcheth
all things, is afterwards spoken of as the Spirit in the heart of man, the
possession of which by those who are Spiritual enables them to judge
all men. Compare Romans, viii. 26, 27. [" Likewise the Spirit also
helpeth our infirmities : for we know not what we should pray for
as we ought : but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with
groanings which cannot be uttered. And he that searcheth the
hearts knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit, because he maketh
intercession for the saints according to the will of God."], where
the Spirit is also described as crying through us to God.
Language like this would hardly be used ^y a modern preacher
or writer. He would speak of the Spirit dwelling in the heart of
man, or a man praying to God by the help of the Spirit, or of the
Spirit praying for man, but he would not blend in one the acts of
the Spirit and the acts of man.
Another example touching a different circle of ideas occurs in
1 Corinthians, xv. 55. When it is said "the sting of death is sin,
and the strength of sin is the law," the connexion of the previous
verses shows that death is to be taken literally ; and yet death,
131 FIRST EPISTLE TO THE THESSALONIANS.
with which sin is connected in other places, as in Romans, vii. 5.
1113., is not temporal but spiritual death. Compare 2 Cor.
v. 14. : "If one died for all, then all died," where the word died
is applied to Christ in one sense, to mankind in general in
another. So in Rom vi. 1 9., the idea of resurrection is blended
with that of renewal.
The passage of St. John s Gospel, v. 2028., in which the resur
rection is spoken of in terms which imply a spiritual resurrection,
and then again most clearly a literal one, and the second sense in
which the word Comforter is used, as the Spirit of truth who " shall
guide men into all truth," are additional illustrations of the same
subject. (John xiv. xviii.)
Altogether the ambiguities or double senses of words in the
Epistles may be arranged under the following heads:
1. Words in themselves unambiguous, which nevertheless become
ambiguous in a particular context, either from their indenniteness or
from the associations which intrude upon them from the connexion
or from their use in other passages.
Instances of this class are aywr, in 1 Thess. ii. 2. ; TreTrXrjpwKevcu,
in Rom. xv. 19. ; evayyiXiov, Rom. i. 9. ; florae, in Rom. vi. 12. ;
o-w^ua, in 1 Cor. xi. 29., Rom. vii. 4., Col. ii. 16 23. ; Kplpci, in Rom.
xiii. 2; Kpiw, in Rom. xiv. 13. ; atrap^ri, Rom. xi. 16.; j/i , Rom. xiv.
5. ; K-X?/<rtc, 1 Cor. vii. 20. ; TT OTIC, 1 Cor. xii. 9. Some of these
may be termed " growing words," that is, words which have not yet
attained a fixed use in the Christian vocabulary.
2. Words which have no precise or even near exponents in English,
which fall asunder into two English words, and the sphere of which
includes ideas which are distinct to us, yet to the mind of the first
disciples nearly equivalent and closely connected. Instances of this
class of words are TrapaKaXlw and its derivatives, ciadrjKrj, Trapowuij
7f /\oc, cu<i , t&fty, and probably TrXeovefya.
3. Words like vopos or KTICTIC, which pass through many meanings
" in quick succession of light ; " these meanings are, however, so
closely connected that the transition from one to the other is often
unconscious.
ON DOUBLE MEANINGS OF WORDS. 135
4. Words like W/, tiavaroc, fjpepa, Trvei/jLia, in the use of which two
ideas, really distinct and having only a metaphorical connexion,
are blended in the writer s mind, as, for example, temporal life and
death with spiritual life and death, or renewal with resurrection.
These ambiguities are not an occasion of any real or great uncer
tainty in the Apostle s meaning. No one can doubt that he held
sin to be the source of moral evil in the world, or that in a literal
sense he believed in the resurrection. But his double use of words
requires that we should interpret his Epistles in a large and liberal
spirit. We cannot restrict him to the rules of the Aristotelian
logic. The observation of this phenomenon, instead of inflicting an
injury, is really of great benefit in the interpretation of Scripture ;
for it fixes our thoughts on the general meaning, and withdraws
them from remote and uncertain conclusions based upon an over-
minute analysis of the letter of the text.
" It pleased God by the foolishness of preaching," says the
Apostle, " to save them that believe." It pleased God, we may say,
in broken words and hesitating forms of speech, with no beauty or
comeliness of style, to give a rule of life, not for one nation only, but
for all mankind, not for the refined thinker only, but for the
poorest and meanest, to reveal a truth of which the Greek was
unconscious, and for which the language of Plato would have been
no fitting temple.
x 4
SECOND EPISTLE
TO
THE THE8SALONIANS.
THE
SECOND EPISTLE TO THE THESSALONIANS.
INTRODUCTION.
THE Second Epistle to the Thessalonians may be regarded in two
points of view: (1.) as continuing the First Epistle; (2.) as diverging
from it, and in one respect forming a link of transition to the later
Epistles. It defers the Advent of Christ, and yet presents a more
vivid and detailed account of the manner and circumstances of it.
More fully in the Apostle s mind, he seems to remove it further
from him, the nearer objects intercepting the more distant future.
He sees the vision of " the things that are shortly to come to pass,"
through the symbols of the old prophets ; not, however, as in the
Book of Revelation, in an extended picture with many divisions
and compartments, but with one scene only, the rise and fall of
Antichrist. When the hindrances of Antichrist are taken away,
when Antichrist himself has come, then, and not till then, the Lord
shall be revealed.
It was thought by Grotius, and it is also the opinion of Ewald,
that what is termed the Second Epistle must have preceded the
First. The best arguments by which this opinion can be defended,
are the references in the Second Epistle to the teaching of the
Apostle while " he was yet with them," and the absence of any
allusions to the First Epistle. (See note on ch. ii. 2.) These grounds
are far from being conclusive. It is improbable (observe, however,
2 Thess. ii. 15.) that a previous Epistle could have interposed
140 SECOND EPISTLE TO THE THESSALONIANS.
itself between the visit of the Apostle and chapters two and three
of the First Epistle. (Compare Acts, xvii., xviii.) The allusions to
the conversion of the Thessalonians also mark the First Epistle as
commonly received to be the earlier of the two. But the opinion,
though probably an error, may serve to remind us that, in one
sense the Second Epistle anticipates the first ; that is to say, it is
based on the lesson which the Apostle had taught the Thessalonians,
while he was yet with them, ii. 5. The subject of Antichrist was not
new to them ; they had been told who was meant, and what withheld
him now, that he should be revealed in his own time. Whereas,
in the former Epistle, he had led their minds exclusively to the
heavenly vision, " the saints meeting in the air with Christ, and the
dead whom he would bring with him."
Something like a definite object is indicated in the second chapter
of the Epistle. That object seems to have been to inform the con
verts, or rather to remind them of what they already knew, re
specting the coming of Christ and the previous revelation of Anti
christ, and " that which let." It might, indeed, be questioned here,
as in Rom. ix. to xi. compared with i. viii., whether the first chapter
is introductory to the second, or the second supplementary to the
first. But the particularity of the second chapter, and the nearness
of that "which already worketh," as well as the earnestness of the
Apostle s language, tend to show that what is in form subordinate,
is really the centre of the Epistle. As in 1 Cor. x., the thought which
is nearest the Apostle s heart is overlaid with what is merely intro
ductory to it.
But whether there is or is not any doubt about the primary object
of the Epistle, the mind and feelings with which the Apostle wrote
are plainly impressed upon it, and hardly less so the state of the
Church to which it was addressed. The aspect in which the Gospel
presented itself to the Apostle, was not unlike that in which it was
described by John the Baptist : " He shall burn up the chaff with
fire unquenchable." Within the Church it might be possible to think
only of the elect, whose prayers and hopes seemed to bring the day
INTRODUCTION. 141
of the Lord nearer and nearer, until the horizon of earth melted away
in the clouds of heaven. But it was impossible to turn away the
sight from the aspect of the world itself, especially that portion of it
which was on the confines of the Church, whether the Jewish perse
cutors, who harassed the Apostle in every city, "who pleased not
God, and were contrary to man," or the wild forms of heresy or
licentiousness which at one moment seemed to set themselves with
giant force to arrest his course ; at another time, by seductive in
fluences to steal away the hearts of his converts. In the distance,
too, were the heathen world mingling in the vision of sin ; ripe for
the revelation of wrath, no less than for the revelation of mercy.
(Compare Rom. i. 8.)
The whole of the Epistle, like the Epistles of the imprisonment,
is written under what may be termed u the feeling of persecution ; "
that is to say, the sense of resignation, on the one hand, to the pre
sent will of God ; on the other hand, a sure and certain hope that
" times of refreshment " were at hand. Such was the feeling of the
Apostle himself, and he implies the existence of a similar feeling in
the Church to which he was writing. Sadness and consolation, hope
and fear, the array of glory and of terror, were present with them
or passing before them. They were not living the common life of
other men ; they did not see with the eyes of other men.
A life thus divided between this world and another was naturally
liable to become a life of excitement and disorder. Times of per
secution needed extraordinary religious supports ; the withdrawal
of those supports, the momentary clouding of the heaven above,
would from time to time lead to reaction. Those who sat " waiting
for the day of the Lord," and in this very expectation perhaps ne
glecting their employments, had lost that quietness of mind which
is given by daily occupation. The perils of such a state were not
unknown to the Apostle. It might at any time pass into its op
posite, the very good that was in it becoming only material for evil.
Half organised as the Church was then, the only means of avoiding
such dangers was to withdraw from the disorderly, in the hope that
142 SECOND EPISTLE TO THE THESSALONIANS.
the shunning of their society might have a moral influence on them.
And yet even this gentle discipline must be exercised with mo
deration, in the remembrance that a brother was a brother still. More
urgently, and as a lesson more congenial to himself, does the Apostle
seek to impress upon them his own spirit, the spirit of honest in
dustry, the spirit of peace and order, which is at once his benedic
tion and admonition to them.
143
GENUINENESS OF THE SECOND EPISTLE.
THE second Epistle to the Thessalonians is not deficient in ex
ternal evidence of its genuineness. As in the case of the former
Epistle, the doubts that have been raised respecting it are based
solely on an examination of its language and contents. They may
be summed up under the following heads, the consideration of which
will tend to establish the genuineness of the Epistle, as well as to
throw light on its character and object:
i. Inconsistency with the First Epistle, in deferring the coming
of Christ,
ii. Doctrine of Antichrist, which is said to be an anachronism,
either as indicating a later Montanist origin, or as betraying
an allusion to later historical events,
iii. The absence of situation and circumstance, as well as of traits
of individual character,
iv. The token at the end of the Epistle, which is the sign in all
the Epistles,
v. Likeness to, and difference from, the style of St. Paul.
i. Inconsistency with the First Epistle in deferring the coming
of Christ, 1 Thess. v. 2., " Yourselves know perfectly that the day
of the Lord cometh as a thief in the night ; " 2 Thess. ii. 3., " That
day shall not come except there come a falling away first." It may
be replied, that no argument against the genuineness of writings
of St. Paul is more unsafe than that from supposed inconsistency.
No writer is more apt to present us with opposite views of the same
subject, even in the same Epistle, or to modify one side of a precept
144 SECOND EPISTLE TO THE THESSALONIANS.
or of an argument by the other. (Compare the treatment of the
question of meats offered to idols in 1 Corinth, viii. ; or of the inces
tuous person in 1 Cor. v. ; 2 Cor. vii. ; or of the rejection of the Jews
in the Epistle to the Eomans.) The coming of Christ is a subject
in which such a difference is most likely to appear, because it is
future, and therefore necessarily indistinct. And the difference
between the two passages is just similar to that which occurs else
where, even in successive verses of the same chapter and in the dis
courses of our Lord himself. See Essay on the Belief in the imme
diate Coming of Christ, and on the Man of Sin.
ii. Doctrine of Antichrist : (1.) Supposed to indicate a later Mon-
tanist origin. To this it may be answered that the doctrine of Anti
christ is not Montanist, but Jewish, and in its general outline is
found in the writings of Philo and the Rabbis, no less than in those
of Paul and John. (Comp., though later, 2 Esdras.) Even were there
no express proof of its existence, it might have been safely conjec
tured, from the analogy of prophecy, to have followed the belief in Mes
siah s kingdom. Or, (2.) to betray allusions to later historical events ;
that is to say, Nero, who is to come again, is Antichrist j and the
space between the death of Nero and the destruction of Jerusalem
is the exact interval into which the composition of the Epistle fits.
The fuller answer to both objections will be found in the Essays
on the Belief in the Coming of Christ and on the Man of Sin. Here
it will be sufficient to remark that the prophecies of the New Testa
ment do not relate to particular events, but to the state of the world
in general. They are not political but spiritual. They take a distant
view of history, and read it by a light of good and evil which they
themselves cast upon it. It would be contrary to general principles
to assign any minute historical meaning to a particular passage.
iii. The absence of situation and circumstance, and of traits of
individual character.
One Epistle has not as many historical allusions as another, or
GENUINENESS OF THE SECOND EPISTLE. 145
there is a difference of length in different Epistles. But the short
ness of an Epistle, or the absence of historical allusions, does not prove
it to be spurious ; it only lessens or does away with a single proof
of genuineness. In this case it may be argued further, that the tone
of the Epistle agrees with what we gather from the Acts respecting
the Spirit and feelings of the earliest believers, living " amid the
things spoken of by the prophet Joel ; " and that the early date
of the Epistle offers a general coincidence with its Old Testament
and prophetic character. Some value may be also attributed to the
connexion of the First and Second Epistles. Arguments which are
comparatively slight may be fairly set against slight objections.
Lastly, considering the deep feeling which throughout marks the
Epistle, it cannot be said to be devoid of character.
It is the opinion of Ewald (Die Sendschreiben des ApostelsPaulus),
" that none of the writings of the New Testament have so much of
the living freshness of the first age of the Gospel, or present so
vivid a picture of the hopes of the first believers, as the Epistles to
the Thessalonians. Their chief subject is the Apocalyptic vision in
its first native power working on the minds of men, not yet formed
into an artistic whole, as in the Book of Revelation. In other
respects also a coincidence may be observed between the contents of
the Epistle and the earlier stages of the Apostle s life. Circumstances
have not yet drawn out the sense of the opposition between Judaism
and the Gospel. He preaches love and not faith ; the words
righteousness and justification never occur. He is contending
with Jews or heathens (1 Thess. ii. 14 16.J , Jewish Christians
(2 Thess. iii. 2. ?) have not yet appeared on the scene." (Pp. 13 18.)
iv. The token at the end of the Epistle, which is the sign in all the
Epistles.
It is argued that at this date there were no forgeries, and therefore
no reason for guarding against forgery, and that the Apostle had as
yet written but one Epistle.
This is the strongest objection urged by Baur against the genuine-
VOL. I. L
146 SECOND EPISTLE TO THE THESSALONIANS.
ness of the Epistle. In answer it may be remarked : (1.) That the
autograph salutation occurs in 1 Cor. xvi. 21. and Col. iv. 18. ; that
it would require minute observation to have remarked this, and yet
the Epistle to which it is supposed to be transferred, exhibits no
imitation either in words or train of thought of those Epistles. (2.)
That it is most probable that the words of Gal. vi. 11., "Ye see in how
large letters I have written to you with my own hands," are similarly
a sign of the genuineness of that Epistle. It is true that to appeal to
the allusion in 2 Thess. ii. 2. itself, as a proof of the existence
of forged epistles in St. Paul s time, would be a circle. (3.) But the
consistency of that allusion with the token of salutation, and the
slightness of it, are presumptions of the Epistle having arisen from a
real occasion. (4.) The readiness to practise forgery and pious fraud
in an age when such forgeries were apt to be thought innocent and
laudable, can hardly be estimated. Compare Rev. xxii. 18 19.
Lastly, the incidental character of the Epistles we have, leads us
naturally to suppose that there were others also, which have not come
down to us, and gives a rational meaning to the words " in every
Epistle," even though occurring in one of the first of those extant.
v. Likeness to, and difference from, the style and writings of
St. Paul.
The likeness is supposed to be such as betrays an imitator ; the
difference, such as renders it impossible that the epistle could have
been written by St. Paul. But, on the other hand, it may be retorted
that the difference is no greater than might naturally be expected in
the same author writing at different times; and the likeness of a
kind such as indicates the hand, not of an imitator, but of St. Paul
himself.
(1.) The examples of difference of style and language are very
uncertain. The following expressions are quoted in confirmation
of the objection * :
; Baur, Paulus, pp. 489, 490.
GENUINENESS OF THE SECOND EPISTLE. 147
1. EvyapLaTtiv <ty Xo/ij>, i. 3., ii. 13., especially in the first passage,
where it is weakened by KadwQ ai6v ianv.
2. vnepavtavei rj iriffrig vptiv, i. 3., is said to be inconsistent with
Karapriffai TO. vorp?;juara rfjg iriarewQ vfjiujv in 1 Thess. iii. 10.
3. aipe~i<rdai, used of election in ii. 13.
4. .vat e$ia rovro, for ta rouro, ii. 11.
5. Forced construction of i-n-iffTevBr] TO jjiapTvpiov
i. 10.
6. iraaa evdoKia aya.Qii)ffvrr]Q^ ipyov 7r/0TWC> i
rijg 7raj0ov<r/ac, ii. 8. ; ^e^effdai Tt)i> aya7rr)v rijc; aX^Qet ac, ii.
10. ; a%tu)ffr) rrjQ K\i]ffeb)t; t i. 11. ; KttkoJroteiv, iii. 13.
Objections of this kind are, for the most part, matters of taste or
feeling, about which it is useless to dispute. It may be observed on
No. 1., that although evxaptffruv fye/Xojtkev, i. 3., ii. 13., does not
occur elsewhere in the writings of St. Paul, it cannot be regarded as
unlike his style. The form of duty is one which all thoughts na
turally take in his mind. He is under obligation, compulsion, &c., to
do many things. Nor can any pleonasm or dilution of language be
regarded as an evidence of the spuriousness of a writing of St. Paul s
age if it be not rather, as far as it goes, a proof of its genuineness.
This latter remark strictly applies to No. 2., which reminds us of the
amplification of language which occurs at the commencement of his
other Epistles. Neither is the supposed inconsistency in this last-
mentioned passage with 1 Thess. iii. 10. so great as the dif
ference in tone of 1 Cor. i. 59. and the rest of the Epistle, the
wavering and variation of which are themselv.es characteristic of the
Apostle.
On No. 3. it may be observed, that although the word alp(.~i<rdaL
nowhere occurs in the New Testament in the sense of election, it
has this sense in Deut. xxvi. 18., whence it is not unreasonable to
suppose that St. Paul, or any other writer of the New Testament,
may have transferred it to his own use. No. 4. There is no more
objection to KOI before 3ta TOVTO than to any other pleonastic use of
KM, such, for example, as that in Col. ii. 13. No. 5. Compare Rom.
L 2
148 SECOND EPISTLE TO THE THESSALONIANS.
iv. 9. for a similar use of iiri. No. 6. Compare Eph. i. 5. for a pleo
nastic use of evdoKia : Eph. i. 3. 8. for a similar use of Trag. In
stances do not occur precisely parallel with the remaining examples ;
still, neither the want of clearness of expression in some of these, nor
the pleonastic character of others, are at all inconsistent with the
style of the Apostle.
(2.) Against such supposed dissimilarities, it is fair to set also the
resemblances in manner and phraseology to the Apostle s writings.
The following are characteristically, if not exclusively, St. Paul s :
The pleonastic and vehement mode of speaking of the faith and
love of his converts, in i. 3., as elsewhere, at the commencement
of his Epistles, yet, as in the Corinthians, passing into reproof of
some at the close of the Epistle.
The antithetical turn of thought in ver. 6, 7., and real, though
latent, parallelism with Phil. i. 28, 29.
The mode of connecting iv^aaQijvai with the word iv Sofy in
i. 10. ; the echo of evfoZaffdrjvai in ivtiofacrdfj, ver. 12. ; the
verbal connexion of i-n-Lffrevdr} with Trtorcuo-arrtv in ver. 10. ; the
reciprocal expression iv vfTtv /ecu v^elg iv avrw in ver. 12.
The tva in i. 11., and the more remote OTTWC in ver. 12., like Rom.
vii. 13.
The anacoluthon in ii. 3.
The expression in ii. 3., \d\ TIQ UJJ.O.Q iairar^0]|, like the warning in
Eph. v. 6., fJir)de.~iG vfJiCLQ aTrararw KEVOIQ XoyotQ.
The recurrence to his visit to them, as in Cor., Gal., Phil., 1 Thess.
The following parallelisms : 2 Thess. ii. 7., porov 6 rare xwj , participle
without a verb; so Rom. xii. 16, 17. 19. 2 Thess. ii. 10., rolg
; so 1 Cor. i. 18., 2 Cor. ii. 15. 2 Thess. ii. 12.,
[ev] rrj aSiKiy ; Rom. i. 32., crvvevdoKovcri TOIQ 7rpa<r-
aovcri.
The defective antithesis in ii. 12.
The expressions 2 Thess. ii. 13., ev^apiff-elv Travrorej compare
1 Cor. i. 4., ev^apiffrCj rw S ew pov TTCLVTOTS. 2 Thess. ii. 15.,
apa ovr, a(!)\(j)oi ; SO Rom. viii. 12., apa ovv, adeXfyoi ; Gal. iv.
GENUINENESS OF THE SECOND EPISTLE. 149
31., apa, adeXfyol. 2 Thess. ii. 16., 7rapuK\r]ffiv. . . KOI e \7rt3a;
Rom. XV. 4., Ttje TT apa.K\rf ff0)Q T&V ypatywv rrjv \7rioa e^w^er.
2 Thess. iii. 2., tva pvcrdtipEv ; Rom. xv. 31., iva pvaOti.
The juxtaposition of TcapaKaXtiv and (TT^ I^LV in ii. 17. as in Rom.
i. 1], 12.
The echo of sound, rather than of sense in TTIOTIC and TTIOTOC, in
iii. 3., and of Trio-roc in TreiroiQa/jLey in ver. 3, 4. ; compare Rom.
xii. 13, 14.
The expression in 2 Thess. iii. 6., Trapayye XXo/uy . . . iv OVO
TOV Kvplov ; SO 1 Cor. vii. 10., Trajoayye XXw oi//c yw aXX 6 Kv
The words ov^ on OUK exo/zev i%ov<riav 9 iii. 9., which occur also in
1 Cor. ix. 4., there as a part of the main argument, but here
incidentally ; also the passage which follows, and the use of the
word 7riap7o > cu just before, in the same sense as aap*/e, 2 Cor.
xi. 9.
The sudden alternation from the language of severity to that of
love, in iii. 14, 15. ; compare 1 Cor. v. and 2 Cor. ii. 6.
2 Thess. iii. 13., p.tj exKor^o ijre KaXoTroiovvTec. So Gal. vi. 9., TO
$ KaXoV TTOLOVVTEQ p.1] {.KKa^HJ fJLf. V. 2 TllCSS. iii. 16., 6 KVplO eiplJVTJ^y
towards the end of the Epistle. So Rom. xvi. 20. ; 2 Cor.
xiii. 11.; Gal. vi. 16.
The play of words (iii. 11.), /Jirjdev epya^ojueVovc, dXXa
. Compare Rom. i. 20. 28., ii. 1., &c.
L 3
150 SECOND EPISTLE TO THE THESSALONIANS.
TIME AND PLACE OF THE SECOND EPISTLE.
THE Second Epistle to the Thessalonians affords of itself no indi
cation of time or place. But when taken in connexion with the First
Epistle, it must be presumed to have been written not earlier,* but
later, as the First Epistle immediately refers to the Apostle s first
visit to Thessalonica, and this in a way hardly consistent with the sup
position that a previous Epistle had intervened. The First Epistle
was written sometime during the Apostle s eighteen months stay in
Corinth and its neighbourhood. How long afterwards the Second
Epistle followed, we can only judge from so precarious an argument as
the degree of connexion between them. Are the circumstances and
state of feeling described in the Second Epistle sufficiently different
from those in the First to require a considerable interval ? or so
similar as to imply a short one only ?
It is at least doubtful whether the Apostle in ii. 2. is referring
to his former Epistle. (See note.) Leaving the discussion of this
verse, therefore, as having nothing to do with our present subject,
the points of connexion which the. two Epistles present are the
following :
(1.) The persecutions which are still continuing.
(2.) The expectation of the coming of Christ; which, in the Second
Epistle, has taken a new turn ; the former anxiety about the
departed having passed away, and a general unsettlement
of mind having taken its place, arising out of a belief of
the nearness of the great event.
(3.) The disorder of the Church, and interruption of daily occu
pations.
TIME AND PLACE OF THE SECOND EPISTLE. 151
From such data we cannot form any certain conclusions, The
second of the above-mentioned points of connexion implies some,
the first and third not a very long interval. The circumstances of
the Church seem to be the same in both Epistles, but the state of
feeling to be rapidly changing. The First Epistle presents us with
the picture of an early Christian Church, within a few months, at
latest, from its conversion. The Second presents us, though -in
uncertain outline, with the picture of the same Church a few months
later, with some of its features aggravated, others softened, so far
as we can indistinctly trace them in the exhortations of the Apostle.
The same persons who first preached the Gospel at Thessalonica,
Paul and Silvanus and Timotheus, are still together, as they are
joined in the superscription of the Epistle.
These considerations, together with the improbability of supposing
the Epistle to be contemporaneous with any of the later writings of
St. Paul, lead to the inference that it was sent from Corinth or its
neighbourhood, during the latter part of the Apostle s eighteen
months stay there.
i. 4
IIPO2 9E22AAONIKEI2
B.
154 SECOND EPISTLE TO THE TIIESSALONIANS. [Cn. I.
nPO2 0E22AAONIKEI2 B.
IIATAOS Kal Si\ovavos Kal Tijno#eos rfj KK\7j(ria Setrcra- 1
\OVLKQ)V V 0U TTCLTpl rjfJLWV Kal KVpLto l^CTOV ^OICTTW.
X^PLS VJJAV Kal elpTJvr) OLTTO Otov Trarpbs [^w^] Kal Kvpiov 2
Irjcrov yjpi<TTOv.
Evxapi(7Ti^ o(j)LXop,ev TCO 0(o TrdVroTe irepl v^a)v, 3
d$\(j)0i, Ka0a)$ d^iov ICTTIV, STL VTrepav^dvei TI TTicrrts v^v
Kal TrXecW^ei rj aydirri ivos KOLCTTOV Travrw v^u>v et?
4
iv
I. The substance of the first
chapter may be summed up as fol
lows : The Apostle commends
the Thessalonian converts, for
their increasing faith and the love
which draws them closer to one
another amid persecutions. This
commendation he utters in the
form of a thanksgiving on their
behalf, in which, as elsewhere,
the power of expression falls
short of the fulness of his heart.
The patience with which the
Thessalonians endured their suf
ferings is a source of pride to
him in the churches of God.
Those very sufferings of theirs
are a manifestation of the righ
teousness of God; their object
being to make them worthy of
the kingdom of God. For they
must be considered as part of a
whole, the present balancing
with the future ; the state of
believers here alternating with
that of their enemies in the
world to come. " Son, thou in
thy life hadst thy good things
and likewise Lazarus evil things,
but now he is comforted, and thou
art tormented." This is the
law of compensation, in God s
dealings with the heathen and
the despisers of the Gospel, in
the day when they shall pass
away for ever from his presence,
and his saints who have believed
the word of the Apostle, shall
magnify him. For which end
the Apostle prays without ceas
ing, that God may make them
worthy of their calling and the
name of Christ be glorified in
them.
1, 2. Compare notes on the
salutation of the First Epistle,
which is the same, with the ex
ception of the words, UTTO $ov
Kal Kvpiov Irjauv
here no longer doubtful.
3. v^apiorrej/ ^eo^ufr, we
are bound to thank.~\ The plural
may be intended to include Sil-
vanus and Timotheus, or we may
VEK. 14.] SECOND EPISTLE TO THE THESSALONIANS. 155
II. THESSALONIANS.
1 PAUL, and Silvanus, and Timotheus, unto the Church
of the Thessalonians in God our Father and the Lord
2 Jesus Christ: Grace unto you, and peace, from God our
Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
3 WE are bound to thank God always for you, brethren,
as it is meet, because that your faith groweth exceed
ingly, and the love* of every one of you all toward
t each other aboundeth ; so that we ourselves glory in
consider St. Paul as already mak
ing the transition and using the
plural of himself only, as else
where. Compare 1 Thess. i. 2.
KcidwQ aiov, as it is meet. ] The
apparent tautology of these words
("we ought to do it as we ought")
it is proposed to obviate by con
necting them closely with the
clause which follows : " We
ought to give thanks always for
you, and the reason which makes it
meet that we should give thanks is
the exceeding abundance of your
faith." To this it may be objected,
that the proposed connexion of
the clauses is unnatural and the
meaning poor. It is better to
regard the words Ka dwc at,iov
ka-iv as an emphatic repetition
of the preceding, " we ought to
give thanks, as is worthy ; " a^iov
expressing a higher degree of
the same notion than d^t/Xo/uev
it is not merely an obligation,
but a noble and worthy thing, a
freewill offering as well as a duty :
" it is very meet, right, and our
bounden duty."
kvoq . . . vp,G)v,~\ of every one
without any exception ; et e aXX/j-
Xoue, to be taken with ?/ ayuirrj.
wore iijJiOLQ avrovG not intended
to indicate that in general
a man should not glory, but
merely that the excess of their
faith and grace was such that it
reflected itself even on others,
and made Paul also himself glory
on their behalf in other Churches.
The emphasis on j/juag avrovcinay
be thought to intimate that, how
ever natural it is for a person to
boast of himself, it is unnatural
for others to boast of him ; " in
your case, however, it is not you
who boast of yourselves, but we
ourselves who boast of you." Yet,
in a writer like St. Paul, we can
not certainly say that this ap
parent point is more than a false
emphasis or awkwardness of ex
pression.
4. EV Tulg K K X?7<7/atf.] That is,
156 SECOND EPISTLE TO THE THESSALONIANS. [CH. I.
KOL
TOV Oeov virep rrjs V7rop,ovfjs v
iv Traoriv rot? Stwy/^ot? v^v Kal TCU9 OXiifjecnv ats di/e-
-^ecrOe, eVSeiy/^a r^? St/ccua? icpicreco? roG #eov, 19 TO Kara- 5
^LwOrjvaL vjJLa<s r^s ySacrcXeta? TOT) #eov v?rep ^9 /cat Tracr^ere,
ei Trep SiKaiov wapa #ea> avTaTro oovvai rot9 6\ifiovcrw vfjias 6
p2v TO 19 #Xi/3o/xeVoi9 avecriv jJLeff r^^v iv rfj 7
TOV KVpLOV Ir)(TOV GLTT OVpOLVOV fJLT OLyye\0)V
TOL9 8
Trvpl (f)\oy6s.
Kal
in Corinth and the neighbouring
towns, vrro^ovtig, in allusion to
persecutions; <kwyjuo7e and $\l\f;-
mv may be distinguished, as par
ticular and general, as persecu
tions and trials. ale avt-%crd,
" wherewith or wherein ye en
dure ; " or for wv, by a somewhat
unusual attraction, " which ye
endure." According to the first
explanation the nearest analogy
for the dative after avi^EaQe is
that of verbs of satisfaction and
dissatisfaction, ffTepyeu*, \a\7rwQ
$pEii>, and the like ; it is simpler,
however, to supply iv from the
antecedent clause.
5, 6. The Apostle transfers
himself to a new point of view.
Their present persecution was a
proof of God s justice, for it was
a token that God would give
them a place in His kingdom, if,
on the other hand, the punishment
of their enemies hereafter was
in accordance with the just judg
ment of God ; for the relative
position of both would be altered
in the world to come, the order of
another life being itself an inver
sion of the order of this. Good
and evil, now and hereafter, are
diametrically opposed. Thus we
have two arguments :
They suffer now : therefore,
Their enemies will suffer here
after.
Their enemies will suffer here
after: therefore,
They will be comforted here
after.
But are such arguments really
valid ? it will be asked. They
are arguments of the same kind
as those in the eleventh chapter
of Romans : " If the root is holy,
how much more the branches?
if the rejection of the Jews is
the salvation of the world, how
much more their restoration?"
In other words, the substance is
real, but the form is dialectical
or rhetorical. A near parallel to
the present passage is furnished
by Phil. i. 28.: "And in nothing
terrified by your adversaries :
which is to them an evident token
(tV^eifrc) of perdition, but to you
of salvation, and that of God ; "
words which at the same time
express the feelings with which
the heathen must have often
looked upon the sufferings of the
first Christians.
eWfiyjua is said to be put in
apposition with the idea of afflic
tion or endurance in the previous
verse. According to this mode
of connecting the sentence, it is
probably the accusative case ; if
VEK. 58.] SECOND EPISTLE TO THE THESSALONIANS. 157
you in the churches of God for your patience and faith
in all your persecutions and tribulations that ye endure:
5 which is a manifest token of the righteous judgment of
God, that ye may be counted worthy of the kingdom of
G God, for which ye also suffer : seeing it is a righteous
thing with God to recompense tribulation to them that
7 trouble you ; and to you who are troubled rest with us,
when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven
8 with his mighty angels, in flame 1 of fire taking ven-
Flaming.
taken with the subject of avi^tofQe
(quasi OVTEQ vc)ty/ia), it would
be in the nominative. Whether
the nicety of the grammatical
construction was in the Apostle s
mind or not, there can be little
doubt that tVctety/^o. refers to the
idea of the previous sentence,
not to the nominative case of
avi^eaQe. In the sufferings of
the converts, the Apostle sees
by implication the sufferings of
their enemies ; and these reflect,
as in a glass, their own happiness.
Viewed in this light, their very
suffering is a manifestation of
the justice of God.
(.Ig TO KaTa^id)dfjvai vjuag.]] etc,
the result, as in 2 Cor. viii. 6., or
the object, or both. It is the re
sult and end of their persecution,
that they may be counted worthy
of the kingdom. Compare Luke,
vi. 23.
vTTfjO ?7C K cu Traff^ere^ suggests
the reason and pledge of their
election to the kingdom of God.
t i 7T|0 SiKaiov ] is taken up from
SiKaias Kpiarewc, " since it is just
with [God to punish your ene
mies."
7. av6<rte], remission of suffering
in the future kingdom of Christ,
" where the wicked cease from
troubling, where the weary are
at rest."
avroi;,]
p.tT ayyeXwv
a Hebraism like viol
upX OVT Svva/jiewG in the LXX.
8. iv tyXoyi Trujooc, in flaming
fire.~\ Compare Exod. iii. 2., Dan.
vii. 9, 10., Is. xxix. 6.
The Gospel " of the coming
of Christ " is clothed in language
taken from the Old Testament.
"The flame of fire" and the
punishment of the wicked, " from
the presence of God and from
the glory of his might," are lite
rally expressions of Isaiah (ii.
10. 19.21., andxxix. 6., xxx. 27.),
as the description of the man
of sin in the next chapter is in
part also borrowed from Ezekiel
and Daniel. The array of His
saints is also an image familiar
to the prophets. (Comp. Jude,
ver. 14.) Almost we may fancy
we hear Elias saying by the
mouth of John the Baptist, "He
shall thoroughly purge his floor
and burn up the chaff with un
quenchable fire." And yet that
which most distinguishes the
truth of Christ even from Evan
gelical prophecy is not wanting.
They who are to be " glorified
in Christ" in company (/t0 //^uwr)
with the Apostles and prophets,
are not the chosen people, but
a heathen community. That
earlier Gospel of St. Paul "which
158 SECOND- EPISTLE TO THE THESSALONIANS. [Cn. I.
eiSdcn, Oeov KOI rots ^TI viraKovovcrw rco evayyeXtw rov
Kvpiov rjfjiwv Irjcrov [^tcrroG], om^es iKrjv TIO-OV&IV 9
o\49piov l altoviov a/7ro TrpoorcoTTOV TOV Kvpiov Kal 0,770 TTJS
80^-77? rrjs IOT^VO? avTov, orav e\0rj lv8oacr0rjvaL ev rot? 10
dyiois avTov Kal OavjJLao-OrjvaL iv 7ra<Tiv rots Tricrreucracrtz/ 2 ,
on T7LCTTvdr) TO [JiapTvpiov rjjjia)v efi vjnas iv rf}
ei? o Kal Trpoarev^ojJieOa TraVroTe Trepl
aia>crr) rfjs /cX^crea)? 6 ^09 TI^V Kal
evSoKiav ayaO(*)crvvr)S Kal epyov Trio^Tea)? iv Sv-
Iva \\
was not another," had a kind of
Old Testament force and sim
plicity. Its phraseology was
yet unformed ; it embodied in
vision of sense the " things that
eye hath not seen ; " the Apostle
when he preached it was " drunk
into the Spirit " of the old pro
phets of Israel. But it was a
Gospel for the Gentile as well
as the Jew ; it spoke of faith in
Christ and salvation through
his name ; it witnessed to the
Apostle s own call and that of
his converts ; it was " very
near," though it seemed also " to
bring down Christ from above."
Tolg jj.ii elSofftv $eov Kal rdlg p)}
vircu:ovovaiv.~\ Seeming to inti
mate the Gentiles, who know
not God, and the Jews, who are
a disobedient race.
9. O.TTO 7rpo<TW7rov.] CITTO here pro
bably has a mixed or double
notion ; " at " or " because of "and
" away from " in one ; it marks
the cause of separation. Com
pare the use of aVo irpoa-coTrov in
Is. xix. 16., and the description
of the day of the Lord in Isaiah
ii. 10. 19. 21. (jdffEviynavTEQ E\Q
TO. o-TTi/Xcua . . . ctTro
TOV 0O/3ov KVplOV /CCU U7TO TTJQ
rfjg
UVTOV OTCIV
dpavorai T)]v yr]v\ from which
this passage is taken, and where
the same words (ctTro . . . avrov)
are thrice repeated.
r>7c of/e rfjr, layvoQ avrou.]
Taken from the passage just
quoted. Not the glory which is
the creation of his power, but his
mighty glory, the glory which
overpowers men at his appearing,
as of the sun travelling in the
greatness of his strength (com
pare TO KpaTOQ TT) ^O^Cj Col. i.
11. andver. 7., ^LET dyy\wv ovv
afj.ewQ CIVTOV). This is confirmed
by the next verse, the thought
of which is caught up from the
word 2oa in the preceding.
10. OTCLV EXOy, when he shall
come~] (sc. wore) to be glorified.
r rote ayioiQ refers, not to angels,
but to the spirits of departed
saints, who are the array in which
the Lord comes (Zech. xiv. 5.,
Jude, ver. 14.), while believers
everywhere look on with joy
and wonder, tr, neither "by"
nor " in the midst of ; " it is
expressive rather of the union
of Christ with those who are
the manifestation of his glory.
As the Father is said to be
glorified in the Son, John, xiv.
3., so is the Son said to be
VER. 911.] SECOND EPISTLE TO THE THESSALONIANS. 159
geance on them that know not God, and that obey not
9 the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ : who shall be
punished with everlasting destruction from the presence
10 of the Lord, and from the glory of his power ; when he
shall come to be glorified in his saints, and to be
admired in all them that believe because our testimony
11 *to you was believed in that day. Wherefore also
we pray always for you, that our God would count
you worthy of this calling, and fulfil all the good plea
sure of his goodness, and the work of faith with power :
glorified in his saints. Compare
eyKav%aa6ai iv vjjuv, ver. 4.
ore lirurrcvdij TO paprvpiorfipiij) .^
The most natural explanation of
these words is to regard them as
a mere epexegesis of Tnarevaacnv.
" To be marvelled at by all be
lievers, because you believed us;"
the clause on iiriaTtvOr) being in
tended to connect the previous
clause ev -a<nv TO~IQ TriaTtvaaaLV
with the Church at Thessalonica,
to which the Apostle had
preached. " When he comes to
be glorified in his saints, and
wondered at, among all believers,
because of the success of the
Gospel, whereof I am a minister."
f.(j> vfjiUQ is commonly said to
be joined with paprvpior; " unto,"
not, as in the parallel expression
(Luke, ix. 5.), "against." For
the use of I?, compare the Home
ric K Xtog e?r avtipwirovc;. In such
forms of speech e-rrl is hardly
distinguishable from EIQ ; it may
perhaps be said to convey an
idea of diffusion, elc of directness,
both equally implying the ten
dency to an object.
It is not, however, certain that
</> vfjias is to be taken with
rather than with iin-
In the latter case ETTI-
UQ may be said in the
same way as in Col. i. 6., evaj-
yeXiov rov -nupovroQ elg v^uac, the
idea of "extending" or "coming,"
which is wanted in the verb, being
imperfectly expressed by the pre
position. So TTtTroiOaper f.q> vpac,
2 Thess. iii. 4., and 2 Cor. ii. 3.
Compare also Apoc. vii. 15.,
(TKrjrwffet iir* avrovc.
kv TTJ ripepa tKUVQ is usually
connected with j^oa<70r>cu; the
order of words favours its being
construed with tTriffrevOr], Com
pare note on Rom. ii. 12.
11. fig 6 .] " For which end ;"
the thought being further carried
on in the words that follow Ira
VJJ.O.Q
o7/, and assisted by r?)c
Compare ii. 14., els o
, and Col. i. 29., etc o
KCU K OTTtW. v
K-a/.] Which shall be, and to
which end we pray also.
rijQ /cA/jo fwe.] The calling of
man by God is the first act, and
beginning of a Christian life.
But the acts of God may be
viewed also as unchangeable.
and therefore as the end rather
than the beginning of the work ;
in the beginning the end also is
implied. In this passage it is
not as the act of God that j[:A/<rig
160 SECOND EPISTLE TO THE THESSALONIANS. [Cn. I. 12.
i, OTTOJS IvSo^acrQfj T0 oVo/xa TOV Kvpiov ^^MV I^o-ov 12
^ VIM.V KOL vjjieis iv avroj Acara TT^V yapiv TOV
0OV 7JJJLGJV Kal KVplOV *Ir)O~OV XpiCTTOV
EpaiTojfJitv Se v/xa9, dSeX<(H, vTrep TT^S Trapovcrias rov 2
Kvpiov TJJJLOJV Irjcrov ^picrrov KOLI r^L^v TruTvva.ya)yr}S CTT
avrov, eis TO /XT) ra^ew? cra\V0rjvai vjaa? CXTTO rou *>oo9 2
is used, but as the state which
results from that act. Comp. note
on 1 Thess. iii. 7.
TrXripuffr) iraffctv evdoxiar aya-
Q(oavvr)c, fulfil all the good plea
sure of his goodness. ] It has
been doubted, in reference to the
last two words, whether they al
lude to the Thessalonians, or to
God the Giver ; or evtioKia to
God, ayaOiiMTvt r) to them : (1.)
all gladness in well doing ; or,
(2.) (as in the English version)
all the good pleasure of his good
ness ; or, (3.) all his good plea
sure in their righteousness.
It is improbable that the Apostle
would have distinguished the will
of God in itself from the working
of it in the heart of man. As
with ZiKaiocruvrj, yrwert, ayctTrr/, he
uses mixed modes of thought,
blending in one the cause with
the effect. The believer is sepa
rated by so thin a film from the
Spirit of God that the operation
of the one is often in Scripture
transferred to the other, and
language wavers in its meaning
between the two or seems to
comprehend both. See Essay
in vol. ii. on the Abstract Ideas
of Scripture.
12. OTTWC tV<W;ttff0j/, that may be
glorified.~\ That is, that the Lord
may be glorified in you, and ye
in him. The words TO ovopa TOV
Kvfjiov are not precisely equivalent
to o Kvpwc. They recall the lan
guage of the Old Testament
which the Apostle naturally
uses to express the glory of " His
appearing."
II. " I beseech you, brethren, as
an advocate for the truth respect
ing the coming of Christ (or
simply as touching the coming of
Christ), that ye be not soon shaken
by any impulse from within, or
word, or letter of any, as though it
were what I taught you, that the
day of the Lord is at hand. For
ye remember what I said, while
I was with you, that the Apostasy
must first come, that so the ad
versary, the son of perdition, may
be revealed, who is to seat him
self in the Temple of God. And
you know what it is that hinders
his being revealed, and reserves
him for his own time. For al
ready he is working unseen, and
shall appear when the hinderer is
taken away. Then shall be the
revelation of the power of Satan
on earth, the image of the true,
with all manner of falsehood and
imposture, and power of delusion
to those who will be deceived, in
the deception of whom God him
self shall assist, that they may be
all brought into judgment.
"Him," the Apostle adds by an
ticipation in the eighth verse,
<{ the Lord shall destroy with the
breath of his mouth and the ma
nifestation of his presence."
" From the lost, brethren, we
turn to you who are saved, having
so much the more need to give
-II. 2.] SECOND EPISTLE TO THE THESSALONIANS. 1G1
12 that the name of our Lord Jesus Christ may be glori
fied in you, and ye in him, according to the grace of
our God and the Lord Jesus Christ.
% NOW we beseech you, brethren, concerning* the com
ing of our Lord Jesus Christ, and our gathering together
2 unto him, that ye be not soon shaken from * your mind,
thanks for you, who are the first
fruits of the Gospel, whom God
hath called by our preaching to
the inheritance of the kingdom
of Christ. Wherefore also I ex
hort you to stand firm and hold
fast what has been delivered to
you. And may our Lord Jesus
Christ, and God our Father, who
loved us and gave us consolation
far beyond our temporal suffer
ings, comfort and strengthen
you ! "
1 10. is suggested by the
mention of the judgment in the
previous chapter, and has re
ference to opinions existing in
the Thessalonian Church. They
had suffered persecution and
this led the Apostle to the
thought, that the judgment of
God would be upon their enemies,
in the day of the Lord. But a
sort of counter-thought arises in
his mind, that this coming of
the day of the Lord was the
very subject upon which he had
to warn them to be calm, and
not think, day after day, that the
course of the world was to be
interrupted. " God is about to
take vengeance on your enemies
and that speedily " would be the
natural sequence. But the Apo
stle goes on to teach them,
that in- fact "it would not be
speedily," for an increase of evil
must come first. And he pro
ceeds to recall to their minds
the lesson which he had taught
VOL. I.
while yet with them, respecting
the man of sin and " that which
let."
1. fpwroi/ier, "we beseech, "] as
in Phil. iv. 3. and elsewhere in
the New Testament.
inre jo.] Not as in the English
version "by," as though a formula
of adjuration. There would be
no point in saying "I beseech
you by the day of the Lord, not to
suppose that the day of the Lord
is at hand, virep, in this passage,
may be taken, either (1.) as
equivalent to Trfpt, as in 2 Cor.
i. 6. 8. ; 1 Thess. iii. 2. ; where,
however, as in most of the pas
sages in which vwep is said to be
put for 7Tp<, the original idea is
partly retained ; or better, (2.) in
the common use of " on behalf
of," as though the Apostle were
pleading in the interest of that
day, that the expectation of it
might not be a source of disorder
in the Church.
T//IWV 7rtervmywyf/.[] Compare
1 Thess. iv. 17. : " Then we
which are alive and remain shall
be caught up together with them
in the clouds."
2. ffaXevOrjvai VJJLUQ CITTO rov roo,
that ye be not soon shaken from
your mind,"] or so as to lose your
mind. Comp. Rom. ix. 3,, ava-
0ejua etvai . . . UTTO rov -^pLffrov.
pr}T c)td TTvevparoQ, by spirit.^
Do not let any spiritual influence
take possession of you, and unset
tle your mind. -Krtv^a^ not in that
162 SECOND EPISTLE TO THE THESSALONIANS. [Cn. II.
Sict Tr^ev/xaros /ATjre Sia \6yov
81 lTri<TTO\rjs, a>9 oY THJLMV, 0)9 on ivi&Tr)K.ev 07 ^/xepa rov
Kvpiov? pri ri9 v/xas l^aTTaTujcry Kara /x^Sei a rporrov, on 3
eaz/ /AT) eX^]7 17 a/Trocrracria Trp&TOv Kal a7TOKa\v<j>Ofj 6
,
,
sense of the word, in which all
Christians are partakers of it, but
rather with reference to the ir
regular manifestations of the
spirit, as of " a rushing mighty
wind," carrying men whither
they would not.
prjre rUa Xoyov, by word,~\ may
be connected, either with what
precedes, or with what follows ;
either, be not moved by any spi
ritual manifestation, nor by word
spoken of argument or exhorta
tion ; or, be not moved either by
word pretending to come from us,
or by letter pretending to come
from us. According to the first
explanation, Trrtvaarog is opposed
to Xdyov, as the supernatural ec
static impulse to ordinary in
struction.
p/re Si f e TrioroX^c, by letter."] Do
these words relate to a miscon
struction of the former Epistle, or
to a forgery ? In favour of the first
supposition may be urged: (1.)
the coincidence of the subject ;
(2.) the improbability of any one
forging an Epistle from St. Paul,
at a time when he was himself
living and writing to the Church
of Thessalonica ; (3.) the allusion
in ii. 15., whether to the Epistle
in which it occurs, or the previous
one, is uncertain ; (4.) the addi
tional improbability of his pass
ing over such an offence, with so
slight an allusion. On the other
hand, the Apostle does not com
plain of a misunderstanding or
misrepresentation of his words,
but appears to disown the Epistle
itself: and the former Epistle
could not easily have given rise
to such a misconstruction as is
here implied. The most probable
hypothesis is that the Apostle is
not referring definitely to any
particular speech or Epistle, but
to the possibility only of some one
or other being used against him.
Many may have passed between
them, and what inferences might
be drawn was uncertain. We
might translate the whole passage
thus : "be not quickly moved
either by spirit or words or letter,
as though these expressed our sen
timents." TrvevparoQ is half con
nected with, and half forgotten in,
the words <)t ?/juwV. (Comp. ver.,
15.) oe on is a confusion of two
constructions, d>e fvEffrrjKvias and
on ivearrjKe ; also of subjective
and objective, we implying the
former, on the latter, as in 2 Cor.
xi. 21., /caret ciTifiiav Xfyw, w OTI
i]fjiEiQ i](jQ(.vi]aa^.f.v^ where, as here,
it may be translated " as though,"
"under the idea that."
3. Kara ju^cteVa TJOOTTOJ , by this
or any other means.
on iav pi} e\dy, except there
come,"] is an anacoluthon. "Let
no man deceive you, because ex
cept there come a falling away
first," t crra?i}<rp may be taken
in a pregnant sense, in which case
on will mark the subject of the
deception. " Let no man deceive
VEB. 3, 4.J SECOND EPISTLE TO THE THESSALONlANS. 163
or be troubled, neither by spirit, nor by word, nor by
letter as from us, as that the day of the Lord 1 is at
3 hand. Let no man deceive you by any means : for ex
cept there come the* falling away first, and the man* of
4 sin be revealed, the son of perdition ; who oppose th and
1 Of Christ.
you, saying that that day will
come, except there come the fall
ing away first." But, owing to the
length of the sentence, the latter
end of it forgets the beginning.
?/ aTTOorao-m, the falling away,~\
either that of which he had
spoken to them while he was yet
with them, or the falling away
which was the common belief of
Christians or which in his own
mind was inseparable from the
coming of Christ, which was to
follow. For the use of the
article, compare Apoc. xx. 3.,
a^jOi TeXecrOrj ret ^i\ia err]. - Of
what nature was this falling
away ? What vision of apostasy
rose before him as he wrote this ?
Was it within or without ? per
manent or passing ? persecution
by the heathen, or the disor
ganisation of the body of Christ
itself? Was it the transition of
the Church from its first love to
a more secular and earthly state,
or the letting loose of a spiritual
world of evil, such as the Apostle
describes in Eph. vi. 12. ? So
ideal a picture cannot properly
be limited to any person or in
stitution. That it is an inward,
not an outward evil that is de
picted, is implied in the name
apostasy. It is not the evil of
the heathen world, sunk in gross-
ness and unconsciousness, but
evil rebelling against good, con
flicting with good in the spiritual
world itself. And the conflict is
of the same nature, though in a
wider sphere, as the strife of good
and evil in the heart of the indi
vidual. It is that same strife,
not as represented in the seventh
of Romans, but at a later stage,
when evil is fast becoming good,
and the remembrance of the past
itself is carrying men away from
the truth.
fcut orTTo/oiXv^OjJ.^ Antichrist,
like Christ, is to be revealed :
the outside is to be stripped off,
and he is to be seen as he is.
6 avQpwiroQ ri]Q a/.tajOr/ac.J The
impersonation of sin. Compare
Rom. vi. 6., 6 TraXaiog avSpwiroQ.
b vloQ rfJQ aTrwXtt ac.jj Not who
brings others to perdition, but
who is perdition himself and the
son of perdition, the image of
self-destroying evil. Compare
for the expression, though there
applied to an individual, John,
xvii. 12.; also alpiaeig aTrwXemc,
in 2 Peter, ii. 1., and ATroAAiW,
in Rev. ix. 11. There is no
reason to^ suppose that the de
scription of the text refers to
an individual, any more than the
prince of this world spoken of
by our Saviour ; the prince of
the power of the air, in the Epi
stle to the Ephesians ; or the beast
and false prophet, spoken of in
the Book of Revelation. As
Christ is a person, so evil is im
personated as his antagonist.
4. 6 avTiKtinevoQ, the opposer,"]
the same whom St. John calls
M 2
164 SECOND EPISTLE TO THE THESSALONIANS. [Cn. II.
KOLL vTrepaipopsevos, eVl TTOLVTOL Xeyd/xe^o^ Oeov 17
ware CLVTOV ets TOI> vaov rov 0eov l KaOicrai
eavTov on ecrTLV $609. ov ^Tj^ovevere on en, u>v Trpos
; Kal vvv TO
ravra eXeyo^ v
otSare, ets TO a7ro/ca- G
1 Add ws e<k
Antichrist, here more indefinitely
and generally expressed "the
accuser of the brethren," Rev.
xii. 11.: not Satan himself, ac
cording to whose power he is de
scribed as working in ver. 9., yet
scarcely distinguishable from
him.
vTTEpaipopevoe eV* Travra Xeyo-
HEVOV SEC! , who exalteth, fyc.~\
The image is taken from the de
scription of Antiochus Epiphanes,
in Dan. xi. 36. : Kal Trorijffet Kara
TO OtXrjjuo. avTov Kal o fia
Travra Oeov Kal \a\rjffec vjrt-
fca Kal eVt Travrag QEOVQ rdv
avrov ov avvi]ai. Com
pare also Dan. vii. 25. ; Kal
Aoyovg TrpoQ TOV v^iarov XaXrjffei.
" There are gods many and lords
many," and over all in his inso
lence does he place himself.
Xsyopevov seems to be added as an
euphemism, to avoid setting the
heathen gods in the same rank
with Jehovah.
o-e gaoyia, object of reverence, ]
used in Acts, xvii. 23., for idols.
Kctdiffai here, as commonly in
the New Testament, used intran
sitively.
?e TOV vaov TOV 0ov, in the
temple of God. ] Either : (1.) the
temple at Jerusalem ; or, (2.) the
Christian Church ; or, (3.) more
truly both, the one being the
image of the other, as in our
Lord s words, " Destroy this
temple." The use of the image
may have been suggested by the
recent attempt of Caligula to
place his statue in the Temple, as
well as by the common practice
of deifying the Roman emperors.
" In medio mihi Csesar erit, tem-
plumque tenebit." Compare Dan.
ix. 27., eVt ro {p6V TO /33e\i y/za
TrjQ EprjfKjjaewc, quoted by our
Lord in Matt. xxiv. 15. Anti
christ, 6 avTtKtipevot;, is not with
out, but within the Church,
usurping the place of God. The
Jewish Temple being regarded
as the symbol of the Christian
Church, or of the world itself,
that other temple of God, the
man of sin, is the personified and
concentrated might of evil pos
sessing it by force. See Essay
on the Man of Sin.
lavTOV OTL ianv
These words carry on the thought
which has preceded. He sits in
the temple of God, and openly
declares himself to be God. Wo
are not to imagine a person
suddenly coming forward and
claiming divine honours. This
would be, not a mystery of ini
quity, but an absurdity. What
the Apostle is speaking of is a
form of evil springing out of the
state of the world itself, to which
mankind are ready to give ho
mage.
5. Comp. 1 Thess. iii. 4. This
that I am telling you may sound
strange. But do ye not remem
ber that ye have heard it before
from me by word of mouth, when
VER. 5, 6.] SECOND EPISTLE TO THE THESSALONIANS. 165
exalteth himself over* all that is called God, or
that is worshipped; so that he 1 sitteth in the
5 temple of God, shewing himself that he is God, Re
member ye not, that, when I was yet with you, I told
6 you these things? And now ye know what with-
holdeth, that he* may be revealed in his proper* time.
1 Add as God.
I was yet with yon. I do but
hint to you now what I then told
you more fully. Or we may trace
the connexion in a slightly dif
ferent way. How is it that you
have taken up these extravagant
notions about the immediate
coming of Christ ? Have you
forgotten what I told you about
the manifestation of Antichrist
and the interval which must pre
cede? Comp. 1 John, ii. 21.,
where the Apostle refers in the
same way to the knowledge which
his converts had of the appear
ance of Antichrist "I wrote
not unto you, because ye know
not the truth, but because ye
know it."
6 Kal rvv, and now. ~] Not of
time, but of transition, and con
necting both with what precedes
and what follows: "And now
when you call to mind what I
told you, you know further what
hinders Antichrist, even as Anti
christ hinders the coming of
Christ."
t iQ TO a.7roKa\v(()9fjvai 9 that he
may be revealed.^ The coming
of Antichrist, like that of Christ,
has its appointed time. Men
were looking for the day of the
Lord, but it was not yet ; Anti
christ must first come. They
would look for Antichrist, but
it was not yet.
That TO naTiv refers to the
hindrance of Antichrist is plain
from o Kare x&jj in the succeeding
verse. As in the case of Anti
christ itself, the change of gen
der indicates that the hindrance
spoken of may be regarded in
differently as a thing or as a
person.
"That which letteth" has been
variously explained to mean the
prayers of Christians, or the
ministry of the Apostle himself,
or the Roman empire, about the
destruction of which the Apostle
expresses himself in dark and
enigmatic terms ; or, more gene
rally, the purpose of God to delay
its appearance. That the Roman
empire was a limit to the anarchy
and licentiousness of the world
is a natural view to us. But we
no not find anywhere else in the
writings of St. Paul any similar
view, nor is it easy to see how
the Roman empire could be said
to curb ^or restrain forms of
spiritual evil, although it might
seem to stand between the world
and the papacy, or between the
world and the irruption of the
barbarians. Compare Essay on
the Man of Sin.
The subject admits also of
being regarded in a more general
way. Again and again, in Scrip
ture occurs the idea of an order
and series of events, not to be
anticipated in the providence of
M 3
166 SECOND EPISTLE TO THE THESSALONIAKS. [On. II.
*Irjo~ovs
avTov iv TO> lav TOV Kaipu. TO yap pvcrTrjpiov 17817
Trjs avof.iia<$ JJLQVOV 6 Acare^o)^ dpTi ews IK jutecrov
Kal TOT6 a7TOKa\v^)6ricr.Tai 6 avo^o^, ov 6 Kvpios 8
ise\L l TM TrvevfJiaTL TOV crTO/xaTO9 avTov Kal /car-
apyijo-ei Trj iiTK^avtia Trjs irapovcrLas avTov, ov ecrrlz^ 77 9
TrapovcTia KOT ivtpyeiav TOV crara^a iv Trdo-rj Svz^a/xet Kal
cr^/aeiois Kal Tepa&iv iftevSovs Kal iv irdory aTraTrj 2 clStKia? 10
roi9 aTroXXv/^eVot?, a,^^ wi^ Trjv dydiTrjV Trjs aXrjdeias OVK
eis TO o-a)07Jvai avTovs. Kal Sia TOVTO Tre/xTrei 3 n
2 Add T^S. ^
God. Thus our Saviour says :
"It is not for you to know the
times and the seasons which the
Father hath put in his own
power." The Gospel itself comes
" in the fulness of time." There
is a fitness of times and seasons,
preparations and tendencies go
ing before, and the final event
following them. As in the Old
Testament, "the iniquity of
the Amorites is not yet full," so
in the New, God is described
as waiting and interposing hin
drances that the order of Provi
dence may not be inverted.
7. TO yap pvffrrjpiov 1/077 r *7
a> oju/ac.j/uv0T/;|Oioj is here opposed
to a7ro/ca\v00/?vat, as 17^77 ... to iv
TO) eavTov Ktupy* fJLVffrrtpiov rfJQ dvo-
/utae does not differ from aTToaraam,
except as it expresses the hidden
spiritual character of the wick
edness about to come upon the
earth. (Comp. for the expression
1 Tim. iii. 16., i/rr eiac p,vffrr)ptor 9
as it were, in connexion with the
secret counsels of God.) Comp.
1 John, iv. 3.: "This is that
spirit of Antichrist, whereof ye
have heard that it should come ;
and even now already is it in
the world."
Not (1.) for
the mystery of iniquity already
works, but only as a mystery,
until he that now hinders be taken
out of the way, with a stop after
povov ; thus, 7/^/7 and povov agree
but ill together, and a false em
phasis is laid on ^varijoiov. It is
better to take puvov with the fol
lowing clause, and supply EVTI.
(2.) For the mystery of iniquity
already works, only he who now
letteth will let. (Comp. Gal. ii.
10. 1 jiovov Tdv Trrwwr LVCL
For the general sense of the
passage, comp. 1 John, ii. 17.:
" As ye have heard that Anti
christ shall come, even now there
are many Antichrists whereby
we know that it is the last time."
Hidden in the bosom of the earth
and of the world, the power of
Antichrist is already stirring, a
mystery still, even as the be
liever s life is hidden with Christ
and God. The depth of evil as
of good is discerned by the spi
ritual eye before it is seen by
other men.
8. KCIL Tore."] And then when
he that letteth is taken out of the
way, that lawless one shall be
revealed. Yet not to have a
long reign on the earth. Before
VER, 711.] SECOND EPISTLE TO THE THESSALONIANS. 167
7 For the mystery of iniquity doth already work : only
there* is he who letteth now, until he be taken
s out of the way. And then shall that Wicked be revealed,
whom the Lord shall slay 1 with the spirit of his mouth,
and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming:
9 whose coming is after the working of Satan with all
10 power and *lying signs and wonders, and with all de-
ceivableness of unrighteousness for* them that perish;
because they received not the love of the truth, that
11 they might be saved. And for this cause God doth
Consume.
describing his appearance, the
Apostle, as it were by way of
consolation to the Church, anti
cipates his destruction.
rw TrvevfJCtTi rov arcifjiaTOQ avrov]
is a poetical expression taken
from the Old Testament. It im
plies, first, the power of God, as
in Psalm xxxiii. 6., where it is
said, the host of the heavens
were made " by the breath of his
mouth ; " secondly, the wrath of
God, as in Isaiah, xi. 4., where
nearly the same expression oc
curs as in this passage: "He
shall smite the earth with the
rod of his mouth, and with the
breath of his lips shall he slay
the wicked."
rr\ e7ri(f)ai elq. TIJQ Trnpovmag ctv-
TUV, with the brightness of his
coming.^ The word eVi^areta
may either express the reality
and vividness of his coming, or
may be considered as meaning
the " mere apparition of his pre
sence ; " as Bengel says Appa-
ritio adventus ipso adventu prior
est vel certe prima ipsius ad
ventus emicatio, uti
3_10. The Apostle having
anticipated the overthrow of anti-
Christ, returns to the description
of him, whose presence will be,
yea, and now is, according to the
working of Satan, with all false
power and all false signs and
wonders (-^acrr) and \jjevfiovQ both
refer to all the substantives), and
in all unrighteous deceit to the
lost, because they did not receive
the truth for their salvation. In
the words ddiK. rolg aVoXAv^ue rotc
the dative implies that the false
hood has a natural and congenial
effect on them. It is a falsehood
apt to deceive them. Yet the
cause of this is in themselves,
because they have not received
the truth in love they have not
learnt to love the truth. The
expression, not receiving the love
of the truth, does not imply any
higher degree of alienation from
the truth than the simpler form
of words, "not receiving the
truth." It is a periphrasis agree
able to the Apostle s mode of
speech, but not equally so to our
own idiom.
11. c)ia TOVTO.~] "He that hath
to him shall be given, and he
that hath not shall lose even that
which he hath." According to
the view of the Apostle, God not
M 4
168 SECOND EPISTLE TO THE THESSALONIANS. [Cn. II.
eis TO TTtcrrevcrai aurov?
$609
avrots 6 #eos ivlpyeuw
TOJ ifsevSei. tVa Kpi9o)criv Trdvres ol JU/T) Trtcrreucrai Tes rfj 12
aXrjOeia dXX euSoK^cra^Tes [e^] TT^ aStKta.
ev^apicrTeii ra> ^e&j Tra^rore Trepl 13
dSeXc^o! 7}ya7T77jLteVot VTTO Kvp iov, on etXaro v/xas 6
iirap ^p 1 t? cra)Tr)piav ev dyiao~/xa) IT vev pharos KOI
a\rj@Las, ets o eVaXecrez Tjjuta?, 8ia rov euayyeXtou 14
69 TTepiTTOirjO Ll 8o^9 TOV KVpLOV T^JLCOJ^ ifJCTOV
apa ovv, aSeXc^oi, o-r^/cere, /cat Kparelre rag 15
? as eStSd^^re et/re Std Xdyov etre St eTTto-roX^s
avros 8e 6 KvpwsriiJiwv l^crous o 2 ^/Dtcrros /cat [6] 10
2 Omit 6.
(2.) As sitting in the Temple
of God, setting himself above all
other religions, and founding a
new one.
(3.) As delayed for a time by
some thing or person.
(4.) As immediately preceding
the coming of Christ.
13. ttpelg <[,] sc. St. Paul,
speaking of himself in the plural.
As in chap. 1. the punishment of
the wicked recalls the Apostle to
the salvation of his converts ;
ver. 13. and 14. contrast with 11
and 12. Trt crrfi aXrjOeiaQ answer
ing to TTiffrsvaai -^tvfiei.
TM 0CW TTCLVTOTE TTSpl 1/yUW) .
Compare Horn. i. 8.
cfropx^r, firstfruits,~\ B. G. v.,
that is, in comparison with the rest
of the world. Comp. James, i. 18.;
Rom. viii. There is considerable
MS. authority (A. f. g.) in favour
of ttV dpxijz, from the beginning,
which is the reading of the Textus
Receptus ; SO, Trpo rdv atw^on , TTJOO
ica7-a/3o\>7e Koa/jov. According to
this reading, St. Paul regards the
election of his converts as exist
ing from the beginning in the
counsels of God ; he transfers
only, in our phraseology, permits
sin, but even causes it as a punish
ment for previous sin. Comp.
Rom. i. 24., also x., and Essay on
Predestination. He hardens Pha
raoh s heart; He puts a lying
spirit into the mouth of Ahab s
prophets. He designedly de
ceives those who deceive them
selves. So Isaiah, Ixiii. 17. : rt
ETrXarrjffaQ //juag Kvpte OLTTO TYIQ bdov
ffov, cff/cXijpvvac TO.Q fcapc/a^ //juwr.
To soften Tre juTret into the sense
of " permits to go," or elg TO TTL-
arevarca into a mere result, is
contrary to the use of language,
as it is to the form of thought, in
the age of the Apostles.
12. "iva. k piOuJmv Trdvrec.^
There are altogether three stages
mentioned : First, they would
not receive the truth ; therefore,
secondly, God sent them a delu
sion that, thirdly, they might be
punished for their unbelief.
The prophecy of the man of
sin may be summed up under the
following heads :
(1.) The man of sin is de
scribed as an apostasy, that is, as
arising within the Church.
VER. 1216.] SECOND EPISTLE TO THE THESSALONIANS. 169
send 1 them strong delusion, that they should believe a
12 lie : that they all might be damned who believed not
the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness.
13 BUT we are bound to give thanks always to God for
you, brethren beloved of the Lord, because God chose
you 2 a firstfruits to salvation through sanctification of
14 the Spirit and belief of the truth : whereunto he called
you by our gospel, to the obtaining of the glory of our
15 Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, brethren, stand fast, and
hold the lessons which ye have been taught, whether by
iG word, or our epistle. Now our Lord Jesus Christ him-
Shall send.
2 God hath from the beginning chosen you.
them to the invisible world. It
would be natural to say, I thank
God "that you received the
word of truth." But the Apostle
regards them as long ago ad
mitted into the church, even from
eternity, as though the purpose of
God respecting them must have
always been.
iv aytaap.b) Trvevfiarog /ecu Triarei
aXifflcme,] expresses, not the in
strument by which God works,
but the state into which he trans
forms those whom he chooses.
We may regard the expression as
another instance of St. Paul s
"mixed modes," blending the
word of God in itself with the
word of God in the human heart.
14. EIQ 6 , unto all which,"] sc.
<e ffdtTqpiav eV aymtr^uw
, T. \.
Trepnroirjcrtv c)o?7e]] is a re
sumption of <e aurrjpictv in the
previous verse. " To the ob
taining of the glory of the Lord ; "
like Trepnroirjviv o-wr^pt ac, in 1
Thess. v. 9. Or Trtp 171-0/17 o-ie ma y
be taken passively (comp. Mai.
iii. 17., 1 Pet. ii.9.), and ^o^c as a
Hebrew genitive " for a glorious
possession." The first of these
two explanations agrees best
with the connexion.
15. It might seem as if, when
election is spoken of, God had
already done all, and nothing was
left for man to do. The opposite
inference is that of the Apostle.
Unconscious of what we should
term the logical inconsistency,
he immediately adds " Stand
fast therefore;" be not shaken in
mind or troubled, and hold fast
what I taught you, either by word,
or by Epistle. You might be
shaken if you did not know the
purpose of God towards you ; but
knowing it, be therefore at rest.
16 17 V . The same thought is
continued in reference to the
trouble and fear of the Church :
" Be not soon shaken in your
minds, but stand fast ; and may
our Lord Jesus Christ and God
the Father, who loved us, com
fort your hearts and stablish you
in all you do and say! "
7rapd.K\r]<nv cuum ar,] " a COnso-
lation that reaches to the life
that now is, and to that which is
to come."
170 SECOND EPISTLE TO THE THESSALONIANS. [Cu. II. 17.
TTOLTrjp rjfJLwv, ayamo-as rjfJLas Ka
Kal eXTuSa ayaOrjv iv ^apin, TrapaKaXecron, v
jcapSia? KOL (rnypifair 2 ev TravTi tpyw KCU Xoya) 3 a/ya$a).
To \OITTOV Trpoo-ev^eo-Oe, dSeXc^oi, Trepl THLMV, Iva 6 3
Xdyos roi) Kvpiov Tpe^y Kal Soa??Tcu KaOajs Kal irpbs
, Kal Iva pvcrO^^ev OLTTO T^V OJTQTTMV Kal irovrjpwv 2
ov
yap
mcrris. TTKTTOS Se ICTTIV 6 3
Add
The Greek philosopher spoke
of wisdom as an larpeia i^u^Cj as
we speak of the Gospel as re~
medial to the ills of human
nature. St. Paul uses stronger
language ; with him the Gospel
is a consolation. Within and
without, the Christian is suffer
ing in this evil world (tV TM
TTOpforwrt cilioi i TTOJ r/pw). The
Gospel makes him sensible of this
state, and at the same time turns
his sorrow into joy. If his suf
fering abounds, his consolation
much more abounds ; and God,
who is spoken of under many ti
tles as the Author of the Gospel,
has this one especially in the
writings of St. Paul, that he is
the God of all consolation. (Rom.
xv. 5. ; 2 Cor. i. 3.)
III. The Epistle as usual con
cludes with exhortation.
For what remains, says the
Apostle, pray for us, and yet not
for us, but for the success of the
Gospel; and for us also, that we
may be delivered from persecu
tion, for all men have not faith.
But though men are faithless,
God is faithful who will streng
then and deliver you from the
evil. And we have faith in the
Lord, that ye will do as we ex
hort you, and may he guide your
hearts to love God and abide
patiently in Christ!
Now what we do exhort you
to, brethren, by the name ye
bear, is this, to withdraw from
the authors of disorder among
you, who walk not according to
the instructions they received of
us. For ye know how far from
disorder our walk was. We did
not eat our bread for nothing,
though we might have done so ;
but we worked with our own
hands, partly for your example,
partly to prevent our being bur
densome to you. The reason
why we say all this is, that we
hear a report of certain disorderly
members of the Church, who may
be said to mind every body s
business but their own. Such
we exhort and desire in the Lord
Jesus to w T ork peaceably and get
their own living. But ye, bre
thren, be not weary of setting
the better example. And if there
be others who will not follow it,
and disobey this our present com
mand, mark and avoid them, and
yet remember that they are not
enemies, but brethren. And may
the author of peace give you
peace always everywhere !
Trpovtv-^effOe . . . 7T(n i]fj.(op, pray
for us.~\ But for what ? that the
word of God may run and be
glorified. It is after the manner
of the Apostle, to put that as a
wish for himself, which was a
wish for the furtherance of the
Gospel.
III. 3.] SECOND EPISTLE TO THE THESSALONIANS. 171
self, and God 1 our Father, which hath loved us, and
hath given us everlasting consolation and good hope
17 through grace, comfort 2 and stablish your hearts in
every good work and word. 3
3 Finally, brethren, pray for us, that the word of the
Lord may have free course, and be glorified, even as it
2 is with you: and that we may be delivered from the
*strange and wicked ones : for all men have not faith.
3 But God 4 is faithful, who shall stablish you, and keep
1 Add even.
3 Word and work.
2 Comfort your hearts, and stablish you.
4 The Lord.
i.] Comp. Acts, xiii. 4.,
" And when the Gentiles heard
this .. they glorified the word of the
Lord : " and for rjoe x??, Ps. cxlvii.
15., twg ra-^ovg cpujj.elrai 6 \oyof.
So, 2 Tim. ii. 9. : 6 Aoyog rov
Seov ov diderai.
2. KCLI tVa pvadujjiEi , and that
we may be delivered.] The first
thought of the Apostle was for
the success of the Gospel ; then
followed the shrinking of the
flesh from the dangers which
awaited him.
The same shrinking of the
flesh is traceable elsewhere, in
Eom. xv. 31. ; 2 Cor. i. 8, 9. It
was not a fear of death, nor was
it merely the wish to be pre
served for his master s service ;
but a natural human feeling,
which, in later life, had passed
away. (Phil. ii. 17. ; 2 Tim. iv.
7.) It may be not unreasonably
connected with his bodily pre
sence, which his adversaries said
was weak and his speech contemp
tible. (2 Cor. x. 10.) In this pas
sage the adversaries to whom
he refers are not his opponents
at Thessalonica, which he had
left, but at Corinth, where he
probably was at this time, the
false brethren of the Second
Epistle to the Corinthians. The
words themselves indicate that
he is speaking of those who are
in a certain sense Christians.
For why should he say ov yap
TTttj rwj >/ irtffTic, of mere heathens
or mere Jews ? It would be
like saying, "Pray God to deliver
me from my enemies, for all men
are not Christians ; " or, " Pray
God to deliver me from Jews
or heathens, for they are uncon
verted;" a self-evident remark,
which it would be unmeaning to
attribute to him. We are, there
fore, led to infer that the words re
late to the false brethren, the appa
rent friends, but secret enemies,
such as those who came, in Gal.
ii., to spy out the liberty of the
Gospel, and were not separated
by any marked line from the dis
ciples. Supposing this view to
be the true one, we may para
phrase as follows : " Pray God
that we may be delivered from evil
men ; for not all professors are true
Christians." Cornp. Rom. xv. 31.
TUV oVoTrom] Hesych., aroTra
eVa, eriore SE aroiror rbv
Kctl e.K&ffjtov 9 Kal
The article defines
them as the class of the Apostle s
enemies.
3. Though men are unfaithful,
172 SECOND EPISTLE TO THE THESSALONIANS. [Cn. III.
, 09 o-Trjpigei v/^as /cat <vXafet oVo TOV Trovrjpov.
aiJiv Se eV Kvpua) Ifi u/x,as, ort a 7rapayye\\op,v 4
/cat eVot^craTe /ecu] 2 Trotetre /cat Trot^crere. 6 Se 5
KOLTtvOvvai vfjitov ras /capSta? ets TT)^ ayaTnqv TOV
/Cat 65 TTp 3 VTTOlJLOVrjV TOV -^piCTTOV.
Se T^at^, aSeX^ot, eV oVojaart TOV Kvpiov 6
Irjcrov ^pLcrTov, crre XXecr$at uju,a? CXTTO TTOLVTOS
aSeX<o> dra/crws TrepiTraTovvTOs /cat ^ /cara r^ Trapd ooo LV
2 Omit uaj wat
yet God is faithful. Compare
Rom. iii. 4. Though there are
false brethren who have not the
faith, yet God is faithful, and
will deliver you from the evil.
The connecting link between this
verse and the preceding is formed
by the two words 7r/<mc and TTO-
vrjpoc. The Apostle, more anx
ious for others than for himself,
changes the person, and passes
suddenly from the thought of his
own danger to that of the Thes-
salonians.
Commentators are not agreed
whether TOV Trorrjpov is to be taken
as neuter or masculine ; and whe
ther, in the latter case, it refers
to Satan or the man of sin, or is
a collective name for bad men in
general. The transition from
the plural in the preceding verse
to the singular is certainly pos
sible : the form of Antichrist
may be again for a moment rising
before the Apostle s eyes. But it
is simpler to take the words as a
neuter, " from evil." (Compare
Matt. v. 39., vi. 13.) It is an evil
common to himself and them, the
evil of persecution, and from
which, feeling for them rather
than for himself, he prays that
they may be delivered.
4. TreTToiOaper $e cV/cvp/w.] Here,
Omi
as elsewhere, the Apostle speaks
of believing, hoping, doing all
things in Christ. We lead an
ordinary life, as well as a reli
gious one ; but with the Apostle
his ordinary life is his religious
one, and hence he uses religious
expressions in reference to all
that he says and does.
t^ vfiag"] expresses that this
confidence, though in the Lord,
reaches also to the Thessalonians
themselves.
It is characteristic of St. Paul
to admonish under the form of
praise. As in familiar language,
we say, * I am sure you will
do it," with the meaning, " You
ought to do it ; " so the Apostle
is confident of his Thessalonian
converts, meaning thereby to sta-
blish them in the faith.
5. " I am confident," the Apostle
has just said, "you will do and are
doing what I bid;" and yet, with
a sort of happy inconsistency, he
adds, "May God perfect you! "
They are to trust as he trusts, also
to themselves; and still he prays
God to guide their hearts into
the love of God and the imita
tion of the patience of Christ, in
waiting for his appearing. Comp.
1 Thess. i. 10.
Genitive whether
VER. 4 C.] SECOND EPISTLE TO THE THESSALONIANS. 173
4 you from evil. And we have confidence in the Lord
touching you, that ye both do and will do the things
5 which we command you and ye have done. 1 And the
Lord direct your hearts into the love of God, and into
the patient ivaiting for Christ
6 Now we command you, brethren, in the name of our
Lord Jesus Christ, that ye withdraw yourselves from
every brother that walketh disorderly, and not after the
1 Omit and ye have done.
of object or subject, whether
"patient waiting for Christ, or
patience which Christ gives,"
uncertain. Compare vnat^ot) %pi-
elprjvr) ^JOIOTOW, inrojj.ovr] Ttjg
6. From the ft
of the fourth verse, the Apostle
passes on to particular instruc
tions; kv ovofjLCiTi rov Kvpiov //^ioh ,
"I solemnly enjoin you."
The remaining paragraph of
this Epistle is important, as bear
ing on the degree and manner of
authority which the Apostle ex
ercised over the Churches. It
seems to have been of a mixed
kind, partly official and partly
moral, springing from the sense
of what the Apostle had done
for the Church, in bringing them
to the knowledge of the Lord
Jesus, yet also claimed by him as
a right. In any voluntary so
ciety like the early Christian
Church, the enforcement of such
an authority must have depended
on feeling and opinion. There
was no other way of enforcement
in the last resort but the separa
tion of the individual offending,
or, rather, the separation of the
society itself from the individual.
Of this we find several traces, not
in the set form of excommunica
tion or exclusion from the Lord s
supper (although such exclusion
was doubtless implied in it) ;
rather it is a counsel or sentence
of the Apostle, more or less formal
in different cases, intended to
exert a moral, and apparently
even a physical effect, and not
always given where it appears
to have been deserved. The in
cestuous person is to be delivered
to Satan, not that he may perish
everlastingly, but for " the de
struction of the flesh, that the
spirit may be saved in the day of
the Lord." So Hymenaeus and
Philetus, "that they may learn not
to blaspheme." In the Galatian
Church, on the other hand, not
withstanding the rebellion against
the Apostle s authority, nothing
is said of his opponents ceasing
to be the Church. In the Phi-
lippians, ne tolerates those who
preach " Christ of contention."
To the Thessalonian Church he
says, that if there are any wild
enthusiasts neglecting their daily
occupation, they are to hold no
communication with them, as he
wrote to the Corinthians, " not to
keep company with fornicators."
But it is remarkable that, in the
Epistle in which this very precept
occurs, he says nothing of the
174 SECOND EPISTLE TO THE THESSALONIANS. [Cn. III.
TJV 7rape\d/3eT l Trap rjfJLcov* avrol yap otSare TTOJS Sei 7
/xc/4elcr0cu TJ/xag, ore, OVK r)TaKT7J<ra[JiV iv vfjiiv, ouSe 8a)peav 8
dprov (f)dyofJLe^ Trapd TLVOS, dXX e^ KOTTOJ Kal
VVKTOS Kal rip.epa<f Ipya^o^voi, 77/305 TO JUT) Itri/Baprjcrai,
rwa vpwv ov-% on OVK e^o/xe^ lovo-iav, dXX Iva ea/uTovg 9
15 TO fJLljJLeLCrdai 7?/Xag. Kal JOLp OT T^ICI 10
TOUTO Tr
, /x^Se e
aTaACTcog, /x^Se^ epyai^ofjievovs, dXXa
TOIS e TOIOVTOI? irapayyeXXofJiev Kal Trapa- 12
Ka\ov[JLv iv Kvpia) ITJO-QV ^pio~Ta> 3 , iVa /XCTO, ^crv^tas
ipyatp^evoi TOP iavTwv aprov i<jQiu>viv. v/xeig e, dSeX^oi, 13
/caXo7rotou^T9. ei 8e Tt? ov^ vTraKovtu TW it
8ia rrjs eTTto-ToX^?, TOVTOV cr^/xetoucr^e /XT)
, OTL et Tig or;
yap nvas Trepnra- 11
Toa?
2 vu/cro /cal
expulsion of those who main
tained that the Resurrection was
passed already. 1 Cor. xv. 12.
ffrlXXevQat v/,tdc OTTO Trctiroe . . .
ctrcUrwc.J Compare vTrocrrlXXeiv
eavror, Gal. ii. 12.
rarar^xwapct&xrtv, according to
the lesson.~\ As in ver. 10. he
says, " While we were yet with
you, this we commanded you,
that, if a man will not work,
neither let him eat." Comp. 1
Thess. iv. 11, 12.
7. In exhorting you not to be
idle and walk disorderly, we do but
exhort you to follow our example,
who were not disorderly among
you.
TroJc ^7 fjijjielffOai IJ/J.CLQ and OTL
owk , K. T.\.~\ Both follow o idare:
" Ye know how ye ought to
imitate us ; ye know that we
were not disorderly." The latter
clause may be considered as an
explanation of TTMQ.
8. Neither were we idle nor
ate our bread for nothing, [re-
5ta TOV Kvpiov TJ/XCOV i
ceiving it] at the hands of any,
but we ate it, toiling day and
night that we might not be a
burden to any. Comp. 1 Cor. ix.,
where the Apostle speaks in the
same tone. He might claim sup
port of them, but he would not ;
and the very fact of his not doing
so they seem to have turned into
a charge against him, of not being
an Apostle. So here he guards,
in the following verse, against this
being construed into a giving up
of his authority.
9. ov\ OTL OVK Eyo^iff?.^ I do not
mean to say that I have no right
or power to claim support from
you, but I give up the right that I
may be an example to you. ov% on
is a restriction on what preceded.
10. Kai ynp, for even."] For
while we were with you, we gave
you precept as well as example,
to the effect, that if one would not
work, neither let him eat. The
Kui connects with the 6th and 7th
verses ; while the yp gives the
. 714.] SECOND EPISTLE TO THE THESSALONIANS. 175
7 lesson* which ye 1 received of us. For yourselves know
s how ye ought to follow us: for we behaved not ourselves
disorderly among you ; neither did we eat any man s
bread for nought ; but wrought with labour and travail
night and day, that we might not be chargeable to any
9 of you: not because we have not power, but to make
10 ourselves an erisample unto you to follow us. For 2 when
we were with you, this we commanded you, that if any
11 would not work, neither let* him eat. For we hear
that there are some which walk among you disorderly,
12 busy* only with what is not their own business. Now
them that are such we command and exhort in the 3
Lord Jesus Christ, that with quietness they work, and
13 eat their own bread. But ye, brethren, be not weary
u in well doing. And if any man obey not our word by
He.
2 Add even.
By our.
reason or proof of what preceded.
We exhort you, and while we
were with you we exhorted you,
which last is also the proof that
it was only as an example we
wronged ourselves.
There is a distinction between
the minister and the hearer . of
the Gospel, the clergy and the
laity, the Apostle and the disci
ple ; and St. Paul, as a preacher
of the Gospel, makes himself as
the hearer " to win some."
11. For we hear that there
are some among you who walk
disorderly, doing nothing but
what is useless, busy only with
what is not their own business.
Comp. Quintilian : "Afervenuste
Mallium Suram multum in agendo
discursantem, salientem, manus
jactantem, togam dejicientem et
reponentem, non agere dixit sed
satagere." Compare also Plato s
definition of liKatoavvr] raeavrov
, in Rep. iv.
12.
Q is opposed to
, as f.avru)v aprov to f.ir}%t.v
t, " without raising a
disturbance."
13. pi) f-/Ka^r](rr)r KaXoTroiovt 1 -
ree.] After rebuking some for
giving up their daily employ
ments, for not eating in the sweat
of their brow, he passes on to en
treat those who had not incurred
the reproof, to continue as they
were, not to be weary of well
doing.
14. This verse has received
three explanations, the first two
of which need only be mentioned
to be set aside : (1.) Indicate
this man to me by letter, which
is equally objectionable, on the
ground of the sense and of the
language. Even though e>ia rfje
iTTLffroXrjQ might mean " by the
letter in which you answer
this," the words pfj avvava-
piywadai (the true reading) would
not cohere. Such a request seems
176 SECOND EPISTLE TO THE THESSALONIANS. [Ca. III.
avrw, Iva IvrpaTrfj* Ka p.r] ws
15
rjyelcrde, dXXa vovOerelre a>g dSeXc>dz>. avros Se 6 Kv
lpTJvrjs SOT*? v/xu TT)^ elpT/jvrjv Sia TTCLVTQS iv iravrl
2 6 Kvpios ju-era TTOVTW v/xai^.
*O dcTTracr^o? TT; C/AT? X 61 / 3 ^ IlavXov, o ICTTLV o"r]^^iov iv 17
Trdcrrj lirLcrToXrj. O
Irjorov yjpi<TTOv juera ird
8 Add npos
also to be out of character with
the simplicity of the Apostolical
age. (2.) Set a mark on this
man by the Epistle, i. e., pointing
out what precept in the Epistle
he has disobeyed, which is over-
refined and farfetched. The ob
vious explanation is the true
one : " Set a mark upon this
man with a view to holding no
intercourse with him;" the words
ro
" to our
ia TTJQ
word as communicated
in this Epistle," being taken with
Sewrepa
15. k-cu is used here as a weaker
a, this verse being really ad
versative to the preceding. The
meaning is : " Hold no inter
course with the man, but do not
count him as an enemy, but ad
monish him as a brother." The
flaw may have arisen from the
antithetical negative and positive
form of ver. 15. Or the Apostle
may not feel the first thought
and afterthought to be inconsis
tent ; or Kai may be used from a
mere awkwardness of language in
consequence of the coming a X>..
18
VEB. 1518.] SECOND EPISTLE TO THE THESSALONIANS. 177
this epistle, note that man, and have no company with
15 him, that he may be ashamed. Yet count him not as
1 6 an enemy, but admonish him as a brother. And* may
the Lord of peace himself give you peace always every
where. 1 The Lord be with you all.
17 The salutation of Paul with mine own hand, which is
18 the token in every epistle : so I write. The grace of
our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen. 2
1 By all means.
2 Add The second epistle to the Thessalonians was written from Athens.
16. CLV-OQ <) ] partly expresses
the earnestness of the Apostle s
prayer, and is in part opposed to
peace obtained by merely human
efforts. " Have peace among
yourselves, and may the Lord
liimself give you peace!" a vale
diction not without a latent allu
sion to the disorder of the Church.
17. 6 ao-Tracy/we.] See note at
the end of the Epistle to the Ga-
lations. 6 refers to the sentence
preceding, and not to the word
uaTrcKTpoc, comp. ii. 14.
iv Truer] e7riff~o\rj. See Essay
" On the Probability that many
of St. Paul s Epistles have been
lost"
18. pera TTCLVTUV vpior,^ not
with the disorderly members, as
well as with those who walk or
derly, but as above (i. 3.), pleo
nastic.
VOL. I.
N
178 SECOND EPISTLE TO THE THESSALONIANS.
ON THE MAN OF SIN.
WHETHER the prophecy of the man of sin is fulfilled or unfulfilled,
whether it is to be explained from the immediate circle of
the Apostle s life, or from the distant future, whether it relates
to an individual or to an idea, to the Pharisees or to the Gno
stics, whether "the man of sin" himself be Nero as Chrysostom
imagined, or the impersonation of heresy as Theodoret and others, or
the pope as the reformers, or the reformers as the pope, or Mahomet
as the Greek Church, or the Emperor Caligula as Grotius, or Titus
as Wetstein, or Simon Magus as Hammond, or Simon the son of
Gioras as Usteri and Le Clerc, or Cromwell as Englishmen who
were his subjects sometimes said, or the French revolution,
or Napoleon, as the last generation, or some embodiment or power of
evil which is yet to come, as was the opinion of several of the
Fathers, and is also that of some modern writers ; whether " that
which letteth, and he which letteth, and will let until he be taken
out of the way," is the Roman Empire, which was likewise a com
mon opinion of the Fathers, or the German Empire, as was main
tained by the early opponents of the papacy, or the purpose of God
that the Gospel should be first preached, as was held by Theodore of
Mopsuestia and Theodoret, or the outpouring of spiritual gifts
as Chrysostom inclined to think, or Nero as Wetstein, or Vitellius,
who was proconsul of Judea in Caligula s time, as Grotius, or Elijah
the prophet, who "must first come" according to the Jewish belief, or
St. Paul himself as a recent interpreter ; whether the temple of God
is the Christian Church or the temple at Jerusalem, or both, or neither,
that is to say some temple hereafter to be built, or the temple of
the human soul, a figure which the Apostle elsewhere employs ;
ON THE MAN OF SIN. 179
whether the coming of Christ be His coming to judge the world at
the last day, or the anticipation of that judgment on the Jews in the
destruction of Jerusalem, or the one the lesser, the other the greater
fulfilment of the same prediction ; are some of the principal ques
tions which in ancient or modern times have been raised by inter
preters respecting the second chapter of the Second Epistle to the
Thessalonians.
Most of these questions maybe set aside, as having no real bearing
upon the interpretation of the Epistle. They are not found but
brought there. When it is remembered that at this period of his life,
as the words of the Epistle imply, St. Paul himself expected " to
remain and be alive " (1 Thess. iv. 17.) in the day of the Lord, and
that he expressly states that the coming of Christ was to be preceded
by Antichrist, and that the coming of Antichrist was again re
strained by that which let, it is clear that the vision of the future
must be confined within narrow bounds, that is, within ten, twenty,
or thirty years at the utmost, if it be not that the acts of the drama
are contemporary, or certainly very near, " for the mystery of ini
quity already worketh." It is not, therefore, in the wider sphere of
the history of the world, but in the life of the Apostle, in the
cities of Asia or Judea, perhaps at Rome in the days of Caligula or
Nero, that we must look for the events, or shadow of events, which
form the basis of the prophecy.
It is necessary to warn the reader, that we are not about to add
another to the multitude of guesses which exist alrea^j. Our
inquiry will relate rather to the style and structure of the prophecy,
than to the opinions of interpreters respecting the facts which
may be regarded as its fulfilment. The real facts may not have
been recorded; they may have been too minute to be observed by
us ; they may also have been transfigured before the spiritual eye,
until they are no longer recognisable as historical events. What
we are attempting is not the solution of a riddle, or the reading of a
hieroglyphic, but the comparison of one part of Scripture with
N 2
180 SECOND EPISTLE TO THE THESSALONIANS.
another ; and the comprehension of it, if possible, not in the letter
but in the spirit.
And although it is true that there may be a disadvantage in ex
cluding from our consideration all those topics from which the study
of this remarkable passage has hitherto derived its interest and zest,
let us pause to remember also how many dangers are avoided. We
shall run no risk of attributing an exaggerated importance to the
history of our own time. We shall be under no temptation to point
the words of St. Paul against an ancient enemy. We shall have no
inclination to adapt the proportions of lesser events to the main
event or figure which we make the centre of our system. We may
hope to escape the charge which has been brought against writers
on these subjects, that they explain " history by prophecy." There
will be no fear of our forging weapons of persecution for one body
or party of Christians to use against another. We shall be in no
danger of losing the simplicity of the Gospel in Apocalyptic fancies.
Our own opinions, perhaps even changes of opinion, will not be im
posed on others as an interpretation of Scripture, with a degree
of authority which is only the veil of their extreme uncertainty.
All these reproaches, however unconsciously and innocently they
may be incurred by good and learned men, are injuries to the truth
and dishonours to the word of God,
" The man of sin " is not a mere detached prophecy. It formed a
leading subject of the Apostle s teaching. He introduces it with
express reference to the fact, that on his visit to the Thessalonians
he had warned them of it ; and this not only in general terms, but
with special mention of the times of his appearing, and the influ
ences by which his revelation was withheld. " Remember ye not,
that when I was yet with you I told you these things?" What he
had told them is contained in the description which precedes, and
which is definite and precise; that man of sin, "the son of perdi
tion ; who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called
God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple
ON THE MAN OF SIN. 181
of God, shewing himself that he is God." All this was not new to
the Thessalonian converts ; they even knew of that which withheld,
that he might be revealed in his own time. The Apostle adds a
few other traits in the verses which follow; "whose coming is after
the working of Satan, with all power and lying signs and wonders,
and with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish."
The sources of our information are so limited, that we are able
to pronounce at once, that we know of no person or power existing
in the lifetime of the Apostle, to which most of the above features
will apply. We cannot say that " the man of sin " was Caligula,
whose reign had terminated about twelve years before this ; or
Nero, who had just mounted the imperial throne, or Simon the son
of Gioras, the leader of the fanatics at Jerusalem, who had hardly
come forth into public view ; still less Vitellius, Vespasian, or Titus.
Such guesses are only more probable than the wider ones, because
they relate to persons who were actually or almost within the
horizon of the Apostle s eye ; but they are inconsistent with the
general character of the prophecy, and offer no remarkable coinci
dences with its details. In any succession of historical events, it is
possible to find war and peace, order and anarchy, a king and a
usurper, a lawless force and a restraining power. General resem
blances of this kind prove nothing ; the good and evil of every age
find an expression in the language of prophecy. In times of crisis
or revolution men naturally apply the words of the Apostle to
themselves. Even the quiet tenor of ordinary life has been " set on
fire" by the torch of enthusiasm. But we must not confuse the
original meaning of the prophecy with the application of it which
is on the lips of the preacher after 1800 years. The vision of
evil which the Apostle saw was around and very near him; it
hung like a cloud over the first age of the Church ; it cannot be
dispersed in generalities; we look in vain for it in the distant future.
If, confessing that no known person or event agrees with the
description of the prophecy, we try another method, and interpret
the second chapter of the Second Epistle to the Thessalonians en-
N 3
182 SECOND EPISTLE TO THE THESSALONIANS.
tirely from itself, we shall probably infer that, by the terms " man
of sin," " son of perdition," St. Paul has in view a real person, and
that by his " sitting in the temple of God" is meant literally his en
thronement in the temple at Jerusalem. The grossness of the delu
sion which is attributed to his followers falls in with such an inter
pretation. The word "apostasy " is a further indication that the new
God or teacher stands in some relation either to Judaism or Chris
tianity. He is not a mere ordinary individual coming forth from
the crowd and practising an imposture, any more than he is a statue
of wood or stone, but the author or symbol of some new form of
spiritual evil; a false Christ or false prophet, a Simon Magus, an
Elcasai, or a Barcochab. The way has been preparing for him,
underground in the hearts of men ; he is waiting for his appointed
hour. The founder of a false religion, claiming divine honours, an
nouncing himself as the new God of the Jewish Temple, influenc
ing the minds of men by every sort of magic art and spiritual de
ception, would most adequately correspond to the description of
the Apostle. Such a one, he would seem to say, was to exist for a
short time, and then vanish away, not before the superior power of
truth, but before the actual force of Christ and his angels, in flaming
fire taking vengeance.
Natural as such an interpretation may appear, it would probably
be erroneous, and for this reason, that, like many other interpreta
tions of prophecy, it would rest too much on the words themselves,
without considering the style of the language or the parallelisms in
St. Paul s own writings. The first question respecting all pro
phecies is, whether the language of them is figurative or literal, or
how far figurative and how far literal. Figurative language will
commonly detect itself, as in the trumpets, vials, numbers, of the
Book of Revelation. The very symmetry of it will indicate its true
nature. Events in history are not carried on by sevens, or by
twelves ; nor are they exactly limited by periods of time. Nor are
the powers of nature or the kingdoms of this world divisible into
four or ten. Accordingly, in such instances, we readily separate the
ON THE MAN OF SIN. 183
framework and compartments of the picture from the life and
motion of the figures. But there are other passages in which the
form and the thought are more closely united, in which the garment
clings to the person, and cannot be put off without destroying the
life of the prophecy. Interpretation of prophecy will, in these cases,
be an imperfect analysis of what it is really impossible to analyse.
Especially will this be so where the figures are traditional, and
have acquired from use and familiarity a sort of permanent and
apparently historical character. The vision of events themselves is
then circumscribed by the circle of prophetic symbols.
Taking in this important element, we find in Ezekiel and Daniel,
in the discourses of our Lord respecting the end of the world, in the
Epistles to the Thessalonians and to Timothy, as well as in the
Epistles of St. Peter and St. Jude, and in the Book of Revelation, a
series of images of the evil which was to come upon the world in
the latter days, all together furnishing a sort of chain of prophecy
between the Old Testament and the New, which gradually extends
and seems to pass from the realms of history into the spiritual and
unseen world. One of the first links in this chain is Ezekiel s de
scription of Gog and Magog, the symbol of the tribes of the North,
whom God will bring against the land of Israel, that he may be
glorified in their destruction (xxxviii. 16, 17.). This prophecy,
which is the beginning of many others, itself implies that it was
not uttered by Ezekiel for the first time: "Art thou he of whom
I have spoken in old time by my servants the prophets of Israe;,
which prophesied in those days many years that I would bring thee
against them ? " (Compare Jer. ii. iv.) The minds of the Jewish
prophets in Babylon had been led to dwell on the powers of the
North, since the Scythian tribes had spread themselves over Asia.
Where could they find a more striking image of the power of God
than in this mighty people, "covering" the world "like a cloud,"
and suddenly, like a cloud, passing away, which had probably in
Josiah s reign overspread Palestine itself? They had almost been
seen by Ezekiel in the days of his youth, and the remembrance of
N 4
184 SECOND EPISTLE TO THE THESSALONIANS.
them had stamped themselves for ages on the Eastern world. His
prophecy of them is little more than history, inspired only by the
consciousness that there is One that ruleth among the children of
men. There is no indication that Gog is other than a person, the
chief prince of Meshech and Tubal. Nor is there apparently any
form of spiritual evil that is symbolised in him ; he is but the
great enemy of Israel, who comes up with all his hosts against the
people of God.
Later in the series are the prophecies of Daniel, respecting the
little horn and the kings of the North and South (vii. and xi.), which,
though retaining a certain degree of resemblance to the prophecy of
Ezekiel, present also a striking difference. It is a difference in spirit
as well as in style and subject. We seem to have advanced another
step in the revelation of God to man ; with the vision of the king
doms of this world mingles also the vision of the final judgment.
Every one admits and loves to trace the connexion between the
evangelical prophecies, as they are often termed, and the Gospel
itself. But perhaps it has not been equally observed that the Apo
calyptic prophecies are also a link of connexion between the Old
Testament and the New. As the former anticipate the moral and
spiritual nature of the kingdom of Christ, so do the latter anticipate
the universality of the Gospel. No two books of the Old Testament
itself bear a closer resemblance to each other, than the book of
Daniel, the Apocalypse of the Old Testament, and the book of
Revelation, which may be termed by its Greek name the Apocalypse
of the New. Were the one placed at the end of the Old Testament,
and ths other at the beginning of the New, they would seem, more
than any of the canonical writings, to bridge the chasm which
separates, or appears to separate, the two parts of the Sacred
Volume. Both alike differ from the older prophecies, in extending
the purposes of God to all time and to all mankind. The earlier
history of the Jews was itself a kind of prophecy, the earlier pro
phecies were a kind of history of the Jews and their neighbours.
There was a time when other nations seemed to be out of the way,
ON THE MAN OF SIN. 185
and only occasionally to share in the mercies and judgments of God.
But now the prophet lifted up his eyes east and west, north and
south, to all countries of the earth, and saw in the history of the
world the prelude to the final judgment.
This is the kind of difference which separates the two prophecies
of Daniel from that of Ezekiel respecting Gog and Magog. The
one is a part of the history of the Jews ; the other is a prophecy of
the latter days, an anticipation of the judgment to come. That of
Ezekiel is the germ of the other, and stands in the same relation
to it, as the vision of the dry bones, in the same prophet, to the
description of the general resurrection in the seventh and twelfth
chapters of Daniel, or the vision of the Temple and the portions
of the tribes, to the new Jerusalem and the 144,000, in the Book
of Eevelation. In Ezekiel we have not yet burst the bonds of the
temporal dispensation ; in Daniel we already pass within the vail
into another world. They occupy different places in Jewish history,
the very dispersion of the Jews in Asia and Egypt tending to break
down the force of local feelings, and leading them to include all
nations within the circle of God s providence.
Parallel with this enlargement of the symbols of prophecy is the
new and nobler meaning which is given to the worship of the
tabernacle and to the Jewish history, in the Epistle to the Hebrews.
A light is shed on both, derived, perhaps, from a wider experience
of mankind, yet not the less coming down " from the author and
father of lights." First the prophets, then the law, become instinct
with the life of the Gospel. The only difference is that in prophecy
the new takes the place of the old, in a more gradual and less per
ceptible manner. The law is done away in Christ ; the temple made
with hands is destroyed, that another temple, not made with hands,
may be raised up ; and the discourses of Christ respecting the end of
the world, gather together in one all the threads of Old Testament
prophecy.
Thus, through the whole of the books of Scripture, from the
earliest to the latest, the spirit of prophecy might be said to be
186 SECOND EPISTLE TO THE THESSALONIANS.
changing with the increasing purpose of God to man. But though
the spirit changed, the imagery remained the same. The two pro
phecies which have been referred to, present more than one minute
similarity with the second chapter of the Second Epistle to the
Thessalonians ; as, for example, the insolence and impiety of the king
" who shall exalt and magnify himself above every God,* xi. 36.,
which may be compared with 2 Thess. ii. 4., " Who opposeth and
exalteth himself above all that is called God or worshipped," and
" the pollution of the sanctuary of strength, and the abomination of
desolation standing in the holy place," xi. 31., quoted by our Lord,
which recalls " the man of sin sitting in the temple of God ; " also
the words " have intelligence with them which forsake the holy
covenant," which are a periphrasis for " the apostasy." It is not
quite certain, nor is it important for our object to know, what was
the original meaning of the passages of Daniel ; but whether they
allude to the kings of Syria and Egypt, or in part also to the Romans,
or relate to some unknown course of events, their original meaning in
the Book of Daniel has no necessary connexion with their use and
application by the Apostle. We might say, in the language of
Bossuet, that St. Paul spoke by the spirit of Daniel, as St. Peter
spoke by the mouth of Joel on the day of Pentecost, or as St. John
himself spoke by the spirit of Ezekiel in Rev. xx. 8., where the
names Gog and Magog are retained, though the meaning is gene
ralised. Many other instances may be found in which the general
subject is changed, though the ornaments remain. The same symbols
which once referred to the Temple or to the tribes of Israel, are
again employed, without any precise meaning, of the Church and
the world at large.
It does not, therefore, follow, that, because the words of the pro
phecy of Daniel, or of our Lord, refer to the Romans, that they
necessarily received this explanation from St. Paul, any more than
in the Book of Revelation, because mention is made of the hundred
and forty and four thousand of the tribes of Israel, it follows that
salvation was first to be given to the house of Israel. The forms of
ON THE MAN OF SIN. 187
good and evil are idealised in the language of prophecy. The same
images are handed down from one generation of prophets to another ;
but the state of the world, which is symbolised by them, may change
and become different. As in the interpretation of prophecy, many
successions of events have, in different ages of the world, been thought
to correspond with the words of Daniel, or of the Apocalypse ; so
with the prophets themselves, there is a growth and adaptation of
the same prophecy to various stages of human history. Not only
are there many mirrors of the meaning of prophecy in the history of
the world, but more than this the last prophecy is itself, as it were,
the glass through which the prophet looks forward into the future.
Hence the imagery of a prophecy in the New Testament will not
be the clue to its true nature. Nay, it may be very far removed
from it, sometimes even absolutely opposed to it. For it may refer
to what is literal and historical, but the thing signified in the New
Testament may be spiritual and ideal. Ordinary quotations from the
Old Testament are to be explained by their context in the New
Testament, not by their place in the Old. The same rule is appli
cable to the prophecies of the Old Testament when transferred to
the New. In both, the spirit has commonly taken the place of the
letter, the evangelical truth has lighted up the prophetic symbol.
So that the true key to the interpretation of a prophecy of St. Paul,
is not the meaning of the same imagery in the Old Testament, but
the character of his own writings, " Non, nisi ex ipso Paulo, Paulum
potes interpretari." The special sense is to be gathered from
those points which he has distinct from the .Old Testament, rather
than those which he has in common with it. We do not feel certain
that the man of sin, sitting in the temple of God, is more than a
personification of the abomination of desolation spoken of by Daniel
the prophet ; suggested, perhaps, by the worship of the Emperor
which St. Paul had seen in the cities to which he had travelled, or
by the attempt of Caligula, a few years previously, to place his
statue in the temple at Jerusalem. But he that "letteth, and will
let, until he be taken out of the way," and the lying signs and
188 SECOND EPISTLE TO THE T1IESSALONIANS.
wonders, with which the man of sin was to be accompanied, are
traits which are peculiar to the Apostle, some of which are found
elsewhere in his Epistles. Here, then, whether we are able to
discern it or not, is something which we may naturally look for, not
in the clouds of heaven, but in the history of the Apostolic age.
In many other places of the New Testament, and even of the
writings of St. Paul himself, mention occurs of strange forms of
evil. It is observable that all of them are spiritual. There are
differences in the description of them, not unlike the difference
which we may suppose to have existed between the author of the
Epistles in which they are spoken of, St. Paul, and St. John ; but
they nowhere convey the impression that they represent political
changes or revolutions in the kingdoms of men. The one Apostle
is, as it were, hastening, amid many impediments, to the coming of
the day of the Lord ; the other is calmly waiting for the events that
must shortly come to pass. Both seem to feel the evil of the world
as a sign of " the last time ; " the one, near and present, as if
involved in the conflict ; the other, far off, separated from it rather
than warring with it. Already there are many Antichrists, says
St. John, and " Antichrist is he that denieth the Father and the
Son." So in the first Epistle to Timothy, iv. 1 3., it is said, " that in
the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to
seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils speaking lies in hypocrisy,
having their conscience seared with a hot iron, forbidding to marry,
and commanding to abstain from meats, which God hath created to
be received with thanksgiving of them which believe and know
the truth." Compare 2 Tim. iii. 1. The Apostle appears to ap
prehend the same danger in Col. ii. 8. 16. And in the Second
Epistle of Peter, ii. 1., iii. 3., there is the same pervading idea
of the latter days, in which " false prophets shall rise up, who
privily shall bring in damnable heresies, denying the Lord that
bought them." The evil of which the New Testament prophecies
speak, is not the idolatry of the heathen, nor the conquests of great
Empires, but the apostasy of sometime believers, or the fanaticism of
ON THE MAN OF SIN. 189
the Jews. Of something of this kind, not of Roman governors, or
Jewish high priests, the Apostle is speaking when he says : " We
wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against
powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against
spiritual wickedness in heavenly places." The temporal Antichrist,
like the temporal Israel, has passed into a spiritual one.
Such passages are a much safer guide to the interpretation of the
one we are considering, than the meaning of similar passages in the
Old Testament. For they indicate to us the habitual thought of the
Apostle s mind ; " a falling away first," suggested, probably, by the
wavering which he saw around him among his own converts, the
grievous wolves that were entering into the Church of Ephesus, Acts
xx. 29. ; the turning away of all them of Asia, in 2 Tim. i. 15.
When we consider that his own converts, and his Jewish opponents,
or half converts, were all the world to him, that through them, as it
were in a glass, he appeared to himself to see the workings of human
nature generally, we understand how this double image of good and
evil should have presented itself to him, and the kind of necessity
which he felt that Christ and Antichrist should alternate with each
other. It was not that he foresaw some great conflict, decisive of the
destinies of mankind. What he anticipated far more nearly resem
bled the spiritual combat in the seventh chapter of the Romans. It
was the same struggle, written in large letters, as Plato might have
said, not on the tables of the heart, but on the scene around ; the
world turned inside out, as it might be described ; evil as it is in the
sight of God, and as it realises itself to the conscience, putting on an
external shape, transforming itself into a person.
Separating the prophecy, then, into two parts, its external form
and internal meaning, the one part is to be explained from the Old
Testament ; that is to say, it is the repetition of the images of Ezekiel
and Daniel, which naturally receive a more precise character from
the associations of the time in which St. Paul lived ; while the other
part, or inward meaning, is to be illustrated by other passages in St.
Paul s own writings, in which he speaks of the perilous times of tho
190 SECOND EPISTLE TO THE THESSALONIANS.
latter days ; of false prophets transforming themselves into Apostles
of Christ ; of Satan transfigured into an angel of light ; of religious
licentiousness ; of all them of Asia falling away from him. Of all
these opponents of the Gospel the man of sin is the concentrated
image ; they are already working, but are at present underground,
not yet bursting forth to envelope mankind. Gnosticism, or Oriental
ism, or Judaism, the evil of the world as it awoke to the conscious
ness of higher truths, the swarming heresy of an age of religious
excitement, and the persecution of the followers of Christ and his
Apostles, all probably, as in the Book of Revelation, mingled in the
vision " of the things that should shortly come to pass."
The personification is characteristic of the Apostle and his age.
Sin, the law, faith, love, the old man, the new man, are all personified
by him. The figure under which he speaks of " the man of sin,"
" the son of perdition," is really of the same kind, though apparently
different. What are to us abstractions are to the Apostle persons,
" living creatures with hands and feet." No difference in ways of
thought can be much greater than this : it is one for which it is
difficult to allow enough in the interpretation of Scripture. Frag
ments of prophecy and the prophetic manner of conception are
always coming in, even where the general style of the writing is
prosaic and matter of fact.
There are other traces in this passage (shall we say of the mode
of speech or of thought ?) of the Apostle and his age, as for example
in its alternating or antithetical character. The coming of the
Lord and the revelation of the man of sin, Christ and Antichrist,
are opposed to each other by a sort of necessity, as the revelation
of wrath and mercy, the law and faith, Adam and Christ, in the
Epistle to the Romans. Like the shadow and light, they are
never separate, equally dividing the world or following one another.
And the symbols of the Old Testament itself receive a new colour and
association from passing events, such as the worship of the emperors,
and in particular the attempt of Caligula to place his statue in tjie
temple at Jerusalem. Lastly, it was a current belief of the times
ON THE MAN OF SIN. 191
in which the Apostle lived that the coming of Messiah was to be
preceded by the coming of Antichrist, to whom the prophecies
respecting Gog and Magog were referred by the Rabbis. (See the
passages quoted in Gfrorer, Jahrhundert des Heils, part ii. 257
259.) Nor is there any trace that the Apostle regarded this
Jewish belief as a new revelation to himself. There is reason to
think that he did no more than receive it from his contemporaries.
Thus there are altogether four elements which enter into the con
ception of the man of sin : (1.) the traditional imagery of the elder
prophets ; (2.) the style of the Apostle and his age ; (3.) the im
pression of recent historical events which supply the form ; (4.) the
state of the world and the Church, and the consciousness that, where
good is, evil must ever be in aggravated proportions, which supply
the matter of the prophecy.
Still we have not made a nearer approach to the true interpretation
of " him that letteth," an expression on which no light is thrown,
either by the writings of St. Paul, or by the symbolical language of
the Old Testament. We cannot err in supposing that it intimates St.
Paul s belief that the coming of Antichrist was not yet. Though
already working, it was restrained by a superior power. The Thes-
salonians were exhorted not to be troubled in mind, as though the
day of the Lord was at hand, for it was to be preceded by the mani
festation of the man of sin. But it was still further delayed by the
interposition of " him that letteth." So far all is consistent. Christ,
Antichrist, the restrainer of Antichrist, are the triple links of the
chain by which the world is held together. In what person or thing
to find the last of the three is the point of difficulty.
No stress can be laid on the use of the masculine, " him that
letteth," because it is immediately followed by that of the neuter,
" that which letteth," and may be accounted for by parallelism with
the man of sin in a preceding verse. More truly might it be argued
that the use of the neuter excludes the idea of a person. Nero
might have been 6 Kari^ov, but could not have been TO Kariyov. The
double use of the masculine and the neuter in some degree favours
192 SECOND EPISTLE TO THE THESSALONIANS.
the interpretation of the prophecy which identifies the Roman empire
with the restraining power. For some interpretation seems to be
required which is applicable to a thing as well as to a person, as, for
example, in the case of the Roman empire, TO rare xov and 6 KaTi-^wv
may contain an allusion to the empire and to the emperor. A more
important circumstance than this strikes us in the examination of the
passage : it is the apparent secrecy which the Apostle observes in
speaking of the restraining power. It is an enigma which he will not
reveal, which he had explained while he was yet with them, and dare
not now write " with pen and ink." It reminds us of the number of
the beast in the Book of Revelation. It recalls the words of Daniel,
xii. 10. : " None of the wicked shall understand, but the wise
shall understand." It quickens our curiosity to know what that
power could have been, which was contemporary with the Apostle,
and which he would not openly mention to his converts.
Two answers suggest themselves ; conjectures, it is true, because
it is impossible to do more than form conjectures which may be
consistent or not inconsistent with the spirit of the prophecy ; but
they are not, however, to be rejected on that ground, if nothing
better can be offered. The first is the Roman empire ; the second,
the Jewish law. According to the view which separates the tradi
tional form from the substance of the prophecy, it would be no fatal
objection to the first of these two interpretations, that the figure of
Antichrist himself is taken from the image of the Roman emperors
sitting in the temples as gods, while he that letteth is again the Roman
emperor regarded from a new point of view. More real is the dif
ficulty of supposing that St. Paul could have expected that, within
a few years, the solid frame of the Roman empire was to break up
and pass away. It is unlikely that he should have even taken the
kingdoms of this world into the horizon of his spiritual vision. To
say that the heresies of the Ebionites or Nicolaitanes were restrained
by the continuance of the Roman government, would be far-fetched:
the two are not " in pari material It might remove this difficulty
if we could suppose the revelation of the man of sin to represent the
ON THE MAN OF SIN. 193
rebellion of the Jews, but would leave the original one, how to
account for the mystery which the Apostle observes about him which
letteth. More natural is it to explain " that which letteth " as the
Jewish law, the check on spiritual licentiousness which for a little
while was holding in its chains the swarms of Jewish heretics, who
were soon to be let loose and sweep over the earth. Whatever other
objections may be entertained to the last of the two interpretations,
it has, at any rate, the advantage of consistency. It does not confuse
the spiritual and historical, or take us away from the world of the
human heart of which the Scripture speaks, to the world of objects
and events.
Good and evil seem often to lie together flat upon the world s
surface. At other times they start up, like armed men, and prepare
for the last struggle. There is a state in the individual soul, in
which it has entered into rest, and has its conversation in heaven,
and is a partaker of the kingdom of God. There is a state also
in which it is divided between two, not unconscious of good, but
overpowered by evil, living in what St. Paul terms the body
of death. There is a third state in which it is neither conscious
of good nor overpowered by evil, but in which it "leads the life
of all men " acting under the influence of habit, law, opinion. All
these three states have their parallels in the history of the
world. In all of them, whether in the individual or in the world,
whether arising out of the purpose of God or the nature of man,
there sometimes seems to be a kind of necessity which will not
suffer them to be other than they are. The first is that state for
which the believer looks when the kingdoms of this world shall
become the kingdoms of God and Christ. The second is that state
of the world, seen also to him, but unseen to men in general, in
which, in the language of prophecy, "the wicked is revealed," in
which the elements of good and evil separate and decompose them
selves, in anticipation of the final judgment. The third is that fixed
order of the world in which we live, which surrounds us on every
side with its restraints, social, legal, moral, which, if it be not very
VOL. I. O
194 SECOND EPISTLE TO THE THESSALONIANS.
good, is not very evil ; which " letteth and will let " as long as human
nature lasts. Such "a let" to the evil of men was the Roman
empire ; such " a let," even when it had lost its inspired character,
was the law of the Jews. Whether either of these, or both of them
combined in the same way that in the Book of Revelation Rome and
Jerusalem combine to form the image of the last enemy, suggested
to the Apostle the thought of " that which let ; " whether the poli
tical order of the world, which was typified by them, seemed to him
for a time to interpose itself against the manifestation of the man of
sin, is uncertain. Such is a natural adaptation for us to make of the
words of the prophecy ; it is also a consistent interpretation of them
when translated out of the symbolism of Ezekiel and Daniel into
more general language. To suppose that there is to be some greater
deluge of evil than any that has already poured over the world, at
the fall of the Roman Empire, or in the tenth century, some louder
shriek of the human race in its agony than at the destruction of
Jerusalem, to be heard again at the expiration of two thousand years,
adds nothing to the credibility of the Apostle. Least of all can we
imagine him to refer to a "gigantic " development of the human in
tellect, which is at present believed to be held with a chain by the
governments of mankind. Such opinions draw us away from the
healthy atmosphere of history and experience into the unseen future ;
they project to an unimaginable distance, what to the Apostle was
near and present. No test can be applied to them ; their truth or
falsehood, when we are in our graves, we shall never know. They
gain no additional witness from the willingness of their authors to
stake the inspiration of Scripture on the historic certainty of the
event. So long as we delight to trace coincidences, or to make
pictures in religion ; so long as the human mind continues to prefer
the extraordinary to the common, such interpretations of prophecy,
in forms more or less idealized or refined, adapted to different age
or capacities, will never fail. But the Spirit of prophecy in every
age lives not in signs and wonders, but in the divine sense of good
and evil in our own hearts, and in the world around us.
195
ON THE PROBABILITY THAT MANY OF ST.
PAUL S EPISTLES HAVE BEEN LOST.
tV Traa-fj tiria-ToXf) "In every Epistle." 2 Thess. iii. 17.
THESE three words, dropping out by the way, open a field for reflec
tion to those who maintain the genuineness of the Epistle in which
they occur, because they imply, or at least make it probable, that St.
Paul wrote other Epistles, which were never reckoned among the
Canonical books, and of which all trace must therefore have disap
peared in ecclesiastical history, even in that early age in which the
Canon was beginning to be fixed.
Other expressions in the writings of the Apostle lead to the same
inference. In the second chapter of the Epistle from which they
are taken, which it is important to observe is almost the earliest of
those extant, and the words of which cannot therefore refer to the
Epistles which are familiar to us, he twice speaks of " a letter as
from us," as a common and possible occurrence (ver. 2. 15.). In the-
Second Epistle to the Corinthians, x. 10., the Apostle supposes his
adversaries to say " that his letters are weighty and powerful ; " to
which he replies in the next verse, * Such as we are in word by
letters when absent, such will we also be in deed when we are
present." Is it likely that the Apostle is here referring to the First
Epistle only ? The words of 1 Cor v. 9., " I wrote unto you in the
Epistle," probably allude, notwithstanding the tense, to the letter
which he was writing at the time, and have, therefore, nothing to do
with our present inquiry. But the general character of both
Epistles to the Corinthians leads to the conviction that he was in
habits of correspondence with the teachers of the Church of Corinth.
It appears also from 1 Cor. xvi. 3. that he was intending (although
o 2
196 SECOND EPISTLE TO THE THESSALON1ANS.
the intention in this instance was not fulfilled) to send messengers
with letters of introduction, as we term them, to the Church at Je
rusalem; letters of Christian courtesy, of which one only, the
short Epistle to Philemon has been preserved to after ages. Simi
lar occasions must often have occurred in the course of a long life
and ministry ; St. Paul did not cease to be St. Paul in his feelings
towards others, because what he wrote in the privacy of the closet
was not destined to be read afterwards by the whole Christian world.
Once more, in the Epistle to the Colossians, iv. 16., the Apostle en
joins the Churches of Colossae and Laodicea to interchange the letters
which they had received from him. It is only a conjecture, and one
which is not favoured by the similarity of the Epistles to the Colos
sians and Ephesians, that the Epistle here referred to as the Epistle
to the Laodiceans is the extant Epistle to the Ephesians. Here then
are signs of another lost Epistle. The allusion in the Second Epistle
of St. Peter, iii. 15, 16., " Even as our beloved brother Paul also, ac
cording unto the wisdom given unto him, hath written unto you ; as
also in all his Epistles, speaking in them of these things ; in which
are some things hard to be understood, which they that are unlearned
and unstable wrest, as they do also the other scriptures, unto their
own destruction," may be mentioned also, though it has only a general
bearing on our present subject.
(ii.) The character of the Apostle is a further presumption on the
same side of the question. He who lives in himself the life of all
the Churches, who is praying for his converts night and day, and
who allows no other concerns to occupy his mind, of such an one
is it reasonable to suppose that, during his whole ministry, to all his
followers in many lands, he would write no other Epistles but those
which have come down to us ? One might have thought that every
year, almost every month, he would have found some exhortation to
give to them ; that he would have received news of them from some
quarter or other touching divisions which required healing, or per
secution under which his children needed comfort, or advances of the
truth which called for his counsel and sympathy. One might have
THE LOST EPISTLES. 197
thought that his affection for them, and his extreme (may we call it ?)
sensitiveness to their feelings towards himself, would have led him to
make use of every opportunity for writing to them or hearing from
them. He who had no rest in his soul until he had sent Timothy to
know their state, could not have borne to have passed a great portion
of his life without knowledge of them or intercourse with them. But
if so, the Canonical Epistles or Letters cannot be the only ones of
which the Apostle was the author. For, including the Pastoral
Epistles, their number is but thirteen, not one in two years for the
entire active portion of the Apostle s life, and these very unequally
spread over different periods. Of the first ten or fifteen years no
Epistle is extant ; then two short ones begin the series ; after an
interval of some years succeeded by another short one : then in a
single year follow the three larger Epistles together, more than half
the whole : lastly, in the years of his imprisonment, we have not
much more than a short Epistle for every year. Is it likely that
there were no others ? or are we suffering ourselves to be imposed
upon by the fear of disturbing a natural but superficial impression?
(iii.) The Epistles which are extant, with the exception of the
Epistle to the Romans, are unlike the compositions of one who in
his whole life, wrote only ten letters. They are too lively and draw
too near to the hearts of men. Those especially to the Thessalonians,
Corinthians, Galatians, and Colossians (compare Philemon) imply
habits of familiar intercourse between the Apostle and the distant
Churches. Messengers are passing from him to them, and he is mi
nutely informed of their circumstances. There is no trace of ig
norance on the Apostle s part of what is going on among them. There
is none of that natural formality which grows up in letters between
unknown persons. Would the Apostle have written to a Church
which he only addressed once in his life in a style which is more like
talking than writing ? and without the least allusion anywhere to
the singularity of the circumstance of his writing to them ?
But if, as the allusions which have been mentioned and the reason
of the thing, and the style of the extant Epistles themselves, lead us
o 3
198 SECOND EPISTLE TO THE THESSALONIANS.
to suppose, St. Paul wrote other Epistles, which have not been
handed down to us, then many reflections arise in our minds, some of
which have an important bearing on the interpretation of Scripture.
1. It has been observed that within a single year of his life the
Apostle wrote the Epistle to the Romans and the two Epistles to the
Corinthians, which are in quantity equal to more than half the whole
of his Epistles, and not much short of a seventh portion of the entire
New Testament. Nor is it certain that these were the only Epistles
written by him in the same year : the reverse is more likely. Now
suppose we take this as the criterion of the probable amount of his
lost writings, and that during each year of his ministry, which ex
tended over a period of at least twenty-five years, he wrote an equal
quantity, though it would not be true to say that " the world itself
would not contain the books that would have been written," yet the
result would have been a volume three times the size of the New-
Testament. There is nothing extravagant in this speculation, al
though there is no proof of it ; the allusions to lost Epistles make
the idea extremely probable. Nor would any one think it extrava
gant if the Apostle had not been one of the Canonical writers,
whose writings we are accustomed to regard as supernaturally pre
served to us.
2. Suppose, further, that in a distant part of the world, in some
Syriac, or Armenian, or ^Ethiopic transcript, or even in its original
language, buried in the unexcavated portions of Herculaneum or
Pompeii, one of these lost Epistles were suddenly brought to light :
with what feelings would it be received by the astonished world !
The return of the Apostle himself to earth would hardly be a more
surprising event. There are minds to whom such a discovery would
seem to involve more danger than the loss of an Epistle which we
already have. It is not impossible that it might be suppressed or
ever it found its way to the Christian public. Suppose it to escape
this fate ; it is printed and translated : with what anxiety do men
turn over its pages, to find in them something which has a bearing
on this or that controverted point ! If touching upon disputed
THE LOST EPISTLES. 199
matters, is it too much to conceive that it would not find equal ac
ceptance with disputants on both sides supposing that it favoured
one of them rather than the other ? Time would elapse before the
new Epistle would find its way into the language of theology. There
would be no Fathers or Commentators to overlay it with traditional
interpretations. It is strange but also true that it could never re
ceive the deference and respect which has attached to those more
legitimate Epistles in the possession of which the Christian Church
has gloried for above eighteen centuries. And some one standing
aloof might ask whether any article of faith which such an accident
might disturb could be necessary to salvation.
3. Another supposition may be raised of the discovery not of one
but of many lost Epistles of St. Paul, which suggests a new question.
Would the balance of Christian truth be thereby altered ? Not so.
A moment s reflection will remind us that the servant is not above
his Lord, nor the disciple above his Master. If we have failed to
gather from the words of Christ the spirit of the Gospel, a new Epistle
of St. Paul would hardly enlighten us ; if we are partakers of that
spirit we have more religious knowledge than it is possible to ex
haust on earth. The alarm is no sooner raised than dispelled. The
chief use of bringing the supposition before our minds is to remind
us of the simplicity of the faith of Christ. It may help to indicate
also to the theological student the nature of the problem which he
has to consider in the interpretation of Scripture, at once harder and
easier than he at first supposed, easier because simpler, harder
because beset with artificial difficulties. Wej*e the Epistles bearing
the name of St. Paul not ten but thirty in number, a great change
would take place in our mode of studying them. Is it not their
shortness which provokes microscopic criticism ? the scantiness of
materials giving rise to conjectures, the fragmentary thought itself
provoking system? Words and phrases such as "justification by
faith without the works of the law" could not have had such a
powerful and exclusive influence on the theology of after times
had they been found in two only out of thirty Epistles. Theories
o 4
200 SECOND EPISTLE TO THE THESSALONIANS.
and constructions soon come to an end when materials are abundant ;
ingenuity ceases to make an attempt to fill up the blanks of know
ledge when the mind is distinctly conscious that it is dealing not
with the whole but with a part only.
4. No difference is made by the supposition which has been raised
respecting the extant Epistles considered as a rule of life and practice.
Almost any one of them is a complete witness to the Author and
Finisher of our faith ; a complete text-book of the truths of the
Gospel. But it is obvious that the supposition, or rather the simple
fact, that Epistles have been lost which were written by St. Paul,
is inconsistent with the theory of a plan which is sometimes attri
buted to the extant ones, which are regarded as a temple having
many parts, even as there are many members in one body, and all
members have not the same office. A mistaken idea of design
is one of the most attractive errors in the interpretation of
Scripture no less than of nature. No such plan or unity can be
really conceived as existing in the Apostle s own mind ; for he
could never have distinguished between the Epistles destined to
be lost and those which have been allowed to survive. And to at
tribute such a plan to an overruling Providence would be an
arbitrary fancy, involving not inspiration, but the supernatural se
lection and preservation of particular Epistles, and destructive to all
natural ideas of the Gospel. It is a striking illustration of what
may be termed the incidental character of Christianity, that (not
without a Providence in this as in all other earthly things) some
of the Epistles of St. Paul, in the course of nature, as if by chance,
are for ever lost to us ; while others, as if by chance, are handed
down to-be the treasures of the Christian world throughout all ages.
5. There is no reason to suppose that those Epistles of St. Paul
which have been preserved were more sacred or inspired than those
which were lost, or either more so than his discourses in the syna
gogue at Thessalonica during " three Sabbath days," at Athens, at
Corinth, at Rome, or the other places in which he preached the Gospel.
The supposition of the lost Epistles indefinitely extends itself when
THE LOST EPISTLES. 201
we think of lost words. Of these it might be truly said, " that if they
were written every one, even the world itself would not contain the
books that should be written." The writings of the Apostle, like
the words of our Saviour, are but a fragment of his life. And they
must be restored to their context before they can be truly under
stood. They do not acquire any real sacredness by isolation from
the rest. It would be a loss not a gain to deprive the New Testament
of its natural human character, instead of receiving a higher and
diviner meaning, it would only be reduced to a level with the sacred
writings of the Asiatic religions. " So Christ and his Apostles
went about speaking day after day," is a truer and more instructive
thought than " these things were formally set down for our instruc
tion." Nor does it really diminish the power of Scripture to
describe it, as it appears to the eye of the critical student, as a
collection of fragmentary and occasional pieces. For these frag
ments are living plants ; the germ of eternal life is. in them all ;
the least of all seeds, when compared in bulk with human lite
rature, they have grown up into a tree, the shade of which covers the
earth.
202
PALEY S HOBJE PAULINA.
FIRST EPISTLE TO THE THESSALONIANS.
JNo one can read books on the Evidences of the Christian Religion,
written in the last century, without feeling that he has difficulties
which are not met by them, and that points of view occur to him,
which were not within the scope of vision that presented itself to the
writer. This may be partly accounted for, from their being written
in the spirit of the advocate rather than of the judge ; weak points,
as in pleading before a j ury, are often concealed ; the reader is
scarcely expected to go out of his way to consider seriously the
other side of the case. Our confidence is further weakened by ob
serving that they are apt to shift with the metaphysical or theolo
gical schools of the age, and that some of the evidences which are in
repute at home have scarcely any value in other countries. Another
cause of this want of satisfaction is the growth of modern criticism,
which had hardly in the last generation come into contact with the
facts of Scripture, and which, as it has gradually crept over the rest
of history, begins to approach more and more nearly the sacred ter
ritory.
Modern criticism, in the sense here meant, may be described shortly
as the spirit of historical inquiry. This spirit of inquiry has re
ceived a great impulse in our own country and in Germany from
the researches of Niebuhr and Grote, whose method, whatever abate
ments may be made of some of their statements, will influence all
future histories of the ancient world. That is to say, the old traditional
history can never return ; positive results may often be small and
disappointing ; the great result is the knowledge that of early times
PALEY S HOR^E PAULINA. 203
we are destined to know less, in the absence of contemporary accounts,
than we had once hoped and believed, the little that we do know,
perhaps more clearly. This result has been arrived at in three
ways : first by showing the inconsistency of testimony; secondly, by
discrediting, chiefly on grounds of internal evidence, the genuine
ness of documents or authorities ; thirdly, by indicating the manner
in which, though false, conceptions of historical fact, and even fic
titious writings, may without falsehood have sprung up, in the
course of nature, during unknown ages, by the workings or im
pressions of the mind itself.
As the truths of Christianity have an historical as well as a doc
trinal part, they cannot be wholly unaffected by that which affects
all other history. They are drawn in by the application of prin
ciples which were not intended for them, and which might not have
been so generally admitted, had their application been foreseen.
Lessons which have been learnt in the study of profane history, are
not forgotten in the perusal of the Sacred Volume. Fresh suppositions
arise respecting the narrative of Scripture; discrepancies hitherto
unobserved begin to be detected ; what formerly lay flat upon the
page is reconstructed with more or less ingenuity or probability
into a lively edifice. Some old things are about to disappear, some
new ones to appear. The date and authorship of the books of
Scripture are made to pass a trying ordeal. It is natural under
such circumstances for us to turn to our former defenders of the
faith, and inquire how far under their protection we can still find a
safe abiding place ; whether the old armour of controversy has been
superseded by new modes of warfare.
Paley s Horae Paulinas has been, and always will be, to our own
countrymen one of the greatest bulwarks of historical Christianity.
Yet its present value must be in a measure determined by the result
of the inquiry which has been just now suggested. We turn over
the leaves of the work, not without anxiety to know how much must
fall before the subtle shafts of German criticism. We want to see
how far the author had in view the doubts of our own age as well
as of his. If the theory against which Paley is contending had been
204 EPISTLES TO THE THESSALONIANS.
one, not of total, but of partial disbelief, would the arguments which
he uses have equally held good ? especially if it had been a theory
which attacked the genuineness of the books of Scripture themselves,
which dismembered them into parts, and which tended to discredit
the external evidence by which they were maintained ?
" Though some is taken, much remains." True it is that Paley
never contemplated the dismemberment of the Acts of the Apostles
into original documents ; it is true also, that he did not estimate the
comparative value of the coincidences which he found in different
instances in the same or different writings. All the Epistles and
every part of the Acts were placed by him on the same level of au
thenticity and genuineness. It is true, further, that the very clear
ness of his style has given him a fallacious advantage with the reader,
and that the extreme improbability of the hypothesis which he is
combating, leaves an appearance of triumph that would not be jus
tified by anything short of such an hypothesis. Lastly, it may be
granted that the omission of many of the discrepancies in the Epistles,
and the absence of effort to regard the subject as a whole, and esti
mate the collective force of objections, place him in the rank of
apologists, and not of impartial writers.
But after making all these deductions, it must be conceded that
no author has done as much as Paley in the Horae Paulinae, to raise
up a barrier against unreasoning scepticism, and to place the Epistles
on an historical foundation. The ingenuity of his arguments, the
minuteness of the intimations discovered by him, the remoteness and
complexity of his combinations, leave the impression on the mind, of
absolute certainty, in reference to the great Epistles to the Koreans
and Corinthians, and of high probability, in reference to most of the
others. And even though some of his defences may be untenable,
it is true also, that other lines of argument first indicated by him,
admit of being carried farther than he has carried them. Such are
those from undesigned coincidences of style and of character, that
is from similarities which, with a previous knowledge of the style
and character of an author, are capable of being recognised and ap-
PALEY S HORJE PAULIN^E. 205
predated ; and yet are so latent and complex, that no forger could
have invented them.
The two chapters on the Epistle to the Thessalonians contain
together nine different heads. Some of them afford the least favour
able specimens of Paley s reasoning. All are indebted for a part
of their force, to the perspicuity of the writer, which flatters the
reader into intelligence, and makes him ready to admit what he can
so easily understand. To estimate a criticism on Paley s writings
fairly, his arguments and those of his critics should be reduced to
their naked form ; otherwise the controversy will insensibly dege
nerate into a comparison of the styles of two writers, not of the
value of their arguments.
Bad reasons on behalf of a received opinion or an established
authority, have often hitherto found more favour than good ones
against it. Many persons like to throw into an argumentative or
rhetorical form what on other and perhaps good grounds they have
made up their minds to receive. But the time has passed for ex parte
inquiries and statements, whether about the evidences of Christianity
or any other historical subject. It is the interest of every one to see
how we really stand. Christians are not partisans of a side who are
bound to support what other Christians have said ; it is no point of
honour with us to defend ground because it has been once taken in.
Many of the evidences of Christianity are rather a burden than a
strength to it. Let us know the truth, and " the truth will make us
free." Without hesitation, therefore, though not without reverence
for so great a name, a brief examination will be attempted of that
portion of Paley s work which relates to the Epistles to the Thessa
lonians.
No. I.
"!T is known to every reader of Scripture, that the First Epistle
to the Thessalonians speaks of the coming of Christ in terms which
indicate an expectation of his speedy appearance : * For this we say
unto you by the word of the Lord that we which are alive and
remain unto the coming of the Lord, shall not prevent them which
206 EPISTLES TO THE THESSALONIANS.
are asleep. For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a
shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God :
and the dead in Christ shall rise first : then we which are alive and
remain, shall be caught up together with them in the clouds. . . . But
ye, brethren, are not in darkness, that that day should overtake you
as a thief." (iv. 15, 16, 17., v. 4.)
" Whatever other construction these texts may bear, the idea they
leave upon the mind of an ordinary reader is, that of the author of
the Epistle looking for the day of judgment to take place in his own
time, or near to it. Now, the use which I make of this circumstance
is, to deduce from it a proof that the Epistle itself was not the pro
duction of a subsequent age. Would an impostor have given this
expectation to St. Paul, after experience had proved it to be erro
neous ? or would he have put into the Apostle s mouth, or, which
is the same thing, into writings purporting to come from his hand,
expressions, if not necessarily conveying, at least easily interpreted
to convey, an opinion which was then known to be founded in mis
take ? I state this as an argument to show that the Epistle was
cotemporary with St. Paul, which is little less than to show that it
actually proceeded from his pen; for I question whether any ancient
forgeries were executed in the lifetime of the person whose name
they bear, nor was the primitive situation of the Church likely to
give birth to such an attempt."
It is argued that no impostor would have put into the mouth of
St. Paul, an expectation of the coming of Christ, which experience
had shown to be false. Rather say, he would have put into the
mouth of St. Paul anything which it came within the reach of his
ingenuity to devise, and which was likely to make the Epistle cre
dited as a genuine work of the Apostle. His general aim would be
to support his own opinions by the name and authority of St. Paul.
Whether a particular statement was likely to have been made by St.
Paul, he would only consider in so far as might seem to affect the
verisimilitude of his forgery.
PALEY S HOR^E PAULINJE. 207
Still the argument holds, if stated differently ; for the impostor
must have had an object, and that object or part of that object must
have been to spread a belief which was shared by himself in the
immediate coming of Christ. In other words the Epistle must have
been written by a Montanist or Millenarian. But a Montanist or
Millenarian, believing in the present outpouring of the Spirit, would
not have had recourse to the writings of a century before to prove,
what, at the time they were written, he could not suppose to have
been true. No one in our own day who maintained the immediate
coming of Christ would support his opinion by that of Joseph Mede,
who died more than 100 years ago, and fixed the end of the world
during his own lifetime. The Montanist, though not rejecting the
written word, had in himself a surer witness, and he would have
felt the inappropriateness of appealing, on such a subject, from
the present to the past. No one who had a sufficient motive
to forge, would have cared to attach his forgery to the name of
an Apostle.
That no ancient forgeries were executed in the lifetime of the
person whose name they bear, is more than can be safely affirmed.
That forgeries came into existence soon after the death of the person
whose name they bear, is certainly proved by the example of the
Shepherd of Hernias, the Clementine Homilies, and some of the
Apocryphal Gospels. Neither an interval of a hundred years, nor
a distance of a hundred miles requires to be interposed. It is cer
tainly true, that the primitive situation of the Church in the year
50, so far as we are acquainted with it, was unlikely to give birth
to such an attempt ; that the same improbability would have existed
in the year 100, is more than we can maintain.
No. II.
" OUR Epistle concludes with a direction, that it should be publicly
read in the Church to which it was addressed : I charge you by
the Lord, that this Epistle be read unto all the holy brethren. The
existence of this clause in the body of the Epistle is an evidence
208 EPISTLES TO THE THESSALONIANS.
its authenticity ; because to produce a letter purporting to have been
publicly read in the Church of Thessalonica, when no such letter in
truth had been read or heard of in that Church, would be to produce
an imposture destructive of itself. At least, it seems unlikely that
the author of an imposture would voluntarily, and even officiously,
afford a handle to so plain an objection. Either the Epistle was
publicly read in the Church of Thessalonica during St. Paul s life
time, or it was not. If it was, no publication could be more au
thentic, no species of notoriety more unquestionable, no method cf
preserving the integrity of the copy more secure. If it was not, the
clause we produce would remain a standing condemnation of the
forgery, and one would suppose, an invincible impediment to its
success.
" If we connect this article with the preceding, we shall perceive
that they combine into one strong proof of the genuineness of the
Epistle. The preceding article carries up the date of the Epistle to
the time of St. Paul ; the present article fixed the publication of it
to the Church of Thessalonica. Either, therefore, the Church of
Thessalonica was imposed upon by a false Epistle, which in St.
Paul s lifetime they received and read publicly as his, carrying on a
communication with him all the while, and the Epistle referring to
the continuance of that communication ; or other Christian Churches,
in the same lifetime of the Apostle, received an Epistle purporting
to have been publicly read in the Church of Thessalonica, which
nevertheless had not been heard of in that Church ; or lastly,
the conclusion remains, that the Epistle now in our hands is
genuine."
Nothing can be apparently more conclusive than this statement,
though really fallacious. The root of the fallacy seems to lie in the
supposition that the moment the forged writing appeared, it would
be subject to critical investigation, and that the first place it would
be brought to would be the Church of Thessalonica itself. VThereas,
the whole history of forgeries shows that they wandered about the
PALEY S HOR^E PAULINA. 209
world, coming and going nobody knew whence or whither, and that
the concealment of their origin was not an impediment to their
success. The Epistle to the Thessalonians, we will suppose, sud
denly made its appearance at Rome or Alexandria, in the year 120.
It fell, as its author intended, into the hands of those who were pre
disposed to its doctrine and gladly caught at its authority. Would
any one think of writing to the Church of Thessalonica to ask
whether the Epistle had been read there during St. Paul s lifetime ?
And if we could suppose such an inquiry to be made after an interval
of fifty years or more, who could say whether it had or had not been
once read, in accordance with the Apostle s direction ? A parallel
case will throw light on the question which we are considering.
Suppose a lost book of statutes to reappear suddenly, would it be
thought to militate against its genuineness that a provision was
found in it that the whole book should be read once a year ? And
suppose, further, this book to be a forgery, would the occurrence of
such a provision tend to create the slightest suspicion respecting it ?
Would it have been any reason for doubting the genuineness of the
Book of the Law, in Josiah s time, that it contained a command that
it should be read by the king ?
It is highly improbable, as Paley remarks, that the Church of
Thessalonica could have been imposed upon by a false Epistle in
St. Paul s lifetime ; but there is no improbability in the circumstance
that other Churches and individuals may have read, not perhaps
during the lifetime of the Apostle, but soon after, an Epistle pur
porting to be addressed to the Church of Thessalonica, which never
theless had not been heard of in that Church, and that such Epistle
may have been gradually received as genuine ; and therefore it is by
other arguments than these that the conclusion must be proved, that
the Epistle now in our hands is a writing of St. Paul.
No. III.
" BETWEEN our Epistle and the history the accordancy in many
points is circumstantial and complete. The history relates, that
VOL. I. P
210 EPISTLES TO THE THESSALON1ANS.
after Paul and Silas had been beaten with many stripes at Philippi,
shut up in the inner prison, and their feet made fast in the stocks, as
soon as they were discharged from their confinement, they departed
from thence, and, when they had passed through Amphipolis and
Apollonia, came to Thessalonica, where Paul opened and alleged that
Jesus was the Christ, Acts, xvi. 23 xvii. 1 3. The Epistle written
in the name of Paul and Silvanus (Silas), and of Timotheus, who
also appears to have been along with them at Philippi (vide Phil.
No. IV.) speaks to the Church of Thessalonica thus : Even after
that we had suffered before, and were shamefully entreated, as ye
know, at Philippi, we were bold in our God to speak unto you the
Gospel of God with much contention. ii. 2.
" The history relates, that after they had been some time at Thessa
lonica, The Jews which believed not ... set all the city on an uproar,
and assaulted the house of Jason (where Paul and Silas were), and
sought to bring them out to the people. Acts, xvii. 5. The
Epistle declares, When we were with you, we told you before that
we should suffer tribulation ; even as it came to pass, and ye know.
iii. 4.
" The history brings Paul and Silas and Timothy together at Co
rinth, soon after the preaching of the Gospel at Thessalonica : And
when Silas and Timotheus were come from Macedonia (to Corinth),
Paul was pressed in spirit/ Acts, xviii. 5. The Epistle is written in
the name of these three persons, who consequently must have been
together at that time, and speaks throughout of their ministry at
Thessalonica as a recent transaction : We brethren being taken
from you for a short time in presence, not in heart, endeavoured the
more abundantly to see your face with great desire. 1 ii. 17.
" The harmony is indubitable ; but the points of history in which it
consists, are so expressly set forth in the narrative, and so directly
referred to in the Epistle, that it becomes necessary for us to show,
that the facts in one writing were not copied from the other. Now,
amidst some minuter discrepancies, which will be noticed below,
there is one circumstance which mixes itself with all the allusions in
PALEY S HOB^E PAULINA. 211
the Epistle, but does not appear in the history anywhere ; and that
is of a visit which St. Paul had intended to pay to the Thessalonians
during the time of his residing at Corinth : Wherefore we would
have come unto you, even I Paul, once and again ; but Satan hindered
us. ii. 18. Night and day praying exceedingly that we might
see your face, and might perfect that which is lacking in your faith.
Now God himself and our Father, and our Lord Jesus Christ, direct
our way unto you. iii. 10, 11. Concerning a design which was
not executed, although the person himself, who was conscious of his
own purpose, should make mention in his letters, nothing is more
probable than that his historian should be silent, if not ignorant.
The author of the Epistle could not, however, have learnt this cir
cumstance from the history, for it is not there to be met with ; nor
if the historian had drawn his materials from the Epistle, is it likely
that he would have passed over a circumstance, which is amongst the
most obvious and prominent of the facts to be collected from that
source of information."
The harmony is indubitable ; nor is there any reason for supposing
that the writer of the Acts has taken his materials from the Epistle,
or the writer of the Epistle from the Acts. And minute agreement in
two documents or narratives which have no verbal resemblances, and
in which nothing can be proved anywhere to be copied in one from
the other (that is, in this instance, in any part of the Acts from any of
the Epistles), is an almost certain proof of their truth and accuracy
in passages where they agree. But the omission by the author or
editor of the Acts, not of a fact, but of an intention which is alluded
to in the Epistle, cannot be considered as any additional proof of
that which hardly needs to be proved at all. It does not follow, as
Paley maintains, that if the historian had " drawn his materials from
the Epistle " he would have mentioned the circumstance, because the
intention is spoken of as never taking effect in the Epistle itself.
Suppose that, in the biography of a traveller, or rather, to put a case
more exactly parallel, in a few pages of scattered memorials of travel,
p 2
212 EPISTLES TO THE THESSALONIANS.
no mention occurred of a design which was never carried out, and
yet which the letters of the traveller at one period of his life show
him to have entertained and also to have abandoned, that would not
tend to prove the authenticity of either, or to guarantee their inde
pendence of each other. It would require many such omissions before
any inference could be drawn from them. As well might we say
that the omission of some untrue statement which may be found
in a contemporary authority would prove the trustworthiness of
a history.
No. IV.
" WHEREFORE, when we could no longer forbear, we thought it
good to be left at Athens alone ; and sent Timotheus, our brother,
and minister of God, to establish you, and to comfort you concerning
your faith: . . . but now when Timotheus came from you unto us,
and brought us good tidings of your faith and charity, . . . we were
comforted over you in all our affliction and distress by your faith/
iii. 17.
" The history relates, that when Paul came out of Macedonia to
Athens, Silas and Timothy stayed behind at Berea: The brethren
sent away Paul to go as it were to the sea ; but Silas and Timo
theus abode there still. And they that conducted Paul brought him
to Athens. Acts, xvii. 14, 15. The history farther relates, that
after Paul had tarried some time at Athens, and had proceeded from
thence to Corinth, whilst he was exercising his ministry in that city
Silas and Timothy came to him from Macedonia. Acts, xviii. 5. But
to reconcile the history with the clause in the Epistle which makes
St. Paul say We thought it good to be left at Athens alone ; and
sent Timotheus unto you, it is necessary to suppose that Timothy
had come up with St. Paul at Athens ; a circumstance which the
history does not mention. I remark, therefore, that although the
history does not expressly notice this arrival, yet it contains intima
tions which render it extremely probable that the fact took place :
First, as soon as Paul had reached Athens, he sent a message back
PALEY S HOR^E PAULINA. 213
to Silas and Timothy, for to come to him with all speed/ Acts,
xvii. 15. Secondly, his stay at Athens was on purpose that they
might join him there: Now while Paul waited for them at Athens
his spirit was stirred in him. Acts, xvii. 16. Thirdly, his depar
ture from Athens does not appear to have been in any sort hastened,
or abrupt. It is said, * after these things, viz. his disputation with
the Jews, his conferences with the philosophers, his discourse at
Areopagus, and the gaining of some converts, he * departed from
Athens, and came to Corinth. Acts, xviii. 1. It is not hinted that he
quitted Athens before the time that he had intended to leave it ; it is
not suggested that he was driven from thence, as he was from many
cities, by tumults or persecutions, or because his life was no longer
safe. Observe then the particulars which the history does notice ;
that Paul had ordered Timothy to follow him without delay, that he
waited at Athens on purpose that Timothy might come up with him,
that he stayed there as long as his own choice led him to continue.
Laying these circumstances, which the history does disclose, to
gether, it is highly probably that Timothy came to the Apostle at
Athens ; a fact which the Epistle, we have seen, virtually asserts,
when it makes Paul send Timothy back from Athens to Thessalonica.
The sending back of Timothy into Macedonia accounts also for his
not coming to Corinth till after Paul had been fixed in that city for
some considerable time. Paul had found out Aquila and Priscilla,
abode with them and wrought, being of the same craft ; and reasoned
in the synagogue every sabbath day, and persuaded the Jews and
the Greeks. Acts, xviii. 1 5. All this passed at Corinth before
Silas and Timotheus were come from Macedonia. Acts, xviii. 5.
If this was the first time of their coming up with him after their
separation at Berea, there is nothing to account for a delay so con
trary to what appears from the history itself to have been St. Paul s
plan and expectation. This is a conformity of a peculiar species.
The Epistle discloses a fact which is not preserved in the history ;
but which makes what is said in the history more significant, pro-
r 3
214 EPISTLES TO THE THESSALONIANS.
bable, and consistent. The history bears marks of an omission ; the
Epistle by reference furnishes a circumstance which supplies that
Here the discrepancy turns on the circumstance that, according to
the Epistle, Timothy joined the Apostle at Athens ; but according
to the narrative of the Acts, at Corinth. The undesigned coincidence
is supposed to consist in the omission, in the Acts, of the return of
Timothy from Athens to Thessalonica, which is thought to be inti
mated, however, in the command of Paul, that " they (f. e. Silas and
Timotheus) should come speedily to him," or, according to the true
reading, " as speedily as possible " a command which, unless we
assume such a journey, must have been neglected.
Paley has here lost sight of the natural view of the narrative of
the Acts. For no one would have found there the shadow of incon
sistency, but for the discrepancy with the Thessalonians. Let us see
how the case stands : Paul waited for Timothy and Silas at Athens,
not because he expected that they would come up with him there, but
because he expected them somewhere. The length of his stay, either
at Athens or Corinth, before he was overtaken by Silas and Timotheus,
cannot really be inferred from the narrative. And even granting
that the narrative does tacitly imply an interval of a few weeks in
which St. Paul was alone, sufficient time must also be allowed for the
messengers of Paul to go from Athens to Berea, and for Timothy to
return from Berea to Athens. Acts, xvii. 15. And, lastly, suppose
that for some reason unknown, Timothy and Silas were delayed, does
it follow that, unless the delay were considerable, the author of the
Acts would necessarily have mentioned so minute a circumstance ?
But for the sake of argument, let us assume the inconsistency to
exist, which Paley imagines that he has discovered in the Acts, and
what must be the inference ? It must be admitted, that the writer
of the Acts either knew, or did not know, that the return of Timothy
from Athens to Thessalonica actually took place. If (1.) he did
know, it would be unnatural for him to have expressed himself
PALEY S HORM PAULINA. 215
as he has done respecting the circumstance of Timothy and Silas
coming up with the Apostle at Corinth. Two statements refer
to each other : first, the command to follow quickly ; secondly, the
fact that at a certain point of his journey the Apostle is overtaken
by his friends. But the situation, as it existed in the author s mind,
was very different from this. Timothy and Silas first rejoined the
Apostle, not at Corinth, the point mentioned, but at Athens, whence
they returned to Thessalonica, and finally reached Corinth. Would
any one who knew this have omitted it, when the omission must
necessarily lead to a false impression ? Paley should have considered,
not only what was necessary to make the narrative intelligible or
probable, but what was necessary to make the writer or editor of
the Acts consistent with himself. (2.) But again, if he did not know,
the intimations themselves vanish. For in using these words, " Whilst
Paul waited for them at Athens," " he sent a message back to Silas
and Timothy to come to him with all speed," he must be supposed,
on Paley s view of the subject, to be saying something, the bearing
of which he did not perceive ; to have spoken, not of himself, but on
the authority of some other writing or narrative which he misunder
stood or misquoted But it is not likely that, with a narrative before
him which mentioned the fact of Timothy s return from Athens, the
compiler should have retained these intimations, and have omitted
the very circumstance which was necessary to make them consistent
with the rest of his history.
Our inference, therefore, must be that the method of meeting
the supposed inconsistency proposed by Paley, while it assumes
the inconsistency for the sake of meeting it, leads into a further
anomaly.
Once more, Paley does not observe that, even admitting his hypo
thesis, a discrepancy still remains ; because in the Epistle which is
addressed from " Paul and Silvanus and Timotheus," only Timothy
is spoken of as sent from Athens ; whereas, to reconcile the Epistle
with the Acts, Silas as well as Timothy must have undertaken the
double journey.
p 4
216 EPISTLES TO THE THESSALONIANS.
The possible hypotheses respecting this subject are the follow
ing :
1. Timothy and Silas, having been left behind at Berea (accord
ing to the Acts), join the Apostle at Athens (not according to the
Acts).
2. Silas, who alone is mentioned in the Acts as having preached
at Thessalonica and Berea, is left behind at Berea, and Timothy
follows the Apostle to Athens, whence he is sent back by him to
Thessalonica. We may further suppose Timothy and Silas return
ing together from Thessalonica to Corinth, and then overtaking the
Apostle. This mode of explaining the two accounts reduces the
discrepancy to a minimum. The writer of the Acts knew that
Silas and Timotheus were together at Thessalonica and Berea, and
were together when they overtook the Apostle at Corinth ; what
he did not know, was only that they were separated during the
interval.
3. Another mode of escape is, to avail ourselves of the usual re
source of harmonists, and repeat the event. The Epistle must then
have a later date assigned to it. But a date much later than the
Apostle s visit to Thessalonica is inconsistent with the contents
of the Epistle itself.
The comparison of the Acts and the Epistle suggests a further
objection. For Timothy is stated in the Epistle to have been sent
back from Athens, at which place the Apostle had determined to be
left alone. 1 Thess. iii. 1. 5. But at a later period the Apostle is
not at Athens, but at Corinth and Ephesus, as we learn from the
eighteenth chapter of the Acts.
4. Or possibly by the words " we thought it good to be left at
Athens alone ; and sent Timotheus," in the Epistle (iii. 1, 2.), may
be meant only, sent Timotheus from Berea; a sense just admissible
in the words, but hardly consistent with the context.
Whichever way of diminishing the difficulty be adopted, it still
remains slight, but un explain able, and cannot be by any ingenuity
converted into an undesigned coincidence. Any mode of explanation
PALEY S IIORJE PAULINA. 217
which, like Paley s, does away the natural meaning of the author of
the Acts, or like No. 4. of the Epistle, which dives beneath the
surface to pick up what is really on the surface, is in its tendency
far more dangerous than the simple admission of the existence of a
discrepancy, because it introduces into Scripture a hypercritical and
unreal method of interpretation, which may be anywhere made the
instrument of perverting the meaning of the text.
No. V.
"<FoR ye, brethren, became followers of the churches of God
which in Judea are in Christ Jesus : for ye also have suffered like
things of your own countrymen, even as they have of the Jews.
ii. 14.
" To a reader of the Acts of the Apostles it might seem, at first
sight, that the persecutions which the preachers and converts of
Christianity underwent, were suffered at the hands of their old ad
versaries the Jews. But if we attend carefully to the accounts there
delivered, we shall observe that, though the opposition made to the
Gospel usually originated from the enmity of the Jews, yet in almost
all places the Jews went about to accomplish their purpose, by
stirring up the Gentile inhabitants against their converted country
men. Out of Judea they had not power to do much mischief in any
other way. This was the case at Thessalonica in particular : * The
Jews which believed not, moved with envy, set all the city in an
uproar. Acts, xvii. 5. It was the same a short time afterwards at
Berea : When the Jews of Thessalonica had knowledge that the
word of God was preached of Paul at Berea, they came thither also,
and stirred up the people. Acts, xvii. 13. And before this, our
Apostle had met with a like species of persecution, in his progress
through the Lesser Asia : in every city * The unbelieving Jews
stirred up the Gentiles, and made their minds evil affected against
the brethren. Acts, xiv. 2. The Epistle therefore represents the
case accurately as the history states it. It was the Jews always who
set on foot the persecutions against the Apostles and their followers.
218 EPISTLES TO THE THESSALONIANS.
He speaks truly therefore of them, when he says, in this Epistle,
they both killed the Lord Jesus, and their own prophets, and have
persecuted us ; . . . forbidding us to speak unto the Gentiles. ii. 15, 16.
But out of Judea it was at the hands of the Gentiles, it was of their
own countrymen, that the injuries they underwent were immediately
sustained : Ye have suffered like things of your own countrymen,
even as they have of the Jews/ "
This is not a fair representation of the circumstances referred to.
The fact is that there is a difficulty which arises from the discrepancy
of the Acts and the Epistle ; the first impression of the Acts being
that the converts of Thessalonica were Jews persecuted by Jews, or
at any rate that the element of Jews and Jewish proselytes was a
principal one in the Church, and the Jews actively engaged in the
persecution, or rather the main authors of it ; while the only con
struction that can be put upon the Epistle is, that they were Greeks
persecuted by Greeks (1 Thess. ii. 14.), as the Jews of Palestine,
with whom they are compared, had been persecuted by Jews. This
discrepancy might find a reconcilement, were we more fully ac
quainted with the circumstances of the case, but cannot be regarded
as an undesigned coincidence. Compare Horae Paulinas, chap. v.
No. V.
No. VI.
" THE apparent discrepancies between our Epistle and the history,
though of magnitude sufficient to repel the imputation of confederacy
or transcription (in which view they form a part of our argument),
are neither numerous, nor very difficult to reconcile.
" One of these may be observed in the ninth and tenth verses of the
second chapter : For ye remember, brethren, our labour and travail :
for labouring night and day, because we would not be chargeable
unto any of you, we preached unto you the gospel of God. Ye are
witnesses, and God also, how holily and justly and unblameably we
PALEY S HORJE PAULINJE. 219
behaved ourselves among you that believe. A person who reads
this passage is naturally led by it to suppose that the writer had
dwelt at Thessalonica for some considerable time ; yet of St. Paul s
ministry in that city, the history gives no other account than the fol
lowing: That they came to Thessalonica, where was a synagogue
of the Jews ; that, as his manner was, he went in unto them, and
three sabbath days reasoned with them out of the Scriptures ; . . . that
some of them believed, and consorted with Paul and Silas. The
history then proceeds to tell us, that the Jews which believed not . . .
set all the city on an uproar, and assaulted the house of Jason, where
Paul and his companions lodged ; that the consequence of this outrage
was, that the brethren immediately sent away Paul and Silas by night
unto Berea. Acts, xvii. 1 10. From the mention of his preaching
three sabbath days in the Jewish synagogue, and from the want of
any farther specification of his ministry, it has usually been taken for
granted that Paul did not continue at Thessalonica more than three
weeks. This, however, is inferred without necessity. It appears to
have been St. Paul s practice, in almost every place that he came to,
upon his first arrival to repair to the synagogue. He thought himself
bound to propose the Gospel to the Jewsjirst, agreeably to what he
declared at Antioch in Pisidia ; it was necessary that the word of
God should first have been spoken to you. Acts, xiii. 46. If the Jews
rejected his ministry, he quitted the synagogue, and betook himself
to a Gentile audience. At Corinth, upon his first coming thither,
he reasoned in the synagogue every sabbath ; and when the Jews
opposed themselves, and blasphemed, he departed thence, expressly
telling them, from henceforth I will go unto the Gentiles. . . .
And he continued there a year and six months. Acts, xviii. 6 11.
At Ephesus, in like manner, for the space of three months he went
into the synagogue ; but when divers were hardened and believed
not, but spake evil of that way, he departed from them and separated
the disciples, disputing daily in the school of one Tyrannus ; and
this continued by the space of two years. Acts, xix. 8, 9, 10. Upon
inspecting the history, I see nothing in it which negatives the sup-
220 EPISTLES TO THE THESSALONIANS.
position that St. Paul pursued the same plan at Thessalonica which
he adopted in other places ; and that, though he resorted to the
synagogue only three sabbath days, yet he remained in the city, and
in the exercise of his ministry amongst the Gentile citizens, much
longer, and until the success of his preaching had provoked the
Jews to excite the tumult and insurrection by which he was driven
away.
" Another seeming discrepancy is found in the ninth verse of the
first chapter of the Epistle : For they themselves show of us what
manner of entering in we had unto you, and how ye turned to God
from idols, to serve the living and true God, and to wait for his
Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, even Jesus, which
delivered us from the wrath to come/ This text contains an
assertion that, by means of St. Paul s ministry at Thessalonica,
many idolatrous Gentiles had been brought over to Christianity.
Yet the history, in describing the effects of that ministry, only
says, that some of the Jews believed, . . . and of the devout Greeks
a great multitude, and of the chief women not a few. Acts, xvii.
4. The devout Greeks were those who already worshipped the
one true God ; and therefore could not be said, by embracing
Christianity * to be turned to God from idols.
" This is the difficulty. The answer may be assisted by the fol
lowing observations. The Alexandrian and Cambridge manuscripts
read (for r&v re ffe^opevwv EXXrivwv TTO\V TrXrjdos) TWV r-e ffeopli (t)V KUI
EXXjjj wv TroXv TrXi/floe. In which reading they are also confirmed by
the Vulgate Latin. And this reading is in my opinion strongly
supported by the considerations: First, that ol ffe6pevot alone, *. e.
without "EXXrjvec, is used in this sense in this same chapter, Paul
being come to Athens, $t\lyTO p.ev ovv kv ry avvaytj-yrj roTc 1ov3cu oc
KOI TOIQ ae&onivoig. Secondly, that trg^o/zevot and "EXXrjveg nowhere
come together. The expression is redundant. The ol a^operoi
must be "EXXrpce. Thirdly, that the KOI is much more likely to have
been left out, incuria nianus, than to have been put in.
Or, after all, if we be not allowed to change the present reading,
PALEY S HOI^E PAULINA. 221
which is undoubtedly retained by a great plurality of copies, may not
the passage in the history be considered as describing only the effects
of St. Paul s discourses during the three sabbath days in which he
preached in the synagogue ? and may it not be true, as we have re
marked above, that his application to the Gentiles at large, and his
success amongst them, was posterior to this ? "
The Epistle says, that the Apostle laboured with his own hands
(ii. 9, 10.), implying, therefore, that he remained at Thessalonica for
some time. But the Acts state that he preached there three sabbath
days. Paley argues, " but he may have stayed longer, because he did
did so in other places." But this is not the spirit of the narrative ;
nothing can be inferred from what he did at other places where he
was not driven out by persecution, as to what he did at this where he
was. It might be argued, however, in favour of the genuineness of
the Epistle, that its account is indirectly confirmed by the Philippians,
in which it is stated, that in Thessalonica they sent once and again
to the Apostle s necessity.
The fallacy of Paley s argument lies in the rejection of the
prima facie meaning of the Acts. St. Paul may have stayed
longer, and may have converted Gentiles ; but would the author of the
Acts have expressed himself as he has done, had he been aware of
this protracted stay ? That is the point which is not in any degree
met by accumulating instances that may tend to prove his practice
in other places. Paley s mode of dealing with these passages is as
if in ordinary conversation we took the words of a truth-speaking
person, and made them mean anything they could mean without in
volving the speaker in positive falsehood, giving, morever, as the
reason for our tortuous interpretation of them that he had so ex
pressed himself at other times. A better answer would be : (1.)
That the Apostle, even though he remained in a place but for three
weeks, began by giving a specimen of his way of life. (2.) That it
by no means follows that he intended to remain but for three weeks,
222 EPISTLES TO THE THESSALONIANS.
as the duration of his stay was cut short by the stirring up of perse
cution.
The second discrepancy Paley seeks to avoid by adopting the
reading ruiv re ffggo/ieVwv KO.L EXXr/i/om Granting him this, it will
still not enable us to account for the exclusively Gentile character
of the Church in the Epistle.
PALEY S HORJE PAULINA. 223
SECOND EPISTLE TO THE THESSALONIANS.
No. I.
" IT may seem odd to allege obscurity itself as an argument, or to
draw a proof in favour of a writipg, from that which is usually con
sidered as the principal defect in its composition. The present Epistle,
however, furnishes a passage, hitherto unexplained, and probably
inexplicable by us, the existence of which, under the darkness and
difficulties that attend it, can only be accounted for upon the suppo
sition of the Epistle being genuine ; and upon that supposition is
accounted for with great ease. The passage which I allude to is found
in the second chapter of the Second Epistle (ver. 3 8.): That day
shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of
sin be revealed, the son of perdition; who opposeth and exalteth him
self above all that is called God, or that is worshipped ; so that he as
God sitteth in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God.
Eemember ye not, that WHEN I WAS YET WITH YOU, I TOLD YOU
THESE THINGS ? And now ye know what withholdeth that he might
be revealed in his time. For the mystery of iniquity doth already
work : only he who now letteth will let, until he be taken out of the
ivay. And then shall that Wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall
consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the
brightness of his coming/ It were superfluous to prove, because it
is in vain to deny, that this passage is involved in great obscurity,
more especially the clauses distinguished by Italics. Now, the observa
tion I have to offer, is founded upon this, that the passage expressly
refers to a conversation which the author had previously holden
with the Thessalonians upon the same subject ; Remember ye
not, that, when I was yet with you, / told you these things ? And
224 EPISTLES TO THE THESSALONIANS.
now ye know what withholdeth. If such conversation actually
passed ; if whilst he was yet with them, he told them, * these things,
then it follows that the Epistle is authentic. And of the reality of
this conversation it appears to be a proof, that what is said in the
Epistle might be understood by those who had been present at such
conversation, and yet be incapable of being explained by any other.
No man writes unintelligibly on purpose. But it may easily happen,
that a part of a letter which relates to a subject, upon which the
parties had conversed together before, which refers to what had been
before said, which is in truth a p9rtion or continuation of a former
discourse, may be utterly without meaning to a stranger who should
pick up the letter upon the road, and yet be perfectly clear to the
person to whom it is directed, and with whom the previous commu
nication had passed. And if in a letter which thus accidentally fell
into my hands, I found a passage expressly referring to a former
conversation, and difficult to be explained without knowing that
conversation, I should consider this very difficulty as a proof that the
conversation had actually passed, and consequently that the letter
contained the real correspondence of real persons."
Paley characteristically says, that "no man writes unintelligibly
on purpose," and therefore there must have been some real conver
sation, which is here referred to. But is not this a fallacy ? He
appears in this article to confuse the forger and the real author.
That the real author could not have written unintelligibly on purpose
is true ; but it by no means follows that the forger would not have
taken any mode which his ingenuity suggested of making his work
appear to be a genuine writing. (See No. I.) He might have re
ferred to pretended conversations, letters, circumstances, with this
object. He might have written whatever St. Paul could have
written ; the only limit to this being whether the verisimilitude was
of a kind which was likely to occur to him. The question which he
would ask himself would be, not whether what he wrote was unin-
PALEY S HOR^: PAULINA. 225
telligible, but whether any suspicion would be aroused by its unin
telligibleness. It may easily happen, as Paley observes, that part of
a letter may be unintelligible from want of information respecting
allusions contained in it. But this is no confirmation of its truth.
A. B. forges letters tending to prove he is the heir to an estate ; in
these letters he alludes to matters which from his statement of them
can only be half understood. This may be some proof of the inge
nuity of the forger ; it is no proof of the genuineness of Ihe
letters.
No. II.
" NEITHER did we eat any man s bread for nought ; but wrought
with labour and travail night and day, that we might not be charge
able to any of you : not because we have not power, but to make
ourselves an ensample unto you to follow us. iii. 8, 9.
" In a letter, purporting to have been written to another of the
Macedonic Churches, we find the following declaration :
" * Now ye Philippians know also, that in the beginning of the
gospel, when I departed from Macedonia, no church communicated
with me as concerning giving and receiving, but ye only. 1 iv. 15.
" The conformity between these two passages is strong and plain.
They confine the transaction to the same period. The Epistle to the
Philippians refers to what passed { in the beginning of the Gospel,
that is to say, during the first preaching of the gospel on that side
of the JEgean Sea. The Epistle to the Thessalonians speaks of the
Apostle s conduct in that city upon his first entrance in unto them,
which the history informs us was in the course of his first visit to the
peninsula of Greece.
" As St. Paul tells the Philippians, that no church communicated
with him as concerning giving and receiving, but they only, he
could not, consistently with the truth of this declaration, have re
ceived anything from the neighbouring Church of Thessalonica.
What thus appears by general implication in an Epistle to another
Church, when he writes to the Thessalonians themselves, is noticed
expressly arid particularly : Neither did we eat any man s bread for
VOL. I. Q
226 EPISTLES TO THE THESSALONIANS.
nought ; but wrought night and day, that we might not be chargeable
to any of you.
" The texts here cited farther also exhibit a mark of conformity
with what St. Paul is made to say of himself in the Acts of the
Apostles. The Apostle not only reminds the Thessalonians that he
had not been chargeable to any of them, but he states likewise the
motive which dictated this reserve : * Not because we have not
power, but to make ourselves an ensample unto you to follow us,
iii. 9. This conduct, and what is much more precise, the end which
he had in view by it, was the very same as that which the history
attributes to St. Paul in a discourse, which it represents him to have
addressed to the elders of the church of Ephesus : Yea, ye your
selves know, that these hands have ministered unto my necessities,
and to them that were with me. I have showed you all things, how that
so labouring ye ought to support the weak. 9 Acts, xx. 34, 35. The
sentiment in the Epistle and in the speech is in both parts of it so
much alike, and yet the words which convey it show so little of imi
tation or even of resemblance, that the agreement cannot well be
explained without supposing the speech and the letter to have really
proceeded from the same person."
Paley should not have omitted the verse following (Phil. iv. 16.),
which implies that St. Paul received support from the Philippians
while at Thessalonica, and is therefore partly inconsistent with his
working with his own hands. " For even in Thessalonica ye sent
once and again unto my necessities."
[No. III. is not reprinted, as the subject of it has been already
anticipated in the notes on the passage referred to.]
The defects of Paley s article on the Thessalonians may be sum
med up as follows : He has no distinctive conception of the nature
PALEY S HOR^E PAULINA. 227
or origin of early forgeries. He tends to confuse the person of the
forger with the real author, and argues erroneously from one to the
other. He omits discrepancies. He alters the natural and prima
facie meaning of the Acts and the Epistles. He bends their exact
words into agreement with general probabilities. He finds a difficulty
where there is none, for the sake of introducing an undesigned
coincidence. He has worked out in separate details a subject which
can only be regarded philosophically as a whole, in which presumptions
have to be considered, not singly, but collectively and with reference
to the entire circumstances of the early Church.
Paley, like most writers of his age, had no idea of the differences
of times and countries. He had never formed a conception of the
mind of the Apostolical age. He is justly chargeable with the error
of regarding the writers of the New Testament as men who " sat
down at a desk " to compose a book. He never asked himself the
previous question ; what existed before the Acts ? out of what
documents or memorials were they compiled ? He begins with the
assumption of their integrity, not merely as a whole which was put
together by a single editor, but as a whole which had no previous
existence in any of its parts. Given his two witnesses, he then pro
ceeds to prove the independence of their testimony. But he forgets
that where the history is fragmentary and the letters short, minute
points of agreement will be very rare. If they are numerous he
may reasonably suspect them. The doctrine of chances shows that
he must have made, not found them. They are not really there, but
he has acquired the power of seeing them where they do not exist.
Led away by his own ingenious thought of "undesigned coinci
dences," he has impressed the notion of them on his own mind and
that of the reader as a sort of form, by the help of which the Acts
and the Epistles are to be read. His wonderful power of writing
enables him to surround with a flood of light appearances which are
often deceptive.
Those who may at any time design to continue his work further
should consider whether a valuable argument has not been already
Q2
228 EPISTLES TO THE THESSALONIANS.
weakened by being carried beyond its just limits. Constructive
evidences of Christianity, wiredrawn out of small materials, share the
fate of constructive history. The real evidence of the genuineness
of the Epistle to the Thessalonians is scarcely added to by the ar
gument from undesigned coincidences, and not at all weakened by its
omission. Far stronger and deeper is that evidence which is
derived from the style and character of the Epistle, which in almost
every verse recalls the manner of the Apostle St. Paul, and which
in spite of minor discrepancies finds a general support and broad
foundation in the agreement of the Epistle with the main features
of the narrative of the Acts.
THE EPISTLE
TO
THE GALATIANS.
Q 3
THE
EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS,
INTRODUCTION.
Two questions, closely connected with each other, arise in the minds
of every reader of the Epistles of St. Paul who is desirous of forming
an idea of the state of the Churches to which they were addressed :
first, whether the Church was founded by the Apostle himself;
secondly, whether it was composed of Jewish or of Gentile Chris
tians. For the answer to these questions, in the case of the Gala-
tians, our chief attention must be directed to the intimations of the
Epistle itself; to which a gleam of uncertain information may be
added from other writings of the Apostle, and the analogy of other
Churches mentioned in them. The Acts of the Apostles supply
one or two facts of doubtful import. The latter of the two questions
unavoidably runs up into a more general inquiry respecting the
original relations of Jew and Gentile before^ they came together in
the Christian Church, which will be more fully discussed in another
place.
The indications of the Epistle may be summed up in a few words.
On the one hand, the tone of authority which the Apostle adopts,
as well as particular expressions, such as iii. 2. " This only would I
learn of you, Received ye the Spirit by the works of the law, or by
the hearing of faith ?" ; or iv. 9 19. in which the Apostle speaks of
their having been converted, not to bondage, but to freedom, and of
Q 4
232 EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS.
himself as again becoming their spiritual father (comp. 1 Cor. iv. 15. ;
also Acts xvi. 6.) ; as well as the manner in which he mentions the
Apostles at Jerusalem in chap. ii. would certainly lead us to suppose
that the Galatians must have been converted by himself or by his
followers. And that they were originally Gentiles, is implied in
chap. iv. ver. 8. : " When ye knew not God, ye did service unto
them which by nature are no gods." But if they were converts of
the Apostle, and also Gentiles, how are we to account for their ready
reception of Judaism, to the repulsive rites of which they seem to
have been drawn almost by instinct ? That would lead rather to
the opposite supposition, that they were not Gentiles, but Jews.
Naturally, it might be urged, when the Apostle s personal influence
was withdrawn from them, Judaism overlaid Christianity, the law
prevailed over the Gospel. And this latter opinion is confirmed by
the fact, that the Apostle argues with them out of the law and the
prophets, and that in none of his Epistles has the cast of the reason
ing a more Jewish character.
Thus on a first view we seem to arrive at opposite conclusions, an
appearance of inconsistency which will present itself again to our
notice in the Epistle to the" Romans. One set of presumptions leads
to the inference, that the Galatians were Gentiles ; or rather the
text quoted above (iv. 8.) expressly says so. Another set of pre
sumptions (from which we cannot exclude the almost equally explicit
statement that they were Jews, chap. iv. 9., and desirous to return
to " the beggarly elements " around which their hearts still lingered)
leads to the opposite inference. Out of this dilemma how are we to
make our escape? (1.) Can we suppose St. Paul himself to have
been a teacher of the law (compare Introductory Essays on the
Epistles to the Thessalonians and Romans), and to have once taught
what he now denounced ? Admitting that at no period of his life
he wholly ceased to be a Jew (Acts xviii. 18., xxi. 26., xxiii. 6.);
that there were threads in his doctrine, which entangled him with
the false teachers (Gal. v. 11.); that there was a time in which he
spoke of himself as " having known Christ according to the flesh,"
INTRODUCTION. 233
and that constant reference to the authority of the Old Testament is
difficult to reconcile with his renunciation of the law ; still the ex
treme antagonism in which he places himself to the Judaisers
renders it impossible that he could ever have been one of them.
The Galatians " had begun in the Spirit ;" it is another Gospel to
which they are "removed;" they had originally received with en
thusiasm the same lesson which St. Paul is seeking to revive.
(2.) But if we cannot suppose St. Paul himself to have been a
teacher of the law, whence did the infection of Judaism arise in the
Churches of Galatia? It might be suggested that the Galatians
were first converted by teachers of the circumcision, and afterwards
reconverted by St. Paul. Yet, in Gal. iii. 2., iv. 19., the Apostle
implies that they were converted by himself, and, as he expresses it
in the passage just quoted, " began in the spirit." Or, (3.) shall we
conceive him to be describing, first, the Gentiles, then the Jews in
successive verses ? Granting that the Galatian Church, like most
other Christian communities, may have contained Jewish as well as
Gentile Christians, still the context shows that those who " served
them which by nature are no gods," and those who were ready to
relapse into the weak and beggarly elements of the law, were the
same persons, iv. 8 10. Nor is there any trace in the Epistle that
he distinguished the case of the Jew from that of the Gentile in
reference to the obligation of circumcision ; to all he says alike, " if
ye be circumcised Christ shall profit you nothing." Would this
have been his language had the Church been divided between Jews
and Gentiles ? Yet, (4.) once more it might be argued, that Judaism
and heathenism were regarded by St. Paul as a single prior dispensa
tion, the two parts of which he is not careful to distinguish, which
he seems alike to include elsewhere in the expression " elements of
the world," Col. ii. 8. 20. But no such common point of view under
which he may have regarded the former estate of Jew and Gentile,
would have justified him in saying of the Jew: " Howbeit then,
when ye knew not God, ye did service unto them which by nature
are no gods."
234 EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS.
The most probable mode of escaping these difficulties is the
following : The Galatians we may suppose to have been a Gentile
Church, which was first converted to Christianity by St. Paul, but
previous to its conversion had gone through a phase of Judaism.
There were three states out of which Gentile converts passed, or
might have passed, into the acceptance of the Gospel as preached by
St. Paul: first, heathenism; secondly, a more or less strict prose-
lytism ; thirdly, Jewish Christianity. The second of these was pro
bably the state of the Galatian converts. Strange as it may seem,
it is an undoubted fact that, before the appearance of Christianity
the religion of the Jews exercised a great and mysterious influence
over the Roman world. It had already bridged the chasm which
separated the faith of Jehovah from the wisdom of the Greek philo
sopher. It was " a schoolmaster," bringing men to Christ, not in
idea only but in fact. The natural and political force of Judaism,
even in its most abject state, its simple faith in the unity of God, the
proselytising spirit of the Jews themselves (Matt, xxiii. 15.), their
dispersion throughout the world, the diffusion of the Greek transla
tion of the Old Testament Scriptures, the absorbing power of the
Jewish Alexandrian philosophy, are sufficient to account for the
hold which it acquired on the minds of men, standing, as it seemed,
erect in the decline of the classical religions and the chaos of
Eastern superstitions. The Roman poets in the age of Augustus
were perfectly well acquainted with the belief and practices of the
Jews, which extended to others as well as to their regular prose
lytes ; a knowledge which is the more remarkable, when contrasted
with the slender information about the Christians, which is displayed
by every heathen writer, for the first century and a half after the
Christian era.*
Admitting the general fact of the diffusion of Judaism, no people
were more likely to have fallen under its power than the inhabitants
of Galatia. A half civilised race of Western origin, in an Eastern
* See Introduction to Epistle to the Romans.
INTRODUCTION. 235
land, were peculiarly liable to be influenced by the contagion of the
Jewish settlers who dwelt among them (1 Peter, i. 1.). Their
national religion was already mingled with the gods of the nations
among whom they settled. They did not altogether cease to be
heathen by becoming Jews, any more than they wholly left their
ancient Gallic rites for Greek and Phrygian customs. Nor can we
tell how many elements of Christianity, as, for example, the doctrine
of a Messiah, may have been included in their Judaising tenets
(compare Heb. vi. 1., 2 Cor. ii. 5. 16., John iv. 25.). Marked as
such distinctions appear in language, there could not have always
been a definite line which separated heathenism from proselytism
or proselytism from Jewish Christianity, any more than the Gospel
of the circumcision from that of the uncircumcision. The more lax
of either class must have insensibly faded into the other ; and
Judaism itself may have taken new forms when coming into contact
with semi-barbarous races. Much that we look upon as a corruption
of Christianity was, in fact, prior to Christianity, inherent in the
magical or philosophical tendencies of the age, and clustering around
the name of Christ as a new source of life and power. There was a
spiritualised Judaism, as well as a Judaised heathenism. In the
case of the Galatians, we can only infer from the language of the
Epistle that they could not have been so completely Christians as to
set aside St. Paul s claim to have converted them ; nor so completely
Jews as to have lost all remembrance of that former state in which
they did service " to them that are no gods."
Supposing then the Galatians to have passed through the gate of
Judaism to Christianity, there is no difficulty in explaining their
relapse into Judaism. The Jewish teachers were there before
St. Paul, and they remained there after his departure : and the
language of the Old Testament itself, sanctioned by the authority of
St. Paul, though read in a spirit unlike his, would seem to tell of the
continued obligation of the law and of the necessity of circumcision.
He himself, they insidiously said, had at one time preached that
very circumcision which he now denounced, (v. 11.) By such
236 EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS.
arguments a half-wavering multitude, who had been once ready to
die for the Apostle, now that he was absent, were shaken in their
allegiance to his authority.
The slenderness of our materials will not allow us to complete the
picture of the Galatian Church. There is not a single figure to fill
up the vacant space. It is only a probability that, in ch. v. 10., the
Apostle is alluding to an individual opponent. (" He that troubleth
you shall bear his judgment, whosoever he be.") We see the levity
and inconsistency of the converts ; their confusion of the Gospel with
the Law; the manner in which dislike of the doctrine of the Apostle
degenerated into hatred of his person. Fainter traces are also
discernible of Judaism mingling with heathenism in ch. iv. 9., as in
Col. ii. 18. ; and perhaps in Rom. xiv.
237
GALATIA.
A NOTICE of the inhabitants of Galatia will throw a remote light
on the Epistle to the Galatians. Some have thought to identify
them with the barbarous people of Lycaonia who first worshipped
the Apostles and afterwards stoned them. But whatever similarity
may be traced in the character of the people, Derbe and Lystra
were not within the district termed Galatia (comp. Acts xiv. 1 . 6.),
which lay to the north, separated by Paphlagonia and Bithynia from
the Euxine Sea. It was bounded on the south by Phrygia and
Cappadocia, on the east by Pontus and Cappadocia, on the west by
Phrygia and Bithynia, and included in its domain several of the Phry
gian cities most celebrated for the worship of the mother of the gods.
The inhabitants of this district were the Gauls of Asia. They
were the remnant of the great Celtic and Germanic migrations,
which overspread Greece and Asia Minor at the commencement of
the third century before the Christian era. Like the Biscayans or
Hungarians in Europe, they continued the isolated monument of the
deluge which had passed away. At one time they had been the
terror of the Greek cities of Asia Minor, and alternately the adver
saries or the mercenaries of Alexander s successors. They were
reduced by the Roman Consul, C. Manlius Vulso, in the year 189,
but retained their separate kings by favour of the Romans, until
about 80 years before this time, A. c. 26, when Amyntas, their last
king and the favourite successively of Augustus and Antony, was
murdered, and the country finally placed under a Roman governor.
In character they are described as a free impetuous race, ever
ready to bear arms for themselves or others. For a long time after
their settlement in Asia, they retained their national and religious
238 EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS.
customs, the latter even including that of human sacrifices. St.
Jerome (Gal. i. 2.) describes them, even in his own day, as having
a peculiar dialect, which he compares to the German spoken about
Treves. Their government in early times was a military aristocracy
divided into twelve tetrarchies, the respective chiefs of which were
not hereditary, but elected. The Gauls themselves were appor
tioned in three tribes, and two subject peoples existed side by side
with them, the Greeks and Phrygians, to whom they stood in the
same relation as the Spartans to the Laconians and Messenians.
Gradually the language and religion of the conquered made an
impression on the conquerors. That they must have understood
Greek is proved by the Epistle itself; and their supreme Council of
three hundred corresponding to the tetrarchies of which Strabo
(xii. 567.) speaks, was probably of Greek origin. And long before
this time they had adopted or added to their own religion the rites
of Cybele, and participated in the worship on Mount Dindymus and
the gainful occupation of selling the oracles of the Goddess to the
rest of Asia.
The chief towns of Galatia were Ancyra the capital, Pessinus, at
the foot of Mount Dindymus, and Tavium and Gaolasera on the
Eastern border. From the use of the plural (TU~IQ cjtc\q<mx() we
may gather that the Churches were scattered throughout the dis
trict, in more than one village or town. It is impossible to say what
the names of these Churches were, or whether the Epistle is ad
dressed to converts who were Gauls, Phrygians, or Greeks by origin.
Only the tone of the Apostle and the fickleness of those who
received him " as an angel of God, even as Christ Jesus," (comp.
Acts xiv. 16 19., xxviii. 6.) " and afterwards became his enemies,"
may lead us to conjecture that he is addressing a people subject to
violent religious impulses, a people such as might have been cele
brated for their ancient Phrygian and Bacchic rites, amongst whom
in heathen days extravagant superstition most readily found a home;
and who, when converted to Christianity, gave birth to Phrygian
heretics and to the Montanism of the second century.
239
SUBJECT OF THE EPISTLE.
THE Epistle to the Galatians may be conveniently divided into three
sections: (1.) the narrative, which maybe compared with 1 Thess.
iii. 1 7., and which terminates with the address to Peter in the
second chapter ; (2.) an argumentative portion based chiefly on the
Old Testament, and nearly coextensive with chapters iii. and iv.; and
(3.) a practical section in which the liberty of the Gospel is enforced
as a rule of life. This division, however, is of no other value than
as a help to the memory ; for there is no regular plan or structure.
The Apostle is not composing an essay; he writes because he cannot
help writing ; because in his own language " he would be straitened
if he refrained." Even the calmer passages, such as the narrative
of his visits to Jerusalem, and the arguments from the promise to
Abraham and his two sons, are interrupted by expressions full of
vehemence and passion. The Father will speak with his children ;
the teacher must " change his voice " to his rebellious disciples.
Their conduct was an injury to himself, and a wrong to the truth
which he preached. At all events, by some means or other, he will
stop this Judaism that is creeping over the Church of Galatia,
which he indignantly feels to be strangely contrary to the Gospel
which he has taught them. They appear to fancy that he is inferior
to the Apostles at Jerusalem. That is not the case. Those who
seemed to be somewhat are, in reality, scarcely his equals; for they
added nothing to him in the hour of trial, and were wrong when he
was right. What strange infatuation has come over them ? They
must begin again, and recall the feelings of their conversion. In
the law itself they may read their own condemnation. For the law,
240 EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS.
too, spoke of a promise that was made before the law, of the
righteousness of faith, of the bond and free. He will make an
appeal to them of another kind. Will they not hear his voice to
whom they had once shown so intense a love ? Their old affection
has passed away ; a few designing men have made a prey of them,
and now they know him no more. He spoke too plainly to them on
his last visit. What remained but that he should again warn them
to preserve liberty ; to eschew licentiousness ; to remember that if a
man was circumcised, he was a debtor to keep the whole law, and
that Christ would profit him nothing; and yet not to forget, if
they could receive it, the higher lesson that "in Christ Jesus
neither circumcision availed anything nor uncircumcision, but a new
creature."
The style and subject of the Epistle to the Galatians may be
further drawn out by a comparison with the Epistles to the Romans
and to the Corinthians, with which, in date, it nearly coincides.
The Epistle to the Galatians exhibits, in a more compendious form,
and, perhaps, in an earlier stage, the same truths which are more
fully developed in the Epistle to the Romans. The differences
between them maybe summed up as follows: 1. The Epistle to
the Galatians is personal and occasional, while that to the Romans
is addressed to a Church unknown to the Apostle, and has less the
character of a letter, and more that of a treatise, than any other of
the Epistles. 2. The one treats of circumcision as a question of
practice ; the other of the law as a burden on the heart and con
science. 3. The argument in the one is partial and fragmentary,
returning often to " the weak and beggarly elements ; " that of the
other comprehensive and continuous, extending over all mankind
and all time; embodying the strife of good and evil in the heart of
man, and tracing the same strife of death and life in the first and
second Adam. 4. The Epistle to the Galatians is an argument or
expostulation with Judaizing opponents ; the Epistle to the Romans
is an argument or dialogue with self, in which the opponent is only
a shadow, or idea, the "old man" of the Apostle s own thoughts,
COMPARISON OF OTHER EPISTLES. 241
not the Jewish Christian with whom he is in actual conflict.
5. In the Epistle to the Romans several topics occur which are
scarcely touched upon in the Epistle to the Galatians ; such are the
restoration of the Jews, the state of the heathen world, the mani
festation of the sons of God, the exhortation to obey rulers, the
question of abstinence from animal food. On the other hand, they
have, in common, the following striking points: The doctrine of
justification by faith, as illustrated by the instance of Abraham ; the
universality of the Gospel of Christ, in whom is no distinction of
Jew or Greek, bond or free ; the nature of sin as a trangression of
the law which is alluded to in Gal. ii. 18, 19., and in iii. 19.; the
identity of the Christian with Christ, and of the Spirit of Christ
with the soul of the Christian, as in Gal. iv. 5, 6.; the mention of
the observance of days and months, Gal. iv. 10.. which are treated
with a difference corresponding to the difference between the two
Epistles ; that is to say, in the Romans as indifferent, in the Gala
tians as hurtful and indicative of further evil ; the exhortations
against Antinomianism in Rom. vi. and Gal. v. 13.; the sonship of
the Gospel contrasted with the servitude of the former dispensation,
Rom. viii. 16., Gal. iv. 6.; the summary of sins or works of the
flesh, Gal. v. 20., Rom. i. 29.
The Epistle to the Galatians has also a bearing on the personal his
tory and life of the Apostle, touching which it may be considered as
standing in the same relation to the Epistles to the Corinthians that
it does to the Epistle to the Romans when regarded in reference to
his teaching and doctrine. Here begins to show itself that difference
from the other Apostles and antagonism with the Judaizers which
reappears in the Epistle to the Corinthians, which did not cease
because the Apostle, during his imprisonment at Rome, was removed
from the scene of conflict. Here begins that alienation from the
teaching of St. Paul which in the Acts of the Apostles is foreboded
by himself (xx. 29.), which was ever going on, and which, according
to the latest Epistle that bears his name (2 Tim. i. 15.), was finally
VOL. I. R
242 EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS.
consummated in the cities of Asia towards the close of his life. (See
Essay on St. Paul and the Twelve.)
Other points also occur of similarity or connection in the two Epis
tles. The same character in nearly the same circumstances, using the
same words, a few months, perhaps a year, sooner or later, appears in
both. Allusions, more or less plain, occur in both Epistles to the work
in which the Apostle was engaged at this time, of making a collec
tion for the saints at Jerusalem (Compare Gal. vi. 6., 1 Cor. xvi. 1.,
2 Cor. ix. 6.) ; and both refer to the division of labour between St.
Paul and the Apostles of the circumcision (2 Cor. x. 15., Gal. ii. 9.).
There are differences also suited to the difference of those whom
he is addressing. It has been often remarked that the Epistle to
the Galatians is the only one among the Epistles of St. Paul which
does not open with language of conciliation. It is not " ye are
enriched in all utterance and come behind in no gift;" but, "I
marvel that ye are so soon fallen away from Him that called you."
In the Epistles to the Corinthians he is still on terms with his
opponents ; he seeks to conciliate, quite as much as to awe, them ;
he apologises for himself; he speaks to them as to men who had not
forfeited their claim to that language of Christian courtesy in which
he delights to address them, and who might be made better by his
good opinion of them. On the other hand, in the Galatians there
is a sort of freshness in his indignation : he commences the attack at
once without caring to defend himself; he knows no middle term,
and keeps no measures, with them. Yet his heart returns even
to them ; he is more in sorrow than in anger ; he cannot suppress
the yearnings of a father towards his spiritual children (iv. 19.).
Some other differences are also observable in the subjects treated of.
In the Galatians the Apostle confines himself to the single point
of circumcision and freedom from the Jewish law (not to be made
a cloak of licentiousness) ; in the Corinthians he scarcely alludes
to circumcision, or the Jewish law, but handles a variety of topics,
relating partly to Church order, partly to his own defence against
the charges of his opponents. The one is addressed to a civilised
COMPARISON OF OTHER EPISTLES. 243
community, intelligent of arguments, fruitful in opinions, fertile in
drawing distinctions ; the other to a half-barbarous people, whom it
was the Apostle s great object to protect from the external rite of
circumcision.
It is to the second Epistle to the Corinthians that the Epistle to
the Galatians offers the greatest resemblance. In both there is the
same sensitiveness in the Apostle to the behaviour of his converts
to himself, the same earnestness about the points of difference, the
same remembrance of his own " infirmity " while he was yet with
them, the same consciousness of the precarious basis on which his
own authority rested in the existing state of the two Churches.
Abruptness of style is characteristic of both; the excitement of
feeling seems to clog the current of ideas. Both Epistles display a
greater emotion than is to be found in any other portion of his writ
ings, a deeper contrast of inward exaltation and outward suffering,
more of personal entreaty, a greater readiness to assert himself;
all together seeming to tell us what he told the people of Derbe and
Lystra, that he " was a man of like passions with ourselves," and
working through the instrumentality of those passions, yet not the
less approved of God in his high calling. In such passages as
" Henceforth let no man trouble me, for I bear in my body the
marks of the Lord Jesus," at the end of the Galatians, or in the
similar feeling of the verse of the Corinthians, " I think that God
hath set forth us the Apostles last appointed unto death," we seem
to trace a momentary reaction in the mind of him on whom came
" the care of all the Churches."
The slight allusion to the Churches of Galatia in 1 Cor. xvi. 1. is
interesting, as an indication that the Apostle did not, at this time,
break off his connection with them. Had we a second Epistle to
the Galatians, it might possibly have shown that the first Epistle
had worked the same " revenge " in them which the first Epistle to
the Corinthians had effected in the Church at Corinth. In the last
years of the Apostle s life one of his fellow-labourers is mentioned as
having "gone into Galatia" (2 Tim. iv. 10.). Such intimations are
R 2
244 EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS.
straws at which we catch, because we have nothing else. We
cannot be too often reminded that our knowledge of the Church of
the Apostles is derived from isolated passages ; it is dotted down
on particular spots ; it is scattered at intervals over many years.
No ingenuity can piece together fragments into a continuous and
connected history of the Christian world in the first century.
245
GENUINENESS OF THE EPISTLE.
No one has doubted the genuineness of the Epistle to the Galatians ;
it is not, therefore, necessary to recapitulate at length the evidence
in its favour. That evidence consists of the testimonies of Patristic
as well as of heretical writers, from the time of Irenseus downwards,
going back, that is, to within a century of the date of its composition.
But here a doubt may be raised respecting the value of the testi
monies themselves ; for it may be truly urged, that evidence as
ancient, and as nearly contemporary, can be quoted in favour of
the Gospel of St. James, the Shepherd of Hernias, the Revelation of
Peter, and other spurious writings. Why is it, then, that a short
Epistle like that to the Galatians has been universally acknowledged,
even by critics of the most extreme school, as a genuine writing of
St. Paul ?
The reason of this universal agreement is the internal evidence
of its genuineness. Considering the number of forgeries, which we
know to have existed in the second century, and the absence either
of the spirit or of the faculty of criticism in the early church, we
cannot set a high value on the testimony of the Fathers, except to
events which were contemporary with themselves. What they really
testify respecting the books of the New Testament is to their use and
authority in their own day as the writings of the authors whose
names they bear. But if the external testimony to the books of
Scripture seems to be in this way weakened, the internal evidence
of the genuineness of many of them may be regarded as greatly
enhanced. What criticism has restored, though incapable of being
put in a definite and tangible form, abundantly compensates for
K 3
246 EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS.
what it has destroyed. If it will not allow us to take our stand
upon tradition, it supplies us with many new kinds of proof. It
enables us to affirm that a particular writing, from the richness of
its style, the mannerisms of thought and language, the minuteness
of the detail, the consistency, and, sometimes, the very singularity
of the events recorded in it, must be an original, and not a mere
imitation. It analyses the character which is proper to an indi
vidual writer, and can be in no two writers the same. And it
fortunately happens, that the age least capable of affording reliable
external testimony, is the age also least capable of feigning the
marks of a genuine writing.
The internal evidence for the Epistle to the Galatians is of two
kinds: First, that from the manner and character of St. Paul:
secondly, from the allusions to the history. No forger ever made an
imitation in which were so many secret threads of similarity, which
bore such a stamp of originality, or in which the character, the
passion, the language, the mode of thought and reasoning, were so
naturally represented. No forger, either with or without the Acts
before him, would have given such an account of the relation of St.
Paul to the other Apostles as we here find. There was no period in
the later history of the Church in which such a state of things could
naturally have been conceived. Least of all could the dispute at
Antioch, so agreeable to the character of the two Apostles, yet so
unlike the first thoughts of a later age respecting the earliest
Christian Church, have been invented in the second century. That
Origen, as well as Jerome and Chrysostom, can only account for so
remarkable a passage of history by resolving it into a collusion
between the Apostles, is a real proof of the improbability of such
a fiction.
The close verbal resemblances of the Epistle to the Galatians to
the Epistles to the Corinthians or the Romans, like those between
the Epistles to the Colossians and Ephesians, may seem to call for
notice, as being, at first sight, inconsistent with the view here
maintained. Further consideration will show that they afford an
GENUINENESS OF THE EPISTLE. 247
additional confirmation of the genuineness of the Epistle (compare
Introduction to the Epistle to the Thessalonians). It is true that
mere copying or imitation is generally a proof of the spuriousness of
one at least of two writings. But there is a kind of resemblance
also which springs from the mind or pen of the same writer, and
which is, therefore, an evidence of the genuineness of the writings
in which the resemblance is found. A person, for example, who
has not the pen of a ready writer is apt to repeat the same words,
phrases, sentiments ; it will often happen that at one time or place
he may have one set of expressions, at another time a different one.
Such appears to be the case in the Epistles of St. Paul. Similarities,
not of style but of expression, short sentences repeated and strung
in a new way, arguments abridged, favourite allusions newly
pointed these are not the marks of ancient literary imposture.
Many forgeries exist which are interpolated with genuine passages,
having all degrees of corruption or depravation. But it may be
doubted whether there are any which stand in the same relation
either to genuine or forged writings, as the Epistle to the Colossians
to that to the Ephesians, or that to the Galatians to those to the
Corinthians or Romans. The kind of likeness that exists between
them is, therefore, a proof, so far as it goes, not of spuriousness, but
genuineness.
R 4
248 EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS.
TIME AND PLACE OF THE EPISTLE.
FKOM the eighth verse of the first chapter of the Galatians, we gather
that the Apostle was already known by face to the church which he
was addressing "But though we or an angel from heaven preach
any other gospel unto you than that we have preached unto you, let
him be accursed : " from the thirteenth verse of the fourth chapter
we may gather, also, that he had visited the Galatians, not only
once, but twice " Ye know how, through infirmity of the flesh, I
preached the Gospel to you at the first" TO irporspov. This inference
receives some confirmation from verses 15 and 16. of the same
chapter, where he speaks, first, of the blessedness which they felt in
receiving him ; and then, secondly, of his having become their enemy
by speaking the truth to them ; a change which is too great to
have taken place during a single visit, or at least may be more
naturally explained by the supposition of an interval. And the
words (i. 6.), " I marvel that ye are so soon removed from him that
called you into the grace of Christ unto another Gospel," seem to
imply that a short time only intervened between the second of these
two visits and the writing of the Epistle. Though, indeed, it may be
urged, in reference to these latter words, that impassioned language
is not to be strictly reasoned about.
Further, the Epistle was written after two journeys to Jeru
salem, i. 18., ii. 1., and a subsequent meeting with Peter at Antioch,
ii. 11. Assuming the visit mentioned in Gal. ii. 1. to be the same
with that commonly called the Council in Acts xv. (see note at the
end of ch. ii.), we have a point of connection with the history. Ap
plying the Epistle to the Acts, we find that the two visits to Galatia
TIME AND PLACE OF THE EPISTLE. 249
mentioned in the Epistle coincide with Acts xvi. 6. and xviii. 23. ;
the first, a visit made at the commencement of his second missionary
journey ; the latter, during what is sometimes called his third journey,
but previously to his stay at Ephesus. Mention is also made in
Acts xviii. 22. of St. Paul having been at Antioch, which may
possibly have been (see notes) the occasion of his meeting with Peter
in that city. Further, the words of vi. 17., " Henceforth, let no
man trouble me ; for I bear in my body the marks of the Lord Jesus,"
afford a presumption that the Apostle had been suffering recently
the violence of persecution, perhaps in Ephesus (1 Cor. xv. 32.).
More important than either of these possibilities is the absence of all
allusion to the last journey to Jerusalem, in the second chapter
which fixes the date of the Epistle prior to that event. It is
observable, however, that the second and fourth journeys to Jeru
salem are also omitted ; though from this omission no other inference
can be drawn, except that these journeys were not present at the
time of writing to the Apostle s mind, either because they were un
important or had no bearing on the subject of which he is speaking.
Unless, indeed, we adhere strictly to the words of the Apostle, and
suppose these journeys to have been erroneously inserted by the
author of the Acts of the Apostles.
These are all the data for determining the time at which the
Epistle was written, except the internal evidences from the style
and character of the Epistle itself, and the state of the church which
it represents. It is unlike the Epistles of the imprisonment ; it has
close verbal resemblances, as well as other points of likeness, to the
Epistles to the Eomans and to the Corinthians (see above) ; like them
it belongs to a period of trouble and controversy between Jewish and
Gentile Christians. Thence we infer that it was written before the
imprisonment of St. Paul at Cesaraea and Rome, and probably about
the same time with the Epistles to the Corinthians and Romans, the
date of which is accurately fixed by the allusions in the Epistles
themselves. Already by a different road we have arrived at the
same conclusion. For it was shown above that the sending of the
EPISTLE TO THE GALATIASS.
Epistle must have been preceded by a second visit to Galatia, and
must have itself preceded the last journey to Jerusalem. That is to
say. it falls into tint period of the Apostle s life which was passed at
Ephesus, after bis return thither from Galatia and Phrygia, in
Macedonia and at Corinth.
The date of the Epistle to the Gabions cannot be fixed with more
precise accuracy, whether the order of the Epi=tles of St. Paul is
Galatians, 1 and 2 Corinthians, Romans, as, upon the whole, has been
the moat jifcralent opinion ; or ] Cor.. Gal.. 2
-nans, must remain uncertain. The order given
last has been supported by able and ingenious arguments derived
from the close verbal resemblances of the Epistle to the Galatians to
the Epistle* to the Romans and the Corinthians. That order is
maintained to be the true one, according to which the Epistle to the
Galatians is placed in tfae closest contact with the others. The
nataililiiiini which lead to this conclusion, like those of the (
sians, and Ephesians, and of the Pastoral Epistles, are indeed a
remarkable phenomenon in the style of St. PauL But when it is
remembered that the resemblances of the Epistle to the TVau
lonians to some of the other Epistles are so close a* to have aroused
--. : ; -..-- ;rne<3 imitation, notwifctorfbg thai thil tyiafli
is separated in fumt of time from all the later writings of St. Paul
by an interval of at least four years, it seems as if no certain
inference of proximity of date can be drawn for resemblances of this
kind, and that some other explanation of them is required. CSoe
246. and infra, conclusion <- on the chronology of St. Paul s
851
CHAPTERS I. II.
Tin: main object of the first portion of the Kpistle is to assort the
independent authority of tho Apostle against tho attacks of the
Judai/.ers. Tho words, " Paul, an Apostle, not of man, neither by
man, but by Jesus Christ," are the text of the two first chapters;
and the narrative which follows is the commentary. He begins by
denouncing the treason of the lialatians against himself. After the
burst of his indignation has subsided, the Apostle proceeds to state
facts illustrative of his Divine mission, and his relation to the
Twelve. Kir.M, his independence was marked by the manner of his
conversion; he did not receive the Tiospol through any human
instrument, but by immediate ro\ elation. His previous education,
and the well-known circumstance that he had been a persecutor of
the Church, were a bad preparation for such a call. No one could
have expected that the Pharisee or /ealot for the law would have
become the servant of Christ. Nevertheless, it pleased (iod to work
this change in him. The independence of his mission was further
marked by the fact that, after his conversion, he did not go np to
Jerusalem to throw himself into the arms of the Apostles, but away
from it. and only after long intervals went there at all, and then saw
but one or two of them, and only for a few days; so entirely were
his teaching and otttcc his own, for so little was he indebted to
them. lie had never preached to the Jewish rhurchos ; he was
unknown to them by face, and only a report had reached them,
which they received with joy and thankfulness, that the persecutor
of the (lospel had now become its preacher.
In the second chapter, with a like object, he describes the freedom
252 EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS.
of his conduct at what is termed the Council of Jerusalem. He
refused to yield (or, according to another interpretation, declares
himself to have yielded only from motives of expediency and fear of
treachery) the circumcision of Titus to the demands of the false
brethren. He was not overawed by the greatness of the other
Apostles, whom he met as their equal ; and it was owing to himself
rather than to them that a successful resistance was made to the
Judaizing Christians. Yet they parted in love and fellowship ; the
heads of the Church at Jerusalem reminding him of the wants of
their poor members, a labour of love in which he was very willing
to join. They saw that he himself was among the Gentiles what
Peter was to the circumcision, and they agreed to divide the field of
labour. Afterwards Peter followed him to Antioch, where, if he
did not violate the letter, he at any rate forgot the spirit, of their
agreement. On this occasion he openly resisted him, and boldly
reasoned with him, as "building up the things which he had pulled
down." These are the proofs that he was an Apostle, not of men,
nor by man, and had an authority at least equal to the other Apostles,
to whom the Judaizers made their appeal.
II P O 2 FA A ATA 2.
254
EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS.
[CH. I.
DPOS TAAATAS
IIATAOS dTrocrToXo? OVK an* avOptoTrw ovSe Si avOpanrov, 1
dXXa Sia I^croG ^otcrrov /cat #ou Trarpbs TOV e
1. The Epistle to the Galatians
is the only one among St. Paul s
Epistles, in which he omits all
words of compliment or friend
ship in the opening verses. In
other Epistles he begins with
commendation, and passes on to
reproof when he has gained a
hold on the affections of those
whom he is addressing. Thus,
in the case of the Corinthian
Church, though they had grave
faults, and ought rather to have
mourned for the sin of the in
cestuous person, and their many
divisions and profaneness in cele
bration of the Lord s Supper, he
introduces himself to them with
words of conciliation : " I thank
my God always on your behalf
for the grace of God which is
given you by Jesus Christ, that
in every thing ye are enriched by
him in all utterance and in all
knowledge ; " and so passes on to
his censure. But in the Epistle
to the Galatians he adopts a dif
ferent course, either because it
was more natural to his own
feelings, or the actual state of the
Church was worse or more likely
to be roused by the severity of
his tone.
Most of the salutations of the
Epistles go beyond the language
of Christian greeting. In their
simplest form, they remind us of
the words of Christ, "Peace I
leave with you, my peace I give
unto you." But the Apostle,
whose mind is full of the mystery
of the Gospel, adds clause to
clause, and parenthesis to paren
thesis, until, as in the Epistles to
the Romans and the Galatians,
the salutation is the proem of the
whole Epistle. The truths of the
Gospel are never out of place to
him, and he supposes them to be
always present to those whom he
is addressing.
TlavXoQ ciTrorrroXoe OVK UTT ar-
6pu)7T(i)r> ovfie Si avOponrov, Paul,
an apostle, not of men, nor by
man, but by Jesus Christ.~\ As
in the Romans, the Apostle be
gins with the emphatic assertion
of his authority. The words
" not of man neither by man "
are the text of the whole Epistle.
The first, atro (of), has been sup
posed to mark the source ; the
second, 3ia (by), the means :
" Who have an immediate call
from God, and am not ordained
by laying on of hands of any,"
like the subordinate ministers of
the Apostles at Jerusalem. No
such nice distinctions are really
in the Apostle s mind ; he only
means to say " Paul, in no sense
a human Apostle."
Antithesis of prepositions is a
favourite use of language in the
writings of St. Paul. In the New
Testament, and sometimes in
VEE. 1.]
EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS.
255
GALATIANS.
1 PAUL, an apostle, (not of men, neither by man, but by
Jesus Christ, and God the Father, who raised him from
Aristotle, the mind of the writer
supplies itself with logical or
grammatical distinctions, which,
although they are capable of
being translated and explained,
and have English words corre
sponding to them, we may also
deduct or generalise without in
jury to the sense. (Compare Aris.
N.E. iii. 5. 14., vi. 13. 5. ; Rom.
iii. 30.; 1 Cor. xii. 8.; 2 Cor. iii.
11.) Distinctions of this kind
often arise out of an imperfect
mastery over language ; in some
instances they may be due also
to over cultivation of language.
Often they are modes of emphasis,
and may be compared in St. Paul
to the pleonastic accumulations
of words with which his style
abounds. Nice doctrinal or meta
physical considerations have no
thing to do with them ; they are
due to intensity of feeling rather
than to the subtlety of logic.
HavXoQ, Paul.~] " Saul, who is
also called Paul ; " Acts, xiii. 9.
No certain conclusion can be
arrived at respecting the origin
of the second name, which may,
perhaps, need no other explana
tion than that St. Paul was a
Roman citizen as well as a " He
brew of the Hebrews." It is a
groundless fancy that it was as
sumed by the Apostle after his
conversion ; equally so that its
adoption had any connection with
the reception of the Gospel by
Sergius Paulus, which in the nar
rative of the Acts immediately
precedes the passage just quoted,
in which the name is first used.
The Apostle is called Saul in the
earlier portion of the Acts, while
among Jews : the name Paul is
first given him at the commence
ment of his more extended mission
to the heathen. That he bore a
Gentile name, which he uses in
all his Epistles, could not have
been without significance to him
self.
ctTTOfrroXoe, an apostle.~\ What
was the nature of the Apostolical
office, and in what sense was St.
Paul an Apostle ? In endeavour
ing to answer this question, which
has been already touched upon,
on 1 Thessalonians, we must dis
tinguish the application of the
term to St. Paul from its applica
tion to the Twelve, as well as
from that wider sense in which
it was occasionally used of other
preachers of the Gospel, 2 Cor.
viii. 23.; Phil. ii. 25. The Twelve
were the appointed witnesses of
Christ, " who had been with him
during all the time that he went
in and out among his disciples."
(Acts, i. 21, 22.) Some of them
appear also to have been the
" pillars " of the Church at Jeru
salem, Gal. ii. 9., and to have
preached in distant countries, in
256
EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS.
[CH. I.
avrov IK vtK.pu>v, Kal ol CTVV eynoi TTOLVTZS dSeXc^ot, rais 2
rrjs PaXarias. X^P^ VfiMf KOL elpyvv] cbro deov 3
accordance with His word. They
are recognised by St. Paul as a
separate body, in 1 Cor. xv. 5. ; and
are mentioned as the " Twelve "
in Rev. xxi. 14. Their number
may possibly have had a relation
to the number of the tribes ;
Luke, xxii. 30. More than this
we cannot say. Whatever tra
dition may have added to their
history, or modern association
appended to their name, must not
withdraw us from the main idea
of the Apostolical office, which was
that of an immediate and personal
relation to Christ in the first
teachers of the Gospel.
That in this stricter sense the
term is not applicable to St. Paul,
is obvious. It might be said of
him in his own words, that he
was an Apostle, "not in the letter
but in the spirit." To the Ju-
daizers any addition to the Twelve
would have been a violation of
the sacred number appointed by
Christ himself. The Apostle
urges other claims to the title,
1 Cor. ix. 1, 2. : " Am I not an
apostle ? am I not free ? have I
not seen Jesus Christ our Lord ?
are not ye my work in the Lord ?
If I be not an apostle unto others,
yet doubtless I am to you : for
the seal of mine apostleship are
ye in the Lord." All the lan
guage that St. Paul uses on this
subject shows, first, that he did
place himself on a level with the
Twelve; secondly, that his call
to the Apostleship did not, in
his own mind, rest on some one
definite act, such as is spoken of
in Acts, xiii. 2, 3., but partly on
the revelation to him, at his con
version ; partly on the fact of his
having, like the other Apostles,
seen the Lord ; partly on the suc
cess of his labours, as well as on
his own inward intense convic
tion that this was the work which
he was appointed to do. It is
remarkable that the necessity
which he felt, for the sake of
truth, to establish his authority
on an independent basis, does
not prevent the acknowledgment
in this passage, ver. 13. ; or the
still more striking one in 1 Cor.
xv. 9. : "For I am the least of
the apostles, that am not meet to
be called an apostle, because I
persecuted the church of God."
ovdt Si* ai/flpwTTov, nor by man."]
The change from the plural to the
singular seems to arise from the
juxtaposition of m I>/<roiJ xpiarov,
" not of men, nor by man, but by
Jesus Christ." The word avQpio-
TTOC is abstract, not concrete ; it is
not necessary to translate " by a
man." Compare 1 Cor. xv. 21.
The preposition Sia (by) is not
applicable in the same sense to
all the three words arflpwTrov,
Xpiarov, Seov, which is another
reason for not pressing the an
tithesis of CLTTO and 3m. Sm is
applied to God, either by attrac
tion from xpiorou, or in con
nection with the particular act
of raising up Christ, or as He
is the beginning and end of all
things, including in Himself the
means. (Compare Romans, xi.
36., and iv. 7., Lachm.) Chry-
sostom supposes that, having ap
plied the word Sia to Christ, the
Apostle applies it also to the
Father, lest it should occur to
any to degrade the Son to the
rank of a subordinate minister.
VER. 2, 3.]
EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS.
257
2 the dead;) and all the brethren which are with me, unto
a the churches of Galatia ; grace be to you and peace from
This is the mind, not of the Apo
stolic, but of the Nicene age.
Seov Trarpoc, God the Father."^
Of whom is God said to be the
father ? of Christ or of mankind ?
It may be answered that in the
Old Testament God is the Father
of the Jewish people ; in the New
Testament, of Christ, and through
Him of mankind. Yet the word
itself does not necessarily involve
these associations. It may ex
press the feeling " by which we
say, Abba Father," without awa
kening the thought of " sons or
children." From being relative,
it becomes absolute. Only in some
passages, as here, its original idea
is recalled by the mention of the
Lord Jesus Christ.
TOV eyepavroQ O.VTQV EK
who raised him from the dead.~\
As we might say, " God who
gave his only begotten Son." St.
Paul extends the same form of
language to the separate acts of
our Lord s life: "God who
raised up Christ," and the like ;
the whole work of Christ, in all
its parts, becoming an attribute of
God.
The conception of the resurrec
tion of Christ is almost confined,
in modern times, to the fact, that
" after three days he rose again."
In St. Paul it has a much wider
import ; it is a new life of Chris
tians as well as Christ, a resur
rection of the believer at the same
time with his Lord. Altogether,
there are four ways in which the
resurrection of Christ is spoken
of in the Epistles of St. Paul, the
ethical or spiritual meaning often
blending with the literal fact.
First, the resurrection is spoken
of as an outward fact, of which
there were many witnesses (1 Cor.
xv. 1 6.) ; itself a proof of the
truth of the Christian faith (ver.
14, 15.) ; the evidence, or as the
expression is turned in the Epistle
to the Romans (i. 4.) the cause
of the Divine Sonship of Christ.
Secondly, as an idea or doctrine,
forming a part, also, or aspect,
of the inner life of the Gospel.
According to this way of speak
ing, it is the source of justifica
tion, which is said to be related
to the resurrection of Christ in
the same manner as sin is said to
be related to his death (Rom. iv.
24, 25. ; x. 9.). Thirdly, as the
figure or condition, almost the
cause, of the resurrection of be
lievers, which is identified with
the resurrection of Christ as the
Christian is with Christ himself
(Col. i. 15. 18.). The power
which raised up Christ is able to
raise all men ; nor can the head
be separated from the body, nor
the " First-born from the dead "
from those who are his. Fourthly,
as the figure, or condition, or
principle of spiritual resurrec
tion: not only "he died, and
the third day he rose again," but
" Christ in you, the hope of glory "
(Col. i. 27.); and "if we have
been united in the likeness of his
death, we shall also be in the like
ness of his resurrection" (Rom.
vi. 5.), an image which, in the
passage just quoted, and in Col.
ii. 12., is connected with the death
of baptism.
These four senses, or points of
view, in which the resurrection
of Christ is spoken of, easily pass
into one another. Compare Rom.
VOL. I.
S
258
EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS.
[CH. I.
Kal KvpCov J]\LMV I^crov X/HCTTOV, rov Sd^ro? ZOLVTOV 4
irepl 1 TWV aiAapTia>v rjfJLWv, OTHWS e^eX^rat 17/^0,9 e/c rov 2 cua>i>os
r. aca.
vi. 4., "That like .as Christ was
raised up from the dead by the
glory of the Father, even so we
also should walk in newness of
life ;" where, in the first clause,
the resurrection is literal ; in the
second, spiritual.
2. ot avv ep.o\
all the brethren which are with
me."] It is doubted whether St.
Paul is here speaking: (1.) only
of two or three of his companions,
who accompanied him in his jour
ney ; or, (2.) of his fellow -labour
ers in general; or, (3.) of the whole
Church. The first seems too
small a number for the word
TtavrtQ (all) ; while the second
does not appear justified by the
passages which are cited in sup
port of it, viz. 1 Cor. i. 1. ; 2 Cor.
i. 1. ; Phil. iv. 23. A more
general interpretation is prefer
able. The words themselves are
vague and undefined. It is as if
in a private letter we were to say,
"All here unite with me," &c.;
that is to say, not the servants of
the household, nor friends in the
neighbourhood, but all whom, ac
cording to the usual forms of
speech, it would occur to our cor
respondent to include in these
words.
rate KK\r)o-iaiQ TTIQ FaXar/ac, the
Churches in Galatia,~\ mentioned
in the Acts, xvi. 6., xviii. 23., on
the occasion of St. Paul s two
visits to them ; and in 1 Cor. xvi.
1., as making a collection for the
Church at Jerusalem, and in
1 Peter, i. 1., as having among
them "strangers of the disper
sion."
3. \cipiQ vp7iv.~^ See 1 Thess.
i. 1.
4. TOV %6vTQQ eavrov Trepl r&v
apaprtuty ///zwy, who gave himself
for our sins.^ irepi, not virtp, is
the true reading. It may be
compared, in this passage, with
Tttpl apapriag, in Romans, viii. 3.,
the same expression being also
used by the LXX. for a sin offer
ing, Lev. vi. 30. ; Ps. xxxix. 6.
The language of sacrifice in
the New Testament is borrowed
from the Old ; it grows naturally
out of the use of sacrifice in the
elder world. It may be briefly
remarked: (1.) that such lan
guage had already become figura
tive (almost privative) in the Old
Testament itself, as when the
Psalmist said, li. 17., " The sacri
fices of God are a contrite spirit ;"
(2.) that the figures which de
scribe the work of Christ are
varied, thereby showing that they
are figures only, and cannot be
insisted upon as matters of fact ;
(3.) that the same language of
sacrifice and death is applied
almost equally to the believer
and to his Lord ; (4.) that the
effect and meaning of this lan
guage must have been different
while the sacrifices were being
daily offered, and now that they
have passed away ; (5.) that ex
pressions such as that of the text
are not so common in the writings
of St. Paul as another class of
figures, in which the believer is
identified with the various stages
of the life of Christ; (6.) that
the thing meant by them is,
chiefly, that he was the Saviour
VER. 4.]
EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS.
259
4 God the Father, and from our Lord Jesus Christ, who
gave himself for our sins, that he might deliver us from
of mankind, the victim of sinful
men, taking their sins upon him
self in the same sense that he
took their diseases upon himself
(Matt. viii. 17.), and also truly
imparting freedom and forgive
ness. Lastly, the death of Christ
is not to be isolated from his
life, nor the language of the
Epistles from the language of
the Gospel. (See Essay on the
Atonement.)
07rd)Q e^eXrjTai tj^dg IK TOV alutroz
TOV ei tarwroQ Trovrjpov, tJiat lie may
take us out of this evil world
present.^ These words contain
an allusion to the Jewish distinc
tion of cilwv trfortOc, or cu&y OVTOQ,
and the atwv /^e XXwv, the times
before and after the inauguration
of Messiah s kingdom. But their
meaning may be said to vary
as the thing signified by them
assumes to the believer a more
inward or outward nature, is
more past or present. The alwv
evevTwQ is the world around him,
from which the Christian with
draws into communion with God,
from which he shall be delivered
finally in the world of glory. It
is called evil, in the same spirit
in which the Apostle says in the
Epistle to the Romans, that "the
whole creation groaneth and tra-
vaileth together until now ;" also
as it is the scene of the believer s
trials and persecutions, in which
he is waiting, too, for the re
demption of the body.
To this present world of evil
is opposed the future world, of
which Christ is the Lord. The
one is the creation made subject
to bondage, "full of principali
ties and powers, and spiritual
wickedness in heavenly places ;"
the other is the glorious liberty
of the children of God. A trace
of the same thought occurs in the
word tveffTwffa in 1 Cor. vii. 6. :
tha Ttjv i)>ffru>(ra.v drayojj , "oil
account of this present neces
sity." The mind of the Apostle
is overpowered by the contrast
of faith and sight ; the bondage
and constraint of the world,
which might well make a man
go out of the world, and the hope
of salvation, " which is nearer
than when we believed." There
is a tone of suffering and sadness
expressed in this verse : it is the
feeling of the close of the Epistle :
" 1 bear in my body the marks
of the Lord Jesus."
The word alwv passes through
the same change of meaning in
the new Testament as the Latin
word " saeculum." First it is used
for continuance of time, " Thou
shalt not wash my feet elg TOV
atwra," for ever ; or with more
emphasis, as in John, vi. 51. ;
/7<rrcu tig TOV atwj/a, "shall live
for ever ;" or still more strongly
in the plural, of the eternal ex
istence of God, or the everlasting
happiness of the blessed, as in
the Book^of Revelation. In the
writers of the New Testament,
as in the Jewish writers, 6 a\i*>v
OVTOQ, Romans, xii. 2., eVeoTwc, as
in this place, 6 vvv, as in 1 Tim.
vi. 17., are opposed to 6 aliov
ineivoc, Luke, xx. 34., 6 /ueXXwr,
Matt. xii. 32., px<$jued$, Luke,
xviii. 20., as present and future,
as evil and good.
The idea of 6 alwv OVTOQ is
further illustrated by Eph. ii. 2.:
"And you (hath he quickened),
s 2
260
EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS.
[Cii. I.
on
TOV e^ecrrojTos TTovrjpov /caret TO 6e\rjp.a TOV Otov /cat
, a* rj Sd^a ets rovs ata>z/as ra)^ aitoVMV, afJLTJv. 5
ra^elws ju,eTaTt#ecr# cbro TOV /ca- 6
picrTov ets erepov euayyeXto*>,
o ou/c ecmv aXXo, et ///^ Tti e s etcr(j> ot rapacrcro^T9 v/^tas 7
/cat 0e Xoz Teg /xeracrTyoei//at TO evayye Xtoi> TOT) ^picrTOv. ctXXa 8
/cat eaz> ^/xets ^ ayyeXog ef ovpavov evayyeXt^Tai v
being dead in trespasses and sins,
wherein in time past ye walked
according to the course of this
world, according to the prince of
the power of the air, the spirit
that now worketh in the children
of disobedience," which not only
gives the associations implied in 6
aitov TOV k onrfjiov TOVTOV. but assists
in explaining the change of
meaning by which aluv comes
to signify the world without the
idea of time ; as in Heb. xi. 3.,
" The worlds are framed by the
word of God ; " or in 1 Corinth, i.
20. " The disputer of this world."
Comp. also our uses of " the
world," for the heavens and earth
and all things in them ; for this
present state, as opposed to the life
to come ; also, in a bad sense, for
the world, whether within or
without man, as opposed to the
kingdom of God ; and in a neu
tral one, irrespective of good or
evil, to signify the mass of man
kind, or the public opinion of
mankind.
5. rj oa,] to whom be the
glory that belongs to Him.
6. ovrcjQ ra^f wc, so soon,~^ i. e.
after their conversion (cf. euro
TOV KoXeffavTos). Quickly and
slowly are relative terms, and
cannot therefore be pressed in
the argument respecting the date
of the epistle. It may, however,
be fairly argued from these words
that the epistle could not have
been written many years after
the visits of the Apostle which
are recorded in the Acts.
fj.ETaTideffds, ] either middle,
" that ye are so soon changing,"
or passive, " transferred."
otTTO TOV KoXecravTOQ v/uac, from
Him that called you.~] 6 caXeVac
does not refer to St. Paul, the
human instrument, but to God
Himself. Compare ver. 15., Rom.
viii. 30. The allegiance from
which they had departed was not
to the Apostle but to God.
kv ^apiTi xptffTov, in the grace
of Christ. ] Interpreters doubt
whether iv is here instrumental,
or put for ete, or a confusion of
EV and IIQ. It is better to re
gard the whole expression as an
amplification or variation of tv
Xpiorw. Comp. ] Cor. vii. 15. :
kv ce eipi ivr) KK\r)Kv rjpdg 6 $eog.
elg Erepov evayyt Atoj , to another
Gospel.~\ Some of the charac
teristics of this other Gospel may
be inferred from the Epistle.
First, it was a Gospel which
was supposed to rest on the
authority of the other Apostles
rather than of St. Paul, as we
gather from the tone of the first
two chapters ; secondly, it was a
Gospel of the Circumcision, which
required all the converts to con
form to the law of Moses, and
observe the times appointed by it,
as we learn from chap. iv. 10.
Yet it was not wholly different
VER. 58.] EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS.
261
this present evil world, according to the will of God and
5 our Father : to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen.
6 I marvel that ye are so soon * transferred from Him.
that called you in * the grace of Christ unto another
7 gospel : which is not another ; but there be some that
trouble you, and would pervert the gospel of Christ.
s But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any
from the Gospel of St. Paul ; the
name of Christ was doubtless re
tained in it, or it would not have
been a Gospel at all (ver. 7.). I*
would be too much to infer, from
chap. v. 15. 26., that it was a
Gospel of licentiousness, as it is
uncertain whether the Apostle
is there addressing his own fol
lowers or his opponents, or both
indifferently.
7. o OVK iffTLv aXXo, which is not
another J\ Either, (1.) which
turning aside is nothing else but
certain troublers seeking to per
vert the Gospel of Christ; or, (2.)
which Gospel is not another
Gospel (for there cannot be
two Gospels), but only certain
troublers who pervert it; ciXXo
being unemphatic in the first
way of taking the words, em
phatic in the second.
The last is the more probable
explanation. It seems to have
arisen, however, from a confusion
of the former. What the Apostle
meant to say was, " which change
of mind," or rather " which Gos
pel, is nothing else than the work
of certain troublers," and a mere
perversion of the true Gospel. But
the similarity of meaning in aXXo
and erepov caught his mind in the
act of framing the sentence, and
led him to give a new sense
to aXXo, which occasioned the
further alteration of ?/ into el p/.
He may be said to make a denial
or correction of his former state
ment in the words o ovKeanv aXXo,
and to qualify again in the clause
beginning with el prj. An addi
tional confusion has arisen from,
the uncertainty whether o is to be
referred to ereoov evayyeXiov, or
to evayyeXiov only.
Compare for a similar variation,
without difference of meaning, in
aXXo and eTepor, 2 Cor. xi. 4. :
el per yap 6 ep^o^eroQ aXXov Ir/-
rrovv Krjpvvffei ov OUK eKrjpv^apej^
rj Trvevyua eTepov Xaju^avcre o OVK
eXa^ere. T) evayyeXiov erepov o OVK
edetaade, fcaXwg ave^ecrde ; also,
as showing the same kind of ac
knowledgment that there was a
Gospel contained even in the
preaching of his opponents,
Philip, i. 15. : " Some indeed
preach Christ even of envy and
strife ; and some also of good
will: the one preach Christ of
contention, not sincerely, sup
posing to add affliction to my
bonds ; what then, notwithstand
ing, whether in pretence or in
truth, Christ is preached ; " for
the play of words, Gal. iii. 20. :
6 <$ fJieffiTfiQ eroQ OVK corn , 6 <)e
$e.uc elg ear iv ; for the correction :
el ye /cot tup, iii. 4. ; and for
el /LII/, 1 Cor. vii. 17.
8. a\Xa Koi f.av fyucTr, but.
though we^\ that is, St. Paul. The
meaning may be paraphrased
thus : "But even though I my
self, (not to speak of your false
s 3
262
EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS.
[Cn. I.
Trap o evrjyyeXio-dfJLeOa vplv, dvdOepa terra). o>9 vpoeiprj- 9
KafJLtv Kal dpTL Trd\w Xeyo>, ei rts v^a<; evayyeXi^erai Trap 9
o TrapeXctySere, avdOt^a terra), dpri yap av9pa>Trovs Treida), 10
T) rov 9e6v ; r] E,rjTa> dvOpojiroiS dpto-Ktw ; et 1 ert dvdpa)-
ripto-Kov, -^PLCTTOV SouXos OVK av TJjjirjv.
a) ot vfjilv, dSeXc^oi, TO evayyeXiov TO vayye\io~0tv u
VTT e/xov, OTI OVK to~TLV KaTa dvOptoTTOV ov$t yap lya) 12
1 Add ydp.
teachers,) or an angel from
heaven, preach another Gospel,
let him be accursed." Comp.
1 Cor. xiii. 1.: "Though I
speak with the tongues of men
and of angels;" also, 2 Thess. ii.
2. : " That ye be not soon
troubled in mind, neither by
Spirit, nor by word, nor by letter,
as by us." Schoettgen gives the
following parallel from a Rab
binical comment on Deut. xxx.
12., the law is not in heaven:
" Quid sibi volunt hsec verba ?
Respondet R. Jeremias : Quum
jam lex nobis de monte Sinai data
sit non expectamus bath kol."
irap o other than, besides, ex
plained by o OVK cffriv ci/\A.o, ei pt i
TiviQ, K. T. X.
aradepa t orw, let him be ac-
cursed.~\ Compare 1 Cor. xvi.
22.: "If any man love not the
Lord Jesus Christ, let him be
anathema:" and Gal. v. 10:
" He that troubleth you shall
bear his judgement."
9. we TrpOEtp/Mx/zei .]] " I have
said it before, and I say it again,
let him be accursed." St. Paul
may be referring either to the
anathema in the preceding verso,
as in 1 Cor. v. 9. he refers to his
own words immediately preced
ing: "I wrote unto you in the
Epistle ; " or he may allude to
his own visit to them, probably
the second of the two occasions
mentioned in Gal. iv. 15, 16.
This latter mode of taking the ex
pression gives increased force to
cipTL -rraXiv. " As I have told you
when present, T say again now."
Compare for the general mean
ing the Apostle s address to the
Elders of Ephesus, Acts, xx. 27.
29. ; and for 7rpoijO//K ajU6^, 2 Cor.
vii. 3., where the word appears to
refer to the previous chapter; also,
Gal. v. 3., vi. 11.; Eph. iii. 3.
10. apTi yap avOpwTrovg Tmflw,
il TOV Seov, for do I now persuade
men, or God?~] Comp. Matt,
xxviii. 14., Acts, xiv. 19., for
the use of 7rf/0w, which applies
properly to men, but improperly
to God ; or, in other words, re
quires a change of meaning be
fore it can be used in the latter
connection. It is here nearly equi
valent to ??roi dptfTK ei^, which
follows, and may be translated so
as to preserve the double mean
ing : " For do I now seek to ap
prove myself to man or to God?"
The strong language which
the Apostle had just used might
seem to need a justification. But
the very use of it was an answer
to a charge which the Judaizers
brought against him, that of
want of sincerity.
A parallel instance of conduct
among ourselves may serve as an
VER. 912.] EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS.
263
other gospel unto you than that which we have preached
9 unto you, let him be accursed. As we said before, so
say I now again, If any man preach any other gospel
unto you than ye have received, let him be accursed.
10 For do I now persuade men, or God ? or do I seek to
please men ? x if I yet pleased men, I should not be the
servant of Christ.
11 But I certify you, brethren, that the gospel which was
12 preached of me is not after man. For I neither received
Add for.
illustration. A person is accused
of flattery, smoothness, insin
cerity; something has led him to
form an unfavourable judgement
of others. Presently he thun
ders out the truth about them,
adding the comment, " why, I
would not be charged with want
of sincerity this time." Accord
ing to this mode of taking the
passage, ap-i refers to the pre
vious verse, perhaps arising out
of the sound of the previous aprt,
but not connected with it in
sense, "for now," i.e. in uttering
these words ; yap indicating a
suppressed feeling in the Apostle s
mind: "you say I am a pleaser of
men." Comp. 1 Cor. iv. 1 7.,
2 Cor. v. 11. It is not impro
bable that these words are sug
gested by actual charges which
the opponents of the Apostle
brought against him, such as he
himself partly admits, " that he
was to the Jews a Jew, to those
without law, as one without law; "
that while announcing the free
dom of the Gospel, he was also
preaching circumcision (v. 11.).
el in cb 0(ju>7roie i jperrKoi , if I yet
pleased men.~] The Apostle does
not mean that before his conver
sion, or at any other time in his
life, "he had been a pleaser of
men." The expression, which is
not free from difficulty, is most
probably to be taken in a general
sense ; " If at this time, after all
that has happened to me, I am,
or were still, a pleaser of men, I
could not be the servant of God."
Comp. Matt. vi. 24.: "No man
can serve two masters ;" and for
the use of ert, v. 11.
The Apostle now resumes the
thread with which he commenced.
He was an Apostle, not of man,
nor by man ; and now he goes
on to add, the Gospel which he
preached was not derived from
the Apostles at Jerusalem, but
from the revelation of Christ
himself.
11. IY<i>p(<i) IE v/j. n , ] "Now I
give you to know, I draw your
attention to the fact," is a fa
vourite formula of the Apostle,
occurring 1 Cor. xii. 3. xv., i.,
2 Cor. viii. 1., similar in mean
ing to the words with which he
commences 1 Cor. xii. 1.: ov
v\a vpfiQ ayvozlv.
Kara ai dpwTrov, human.^ A pe
riphrasis for avOpuTTirov. With
this is joined Trnpd ui Opwirov in
the following verse.
12. For I did not receive it,
and was not instructed in it by
man, but Christ revealed it to me.
s 4
264
EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS.
[CH. I.
Trapa av0pa>7rov 7rap\a/3ov avrb ouSe l8iSd^97]V 3 dXXa SC
a7roKaXvi//ea>s I^croO ^otcrrov* rjKOvcraTe yap rr)v Ipty is
avacTTpoffyTJv TTOTC iv TCO IovSai cr/xa>, art jca^ 5 v7Tep/3o\rjv
$ia)Kov rrjv KK\r)criav rov 6eov Kal zTropOovv avrrjv, Kal 14
irpoeKOTTTOV iv T< lovSai cr/xw virep TroXXovs
e^ TO) yeVec /iov, TrepicrcroTepajs f^Xc^T?)*?
[Jiov TTapaSdcrew^. ore Se evSd/oycrez [6 #609] 6 is
It could not, therefore, be human.
Comp. Eph. iii. 3.: "How that
by revelation he made known unto
me the mystery ; as I wrote before
in few words."
Whether the occasion here al
luded to is Acts, ix. 6., or Acts,
xxii. 17., the first conversion of
the Apostle, or the after trance
in the temple mentioned by him
in his speech to the Jews, or the
occasion alluded to in the 2 Co
rinthians, xii. 4., when he was
caught up into Paradise and
heard unspeakable things, or
some other occasion, is uncer
tain. He implies in the last-
mentioned quotation that he had
many revelations. Comp. Gal.
ii. 2. In 1 Cor. ix. 1., he speaks
generally of " having seen the
Lord."
The full explanation of the word
a-rroKaXv^ig, revelation, is beyond
the limits of a note. It is applied,
first, to the manifestation of the
Gospel, as hidden in the bosom
of eternity, Rom. xvi. 25. Kara
aTTOKaXv^lV [jLVffTTjptOV "^OVOiQ did)-
viotg (Tfo-tyr^ueVou; also to the day
of judgement, Rom. ii. 5.: fjpepa.
opyi/C KCU aTTOK aXu^ewc SIKCIIO-
KpiaiaQ rov Oeov , also to the ex
pected coming of Christ in sucli
expressions as "revelation of
the Lord," 1 Cor. i. 7. ; " revela
tion of the sons of God," Rom.
viii. 19.; also to the Book so
termed; also to the gifts of in
dividuals, one of which is termed
the gift of revelation. In this
sense it is placed side by side
with visions in 2 Cor. xii. 1.:
" I will come to visions and re
velations of the Lord." A spirit
of wisdom and revelation is
spoken of in Ephes. i. 17. In
2 Cor. xii. 7. St. Paul alludes to
the abundance of his revelations;
and lastly, in Gal. ii. 2., he re
ceives a particular intimation that
he should go up to Jesusalem by
revelation.
Revelation is distinguished
from ordinary moral and spiri
tual influences by its suddenness.
It is an anticipation of moral
truth and of the course of ex
perience. No reason can be
given why amid Canaanitish and
Egyptian idolatries, a belief in the
unity of God should have sunk
into the hearts of men. No reason
can be given why truth and jus
tice should have been Divine
attributes ages before philosophy
became conscious of a moral
principle. No reason can be
given why our Saviour, himself
living amid the rites of the Tem
ple worship, should yet have
taught a religion purely spiritual,
which was a contradiction of the
maxims of the Scribes and Pha
risees, and an inversion of the
common religious notions of man
kind to the end of time.
It is this anticipation of truth,
VEB. 1315.] EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS.
265
it of man, neither was I taught it, but by the revelation
13 of Jesus Christ. For ye have heard of my conversation
in time past in the Jews 7 religion, how that beyond
measure I persecuted the church of God, and wasted it:
14 and profited in the Jews religion above many my
equals in mine own nation, being more exceedingly
15 zealous of the traditions of my fathers. But when it
this communication of truth to
particular persons, or at par
ticular times out of the course of
nature, in ways unlike the me
thods of human knowledge, that
is termed in the language of
theology "revelation." It is in
this sense that we speak of Chris
tianity as a revelation ; of a
Mosaic revelation ; of revelation
as opposed to reason or natural
religion. The use of the word
in the New Testament is more
varied and less conventional. It
might be explained in the lan
guage of the Book of Revelation
as a " being in the spirit at the
day of the Lord ; " it may be con
trasted with prophecy as uni
versal, and not national only ; it
is relative to the " times of that
ignorance which God winked at."
He who was the subject of it
might, like St. Paul, " be caught
up into the third heaven ; " he
might hear a voice whispering to
him, " My grace is sufficient for
thee ; " he might receive " lively
oracles " respecting his own con
duct or the government of the
Church ; he might have intima
tions respecting his " going in
and coming out." We must not
suppose that such intimations
were mere illusions, because they
no longer occur within the range
of our own experience. Some
faint approximation to them may
be found still in the intuitions of
the mind respecting matters of
conduct, or in the suddenness of
thought itself.
13. ovSe ydjo.] " For you, who
know my former life, may well
believe that it was by nothing
short of a miracle I was converted.
I will tell you the whole tale, and
you will see how unlikely I was to
have received the Gospel from
the word of others."
kv TO) lovdaiffpa), ] not Jewish
theology, but more generally the
Jewish religion " Judaism ; "
compare "Iov(!>aieii> in Gal. ii. 14.
rov Seov seems to be added here,
as in 1 Cor. xv. 9., to exaggerate
his offence. Comp. infra 23. and
Acts, ix. 21.: o Tropdi/aag ev Iepov-
ffaXfjfj. TOVQ (.TriKaXovpevovc. The
imperfect denotes continuance,
and so emphasis.
Ver. 14. has the same object as
the preceding : "And I was, too,
a learned Pharisee, distinguished
above my equals, and more than
ordinarily zealous for the tra
ditions of the Fathers," iv
yivet /uov, of my nation.
T&r TrarpiKtov fjov Trapa^oo-ewj .J
Not the traditions of the Phari
sees as opposed to the law, but
generally all that it was proper
for a Jew to believe.
15. ore fie evSoKrjrrei , but when
it pleased God.~\ Was the sub
stance of this revelation to St.
Paul the image of Christ cruci
fied, or the particular events of
2G6
EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS.
[Cii. I.
a(f)opicra<s JJLZ e/c KoiXuxs ju-^rpds JJLOV KCU KaXecras
aurou aTTOKaXvifjai rov viov CLVTOV iv JJLOL, Iva 16
avrbv iv TOIS cOvecnv, cv0Q)$ ov Trpocrav-
crapKi KOI atficm, or5Se aTrrjWov 1 ets lepocroXvjJLa 17
TOUS TT^O e/^o9 (XTTOCTToXovs, dXXa a7T7J\0ov ets Apa-
filav, Kal TraXiv VTTCcrrpeifja ets Aa^acrKov. eireira /xera is
rpta avrj\0ov ei
His life, or the words which He
used in discoursing with His dis
ciples ? Our only grounds for
answering this question must be
derived from the Epistles of St.
Puul, which make no reference
to any events narrated in the
Gospel, with the exception of His
death and resurrection, and the
commemoration of Him in the
Lord s Supper (1 Cor. xi. 23.),
until His coming again, and which
in two instances at most, 1 Cor.
vii. 10.; 1 Thess. iv. 15., if at
all, appeal to words used by Him.
Comp. also Acts, xx. 35., and
1 Cor. xv. 17.
The truth which was revealed
to St. Paul on the way to Da
mascus, must have been the truth
which he preached : Christ, the
Messiah of the Jews, the Son of
God, in whom all are one, who
died and rose again for the sins
of men, who shall come in the
day of the Lord. There is no rea
son to think that historical facts
were supernaturally imparted to
him ; for these he appeals to the
witness of the "Apostles who were
before him." The revelation of
which he is here speaking is of
another kind, moral and spiritual,
rather than historical, a revela
tion of Christ in him, as the ex
pression in this passage implies,
not external information brought
2 , /cat
2 Uerpov.
to him. It was the first of many
revelations about himself, 2 Cor.
xii. 1 9.; Acts, xxiii. 11., and
about his mission to the Gentiles,
Acts, xvi. 6. 9., xxii. 17., of
which he was the subject during
his whole life. Knowledge came
to him out of the course of
nature, " not of man, nor by
man : " the word of Christ was
the lightning which " melted him,
and the mould in which he was
cast."
atyopiffac; ] has a double mean
ing : first, a literal and physical
one; secondly, that of which this
is the figure, a spiritual one :
" Who took me out of my mother s
womb, and separated me ; or
whose separation of me at my
birth was the image of my sepa
ration unto himself." EK refers
to time. For the general meaning
compare Jer. i. 5. : " Before I
formed thee in the belly I knew
thee ; and before thou earnest
forth out of the womb I sanctified
thee, and I ordained thee a prophet
unto the nations ; " and Is. xliv.
2. ; also note on Rom. i. 1.
10. cnroKaXv^ai TOV mov.~\ Comp.
the expression used respecting
the Galatians : " Before whose
eyes Jesus Christ was openly set
forth (-rrpoeypatyi]) crucified."
i tjuo/,] in my inmost soul,
not simply for e/zoi. Comp.
VER. 1618.] EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS.
267
pleased God, who from my mother s womb separated me,
IG and called rne by his grace, to reveal his Son in me, that
I might preach him among the heathen ; immediately
17 I conferred not with flesh and blood : neither went 1 1 to
Jerusalem to them which were apostles before me ; but
I went into Arabia, and returned again unto Damascus,
is Then after three years I went up to Jerusalem to see
1 Add up.
\arpevit) ev TU> irvevpaTi pov, Rom.
i. 9. It was a revelation that
dwelt in, and became one with,
the Apostle s thoughts.
iva vayye\<u>,ucu.] Compare
the narrative of the vision in the
temple in Acts, xxii. 17 22. :
" Depart, for I will send thee far
hence unto the Gentiles."
evfa wc.] I straightway went
away, taking no counsel with
flesh and blood, evdtws is really
connected with the second a.7rf]\-
Qov ; but the Apostle, whose
thoughts outrun his words, has
interposed the negative clause, to
explain his purpose in going
away.
01; Trpo(ra.vf.Qip.r]v.~\ I did not take
counsel with. Comp. Diodorus
Siculus, xvii. 116. : roTc
t; irf.p TOV
Luc. Jup. Trag. 1.: ipol Trpocr-
aradov \a&e /JE crvp&ov\ov irovwt .
17. irpoQ TOUQ Trpo ejuoy CLTTCHTTO-
Aoue.] Comp. 1. Cor. xv. 8. :
" Last of all he was seen of us
also;" also Romans, xvi. 7.:
" Distinguished among the Apo-
tles who were before me in the
Lord."
etc Apami ,] in contrast to
ovSe arrijXOov cc Ifpoo-oXv^ua, "But
I went in the opposite direc
tion."
18. tTreira juera en; rpt a, then
after three years.~\ The same
question arises here as in the
first verse of the next chapter,
" Whether the three years are to
be reckoned from the conversion
of the Apostle, or from the return
to Damascus." The first is in
some degree favoured by the
words of the preceding verse:
"Neither went I up to Jeru
salem." " I did not go up to
Jerusalem then, but three years
afterwards I did." There is
certainly more point in the par
ticular mention of the length of
the interval between the original
departure of the Apostle and his
first return, than of his sojourn
at Damascus. " It was three
whole years after my conversion,"
rather than, " There was an
interval of time which I passed
in Arabia, besides three years at
Damascus." Whichever interpre
tation is adopted, no inference
can be drawn respecting the
length of time which the Apostle
passed in Arabia. There may
have been an interval of three
years between his return to Da
mascus and his journey to Jeru
salem ; or the period of three
years may have included a sojourn
in Arabia and a stay at Damascus.
But there is no reason to suppose
that the three years were passed
solely in Arabia.
, to make ac-
268
EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS.
[Cn. I.
Trpos OLVTOV rjfjiepas SeKaTreVre* erepov Se ra>v 19
t , Ct ^7) loLKtofioV TOV aO\(f)bv TOV KV-
OVK
quaintance with Cephas. Comp.
Joseph. B. J. vi. 1. 8. : OVK cta//-
fjioq wv fivrip ov eyo/ Kar EKELVOV
urrdprjffa TOV TroXtjuor.
cireuetpa Trpug avroj , ^T 7 emaincd
with aim."] Trpog used according
to a common confusion of rest and
motion. Comp. ii. 5., Sm^tclvp
The object
of these words has been already
noticed. " At first I did not go
to Jerusalem ; then, after some
years I did, but stayed only a
few days, and saw scarcely any
body."
One of the commentators re
marks that fifteen days was a
long time, quite sufficient for the
Apostle to receive the commands
of the Church at Jerusalem. He
therefore supposes that St. Paul s
opponents had falsely averred of
him that he had been the disciple
of the other Apostles. The ge
neral impression of the passage
is the best answer to such a criti
cism. If we suppose a person to
say to us, of another, " I knew
such a one fifteen years ago, and
staid with him a fortnight," we
certainly should not presume any
great degree of acquaintance.
19. laJOO^OV TOV U^\([)OV TOV
KUjotov.] Two lines of argument
have been taken in reference to
these words : First, they are said
to show, by the very form of the
sentence, that the brother of the
Lord must have been the Apostle :
" But other of the Apostles saw
I none, save James " (comp. 1
Cor. i. 14.), who, if the expres
sion is taken strictly, must there
fore be included in the number
of the Apostles. A comparison
of Revelation, xxi.27., Gal.ii. 16.,
and numerous other passages,
shows, however, that el pi] may
be used in the sense not of " save
or except," but simply for " but."
An ingenious argument has also
been urged on the opposite side of
the question, to prove that James,
the brother of our Lord, was not
either the Apostle or the Bishop
of that name, but a comparatively
unimportant person. The con
text, it is said, requires the
meaning, " I only saw Peter and
one other unimportant person;"
and that the drift of the passage
is lost, if we suppose the Apostle
to say, " of the three great heads
of the Church, I only saw two."
This argument is too finely spun ;
it is sufficiently answered by ob
serving that James " the brother
of the Lord" could never have
been an obscure person. It con
fuses the general drift of the
passage with its details. In ge
neral the Apostle expresses his
own impression, which was, in
familiar language, that his visit
could scarcely be termed a visit ;
but in the details he states
the actual fact of whom he
saw, without reference to the
particular effect of the state
ment.
There are stronger reasons
than the one given above for
thinking that James the brother
of our Lord is the same with
James the son of Alpheus the
Apostle ; not including in them
the words of 1 Cor. xv. 7. :
" He was seen of James, then
of all the Apostles," which are
equally ambiguous with the pre
sent passage. The arguments in
VER. 19.]
EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS.
269
19 Cephas 1 , and abode with him fifteen days. But other
of the apostles saw I none, save James the Lord s
1 Peter.
proof of this position may be
summed up as follows :
1. The name of "James the
less" implying that there were
only two and not three of that
name.
2. The result of the compa
rison of the three following pas
sages :
Mark, xv. 40. : " There were
also women looking on afar off;
among whom was Mary Magda
lene, and Mary the mother of
James the less and of Joses, and
Salome."
John, xix. 25. : " There stood
by the cross of Jesus His mother,
and His mother s sister, Mary
the wife of Cleophas, and Mary
Magdalene."
Mark, vi. 3. : " Is not this the
carpenter, the son of Mary, the
brother of James, and Joses, and
of Juda, and Simon ? and are
not His sisters here with us?"
Comp. Matt. xiii. 55. [where,
instead of Joses, Lachmann and
Tischendorf read Joseph, which
occurs also as a variation in the
text of Matt.].
Here, Mary the mother of
James and Joses is identified
with Mary the wife of Cleophas ;
and this identification of the two
Marys is confirmed by the third
passage, which speaks of her sons
as the brethren of Jesus.
Lastly, the name Alpheus is
the same as Cleophas ; being in
the Aramaic ^&n> and the two
forms arising only out of the dif
ferent pronunciations of the n.
A simpler explanation is also
possible. Mary the mother of
James the less, and Joses, and
Salome, may be the same with
Mary the wife of Cleophas ; and
yet James "the brother of the
Lord " not the same with James
the less, who was her son, but
the son of the Virgin Mary and
of Joseph. In favour of this
supposition may be urged:
( 1.) The words of Mark, vi. 3.,
which expressly refer to " the
carpenter " and Mary the mother
of Christ, and can hardly allude
to the sons of another Mary in
the same verse.
(2.) The emphatic use of the
term " brother of the Lord,"
which would not have been ap
plied in the sense of a special
relation to one who was not a
brother. There were many cousins
of Christ, but only one who was
called his brother. Nor could
the designation cousin or kins
man of Christ, even if it were a
natural explanation of the word
ct<)X0o, have been any claim to
extraordinary respect in the early
Church.
(3.) The obvious meaning of
Matt. i. 25. : " And knew her
not until she had brought forth
her firstborn Son," which has
been smothered by the feelings
of a later age.
(4.) The distinction which is
drawn in Acts, i. 13, 14., between
the twelve Apostles, who are all
mentioned by name, and the
brethren of the Lord, who are
spoken of separately in the fol
lowing verse " with the women,
and Mary the mother of Jesus."
(5.) The testimony of anti-
270
EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS.
[CH. I.
piov. a Se ypd<j)a) VJJLLV, I8ov lva>7nov TOV Oeov, on ov i//ev- 20
eTretra rj\9ov 19 ra /cXt/xara TT}S Svpias KOLL TT}S 21
yjfJLTjv Se ayvoovptvos rc3 Trpocrc^Tro.) rats e/c- 22
TT?S lovSatas rats eV ^picrrw, povov e OLKOVOV- 23
res rjcrav on 6 SLCJKOJI TJJJLOL^ Trore z W eua/yyeXi^erai TT)^
TTore liropOei, /cal eSoaoz; eV ejuiol roz^ ^eoz^. 24
quity. Even if the term a
is sometimes used in a vaguer
sense when it is the translation
of a Hebrew word (as in Gen.
xxxi. 23.), there can be no doubt
of the meaning in which it was
understood by Josephus (Ant. xx.
9. 1.), or by Hegesippus (quoted
by Eusebius, ii. 23., iii. 32., iv.
22.), who expressly mentions
elames the just as the brother of
our Lord "together with the
Apostles," and Simeon, his suc
cessor in the episcopate, as the
son of Cleophas, his uncle, and
the cousin of Christ (ave i^oe).
The comparison of Mark, vi. 3.,
with xv. 40., suggests the impro
bability of Mary the mother of
Christ and Mary the wife of
Cleophas each having two sons
the same in name, James and
Joses, the latter being specially
designated by the names of her
sons. The force of this objec
tion is, in a great measure, done
away by the reading of Lach-
mann and Tischendorf ( I<k-woe,
Iwo-70oc), in the parallel passage
of Matt. xiii. 55. (comp. Matt,
xxvii. 56.), and the variation of
reading ( Iw<rr/, Iwori/roc, Iwo-jy^oe)
even in the text of Mark, vi. It
might be replied, further, that
we are otherwise involved in the
greater difficulty of supposing
that two persons of the same
name were sisters. Such hypo
theses or counter hypotheses are
not worth drawing out. The
natural use of language and the
express testimony of the oldest
writers are safer grounds of argu
ment than the probability that
Mary the wife of Cleophas or
Alpheus was sister of Mary the
mother of Christ.
20. As in Rom. i. 9., we have
an asseveration that at first sight
appears out of place ; for why
should the Apostle assert so
strenuously what no one would
deny ? The answer is, that the
words do not refer to the par
ticular statement which has pre
ceded, but to the whole subject
of the chapter. It is a matter
of life and death to the Apostle
to prove his independence of the
twelve. Hence he says : "Now,
the things which I write unto
you, behold, before God I lie
not/ That is, "Though I can
have no other witness, I call God
to witness that all I am saying is
true, in reference to my indepen
dence of the other Apostles, and
the slight intercourse I had with
them." Compare 1 Thess. ii. 5.;
1 Tim. ii. 17.; 2 Cor. xi. 31.
on has no regular construction.
It depends upon the idea, " I
declare," "I asseverate," con
tained in lSoi> ifWTUOV TOV StOV.
VEB. 2024.] EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS.
271
20 brother. Now the things which I write unto you,
21 behold, before God, I lie not. Afterwards I came into
22 the regions of Syria and Cilicia; and was unknown by
face unto the churches of Juda3a which were in Christ :
23 but they had heard only, That he which persecuted us
in times past now preacheth the faith which once he
24 destroyed. And they glorified God in me.
21. Sypme.] Comp. Acts, ix.
30. : "Which when the brethren
knew, they brought him down to
Cesarea and sent him forth to
Tarsus." Comp. also, Acts, xv.
23., whence we gather, that the
letter to the Churches, after the
conference at Jerusalem, was
addressed to the Gentiles in
Antioch, and Syria, and Cilicia.
22. The purport of the remark
is again the same as that of the
preceding verses, to show the
slight connection of the Apostle
with the Church at Jerusalem :
" I was personally unknown to
the Churches in Judea."
It is urged, that, as the Apostle
has just before described his
going up to Jerusalem, he can
not mean to say here that he
was unknown to the Church at
Jerusalem ; and, therefore, that
TVJG lovcWag must refer to the
Churches in the country. This
is unnatural. If St. Paul went
up privately, KUT ISiat , it might
well happen that he was un
known to the Church even at
Jerusalem.
Far more difficult is it to
reconcile the relation of St. Paul
with the narrative of the Acts,
in which he is described on his
first visit to Jerusalem as led by
Barnabas to the Apostles, with
whom he remained, " coming in
and going out at Jerusalem,"
where "he spoke boldly, and
disputed against the Grecians"
(Acts, ix. 28, 29.), and whence he
was sent away in consequence of
their attempt on his life. Where
as, in this passage, the Apostle
himself declares that he went up
to see Peter, and remained but a
few days, and knew no one else
except James, the brother of the
Lord. Further, the author of the
Acts is not aware of the sojourn
of the Apostle in Arabia, for
which he leaves no place in his
narrative. Nor is this the only
difference ; the Epistle is wholly
silent respecting a second visit
mentioned in Acts, xi. 30., an
occasion on which the Apostle
carried up alms to Jerusalem ;
also respecting a fourth, of which
a brief notice occurs in Acts, xviii.
22, 23. These discrepancies are
not diminished by a comparison
of the words attributed to the
Apostle himself, in Acts, xxii. 18.
21., xxvi. 20.
23. juoj/ov 3e a.KOvovTf.Q l}(rav^
only they heard. ] In the change
of tense which follows, there is a
confusion of the oratio directa
and obliqua.
24. kv ijjoi,"] for what he had
done in my case.
272 EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS.
ON THE CHRONOLOGY OF ST. PAUL S LIFE
AND WRITINGS.
THERE are some questions of Biblical criticism on which many
volumes have been written, and which have exercised the minds of
hundreds, which, nevertheless, are capable of being reduced within
narrow limits. On a slender basis of fact, numberless conjectures
have been accumulated, which have acquired in time a sort of tradi
tional value, and from being often repeated are at length believed.
In such cases, it is possible to set free the original facts from the
theories, and combinations, and points of view, to which they have
given rise, and, without pretending to add a new superstructure, at
any rate to trace the original foundations. Real uncertainties are
better than imaginary certainties, and general facts more trust
worthy than minute ones, in those fields of history of which we
know little.
One of the Scriptural problems to which the above remarks apply
is the chronology of St. Paul s life and writings, in which, after
endless investigations, hardly any progress has been made. The
course of events has been mapped out in thirty different ways (see
the table at the end of Wieseler s " Chronologic des Apostolischen
Zeitalters") ; nor is it likely that all the possible combinations of
dates and facts are as yet exhausted. No less than three, if not four,
journeys to Jerusalem, recorded in the Acts, have been identified
with the celebrated visit mentioned in the second chapter of the
Epistle to the Galatians ; eleven different years have been assigned
as dates of the Apostle s conversion ; the mention of the vision or
revelation in 2 Cor. xii. 1-5., which had taken place fourteen years
CHRONOLOGY OF ST. PAUL S LIFE AND WRITINGS. 273
before the time at which the Apostle was writing, has been variously
referred to his conversion, to the vision in the temple, to some later
occasion not elsewhere mentioned ; in all these cases the whole
chronology sliding up and down according to the view taken. The
critic may well ask himself the question, whether it is worth while
to add another guess to those which exist already ; whether it is not
wiser to rest within the limits of actual statements, especially as the
desire to find or make reconcilements will often disturb certainties.
The first consideration, in all such inquiries, is the nature of the
materials, whether plentiful or scanty, continuous or fragmentary.
No ingenuity in the architect can reconstruct a house of which only
a few stones remain ; nor can the historian, by any effort of imagina
tion, supply the elements of knowledge when really wanting. A
sanguine temperament will often work out a system, whole and per
fect, and seeming in every part to confirm itself; but such systems
are tested by time, they pass away, and have no permanent
influence.
To those who are content with a few certainties and many uncer
tainties, who do not insist on fixing the date of the Apostle s
conversion, who are willing to admit that the series of events
recorded in the Acts is not perfectly continuous, the chronology of
St. Paul s life is neither a perplexing nor a tedious inquiry. The
materials of the inquiry lie in a small compass, being all contained
in the Epistles and the Acts of the Apostles. What may be termed
the outer or absolute chronology cannot be determined within two or
three years ; for even if it be admitted that St. Paul perished in the
Neronian persecution, A. D. 64, it is impossible to say how long he
survived the date of the termination of the Acts ; nor is there any
statement either of Josephus (Ant. xx. 8, 9.) or Tacitus (Annal. xii.
54. ; xiii. 14.) which enables us, either directly or by inference, to
fix, within three or four years, the date of the deposition of Felix, the
brother of Pallas. Other allusions to secular history are still more
wide. The time at which Aretas governed in Damascus is wholly
unknown to us, and the fact itself recorded only in 2 Cor. xii. 32.
VOL. I. T
274 EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS.
(Compare Jos. Ant. xvii. 5.) The edict and the famine which are
connected with the name of Claudius (Acts, xviii. 2. ; xi. 28.) leave
a latitude of thirteen years, that is, of the reign of Claudius, A.D.
41-54, for they cannot be safely identified, either the one with the
edict "de pellendis Mathematicis," mentioned by Tacitus (Annal.
xii. 52.) under the year 52, or the other with the famine at Eome
in the year 51 (Annal. xii. 43.). Lastly, the date of the death of
Herod Agrippa, A.D. 44 (Acts, xii. 23.), although certain, is not pre
cisely coincident with the journey of Paul and Barnabas to Jeru
salem, recorded in Acts, xi. 30. ; and the journey itself is an isolated
point in the ministry of the Apostle. Such is the result of many
discussions, which will not be without use if they remind us that it
is the life of a private person which we are investigating, whose
exploits are not to be found in Fasti or Annals, whose words and
actions have as yet no bearing on the history of mankind.
Leaving these unfruitful inquiries, our business is to fix the order
of events in the Apostle s own life, or rather in that portion of his
life which is continuously narrated in the Acts of the Apostles, and
to connect these events with his writings. It is unlikely that the
variation in the absolute time of these events is more than two or
three years ; but this is a question which is of no importance to us,
and one which we have no means of determining. Enough of the
"outer" chronology. What we desire to know is reduced within
narrow limits, the time and succession of the Apostle s journeys,
during about fifteen years of his life, and their relation to his
Epistles. The comparison will enable us to arrange the writings of
the Apostle in a chronological order, and to trace the growth of his
thoughts as the Church spread, as the Gentile world opened before
him.
Beginning at the end of the narrative of events, it will be con
venient partially to retrace our steps in the chronology of the
Epistles. The last ten chapters (xix.-xxviii.) of the Acts of the
Apostles embrace a continuous period of about nine years, the
twenty-eighth chapter concluding with the mention of two whole
CHRONOLOGY OF ST. PAUL S LIFE AND WRITINGS. 275
years, during which Paul " dwelt in his own hired house, preaching
the kingdom of God," at Rome. Why the narrative says nothing of
his death, which must have happened shortly afterwards, is a ques
tion hard to answer. Perhaps the author of the original memoir wrote
in the interval ; perhaps he was unacquainted with the manner of the
Apostle s end. His omission takes away the possibility of assigning
a terminus ad quern to the nine years of which he has given a con
secutive narrative. Two years, deducted from the whole period,
bring us back to the arrival of the Apostle at Rome (xxviii. 16.) in
spring ; for he had wintered at Melita (xxviii. 1. 11.) ; having sailed
from Cesarea in the autumn of the previous year (xxvii. 2.), shortly
after his appearance before Festus and Agrippa (xxv. xxvi.). Two
years more are to be reckoned for the imprisonment of the Apostle
at Cesarea, after his cause had been first heard by Felix (xxiv. 27.).
To Cesarea he had been sent by Claudius Lysias (xxiii. 33.), in con
sequence of the tumult occasioned by his appearance in the temple
on his last visit to Jerusalem. Can we determine the time of his
arrival at the latter place ? An incidental remark enables us to do
so ; for he had sailed from Philippi " after the days of unleavened
bread " (Acts, xx. 6.), in the hope of arriving at Jerusalem on the
Feast of Pentecost (ver. 16.).
Nearly five years out of the nine, from summer to spring, are
already accounted for. It does not occur, however, to the author of
the Acts to give an exact note of time for the journeys which pre
cede. He only remarks that the Apostle left Ephesus " after the
uproar," to go into Macedonia (xx. 1, 2.) ; that " he went over
those parts, and gave much exhortation ; >J that he " abode three
months" (xx. 3.), that is, wintered (1 Cor. xvi. 6.), in Greece, and re
turned by the way he came. The First Epistle to the Corinthians
supplies the deficiency (xvi. 8.); for there the Apostle says that he
intends to remain at Ephesus until Pentecost. Thus precisely a
year is occupied between Ephesus and Jerusalem, And at Ephesus
it is recorded, in the exhortation to the elders of Ephesus at Miletus,
that the Apostle had spent three years (xx. 31.), whether inclusive or
T 2
276 EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS.
exclusive of a journey from Epliesus to Jerusalem, and the stay at
Antioch which followed, is uncertain. The former alternative has a
slight presumption in its favour, from the circumstance that else
where (xix. 10.) the Apostle s stay at Ephesus is described as lasting
two years only. Supposing this hypothesis to be rejected, a conjec
tural period must be inserted for the interval between the Apostle s
first and second visits to Ephesus. During this period, he made a
third visit to Jerusalem, spent some time at Antioch, and went over
all the country of Phrygia and Galatia (xviii. 22, 23.).
Nine or ten years are thus accounted for, to which a year and six
months have to be added for the first stay in Greece. (Acts, xviii. 11.)
To this period of ten or eleven years and a half (say twelve, to allow
a few months after the termination of the Acts), all the extant
writings of the Apostle are to be referred. And here the continuity
of the chronology wholly fails. The sojourn of the Apostle at
Corinth had been the termination of a long journey, which com
menced at Antioch and extended over the whole of Asia Minor,
including Syria, Cilicia, Phrygia, Galatia, Mysia, and the cities of
Macedonia. But there is no period of time assigned either to the
journey, or to the stay at Antioch which preceded it. And this is
the case with all the previous history. The earlier portion of the
Acts is entirely wanting in that chronological minuteness which
marks the later chapters, from xviii. onwards. The notes of time
which occur are too few, or too indefinite, to be of any real use (vi. 1.;
viii. 1.; xi. 26. 28.; xii. 1 3.). Many passages, e.g. xii., xiii. 19 30.,
describe events which are contemporaneous with those which have
preceded. From chapters i. xv. the narrative seems to fall into
two compartments, one before, the other after the appointment of
the deacons and the death of Stephen : within these two divisions
the arrangement of facts, as in the first three Gospels, is rather
collateral than continuous.
It is an order, not a chronology, with which the author or com
piler of the Acts has furnished us in his record of the few remaining
circumstances of St. Paul s life. Preserving this order, intervals
CHRONOLOGY OF ST. PAUL S LIFE AND WRITINGS. 277
and periods may be expanded or contracted at pleasure. For ex
ample, in the chapter immediately preceding the events last referred
to (xv. 35, 36.), it is said, " Paul and Barnabas continued in An-
tioch, teaching and preaching the word of God. . . . And some days
after Paul said unto Barnabas, Let us go again and visit our bre
thren in every city." Here it is clearly stated that the Apostle
started from Antioch on his second apostolic journey ; but who can
say how many weeks, months, or even years, may be included in the
words " some days," or " continued in Antioch," the place which, at
this period of the Apostle s course, was the centre of his labours,
whence he had originally received his more distant mission ? (Acts,
xiii. 1.; xiv. 26.) The author of the Acts would have spoken clearly
had he known ; to recover facts of which he was ignorant is not
possible.
The sojourn at Antioch, just now mentioned, had immediately
followed the famous visit to Jerusalem recorded in Acts xv., or
rather, to speak more correctly, the visit to Jerusalem formed a sort
of episode in a stay at Antioch of much longer duration. (Compare
Acts, xiv. 28.; xv. 35.) For the Apostle had left Antioch and re
turned to Antioch, and the object of his mission had a special refer
ence to difficulties which had arisen among the Christians in that
city. Antioch is further recognised as his head-quarters in the long
journey which precedes ; there the Apostle returns to give an account
of God s dealings with the Gentiles in Cyprus, at Perga in Pam-
phylia, at Antioch in Pisidia, at Iconium, at Derbe, and Lystra.
But although many names are mentioned, and the minuteness of the
narrative is a strong evidence of its substantial truth, there is no
trace of the time which was occupied either in the journey or the
stay at Antioch which followed. The period of the Apostle s resi
dence at Antioch may be further extended back to his first arrival
there from Tarsus, in company with Barnabas. In these earlier days
also, he had visited Jerusalem as the bearer of contributions from
the disciples at Antioch, about the time of Herod Agrippa s death
(xi. 30.; xii. 1.). His previous abode had been Tarsus, his native
T 3
278 EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS.
place, whither he had been sent for safety from Jerusalem, on his
first return thither (Acts, ix. 29, 30.), after the sojourn at Damascus
and in Arabia (Gal. i. 17.), which immediately followed his con
version.
Rome, Cesarea, Ephesus, Corinth, Antioch, Tarsus, Arabia, Da
mascus, Jerusalem, are the principal seats of the Apostle s life. An
interval of a few months is spent on a voyage between Cesarea and
Kome ; another interval of about a year, between Cesarea and
Ephesus, is occupied in the third apostolical journey; there is a third
interval, of uncertain length, between the sojourn at Corinth and
the settlement of the Apostle at Ephesus ; while the long stay at
Antioch is broken by two visits to Jerusalem, and two Apostolical
journeys. As yet no result has been gained for the chronology but
the ten or twelve years, calculated back from the end of the Acts,
and passed by the Apostle at Rome, Cesarea, Ephesus, Corinth, or in
intermediate travels. 1
We turn to the Epistles of St. Paul to see whether it is possible
to find any allusions to the Apostle s former life in which the miss
ing links are supplied. Three notes of time occur. The first is
contained in Gal. i. 18.: "Then after three years I went up to Jeru
salem to see Peter, and abode with him fifteen days." But " three
years " after what ? After his conversion or his return to Damascus ?
Either construction is possible. A similar ambiguity involves the
passage which follows (ii. 1.) : " Then fourteen years after I went up
to Jerusalem with Barnabas, and took with me Titus." " Fourteen
years" after what? After the greater epoch of his conversion or
the previously mentioned visit to Jerusalem? It is not certain. The
importance and central position of this meeting in the Epistle and
1 In 2 Cor. xiii. 1., the Apostle says : " This is the third time I am coming to
you." There is no other trace of a third journey to Corinth, on the time of which
it is therefore idle to speculate. Some have thought that the Apostle is referring
to an intention only. But the words are express, nor are they contradicted by the
term " a second benefit," in 2 Cor. i. 15., where the Apostle is only speaking of the
possibility of his taking a different route Corinth, Macedonia, Corinth, instead
of Macedonia, Corinth, Macedonia, which was his actual course.
CHRONOLOGY OF ST. PAUI/S LIFE AND WRITINGS. 279
of the meeting, commonly called the council, in the fifteenth chapter
of the Acts, the similarity of place, persons, subject, circumstances,
prove beyond a doubt that the two occasions are identical. (See at
the end of ch. ii. note.) But the chronological result is only this
that St. Paul was at Jerusalem fourteen years after his conversion, or
fourteen years after some previous visit, which we are unable cer
tainly to identify with any of those recorded in the Acts, and that the
interval between his conversion and the visit referred to was a period
of not less, perhaps more, than three years.
The third note of time occurs in the Second Epistle to the Corin
thians, xi. 2., and relates to a vision or revelation which he had
received " about fourteen years " before (the place is not named),
and which was of so remarkable a character, that the Apostle singles
it out from the "abundance of revelations" which had been vouch
safed to him in after life, as a subject, even at that distance of time,
" whereof to glory." There is no doubt about the position which
the Second Epistle to the Corinthians occupies in our relative chro
nology. It was written from Macedonia, on what may be termed
(though interrupted by a winter) the last journey to Jerusalem, that
is to say, about five years before the Apostle s death. Dating from
this point, the period of fourteen years leads us back into an unknown
country; to the commencement of the Apostle s stay at Antioch, or
the end of that at Tarsus ; to a time too late, certainly, for his con
version ; for the other period of fourteen years which occurred in the
Epistle to the Galatians, even supposing it to have commenced with
that event, must have ended, and therefore begun, five years earlier.
And it has been well observed, that the expression, " a man in
Christ," which he applies to himself in the narrative of the Second
Epistle to the Corinthians, shows that he was already a disciple, and
not at that time converted. It may be admitted as a probability that
the vision of the Epistle may be identical with the vision of the
Temple, which is also alluded to by the Apostle long afterwards.
(Acts, xxii. 17.) If so, the following chronological arrangement
will arise of a period of twenty years:
T 4
280 EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS.
1. Conversion. (Gal. i. 16.)
f Departure from Damascus and first visit to Jerusalem. (2
5. J Cor. xi. 32.; Gal. i. 17, 18.)
[Date of vision. (2 Cor. xii. 1 4.; Acts, xxii. 1721.)
14. Third visit to Jerusalem, commonly called the council. (Gal.
ii. i.)
20. Date of the Second Epistle to the Corinthians. (This date is
obtained by adding the three years at Ephesus, one and a
half at Corinth, and an unknown period, to the fourteen
years in Gal. ii. 1.; and by adding three years in Arabia,
and an unknown period of two years at Damascus, to the
fourteen years in 2 Cor. xii. 1.)
The singular mention of the Apostle s escape from Damascus, in
the last verses of the previous chapter, may possibly lead him to
speak by association of an event of a wholly dissimilar kind, which
occurred about the same time in his life. The reader, however, will
observe that the theory has several weak points. First, the difference
in the description of the two visions :
Acts, xxii. 17 21. 2 Cor. xii. 1 4.
" And when I was come again " It is not expedient for me
to Jerusalem, even while I prayed doubtless to glory: I will come
in the temple, I was in a trance; to visions and revelations of the
and saw him saying unto me, Lord. I knew a man in Christ
Make haste, and get thee above fourteen years ago, (whe-
quickly out of Jerusalem : for ther in the body, I cannot tell ;
they will not receive thy testi- or whether out of the body, I
mony concerning me. And I cannot tell: God knoweth,) such
said, Lord, they know that I im- an one caught up to the third
prisoned and beat in every syna- heaven. And I knew such a
gogue them that believed on man, (whether in the body or
thee : and when the blood of out of the body, I cannot tell :
thy martyr Stephen was shed, I God knoweth,) how that he was
also was standing by, and con- caught up into paradise, and
senting unto his death, and kept heard unspeakable words, which
the raiment of them that slew it is not lawful for a man to
him. And he said unto me, De- utter."
part: for I will send thee far
hence unto the Gentiles."
CHRONOLOGY OF ST. PAUL S LIEE AND WRITINGS. 281
Secondly, the assumption that the period of fourteen years, men
tioned in Gal. ii. 1. is to be calculated from the conversion of the
Apostle, and not from the previous journey to Jerusalem ; also that
the stay of the Apostle in Damascus and Arabia extended to five
years. Thirdly, the unknown intervals between the council and the
stay at Ephesus. Lastly, the discrepancies between Gal. i. 18 24.,
Acts, ix. 10 31., xxii. 10 20., touching the first visit to Jerusalem.
Our hope of gaining any precise chronological information from
the Epistles respecting the earlier years of the Apostle s ministry has
failed ; the circumstance that those Epistles were written at a later
period of his life is a sufficient explanation of the reason : we have
been looking for what it was not very probable that we should find.
The later years of the Apostle s life are those with which the author
of the Acts was best acquainted ; they are also the years respecting
which we gain additional light from the Apostle s own writings.
The connection between them is, on the whole, very near and inti
mate. Some discrepancies are observable, but they are the discre
pancies of independent authorities ; there is no trace anywhere that
the letters were made up out of the history, or the history out of
the letters. The series begins with the Epistles to the Thessalo-
nians, identified with the second apostolical journey by the mention
of Timothy and the sojourn of the Apostle at Athens, after a pre
vious stay at Thessalonica. Next, according to the most probable
opinion, at an interval of four or five years, comes the Epistle to the
Galatians, which also agrees with the narrative of the Acts in its
circumstantial detail of the council at Jerusalem ; its place is fur
ther defined by the reference to the two visits of the Apostle to
Galatia. (Acts, xvi. 6., xviii. 23.; Gal. iv. 13.) Thirdly, at the dis
tance probably of a few months only, follows the First Epistle to the
Corinthians, written from Ephesus or its neighbourhood (xvi. 8.),
and containing the first intimation of that journey to Jerusalem by
way of Macedonia and Corinth, of which the exact particulars are
narrated in the Acts. The journey has begun and is going on in the
Second Epistle to the Corinthians, and in the Epistle to the Romans.
282 EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS.
At the time of writing the former, the Apostle has left Ephesus, and
is already in Macedonia (2 Cor. ii. 13.; Acts, xx. 1.); the possibility
that he might himself go up with the alms to Jerusalem (1 Cor.
xvi. 4.) has become a fixed design (2 Cor. i. 16. comp. Acts, xix. 21.);
contributions are coming in (viii. ix.); the readiness of Macedonia
is to be a motive to Achaia ; there seems also to be an allusion to
the uproar at Ephesus which immediately preceded, and probably has
tened, the Apostle s departure. (2 Cor. i. 8.; Acts, xix. 29., xx. 1. 3.)
A further stage in the Apostle s progress is marked in the Epistle to
the Romans; he is now wintering in Greece, probably at Corinth (Acts,
xx, 3.), as he had intended (1 Cor. xvi. 6.); of his place of abode, the
names of Gaius, and Phebe, a deaconess of the church at Cenchrea,
furnish indications (Rom. xvi. 1. 23.; 1 Cor. i. 14); the contributions of
Achaia as well as of Macedonia have been received (Rom. xv. 26.);
an intimation occurs of another intention which the Apostle had long
entertained, of visiting Rome as well as Jerusalem (i. 15.), and which
is also mentioned in the Acts (xix. 21.), a coincidence the more re
markable because the actual visit of the Apostle which is narrated
in the Acts arose, not out of any previous design, but from the acci
dental circumstance of his appealing to Cassar after two years impri
sonment. (Compare Acts, xxiii. 11.) A few months later, the
Apostle is a captive, " the prisoner of Jesus Christ for the Gentiles,"
and another series of Epistles begins, all of which contain allusions
to his imprisonment. That imprisonment is divided between two
places, Cesarea and Rome, at both of which the Apostle s friends
have free access to him (Acts, xxiv. 23., xxviii. 16. 30.); at either
of which he may therefore have preached the Gospel (Eph. vi. 19.;
Col. iv. 3, 4.), and begotten Onesimus in his bonds. It might have
been at Rome, it might have been at Cesarea, that the Apostle was
expecting to receive his freedom at the time when he wrote the
Epistle to Philemon (ver. 22.). No note of place or other circum
stance enables us to decide whether the twin Epistles to the Ephe-
sians and Colossians, or the short Epistle to Philemon, which is
connected by allusions with the latter, belong to the two first or two
CHRONOLOGY OF ST. PAUL S LIFE AND WRITINGS. 283
last years of the Apostle s imprisonment to his imprisonment at
Cesarea, that is, or at Rome. The mention of Cesar s household, in
the Epistle to the Philippians (iv. 22.), is a sufficient proof that this
Epistle was written from Rome. All these later Epistles closely
resemble each other, and can all be shown to have been written
during a period of imprisonment, while all the earlier Epistles may
be also shown, from internal evidence, to belong to a period of the
Apostle s life in which he was in the free exercise of his ministry.
Such is the general agreement between the extant Epistles of St.
Paul and the narrative of the Acts, and such the double basis upon
which they rest who think they trace a growth or development in
the Apostle s own teaching and in the circumstances of the churches.
There is a time at which the Apostle is looking for the immediate
coming of Christ, which is represented by the First Epistle to the
Thessalonians ; there is a time when he is aware that " the day of
the Lord is not yet," but that other events must come first, as he says
in the Second Epistle ; there is a time when " he has a desire to
depart" (Phil. i. 23.), though willing also to stay. There is a time at
which the disputes between Jewish and Gentile Christians are lost
in the greater difference between Jew and Christian (1 Thess. ii.
14. 17.) ; there is a time at which the fanaticism of the Jewish
Christians is violently aroused, and every Church is divided between
Jew and Gentile, circumcision and uncircumcision ; there is a time at
which the strife no more crosses the path of the Apostle, or, perhaps,
is temporarily silenced by his retirement from the scene. There is a
time in which St. Paul is in the vigour and fire of youth, " speaking
boldly, and disputing against the Grecians;" there is a time at
which he is worn by years and imprisonment, " being such an one
as Paul the aged." There is a time at which he says, " If any man
preach any other Gospel unto you than that ye have received, let
him be accursed" (Gal. i. 9.); there is a time when " Some preach
Christ of envy and strife. What then ? notwithstanding every
way, whether in pretence or in truth, Christ is preached, and he
therein rejoices, yea, and will rejoice." (Phil. i. 15-18.)
284 EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS.
No use has been made in the previous sketch of the Pastoral
Epistles. The reason is, that there is no probable time in the
Apostle s life to which they can be assigned ; it is hard to reconcile
the youth of Timothy with the later years of Paul (1 Tim. i. 3., iv.
12.), or the sojourn of Timothy at Ephesus with the mention of his
name in the last journey to Jerusalem (Acts, xx. 4.), and in the
salutations of the Epistles to the Philippians, Colossians, and
Philemon ; or the circumstance of Titus being left at Crete (Titus, i.
5.) with his departure from Rome to Dalmatia, in 2 Tim. iv. 10. ;
or the intended wintering at Nicopolis in Epirus (Tit. iii. 12.) with
the full narrative which is given in the Acts, of the last nine years
of the Apostle s life. Great stress has also been laid by those who
maintain the spuriousness of the three Epistles on differences of
style. And many have thought that in the settled form of church
government which is implied in the First Epistle to Timothy, and in
the Epistle to Titus, and the parallel growth of heresy, they saw an
inconsistency with the state and opinions of the first converts in
the churches of which St. Paul speaks in his other Epistles.
That the style of portions of these Epistles is very different from
that of the earlier ones must be admitted. Yet the difference is not
much greater than that which divides the Epistles to the Thessa-
lonians from the Epistles to the Galatians, Romans, Corinthians, or
both classes from the Epistles of the imprisonment. A further
analogy is observable between the two last-mentioned groups and
the Epistles to Timothy and Titus, which is favourable or not
unfavourable to the genuineness of the latter. It is a striking fact
that the Epistles of each class which were written as far as we can
judge about the same time, or within a year or two of each other,
that is to say, the Epistles to the Galatians, Corinthians,
Romans, or again, those to the Ephesians, Colossians, Philippians,
Philemon, have close verbal resemblances to one another ; yet as we
pass from one class to the other, the verbal resemblances almost
entirely disappear. This is true of the Pastoral Epistles also, which
may be regarded as forming a third or fourth class in the series of
CHRONOLOGY OF ST. PAUL S LIFE AND WRITINGS. 285
Pauline Epistles. They have a strong family likeness, but very
little resemblance to the earlier Epistles. It is worth considering,
whether this similarity is of a kind that a forger would have
imitated, or the habitual slightly varying language of the same
writer at the same period of his life ; whether, too, any other instances
can be found of forged writings which stand in the same relation to
each other as these Epistles.
That a forger could have attained to the excellence of such
passages as 1 Tim. i. 15, 16., 2 Tim. iv. 6. 8., which breathe the
very life and spirit of the Apostle (observe especially the words " of
whom I am chief;" and the trait of character in the clause "and
not to me only "), is hard to conceive ; that he would have imagined
"the falling away of all them of Asia" (2 Tim. i. 15.), or the
minute circumstances mentioned in 2 Tim. iv. 13. (the cloak that I
left at Troas with Carpus) is very improbable ; that he should have
caught the loving and affectionate manner of the Apostle (2 Tim. i.
4.), or employed his favourite antitheses (2 Tim. ii. 11-13.), requires
a degree of observation and nicety of imitation, not elsewhere
traceable in spurious writings. That the style of the Apostle,
devoid as he was of literary art, may have received a different
colour at different times and places, as new thoughts filled his mind,
and were shaped by him in definite forms of expression, is quite
natural. That the state of the Church in the year 60-65 at
Ephesus or in Crete was inconsistent with the First Epistle to
Timothy, or the Epistle to Titus, is more than our slender knowledge
of the apostolic age, in which institutions grew rapidly, and opinions
were like meteors, will enable us confidently to affirm. Still, there
are other difficulties which cannot be disposed of thus. The Pastoral
Epistles have no hold on the history ; the First Epistle to Timothy
and the Epistle to Titus, about which there are the graver doubts,
contain allusions (1 Tim. i. 3.; Tit. iii. 12.) which cannot, without
great improbability, be harmonised with the Acts of the Apostles.
An early or late date will not prevent the collision. It is not likely
that St. Paul can have founded, settled, and intrusted to a deputy
286 EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS.
the Church at Ephesus, long before he is recorded to have visited
Ephesus in the Acts of the Apostles, or that he should have performed
a journey into Macedonia during his stay at Ephesus (1 Tim. i. 3.),
of which no particulars are given in the Acts of the Apostles (com
pare, however, 2 Cor. xiii. L); or that he can have returned to
Greece, Crete, and the coast of Asia Minor after his imprisonment at
Rome. Some objections of chronology are escaped by assigning the
three Epistles to different periods of the Apostle s life ; but new
ones grounded on style appear. Those who feel that these Epistles
cannot be wholly genuine, and are convinced that they are not
entirely spurious, may have recourse to the theory of interpolation.
The relation which exists between the Epistle of Jude and the
Second Epistle of Peter, is a sufficient proof that such interpolation
is possible. But it would be vain for criticism to attempt a separa
tion of the genuine and interpolated elements. Only while objec
tions are raised against them, which receive no satisfactory answer,
it is safer not to make use of these Epistles for the proof of any fact
or the establishment of any doctrine.
288
EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS.
[On. II.
7TLTa Sia SeKaTeo-crdptov ZTMV TraXw avtfirjv eis lepocro- 2
\VJJLOL fJLTci Bapvd/3a, o-v[JL7rapa\a/3a)V Kal T LTOV avefi-^v Se 2
Kara aTTOKaXvfyiv, Kal dveOcjjiTjv avrots TO euayyeXioz; o
Kr)pvcro~a) tv rots tdvecnv, KOLT iSiai> Se rot? So/covens, ^77
ets KZVOV rpe^cj fj e&papov. aXX ouSe Tiros o crw ejuol 3
II. The Apostle proceeds with
his narrative, the object of which
is to indicate the relation in which
he stood to the Twelve on a me
morable occasion. This was the
occasion of his dispute with the
Church at Jerusalem, at which
they added nothing to him ; he
himself bore the brunt of the
battle with the Judaizers. He
never thought for an instant of
giving way ; and at last " the
pillars of the Church," who had
stood aloof from the controversy,
agreed to leave him to himself.
They would sanction, but not
share his mission to the Gentiles.
On another occasion, when
Peter came to Antioch, he showed
the same independent spirit,
boldly charging the Apostle with
inconsistency, when, acting un
der the influence of the Church
at Jerusalem, he refused to eat
with the Gentiles. He gives what
may be termed a dramatic sketch
of his answer to Peter, which
soon expands into an answer to
the Galatian Church, which he
more directly attacks at the
beginning of the third chapter.
Comp. Horn. ii. 1 17.
1. (.Treira ^la^eKaTEffffapwr ir^Jr ,
then fourteen years.~\ That is,
fourteen years after the great
epoch of his conversion, or four
teen years after his previous
journey. For the question whe
ther this occasion is the same as
that of Acts xv. see note at the
end of the chapter. Either the
Apostle omits (perhaps as irre
levant to his object), or the author
of the Acts inserts, another jour
ney, in which Paul and Barnabas
are mentioned as carrying up
alms to Jerusalem about the
time of Herod Agrippa s death,
A.D. 44. Acts, xi. 30., xii. 25.
A-CU T/ roj , with Barnabas,"]
Therefore, before the separation
of Paul and Barnabas. Titus is
mentioned to prepare the way
for what follows. Comp. Acts,
xv. 2.: "Paul and Barnabas
and certain others of them."
2. Kara. aVomXv^tv, by revela
tion. ] Compare noteon i. 12.; also
Acts, xvi. 8.: "They essayed to
go into Bithynia, but the Spirit
of Jesus (so Lachmann) suffered
them not;" also Acts, xix. 21.
The Apostle means, that he went
up, not because he was sent for,
but because it was revealed to
him that he should go. The
reader of Plato is involuntarily
reminded of the c)a^uoVtoy aijueiov
of Socrates, which in the same
way gave intimations respecting
his " going out and coming in."
a.ved/.irjv ai/roTf.] St. Paul
speaks of the Gospel which he
preached among the Gentiles, and
laid before the Apostles as a
separate Gospel, as below, ver.
7. evayyeXiov rfJQ ajcpoSvormc.
Compare Rom. ii. 16., xvi. 25.;
2 Tim. ii. 8. Kara TO tvayyt\i6v
pov.
car td/ar, privately, as in
VER. 13.]
EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS.
289
2 Then fourteen years after I went up again to Jeru
salem with Barnabas, and took Titus with me also.
2 And I went up by revelation, and communicated unto
them that gospel which I preach among the Gentiles,
but privately to them which were of reputation, lest by
3 any means I should run, or had run, in vain. But
neither Titus, who was with me, being a Greek, was
Matt. xiv. 23., and numerous
other passages.
rolg IOKOVGIV, to them of repu
tation^] is used absolutely, as
sometimes in classical Greek, "to
the men of influence, reputation."
There is a degree of irony in the
application of the term to the
Apostles, who, as St. Paul is
about to describe, added nothing
to what he had told them. The
irony is heightened by the altered
form of expression in ver. 6., ol
^OKOVVTEQ elvai rt, but is lost again
in the new turn given to it at
Ver. 9., 01 fioKOVVTEG (TTV\Ol eh Ctl,
the last words marking that he
truly recognised the dignity of
the other Apostles as heads of the
Church at Jerusalem. Compare,
as illustrative of the feeling, 2
Cor. xi. 5,, xii. 11. ol vTrepXlav
aVooroXot.
jur; Trwg t KZVOV rpe^u) */ tcipa-
fior, lest by any means I should
run., or had run, in ^ain.~\ St.
Paul went up to lay the dispute
about circumcision before the
Church at Jerusalem. He went
up by revelation, and yet thought
it necessary to feel his way with
the heads of the Church, fearing
" lest he should run in vain." What
was the fear which he intended to
convey in these words, and which
led him to this private course
of procedure ? did it arise from
distrust of them, or of himself?
could there have been a time
VOL. I. U
when he had not felt so sure as he
afterwards became that he was
right about circumcision ? On
this view he would be telling
us in the present passage, that
he had once been diffident and
desirous to confirm his own judge
ment by that of the Twelve.
And he was strengthened in his
opinion, not by what the other
Apostles told him, but by his
finding that they had nothing to
tell him. It seems, however, in
consistent with the context, and
with the temper of the Apostle
himself, that on such a subject
he should admit the possibility
of error, or peril the freedom of
the Gentile converts on the judge
ment of the Apostles at Jerusalem.
But it is quite consistent with
his conduct on other occasions
(Acts, xxi. 26.), and very natural
that he should act with prudence
towards a Church where there
were so " many thousand Jews
which believed, and they all
zealous for the law." He might
well hope for union and fear se
paration, even though separation
could never shake his belief in
what he surely knew. Anxiety
was a part of his natural tem
perament: everywhere he seems
like one feeling the effect of his
words ; and on such an occasion
there would be many reasons for
it, one amongst them being the
slightness of his acquaintance
290
EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS.
[On. II.
&v r)vayKoio-07) IKpiTjJLij&fjwu Sux 8e rovs Traveler- 4
x//evSaSe X<ovs, omz>es Trapeio-rjXOov /caracr/coTT^crai
with the other Apostles. It seems
better, therefore, to consider the
meaning of the passage in a ge
neral way : " I spoke privately
first to a few of the leaders, lest
my business should miscarry."
Tpe-%(i) J) t^joajuov, lest my past or
present labours should be in
vain, ttipapov may either refer
generally to his Apostolic mission
or to the journey to Jerusalem
which he had just accomplished ;
it is possible also that it may
be a mere grammatical correc
tion, as the past tense avifti^v
has preceded. rpe^ mav be
either indicative or subjunctive.
3 5. otc ov^e TTjOoe WjOai .J A
various reading occurs in verse
5., which will most conveniently
be considered in this place, as it
affects the meaning of the passage
which precedes. The words OIQ
ovce are omitted on the authority
of Irenseus, who quotes the verse
without them (iii. 13.), and of
Tertullian, who affirms them to
be a " vitiatio Scripturse," rather,
however, on the ground of their
inconsistency with the context
than of their omission in copies
of his own time. (Adv. Mar. v. 3.)
Jerome and others further testify
to their absence in Latin manu
scripts of their day. They are
also wanting in at least one uncial
manuscript.
To the passage read without
them, two interpretations may be
given, either : " But Titus, who
was with me, being a Greek, was
circumcised, though not by com
pulsion, but the fact was that, on
account of the false brethren
who crept in unawares to spy
out our liberty in Christ Jesus,
we gave way for a season in the
subjection which we showed them,
that the truth of the Gospel
might remain (not for a season
only) with you the Gentile Chris
tians ;" or ver. 4. and 5. may be
contrasted with ver. 3. " We
did not circumcise Titus ; but
we gave way for a season because
of the false brethren, not weakly
to compromise the truth of the
Gospel, but to preserve it to
you." It is an objection to this
latter way of taking the passage,
that the Apostle does not state
the nature of the concession.
As it is certain that copies
existed in the second and third
centuries in which the words
ovdi or ole ovBe were omitted, the
question of the reading cannot
be absolutely determined by the
weight of MS. authority which is
in favour of their insertion. On
the one hand, it maybe urged that
the omission has arisen from the
desire to improve the structure
of the sentence, which is thus
rendered more regular ; perhaps,
also, the example of Timothy
may have led to the inference
that the Apostle would have
done in one case as he did in the
other, and that Titus was cir
cumcised as Timothy was cir
cumcised ; a meaning which is
more easily obtained if the words
oig oude. are omitted. On the
other hand, it is not unreasonable
to maintain the opposite thesis,
that the insertion of the words
is improbable, because it runs
counter to the general tone and
spirit of the passage. The feel
ing which makes us unwilling to
believe that St. Paul yielded a
question of principle at a critical
moment, would have prevented
VER. 4.]
EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS.
291
4 compelled to be circumcised: but* because of the false
brethren unawares brought in, who came in privily to
Fathers and early transcribers
from altering the text in such a
manner as to render this inter
pretation of the Apostle s acts
possible. And, therefore, it may
be argued that the reading which
raises the suspicion is probably
not the altered but the genuine
one. So the canon " difficilioris
lectionis" may be arrayed on
either side. Nor will any other
argument place either reading
beyond doubt.
Was Titus circumcised or not ?
That is an inquiry the answer to
which is not wholly dependent
on the variety of the text. For,
supposing ovde or ole ovSl to be
retained, still, by laying the em
phasis on jjvayxaffOri, the sentence
may be read in such a manner as
to admit the fact that Titus was
circumcised : " Titus, who was
with me, was circumcised, though
not of compulsion ; but I and the
other Apostles thought it better
that this should be done to pre
vent the false brethren from
going about and saying that we
had men uncircumcised among
us, not that we gave way to them
for an instant in the submission
that we showed or that they
claimed" (rrj wTrorayj}). The fact
was as the opponents of St. Paul
stated, but nothing was thereby
decided respecting the necessity
of circumcision, the question at
issue in the Galatian Church.
Such is a possible train of
thought in the Apostle s mind,
whichever reading we adopt.
And the form of the sentence,
in which Titus is the principal
subject, is in favour of this mode
of interpretation : " Titus was
circumcised, though not of com
pulsion," is a more natural ex
planation of the words ov^e Tt-
TOQ riro.yKa.aQri irEpir^Qriva^ than
" Titus was not circumcised,
though they sought to compel
him." That the Apostle was
charged with preaching circum
cision (v. 11.) is implied by him
self; nor is it impossible that the
example of Titus may have been
brought forward by teachers of
the circumcision ; in which case
the words "EXXrjv &v may have
formed a part of their statement.
It is the profession of the Apostle
himself, that " to the Jews he
became a Jew;" an expression
which accords with his conduct
in taking upon himself a Naza-
rite s vow on the occasion of his
last visit to Jerusalem. Again,
the circumcision of Timothy is
nearly, if not quite, parallel with
that of Titus ; for Timothy was
the son of a Greek father, and
had not been circumcised in
infancy ; nor was it intended by
St. Paul that he should work in
any special field of labour among
Jewish Christians. Of him, too,
it might have been said with
equal truth, u\\ ovde
drjvai. And the reason given in
the Acts of the Apostles for the
circumcision of Timothy is equally
applicable to the case of Titus :
" Because of the Jews that were
in those parts." The time is
also observable : soon after the
meeting of the Apostles, which
renders the circumcision of Ti
mothy as remarkable a circum
stance as the circumcision of
Titus at the meeting itself.
Lastly, the obscurity of the pas
sage may be thought to arise out
u 2
292 EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS.
IKevOepiav ^
iv
vSe
[Cn. II.
, ta
r vTrorayj, 5
ois ove Trpos <t>pav ei
17 d\rj6eia TOV evayyeXiov 8iap,eivr}
Se ra>v SoKowroji etz ai rt (OTTOIOI TTOTC T^craz/, ovSeV /xot e
(XTTO
of the difficulty that the Apostle
felt in defending himself against
the true charge that he had
waived the question of circum
cision in the case of Titus.
The point, however unessential
in itself, is of interest as bearing
on the character of the Apostle.
The reasons already given, though
strong, are not conclusive, as
they have to be weighed against
other reasons, the chief of which
is the context of the passage. Is
language such as that of ver. 4.
and 5. reconcilable with the
supposition of an act which is
really a contradiction of it ? that
is the question : " We gave way
to the false brethren, no, not for
an hour, except in reference to
that which was the chief matter
in dispute." The Apostle was
not in the temper of accommoda
tion at the meeting at Jerusalem ;
it was not the time to be all
things to all men, nor the time
to tell the Galatians if he had
been so. For his whole object
is to show how little he yielded
to the Jewish Christians, and
how independently of the Twelve
he maintained his cause. It is
only a conjecture, that he has
mentioned the case of Titus be
cause the false teachers had
brought it forward against him ;
and, otherwise, there would be no
reason for his naming it himself.
Why should he of his own accord
introduce the mention of a con
cession which would make him
seem inconsistent with himself?
How ill these these two state
ments agree together, " I admit
that I yielded in the case of
Titus," and " Behold, I, Paul, say
unto you that if ye be circumcised
Christ shall profit you nothing."
There is also a degree of weak
ness in the words, *E\Xr;j/ &v and
TOV t
upon the
supposition that Titus was cir
cumcised. It is good sense to
say : " For Titus being a Greek
was not circumcised, &c., that
the truth of the Gospel might
remain unto you Gentiles ;" but
the point is lost if we. turn the
sentence : " For Titus being a
Greek was not circumcised by
compulsion ; but merely as a
matter of prudence, that the
truth of the Gospel to the Gentiles
might continue."
So many points may be pleaded
on either side of the question in
dispute, it is not necessary, or
indeed possible, to arrive at any
certain conclusion. The drift of
the argument appeared to Ter-
tullian to involve the circum
cision of Titus ; to us the opposite
inference seems, on the whole,
most likely to be the truth.
In the previous verse the
Apostle had said: "I laid the
dispute respecting circumcision
before the heads of the Church,
lest my business should miscarry."
Now he adds: "But notwith
standing this apparent conces
sion, we did not give up the
rights of the Gentiles so far as
to allow Titus to be circum
cised;" though, as is implied in
YER. 5, 6.]
EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS.
293
spy out our liberty which we have in Christ Jesus, that
5 they might bring us into bondage: to whom we gave
place by subjection, no, not for an hour; that the truth
6 of the gospel might continue with you. But of those
who seemed to be somewhat, (whatsoever they were, it
the word fivayKatrdr], there was
an attempt to compel this. So
far is intelligible; the difficulty
is, what to do with the succeeding
clauses. That the two verses
which follow are an anacoluthon,
is obvious. There are two ways
in which the wanting thought
may be supplied: either, (1.)
we may suppose the words, Sid
c) TOVQ irapeiaaKTOvg ^evOadeXtyovQ,
to be connected with r/ray/ccio-fl??,
as though the idea in the Apostle s
mind were, "yet because of the
false brethren there was compul
sion ; " or, (2.) these words may
contain the reason why, as he
tells us in ver. 5., he refused to
yield for an instant. This latter
meaning would be naturally ex
pressed without the anacoluthon,
by the omission of olg, which in
this case may, probably, have
been added on account of the
length of the sentence, like the J
in the doxology at the end of the
Epistle to the Romans. Alto
gether, three ^ ideas seem to be
struggling for expression in these
ambiguous clauses: (1.) Titus
was not circumcised; (2.) though
an attempt was made by the false
brethren to compel him ; (3) which
as a matter of prin ciple we thought
it so much the more our duty to
resist. The ambiguity has arisen
from the double connection in
which the clause 5ia rovy vrapeto--
dKTovg \^f.v^a^e\<f)OVQ stands, (1.)
to r} ray Ko.fr Or] which precedes, and
(2.) to OIQ ov^e TrpoQ utpav eia.[iev
which follow.
4. ofrcrcg 7rapio7/\0o>, who came
in sideways.~^ Coin p.
before.
KaTCHTKOTrfjffai TIJV cXcvOep/av
rifjitiv, to spy out our liberty. ]
It is not likely that the " false
brethren," any more than the
"false apostles" (2 Cor. xi. 13.),
were only Jews. Except as pro
fessing Christians, there could
have been no reason for their
admission to the assemblies of
the believers. That Jews and
Christians must have passed into
each other by insensible grada
tions, is obvious from such pas
sages as the discourse of James
to Paul, in Acts xxi. 17., as well
as from the narratives of Hege-
sippus and Josephus respecting
James himself. The object of
the false brethren was to spy out
whether Paul and Barnabas con
formed to the law, or not ; what
Paul calls their liberty in Christ
Jesus.
5. oie ov$7rpoQ wpai .]] To whom
we gave place no not for an hour,
or (e) simply adversative) to
whom neither did we give place
for a season : compare the use of
ovM in ver. 3.
e i^aptv rj? vTrorccyi/.J Either,
" we yielded in the subjection
which they claimed ;" or, suppos
ing Titus to have been circum
cised, " in the subjection which
we showed."
il d\fi6t.ia. TOV i>ayy\/ov, the
truth of the Gospel.^ That is,
the Gospel as St. Paul preached
it in its freedom, of faith and not
of works.
may re*
u 3
294
EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS.
[On. II.
TrpocrtoTTOv Oeos dvOpcotrov ov Xa/zy8dVei)
yap ot SoKoiWes ouSe^ TrpocravedevTO, dXXa Tovvavriov 7
tSoWes on TreTTtcrTeu/xat TO euayyeXtoz rrjs aAcpo/3vcrrias
Ka6a)$ ITeVpos TT}S Treptro/^s (6 yayo ivepyrjcra^ Ilerpoj ets 8
a7ro(7TO\r)V T7?9 TrepiTOfJLrjs evrjpyvjcrev /cd/iot ets ra tOvrj)
KCU yvovres TT)Z> -^dpiv TT)I> So#eto-dV /xot la/cw^Sos /cat 9
Krj(f)d<s KOL Icodvvrjs, oi So/coiWe? crrvXot drat, Sefta?
e/xot /cat Bapvdfia
1 Om.
IVOL
main with you Gentiles : partly
opposed to TTpoe wjoai>.
6. a?ro ^ rwv ^IOKOVVTWV elvai
ri) but of those who seemed.^ This
sentence is interrupted by a
parenthesis. We may suppose
the Apostle intended to finish it
thus: "But of those who seemed
to be somewhat, I received no
thing." ot loKovvrtQ dval TI, "who
seemed to be somewhat ; " " who
gave the impression of being the
chief men."
oTToloi TTOTE r)(Tttv.] Some de
gree of feeling is indicated in
these words, as in the similar
expression, v. 10., oWte ay rj. and 2
Cor. xi. 5., ot vTrepXiav aTrooroXot.
The Apostle is afraid lest the
expression oi co^ovrree may be
interpreted to mean that he gave
way to their authority; he there
fore hastens to add, that they
were as he was in the sight of
God ; he will not speak of them
slightingly, but he wishes it to
be remembered that God is no
respecter of persons (comp. Rom.
ii. 1 1.; 1 Cor. iv. 3.), and that as a
fact, whatever their dignity and
authority might be, those great
men left him to himself. The
parenthesis is the correction of
the clause with which the verse
began ; and the words, epo\ yap.,
&c., with which the anacoluthon
is resumed, supply a kind of
ground for the words in the
parenthesis. He might seem to
depreciate the other Apostles in
the words oTroloi TTOTE 7)<rav, and he
gives his reason for it: "For
they added nothing to me." It is
probable that yap has a further re
trospective meaning, going back
to ver. 5.: " I acted boldly, for
others did not act."
Trpoffavt.devTo, ] communicated
nothing to me in addition to what
I communicated to them : comp.
, ver. 2., and JJLOVOV r&v
jj.i>ripovv(i)/ijiev in ver.
10. ; or more simply, as in the
English version, " added nothing
to me."
7. d\\a TOVVCLVTIOV, but con
trariwise.^ In what does this
opposition consist? Apparently
in this, that instead of strength
ening the hands of Paul, they left
him to fight his own battle. They
said, " Take your own course ;
preach the Gospel of the uncir-
cumcision to Gentiles, and we
will preach the Gospel of the
circumcision to Jews."
It is remarkable that in this
passage St. Paul speaks, not only
of preaching to Jews and Gen
tiles, but in yet stronger lan
guage of a different Gospel of
the circumcision and uncircum-
cision (comp. ver. 2.). St. Peter
is described in away that harmo
nises with the pre-eminence as
signed to him in the Gospels.
VEB. 79.]
EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS.
295
inaketh no matter to me: God accepteth not* man s
person :) for they who seemed to be somewhat in con-
7 ference added nothing to me : but contrariwise, when
they saw that the Gospel of the uncircumcision was com
mitted unto me, as the gospel of the circumcision was
s unto Peter, (for he that wrought effectually in Peter to
the apostleship of the circumcision, the same wrought*
9 effectually in me toward the Gentiles :) and when James,
Cephas, and John, who seemed to be pillars, perceived the
grace that was given unto me, they gave to me and Bar
nabas the right hands of fellowship ; that we should go
He is the leader of the Jewish, as
St. Paul of the Gentile Christians.
Yet it may be observed also, that
some of the companions of St.
Paul during his imprisonment
are described as ol EK 7repiTOfj,rjc,
Col. iv. 11.; on the other hand
see Tit. i. 10.
8. In 1 Cor. ix. 2. the Apostle
Paul appeals to his doing the
work of an Apostle as a proof of
his Apostleship ; he here de
scribes the same fact as produc
ing its natural impression on the
Twelve. They saw him to be in
another sphere what Peter was
among themselves.
6 |0y>/<7tt,] like 6 /caAeVac, re
fers to God ; comp. above a<f>o~
piffag. In Col. i. 29. St. Paul
speaks of this Divine operation
working in him as rtjv ivepyelav
[rov -9"foi/] rijv ivepyovperrjv iv ifjoi
iv cvvcipei. Also comp. 1 Cor.
xii. 6.t Kcil fiiaipe.o eigevep yriijLaTWv
eiffiv, 6 f)e O.VTOQ SZOQ b ivepy&v TO.
TTCLVra tV TTCLfflV.
9. James, Cephas, and John.~\
Some MSS. read Peter and James
and John ; a variation which has
probably arisen from the habit of
assigning the primacy to Peter,
or from the natural affinity of the
names James and John, the sons
of Zebedee, to the eye and mind
of the copyist. James may be
mentioned first, as the leader of
the Judaizing party : see below
ver. 12. The order of the names
as they are found in the best MS-
is of itself a proof that James, the
son of Zebedee, who is every
where immediately coupled with
his brother, is not here meant,
and is therefore an incidental
confirmation of the narrative of
his death in the Acts ; it has also
some bearing on the question of
the occasion, as on the second
journey of St. Paul to Jerusalem.
(Acts, xi. 30., xii. 25.) James,
the brother of John, was pro
bably alive.
01 $OKOVVT (TTV\Ol flWl, wllO
seemed to be pillar s.~] The word
SOKOVVTIQ is a resumption of TOIQ
SOKOVGIV, and SOKOVVTEQ tlvai rt, in.
ver. 2. and 6. For orOXoi, comp.
Rev. iii. 12. arvXov iv r VCHJJ
TOV 6eov. It was a common Jew
ish figure, applied to teachers of
the law. Schoettgen, i. 728, 729.
iva . . . VptTOfj.f]v, that . . . circum
cision.^ How is this division of
labour to be understood ? Not
if we may judge from the Acts ?
t 4
296
EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS.
[CH. II.
avrol
rrjp
81
Se eis rrjp TrepiTOfJuv, JJLOVOV TQ>V TTTtoyv va 10
o Kal IcnrovSacra avrb TOVTO TroiTJcrai. ore 11
Kara Troartoirov avra>
Herpos.
as though it were intended that
Paul should confine himself to
the Gentiles, and Peter to the
circumcision ; for in every place
Paul first preached to the Jews,
and in nearly every place the Ju-
daizers followed in his track. It
may mean either that St. Paul was
not " to intrude on other men s
labours;" or that one Gospel was
to be preached to the Gentiles,
leaving open the question of
circumcision, and another to the
Jews, enforcing or encouraging
the practice. The sense in which
the agreement was made may
have been determined, either by
the character of the Church,
whether composed chiefly of
Jewish or heathen Christians ; or
by its situation, whether in Pales
tine or elsewhere, or by the
Gospel having been preached at
a particular place by St. Paul, or
by one of the Twelve. That,
independently of his own labours,
St. Paul found the faith of Christ
growing up around him, and the
preaching of others coming into
contact with his own, is implied
in Rom. xv. 20. ; 2 Cor. x. 13.
We can hardly suppose that,
in the fluctuating state of the
Church, the agreement could
have been strictly acted upon,
especially in Churches like An-
tioch and Corinth, in which both
parties must have met.
10. fjLOVOV . . . IVd fJ.Vri}JLOVf.Vli)}Jif.V t
only they would that we should
remember.^ For the use of Iva.
in requests, compare 2 Cor. viii. 7.
The poor are "the poor saints
of Jerusalem," Rom. xv. 26.,
who appear to have been a fre
quent object of charity with the
Churches among which the Apo
stle preached.
It is a presumption of the still
unbroken unity of the Church,
that the Jewish Christians were
willing to receive, or the Gentiles
to give alms. This presumption
is further strengthened by the
manner in which the obligation
to contribute is viewed, both in
the Epistles to the Romans and
the Corinthians, Rom. xv. 27. :
" They thought it good, and their
debtors they are ; for if the Gen
tiles have participated with them
in their spiritual things, they
ought also to participate with
them in temporal things." Com
pare 1 Cor. xvi. 1., ix. 1.
Two collections for the Church
at Jerusalem are mentioned ; the
first (Acts, xi. 29.), that which was
carried up on St. Paul s second
journey from Antioch ; the second,
the collection in Macedonia and
Achaia, which he brought with
him on his last visit to Jerusalem,
in the contributions to which the
Galatians had themselves a share
(1 Cor. xvi. 1.).
avro TOUTO"] implies that it was
the very thing which, even inde
pendent of the agreement, he
desired, and intended to do.
11 21. The conduct of Peter
is not easy to understand. Al
ready, at the council or concordat
of the Apostles, he had agreed to
impose no burdens on the Gentile
Christians : and, at a much ear
lier period in the history of the
Apostles, he had not only been
VER. 10, 11.] EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS.
297
10 unto the heathen, and they unto the circumcision. Only
they would that we should remember the poor ; the same
11 which I also was forward to do. But when Cephas 1 was
come to Antioch, I withstood him to the face, because
Peter.
charged witli going in unto men
uncircumcised, and eating with
them, but had taught others
" that they were to call nothing
common or unclean." And now,
not of his own free will, but
under the influence of certain
who came from Jerusalem, from
a fear of the very same charge,
" thou wentest in unto men
uncircumcised, and didst eat with
them," he held back, and seemed
to view his Christian brethren
with the feelings with which he
would have regarded men who
sat at meat in an idol s temple.
It is remarkable, and may be con
sidered as a proof of the truth of
the history, that his conduct,
however unintelligible, is in keep
ing with Peter s character. We
recognise in it the lineaments of
him who confessed Christ first,
and first denied him ; who began
by refusing that Christ should
wash his feet, and then said,
" not my feet only, but my hands
and my head ;" who cut off the
ear of the servant of the High
Priest, when they came to take
Jesus, and then forsook him
and fled. Boldness and timidity,
first boldness, then timidity, were
the characteristics of his nature.
It was natural for such a one,
though no longer strictly a Jew
himself, to desire that others
should conform to the prej udices of
Jews ; such conduct agreed with
the bent of his own mind, though
he formallv disowned it. There
is, we may observe, in many
men, a sort of tenderness to
what they once were themselves ;
as there is another class of men
who learn a lesson, but only to
apply it under given circum
stances. Something of this kind
there may have been in St. Peter ;
a narrowness of perception, or
secret sympathy with the Juda-
izing converts, which prevented
his seeing the wider truth which
presented itself to St. Paul. At
any rate, his was a disposition on
which ancient habits and feelings
were ever liable to return ; whose
heart could scarcely avoid linger
ing around the weak and beggarly
elements of the law ; on whom in
age the lessons of youth were too
prone to come back, "carrying
him whither he would not." The
charge which St. Paul brings
against him was, inconsistency
with himself; he was half a Gen
tile, and wanted to make the
Gentiles altogether Jews. So,
in chap. vi. of the Galatians,
ver. 13.,vhe says of the Judaizing
teachers "For neither do they
that have been circumcised keep
the law ;" in other words, even
the Judaizers are inconsistent
with themselves; they too charged
on him (chap. v. 11.) that he still
preached circumcision.
1 1. ore e) //After, jc.r.X., but when
Cephas, $*.] The place here
alluded to is Antioch in Syria,
whither the Apostles Saul and
Barnabas returned after the meet-
298
EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS.
[On. II.
dvTO~T7jv, on
ore e
rjv. Trpo rov yap e\OeLV 12
Tu>a,9 CCTTO laKotfiov /xera TMV iOvwv
rjXvov, vTrecrreXXe* Kal d^copL^ev tavrov,
CK TrepiTOfJirjs, Kal crvvvTr^Kpidr^o-av aura) /cat 01 XOITTOI 13
JovSaioi, cocrre Acal Bapvdfias crvvaTT^Orj avTa>v Trj VTTO-
Kpicret. dXX* ore eiSoz> on OVK opdoTro^ovcnv Trpbs TT)I> 1*
aXrjdeiav rov evayyeXiov, el7TOJ> rw Kvj^a ^irpocrOev Trdv-
TOJV El (TV louSaio? vTrdpxwv lOviK&s Kal ov% Iou8ai /cws
5, Trai? 1 ra lft/77 d^ay/ca^eis lovSai ^et^ ;
<f)vcrL JovSatoi, /cat ou/c e^ I6va)v d/xa^rcoXot is
Tt.
ing at Jerusalem. We have no
means of knowing on what occa
sion or at what time the dispute
here alluded to took place. St.
Paul was at Antioch with Bar
nabas, immediately after the coun
cil, and (probably by himself)
at the close of his second Aposto
lical journey.
on KarEyvii)ffp.Fvoq i\v^ because
he ivas condemned, ] not as in the
English version, "because he was
to be blamed;" nor "because he
was condemned," in the sense of
"condemned by the agreement of
the Apostles, or by public opinion,
or by his own conscience," a
mode of explaining the word
which supplies more than the
laws of language will allow ;
but generally "condemned," in
the sense of "was in the wrong ;"
the participle, as in the case of
TrapaXeXv^eVoc, and other words,
passing into an adjective.
12. The obvious meaning of
this verse is, that Peter acted
under the influence of certain
that came from James. In most
controversies the followers are
less scrupulous than the leaders ;
in this case it is impossible for us
to determine what was the degree
of these persons connection with
the brother of the Lord, or how
far they were responsible for the
conduct of the Galatian teachers.
The words, however, imply that
they were actually sent by James.
It must be remembered that in
Acts xxi. 18. James advises Paul
to propitiate " the multitude zea
lous for the law," by performing
a vow in the temple. His conduct
on the present occasion, whether
reconcilable or not with what is
related of him in Acts xv., is
perfectly in accordance with the
narrative just alluded to, as well
as with the ecclesiastical tradition
respecting him.
The attempts of Origen, Je
rome, Chrysostom, and Theophy-
lact, to show that the dispute
between Peter and Paul was
either a preconcerted controversy
for the edification of believers, or
that Cephas here mentioned was
some obscure disciple, and not the
Apostle, are not without interest,
as illustrating the history of the
interpretation of Scripture.
(rvvii<rttiv.~\ The eating together
among the Jews, as in the East
at the present day, was a sign of
close communion and fellowship.
VEB. 1215.] EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS.
299
12 he* was condemned. For before that certain came
from James, he did eat with the Gentiles : but when
they were come he withdrew and separated himself,
is fearing them which were of the circumcision. And the
other Jews dissembled likewise with him ; insomuch
that Barnabas also was carried away with their dis-
14 simulation. But when I saw that they Avalked not
uprightly according to the truth of the Gospel, I said
unto Peter before them all, If thou being a Jew, livest
after the manner of Gentiles, and not as do the Jews,
how 1 compellest thou the Gentiles to live as do the
Jews?
We who are Jews by nature, and not sinners of
15
Why.
We can well imagine the feelings
of aversion that would have to be
subdued before men of a different
race or religion could be induced
to eat at the same table. This
was not, however, Peter s case ;
he had once eaten with the Gen
tiles, and could not now hold it
a matter of principle, or even of
feeling, to abstain from doing so.
Timidity, or the undue influence
of others, was the cause of his
conduct. Hence St. Paul charges
him with " hypocrisy," that is,
with having implied an objection
which he did not really feel, or
which his previous custom did
not justify.
Besides the antagonism in which
this passage represents the two
great Apostles, it throws an im
portant light on the history of
the Apostolic Church in the fol
lowing respects : (1.) As exhi
biting Peter s relation to James,
and his fear of those who were of
the circumcision, whose leader we
should have naturally supposed
him to have been. (2.) Also, as
portraying the state of indecision
in which all, except St. Paul, even
including Barnabas, were in re
ference to the observance of the
Jewish law.
14. TTjOoe ri]v d.\r\Qeiav TOV tvety-
ycX/ou.] In reference to the truth
of the Gospel ; that is, as above,
ver. 5., the truth of the Gospel
which I preach among you, not
of works, but of faith.
tpTrpoaQev TTCIVTU)! .^ I spake
openly to them, though they were
all against me, and remonstrated
with Peter:
Why do you, who are yourself
only half a Jew, seek to make
the Gentiles Jews ? Or, why do
you, who have hitherto been eat
ing with Gentiles, now withdraw
yourself to constrain them to
conform ?
aVaymeie, compellest.^ That
is to say, of Peter, his principle
logically involved this, or his in
fluence and example would be
likely to effect it.
15 21. These words are the
substance of a conversation be-
300
EPISTLE TO THE GALATIAXS.
[On. II.
lav 16
tSoT<? oe on ov SiKaLOVTaL av0pot)7ro e
JU,T) Sia Trurreoj? Irjcrov yjpi<7Tov y Kal 07/^615 ets
Irjcrovv eTTio Tevo afJiep, Iva SiKaiOjOcofJiep IK Tucrrecc)?
Kal OVK l epyajv VOJJLOV, on e epyaiv vopov ov
crerat Tracra crdp. el Se ^roiWcs St/catw^^at
Kal avrol d/iapraAoi, apa ^ptcrros
/IT) yeVoiro. e yap a Kare Xvcra, raura iraXiv is
, Trapa/BaTT)!; i^avrov crwicrTdVco. 1 eyaj yap Sta 19
17
(TVJ HTTVJfM.
tween the two Apostles, of which
one side only is narrated, and
which soon passes off into the
general subject of the Epistle.
Verse 14. is the answer of St.
Paul to Peter; what follows is
more like the Apostle musing or
arguing with himself, with an
indirect reference to the Gala-
tians. Compare John iii., where
the discourses of Christ with
Nicodemus, and of John the Bap
tist, appear in the same way to
mingle imperceptibly with the
thoughts of the Evangelist ; also
Rom. iii. 18. ; 1 Cor. xi. 25.
15. Hfjieig (j)va-Ei loy^cuot, We
are Jews by nature.^ St. Paul,
as already remarked, is not in
these words literally answering
Peter, but putting himself in the
position of one who was answer
ing : " We," he says, "who are
not, according to our favourite
phrase, sinners of the Gentiles,
but natural-born Jews." Compare
the common expression, TeXwvai
Kal apapTuXol, Matt. ix. 10, 11. ;
also Rom. ix. 30. iQvr ra
For the construction we may
supply tercet , or carry on the
thought to f.TnffTf.vrrap.f.v. Accord
ing to the first explanation, we
may translate as follows : " We
are Jews by birth, and not sin
ners of the Gentiles ; still we
know that it is by faith a man is
justified, and not by works of the
law." At verse 16. a quotation
is introduced from Psalm cxliii. 2.
(which occurs again in Rorn. iii.
20.) ; here the transition seems to
be already made from the con
versation with Peter to the ge
neral argument. The ellipse is
somewhat harsh, and may be
avoided by adopting the other
construction, which gives more
point to the words, Kal OVK i
iQvuv apapTuXot. " We, who are
not sinners of the Gentiles, and
therefore, of course, needing re
demption, but born Jews, the
natural heirs of the kingdom. of
God; knowing, however (Se ), that
for the Jew as well as the Gen
tile, the way is not by works, but
by faith, we too, I say, have
believed on Christ that we may
be justified by faith in Christ,
and not by works of the law, for
by the works of the law shall no
flesh be justified."
The verses that follow are ex
tremely obscure. The connection
seems to require that the Apostle
should say something which has
a bearing on Peter s inconsis
tency. We Jews, he has said,
are justified by Christ, and not
by the law. You think he is
VER. 1619.] EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS.
301
16 the Gentiles, knowing that a man is not justified by
the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus
Christ, even we have believed in Jesus Christ, that we
might be justified by the faith of Christ, and not
by the works of the law : for by the works of the
17 law shall no flesh be justified. But if, while we seek
to be justified in Christ, we ourselves also are found
sinners, then is Christ the minister of sin. God forbid.
is For if I build again the things which I destroyed, I
19 make myself a transgressor. For I through the law
going to drive the argument
home by adding : " But we are
not justified by Christ, if we
conform to the law ; " or in his
own words, " Behold, if ye be
circumcised, Christ shall profit
you nothing." This is what we
expect him to say, and what he
does say, though wrapt in ob
scurity from the peculiar view
implied here, and more explicitly
drawn out in the Epistle to the
Romans, of the relation of sin
and the law.
17 20. But if seeking to be
justified in Christ, we, too, are
found sinners as well as the Gen
tiles ; that is, in other words, if
we too fall back under the power
of the law, Christ becomes the
cause of this ; we make Him the
minister of that law which is
the strength of sin," which " re
viving, we die." Not so, it were
absurd to think it. It is we, not
he, who are the ministers of sin ;
we make ourselves transgressors
by imposing upon ourselves a law
which makes us transgress. We
build up what we pulled down.
The law was but the negation of
itself, the means to its own ex
tinction, and the creation of a
new life in us. But now the law
that was dead is made alive
again.
Had the thought of the law
being death been placed first,
there would have been no diffi
culty in understanding the Apo
stle s meaning, which clears up as
we proceed. He is speaking from
his own point of view, not from
ours, or from that of his oppo
nents. He cannot imagine any
justified by works, without falling
under the power of sin. "What
soever is not of faith, is sin," as
he says in the Romans. And
when men are in this sinful con
dition, was it Christ that brought
them to it ? Not Christ, but
what they have added to Christ ;
for where there is no law, there
is no transgression.
18. If I return "to the weak
and beggarly elements," if I re
construct the edifice which I
pulled down, I put myself within
the sphere of transgression, I
make myself a sinner by going
to the law.
19. Three explanations are
given of this verse: (1.) "I,
through the law in a higher
sense, became dead to the law in
a lower; " or, "I, through the law
of the Spirit of life, became dead
302
EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS.
. II.
VOJJLO* aTTcOavov, Iva Oeu ttfcro). ^oicrroJ crwecrrau- 20
* w Se OVKTL lya>, 77 Se iv e/>tol ^otcrrds* o Se vvv
a) eV crap/a, eV Tucrrei &&gt; rf) rov Oeov /cat ypicrrov
to the law of Moses" (comp.
1 Cor. ix, 21.:-~-7? w
an
interpretation which requires the
word " law " to be taken in two
different senses in the same pas
sage, and of which it is no
justification to say that in diffe
rent passages the word yo/ioc,
when helped by the connection,
may bear either. No one could
imagine that the sentence, "I
through the law to the law am
dead," if translated out of or into
any language, would admit of the
word " law " being taken in dif
ferent senses.
(2.) The words may be taken
as signifying "the law itself
has taught me to disregard the
law;" the law itself was the
schoolmaster to bring me to
Christ, saying the same things
respecting faith and forgiveness
of sins. Such a way of explaining
the passage would be confirmed
by other places in which St. Paul
seeks to base justification by
faith on the words of the law,
Yet it is inadequate to the ex
pression he here uses, which is
far stronger : not, " I by the
words of the law was taught that
the words of the law were of no
authority ; " but, " I through the
law was dead to the law."
(3.) It seems better to take the
word ropes in this passage, not
for a written book, but for that
power over the heart and con
science of which the Apostle
speaks in the Romans, where he
says : " When the law came, sin
revived, and I died," First let
us consider the words did
air id avov, " I through the law was
dead that I may live." The law
had wrought in me the infinite
consciousness of sin, and the sense
that, do what I would, the fulfil
ment of its requirements was
impossible. It was a state of
death, but of death unto life.
Now, the Apostle adds to this
thought, "through the law I died
unto the law, that I may live unto
God." (Compare the parallelism
in Rom. vi. 10., "in that he died he
died unto sin once, but in that
he liveth he liveth unto God.")
In this second relation dniQavov
is used in a different sense. For
as before it denoted the highest
state of discord, the "paralysis
of our moral nature," here in
reference to VQ\JUJ> it rather denotes
insensibility to the law which
has no more power over a dead
man.
It has been objected to the
above explanation that too much
use is made in it of the Epistle to
the Romans, and especially that
it supposes the doctrine of the
seventh chapter of the Romans
to have been everywhere and at
all times present to the mind of
the Apostle. That it was present
in writing this passage, is, I think,
shown by the expression, " I
through the law was dead to the
law," which is more abrupt and
epigrammatical than the language
of the Epistle to the Romans,
yet, in substance, the same.
When the Apostle says, "the
law came and sin revived, and J
died," arid goes on to trace the
VER. 20.]
EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS.
303
20 am dead to the law, that I might live unto God. I
am crucified with Christ : nevertheless I live ; yet not
I, but Christ liveth in me : and the life which I now
live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God,
course of this death, paralysing
the soul, which at last, in its
agony, casts aside the burden too
heavy to be borne, is not this an
expansion, or dramatic illustra
tion, of the words just quoted ?
The truth of an interpretation
is sometimes tested by a compari
son with other interpretations.
What other interpretations of
this passage are possible ? First,
here as in Rom. vi. the Apostle
may be answering antinomian
objections, and with this the
general tone of the passage agrees,
the fatal flaw being the want of
connection with Peter s speech ;
or, secondly, verse 17. may be
paraphrased as follows : "If we
believers in Christ maintain obe
dience to the law, and at the same
time transgress it, is Christ the
cause of this ? No, not Christ,
but ourselves." But here, though
the sense of the words, evpldr^pev
(ecu avroi apapTtiXoi, be easier, the
connection with ver. 19, 20. again
breaks down.
tva Sew /;o-.] He carries on
the figure of a "living death."
Himself and his sins are like the
body of death, but within that
crucified body Christ lives as on
the cross. (Comp. Rom. vi. vii.)
20. As in the Epistle to the Ro
mans, the Apostle speaks of the
old man as crucified with Christ,
so here, adopting the same image,
he says, "I am crucified with
Christ ; nevertheless, I live. "
Death and life equally represent
the believer s state, death unto
life, or in life, as the phrase may
be turned with equal truth.
The words which follow afford
a good example of the manner in
which the language of identity,
or communion with Christ, passes
into that of substitution. First,
we are said to die or live with
Christ. Then the phrase receives
a further development ; not only
we live or die with Christ, but
Christ lives or dies in us. First,
we are one with Christ, and then
Christ is put in our place. So
far we are using the same lan
guage with the Apostle. At the
next stage a difference appears.
We begin with figures of speech
sacrifice, ransom, lamb of God ;
and go on with logical deter
minations finite, infinite, satis
faction, necessity in the nature
of things. St. Paul also begins
with figures of speech life, death,
the flesh ; but passes on to the
inward experience of the life of
faith, and the consciousness of
Christ dwelling in us.
o $e v\)v (t> iv aapKi.~\ Not as
explained by some interpreters,
"my present life in the Jews
religion, under this temporal dis
pensation of the law ;" but more
generally, "my present life in this
world, I live in faith on the Son of
God." Comp. 2 Cor. v. 6. 7
" We walk by faith and not by
sight." o, "whereas," or "what,"
in apposition with the sentence :
" as to what I now live."
This clause is not a limitation of
what had gone before, but rather
304 EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS. [Cn. II.
ayairrfcravTOs ju,e KOL TrapaSovros iavrov VTrep e/xou. OVK 21
aOeTO) Tr}v ^apw TOV 6eov el yap Sia VOJJLOV SiKcuocrtV^,
apa ^otcrro? Svpedv aired avtv.
a realisation of it, as it is a re- inhabitant of this world. But as
cognition of his present imperfect in the Romans, he speaks of those
state. He had said before: "I who are justified by faith, and
am crucified with Christ ; yet it have the first-fruits of the Spirit,
is not I that live, but Christ that as groaning within themselves,
liveth in me." This is the Ian- " waiting for the redemption of
guage of one who is no longer an the body," so here, the remem-
VER. 21.] EFISTLE TO THE GALATIANS. 305
21 who loved me, and gave himself for me. I do not
frustrate the grace of God ; for if righteousness come
by the law, then Christ is dead in vain.
brance comes back to him of his 21. I do not make void the
earthly and dependent being : grace of God, as I should do if I
"But the life I now live, so far conformed to the law ; for if there
as it is to be called life in this were righteousness by the law,
evil state, I live by faith in him Christ s death would have been
who has done all things for me." of no use.
VOL. I.
306 EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS.
THE reasons for supposing the meeting of St. Paul with the Apostles
at Jerusalem, mentioned in chap, ii., to be the same with that com
monly called the Council, Acts xv., are briefly the following :
i. The date of the meeting mentioned in Gal. ii. 1., which, whe
ther we suppose it to have taken place fourteen or seventeen
years after the conversion of St. Paul, agrees with the limits
of time which the indefinite chronology of the Acts allows
us to assign to the Council, but not with any other visit of
St. Paul to Jerusalem ; that is, neither with the earlier visit
(commonly termed the second), the circumstances of which
are narrated in Acts xi. 30., xii. 25., and the date of which
appears nearly to coincide with the death of Herod Agrippa,
A.D. 44, and is therefore previous to the Apostle s first mis
sionary journey, and prior also to his success in preaching
the Gospel as Apostle of the Gentiles (compare Gal. ii. 8.);
nor with the visit, of which a very brief mention is preserved
in Acts xviii. 22., commonly called the fourth, which oc
curred about three or four years later, after the separation
of Paul and Barnabas, and is unattended with any of the
persons or occurrences mentioned in the Epistle ; nor obvi
ously with the last visit, which led to the uproar in the
Temple, and the imprisonment of the Apostle for two years
at Cesarea, and for two years afterwards at Rome.
ii. The impossibility, on other grounds, of placing the Council
either before or after the meeting of the Apostles in the Gala-
tians : before, because St. Paul, in the enumeration of his
journeys, would not have omitted the one which bore most
directly on the question in dispute; after, for the same
EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS. 307
reason, which equally applies, unless we suppose the Council
to have taken place after the Epistle was written, that is,
towards the end of the Apostle s stay at Ephesus, Acts
xviii. 19., xix. 41., which, again, is wholly irreconcilable
with the order of the Acts. It is to be observed also that
the reference made by James, in Acts xxi. 25., is to the
event commonly called the Council, in Acts xv., and is in
consistent with any similar event having taken place later,
iii. The improbability of a repetition of an event, in which so
many of the circumstances are the same: e.g.
(1.) Place in which the dispute originated. Probably,
Antioch. Comp. Acts xv. 1.; Gal. ii. 11.
(2.) Subject. Circumcision of the Gentiles.
(3.) Persons. Paul, Barnabas, certain others, Acts xv. 2.,
among whom, probably, Titus, who is nowhere
mentioned in the Acts, James, Cephas.
(4.) Occasion. " Men which came down from Judaea, and
taught the brethren," which has a degree of parallel
with those who " came from James to Antioch," in
Gal. ii. 12.
iv. These similarities cannot be set aside by the supposed discre
pancies, which are : >
(1.) The publicity of the Council, compared with Gal.
ii. 2., fear tZlav TOIQ SOKOVGI.
(2.) The unbroken image of harmony presented by the
narrative of the Acts, contrasted with the tone of
Gal. ii. 26.
(3.) The subordinate position of the Apostle St. Paul in
the narrative of the Acts, and the prominent one of
James and Peter, who are the chief expounders of
the freedom of the Gospel, compared with their
relations as described in Gal. ii. 6.
(4.) The difference between the final resolution in the
Acts, which is embodied in a formal decree of the
x 2
308 EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS.
Church at Jerusalem, passed at a council by the ad
vice of James, which decree Paul and Barnabas dis
tribute among the other Churches, and the mere
agreement or arrangement, described in the Epistle
as taking place between Paul and Barnabas on the
one side, as Apostles of the Gentiles, and James,
Cephas, and John, as Apostles of the circumcision,
on the other.
It cannot be denied that these discrepancies are important ; yet,
in reference to their bearing on our present argument, it must be
remembered that they are of a kind which would be likely to arise
in two authorities so different as the letter of the Apostle himself
and the narrative of a subsequent date, which casts the veil of time
over a dispute which had passed away, and which perhaps attributes
to an earlier age the forms of proceeding and modes of speech which
existed somewhat later.
The discrepancies which appear elsewhere between the Epistles of
St. Paul and the Acts of the Apostles tend to impair the force of any
argument from difference in the two accounts, while they leave the
force of the argument from coincidences undiminished.
309
CHAPTERS III. IV.
THE Apostle has concluded his narrative, and the argument to
which it gave birth. His thoughts return to the Galatians, whom he
once more addresses with the same vehement emotion as at i. 6 10.
He schools them, like children 5 he appeals to their experience ; he
bids them remember the hour of their conversion. Did they mean
to invert the order of grace ? beginning with what was inward, to
end with what was outward; in the spirit once, and now in the
flesh ? Those influences of which they had been the subject ; those
great effects which they had witnessed did they spring from
works of the law, or from the hearing of faith ? As elsewhere, the
word " faith " awakens a new strain of argument in the Apostle s
mind, which, dropping his previous emotion, he pursues to the end
of the chapter. This argument is based on the words of Genesis :
" Abraham had faith in God, and it was counted to him for
righteousness." Like the parallel discourse on the same theme in
the Epistle to the Romans (ch. iv.) 5 it may be divided into two
parts: in the first (1.) of which Abraham, the father of the faithful,
is identified with his children, and the faith of both contrasted with
the works of the law, as blessing is to cursing in the language of
the law itself from which curse of the law, Christ, by becoming a
curse (as the law also taught), has made a way of escape, that the
blessing of Abraham might reach the Gentiles ; the second (2.)
division of the argument (which commences with ver. 15.), taking
occasion from the words " unto thy seed," which the Apostle, in
passing, refers to Christ, and dwelling specially on the time at which
x 3
310 EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS,
the promise was made (430 years before the law), thereby showing
the mediate, subordinate, intercalary character of the latter.
The feeling which marked the opening of the Epistle, and the
address to the Galatians, reappears again at the ninth verse of the
fourth chapter. The bearing of the previous passage had been to
show that the state of those under the law was a kind of pupilage
or slavery, from which Christ had redeemed us by being himself
" born under the law," as, in a nearly similar way of speaking, it
was said, at ver. 13. of the previous chapter, that he had " redeemed
us from the curse of the law by being made a curse for us." Of this
truth of redemption from the law, the Apostle proceeds to make a
practical application to the Galatians themselves, contrasting their
half heathen, half Jewish superstitions with the liberty of the
sons of God. Then, for an instant, he pauses to speak of his per
sonal relation to them. He was touched by the thought of their
ancient love for him, especially when he remembered his own in
firmities which, instead of being an object of disgust to them, seemed
almost to transfigure him into the likeness of Christ Jesus. But
how had this passed away ! He will not accuse them of a wrong to
himself (though he can find no other reason for their change of
feeling, but his own plain speaking) ; he will only beg of them
to be at one with him again. He then briefly glances at the false
teachers, their reception of whom he seems to attribute to a sort of
ignorance of the world, and as if words out of the law must be better
rhetoric to them than any that he could employ, once more harp
ing on the instance of Abraham, he repeats the story of Isaac and
Ishmael, the child of promise, and the child born after the flesh, and
arguing in a manner more convincing and intelligible to his own age
than to ours, as above from the letter of the text, so here from the
connection between Hagar and the land in which the law was given,
he concludes, as he began, the chapter by associating the idea of
bondage with the law.
312
EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS.
[CH. III.
T /2 dvorjroi PaXctrai, TI S i/ms ipda-Kavtv 1 , ots /car 3
TOVTO povov OeXa) p^aOelv dfi V^MV, ef epycov vopov TO 2
eXa/3er, ^ e f d/co^s TTicrrecos ; ovrws dvorjroi ecrre ; 3
Tn^ev/xan ^v^ crap/a eTnreXetcr^e ; rocraSra 4
Add rr? aAr/flefa ^ iretOevQai. 2 Add ey U|U?i/.
III. From the statement of
facts, the Apostle proceeded, at
the close of the last chapter, to
a brief summary of the doctrine
which he preached, and now
passes on to make a personal
appeal to his Galatian converts.
In the 6th verse he returns to
the doctrine, which is confirmed,
as in the Romans, by the case of
Abraham, and deduced by va
rious arguments from the Old
Testament Scriptures. From the
17th verse to the end of the
previous chapter, he has been
covertly arguing with the Gala-
tians (corap. Rom. ii. 1 17.).
In the 20th verse, his feelings
warm, as he describes the hidden
life of Christ in the soul ; the fire
kindles with the remembrance,
that the Galatian converts had
seen and known the same things,
and had had Christ crucified
evidently set before them, until,
at last, he bursts forth upon them
with the words : " O senseless
Galatians ! who hath bewitched
you who had such lively ex
perience of the truth which now
with such levity ye throw aside?
Of whom it might be said that
ye saw Christ with your own
eyes. This only I inquire, was
it by faith or works that you
were originally converted?"
1. r/e VJJ.O.Q l&affKaver ; wJto
hath bewitched you?~\ ftaoxaivu,
derived from /3aw, flavKi*) (com
pare fari fascino), in its original
meaning signified " to charm with
words : " it is often applied to the
influence of the evil eye. Here,
however, the general sense (as
commonly in the decline of lan
guage, in which more precise
meanings of words are apt to be
lost) is the safer one, not " who
hath bewitched by his gaze you
who had once looked upon Christ,"
but simply " who hath bewitched
or cast a spell upon you," without
any opposition to Kar o^flaAjuovc.
[The words ry aXrjOetq, JJLJI
TTEiOefrdaL are omitted in most of
the older manuscripts, as well as
by all recent editors, and have
probably crept in from ver. 7.
(Comp. Rom. viii. 1. 4.)]
olg fear* o00a\juouc, before, fyc.~\
" Before whose eyes Christ cru
cified, as in a picture, was set."
For an instance of the same pic
torial language comp. 2 Cor. iii.
18. : TYIV $6ay Kvpiov KaroTrrpi-
(,( ) JJLEVOL, TIJV avrrjv ft/com yuera-
\_iv vpiv is omitted by A. B. C.,
and in the late editions. If re
tained, it may be taken: (1.)
with Trpoeypa^r}^ and is then an
emphatic repetition of olg ; or,
(2.) with loravjowjuo oc, in the
latter case^better in the sense of
" in you " than " among you," in
the same way that at ch. ii. ver.
20. it was said // kv ipol yjpiaTOQ.~\
7T(t)oypa07/, not " written down
beforehand," or " written down
openly " (which, whether re
ferred to the prophecies or the
Epistles of St. Paul, is wanting
VER. 13.] EPISTLE TO THE GALAT1ANS.
313
3 foolish Galatians, who hath bewitched you 1 , before
whose eyes Jesus Christ hath been evidently set forth
2 erucified among you ? This only would I learn of you,
Eeceived ye the Spirit by the works of the law, or by
s the hearing of faith ? Are ye so foolish ? having begun
in the spirit are ye now made perfect by the flesh ?
1 Add that ye should not obey the truth.
in point), but " pictured openly ;"
TTjOo being used of place, and not
of time, and ypatyeiv in the sense
of " to paint." No other instance
occurs of the word Trpoypafytiv
in this signification, which is,
nevertheless, required by the
association of /car ofytiaXpovQ ftnd
f orravpw^eroc, and is in some
degree supported by the analogy
of TrpoXc yw (Thuc. i. 139.), of
(Rom. iii. 25.), and of
itself, in the sense
of "to write publicly." The
difficulty is not, however, to
prove that Kpo, in composition,
means " openly," or ypatyuy " to
paint," but to explain how the
compound word Trpoypatyeiv has
received the meaning of the two
simple ones. May not the Apostle
have employed the word, as, per
haps, TrporiyelcrOat in Rom. xii.
10., in an etymological sense ? It
is a sound canon of criticism,
that where the style and use of
words arc irregular, as in the Xew
Testament, more weight should
be given to the context, and loss
to precedent and authority.
2. Let me ask you one ques
tion : I will put the matter to one
test, Was it of works or of faith
that you received the Spirit?
What does St. Paul mean by
receiving the Spirit ? not merely
a moral change or renewal of the
heart, but that sudden conver
sion which is described in the
Acts of the Apostles as "the
as upon us at the beginning.
He appeals to the Galatians on
the ground which he felt to be
the foundation of his own faith
inward experience, dating from
that period " when he saw the
Lord." (1 Cor. ix. 1.)
has an echo of
in ii. 20. Com p.
1 Cor. i. 23., ii. 2.
uKot} TTt oTfwe.] The first act of
faith whereby a man became a
Christian, was bound up with
the word of the preacher : " So,
then, faith cometh by hearing,
and hearing by the word of
God." (Rom. x. 17.) Hearing is
to faith what works are to the
law : if by hearing (to apply one
of the Apostle s formulas), then no
more of works." The contrast is
of faith as a receptive power,
drinking in the Spirit of the Gos
pel ; and the law as a constraining
power, compelling outward acts.
frupsciyuerot iri-e i^mn.] Taking
up the WvOrds of the two previous
verses, dy&yrot, Tri tv/a/, as his
Holy Ghost
upon them.
manner is, the Apostle adds:
Having begun in the Spirit,
are ye now ending in the flesh ?"
The opposition is not between
holiness and uncleanness, or good
and evil generally ; but between
the Gospel and the law. <n<p is
used in a tiguiv as the symbol of
what is outward and visible ; also
as the seat of the desires which
the law stirs into sinful action.
(Rom. vii. 7, 8.) It is applied to
the Mosaic dispensation: (I.) in
314
EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS.
[CM. III.
et/c?7 ; ei ye /cat et/CTj. o ovv tTTiyoprjytov VJJLW TO 5
/cat ivepyaiv 8wa/x,ets eV v/jct^ ef epyaiv VO^JLOV rj
ef aKorjs mcrrecds ; KaOws Afipadp, eVtcrrevcrez rw #e<, G
/cat eXoytcr#?7 avrco ets St/catocrwTp. ytz too /cere apa on 7
ot e /c Trtcrrecus oSrot 1 vtot etcrtz/ A/Spad^. 7rpol8ov(ra 8e s
07 ypa^j] OTI e/c Trtcrrews St/catot ra e^7^ 6 0eos, wpoevTjy-
yeXtcraro raj A/Spaa^, ort e^evXoy^^cro^rat ez^ o~ot
iravra ra #^77. a>crre ot e/c Trtcrrea)? euXtfyowrat crv^ 9
rw 7Tto~ra) A/3padjJL. oo~oi yap l epya>v VOJJLOV etcrt^, 10
VTTO Kardpav eicriv. yeypaTrrat yap ort 2 eVt/carapaTos
uiof. 2 Om. STJ.
tvtpyCov iv vfjilv.~\ " The worker
of miraculous powers in you ;"
that is, who gave you or made
you the subjects of miraculous
powers (i.e. God). Comp. 1 Cor.
xii. 28. for the meaning ; and for
the construction of eV, Phil. ii.
13., 00 6 J jOyWV J VfJlly Kttl
TO 0\iv Kal TO ivepytiv.
The Apostle is still referring to
the time of their conversion, as is
shown by the repetition of the
word TrvfUjua, from ver. 2, 3., and
the use of ovv. Past time must
therefore be supplied. The pre
sent participle maybe either taken
as an imperfect or as a substan
tive : " He who was giving," or
"the giver."
From this verse onward, com
mencing at ft y Kal eiKrj, the
Apostle changes his tone, and
reasons with the Galatians, in
stead of rebuking them. A simi
lar change occurs at iv. 21.
6. "It was with you," or,
"Was it not with you even as
with Abraham, who had faith in
God, and it was counted to him
for righteousness?" The Apo
stle returns to the "locus clas-
sicus" in the Old Testament, on
which he founded his doctrine.
7. The inference is, that they
the general sense of "external;"
(2.) as propagated by fleshly
descent ; (3.) as sealed by the
mark of circumcision in the flesh.
4. TocravTa 7ru0er ttfojj ;J (1.)
" Did ye suffer all those persecu
tions in vain?" or, (2.) "Had
you all those experiences in
vain ?" The latter is more
agreeable to the context and to
the general spirit of St. Paul s
teaching, as well as to the few
facts which we know about the
Galatian Church, in which pro
bably as yet no persecution had
occurred. Even were this other
wise, it is unlike the noble style
of the Apostle to say : <{ Have
you thrown away the fruits of
all those persecutions ? " The
Apostle adds a qualification :
ft yc KOI dKY), " Have you had
all these experiences in vain ? if,
indeed, which I cannot bear to
think, it be in vain ;" not "if it be
only and not worse than in vain,"
which gives a good sense, but is
not expressed in the words.
5. In remembrance of the time
of your conversion, I say then
again, He who supplied you the
Spirit, and wrought miracles in
you did he work by the deeds of
the law or by the hearing of faith ?
VER. 410.] EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS.
315
4 have ye suffered so many things in vain ? if indeed * it
5 be in vain. HE therefore that gave* to you the Spirit,
and wrought* miracles in* you, did* he it by the
6 works of the law, or by the hearing of faith ? Even
as Abraham had * faith in God, and it was accounted to
7 him for righteousness. Know ye therefore that they
which are of faith, the same are the children of Abra-
s ham. And the Scripture, foreseeing that God would
justify the heathen through faith, preached before the
Gospel unto Abraham, saying, In thee shall all nations
9 be blessed. So then they which be of faith are blessed
10 with the* faithful Abraham. For as many as are of
the works of the law are under the curse : for it is
which are of faith, these I say,
and not the others, are the sons
of Abraham.
What the nation was in the
Old, the family is in the New
Testament. Family relations are
the types through which spiritual
ones are shadowed forth in the
Gospel. The sons of Abraham
are no more the Jewish nation
(Comp. Matt. iii. 9.), but faithful
souls everywhere, of whom God
is the Father. (Compare vi. 10. ;
Eph. ii. 19.)
8, 9. As in 1 Cor. ix. 8, 9,
10., a providential intention is
attributed to the words of the
Old Testament. Compare Rom.
iv. 3., ri yap i/ ypct(j)rj \eysi ; as
here speaking of Abraham.
8. Trpoidovffa Be.] Be is slightly
adversative : "but what the Scrip
ture meant (though it may not
appear at first sight) is the sal
vation of the Gentiles through
faith." The words of the quota
tion, as they occur in the LXX.
(Gen. xii. 3.), are evXoytj&fjffovrai
iv ffol Traaat at <f)v\al r>/G y*/G,
Trctj ra TO. edvr) being introduced
from the repetition of the same
promise in Gen. xviii. 18. The
promise to Abraham is inter
preted by the Apostle as a decla
ration of the Gospel of the Gen
tiles, iv ffoi means "in thee;"
that is, "in thee as their type,"
or " in thy faith." In the ori
ginal passage it has the sense,
" by thee ;" that is, the form of
their blessing shall be, by thy
name. " The Lord bless thee, as
He blessed Abraham and his
descendants." i&vri has also re
ceived a change of meaning,
referring in Genesis to the nations
of the world in general ; but
here (compare ver. 14.) confined
by St. Paul to the heathen, who
are to be saved by faith. The
general meaning is as follows :
" It was not a mere accident that
it was said, In thee shall all the
Gentiles be blessed ; but because
Abraham was justified by faith,
as the Gentiles were to be justi
fied by faith."
9, 10. So then, the faithful
are blessed with the father of
the faithful (a reduplication of
verse 7.). For when the term
" blessing " is used, it cannot
refer to those who are under
the law, and therefore under a
316
EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS.
[Ce. III.
os OVK e/xjueVei iv 7racriz> rols yeypa/^eVois iv TO>
TOV vofjiov, TOV TroirjcraL aura. STL Se kv vop,a) n
ouSels Si/ccuourai irapa rw 0e< 77X0^, on O Si/caios e/c
770-6x0,1, 6 S vopos OVK <TTLV IK Tncrreajs, dXX 12
Trou^cras aura x ^crerai ez> auTois. ^ptcrros ^/xas 13
IK TTJS Karapas TOU z d/zov, ye^d/^e^os
curse ; the law cannot be meant,
for the law itself denounces this
curse against all who disobey it.
7ap, as in Rom. i. 18., implies an
argument, e EVO.VTIOV : They of
faith are blessed, for they under
the law are cursed.
iTTiKaraparoQ TTCLQ 6 e.] These
words are quoted from Deut.
xxvii. 26., with a slight verbal
alteration from the LXX. The
word Trdcrt is omitted in the
Hebrew text. In some way or
other a curse comes upon those
who disobey the law. Is this
for their imperfect obedience, or
because it was impossible that
they should obey at all ? If we
adopt the first interpretation,
that every man was under the
curse, because none could per
fectly obey the law ; yet, on the
other hand, it may be urged, that
an imperfect obedience would
tend to mitigate the curse. The
law could not be opposed to the
Gospel, as the curse to the bless
ing, were it only a defective good.
There is no trace in St. Paul of
the belief that all human virtue
was equally defective, and equally
fell short of the Divine require
ment.
That is a modern view which
has been held by some extreme
Protestants, as Roman Catholics,
on the other hand, have some
times maintained, that the life of
the believer is only a more per
fect fulfilment of the law. Both
these views belong to a later
stage of theology. The Apostle
knows only of faith as the oppo
site of the law as the negative
of the law. If one blesses, the
other curses ; if one saves, the
other destroys. There is no mid
dle term or way of communica
tion between them. The second
of the two interpretations is,
therefore, the true one. St. Paul
does not mean that men partially
fulfilled the law, but that they
could not fulfil it at all. Like
the notion of fate or necessity, it
did but produce "a fearful look
ing for of judgment;" as the
Apostle says in Rom. iv. 15 :
" The law worketh wrath."
11. And as before we proved
negatively, that no man could
be justified by the law, because
no man could fulfil the command
ments of the law, so now we
prove the same thing positively,
because there is another way ap
pointed whereby men are to have
life, the way of faith. As the
prophet Habakkuk says " The
just shall live by faith."
12. ^ is adversative to the sup
pressed thought suggested by the
previous verse, that it was possi
ble to abide in all things written
in the book of the law. For the
question, whether in the quota
tion (from Habak. ii. 4.) the
words K- iriffTcws are to be taken
VEIL 11 13.] EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS.
317
written, that every one is cursed 1 who continueth not
in all things which are written in the book of the law
11 to do them. But that no man is justified by the law
in the sight of God, it is evident: for, The just shall
12 live by faith. But* the law is not of faith : but he 2
is that doeth them shall live in them. Christ hath re
deemed us from the curse of the law, being made a
1 Cursed is every one.
with 6 3/jcatoc, or with
see on Rom. i. 17.
But the law uses a different
language : " He that doeth the
commandments shall live in
them." Lev. xviii. 5. ; repeated
in Neh. ix. 29., and quoted in
Rom. x. 5.
Thus far, the Apostle has car
ried out the antithesis of the law
and faith. With the faith of
Abraham went a blessing ; with
the law a curse, by the confession
of the law itself. The one said,
" The just shall live by faith ;" the
other, " He shall live who does
all that is written in the book of
the law." The curse was endured
by Christ, that it might not be
endured by us ; (the law itself,
in saying "Cursed is every one
that hangeth on a tree," justifies
this statement ;) the final pur
pose being, that the blessing of
Abraham might reach the Gen
tiles, and that we might receive
the promise of the Spirit through
faith.
13. xp tffT Karapa.] The
particular expression, " Christ
became a curse for us who were
under the curse of the law," may
be best considered as a particu
lar instance of a class. In the
Scriptural doctrine of the atone
ment, the believer is one with
Christ, until at length Christ
takes the believer s place, and all
2 The man.
that the Christian is, and all that
he was or might have been, are
transferred to Christ. Thus any
new point of view in which the
sin, or misery, or infirmity of
man is regarded, belongs not to
man, but to Christ, as the first
born among many brethren, par
taking of the common infirmity
of human nature. The most ex
treme example of this is in the
Gospels, where the miracles by
which Christ healed the sick are
considered as a transfer of our
infirmities to himself. Matt. viii.
17. In the same figurative mode
of speech, Christ freeing us from
the curse of the law, is said to be
made a curse for us.
further proof that we cannot be
justified by the law is, that the
curse of the law is what Christ
redeemed us from. We were like
captives, and Christ paid the
penalty for us.
When the Apostle speaks of
" us," is he referring to the Jew
only, or also to the Gentile? Pri
marily, to the Jew; in a degree
also to the Gentile. By the same
act the burden is taken off the
Jew, and a way is laid open to the
Gentile. But the same figure is
not equally applicable to both.
The Gentile too has a rule of na
ture, and a conscience accusing
or excusing himself; but he can
318
EriSTLE TO THE GALATIANS.
[Cii. III.
,a)v KdToipa, STL ycypaTTTaL x STrtAcaraparos Tras 6
CTTI uXov, iVa ets rot $^77 17 euXoyia rou
*A/3paajJL ylvrjTai iv XP icrT( ? -f^crov, IVa TT)Z/ eTrayyeXia^
rov TTfevuaroQ Xa/3amei Sta
hardly be described as subject to
ordinances, or tempted by the law
to sin. He has no lively sense of
responsibility; he is not distracted
by any spiritual conflict. The
general conception of his pre
vious state is rather expressed by
the words: "Ye were carried
away by dumb idols, even as ye
were led." Whether there was
any degree of truth in these
idolatries, whether in any re
spects they were akin to the
Jewish ceremonial law, was a
question which would never have
occurred to the thoughts of the
Apostle. To him it was a " mys
tery kept secret from the found
ation of the world" that the
Gentile was to have the Gospel
revealed to him. The law is the
only " schoolmaster to bring men
to Christ," and the Jew alone is
subject to it. Of a single prior
dispensation of Judaism and hea
thenism, such as philosophical
writers in modern times have
sometimes imagined, there is no
trace in the Epistles.
It is true, however, that the Apo
stle often places Jew and Gentile
side by side, and easily passes from
one to the other. From his ideal
point of view the distinction
seems to vanish. The figurative
language in which he describes
one is readily transferred to the
other. As in Rom. i. ii., the same
eye of the soul is turned upon
both. As in Rom. iii. 19., he
places the Gentile within the
sphere of the law, that he may
rat 70/2.
condemn him by the words of
the law. As in Rom. iv. the
distinction of Jew and Gentile is
lost in the common designation
of children of the faith of Abra
ham. Hence, though in ver. 13.
he uses the words "redeemed us
from the curse of the law," which
are only applicable to Jews, he
passes on in the latter clause of
ver. 14. to include in one both
Jew and Gentile. The Jew was
a captive, and Christ called him
into the liberty of the sons of
God. The Gentile is a partaker
of the same heritage.
But how, it may be asked, was
this effected by " Christ being a
curse for us?" To answer this
question we must distinguish be
tween the spirit and the letter,
the inward meaning and the
figure of the Jewish law.
(1.) The inward meaning is
that Christ s teaching and life
and death drew men to him, until
they were taken out of them
selves, and in all their thoughts
and actions became one with Him.
(2.) That His life seemed na
turally to bring upon Him the
penalty of the Jewish law :
" We have a law, and by our
law he ought to die."
(3.) That at the same time that
his death was a fulfilment of the
law, it was also the end of the
law. He endured the law and
did away with the law at once.
(4.) Mankind, contrasting the
image of his life, and the require
ment of the law, feel that they
VER. 14.]
EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS.
319
curse for us; forasmuch 1 as it is written, Cursed is
every one that hangeth on a tree : that the blessing of
Abraham might come on the Gentiles through Jesus
Christ ; that we might receive the promise of the
Spirit through faith.
For.
are placed above the law, and so
escape with him from its burden.
To the figure must be assigned
the notion of a ransom or sacri
fice, by which, as by the victim
on the altar, God is satisfied or
pleased.
fcTrucaraparoe, cursed.^ The
Apostle again confirms his view
by a passage from the Old Tes
tament, which is cited from the
LXX. with a slight verbal dif
ference, St. Paul reading ETrifcara-
parog Trac, instead of KeKarypaptvoQ
VTTO Seov Trote, Deut. xxi. 23. In
its original connection it refers
to the body of the criminal,
which was not to be left hanging
after the evening, lest the earth
should be polluted by the corse.
This St. Paul transfers to Christ.
The abhorred death of the cross,
which the Romans inflicted on
their slaves, recalled to his mind
the curse of the Jewish law.
It may, on the other hand, be
urged, that the curse in the book
of the law does not refer to the
mere accidental circumstance of
hanging on a tree, but to the
crime which was the occasion of
it. But in that mixed moral and
ceremonial dispensation this is
not certain ; and, even if it were,
all we can do in this and similar
passages is to trace the figure in
the Apostle s mind, without at
tempting to reduce it to our pre
vious notions of the meaning of
the Old Testament. Compare
Acts, v. 30., " Whom ye slew and
hanged on a tree;" Acts, x. 39.,
" Whom they slew and hanged
on a tree ;" 1 Peter, ii.24., "Who
himself bore our sins, in his own
body, on a tree ; " where the same
thought of the curse resting on
every one who was hanged on a
tree seems to pass before the
writer s mind.
14. Iva elc; ru edvrj t) evXoyta
TOV A/fyao/z.] Christ did away
the law, and so left free passage
for the blessing of Abraham
through faith to extend, not to
the Jews only, but to all man
kind. These words have an im
mediate reference to what was
said above, ver. 7., that they that
are of faith are the sons of Abra
ham, and that in him all nations
of the earth shall be blessed.
Ira TTfv ewayyeXiav TOV TTVEV-
P.O.TOQ Xa^Mfiev, that we might re
ceive, &c.] The Apostle returns
from the Gentile to the Jew, or
rather, as at ver. 13., under the
first person covertly includes both.
The object of Christ s redeeming
men from the curse of the law
was twofold : (1.) that the Gen
tiles might be accepted ; and (2.)
that Jews, as well as Gentiles,
might be j ustified by faith. These
two, however, are not opposed ;
in this passage the first is looked
upon as the condition of the latter.
Not only was it the design of the
Gospel that the Jews should be
justified. by faith, that the Gen
tiles might be admitted ; but con
versely, that the Gentiles should
320
EPISTTE TO THE GALATIANS.
[Cii. TIT.
, KOTO, avOpunrov \eya>. c/xcos avOpajtrov KZ- 15
KVp(0{Jivr]v SiaOyjKrjv ouSei? d^eret r) eTuStaracrcreTai. ra>
Se A/3paa[Ji IppeOrjcrav al eTrayyeXicu, /ecu TW cnrepfJiaTL
avrov. ov Xe yei Kcu 7*019 cr7rep/>tacrt^, &&gt;?. CTTI 7roXXa>t>, IG
aXX ws e<
Kal TGJ
bc admitted that the Jews might
be justified by faith. Compare
Horn. xi. This is, however, veiled
by the use of the plural XaSwjue^,
an ambiguity which we are the
more justified in assuming here,
as a similar one occurs in two
other passages where the same
subject is treated of, Rom. iv. 12 ,
xv. 8, 9. : compare also, Rom. iii.
19, 20.; Gal. iv. 24.
15. A^X^o/, Brethren. ] The
Apostle continues to soften his
tone.
Kara arOpMirov Xtyw, I speak
after the manner of men.~\ The
expression is used with various
shades of meaning; sometimes, as
in Rom. iii. 5., as a sort of apo
logy for some supposition about
Divine things; sometimes, in the
sense of "It is I who say, and
not the Lord ; " sometimes simply
" I speak after the manner of
men," or " I use a human figure."
To which may be added, in this
passage, the notion of what we
should term an a fortiori argu
ment from human to Divine
things : " I speak as a man ; if
this is true in human things, how
much more in Divine?"
o/jwff implies an opposition to
the Divine covenant of which he
is about to speak. "I speak as a
man ; yet in the case of a human
covenant, when it has been con
firmed it holds that no one sets it
aside or adds to it."
Kf.Kvpd)prr)v ^>taQi]Kf]v.~\ Comp.
ITeb. vi. 16, 17.: "For men ve
rily swear by the greater, and an
<jov,
os
oath for confirmation is to them
an end of all strife. Wherein God,
willing more abundantly to show
unto the heirs of promise the
immutability of his counsel, con
firmed it by an oath."
(HiaQ>]Kr)v, ] either covenant or
testament. The Gospel may be
said to be (1.) a testament in re
ference to the death of Christ, who
bequeathed it to us as a legacy,
as in the argument in Heb. ix.
17., " where a testament is, there
must also of necessity be the
death of the testator;" or, (2.)
a covenant, in contrast with the
law, and in accordance with the
analogy of the covenants made
with the patriarchs, as in this
passage, and in Heb. viii. 7., and
elsewhere.
fTri^mrao-o-frat] is intended to
indicate that the law was not, as
the Jew might have said, an ad
dition to the covenant, for there
could be no addition to it.
A general view of the passage
that follows will assist in the ex
planation of the several verses.
As in the Romans, the Apostle
has quoted the case of Abraham,
who was justified by faith, and re
ceived also the universal promise
that "in him all nations of the
earth should be blessed." This
is a figure of the Gospel dispen
sation, or rather it is the very
Gospel which Paul preached
among the Gentiles. Two thou
sand years have passed away, and
the meaning of the promise to
Abraham is just coming to light.
16.]
EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS.
321
15 Brethren, I speak after the manner of men ; Though
it be but a man s covenant, yet if it be confirmed, no man
disannulleth, or addeth thereto. Now to Abraham and
16 his seed were the promises made. He saith not, and to
seeds, as of many ; but as of one, and to thy seed, which
But here the thought arises in
the Apostle s mind " There has
been a long interval ; the law
came between." To answer this
objection, as at the commence
ment of the seventh chapter of
the Romans, he brings forward
an illustration : " Human cove
nants are binding for ever ; you
cannot alter them, or add to
them. How much more the co
venant of Him with whom a
thousand years are as one day,
and one day as a thousand
years?" But the Jew would
reply, the covenant was but the
beginning of the law, as we
might say in a figure, the angel
who talked with Abraham was
lost in the brightness of Mount
Sinai. It is this point of view
that the Apostle seeks to invert.
According to him the covenant
was to remain, the law to pass
away. In the very words in
which the covenant was given,
" not unto seeds, as of many, but
as of one," was contained an inti
mation that it referred to Christ.
It was in force 430 years. Can
we suppose that it was super
seded by the law ? Rather the
law and the promise are opposed
to each other, as the law and
faith, and it was through the
promise that God gave the gift
to Abraham. Then what shall
we say of the law? It was an
accident, an interpolation, an ad
dition, designed not to do men
good, but to make them conscious
of evil, and in every thing show-
VOL. I.
ing its transitory and inferior
nature. Is it then opposed to the
promises ? Not so. It had right,
if it had had might; it had the
idea of righteousness, if it had
had the power to give life. But
it was a law of condemnation
only, the import of which to us is
that it made us capable of the pro
mise. While it lasted we were
shut up, as it were, in prison,
waiting for the coming revela
tion. "So that the law was our
schoolmaster to bring us to
Christ;" and was itself done
away when Christ came.
16. rig $e A/3(Oact/z ifipidriffav al
fVayyeXtcu.] Now to Abraham
who, as we say, was justified by
faith, the promises were made.
Observe, that in making the pro
mise he uses the singular num
ber. " For in Isaac shall thy seed
be called." [It is to this passage
(Gen. xxi. 12., which is also
quoted in Rom. iv. 7. and Heb.
xi. 18.) the Apostle is probably
referring.] Is this a mere acci
dent ? or vsaith he it not rather
for our sakes, meaning Christ ?
3c, which is repeated in ver.
17., as the Apostle draws nearer
to the point of his argument, is
adversative to what has pre
ceded : " Human covenants are
irreversible ; but the case which
I am about to put is of a Divine
covenant," which the Apostle
proceeds to explain, and loses the
antithesis in the length of the
narrative.
The argument which follows
322
EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS.
[Cn. III.
TOVTO e eyO). iaTKr]V 7TpOK.KVp(^Vr)V VTTO TOV 17
Oeov 1 6 [JLTa rerpaKocna 2 Kal rpiaKovra crrj yeyoi^s
vofJios OUAC aKvpol eis TO KarapyrjcraL rty eTrayyeXiaz/.
i yap IAC vopov 17 KXypovofJiia, ov/ceri If eTrayyeXias * is
ra> Se AfipaajJi Si CTrayyeXtas /ce^a/Dicrrat 6 0os. TI 19
1 Add ets
reminds us that St. Paul was a
Hebrew of the Hebrews, brought
up at the feet of Gamaliel, inter
preting the Scriptures after the
manner of his time. Instances
of a similar mode of interpreta
tion occur in Gal. iv. 25. ; 1 Cor.
ix. 9., x. 4. ; 2 Cor. iii. 13. The
difficulty in this place, according
to our notions, is how the word
"seed" can be applied to Christ
as an individual, when it is ob
viously a collective noun, mean
ing the posterity of Abraham.
To assign a similar collective
sense to the name of Christ
would be an additional violence
to language, as well as a distor
tion of the meaning of the Apo
stle. Christ is not the same as
His Church, however close may
be the connection between them.
Comp. Heb. ii. 11. Better to
admit that the Apostle s mode of
applying the Old Testament is
unlike our own.
The argument is thrown in by
the way, and breaks the con
nection of ver. 15. and 17. It
has a bearing, however, on the
Apostle s main object, which is
to prove the identity of the Gos
pel and the promise, and the
inferior nature of the law.
17. TOVTO e)e Xe-yw, and this I
say.~\ In these words St. Paul
returns to the proof, which he
commenced in ver. 15.
P.ITO, rerpa/coffia KCLI rpia/eoira
err?, four hundred and thirty
2 //.era CTTJ rerpaw.
years after. ] The law, which
was giren so long after, could
not do away with the promise.
There is a well-known chrono
logical difficulty in these words,
connected with a similar chro
nological difficulty in the Old
Testament, respecting the sojourn
of the Israelites in Egypt. In
the books of Genesis and Exodus
the period of 430 years (Ex. xii.
40.), or in round numbers, 400
years (Gen. xv. 13., quoted in
the Acts, vii. 6.), is assigned, not
to the interval between the pro
mise to Abraham, and the giving
of the law ; but to the actual so
journ of the children of Israel in
Egypt. [Exod. xii. 40. : " Now
the sojourning of the children of
Israel who dwelt in Egypt was
four hundred and thirty years."
Gen xv. 13. : "And he said, Know
of a surety that thy seed shall be
a stranger in a land that is not
theirs, and shall serve them, and
they shall afflict them four hun
dred years : and also that nation,
whom they shall serve, will I
judge; and afterward shall they
come out with great substance."]
It is found on examination of the
genealogies, however, that in
some lines, as, for example that
of Moses himself, the whole time
of 400 years comprises only three
generations ; and hence it has been
argued, that the call of Abraham
is the true limit of the period in
question ; and laborious calcula-
VER. 1719.] EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS.
323
17 is Christ. And this I say ; * the covenant that was
confirmed before of God 1 the law which was four
hundred and thirty years after cannot disannul, that it
is should make the promise of none effect. For if the
inheritance be of the law, it is no more of promise : but
19 God gave it to Abraham by promise. Wherefore then
1 Add in Christ.
tions have been entered into to
show that, in the course of two
centuries, the children of Israel
might possibly have increased
from Jacob and his sons to seve
ral hundred thousands.
If these and similar difficulties
could be removed, we should only
have escaped an inaccuracy in
the New Testament, by intro
ducing a contradiction into the
Old. That St. Paul is not quoting
from any independent tradition
is plain from his giving the
exact number of Exodus, xii. 40.
It is also clear, that in the narra
tive of Exodus this number refers
to the actual time of servitude,
and not to the interval between
the promise and the law. But
the Apostle has so applied it.
He takes 430, the years of servi
tude mentioned in the Old Testa
ment, for a period longer than
430 years, that is, for the
whole time from Abraham to
Moses.
18. ei yap Eicvo/jiov i]K\rjporofjiia.^
The law cannot have superseded
the covenant; for, if it had, the
inheritance would cease to be at
tached to the promise (for the
promise and the law exclude
each other) ; but it was through
the promise that God gave it to
Abraham.
St. Paul refuses to look upon
the law as a further fulfilment of
the promise. That is not his
point of view. He regards the
law and the promise as opposed,
just as the law and the Gospel;
or rather, the promise being
through faith, he regards the
Gospel as identical with the pro
mise. Compare supra, the word
TrpoevrjyytXiffaro, ver. 8. The
promise is a TrpoevayytXtov.
19. The first impression on
reading this verse is, that the
Apostle meant to say that the
law was added to restrain men
from transgressions, in the inter
val of time between the promise
and the coming of Christ. Ac
cording to this view, the law
would be regarded as the princi
ple of order in the world, de
signed to keep men from utterly
corrupting themselves, and giving
them a moral preparation for the
revelation which was to follow.
Such a view may be thought to
derive confirmation from ver.
24 : " The law was our school
master to bring us to Christ;"
it agrees with our own ideas
of the purposes of law in gene
ral, and of the relation of the
Mosaic law to the Gospel (comp.
Heb. vii. 19.) in particular. Yet
the words themselves are indefi
nite, and the comparison of other
passages in the Epistles, such as
Rom. vii. 7-25., iii. 20., iv. 15.,
v. 20. ; 1 Cor. xv. 56., would lead
us to expect a different tone of
thought respecting the law. On
y 2
324
EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS.
[CH. ITT.
QVV 6 j>d/x,o9 ; T&V 7rapa/3dcr(jt)v yapiv TrpocreTeOrj,
ov \0y TO
O\ / e\ 9V
w CTT^yyeXrat, Starayei? Si
-V \eipL ptCTLTOV O
e^os OVK CTTU>, o
20
this, above all other subjects, it
is necessary to remember the
axiom, " non nisi ex ipso Paulo
Paulum potes interpretari." And
the characteristic mode of thought
and speech in the passages just
referred to would incline us to
suppose that the Apostle s mean
ing probably was, not that the
law was added to restrain trans
gressions ; but that the law was
added to produce transgressions,
or at least to give men that con
sciousness of sin which makes sin
to be what it is, "for where there
is no law there is no transgres
sion," and " the strength of sin is
the law." The law, it must be
remembered, is not with St. Paul
an element or principle of good ;
but an abstract good. It is
not the law of the land which
punishes crime ; but an ideal
law, the very characteristic of
which is, that it cannot be re
alised in action. It would attri
bute too much power to the law
to suppose that it could restrain
men from sin. Then it would
not be far from "a law that might
give life." " By the deeds of the
law," as the Apostle says in the
Epistle to the Romans, " shall no
flesh be justified, for by the law
is the knowledge of sin." In
other words justification is the
very opposite of that knowledge
of sin which is by the law. In
the language of the Epistle to
the Romans (v. 20.), it might be
said that the law was added to
the covenant " that transgression
might abound;" the other side
of this doctrine being given in the
latter part of the same verse,
"that grace might yet more
abound."
One further point of view we
must not lose sight of in the con
sideration of this question ; that
is, the near connection of the
final cause with the fact in the
Apostle s mind, in this, as in
other instances. The whole doc
trine of righteousness by faith
may be said to be based in a
certain sense on fact, on two
great facts especially ; the con
version of the Apostle himself,
and the conversion of the Gen
tiles. So in this case, what St.
Paul saw to be the result, he also
considered as the purpose of God.
"Known unto God are all his
works from the beginning." It
was the fact that the law had in
creased sin, and therefore he
regarded it as given for this
purpose T&V irapa&acrewi ^aptr.
It is hardly probable that an in
terpretation of Scripture will be
generally accepted which runs
counter to the superficial mean
ing of the words. Like the
canon, " Potior lectio difficilior,"
potior difficilior interpretatio may
also have a truth. In this in
stance the interpretation given is
based solely on the comparison
of the Epistle to the Romans,
which is the only epistle from
which we are able to gather at
all fully St. Paul s view of the
nature of the law, and which has
a very close connection with the
Epistle to the Galatians.
J fTTfjyyeXrm.] Comp. above,
" He saith not unto seeds as of
many; but as of one... which is
Christ."
VER. 19, 20.] EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS.
325
serveth the law ? It was added because of transgressions,
till the seed should come to whom the promise was
made : and it was ordained by angels in the hand of a
20 mediator. Now a mediator is not a mediator of one,
i ayyc\wi>, ordained
of angels. ] There is no mention
in the Old Testament of the law
being given by angels, with the
exception of a remote allusion in
Deut. xxxiii. 2., "The Lord came
from Sinai ; he came witli ten
thousand of his saints." It was
slowly and gradually, and as many
have thought, not until the Baby
lonish captivity, that the angel of
his presence in the Pentateuch,
the angel of the Lord in the
Books of Kings and Chronicles,
and the covering cherubim of the
prophets expanded into a multi
tude of the heavenly host, with
distinct names and personalities.
The word ckaraye/e here, as the
word %ia.Tayi} in Acts vii. 53.,
" Who have received the law by
the disposition of angels, and
have not kept it," refers rather
to the administration than to the
giving of the law. As in Heb.
ii. 2., the law being in the dispo
sition of angels, is contrasted
with the Gospel, which is a
revelation of a higher kind.
iv \etpl fj.eaiTov. ] Either Moses
or the high priest, or in general
the priest or prophet who stood
between God and the people.
Before entering on the discus
sion of this passage, which has
received 430 interpretations, it
will be well for us to ascertain
the drift of the verse before and
after, which give almost the
sole key we possess to the mean
ing of the disputed words. To
supply the connecting link will
be an easier task than to ex
plain the ambiguous text from
itself.
We will first begin by consi
dering an opposite view of the
connection to that implied in the
note on ver. 19. The object, it
may be urged, of the words ia-
Taye\Q Si dyyeAwy iv X t P^ ^tfftTOV
is, not to depreciate the law
in comparison of the Gospel, but
rather to express its Divine cha
racter as a subordinate and inter
mediate dispensation. " The law
was given because of transgres
sions," -i.e., as before explained,
to produce transgressions ; and
it was kept in the administration
of angels, and one was appointed
to stand between God and the
people. The figure of angels, it
might be said, belongs rather to
the pomp and array of the law,
and could not naturally be urged
as an argument of depreciation.
This is true ; and may be further
confirmed by Acts vii. 53., and
yet is sufficiently answered by
the context and the parallel of
Heb. ii. 2.
If we go backwards from ver.
21., "Is the law then against the
promises of God ? God forbid :"
it is plain from these words, that
something has been said which
implies a depreciation of the law.
It would be neither good sense
nor agreeable to the manner of
St. Paul to say, Whereunto serv
eth the law ? It was added be
cause of transgressions, and was
firmly established and appointed
by angels, and in the hands of a
mediator, and a mediator we may
Y 3
326
EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS.
[CH. III.
ecrru>. 6 ovv *>ojnos Kara TGJV eTrayyeXioJz/ [rov 21
ya/o I860rj
; /AT yerotro
ei
explain to be, &c. Is the law
then against the promises of God ?
There has been nothing in the
previous verse which indicated,
or could be imagined to indicate
that it was. There would be a
want of point in such a way of
writing. It would be guarding
against an inference that could
not possibly arise. The view
here taken, that there must have
been a previous depreciation,
is still further strengthened by
a comparison of a parallel pas
sage in Rom. vii. 5. 7., where
the Apostle suddenly bursts out
with the words, " What shall we
say then, is the law sin ? God
forbid," as if to counteract and
anticipate the effect of what he
had said just before: "The mo
tions of sins which were by the
law, did work in our members."
Thus far we are led to suppose
that the enigmatical verse 20.
must form an antithesis to ver.
21. Such an interpretation we
shall be able to put upon it, if we
paraphrase ver. 19. as follows :
" The law was added not so much
for the removal of sin, as to call
it into existence, and (but) it was
in the appointment of angels, not
of God himself, and did not ad
mit of an immediate approach to
him." (The particle $e carries on
the opposition of the law and the
promise, which preceded.) It
has been said that such an inter
pretation does not agree with
the words ^tarayeiQ Si* ayyt Xwv,
which could not, as was ob
served above, be intended to de
preciate the law, but rather to
magnify its pomp and circum
stance. Admitting this, which
may or may not be so, there is
no difficulty in supposing that
St. Paul might, in one point of
view, intend to depreciate the
law, while, in another, he may
have glorified it ; at any rate so
far as to use respecting it an
expression familiar to the minds
of the Jews ; as in 2 Cor. iii. 6.
he recognises the law as the
ministration of death, and yet
acknowledges its glory. It is
characteristic of St. Paul, even
where he is making towards a
point, to insert clauses which are
beside his point.
"We have now to seek for a
suitable interpretation of verse
20., of which two principal con
ditions may be laid down:
(1.) that it should agree with
the connection ; and (2.) that
it should admit of the word tic
being taken in the same sense in
both members of the sentence.
The following combines both
these conditions ; if it seem ob
scure, it must be remembered
that, in a writer at once so subtle
and abrupt as St. Paul, obscurity
is not a strong ground of objec
tion :
The Apostle is contrasting the
law which had a mediator, with
the Gospel or the promise of
faith (for in this passage they
are not distinguished) which has
no mediator, but an open access
to God. Part of the perplexity
of the passage has arisen from
the circumstance that the Apo
stle s mode of speaking is in di
rect opposition to the ordinary
language of later theology, and
even of some passages in the
New Testament itself. It sounds
like a paradox to modern ears, to
place the superiority of the Gospel
VER. 21.]
EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS.
327
21 but God is one. Is the law then against the promises of
God ? God forbid ; for if there had been a law given
over the law in the fact that the
law had a mediator and the Gospel
had not. Yet such is the Apostle s
reasoning. The law, he says,
was in the hands of a mediator.
Hereby, as we gather from the
context, he seems to mark some
imperfection or infirmity in the
law. How is this? He pro
ceeds to enlarge his thought in
the 20th verse. Now a mediator,
he adds, is not a mediator of one,
but God is one. That is, a me
diator implies two persons
duality, mediation ; or the prin
ciple of a mediator is not unity,
but mediation ; but in God is no
mediation he is one : " Hear,
O Israel," as the law said, " the
Lord your God is one God." He
who is interposed between God
and man intercepts instead of
revealing God ; one is better than
two ; the dispensation of media
tion is inferior to the open vision.
This, or some similar train of
argument, marking the inferiority
of the law which had a mediator,
to the Gospel which had no me
diator, passed before the Apostle s
mind, though it is not clear how
far he filled up the meaning of the
enigmatical clause. It is not to be
forgotten that the words them
selves are a quotation from the Old
Testament, which makes it impro
bable that they are unemphatic or
unimportant. The context leads
us to infer also that some other
refinements of meaning may have
suggested themselves to the
Apostle ; such as, " God is one "
in the sense of " one and the
same to all," an application which
is confirmed by the words of ver.
28., " There is neither Jew nor
Greek, there is neither bond nor
free." The notion of the unity
of the human race lay very near
in the Apostle s mind to that of
the unity of God (compare Acts,
xvii. 26. ; 1 Tim. ii. 4, 5. ; Rom.
iii. 30.). Out of this seems to
flow another allusion, hardly con
scious, yet latent in the Apostle s
mind, to the unity of man with
God, which is also partly ex
pressed in the latter half of
verse 28. : " Ye are all one in
Christ Jesus" (comp. also ver.
26. : " For ye are all the sons of
God through faith in Christ
Jesus"). Thus in addition to
the primary meaning of the words,
" Now a mediator implies me
diation, but there is no mediation
in God." we seem to trace three
other allusions: (1.) the re
ference to the Old Testament;
(2.) the allusion to the unity of
man to whom God is one and
alike ; (3.) to the unity of man
with God, which no less than the
previous allusion is inconsistent
with the mediatorial and ex
clusive character of the Jewish
law. These meanings may seem
complex, but it may be observed :
(1.) they are all in harmony with
the spirit of the passage ; (2.)
they are v brought together in
other places, and incidentally
alluded to in the verses which
follow ; (3.) they relate to a verse
in the Old Testament, which more
than any other was likely to be
viewed in different lights and to
receive a variety of applications.
It has been already admitted
that the sense assigned to erog
OVK (.ctTtv is not obvious. To
test it fairly we may compare
another explanation. Verse 20.
has been sometimes regarded as
y 4
323
EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS.
[Cn. III.
o^ro>s e/c
1 av rp r] Si/catocrw^ a\\a 22
07 ypa(f)r) ra Trdvra v^ djJLapTiav, Iva r) kir-
ayyeXta CAC TTIOTCCOS I^crov ^otcrrov SoftrJ rots Tricrrei;-
77y3o TOU Se IXdelv TVJV TTLCTTLV VTTO VQ^QV l<f)pov* 23
v6/nov.
St. Paul analogous to that of the
Epistle to the Hebrews. Like
the passage which is the subject
of this note, it asserts the uni
versality of salvation ; but the
form of expression goes beyond
that of the Epistle to the Gala-
tians, in speaking of the uni
versality of mediation. Gradually
the Apostle appropriated more
and more of the language of the
Old Testament. At first it is
characteristic of the Gospel, that
it has no mediator, the idea of a
mediator belonging to the Jewish
people only ; afterwards (the
sense is nearly the same, though
the phraseology is contradictory),
as there is one God there is also
one mediator between God and
man, the same for all mankind.
Ver. 21. Are we to infer from
this that the law is opposed to the
promises of God ? Not so. It is
only dead, imperfect, abstract ; if
it had had power and life, as it
had truth and right, verily, right
eousness should have been by the
law. Comp. Rom. vii. 7. : " What
shall we say then ? Is the law
sin ? God forbid. Nay, I had not
known sin but by the law : for I
had not known lust, except the
law had said, Thou shalt not
covet." 6 ovv vofjio^ is a resump
tion of T I ovv b v6}jLOQ-. first, as in
the passage just quoted from the
Epistle to the Romans, the Apostle
vindicates the ways of God, by
an emphatic denial of the incon
sistency of the Gospel and the
meaning, " Now a mediator im
plies two parties, and God is one
of those parties." The mediator
is ever standing between God and
the people. The objections to this
explanation are: (1.) that EVOQ
and tig are taken in two different
senses. A mediator implies more
than one, but God is one of the
two, tie being used in the first
clause for one and in the second
for one of two ; and (2.) that
the point of the words lv x l pi
peairov is thus lost, while ver. 20.
becomes a useless appendage to
them.
Let us add an illustration in
which the same form of thought
is applied to another subject
which is more familiar to us.
Suppose a person, taking the text
" There is one mediator between
God and man, the man Christ
Jesus" (1 Tim. ii. 5.), to argue,
" Now, if priests truly mediate,
there could not be one mediator,"
and to express this in the same
form as St. Paul, he would say,
" Now, priests imply more than
one, but Christ is one." Christ
is one, therefore there can be no
priesthood but His in the Chris
tian religion ; so here, God is
one, therefore in the highest
revelation of Him, there can be
no mediator as in the Jewish
religion. The passage just quoted
from the Epistle to Timothy is
instructive in another point of
view, as it shows a progress or
development in the language of
VEK. 22, 23.] EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS.
329
which could have given life, verily righteousness should
22 have been by the law. But the scripture hath shut
up * all under sin, that the promise by faith of Jesus
23 Christ might be given to them that believe. But before
law, and then returns to the
opposite point of view.
The powerlessness of the law
was the actual fact ; in modern
language, it had become effete ;
it belonged to a different state of
the world ; nothing human or
spiritual remained of it. The
Apostle, who carried back justi
fication by faitli to Abraham,
went on to compare also the
notion of the law which he
gathered from his own age, with
its first idea and origin. It
was a sort of riddle to him, in
the meshes of which he seems
to struggle, how the law could
be powerless ; the law could
be the occasion, the strength,
and almost the cause of sin, and
yet bear the stamp of Divine
authority. In some sense he is
assured that it is holy, just, and
good ; its perfection being its im
perfection or negative nature ; the
conviction of sin which it wrought
being the way to a new life.
22. aXXa avviK\f.iffEV // ypa^)//.]
In the teaching of St. Paul, the
doctrine of the law is what the
doctrine of original sin is with us.
Although in the sins of mankind
the Apostle does somewhat faintly
and distantly recognise the simi
litude of Adam s transgression,
the law is with him the formal
cause of sin, as he says in the
Epistle to the Romans, iv. 15.,
" Where there is no law, there is
no transgression." The law it is
which, existing side by side with
human nature in the world, con
victs men of sin, whether con
sciously or unconsciously to them
selves. Sometimes this conviction
comes home to them individually ;
at other times, it appears like the
sentence which the word of God
passes upon them collectively. In
this passage the words " shut up
all under sin" [avviK\f.iae TO. itav-
rri] refer to men generally, as
what follows refers rather to the
Gospel as a new revelation to the
world at large, than to the recep
tion of the Spirit in the heart of
an individual. Comp. Note on the
Imputation of the Sin of Adam.
dXXtt.] " But the law had an-
other purpose."
aweK\etcrt,^ included men to
gether (comp. Rom. xi. 32.).
fj y|oa<//] here used for 6 vo^o^
as in many passages 6 ropoe for
the whole Scriptures.
TO. 7rav-a^ humana omnia, men
and their actions alike. Comp.
Traaa. >/ Kriffic, Rom. viii. Here,
as there, it is useless, with words
of very general meaning, to de
fine exactly what the Apostle
intended.
tVa . . . So0rj.] The law in St.
Paul s view is the condition of
the promise. As in the indi
vidual so in the world at large,
the sense of sin must precede
forgiveness.
?/ fTrayyeX/a e.K TriarfWQ TOIQ
TTicrrevovcriv. ] The repetition is
not a mere tautology, but gives
emphasis : " That the promise
of faith may be given to them
that have faith." Comp. Rom. i.
16, 17.
23. But before the faith I
330
EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS.
[CH. III.
povp^eda crvy/cXeidjuez oi l eis rrjv /xeXXovo~az> TTLCTTLV 0,77*0-
Ka\v<f)OfjvaL. wcrre 6 z>d/xos TraiSaycuyos rjfjicop yiyvvzv 24
eis yjpurrov, Iva IK -Tricrrea)? Si/caiw^aJ/xe^ \0ovcrr]<; Se 25
TTys TTicrrecus OVKCTL VTTO TraiSaywyoV lcrp,V. TrdVres yap 26
woe #eov ecrre Si-a TT}S Tricrrecos ez> xP iorT( ? J^crou 6Voi 27
yap ets ^picrrov l/3a7rTLcr0rjTe ^purTov eveSva-acrde. OVK 28
e^t lovSaios ovSe .EXX?^, OVAC *>i SouXos ovSe eXev$epog,
or of the manner in which the
Old Testament prepared the way
for the New. He regards the
law in one point of view only, as
the slave to whose severe disci
pline we were subject in the days
of our pupilage, nothing differ
ing from slaves in our own con
dition (compare iv. L). To this is
opposed the freedom and sonship
of the Gospel. In our inferior
state, while we were unable to
take care of ourselves, the law
was our tutor " for " or " unto "
Christ.
26. iravTEQ yap viol $eov ecrrt.]
The connection of these words is
with 7rcuaywyo. We are no
longer the " wards of the law,"
for God is pleased to reckon us
as his sons. In the word Trarrec
there is a latent allusion to the
Gentile Christians : " For ye are
the sons of God, Gentiles as well
as Jews alike."
have spoken of came, that is, be
fore the times of Christ and the
Gospel, we were kept shut up
against the revelation of faith
that was to be.
The condition of the Jew and
Gentile in reference to the Gos
pel, may be figured by the image
of men within and without a pri
son ; the first with the shining of
a candle to give them light, the
second wandering in darkness
over the whole earth. The sun
arises upon both ; to the latter
disclosing an endless prospect,
while the former, with their can
dle grown dim before the coming
day, are still within the curtains
of their tabernacle. No longer
avyK\f.iop.EvoL VTTO vofjioi , they are
afraid to come out and look upon
the light of heaven. The world
is all before them, if they did but
know it, and every part full of
the Divine presence.
24. wore 6 vofjioQ Trcuciaywyoe
ijH&v yiyovev elg xP trrr ^ v O 1" ne
Apostle changes the figure, and
presents the law under a new
aspect, hardly a milder one. The
English associations of the word
schoolmaster have introduced
ideas which have no place in his
thoughts. He is not speaking of
the part which the law bore in
the education of the human race,
Ir/<roi).] These words admit of
two constructions. Either we may
read, Ye are all sons through
faith in Christ Jesus ; or, Ye are
all one in Christ Jesus, that is,
as believers through faith. Comp.
Rom. iii. 25.
27. The latter interpretation
agrees best with the following
verse : "Ye are all sons of God
VER. 2428.] EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS.
331
faith came, we were kept in ward * under the law,
shut up unto the faith which should afterwards be re-
24 vealed. So* that the law was our schoolmaster* unto
25 Christ, that we might be justified by faith. But after
that faith is come, we are no longer under a school-
26 master. For ye are all the children of God by faith in
27 Christ Jesus. For as many of you as have been bap-
28 tized into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither
Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is
in Christ Jesus ; for ye have put
on Christ as many of you as were
baptized into Him." The figure
of putting on Christ has a re
ference, first, to the robe in
which the newly baptized person
was arrayed on coming up out of
the water, and recalls also an
idiomatic expression in later
Greek, of " putting on another "
to signify close and intimate
friendship with him. See on
Rom. xiii. 14. In this latter
passage, St. Paul exhorts be
lievers "to put on Christ;" here
he implies that they have already
attained in baptism the state
which is thus described. In one
sense the believer is regenerate ;
iu another, not. His whole life
is anticipated in the beginning,
and still he may be exhorted to
begin. Compare Col. iii. 9, 10.:
"Putting off the old man with
his actions ; and putting on the
new man which is renewed unto
knowledge in the image of him
that created him."
OVK tVt.J It is not that the Jew
or Greek inhere in Christ; for
these differences are one and
pass away in him.
The 27th verse gives the rea
son of the 26th, "Ye are the
sons of God, as ye are one in
Christ Jesus; for in your bap
tism ye became one with Him ;"
as the 28th expands the idea of
the 27th. As in Rom. iii. 28.,
from the revelation of righteous
ness by faith the Apostle passes
to the universality of salvation,
so here from all men being one
in Christ, to the enumeration of
those who are included in this
union. The same thought recurs
in nearly the same connection in
Col. iii. 11.
28. It has been often asked
whether Christianity has altered
the condition of women and
slaves ; and the answer some
times given is, that no positive
precepts are found in the New
Testament forbidding that sub
jection of either, which seemed
natural to the ancient world.
Some have even thought that
the spirit of the Gospel tended
rather to slavery than to freedom,
in enjoining the forgiveness of
injury and discouraging the de
sire to be free. It is true that
no class or sex is encouraged by
Christianity to claim its rights ;
yet not the less surely in the
lapse of centuries did the Gospel
mould the institutions of man
kind. It was a leaven which was
hid in three measures of meal,
332
EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS.
[On. III.
OVK VL apcrtv /cat 6rj\v TrdVres yap v/xets els core ez>
co I^crov. ei Se v/xet? ^otcrrou, apa rov ^A/Spaa^ 29
eo-re, x /car*
Add K
until the whole was leavened.
Of the world and the Roman
empire, and the institutions of
ancient times, no less than of the
Jewish religion, the words of
Christ hold good : " Destroy
this temple, and in three days I
will raise it up again." And with
reference to the present verse, it
could not but be a consequence
of regarding men and women,
bond and free, as one and alike
in the presence of God, that their
spiritual freedom became also an
external and actual one.
ILQ iffTE kv xpioTw Irjffov.^ Ye
are one person in being one with
Christ,
VER. 29.]
EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS.
333
neither male nor female : for ye are all one in Christ
29 Jesus. And if ye be Christ s, then are ye Abraham s
seed, * heirs according to the promise.
1 Add and.
29. el %e vjj.e~iQ ^piffTov."] But
if ye are Christ s, and members
of his body, then as Christ was
the seed of Abraham, so likewise
are ye the heirs of that promise
which was made to Abraham in
reference to Christ.
The whole argument from ver.
26. turns upon the oneness of the
believer with Christ. This it is
which makes him the Son of God.
This it is which is given, not to
the Jew only, but to all man
kind. This it is which is the
means whereby he is made the
heir of the promises to Abraham,
the coheir with Christ, who is in a
special sense, the seed of promise.
334
EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS.
[CH. IV.
A<=ya> Se, </> ocrov xpovov o KXypovopos VTJTTIOS ICTTLV, 4
ovSez> Sicu^epei SovXou, Kvpws TTOLVTW <5i>, dXXa VTTO 2
ItTLTpOTTOVS kcTTlV KOI Ot/CO^O/^OVS OLX/H T^S TTpoOeCTfJLiaS
TOV Trar/ods. ovrws KCU ^fteis ore 07/^6^ VTJTTLOL, VTTO ra 3
IV. The 24th verse of the pre
ceding chapter suggested a train
of imagery which is continued
in that on which we are entering.
" We are no longer under a
schoolmaster, but the children of
God by faith in Christ Jesus,
the seed of Abraham, and heirs
according to the promise." The
mention of the word "heirs"
gives a new turn to the figure.
The heir, while he is a child is a
servant in his own house ; but
now " the Son has made us free,"
and we are " lords of all."
In the verses which follow (8
iO.), the Apostle speaks of the
Galatians as having been once in
bondage " to them that by nature
are no Gods," and yet as " return
ing to the weak and beggarly
elements." (8, 9.) The apparent
inconsistency of this language
has been already remarked upon
in the Introduction. Supposing
the Galatians to have been in
bondage " to them that by na
ture are no Gods," they must have
been Gentiles. But the following
verse appears to warn them with
almost equal explicitness against
a return to Judaism. Can we
suppose that the Apostle is speak
ing to them from his own point
of view, and that a return to Ju
daism means only " what to him
self would have been a return?"
That is not probable, any more
than that he would have argued
out of the law and the prophets
with those who knew nothing of
the law arid the prophets. For
however fulfilled his thoughts may
have been with the testimony of
the Old Testament, he was quite
able to present the Gospel in an
other form, as he has indeed done
in some of the later Epistles.
Moreover, the mere fact of a
Gentile communion relapsing into
Judaism of itself demands an ex
planation. The most probable
explanation is, that the Galatians,
although Gentiles by origin, were
also Jewish proselytes, who re
turned, when the influence of the
Apostle was withdrawn, to " the
weak and beggarly elements " in
which they had been brought up.
According to this explanation
ver. 8. refers to their original
heathenism, ver. 9. to their Jew
ish proselytism.
A striking confirmation of the
view here taken, which is further
discussed in the Introduction to
the Epistle, and also in that to
the Epistle to the Romans, is af
forded by the following passages:
1 Cor. x. 1, 2., &c. : " More
over, brethren, I would not that
ye should be ignorant, how that
all our fathers were under the
cloud, and all passed through
the sea ; and were all bap
tized unto Moses in the cloud
and in the sea," and so on. Add
2 Cor. iii., in which, as in the
previously quoted passage, the
Apostle presupposes an intimate
acquaintance with the Mosaic
writings. With these compare
1 Cor. xii. 2. : "Ye know that ye
were Gentiles, carried away unto
these dumb idols, even as ye were
led :" where, as in the Epistles to
VER. 13.] EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS.
335
4 Now I say, That the heir, as long as he is a child,
differeth nothing from a servant, though he be lord of
2 all; but is under tutors and governors until the time
3 appointed of the father. Even so we, when we were
the Galatians and Romans, those
who are reasoned with out of the
law, who are the heirs of the
promises to the fathers, who had
been converted by St. Paul only
a few years previously, are yet
spoken of as having been at some
time or in some sense idolaters.
The succeeding passage, 11
20., is more abrupt and fragmen
tary than almost any other in the
Epistles of St. Paul, and for that
reason one of the most obscure.
It may be compared with the im
passioned bursts in the Epistle to
the Corinthians, where, as here,
feeling seems to take the place of
logical order or arrangement; and
reproof, affection, admonition,
thoughts of himself and them,
anger at the false teachers, painful
recollections of the past, mingle
hurriedly in the Apostle s mind.
At the 21st verse the style of
the discourse changes. Again
turning to the history of the pa
triarchs, he adapts another pas
sage to the instruction of those
who desired to be under the law
the narrative of the two sons
of Abraham, or the allegory of
the two covenants.
1. Ae yw Se, Now, I say.~\ But
I carry the figure a step further.
As we are heirs, so also there
was a time before we came to the
inheritance. That was our state
under the law. It was a period
of tutelage and guardianship,
which we now look back upon ;
when we were as servants in our
own house, when we had nothing,
and yet were lords of all.
Compare for an image nearly
similar John, viii. 35.: "The
servant abideth not in the house
for ever : but the Son abideth
ever. If the Son, therefore, shall
make you free, ye shall be free
indeed."
2. axpt- TriQ 7rpo0<r/umc, until
the time appointed^] answers to
ore fie r/XOtv TO 7r/\//pw/za rov
Xporov ; a further coincidence in
the figure. There is an appointed
time when the duties of the guar
dian cease ; so there is an appointed
time at which the power of the
law ceases, and the Son comes
into the world.
3. Even so we, when we were
children, were enslaved under the
elements of the world. The latter
words (UTTO TO. (TTOi-^ela TUV Korr-
jjiov %e$ov\(i)fj.ei oi) have received
various interpretations : (1.)
Nature-worship ; either the ob
servance of Jewish feasts, or the
adoration of the hosts of heaven.
It may be doubted whether St.
Paul would have described the
first of these as a worship of " the
elements;" or, whether the second
is justified by the connection of
the passage. (2.) The religion
of this visible world. But there
is no trace of St. Paul opposing,
in this abstract manner, the re
ligion of the seen to the religion
of the unseen. (3.) The "alpha
bet," the rudiments of religion,
which are known also to the
Gentile world ; the beginning of
knowledge to those who "were
not yet, in understanding, men,"
as implied in the previous verses.
336
EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS.
[On. IV.
TOV KocrfJLOv
TO 7T\TJpa)fjia TOV
SeSovXo^eVoi, ore Se r)\0ev 4
efo/TrecTTeiXez 6 #09 TOV viov
CLVTOV,
rovs VTTO
va 5
K yvvaiKos, yevo^evov VTTO vopov
^ayopdcry, Iva TT)Z> vioOecrtav a/7roXa-
There still seems an in appropri
ateness in the use of the word
(Koapog) world, which does not
teach the rudiments of religion,
but is itself the opposing prin
ciple to religion (compare Gal.
vi. 14.). Further, this explana
tion of aroiyjiia TOV ifoffftov is in
consistent with the figure of the
law as a 7rat<5aywyoe etc \PIOTOV.
For the rudiments under which
the law enslaved men could not be
rudiments of the Gentile world.
The WOrds OTOlXa TOV KO
occur also in Col. ii. 8.
fjrj TIQ eorcu vpG o
did r/)c 0iXo<7o$mc KCII Kerfjg citTrarr/c
Kara TI)V iraaaSoffLV r&v avQpa)7T(i)v,
Kara ra ffTot^ela TOV Koapov KCL\ ov
K ara ^piffTor, and is repeated in
ver. 20. el airedareTe avv
O.TTO TWV (TTOl^ea)V TOV KOffftOV, Tl
we (JL>i Tg iv K Offjuw ^o-y/naTi^effOE ;
where the context would lead us
to think, not of elementary know
ledge, but of excess of know
ledge, vain deceit, will worship,
the follies of Neoplatonism and
Orientalism. There, as here
(comp. ver. 8. 16 18.), the state
of error incidentally alluded to
is a confusion of Judaism and
heathenism ; in the 8th verse
itself, the words (f)t\o<ro(f>ia and
Koarpog seeming to refer to the
heathen, fcard TIJV 7rapao<Tiv T^V
avdpwTrwv to the Jewish element.
To give oroi^eTa TOV Kcxrpov the
same meaning in both passages,
we had better translate it, " prin
ciples of the world," which will
agree with the 9th verse of Gal.
iv., "weak and beggarly ele
ments" or "principles." This
latter phrase, as it is inapplicable
to nature-worship, in some degree
fixes the meaning of oro<xe7a TOV
Koirpov in the present passage by
excluding that explanation of the
words.
The expression, " principles of
the world," is ideal, and it is im
possible to say precisely what the
Apostle meant by it, any more
than what he meant by " rulers
of the darkness of this world."
As to ourselves, so to St. Paul,
the world means that portion of
evil, or of mankind, with which
we come most nearly into con
tact, and which is most directly
opposed to us, as well as all the
world which is unknown to us,
and which we comprise in the
imaginary limit of an abstract
term. The heathen world was
to him its first and most natural
meaning, but the evil of the
heathen world was also the figure
of the Jewish, just as the Jewish
law was a figure of the law
written in the heart of the Gen
tile. Hence the transition was
easy from the Gentile to the Jew.
By a similar transposition of lan
guage, we speak of " the world "
in modern times finding a place
in the hearts of religious men, or
of Christianity being infected
with a worldly spirit, the force
of which consists in using against
the professing Christian the term
which he uses against others ;
just as St. Paul, here writing to
professing Jews, applies to Juda
ism the language which was. ever
VER. 4, 5.]
EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS.
337
children, were in bondage under the elements of the
4 world : but when the fulness of the time was come, God
sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the
5 law, to redeem them that were under the law, that we
in the Jew s mouth against the
rest of mankind.
4. ore SE i\\Qev TO 7rX?/ow^ia TOV
%()ui>ov, but when the fulness of
time was come.~\ Shall we say
that great events arise from an
tecedents, or without them ; in
the fulness of time, or out of due
time ? by sudden crises, or with
long purpose and preparation ?
It is impossible for us to view
the great changes of the world
under any of these aspects ex
clusively. The spread of the
Roman empire, the fall of the
Jewish nation, the decline of the
heathen religions, Jewish pro
phecy, Greek philosophy, these
are the natural links which
connect the Gospel with the
actual state of mankind, the
causes, humanly speaking, of its
propagation, and the soil in which
it grew. But there is something
besides of which no account can
be given. The external circum
stances or conditions of events
do not explain history any more
than life. Why the Gospel came
into the world in a particular
form, or at a particular time, is a
question which is not reached by
any analysis of this sort.
This Providential time is what
the Apostle calls " the fulness of
time," not because in the modern
way of reflection the causes and
antecedents of the Gospel were
already in being, but because it
was the time appointed of God,
the mysterious hour when the
great revelation was to be made.
It is when contemplated from
VOL. I.
within, not from without, that it
appears to him to be the fulness
of time; standing in the same
relation to the world at large,
that the moment of conversion
does to the individual soul.
yevopevov CK yv?auroc, born of
a woman,"] i. e. with a human
nature, according to a common
Hebrew expression (comp. Job,
xiv. 1.), not attributed to Christ
with the purpose of distinguish
ing Him either from Adam or
from mankind in general.
yevoperov VTTO vopov.^ Christ
took upon Him, not merely human
nature, but the seed of Abraham.
That was the second condition of
His redeeming mankind, that He
should be like them, that they
might be like Him. See iii. 13.
5. TOVQ inro ropor, those under
the law.~\ Is this said of Jews or
of Gentiles ? Of " the Jew first,
and afterwards of the Gentile."
The Apostle, in retracing the
scheme of Providence, is speaking
chiefly of Jews, in allusion to the
Judaizing errors of the Galatians,
indirectly also of Gentiles. The
words IK ^yvvaiKQQ yevoptrov, in
the previous verse, refer to all
mankind. Compare Rom. iii. 19,
20. for a similar ambiguity; also,
Gal. iii. 14., iv. 26.
vtodeffiar a7roXaam7 .l Here,
as in verse 26. of the preceding
chapter, the Apostle mingles two
different metaphors. We are ser
vants, then sons; but as children
we were always sons, and only
receive back what was originally
designed for us.
338
EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS.
[Cu. IV.
on Se Icrre vloi, l^aTrecrreiXez 6 Oeos TO Trvevpa 6
TOV vlov avrov eis ras Kap8ia<$ iJjLiaJi/ 1 , Kpa^ov .4/5/3a 6
/ v j / T O ^ \ \ \ ^ ^^ e
Trarrjp. ojcrre ov/cert ei oovAos, aAAa wos ei oe wo?, 7
/ecu K\r)pov6fJLO<$ Sid Oeov. 2
A\\a rore JJLZV OVK eiSdres #eoz> ISovXevcrare 7015 s
>z> Se
v Se
d<T0vrj
#eXere ;
Kal
Scrt
T/TTO ^eov, TTO) 7rtcrTp^)T iraXw ITU ra
crrot^eia, ols iraXiv avatdev SovXevei^
TrapaT^pelcrOe KOL floras /cal /cacpous Kal 10
VJJ.UV.
2 060U 5tO
It is a favourite
thought with the Apostle, that
the Christian is the adopted son
of God. He is not merely a
proselyte brought from another
nation to share the privileges of
the Jewish people ; he is made a
member of the family of Christ.
The custom of adoption was
familiar both to the Greek and
Roman law, and is used by the
Apostle, who was the Roman
citizen of a Greek city, like some
other legal notions (Rom. vii. 1.;
Gal. iii. 15., iv. ].), to express
the relations of God and man.
aTroXa^wjuev.] Under the first
person plural Jew and Gentile
are alike included; in the next
verse the Apostle addresses the
Galatians directly.
6. on c> core vloi.^ It is the
effect, and also the proof of your
sonship, that God sent the Spirit
of His Son into our hearts, crying,
" Father." Comp. Rom. viii. 17.
7. oid Seoi,. ] The reading of
the majority of MSS. in this
passage is unlike the common
language of Scripture, which
ascribes to God the authorship
and end, rather than the means
of salvation. Compare, however,
i. 1. The context seems to re
quire " Thou art not a servant,
but a son ; and if a son, an heir
through Christ, as being one
with the heir." Instead of this,
adopting the words m Seov we
must refer them back to SEOQ in
the preceding verse : " The
same God who gave you his
spirit, as he has made you sons,
so has he made you heirs."
8. AXAa] marks emphatically
the contrast between their former
and present state. TOLQ (pvaei ju>)
ovtri $eo~ts is equivalent to the
expression in 1 Cor. viii. 5., ol
Xeyojutvoi Seoi, gods who have no
real existence in nature, but only
in the thoughts and language of
men. Heathen idolatry had a
twofold aspect to the mind of a
believer in St. Paul s day. First,
it produced the impression of
unmeaningness and deadness in
itself, and senselessness in its
worshippers. The gods that the
heathen worshipped, were no
gods ; there was no spirit or life
in them, none to hear or answer.
When a man looked round upon
the state of the heathen world,
the reflection suggested itself
" that an idol is nothing in the
world." (Compare 1 Cor. viii. 3.,
xii. 2.) Next, as the religions of
VER. 610.] EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS.
339
6 might receive the adoption of sons. And because ye are
sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into our 1
7 hearts, crying, Abba, father. Wherefore thou art no
more a servant, but a son ; and if a son, then an heir
through God. 2
s Howbeit then, when ye knew not God, ye did ser-
9 vice unto them which by nature are no gods. But
now, after that ye have known God, or rather are known
of God, how turn ye again to the weak and beggarly
elements, whereunto ye desire * to begin again to be in
10 bondage ? Ye observe days, and months, and times, and
1 Your.
East and West met and mingled,
the powers of evil seemed to stir
again. It was not a dead oppo
sition, but a living force, which
Jewish fanaticism for the law
opposed to the Gospel. And
when the heathen worship allied
itself with impurity, it was a doc
trine of devils; and the feast in
the idol s temple, a table of devils.
9. vvv $E yvovTEQ SfoV.] This
clause, like the previous one,
shows that there must have been
a time when the Galatians were
Gentiles. They had passed from
idols to serve the living God.
All that we are in relation to God,
more truly speaking we receive
from Him. Comp. 1 Cor. viii. 3.,
el Se rig ayairq. TOV Seor, ovrog ey-
vdHrrai VTT avrov. Also 1 Cor. xiii.
12., rore e iiriyrwffOfJLat Ka0w
Kal iireyrwadrjv. The knowledge
which man has of God is also the
reflex act of the Divinity upon
Himself, who thereby seals man
as his own.
TTWC iniffTpefyeTe TrdX/v.] The
going back is, in the mind of St.
Paul, the inversion of the order
2 Of God through Chrit.
of Providence, who willed that
the law should precede, not fol
low, the Gospel. It was also a
return to the state in which the
Galatians were before they re
ceived the Gospel. For the weak
ness of the law compare the
expression, Rom. viii. 3. : " What
the law could not do, in that it
was weak through the flesh."
The law was weak and meagre,
and could never have power to
save men. See note at the com
mencement of the chapter.
9-cAere.] To which ye of your
own accord begin again to be in
bondage.
10. Ye observe sabbath days,
and new moons, and times for
feasts, and sabbatical years. That
is to say, ye observe all the re
quirements of the Jewish law.
Compare Col. ii. 16. : " Let no
man judge you in meat or in
drink, or in respect of an holy-
day, or of the new moon, or of
the sabbath days."
Our Lord and St. Paul, every
where, speak against the super
stitious observance of the Sab
bath ; they no where enforce the
z 2
340
EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS.
[Cn. IV.
vs ; (/>o/3ov/x,cu v/xa?, ^77 Troug 1/07 KKO7riaKa et? n
yivecrOe a>9 ey<w, on Kayoi MS Vjuteis, dSeX^ot, 12
Seo/^ai vfJLoiv. ovSeV /xe ^Si/o^crare oiSare Se ort Si 13
rr?9 crapKos ev^yyeXtcra^^ v/uz TO
Ka TOP TreipacTfJiov VJJLOJV v Trj crap /a
OVK efou- 14
ou
Se
, dXXa a>9 ayyeXoz> #eou cSe-
consecration of one day in seven,
however right and free from
superstition such an institution
may be in itself, on Christians.
The Christian Sunday rests on
another foundation : ancient use,
the reason of the thing, the prac
tice of the Christian Church,
these grounds are sufficient to
make thoughtful men careful of
its observance for themselves,
and fearful of giving offence to
others, in violating the custom of
their own or other countries.
The origin of this, as of some
other of the greatest institutions
of mankind, is not exactly known;
but that is no reason for doubt
ing its sacredness or Divine au
thority.
It is unfortunate that the desire
to find a sanction for the ob
servance of Sunday in the words
of Scripture, has tended to draw
away the minds of Christians from
the warnings which, in the New
Testament, are continually re
peated against Judaical reve
rence for days. The observance
of days, or the existence of rites
and ceremonies, in our own
Church and country, are a reason
for remembering, and not for
forgetting, that there is a use of
days and ceremonies which the
Scripture everywhere condemns,
even though conventional among
ourselves.
12. "Do ye become as Jam,
for I am as ye are." Compare for
the play of words, Rom. xvi. 13.,
" Salute Rufus, and his mother
and mine ;" ver. 23., "Gaius, mine
host, and of the whole Church ;"
also 2 Cor. xii. 20., " I fear, lest,
coming unto you, I shall find you
such as I will not, and be found
of you such as ye would not ;"
where there is a similar ambi
guity. Here the Apostle would
say, " Seek not to differ from me,
for I am one in heart with you."
A slightly different turn may
also be given : "Be ye Gentiles,
followers of me, even as I, being
a Jew, make myself a Gentile
like you." Comp. 1 Cor. ix. 21.,
TOIQ avopotQ a)Q avopoq.
The Apostle changes his tone.
His old affection for the Galatians
revives, and he implores them to
consider that he is not speaking
of any personal wrongs of his
own. He is touched by the me
mory of their attachment to him
while he was yet with them. " I
know how weak and feeble I was,
how much reason there was for
you to despise me ; but you did
the opposite, you received me as
an angel of God. Your affection
for me was indeed extravagant ;
there was nothing which you
would not have done for me."
ovfilv fj,f rj^iKt]ffaTe.~\ The Apo
stle is recalling, without exact
connection, his reminiscences of
the Galatian Church. There is
VER. 11 14. J EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS.
341
11 years. I am afraid of you, lest I have bestowed upon you
12 labour in vain. Brethren, I beseech you, be as I am ; for I
13 am as ye are. Ye have not injured me at all. Ye know how
amid* infirmity of the flesh I preached the Gospel unto
u you at the first, and your 1 temptation which was in my
flesh. Ye despised not, nor rejected me * ; but received
My.
no bar, he would say, between
me and you ; " indeed you have
not offended me."
e OTL $C aaQivf.ia.v Trjg
In the explanation of
these words, we have to choose
between Greek usage and the
sense required by the context.
Adhering to the ordinary mean
ing of Sm with the accusative, we
should translate, " Ye know that
it was on account of an illness
that I preached to you at first."
There would be no want of cour
tesy to the Galatians in this, if
we only lay the stress on the
latter part of the sentence. " You
saw that it was a mere accident
that made me preach to you, yet
you showed no want of care or
tenderness to me." Yet it seems
hardly likely that the Apostle
would have spoken of mere ill
ness, in the succeeding verse, as
" your temptation in my flesh."
Illness would create sympathy,
not, as he seems to imply in the
words e^ovderriffaTE and efc-TrTv-
o-are, ridicule and disgust. There
is no intimation in the Acts of
the Apostles of any peculiar oc
casion leading him to preach the
Gospel in Galatia ; nor is an ill
ness, which hindered his journey,
a likely or natural one.
It is more probable that the
Apostle is alluding to the thorn
in the flesh, to that depression of
spirit and feebleness of bodily
presence which he refers to else
where in 2 Corinthians (i. 9., ii.
13., x. 10.), and which may have
been a form of the same disorder.
(Compare " The messenger of
Satan to buffet me," which seems
to denote a half mental, half bodily
affliction.) He is speaking of the
state in which he preached to
them, not of some accidental
cause of his mission. Compare
again 2 Cor. x. 10., >/ Se Trapovtria
TOV ar<jjfjia.TOG (LaQf.v}]g, KO.I 6 \6~yoQ
iZovOevrjiJLevoG ; and the words of
1 Cor. ii. 3., which are still
nearer, KOI eyw e> aaQerdq. KCU iv
(f)6&&lt;*) Kctl iv Tp6/j,(t) TroXXw iyevopriv
TTjOoe vpcLQ. All these passages
give the same idea of the Apostle s
personal appearance. Of such an
one it might be truly said, "Ye
did not show contempt or dis
like."
The question remains, however,
to be considered, whether Sta
with the accusative can be used
in the sense of "in the state of;"
whether, in other words, Si* aerOl-
veiav in the Galatians is equiva
lent to ev acrQeveiq. in the 1 Corin
thians, ii. 3. Even if no other
example can be adduced, the con
text and the parallel verse in
1 Cor. afford strong ground for
supposing that such must be the
meaning of the preposition in
this passage. And an approxima
tion to the same use is found in
Phil. i. 15., nvig HEV KOI ()ta
3
342
EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS.
[CH. IV.
e /xe, a>s yjpi&rov Irjcrovv. TTOV ovv 1 6 /xa/capicr/xos is
; fJiapTvpo) yap vpSis an, 6 SwaroV, rovs 6(#aX-
VJJLOJV e^opv^ cures 2 eSw/care /xoi. aJcrre l^/oos 16
yeyova aXrjOevw v^lv ; r)\ovcnv v/xas ou /caXa>9, 17
dXXa. KK\elcrai u/xcls BtXovcriv, Iva avrovg ^rjXovre.
KoXbv Se {flXovcrffat, lv /caX(p Tra^rore, /cal /XT) \LQVQV kv is
piv *
where the meaning, " because of
good will, * is forced, and the
words ota (f)Q6vov and c)i ev^oKiav
are resumed by iravrl rpo-rru) in
the following verse. Lastly, the
fact that in numerous other
senses cua is joined with the accu
sative and genitive indifferently,
and in the New Testament espe
cially with the accusative, for
the mean or instrument, or in a
general sense of relation (John,
vi. 57.) and of time (2 Pet. iii.
12.), is sufficient to show that the
usage here, though uncommon, is
no great violation of grammatical
analogy. Comp. Is. xxviii. 11.
" You looked upon my face as
upon the face of an angel. You
thought you saw Christ Himself
in the person of His servant." TO
TrpoTtpov, on the first of my two
visits to you : probably the one
recorded in Acts, xvi. 6.
15. TTOV OVV O p,aKaplfff.lOQ VfJ,U>V^
What has become of the procla
mation of your joy, " the blessed
ness of which ye spake?" It is
gone. I ask you, because in your
old state I bear you witness that
you were beside yourselves in
your gratitude to me. I ask you,
because you seemed to have a
blessedness, though you really
had not ; for I bear you witness
that there was nothing which
you would not have done for me.
2 Add &/.
juaK-api<r/xoc,] not "blessedness;"
but, as in Rom. iv. 9., the attri
bution of blessedness. So here
the declaration of how blessed
you were, the state described
also in Gal. iii. 2.
wore.] The inference that I
draw is, that speaking the truth
has ruined me with you.
17. r)XoVfflf VfJiCLQ OV KttXwC.]
They desire to make proselytes
of you, but in a bad way ; nay,
they would (1.) shut you out
from the Gospel, (2.) or from us,
that ye may have the zeal of pro
selytes towards them. Comp.
ffuy/cXeiOjuo/ot, iii. 23. ; and for
77X00*, Rom. x. 2.
18. KO.\OV c
it is good to be zealously en
treated, always where the ob
ject is good. It is difficult to
find an explanation of these
words, suitable both to what has
preceded, and what follows in
the succeeding clause. In ver.
15. the Apostle had said in a
figure that nothing could exceed
the zealous attachment of the
Galatians to him while he was
with them ; they would have
plucked out their eyes for him.
So that he had just made them
his enemies by speaking the
truth. Very different was the
conduct of the Judaizing teach
ers ; they sought only how they
might produce this zealous at
tachment, not certainly by speak-
2 Cor. xi. 2.
But
VER. 1518.] EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS.
343
15 me as an angel of God, even as Christ Jesus. Where is
then the blessedness ye spake of? for I bear you record,
that, if it had been possible, ye would have plucked out
16 your own eyes and have given them to rne. Am I
therefore become your enemy, because I tell you the
17 truth ? They zealously entreat * you, but not well ; yea,
they would exclude you, that ye might affect them.
is But it is good to be zealously entreated* always in a
good thing, and not only when I am present with you.
ing the truth ; they would if
possible monopolise the affection
of their converts. Thus far we
have had two trains of thought
suggested by each other; (1.)
the zealous affection of the Ga-
latians to the Apostle ; (2.) the
zealous affection of the false
teachers for the Galatians them
selves. The Apostle proceeds :
"But it is good to be the object
of this zealous affection, such as
you showed to me, such as they
show to you, in a good thing, at
all times ;" and then returning to
the previous clause, he adds,
" and not only when I am present
with you." As though he said,
" It is a good thing that you and
they should be the objects of
these warm feelings to each
other, and yet it is a pity that
you forget absent friends. How
earnestly were you attached to
me ! How soon did you forget
me!" For a similar confusion
of two connections, compare Rom.
xv. 27.
Another way of making out
the passage is as follows : The
first clause of verse 18. may be
opposed to verse 17. : " There
was warm affection between you
and them. But warm affection
is always good where it relates
to a good object;" a general
statement which describes the
opposite case to that of the Gala
tians and the false teachers, under
which, however, lurks the thought
of that true affection which they
had felt to the Apostle himself,
and suggests the clause which
follows, " and not only while I
am present with you." It is good
to be the object of these strong
feelings where the matter in hand
is good (sub. which was not your
case with the false teachers) ;
good, too, that such feelings
should not be so transitory as
you have shown to me. A third
way may be suggested: "It is
good to be zealously affected,
provided the object be good, in
my absence as in my presence."
As if he said, " I admit the ex
cellence of the feeling, and am
not jealous of your showing it
towards "others in my absence."
The spirit of confidence, however,
which the Apostle thus shows
towards the Galatians is hardly
consistent with the context.
None of the difficulties of this
passage are removed, though new
ones are superadded by taking
faXovvdai actively, a sense in
which it is not elsewhere found,
and which is also inconsistent with
the use of the active (^Xoiire)
which immediately precedes.
z 4
344
EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS.
[On. IV.
( Trapelvai, /xe TT/OOS v/xas re/c^a x pov, ovg TraXii a)8iz/a> 19
o5 fjiop(f)(t)6rj ^otcrro9 ez
u/zas a/m /cal dXXafai
pOVjJLCil ZV VjJiLV.
e JJLOL, ol VTTO vopov
ei/a e/c
Se Trapei^ai 20
v JJLOV, on 0,770-
etpcu., ro^ vopov 21
paajji Svo viovs 22
TratSicr/c?;? /cal eVa e/c r^5 eXevOepas.
/c TT}S TratSiV/c^s Kara crap/ca yeyeW^rat, 23
ov/c /covere ; ytypaiTTOLi yap on
ecr)(v,
dXX 6
19. ovc TraXiv w^tVw, of whom I
travail again. ] As in other
passages, St. Paul compares him
self to a spiritual father who had
begotten many sons in the Gos
pel, so here he likens himself to
a mother travailing in sorrow
because " there is not strength
to bring forth." The confusion
of metaphors is curious : " I am
in travail, (not until you are born
again, but) until Christ be born
in you." Compare 1 Thess. ii. 7.,
v. 4. (Lach.) ; Rom. vii. 4. 6. ;
2 Cor. iii. 18.
20. ijdeXov for r/0eXov av.] " I
could wish;" like rju-^ofji^v for
r)i>xdfj.r)v civ, in Rom. ix. 3. c)f
appears to arise out of the idea
of absence hinted at in kv TV
irapewai of ver. 18.; "I am ab
sent, but I wish I were pre
sent."
aAAaou r/)v 0wv//v juov.] Either
to speak in a different tone from
that in which I am now writing,
or to use a different tone from
what I did when with you.
OTL otTTOjOoujuai V vfjuv, I stand
in doubt of you.~\ " Because I
am in a strait in reference to
you, I know not how to deal
with you." Comp. Heb. vi. 6. :
" It is impossible to renew
them again to repentance if they
shall fall away." See also 2 Cor.
x. 10, 11.: "For his letters,
say they, are weighty and pow
erful ; but his bodily presence is
weak, and his speech contempti
ble. Let such an one think this,
that, such as we are in word
when we are absent, such will
we be also in deed when we are
present."
21. I will try another method ;
perchance the words of the law
may have more weight with
you than my own. "Ye then
that desire to be under the law,
hear an allegory which is taken
from the law."
Whether this is an argument or
an illustration, is a question that
naturally occurs to the mind of
the reader. To an Alexandrian
writer of the first century (may
we say, therefore, to St. Paul
himself?) the question itself could
hardly have been made intelli
gible. That very modern dis
tinction between argument and
illustration was precisely what
his mind wanted, to place it on a
level with the modes of thought
of our own age. We must, there
fore, find some other way of cha
racterising the passage. It is
neither an argument nor an il
lustration, but an interpretation
of the Old Testament Scripture
after the manner of the age in
VER. 1923.] EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS.
345
19 My 1 children, of whom I travail in birth again until
20 Christ be formed in you, I desire to be present with
you now, and to change my voice ; for I stand in doubt
of you.
21 Tell me, ye that desire to be under the law, do ye not
22 hear the law ? For it is written, that Abraham had
two sons, the one by a bondmaid, the other by a free
23 woman. But he who was of the bondwoman was born
Add little.
which St. Paul lived ; that is,
after the manner of the Jewish
and Christian Alexandrian wri
ters. Whatever difference there
is between him and them, or be
tween Philo and the Christian
fathers as interpreters of Scrip
ture, is not one of kind, but of
degree. A truer difference is
made by the noble spirit of the
Apostle shining through the ele
ments of the law in which he
clothes his meaning. The form
of allegory, or of mysticism, does
not straiten the freedom of the
Gospel. Strange as it may at first
appear, that his mode of inter
preting the Old Testament Scrip
tures should not conform to our
laws of logic or language, it
would be far stranger if it had
not conformed with the natural
modes of thought and associa
tion in his own day. See Essay
on Quotations from Old Testa
ment, and on Philo.
22, 23. There is a peculiar al
lusion conveyed by the expression
Kara cropjca, which the Apostle
HAGAR.
The child according to the flesh.
The law given on Sinai, which
Sinai is a mountain in the land
of Hagar. See on ver. 25.)
has usually applied to the Mosai-
cal law as he has also applied
fiTrayyeAm to the Gospel. In the
very terms of his statement, he
has linked the interpretation of
the allegory with the narrative
itself.
In what follows, the law and
the Gospel are paralleled with
the two children of Abraham.
The one was his natural child
according to the flesh, with which
notion of fleshly descent the
Jewish dispensation is insepa
rably bound up ; the other was
the spiritual child, born accord
ing to promise, with which pro
mise, in the previous chapter, the
Gospel has already been identi
fied : which things are spoken
in one way, but designed to be
understood in another. For Ish-
mael and Isaac are two cove
nants; the one from Mount Sinai,
answering to the Jerusalem that
now is ; the other bearing the
image of the heavenly Jerusalem.
The points of comparison may be
exhibited as follows :
SARAH.
The child according to promise.
The Gospel.
346
EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS.
[On. IV.
6 Se IK TTJS eXev#epas Sid rrjs CTrayyeXtag. aripa ecrrti^ 24
aXXrjyopoviJLeva. aSrat yap eio~w l Svo SiaOrJKai, pia pzv
0,770 opov9 5^a, eis SovXeiaz^ yez^^aJo a, ^rt? ecrri^ *Ayap
(TO yap 2 5t^a opos CCTTIZ/ IV TT^ *Apa/3ia}, crvcrTOL^el Se 25
TT; ^w f lpov<ra\rjiJi (SovXevet yap 3 /ACTO, TOJ^ T^KV^V
Se aVa> lepovcraX^joi eXeu^epa zcrrLv, T^TIS 26
[TroWa)!/] rjfjitov yeypaTTTat yap .Evc^pdV 27
^Tt (TTetpa 17 ou Ti/cTovcra, prjov Kal /Soyjcrov r) OVK
, OTt TToXXd TCX TKVa T^S Cp^OU
1 Adda?. 2 Add^Ayap.
icrrlv
The bondwoman. The free woman who had been
barren.
Jerusalem in bondage with her The Jerusalem which is above,
children. and is free, and the mother of
all mankind.
The bondwoman to be cast forth by the free woman.
a\\rjyopov[jLEva.~\ " Which have
a different meaning, for their true
meaning is that they are two
covenants." Compare Philo, ii.
483.: many at t^yr/o-eic rwv isp&v
ypanfjiariov ytVorreu Ci virovotHJv
kv aXXriyoplaic;.
JJ.ICL IJIEV . . . EIQ $ov\elqLV yet -
rtiffa. ] The image is here a little
forced. It was not in the fact,
but in the feeling of the Israelite
towards him, that the elder served
the younger. The Apostle, iden
tifying Hagar with the law and
the law with slavery, makes the
bondwoman also the mother of
bondmen.
25. 70 yap Siva opog effrlv iv
rrj Apatg.] The MS. authority
and later editors are nearly di
vided about the admission of the
word "A yap in this verse (ro yap
"Ayap, J. K.; ro yap, C. F.G.; ro
"Ayap, B.; ro e)e "Ayap, A.D.E.)
The insertion, however, does little
towards supplying the connection
of the 25th and 24th verses ; as
the old explanations, that Hagar
is the Arabic word for a rock, or
the Arabic name of mount Sinai
(whether we suppose it probable
or otherwise, that St. Paul would
have quoted Arabic words in
writing to the Galatians), are
destitute of foundation. On bet
ter authority it is stated that
there was a town Hagar close to
the mountain, the name of which
may have been given to Sinai
itself; of this latter fact, how
ever, no proof is adduced.
A sufficient sense is obtained
by laying the stress on kv TIJ Apa-
/a. "For mount Sinai is in
Arabia, the land of the children
of Hagar;" or "For this Hagar
is mount Sinai in the land of the
children of Hagar." (Comp. Ps.
Ixxxiii. 7.) That is to say, Hagar
typifies the law given on mount
Sinai, because mount Sinai is in
the country of the descendants of
VER. 2427.] EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS.
347
after the flesh ; but he of the freewoman was by promise.
24 Which things are an allegory: for these are the two
covenants ; the one from the mount Sinai, which geri-
25 dereth to bondage, which is Agar (for this mount
Sinai is in Arabia 1 ), arid answereth to Jerusalem which
26 now is (for she is 2 in bondage with her children). But
Jerusalem which is above is free, which is the mother
27 of us all. For it is written, Rejoice, thou barren
that bearest not ; break forth and cry, thou that tra-
vailest not : for the desolate hath many more children
For this Agar is mount Sinai in Arabia.
8 And is.
Hagar. Such appears to be the
least objectionable mode of ex
plaining the passage ; it may be
admitted not wholly free from
subtlety and obscurity. The ex
planation is assisted by taking
the words, 70 yap Dt^a opog korlv
ev ry Apa&ia, as a parenthesis,
and connecting the following
clause ffv<rroi-%el with yum ^Laf)t]Krj
preceding.
" These are the two covenants ;
the one gendering into bondage
which is Hagar (for mount Sinai
is in the land Hagar), and an
swering to Jerusalem that now
is." <!>ov\evi yap for the point
of the comparison is, she and her
descendants are slaves.
26. Here St. Paul drops the
figure and compares the heavenly
Jerusalem with the Jerusalem
that now is. What we expect
to follow is "But the other co
venant is Sarah the free woman,
whose children are free." In
stead of this, the Apostle only
works out the idea of freedom as
opposed to bondage.
The same image occurs in
Rev. xxi. 2. "The holy city, the
New Jerusalem, descending out
of heaven like a bride adorned
for her husband;" and in Heb.
xii. 22. "Ye have come near
to mount Sion, the city of the
living God, the heavenly Jeru
salem." Like all similar images,
it is taken in a more or less
spiritual sense, according to the
spirituality of those who make use
of, or receive it. That it is a
city of freedom, neither in bond
age to the Romans, nor in bond
age to the law of Moses, is the
manner in which the Apostle
pictures it. Compare also, Phil,
iii. 20, r/yuwv yap TO TroXirevpa kv
ovpavw.
[iravTWv] jjjjitov.^ TravTwv is
an ancient various reading, oc
curring in Cod. A. and in Ire-
nseus.
27. Isa/liv. 1. from the LXX.
The Apostle applies these words
to Sarah, and through her to
the Christian Church, which has
been called in the previous verse,
" the mother of us all."
OTL TTuXXd rd retfpo/J Because
the wife who is deserted hath
many more children than she who
has the husband.
Compare for a trace of the
same thought, Rom. iv. 19., Heb.
vi. 11.
348
EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS.
[Cii. IV.
TOP avSpa. vp,eL<$ 1 Se, dSeX<oi, Kara Icraa/c 28
s TZKVOL ecrre. dXX atcnrep Tore o Kara <rdpKa 29
eSuo/cei> TOP Kara TTVtvpa, ovra>s /cat zw
dXXd TL Xeyei 17 ypacfrij ; V -EK/3aXe rrjv TracSicrKTp KOLL so
TOV viov avTrjs ov yap JUIT) /cXT^oj Oju/^crei 2 6 mos
7rai8i<TA079 ^cerd TOV wov r^s e\ev0epas. Sid 3 , d8eX- si
ov/c ecrjue* TraiSicr/c^s re /a a, dXXd r^s I
28. Now you, brethren, as
Isaac was, are children of the
promise. Above St. Paul had
linked together the Gospel and
the promise to the exclusion of
the law. Here he repeats the
same " in a figure."
29. The figure is carried on a
step further. It has been already
established that the believer is
represented by Isaac, the ad
herent of the law by Ishmael.
But in the Old Testament, Gen.
xxi. 9., it was or seemed to be
recorded that Ishmael mocked
Isaac, which suggests to the Apo
stle the thought of a further
resemblance to the case of the
Christian Church. All its per
secution came originally from
those who were the children
according to the flesh ; either
stirring up the Gentiles against
them, or as St. Paul felt in the
case of the Galatian Church (v.
11. TL .TL SiwKopai ; "Why do
I yet suffer persecution ? "), per
secuting by false teachers, who
were really Jews, and pretended
to be Christians, and sometimes
" s aid they were Jews, and were
not."
Some degree of confusion is
observable in the image, that is
to say, Hagar and Ishmael both
equally represent the law, and
Sarah and Isaac the Gospel.
&pa.
30. The image expressed St.
Paul s feelings in another point.
The Scripture said "Cast forth
the bondwoman and her son, for
the son of the bondwoman shall
not inherit with the son of the
free woman." St. Paul also knew
that the law and the Gospel could
not exist together. It was the
appointment of God that, sooner
or later, the one should drive out
the other.
The stories of the Rabbis have
enlarged on the simple statement
of the book of Genesis that Sarah
saw Ishmael " playing," with her
son Isaac, the word for which
neither in the Hebrew nor the
LXX. admits the sense of mock
ing. They narrate how Isaac and
Ishmael had a strife respecting
the right of the first-born, and
how, as they were in the field to
gether, Ishmael pursued Isaac
with his arrows, &c. Such tales
the Apostle may have had in his
mind when he used the words
ediwiCCY TOV KO.TCI 7rj/Vjua, opposed
in this passage to Kara o-a (0/,-a,
which is our chief means of fix
ing its meaning. Ishmael is
called the child according to the
flesh, because born of the bond
woman in the natural way ; Isaac
is said to be the offspring accord
ing to the Spirit, because sprung
stipernaturally "from one as good
2831.] EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS.
349
28 than she which hath an husband. But ye 1 , brethren, as
29 Isaac was, are the children of promise. But as then he
that was born after the flesh persecuted him that was
so born after the Spirit, even so it is now. .Nevertheless
what saith the Scripture ? Cast out the bondwoman and
her son : for the son of the bondwoman shall not be heir
31 with the son of the freewoman. Wherefore 2 , brethren,
we are not children of the bondwoman, but of the free.
Now we.
So then.
as dead," the heir of the pro
mises, in whose person the dispen
sation of the Spirit is anticipated.
31. &o.] The MSS. vary be
tween apa, apac}, cipa ovv, Sto
Lachmann and Tischendorf, f]f*t~iQ
5c. The reading cipa reminds us
of the conclusion of chap. vii. of
the Romans, which, like the con
clusion of the present passage,
appears out of place. Through
out the whole comparison, the
Apostle has assumed that we are
not the children of the bond
woman, but of the free ; and
the further inference has been
drawn, that the bondwoman is to
be cast forth. It seems too late
to say, " therefore, brethren," and
so on. It may be urged in an
swer, that we cannot argue
against the repetition of conclu
sions, or, indeed, respecting the
order of thought at all, in a style
which is so unequal as that of St.
Paul.
Whether we read apa or to,
the sense would be better given
by commencing a new paragraph
or chapter from these words, to
note that they are not so much an
inference from the preceding, as
a practical application of them.
" Wherefore, brethren, we are
not the children of the bond, but
of the free." Christ made us free,
stand therefore ; or, according to
the received reading. " Stand
fast in the liberty with which
Christ made us free."
So in language old yet new,
" in the oldness of the letter
itself," the Apostle tells of the
freedom of the Gospel. The child
of promise is the figure of the
kingdom of heaven which is per
secuted on earth, yet in the
highest sense free, and the mo
ther of all mankind. The perse
cutor is the fleshly heir, the image
of the covenant of mount Sinai,
who is now cast out and not
suffered to inherit with the child
of promise. The law and the
Gospel cannot dwell together ;
the Gospel must drive out the
law.
Such a v tale in that age and
country, finding its way to the
minds of men, gave them a type
or symbol, a form of truth and
knowledge in which they received
a principle not otherwise easy
for them to grasp ; it might be
compared to an earthen vessel, in
which the water of life was raised
to the lips. He who objects to
the tale as a mere illustration or
application, should remember that
such adaptations or illustrations
350
EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS.
[Cfl. IV.
have ever been the mode in which
the past has been interpreted by
the present ; broken to pieces and
put together again ; a new tem
ple built out of the old stones
a new life given to the dry
bones. Great as has been the
influence of the wisdom of former
ages, that influence has arisen
much more from the idea which
posterity have attributed to it, or
extracted from it, than from what
the critic of modern days now
perceives to have been the origi
nal meaning of the poet or philo
sopher. And it is singular, yet
true, and a sort of economy in
the education of the human race,
that these new applications of the
sayings of those of old time have
derived a part of their authority
by an illusion, from the names of
those whose meaning they no
longer convey.
351
ON THE CHAEACTEE OF ST. PAUL.
Oftare Se 6n 8t affd&etav TTJS ffapKbs fv^yy\Krd/j.-nv vplv r5 vpSrepov, Kal
v vfJLuv fv rfj ffapKi fj.ov OVK eovdfvf)(TaT ouSe f^Trriiffarf, a\Aa us
f$eaadf /we, us xpurrbv y lr]ffovv. Gal. iv. 13, 14.
THE narrative of the Gospel gives no full or perfect likeness of the
character of the Apostles. Human beings do not admit of being
constructed out of a single feature, nor is imagination able to supply
details which are really wanting. St. Peter and St. John, the two
Apostles whose names are most prominent in the Gospels and early
portion of the Acts, both seem to unite two extremes in the same
person ; the character of St. John combining gentleness with vehe
mence, almost with fierceness ; while in St. Peter we trace rashness
and timidity at once, the spirit of freedom at one period of his life,
and of narrowness and exclusiveness at another. He is the first to
confess, and the first to deny Christ. Himself the captain of the
Apostles, and yet wanting in the qualities necessary to constitute a
leader. Such extremes may easily meet in the same person ; but we
do not possess sufficient knowledge to say how they were really
reconciled. Each of the twelve Apostles grew up to the fulness of
the stature of the perfect man. Even those who to us are little
more than names, had individual features as lively as our own con
temporaries. But the mention of their sayings or acts on four or
five occasions while they followed the footsteps of the Lord on earth,
and then on two or three occasions soon after He was taken from
them, then once again at an interval of twelve or fourteen years, is not
sufficient to enable us to judge of their whole character. We may
352 EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS.
distinguish Peter from John, or James from either ; but we cannot
set them up as a study to be compared with each other.
More features appear of the character of St. Paul, yet not sufficient
to give a perfect picture. We should lose the individuality which
we have, by seeking to idealise and generalise from some more com
mon type of Christian life. It has not been unusual to describe
St. Paul as a man of resolute will, of untiring energy, of logical
mind, of classic taste. He has been contrasted with the twelve as
the educated with the uneducated, the student of Hebrew and Greek
learning, brought up in Jerusalem at the feet of Gamaliel, with the
fishermen of Galilee " mending their nets" by the lake. Powers of
government have been attributed to him such as were required, and
in some instances possessed, by the great leaders of the Church in
later ages. He is imagined to have spoken with an accuracy hardly
to be found in the systems of philosophers. Not of such an one
would the Apostle himself "have gloried;" he would not have
understood the praises of his commentators. It was not the wisdom
of this world which he spoke, but " the hidden wisdom of God in a
mystery." All his life long he felt himself to be one " whose strength
was perfected in weakness ;" he was aware of the impression of feeble
ness which his own appearance and discourse made upon his con
verts; who was sometimes in weakness and fear and trembling before
them, " having the sentence of death in himself," and at other times
"in power and the Holy Ghost and in much assurance ;" and so far
from having one unchanging purpose or insight, that though deter
mined to know one thing only, " Jesus Christ and Him crucified,"
yet in his manner of teaching he wavers between opposite views or
precepts in successive verses. He is ever feeling, if haply he may
find them, after the hearts of men. He is carried away by sympathy,
at times even for his opponents. He is struggling to describe what
is in process of revelation to him. " Rude in speech but not in
knowledge," as he himself says. The life of the Greek language had
passed away, and it must have been a matter of effort for him to
write in a foreign tongue, perhaps even to write at all ; yet he puts
ON THE CHARACTER OF ST. PAUL. 353
together words in his own characteristic way which are full of mean
ing, though often scattered in confusion over the page. He occasion
ally lights also on the happiest expressions, stamping old phrases in
a new mould, and bringing forth the new out of the treasury of
the old. Such are some of the individual traits which he has left
in his Epistles ; they are traits far more interesting and more like
himself than any general image of heroism, or knowledge, or power,
or goodness. Whatever other impression he might have made upon
us, could we have seen him face to face, there can be little doubt
that he would have left the impression of what was remarkable and
uncommon.
There are questions which it is interesting to suggest, even when
they can never receive a perfect and satisfactory answer. One of
these questions may be asked respecting St. Paul : " What was the
relation in which his former life stood to the great fact of his con
version?" He himself, in looking back upon the times in which he
persecuted the Church of God, thought of them chiefly as an in
creasing evidence of the mercy of God, which was afterwards
extended to him. It seemed so strange to have been what he had
been, and to be what he was. Nor does our own conception of him,
in relation to his former self, commonly reach beyond this contrast
of the old and new man ; the persecutor and the preacher of the
Gospel ; the young man at whose feet the witnesses against Stephen
laid down their clothes, and the same Paul disputing against the
Grecians, full of visions and revelations of the Lord, on whom in
later life came daily the care of all the Churcnes.
Yet we cannot but admit also the possibility, or rather the pro
bable truth of another point of view. It is not unlikely that the
struggle which he describes in the seventh chapter of the Romans is
the picture of his own heart in the days when he " verily thought
that he ought to do many things contrary to Jesus of Nazareth;"
the impression of that earlier state, perhaps the image of the martyr
Stephen (Acts, xxii. 20.), may have remained with him in after years.
For men seem to carry about with them the elements of their former
VOL. I. A A
354 EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS.
lives; the character or nature which they once were, the circumstance
which became a part of them, is not wholly abolished or done away;
it remains, " even in the regenerate," as a sort of insoluble mass or
incumbrance which prevents their freedom of action ; in very few, or
rather in none, can the old habit have perfect flexure to its new use.
Everywhere, in the case of our acquaintance, who may have passed
through great changes of opinion or conduct, we see from time to time
the old nature which is underneath occasionally coming to the surface.
Nor is it irreverent to attribute such remembrances of a former self
even to inspired persons. If there were any among the contemporaries
of St. Paul who had known him in youth and in age, they would have
seen similarities which escape us in the character of the Apostle at
different periods of his life. The zealot against the Gospel might
have seemed to them transfigured into the opponent of the law; they
would have found something in common in the Pharisee of the Pha
risees, and the man who had a vow on his last journey to Jerusalem;
they would perhaps have observed arguments, or quotations, or modes
of speech in his writings which had been familiar to them and him
in the school of Gamaliel. And when they heard of his conversion,
they might have remarked that to one of his temperament only could
such an event have happened, and would have noted many superficial
resemblances which showed him to be the same man, while the great
inward change which had overspread the world was hid from their
eyes.
The gifts of God to man have ever some reference to natural
disposition. He who becomes the servant of God does not thereby
cease to be himself. Often the transition is greater in appearance
than in reality, from the suddenness of its manifestation. There is
a kind of rebellion against self and nature and God, which, through
the mercy of God to the soul, seems almost necessarily to lead to re
action. Persons have been worse than their fellow-men in outward
appearance, and yet there was within them the spirit of a child wait
ing to return home to their father s house. A change passes upon
them which we may figure to ourselves, not only as the new man
ON THE CHARACTER OF ST. PAUL. 355
taking the place of the old, but as the inner man taking the place of
the outer. So complex is human nature, that the very opposite to
what we are has often an inexpressible power over us. Contrast is
not only a law of association ; it is also a principle of action. Many
run from one extreme to another, from licentiousness to the ecstasy
of religious feeling, from religious feeling back to licentiousness, not
without a " fearful looking for of judgment." If we could trace the
hidden workings of good and evil, they would appear far less sur
prising and more natural than as they are seen by the outward eye.
Our spiritual nature is without spring or chasm, but it has a certain
play or freedom which leads very often to consequences the opposite
of what we expect. It seems in some instances as if the same reli
gious education had tended to contrary results ; in one case to a
devout life, in another to a reaction against it ; sometimes to one
form of faith, at other times to another. Many parents have wept to
see the early religious training of their children draw them, by a kind
of repulsion, to a communion or mode of opinion which is the extreme
opposite of that in which they have been brought up. Let them have
peace in the thought that it was not always in their power to fulfil the
duty in which they seem to themselves to have failed. These latter
reflections have but a remote bearing on the character of St. Paul ;
but they serve to make us think that all spiritual influences, however
antagonistic they may appear, have more in common with each other
than they have with the temper of the world ; and that it is easier
to pass from one form of faith to another than from leading the life
of all men to either. There is more in common between those who
anathematise each other than between either and the spirit of tolera
tion which characterises the ordinary dealings of man and man, or
much more the spirit of Christ, for whom they are alike contending.
Perhaps we shall not be far wrong in concluding, that those who
have undergone great religious changes have been of a fervid ima
ginative cast of mind j looking for more in this world than it was
capable of yielding ; easily touched by the remembrance of the past,
or inspired by some ideal of the future. When with this has been
A A 2
356 EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS.
combined a zeal for the good of their fellow-men, they have become
the heralds and champions of the religious movements of the world.
The change has begun within, but has overflowed without them.
" When thou art converted, strengthen thy brethren," is the order of
nature and of grace. In secret they brood over their own state ;
weary and profitless their soul fainteth within them. The religion
they profess is a religion not of life to them, but of death ; they lose
their interest in the world, and are cut off from the communion of
their fellow-creatures. While they are musing, the fire kindles, and
at the last " they speak with their tongue." Then pours forth irre-
pressibly the pent-up stream "unto all and upon all" their fellow-
men ; the intense flame of inward enthusiasm warms and lights up the
world. First they are the evidence to others ; then, again, others are
the evidence to them. All religious leaders cannot be reduced to a
single type of character ; yet in all, perhaps, two characteristics may
be observed ; the first, great self-reflection ; the second, intense sym
pathy with other men. They are not the creatures of habit or of
circumstances, leading a blind life, unconscious of what they are ;
their whole effort is to realise their inward nature, and to make it
palpable and visible to their fellows. Unlike other men who are
confined to the circle of themselves or of their family, their affections
are never straitened ; they embrace with their love all men who
are like-minded with them, almost all men too who are unlike them,
in the hope that they may become like.
Such men have generally appeared at favourable conjunctures of
circumstances, when the old was about to vanish away, and the new
to appear. The world has yearned towards them, and they towards
the world. They have uttered what all men were feeling ; they
have interpreted the age to itself. But for the concurrence of cir
cumstances, they might have been stranded on the solitary shore, they
might have died without a follower or convert. But when the world
has needed them, and God has intended them for the world, they are
endued with power from on high ; they use all other men as their
instruments, uniting them to themselves.
ON THE CHARACTER OF ST. PAUL. 357
Often such men have been brought up in the faith which they
afterwards oppose, and a part of their power has consisted in
their acquaintance with the enemy. They see other men, like
themselves formerly, wandering out of the way in the idol s temple,
amid a burdensome ceremonial, with prayers and sacrifices unable to
free the soul. They lead them by the way themselves came to the
home of Christ. Sometimes they represent the new as the truth of
the old ; at other times as contrasted with it, as life and death, as
good and evil, as Christ and anti-Christ. They relax the force of
habit, they melt the pride and fanaticism of the soul. They suggest
to others their own doubts, they inspire them with their own hopes,
they supply their own motives, they draw men to them with cords
of sympathy and bonds of love ; they themselves seem a sufficient
stay to support the world. Such was Luther at the Reformation ;
such, in a higher sense, was the Apostle St. Paul.
There have been heroes in the world, and there have been prophets
in the world. The first may be divided into two classes ; either they
have been men of strong will and character, or of great power and
range of intellect ; in a few instances, combining both. They have
been the natural leaders of mankind, compelling others by their
acknowledged superiority as rulers and generals ; or in the paths of
science and philosophy, drawing the world after them by a yet more
inevitable necessity. The prophet belongs to another order of beings :
he does not master his thoughts ; they carry him away. He does
not see clearly into the laws of this world or the affairs of this world,
but has a light beyond, which reveals them partially in their relation
to another. Often he seems to be at once both the weakest and
the strongest of men ; the first to yield to his own impulses, the
mightiest to arouse them in others. Calmness, or reason, or philo
sophy are not the words which describe the appeals which he makes
to the hearts of men. He sways them to and fro rather than governs
or controls them. He is a poet, and more than a poet, the inspired
teacher of mankind ; but the intellectual gifts which he possesses
are independent of knowledge, or learning, or capacity; what they
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358 EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS.
are much more akin to is the fire and subtlety of genius. He, too,
for a time, has ruled kingdoms and even led armies ; " an Apostle,
not of man, nor by men ;" acting, not by authority or commission of
any prince, but by an immediate inspiration from on high, communi
cating itself to the hearts of men.
Saul of Tarsus is called an Apostle rather than a prophet, because
Hebrew prophecy belongs to an age of the world before Christianity.
Now that in the Gospel that which is perfect is come, that which
is in part is done away. Yet, in a secondary sense, the Apostle St.
Paul is also " among the prophets." He, too, has " visions and
revelations of the Lord," though he has not written them down " for
our instruction," in which he would fain glory because they are not
his own. Even to the outward eye he has the signs of a prophet.
There is in him the same emotion, the same sympathy, the same
" strength made perfect in weakness," the same absence of human
knowledge, the same subtlety in the use of language, the same
singleness in the delivery of his message. He speaks more as a
man, and less immediately under the impulse of the Spirit of God ;
more to individuals, and less to the nation at large ; he is less of a
poet, and more of a teacher or preacher. But these differences do
not interfere with the general resemblance. Like Isaiah, he bids us
look to " the man of sorrows ;" like Ezekiel, he arouses men to a
truer sense of the ways of God in his dealings with them ; like
Jeremiah, he mourns over his countrymen ; like all the prophets
who have ever been, he is lifted above this world, and is " in the
Spirit at the day of the Lord." (Rev. i. 10.)
Reflections of this kind are suggested by the absence of materials
such as throw any light on the early life of St. Paul. All that we
know of him before his conversion is summed up in two facts, " that
the witnesses laid down their clothes with a young man whose name
was Saul," and that he was brought up at the feet of Gamaliel, one of
the few Rabbinical teachers of Greek learning in the city of Jerusa
lem. We cannot venture to assign to him either the "choleric" or
the "melancholic" temperament. [Tholuck.] We are unable to
ON THE CHARACTER OF ST. PAUL. 359
determine what were his natural gifts or capacities ; or how far, as
we often observe to be the case, the gifts which he had were called
out by the mission on which he was sent, or the theatre on which he
felt himself placed " a spectacle to the world, to angels, and to men."
Far more interesting is it to trace the simple feelings with which he
himself regarded his former life. " Last of all he was seen of me
also, who am the least of the Apostles, that am not worthy to be
called an Apostle, because I persecuted the Church of God." Yet
there was a sense also that he was excusable, and that this was the
reason why the mercy of God extended itself to him. " Yet I
obtained mercy because I did it ignorantly in unbelief." And in one
passage he dwells on the fact, not only that he had been an
Israelite, but more, that after the strictest sect of the Jews
religion he lived a Pharisee, as though that were an evidence to
himself, and should be so to others, that no human power could
have changed him ; that he was no half Jew, who had never pro
perly known what the law was, but one who had both known and
strictly practised it.
We are apt to judge extraordinary men by our own standard;
that is to say, we often suppose them to possess, in an extraordinary
degree, those qualities which we are conscious of in ourselves or
others. This is the easiest way of conceiving their characters, but
not the truest. They differ in kind rather than in degree. Even to
understand them truly seems to require a power analogous to their
own. Their natures are more subtle, and yet more simple, than we
readily imagine. No one can read the ninth chapter of the First, or
the eleventh and twelfth chapters of the Second Epistle to the
Corinthians, without feeling how different the Apostle St. Paul must
have been from good men among ourselves. We marvel how such
various traits of character come together in the same individual. He
who was " full of visions and revelations of the Lord," who spake
with tongues more than they all, was not " mad, but uttered the
words of truth and soberness." He who was the most enthusiastic
of all men, was also the most prudent ; the Apostle of freedom, and
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360 EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS.
yet the most moderate. He who was the strongest and most
enlightened of all men, was also (would he have himself refrained
from saying ?) at times the weakest ; on whom there came the care
of all the Churches, yet seeming also to lose the power of acting in
the absence of human sympathy.
Qualities so like and unlike are hard to reconcile ; perhaps they
have never been united in the same degree in any other human
being. The contradiction in part arises not only from the Apostle
being an extraordinary man, but from his being a man like ourselves
in an extraordinary state. Creation was not to him that fixed order
of things which it is to us; rather it was an atmosphere of evil
just broken by the light beyond. To us the repose of the scene
around contrasts with the turmoil of man s own spirit ; to the Apostle
peace was to be sought only from within, half hidden even from the
inner man. There was a veil upon the heart itself which had to be
removed. He himself seemed to fall asunder at times into two
parts, the flesh and the spirit ; and the world to be divided into two
hemispheres, the one of the rulers of darkness, the other bright with
that inward presence which should one day be revealed. In this
twilight he lived. What to us is far off both in time and place, if
such an expression may be allowed, to him was near and present,
separated by a thin film from the world we see, ever ready to break
forth and gather into itself the frame of nature. That sense of the
invisible which to most men it is so difficult to impart, was like a
second nature to St. Paul. He walked by faith, and not by sight ;
what was strange to him was the life he now led ; which in his own
often repeated language was death rather than life, the place of
shadows and not of realities. The Greek philosophers spoke of a
world of phenomena, of true being, of knowledge and opinion ; and
we know that what they meant by these distinctions is something
different from the tenets of any philosophical school of the present
day. But not less different is what St. Paul meant by the life
hidden with Christ and God, the communion of the Spirit, the pos
session of the mind of Christ ; only that this was not a mere
ON THE CHAKACTER OF ST. PAUL. 361
difference of speculation, but of practice also. Could any one say
now, "the life" not that I live, but that "Christ liveth in me"?
Such language with St. Paul is no mere phraseology, such as is
repeated from habit in prayers, but the original consciousness of the
Apostle respecting his own state. Self is banished from him, and
has no more place in him, as he goes on his way to fulfil the work
of Christ. No figure is too strong to express his humiliation in
himself, or his exaltation in Christ.
Could we expect this to be otherwise when we think of the
manner of his conversion ? Could he have looked upon the world
with the same eyes that we do, or heard its many voices with the
same ears, who had been caught up into the seventh heaven,
whether in the body or out of the body he could not tell ? (2 Cor.
xii. 1-5.) Must not his life have seemed to him a revelation, an
inspiration, an ecstasy ? Once and again he had seen the face of
Christ, and heard Him speak from heaven. All that followed in
the Apostle s history was the continuation of that first wonder, a
stream of light flowing from it, "planting eyes" in his soul, trans
figuring him " from glory to glory," clothing him with the elect " in
the exceeding glory."
Yet this glory was not that of the princes of this world, " who
come to nought;" it is another image which he gives us of himself;
not the figure on Mars hill, in the cartoons of Raphael, nor the
orator with noble mien and eloquent gesture before Festus and
Agrippa ; but the image of one lowly and cast down, whose " bodily
presence was weak, and speech contemptible ;" of one who must
have appeared to the rest of mankind like a visionary, pierced by
the thorn in the flesh, " waiting for the redemption of the body."
The saints of the middle ages are in many respects unlike St. Paul,
and yet many of them bear a far closer resemblance to him than is
to be found in Luther and the Reformers. The points of resem
blance which we seem to see in them, are the same withdrawal from
the things of earth, the same ecstasy, the same consciousness of the
person of Christ. Who would describe Luther by the words " cruci-
362 EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS.
lied with Christ ? " It is in another manner that the Reformer was
called upon to war, with weapons earthly as well as spiritual, with a
strong right hand and a mighty arm.
There have been those who, although deformed by nature, have
worn the expression of a calm and heavenly beauty; in whom the
flashing eye has attested the presence of thought in the poor withered
and palsied frame. There have been others again, who have passed
the greater part of their lives in extreme bodily suffering, who have,
nevertheless, directed states or led armies, the keenness of whose
intellect has not been dulled nor their natural force of mind abated.
There have been those also on whose faces men have gazed "as
upon the face of an angel," while they pierced or stoned them. Of
such an one, perhaps, the Apostle himself might have gloried ; not
of those whom men term great or noble. He who felt the whole
creation groaning and travailing together until now was not like the
Greek drinking in the life of nature at every pore. He who through
Christ was " crucified to the world, and the world to him," was not
in harmony with nature, nor nature with him. The manly form, the
erect step, the fulness of life and beauty, could not have gone along
with such a consciousness as this, any more than the taste for litera
ture and art could have consisted with the thought, " not many wise,
not many learned, not many mighty." Instead of these we have the
visage marred more than the sons of men, " the cross of Christ which
was to the Greeks foolishness," the thorn in the flesh, the marks in
the body of the Lord Jesus,
Often the Apostle St. Paul has been described as a person the
furthest removed from enthusiasm ; incapable of spiritual illusion ;
by his natural temperament averse to credulity or superstition. By
such considerations as these a celebrated author confesses himself to
have been converted to the belief in Christianity. And yet, if it is
intended to reduce St. Paul to the type of what is termed " good
sense" in the present day, it must be admitted that the view which
thus describes him is but partially true. Far nearer the truth is that
other quaint notion of a modern writer, " that St. Paul was the finest
ON THE CHARACTER OF ST. PAUL. 363
gentleman that ever lived ; " for no man had nobler forms of cour
tesy or a deeper regard for the feelings of others. But " good sense"
is a term not well adapted to express either the individual or the
age and country in which he lived. He who wrought miracles, who
had handkerchiefs carried to him from the sick, who spake with
tongues more than they all, who lived amid visions and revelations
of the Lord, who did not appeal to the Gospel as a thing long settled,
but himself saw the process of revelation actually going on before
his eyes, and communicated it to his fellow-men, could never have
been such an one as ourselves. Nor can we pretend to estimate
whether, in the modern sense of the term, he was capable of weigh
ing evidence, or how far he would have attempted to sever between
the workings of his own mind and the Spirit which was imparted
to him.
What has given rise to this conception of the Apostle s character
has been the circumstance, that with what the world terms mysticism
and enthusiasm are united a singular prudence and moderation, and
a perfect humanity, searching the feelings and knowing the hearts of
all men. " I became all things to all men that I might win some ;"
not only, we may believe, as a sort of accommodation, but as the
expression of the natural compassion and love which he felt for
them. There is no reason to suppose that the Apostle took any
interest in the daily life of men, in the great events which were
befalling the Roman Empire, or in the temporal fortunes of the
Jewish people. But when they came before him as sinners, lying in
darkness and the shadow of God s wrath, ignorant of the mystery
that was being revealed before their eyes, then his love was quick
ened for them, then they seemed to him as his kindred and brethren ;
there was no sacrifice too great for him to make; he was willing to
die with Christ, yea, even to be accursed from Him that he might
" save some of them."
Mysticism, or enthusiasm, or intense benevolence and philan
thropy, seem to us, as they commonly are, at variance with worldly
prudence and moderation. But in the Apostle these different and
364 EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS.
contrasted qualities are mingled and harmonised. The mother
watching over the life of her child, has all her faculties aroused and
stimulated; she knows almost by instinct how to say or do the right
thing at the right time ; she regards his faults with mingled love
and sorrow. So, in the Apostle, we seem to trace a sort of refine
ment or nicety of feeling, when he is dealing with the souls of men.
All his knowledge of mankind shows itself for their sakes ; and yet
not that knowledge of mankind which comes from without, revealing
itself by experience of men and manners, by taking a part in events,
by the insensible course of years making us learn from what we
have seen and suffered. There is another experience that comes
from within, which begins with the knowledge of self, with the
consciousness of our own weakness and imfirmities ; which is con
tinued in love to others and in works of good to them ; which grows
by singleness and simplicity of heart. Love becomes the interpreter
of how men think, and feel, and act ; and supplies the place of, or
passes into a worldly prudence wiser than, the prudence of this world.
Such is the worldly prudence of St. Paul.
Once more ; there is in the Apostle, not only prudence and know
ledge of the human heart, but a kind of subtlety of moderation,
which considers every conceivable case, and balances one with
another; in the last resort giving no rule, but allowing all to be
superseded by a more general principle. An instance of this subtle
moderation is his determination, or rather omission to determine the
question of meats and drinks, which he first regards as indifferent,
secondly, as depending on men s own conscience, and this again as
limited by the consciences of others, and lastly resolves all these
finer precepts into the general principle, " Whatever ye do, do all to
the glory of God." The same qualification of one principle by
another recurs again in his rules respecting marriage. First, " do
not marry unbelievers," and " let not the wife depart from her
husband." But if you are married and the unbeliever is willing to
remain, then the spirit of the second precept must prevail over the
first. Only in an extreme case, where both parties are willing to
ON THE CHARACTER OF ST. PAUL. 365
dissolve the tie, the first principle in turn may again supersede the
second. It may be said in the one case, " your children are holy ; "
in the other, " What knowest thou, O wife, if thou shalt save thy hus
band ?" In a similar spirit he withdraws his censure on the incestuous
person, lest such an one, criminal as he was, should be swallowed up
with overmuch sorrow. There is a religious aspect of either course
of conduct, and either may be right under given circumstances. So
the kingdoms of this world admit of being regarded almost as the
kingdom of God, in reference to our duties towards their rulers ; and
yet touching the going to law before unbelievers, we are to think
rather of that other kingdom in which we shall judge angels.
The Gospel, it has been often remarked, lays down principles
rather than rules. The passages in the Epistles of St. Paul which
seem to be exceptions to this statement, are exceptions in appearance
rather than reality. They are relative to the circumstances of those
whom he is addressing. He who became " all things to all men,"
would have been the last to insist on temporary regulations for his
converts being made the rule of Christian life in all ages. His
manner of Church government is so unlike a rule or law, that we
can hardly imagine how the Apostle, if he could return to earth,
would combine the freedom of the Gospel with the requirements of
Christianity as an established institution. He is not a bishop
administering a regular system, but a person dealing immediately
with other. persons out of the fulness of his own mind and nature.
His writings are like spoken words, temporary, occasional, adapted
to other men s thoughts and feelings, yet not without an eternal
meaning. In sending his instructions to the Churches he is ever
with them, and seems to follow in his mind s eye their workin- and
effect ; whither his Epistles go he goes in thought, absent, in his
own language, " in the body, but present in spirit." What he says
to the Churches, he seems to make them say : what he directs them
to do, they are to do in that common spirit in which they are united
with him ; if they live he lives ; time and distance never snap the
cord of sympathy. His government of them is a sort of communion
366 EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS.
with them ; a receiving of their feelings and a pouring forth of his
own : he is the heart or pulse which beats through the Christian
world.
Arid with this communion of himself and his converts, this care of
daily life, there mingles the vision of " the great family in heaven and
earth," " the Church which is his body," in which the meaner reality
is enfolded or wrapt up, "sphered in a radiant cloud," even in its low
estate. The language of the Epistles often exercises an illusion on our
minds when thinking of the primitive Church ; individuals perhaps
there were who truly partook of that light with which the Apostle
encircled them; there may have been those in the Churches of Corinth,
or Ephesus, or Galatia, who were living on earth the life of heaven.
But the ideal which fills the Apostle s mind has not, necessarily, a
corresponding fact in the actual state of his converts. The beloved
family of the Apostle, the Church of which such " glorious things
are told," is often in tumult and disorder. His love is constantly a
source of pain to him : he watches over them " with a godly
jealousy," and finds them "affecting others rather than himself."
They are always liable to be " spoiled " by some vanity of phi
losophy, some remembrance of Judaism, which, like au epidemic,
carries off whole Churches at once, and seems to exercise a fatal
power over them. He is a father harrowed and agonised in his
feelings ; he loves more and suffers more than other men ; he will
not think, he cannot help thinking, of the ingratitude and insolence
of his children ; he tries to believe, he is persuaded, that all is well ;
he denounces, he forgives ; he defends himself, he is ashamed of
defending himself; he is the herald of his own deeds when others
neglect or injure him; he is ashamed of this too, and retires into
himself, to be at peace with Christ and God. So we seem to read
the course of the Apostle s thoughts in more than one passage of his
writings, beginning with the heavenly ideal, and descending to the
painful realities of actual life, especially at the close of the Second
Epistle to the Corinthians, altogether, perhaps, the most character
istic picture of the Apostle s mind ; and in the last words to the
ON THE CHARACTER OF ST. PAUL. 367
Galatians, "Henceforth let no man trouble me, for I bear in my
body the marks of the Lord Jesus."
Great men (those, at least, who present to us the type of earthly
greatness) are sometimes said to possess the power of command, but not
the power of entering into the feelings of others. They have no fear
of their fellows, they are not affected by their opinions or prejudices,
but neither are they always capable of immediately impressing them,
or of perceiving the impression which their words or actions make
upon them. Often they live in a kind of solitude on which other
men do not venture to intrude; putting forth their strength on
particular occasions, careless or abstracted about the daily concerns
of life. Such was not the greatness of the Apostle St. Paul ; not
only in the sense in which he says that " he could do all things
through Christ," but in a more earthly and human one, was it true,
that his strength was his weakness and his weakness his strength.
His dependence on others was also the source of his influence over
them. His natural character was the type of that communion of the
Spirit which he preached ; the meanness of appearance which he
attributes to himself, the image of that contrast which the Gospel
presents to human greatness. Glorying and humiliation ; life and
death ; a vision of angels strengthening him, the " thorn in the flesh"
rebuking him ; the greatest tenderness, not without sternness ; sorrows
above measure, consolations above measure ; are some of the contra
dictions which were reconciled in the same man. It is not a long
life of ministerial success on which he is looking back a little before
his death, where he says, " I have fought the good fight, I have
finished my course, I have kept the faith." These words are sadly
illustrated by another verse of the same Epistle, " This thou knowest,
that all they which are in Asia be turned away from me." (2 Tim.
i. 15.) So when the contrast was at its height, he passed away,
rejoicing in persecution also, and "filling up that which was behind
of the afflictions of Christ for his body s sake." Many, if not most,
of his followers had forsaken him, and there is no certain memorial of
the manner of his death. Let us look once more a little closer at that
368 EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS.
" visage marred " in his Master s service, as it appeared about three
years before on a well known scene. A poor aged man, worn by
some bodily or mental disorder, who had been often scourged, and
bore on his face the traces of indignity and sorrow in every form
such an one, led out of prison between Roman soldiers, probably at
times faltering in his utterance, the creature, as he seemed to specta
tors, of nervous sensibility; yearning, almost with a sort of fondness,
to save the souls of those whom he saw around him*, spoke a few
eloquent words in the cause of Christian truth, at which kings were
awed, telling the tale of his own conversion with such simple pathos,
that after ages have hardly heard the like.
Such is the image, not which Christian art has delighted to con
secrate, but which the Apostle has left in his own writings of
himself; an image of true wisdom, and nobleness, and affection, but
of a wisdom unlike the wisdom of this world ; of a nobleness which
must not be transformed into that of the heroes of the world ; an
affection which seemed to be as strong and as individual towards
all mankind, as other men are capable of feeling towards a siDgle
person.
" The Thorn in the Flesh."
"It seems that as he entered into manhood, he had to fight a hard
battle with his animal passions. On one side temptation assailed
him powerfully, and on the other his ardent love for all that was
good and noble held him back from the paths of vice. He was
accustomed to rise from his bed at the earliest dawn, and kneeling
before the altar, pray there to God for help and strength. He
implored that a check might be given to these desires, that some
affliction might be sent him to keep him always armed against
temptation, and that the spirit might be enabled to master the weak
ness of the body. Heaven granted his prayer, and sent this sickness
* Gal. ii. 20., iv. 14., vi. 17.; 1 Cor. xv. 32.; 2 Cor. i. 9., vi. 12., x. 10.,
xi. 2327., xii. 710.; Phil. ver. 9.
ON THE CHARACTER OF ST. PAUL. 369
to him, which Asser describes as a kind of fit. For many years he
suffered excruciating pain from it, so that he often despaired of his
own life. One day, whilst hunting in Cornwall, he alighted at the
chapel of St. Guerir, in the solitude of a rocky valley, where St.
Neot afterwards took refuge and died. The prince, who from a
child loved to visit all sacred places, prostrated himself before the
altar in silent prayer to God for mercy. He had long been oppressed
by a dread of being unfitted for his royal office by his bodily infirmi
ties, or of becoming an object of contempt in the eyes of men by
leprosy and blindness. This fear now inspired him to implore
deliverance from such misery ; he was ready to bear any less severe,
nay any other trial, so that he might be enabled to fulfil his appointed
duties. Not long after his return from that hunting expedition, an
answer was vouchsafed to his fervent prayer, and the malady
departed from him.
"And now at the moment of his marriage, when the wedding
guests were feasting and rejoicing in the banquet-hall, that other
trial came for which he had prayed. Anguish and trembling sud
denly took hold upon him, and from that time to the date when
Asser wrote, and indeed during his whole life, he was never secure
from an attack of this disease. There were seasons when it seemed
to incapacitate him for the discharge of any duty temporal or
spiritual, but an interval of ease, though it lasted only a night, or a
day, or even an hour, would always re-establish his powers. In
spite of these bodily afflictions, which probably were of an epileptic
nature, the inflexible strength of his will enabled him to rise above
the heaviest cares that were ever laid on a sovereign." Pauli s
Life of Alfred.
This is a remarkable parallel. The words of Luther should be
added : " Ah ! no, dear Paul, it was not that manner of temptation
that troubled thee."
VOL. I. B B
370 EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS.
CHAP. V. VI.
IN the Third Section of the Epistle the Apostle proceeds to the
application of the argument which has gone before: "Ye are
not the children of the bondwoman, but of the free ; with that free
dom Christ has made you free ; stand, therefore, and be not again
entangled in the yoke of bondage to the law." This is enforced by
a personal appeal, in which the Apostle sets forth with great earnest
ness the contrariety of the law and Christ. He who receives the
seal of the law is involved in all its obligations. He is not half Jew
and half believer in Christ, but wholly a Jew and no longer a believer.
The law and Christ (like the law and the promise) are exclusive of
each other. For the life of the Spirit, which is in Christ, has
nothing to do with circumcision or uncircumcision ; it is different in
kind from either (1 6.).
The latter portion of nearly all the Epistles of St. Paul is remark
able for abruptness of style. The Apostle passes from one subject
to another, dropping the intervening links by which they are asso
ciated in his own mind. New thoughts are suddenly introduced ;
old ones unexpectedly come back again. His manner is that of a
person speaking rather than writing ; he is full of animation, saying
what occurs to him without always expressing the point which he
intends. In the verses that follow (7 13.), contrary emotions draw
him different ways; and he seems almost to lose the power of
arranging his words. There was a time, he would say, when you
promised well ; who has persuaded you to rebel ? This persuasion
is not of God ; it is a delusion of the enemy. The error of a few
leavens the mass. Looking forward in faith, I perceive that ye will
EPISTLE TO THE G ALATIANS. 371
hereafter be of one mind, and that the troublers of the Church shall
themselves be the sufferers. And yet, brethren, when I think of
their strange and inconsistent charges against myself, I cannot but
feel indignant. Is it likely that they would persecute me if I still
preached circumcision ? And then, with a momentary feeling of
disgust at the whole subject, he adds in irony: Would that they
would make themselves eunuchs who trouble you ! That would
indeed cut off the matter in dispute.
For the Divine call which you received is very different from the
call which they teach. It was a calling unto liberty ; I do not mean
licentiousness, but that liberty which is a service of love to one
another. For love is the single word which fulfils the law. How
unlike are ye to the servants of that law! the end of whose bicker
ings and jealousies is mutual destruction (13 15.).
All my precepts may be summed up in one : "Walk in the Spirit
and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh." For there are two
ways ; the way of the flesh, and the way of the Spirit : and these
are contrary the one to the other, and their fruits are like them
(16 24.). We who are spiritual should walk in the Spirit, humbling
our hearts in consideration of others, forgiving their slips and
bearing their burdens. It is mere self-deception to think ourselves
above this. Every man who tries himself will find he has a burden
of his own. A particular instance of this duty of mutual support
is the duty of supporting teachers, in which, as in all other Christian
duties, we must be single and indefatigable, ready to do good to all
men, and especially to members of the Church (v. 24 vi. 10.).
Look, says the Apostle, at the large and misshapen letters which
I am tracing with mine own hand. A word more, and I have done.
Those who would have you circumcised, act only on motives of
expediency ; their object is to keep well with the Jewish Christians ;
their own inconsistency in the observance of the law is a suf
ficient proof that they desire only to glory in you as their dis
ciples. But God forbid that I should glory in you, or in anything
B B 2
372 EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS.
but that which is at the same time the symbol of humiliation, the
cross of Christ. The question of circumcision or uncircumcision I
count as nothing in comparison with a change of heart. This is my
rule. Peace be upon them who walk by it, and are "Israelites
indeed."
Reverence me henceforth ; for I bear the person of Christ, and fill
up the measure of His sufferings. The grace of Christ be with your
spirit.
EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS. [Cn. V.
. crn^/cere o3i> 2 , 5
374
TTJ e\ev0pia * 7]
Kal ^TI TraXiv ^vyoj SouXeias
*lSe iyoj JTauXo? Xeya> u/xii> on ea^ Trepirep.prjo de, -^pu- 2
OTTOS iy/,a9 ouSe^ ax^eXTjcret p.apTvpofJLaL Se TraXiz/ Travri 3
1 Add oSi/ .
2 Om. o5f.
V. Most of St. Paul s Epistles
terminate with a practical appli
cation. This application com
mences, in the Epistle to the
Galatians, with the present chap
ter. Yet here, too, the thread
of doctrine reappears in v. 17,
18., vi. 15.
The main subject of the Epistle
has been " the liberty of the
Gospel." No terms can be too
strong to express its value ; it is
impossible to over estimate the
clanger of yielding the least point
which implies or involves the
whole. But even this first prin
ciple of the faith of Christ has
an error or exaggeration which
follows in its train; and at verse
13. the Apostle goes on to pre
sent the reverse side also. Liberty
may become the cloak of licen
tiousness, just as the doctrine of
grace may lead men to continue
in sin. Freedom from the law is
good, but this freedom must be
also in a higher sense a fulfil
ment of the law in love. That
fulfilment of the law is given by
the Spirit, which leads not merely
to a barren abstraction of freedom,
but to walking in the Spirit, and
bringing forth the works of the
Spirit. As in Rom. viii. 5 16.,
the Apostle draws out the nature
of the Spirit in contrast with the
flesh.
1. There is great variation of
reading in this verse. The prin
cipal differences are those adopted
into their respective editions by
Lachmann and Tischendorf:
r// iXevOeptq. y >;/iac yjpiaroQ rjXeu-
Oepuffev ari]Kf.T) Kal ^r) TraXiv vyy
SovXtiag eve^eaOs. Tisch.; and rij
iXevfapitp fjpdg y^picrroc fjXevBepii)-
aei . 0r$cerc ovv /cat pjj iraXiv v-
ya) 8ovXc/ctc ive^eaOe. Lach. ; out
of the confusion of which the
common reading appears to have
arisen, which places the ovv after
eXtvdeply. Lachmann s reading is
the more spirited, though not
wholly free from objections, the
greatest being the use of the
cognate word after fiXevdtpuxrer,
without an adjective. This may
be avoided by taking rjj iXevdepiq.
in close connection with the pre
ceding verse, " With this liberty
Christ made us free ; " that is,
with the liberty which belongs to
us as the children of the free.
0rn|Crc ovv /ecu ^17 TraXtv, K. T. X.,
Stand therefore., and be not again
entangled with the yoke of bon
dage.^ Why "again"? Because
they had been under the law
previously, though whether any
of them had become proselytes,
as we only know of their previous
state from the allusions of the
Epistle, is uncertain. We cannot
suppose that either here or at
iv. 9. (see notes) St. Paul uses
these expressions merely from a
warmth of temperament, which
makes him speak from his own
point of view rather than that of
his converts. Modern writers
have delighted to trace an analogy
between the prior state of Jew
VER. 1-3.] EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS.
375
5 With that freedom Christ hath made us free. Stand
fast therefore, and be not entangled again with the
yoke of bondage. 1
2 Behold, I Paul say unto you, that if ye be circum-
3 cised, Christ shall profit you nothing. And* I testify
1 Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free.
and Gentile : " God who at sun
dry times and in divers manners
spake in time past to the fathers
by the prophets," according to
the strained interpretation which
has been sometimes put upon
these words : or as the same
thought has been expressed by
Goethe from a very different
point of view, " The Mosaic re
ligion was the first of the Ethnic
religions, but still Ethnic." But
there is no proof that the Apostle,
casting his eyes over the past,
regarded all mankind as subject
to one prior dispensation. That
unity is the peculiar character
istic of the Gospel : " There is
neither Jew nor Greek, bond
nor free, but all one in Christ
Jesus."
2. "Ic) eyo> riai}Xo Xf yw vfjur."]
The Apostle repeats his own
name, as an expression of earnest
ness. Compare 2 Cor. x. 1. avroz
e)e eyw IlavXoG Trapa/caXw vfiaQ.
I Thess. ii. 18.; Phil. ver. 19.
on iav TrepirefJirrjarSE, that if ye
be circumcised.^ The Apostle
himself was a living witness that
it was possible for one who was
circumcised to be a disciple of
Christ, and his companion Ti
mothy had been circumcised by
his command. Is it not extrava
gant, then, that he should say to
the Galatians, " if ye be circum
cised, Christ shall profit you no
thing?" At that time, under the
particular circumstances of the
Church, he felt the question to be
one of life and death, of Judaism
and of Christianity; was the
principle of the Gospel to bo
spiritual or carnal? was the cross
of Christ to be hindered by ex
ternal obligations? The Gala
tians had begun with Judaism,
but they " had gone on to per
fection." Now the Judaizing
teachers were trying to persuade
them that this perfection was a
narrower observance of Judaism,
that Christianity was only circum
cision. They were to become pro
selytes of righteousness, instead
of proselytes of the gate. This
is what the Apostle denounces as
irreconcilable with the Gospel.
3. paprvpopat Se, and I testify. ]
In the same earnest tone the
Apostle proceeds to urge the ar
gument from consistency. If the
Gentiles compel themselves "to
live as do the Jews," they must
do so wholly. Circumcision was
the sign and pledge that they
would keep the law, not in one
point only, but in all. It was
the seal of another master, who
enforced entire obedience. He
who was circumcised had no
part in Christ or Christ in him.
Or, if we take the words more ge
nerally, and omit the further allu
sion. the performing of a single
point of the law implied the
principle of obedience to the
law, and in practice was liable
to lead to it. Obedience to the
D B 4
376
EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS.
[CH. V.
on 6</>eiXer7?9 Icrrlv o\ov TOP vo
KaTrjpyTJ0r)T. 0/770 1
KaiovcrOe, TTJS yapiTos e^eTrecrare.
eV VO^M Si- 4
yap uvevfJiaTi K 5
eV yap ^ICTTGJ 6
Irjcrov ovre Trep 1x0^77 n tcr^vei oure d/cpoySvoTia, dXXd
TTICTTIS St dyavr^? eVepyoty^eV^.
KaXais rts V/ACXS eVefcoi//ez> TT? akrjOeia p,rj Tret- 7
1 Add rot).
law could not coexist with the
principle of salvation through
Christ, which did not by any
means remit obedience, but re
quired an obedience of a higher
and different kind.
In other passages, the Apostle
exhorts men to overlook lesser
points of difference, such as the
eating of meat or herbs, the ob
servance of days, the eating of
meats offered to idols ; Rom. xiv.,
1 Cor. viii. In such cases, the
double rule of faith and charity
should operate ; it is quite con
sistent to be free from scruples
ourselves, and yet to be tender to
those of others. But there are
cases in which it is equally im
portant to yield nothing, because
the very least concession implies
everything. The principle ex
pressed in the words, " I will eat
no meat as long as the world
standeth, lest I make my brother
to offend," has to be balanced and
modified by the other principle,
" I testify again to every man
that is circumcised, that he is a
debtor to keep the whole law."
And the Spirit of both must be
at last regulated by the words
which follow : " Neither cir
cumcision availeth anything, nor
uncircumcision, but faith which
worketh by love." Compare Es
say on Casuistry.
SI is adversative, not to the
preceding verse, but to the doc
trine which the Apostle is oppos
ing; as in 1 Thess. ii. 16. he is
answering his own thought.
TraXi/] referring to the pre
ceding verse ; compare iv. 9.
Trepir^ui/ojufVw.] "Who is cir-
cumcised;" or, with a more dis
tinct expression of the form of
the present, who "is being cir
cumcised."
The word otyeiXerrjs is possibly
suggested by the sound of w^e-
Xijfrei, j ust before. Compare Rom.
xii. 13, 14.; infra vi. 9, 10.
4. /carapycl* , in its original
meaning, signifies to annul or do
away with ; and hence with CITTO,
to destroy or annul the connection
of two things. Comp. iii. 17.;
Rom. vii. 2 6.
5. It is an obsolete fiction of in
terpreters to say that yap is here
put for fo . St. Paul could not
have meant by yap, "but our case
is different." yap truly expresses
the reason of what preceded, re
garded from a peculiar point of
view. "For we, the true be
lievers, are different from you,
and look for the hope of righte
ousness through faith." The
harshness of the ellipse may be
further softened by supposing
TtvivpaTi to correspond to aapKi
or some similar expression un
derstood in the preceding verses.
For a like use of yup in con-
VER. 47.] EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS.
377
again to every man that is circumcised, that he is a
4 debtor to do the whole law. Christ is become of no
effect unto you, whosoever of you are justified by the
5. law; ye are fallen from grace. For we through the
6 Spirit wait for the hope of righteousness by faith. For
in Jesus Christ neither circumcision availeth any thing,
nor uncircumcision ; but faith which worketh by love.
7 Ye did run well ; who did hinder you that ye should
trast, comp. Rom. i. 18.; Gal. iii.
10.
TrvevfjiaTi, by the Spirit.^ The
Spirit is the communion of the
Spirit of God, of which all are
partakers, faith being the link
which joins us to this communion,
whereby we wait for the hope of
righteousness : t\7UQ ^iKaio(rvrr]Q
may mean either the hope which
righteousness entertains, or the
hope which is righteousness.
6. iv yap XPKTTU) Iqo-oiJ.] The
connection of this verse is made
by TT/orte, which refers to EK TTI-
(TTU)Q in the preceding. For we
by faith wait for the hope of
righteousness ,- for, with the be
liever who dwells in Christ, it is
faith only that avails, and not
circumcision or uncircumcision.
Compare vi. 15. The train of
thought is slightly obscured by
the Apostle, as his manner is,
having first expressed negatively
what he afterwards expresses
positively.
3i ayaTnjc ) pyou^j r?.] There
is no trace in the writings of
St. Paul of the opposition of
faith and love which is found in
Luther. Such an opposition did
not exist in the language of Christ
and his Apostles. It came from
the schools ; Luther was driven
to adopt it by the exigencies of
controversy. At some point or
other it was necessary to draw a
line between the Catholic and
Reformed doctrine of justifica
tion. Was it to include works
as well as faith? but, if not, was
love to be a coefficient in the
work of justification? Luther
felt this difficulty, and tried to
preserve the doctrine from the
alloy of self-righteousness and
external acts by the formula of
" faith only."
The necessity has passed away,
and Christian feeling and the
common sense of mankind find a
truer reflection in the indefinite
language of Scripture itself. Whe
ther we say that we are justified
by faith, or by love, or by faith
working by love or by grace, or
by the indwelling of Christ, or
of the Spirit of Christ, the dif
ference is one of words, and not
of things. For although these
distinctions admit of being de
fined by logic, and have been
made the basis of opposing sys
tems of theology, the point of
view in which the writers of
Scripture regard them is not that
of difference, but of sameness.
The words of St. Paul are equally
far removed from a protest against
Protestant doctrine and against
Catholic doctrine; they belong to
another world.
7. Erpe^7-f f,-aXwc.] The Apo-
stle proceeds in a mixed tone of
censure and praise: " You were
378
EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS.
[On. V.
07 Treio-^ovyj OVK IK TOV KaXovvros v/xas. (JLutpa ^
o\ov TO (j^vpa^a JjjfJiol. lya) [SeJ 1 TreVoifla eis v//,as 10
eV Kvpiw, on ov8e> aXXo (^po^crere 6 Se rapacrcrco^ vfjias
/3acrracrt TO KplfJLa, OCTTIS av 77. eya> Se, dSeX^ot, ei Trepi- 11
ty en Krjpvo-cra), ri ert Stw/co/xai ; apa KaTTJpyrjTcu, TO
1 Om. 5e.
running well, who is it that has
hindered (jrciceijkp) you?" or, ac
cording to an ancient various
reading which has disappeared
in our extant copies, "who has
smitten you back (a.vtKo^f) that
you should not obey the truth?"
As though he said: "I once
thought well of you, but you are
not what you were. I cannot
account for this change; it is not
natural to you; there is some one
at the bottom of it."
8. IK rov Ka\ovvTOQ.~\ Not the
Apostle, but God, who in the
language of St. Paul is always
spoken of as " the caller." Comp.
i.6.
9. fiLKpa 17*77, a little leaven."]
A proverbial expression, which
occurs also 1 Cor. v. 6., and forms
in St. Luke xiii. 21. the ground
work of a parable of our Lord. "A
little leaven leaveneth the whole
lump;" that is, a little evil gradu
ally spreads universal corruption.
The allusion, however, admits of
being drawn out in more than
oneway. (1.) The minute point
of circumcision involves the ob
ligation of the whole law; or, (2.)
the false teachers, though few in
number and insignificant in influ
ence, are yet drawing after them
the whole Church. The latter is
favoured by the connection.
10. yw (CJE) TreTrotda EIQ vfiac,
Howbeitlhave confidence. ] These
words, whether with or without
Be, form an antithesis to the pre
ceding. A few persons work
great evil in a community; but I
am confident in you that ye will
not change. Such is the hope or
aspiration of the Apostle, -ni-
Troitia kv -9-ew has been translated,
" I put my trust in God." This,
however, hardly expresses the
subtilty of the language. He
adds kv Kvpiy after TrtVotfla in the
same way as after Xey^j or an y
other word, all acts of the Chris
tian being described as done in
God and Christ.
ov^fV aXXo,] nothing else than
what I taught you.
6 cte Tapacrcrwv vfjidg ficiffraffei
TO Kpi/ju.] Above, we had the
plural (i. 7.); here, the singular,
possibly in reference to a parti
cular individual who was known
to the Apostle, and whom he de
signates contemptuously as OOTLQ
av rj. Comp. OTroloi TTOTE rjcrar,
in chap. ii. 6. I am confident in
you, the false teachers I leave
to God; they shall be punished
in the day of visitation.
11. gyw c? , ctfteX^o/.] It would
seem from this verse that St. Paul
had been charged with preaching
circumcision. As he had said
to Peter, "If thou, being a Jew,
livest as do the Gentiles;" so
the accusation had been brought
against himself, " If thou, being
an Apostle of the Gentiles, art
circumcised and allowedst Ti
mothy to be circumcised, and
shavest thy head for a vow after
the manner of the Jews, why dost
thou declare circumcision and the
VER. 8-11.] EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS.
379
10
s not obey the truth? This persuasion cometh not of
9 him that calleth you. A little leaven leaveneth the whole
lump. Howbeit 1 I have confidence in you through the
Lord, that ye will be none otherwise minded : but he
that troubleth you shall bear his judgment, whosoever
a he be. But I, brethren, if I yet preach circumcision,
why do I yet suffer persecution ? then has* the offence of
1 Om. Howbeit.
law unnecessary which thou thy
self practisest?" Such a charge
may have been his enemies mode
of expressing that to the Jews he
became as a Jew, that he might
gain the Jews. (1 Cor. ix. 20.)
Comp. vi. 13., where he retorts
the inconsistency that " neither
do they who are circumcised keep
the law;" also, ii. 14., iv. 21.;
and for the adversative & , vi. 14.
There is no reason to mistrust
the meaning of plain words be
cause we know nothing of the
circumstance to which they al
lude.
Similar covert answers to other
charges occur in the Epistles to
the Corinthians. (1 Cor. ix. 1. 7.;
2 Cor. x. 7.) At Corinth, too,
he seems to have been accused,
amid many other calumnies, of
not " being of Christ " in that
special sense in which his oppo
nents claimed to be so. Had we
that other Epistle which the
Church at Corinth addressed to
the Apostle, it would furnish a
remarkable commentary on the
two Epistles to the Corinthians.
Had we the other side of the
controversy with the Galatians,
the obscurity which rests on se
veral passages of the Epistle
would probably be removed.
A difficulty remains respecting
the connection of the eleventh
verse with what precedes. Two
trains of thought appear to meet
in it: first, Why am I persecuted?
but secondly, My persecution is
a disproof of the charge that I
yet preach circumcision. In the
last verse it is declared that the
troubler shall bear his burden;
that suggests the thought, "But
why should I bear a burden?"
Still we have to seek a connection
for the words, " if I preach cir
cumcision," which it has been
suggested might be given, by
supposing that this very charge
was brought by the person of
whom he has been speaking. It
is better to leave the connection
than to seek to find one in sup
positions which can neither be
proved nor disproved. The first
fTi may refer to the form in
which the Galatians brought their
charge against him: " You still
preach circumcision yourself,"
implying a reference not denied
by himself (2 Cor. v. 16.) to a
time when the tone of his preach
ing or practice had been different,
when, according to another enig
matical expression, "he knew
Christ according to the flesh."
(Compare Introduction to 1 Thes-
salonians.) The second eYt may
be explained "why notwithstand
ing," or " why after this fact."
apa KaTi ipyr)Ta.i TO GKav%a\ov
rov oravpoi)] may be read without
difference of meaning, either with
380
EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS.
[CH. V.
crK:dVSaXoi> rov crravpov. o(f>e\ov Kal aTroKoifjovraL ol ava- 12
crraroiWeg VJJLOLS.
TfJLeis yap CTT eXeu#epia eK\rf0r)T, dSeX<^oi povov /XT) is
rrjv IXevOepiav eis afyop^v rfj crapKL, dXXd Sid rrjs dydV^g
SouXeuere dXX^Xot?. 6 yap ?ras z d/xos ez^ ez>! Xdya> 77677X17- u
pamu 1 , e^ ra> Ayatnja-eLs TOV Trkqcriov aov ws <reavToi>. is
et Se dXX^Xovs Sd/c^ere /cat /carecr^iere, /JXeVere ^T? 77
or without a question. In either
case it is most agreeable to the
connection to take the words
ironically : " Then you have
nothing more to say against me,
I am to infer ; or, Am I to infer
that the offence of the cross has
ceased?" It is observable that,
not Christ Himself, but the cross
of Christ, is spoken of as the pe
culiar object of Jewish hatred.
The reason seems to be, that it
was the symbol of that Gospel
which was most opposed to the
belief in a Jewish Messiah ; that
Gospel which was preached by
St. Paul among the Gentiles.
Even in St. John there are not
many allusions to the cross or to
the death of Christ, in comparison
with the allusions to his birth
and life. The Word becoming
flesh is the great theme ; not the
doctrine of the cross, which is
spoken of as a sign rather of the
exaltation of Christ than of His
humiliation. " As Moses lifted
up the serpent;" and "I, if I be
lifted up from the earth, shall
draw all men after me." It is
otherwise with St. Paul ; that
which expresses his innermost
feeling respecting the truth,
which most perfectly describes
the contrast of the Gospel with
the world, which is the most
complete condemnation of the
law, which seems also to be the
figure or rather the reality of his
own suffering state, is the cross
of Christ.
12. ofaXov Kal a.TroKo^m>rai.~\
Would that they would make
themselves eunuchs who trouble
you ; that they would not only
circumcise, (/ou) but make them
selves incapable of the privi
leges of circumcision ! Such
is the common interpretation of
the Fathers, confirmed by the
use of language in the LXX.
Compare Deut. xxiii. 1. : OVK
el<T\EVfferai OXuciag ov^e cnroKeKo/ji-
p.ivog EIQ KK\Y)ffiav Kvpiov. The
authorised translation fails (I.)
in giving a passive sense to the
middle form ; and (2.) in the
meaning which it assigns to the
verb, which, though a literal
translation of aTroicoTrrai , is here
used in a different sense from
that in which the word "cut
off" is the interpretation of the
Greek.
The irony of the passage is in
some degree illustrated by Phil,
iii. 2. (jTEpLTopi} and /cararo/i//),
where the Apostle not only uses
the word ^Eptropj in a spiritual
sense ; but adopts another word,
with no religious association, to
signify the mere outward act or
operation. Compare also Matt,
xix. 12.
VER. 1215.] EPISTLE TO THE GALATIAN3.
381
12 the cross ceased. I would that they would even make
themselves* eunuchs which trouble you.
13 For, brethren, ye have been called unto liberty ; only
use not your* liberty for an occasion to the flesh, but
H by love serve one another. For all the law is fulfilled
in one word, even in this ; Thou shalt love thy neigh-
15 bour as thyself. But if ye bite and devour one another,
take heed that ye be not consumed one of another.
13. Ypelc yap TT iXevQept
For a moment the style
changes from passionate exhorta
tion to argument: "For the
Gospel which they preach is very
different from the Gospel of free
dom whereunto ye are called."
So, above, the Apostle recalls the
time of their conversion as a re
membrance likely to affect them
(iii. 2.). 7n , as in Heb. viii. 6.
and elsewhere, without distinc
tion of the condition and object.
The freedom of the Gospel im
plies (1.) the freedom from the
burden of ordinances ; (2.) from
the consciousness of sin ; (3.)
also, the communion of the Spirit,
" Where the Spirit of the Lord
is, there is liberty." It is a new
power and gift, as well as an
absence of old restraints.
fjiovov JUT) ri]v eXevdepiav ei
a^opjuTjj .] Yet remember that
this liberty to which you are
called is not the freedom of the
flesh. Your liberty is also a
service, the service to one another
through love.
In the Epistle to the Romans,
the Gospel is spoken of as the
law of the spirit of life ; a similar
turn is here given to the freedom
of the Gospel, which may be
looked on in a different light as
a service also. Comp. Rom. vi.
22. : " When ye were freed from
sin, ye were made the servants of
righteousness."
The best way of explaining
the construction by the rules of
grammar is to take TIJV tXtvQepiav
as an accusative in apposition
with the previous sentence : "that
calling unto liberty;" although
in the New Testament it is, per
haps, better still to leave the
analogy of classical Greek, and be
satisfied with the broken sentence.
14. For the whole law is ful
filled in the performance of a
single precept, " Thou shalt love
thy neighbour as thyself." Com
pare Rom. xiii. 8. : 6 ayairwv TOV
erepov v6fj.ov 7rTrXr)p(t)K. TreTrA//-
pwrcu is an instance of the em
phatic use of the prsesens perfec-
tum, which may be paralleled
with the emphatic use of the
future perfect.
The law had been the source
of the^ divisions which arose in
the Galatian Church; and yet,
what was the law ? nothing but
the command to love one another.
Again the Apostle turns the
meaning of words inside out:
he seems to say, "Tell me, ye
that desire to be under the law,
do ye not hear the law ? " It
condemns you.
15. But if ye bite and devour
each other, see whether this must
not end in your mutual destruc-
382
EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS.
[Cn. V.
Aeyo) Se, Trvev^aTi TrepLrraTtLTe, Kal iTTiOv^iav crap/cos ov 16
p,f] reXe cn^re. 77 yap crap 7ri0vp,el Kara rov Tn/ev/x-arog, TO 17
Se Trvev^a Kara r^s crap/cog * ra^ra yap 1 dXXTyXoig d
rcurra Troirre. ei
i Se
is
rac, IVa /XT) a [ea^]
ciyecrOe, OVK ecrre VTTO vo^cv. (pavepa Se IGTLV ra ejoya TTyg 19
crap/cog, arwa IcrTiv, 3 iropveia aKaOapcria dcre Xyeca eiSa>Xo- 20
Xarpeia (^ap^aKeia e^Opai epig 77X05 4 ^Ujitoi epiOelai
5e.
Add
tion. It was another purpose
than this for which the law was
given. So, at least, we may point
the Apostle s words, although
they are more characteristic if
left pointless.
16. St. Paul proceeds to view
the question more generally and
less personally, and seems to pass
from the flesh as the seat of the
Jewish dispensation, to the flesh
as the source of impurity. As in
Rom. viii. 4. those who walk
according to the flesh are opposed
to those who walk according to
the Spirit, so here the life of the
Spirit extinguishes and renders
powerless the desire of the flesh.
The dative after TrejOiTraretre is
probably a confusion of the dative
of the instrument, and the com
mon use of TrepnraTuv with iv.
Comp. Acts, xxi. 21. ; and infra,
ver. 25.
17. Compare Rom. vii.- 15 20.
For the flesh and the spirit are
opposed to each other, the design
of which is to prevent you from
doing as you would.
It seems strange at first sight,
to say that the flesh and the
Spirit are opposed to each other
by design, and we feel inclined
to imagine that this is one of
those passages in which 7ra is
used to denote result rather than
design. But the strict gramma
tical sense appears also most in
accordance with the view of St.
Paul, who regards the strife of
the flesh and the Spirit as in
tended by Providence to pave
the way for the reception of the
truth. Compare Rom. v. 20.
"LVOL prj a [ecu ] -ve X^re, TO.VTCL
Troirjre.^ As in Rom. vii. St. Paul
is speaking of the struggle of
human nature with itself, " the
things that I would not in my
better nature, those I do."
IS. The key to this verse is
again given by Rom. vii. The
state which the Apostle has been
describing is that which he there
explains as the state of those under
the law. From doing the things
they would not men are delivered
by the guidance of the Spirit,
"the law of the Spirit of life
makes them free from the law of
sin and death." The law, sin,
death, the struggle of the Spirit
against the flesh, -all express
different aspects of the same con
dition of human nature, the last
extremity of misery and variance
with self. From this old man he
who is in the Spirit is already free.
19. Two classes of sins are in
cluded under the term "sins of
the flesh," corresponding to the
division of SvpoQ and eTriBvpta in
Greek philosophy, or more appro
priately to the two meanings of
VEB. 16-20.] EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANSc
383
16 Now* I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall
17 not fulfil the lust of the flesh. For the flesh lusteth
against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh ; for 1
these are contrary the one to the other : in order that ye
is may* not do the things that ye would. But if ye be led
19 of the Spirit, ye are not under the law. Now the works
of the flesh are manifest, which are these; 2 fornication,
20 uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred,
variance, emulation 3 , wrath, strife, seditions, heresies,
1 And.
Add adultery.
Emulations.
ffapZ, as the symbol of the Jewish
dispensation and the seat of hu
man passions ; they are first,
divisions ; secondly, sins of im
purity.
TTopvela is used in the New
Testament (1.) for fornication,
1 Cor. vi. 13. 18. ; also (2.) for
incest, 1 Cor. v. 1. As marriage
is the symbol of the Church, so
in the New Testament there is a
mystery of iniquity in sins of
impurity. Fornication is a sin
against the Holy Ghost who
sanctifies the body.
[juofj^fto, which occurs in one
or two MSS. of inferior note, as
the first in this list of sins, as
also 001/ot in ver. 21., is spurious.]
For similar lists of sins comp.
Eom. i. 29. ; Matt. xvi. 9. ; Mark,
vii. 21. The order in which they
are arranged seems to arise partly
out of a connection of thought,
partly from similarity of sound
and termination.
aKaQapffia"] is commonly used
in the New Testament for the im
purity of lust ; but in one passage,
1 Thess. ii. 3. (compare ver. 5.),
apparently for impurity in the
other sense of "interested mo
tives," thus affording a curious
parallel to the converse change of
meaning in the word
It occurs in a general sense in
Dem. con. Meidiam, 553. 13. for
"baseness," or "foulness."
oo-e Xyem] passes through a
change of meaning answering to
the two senses of the English
word wantonness, from outrage-
ousness, excess, in early Greek
[prob. from a privative and
&\yw], to lewdness and lasci
viousness in Polybius and the
Greek Testament ; in which lat
ter, however, the primary mean
ing is also retained.
20. twAo\arjO/a] is used in its
proper sense in 1 Cor. x. 7., yet
also in that metaphorical one in
which we speak of making riches,
children, &c., idols, in Eph. v. 5. ;
Col. iii. 5. TrXeovefya iJTig karlv t<ta-
\o\aTpeia, where the juxtaposi
tion of the two words is remark
able as a proof of the genuineness
of the two Epistles, occurring as
it does again in 1 Cor. v. 11.
Tr\EOfKTr]Q i/ elSuXoXarprjQ, in a
different form.
^ap/icucelo,] like veneficium in
Latin, means witchcraft, as com
monly in the Old Testament.
cjot&Wat.] See on Rom. ii. 8.
^i\ooTaaiai and aipeveiQ.^ Di
visions (1.) in reference to their
381
EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS.
[CH. V.
\_(f)6voi~\ jji0ai KGJJJLOI Kal Ta o/x,oia 21
a TrpoXeyo) vplv Kadws [/cat] TTpoziTrov, OTL oi
ra roiavra Trpacro ovTts ySacriXeicu Oeov ov K\r)povofJiTJ-
crovcriv. 6 Se Kapnbs rov Trvevparos itrnv ayaTrrj X a P^ 22
fJiaKpoOvfJiia x/^crrcmys ajya9u>arvvri mcrris irpav- 23
ey/cpareta Kara ra>^ TOLOVTMV OVK ecrriz^ ^d/>tos. ot 24
Se roi) yjpi<TTov [ I^crov] TT)Z> crdpKa Icrravpcocrav vvv
rot? TTadTJjJiacriv Kal rais cTrt^v/xiais. ei ^wfjiev Ttvev- 25
)u,art, Tr^ev/xart /cat crrot^w/xe^. JUT) yivco^eOa Ktvo- 25
dXX^Xovs TTpoKaXoviAevoL, dXXTyXovs 1
a\\T]\ois.
outward effect ; (2.) to the in
ward feeling from which they
spring.
TrpoetTro^] as I told you " while
1 was yet with you." Comp.
2 Thess. ii. 5.
eov ov K\rjpofOpr]-
The same expression
occurs in 1 Cor. v. 9, 10., xv. 50.
"Flesh and blood shall not in
herit the kingdom of God."
Where, as in this passage, it
must be taken for the kingdom
of Christ in the resurrection.
22. o t$ jcctjOTroc,] applied more
naturally, though not exclusively,
in a good sense. Compare Matt,
vii. 18.
-] Comp. Rom. xii. 15. :
iv fj,Ta ^aipovTajv. Joy or
light-heartedness is, in itself, a
Christian duty ; it may be re
garded as a higher degree of
peace, not unconnected with that
" glorying in the Lord" of which
the Apostle elsewhere speaks.
Gal. vi. 14., 2 Cor. xii. xiii. &c.
eiprjvr),^ opposed to e-^Opai, t ptc,
f/Xoc, and therefore primarily
signifying peace with man, from
which, however, peace towards
God is inseparable.
Xprjororrjc^ is used in the New
Testament for goodness, in the
sense of kindness or mercy, whe
ther of God or man.
ayadiocrvvr)~] may be distin
guished from xpr}ffroTr)Q, as good
ness in the sense of probity, from
goodness in the sense given in
the previous note.
7r/art.] As in 1 Cor. xii. 9.,
2 Tim. ii. 22., faith is here used,
not for the door of all virtues, but
for a particular virtue.
23. Kara TU>V TOIOVTMV ] may be
either masculine or neuter. If the
latter, the construction is more
VER. 2126.] EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS.
385
21 envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such
like : of the which I tell you before, as I have also
told you in time past, that they which do such
22 things shall not inherit the kingdom of God. But the
fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering,
23 gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance:
24 against such there is no law. And they that are
Christ s have crucified the flesh with the affections
25 and lusts. If we live in the Spirit, let us also
so walk in the Spirit. Let us not be desirous of vain
glory, provoking one another, envying one another.
regular, although what is gained
in regularity is more than lost
by the want of point in saying,
Against love, &c., there is no
law." Lax antecedents are fre
quent in the New Testament.
John, viii. 24. ; Rom. ii. 26.
OVK lanv vojuoe.] " The law is
not made for a righteous man."
1 Tim. i. 9. It neither prohibits
nor enjoins Christian graces,
which belong to a different
sphere. The Apostle has acci
dentally lighted upon a formula
which occurs also in Aristotle.
24. In the preceding verses
the Apostle has been speaking of
the opposition between the works
of the flesh and the fruit of the
Spirit. He adds, " But they that
are Christ s have crucified the
flesh;" to which, without any con
necting or adversative particle,
the next verse answers, " If we
come under this class ; if we live
not by the flesh but by the Spirit,
let us walk by the guidance of
the Spirit." As in the Romans
he says : "If ye be Christ s,
the body is dead because of sin,
but the Spirit is life because of
righteousness." Ver. 24. corre
sponds to ver. 19 21., as ver.
25. to ver. 22. and 23.
25. aroiyfiv^\ like TrfpiTrareo ,
refers to " way of life."
TTj/ei^uan.] By the help or rule
of the Spirit : the instrumental
sense of the dative is lost in a
more general one.
26. Let us not be vainglorious,
provoking one another, envying
one another.
This and the precepts that
follow to the end of ver. 6. of the
following chapter are illustra
tions of the walk of the Spirit.
The works which they enjoin are
the contrary of the works of the
flesh spoken of above.
VOL. I.
C
386
EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS.
[Cii. VI.
lav Kal
ol
avOpomos <Lv nvi irapa- 6
l Karaprit^re rov TOIOVTOV
TTVeVp.OLTl TTpaOTTjTOS. CTKOTT&V (TeOVTOV, fJLY) KOL (TV
ra /Sdprj /3a<TTaere, Kal OUTWS 2
ava7r\rip(t)oreT. 1 TQV vopov rov ^picrrov. ei yap SOKCI 3
VI. The connection of ver. 1
10. with each other, and with
what precedes, is at first sight
obscure. The Apostle has been
contrasting the works of the flesh
with those of the Spirit. At ver.
25. of the preceding chapter, he
added the exhortation : " If we
live in the Spirit, let us also walk
in the Spirit ;" or, in modern lan
guage, as our faith is, so let our
practice be. In the next verse
he changes the mood, and, having
inculcated the general principle,
proceeds to fill up the details of
Christian duty. The first among
these details is the precept against
vainglorying, then comes the
obligation of the spiritually
minded towards an erring bro
ther, then of bearing one another s
burdens, then of thinking lowly
of self, of trying one s life and
actions, of keeping glorying to
one s self ; next the thought that
we all have our burdens to bear,
then the duty of supporting mi
nisters of the word, then of doing
good to all and especially to the
household of faith. These va
rious and apparently disjointed
precepts are not, however, un
connected in the Apostle s own
mind.
First, the absence of vainglo
rying is really connected with
a merciful judgment of the sins
and mistakes of others. He
who feels the possibility that he
may err himself, is far more
ready to restore others. And
the same spirit which inclines a
man to a lenient judgment of
others, leads him also to bear
with the infirmities and weak
nesses of others. The emptiness
of self-conceit is a great source
of want of consideration towards
our fellow-creatures. [The feel
ing of him who said, " God, I
thank thee, that I am not as other
men are," is the feeling which
says also, " nor even as this
publican."] But if a man will
try himself, he will find that he
too has his cross and burden, and
will lay aside his self-importance,
and seek to identify himself with
others. In what follows (ver. 6.),
the Apostle seems to invert the
logical order ; instead of saying,
" Let us do good to all men,"
and so going on to the particular,
he begins with a particular case
of doing good, the duty of sup
porting ministers, and concludes
with the general precept.
Trpo\r)[jL<f>6fj ) ~] not "even if a man
be taken in a fault before ;" or
"not for the first time ;" still less,
if a man be taken in a fault be
fore this Epistle reach you ;" but
as in the English translation,
" If a man be overtaken in a
fault :" Kai expresses a continua
tion of what has preceded ; "also"
" and if." The same gentleness
which envieth not, is also to shew
itself in suffering the erring
brother. The word
VER. 13.]
EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS.
3S7
6 Brethren, if a man be overtaken in a fault, ye which
are spiritual, restore such an one in the spirit of meek
ness ; considering thyself, lest thou also be tempted.
2 Bear ye one another s burdens, and so * shall ye fulfil 1 the
3 law of Christ. For if a man think himself to be sorae-
J Fulfil.
"overtaken," already anticipates
the feeling with which his offence
is to be regarded.
v/JLttQ ol TTvev/jiaTiKoi^ (t Ye who
are spiritual," opposed to (rapKiKoi.
Ye who know the truths of the
Gospel, and are freed from the
law, and live in communion with
God and Christ. Spirituality
may be described as the unity
of moral virtues in God and
Christ ; it implies a nature in
harmony with other men ; in
harmony with self; judging all
men, and judged of no man ;
above, and also on a level with
them. It is not absolutely with
out parts ; like moral virtue in
Aristotelian ethics, it admits an
idea at least of separation into
the several Christian graces, each
of which implies the whole, as
in this passage it is particularised
as " the spirit of meekness."
(TKOTruiv creavTOi ) pi] /cat av rret-
pa.ffOrjc. ] There is no good reason
for Lachmann s punctuation, who
connects these words with the
succeeding verse, to which they
are not so appropriate as to that
which follows. It is more after
the manner of St. Paul to end
than to begin sentences with a
participial clause.
2. a\Xr//\wj> TCI (jctprj /Baora^erc.]
So in Rom. xv. 1. : "We that
are strong ought to bear the in
firmities of them that are weak."
In the Epistle to the Romans,
peculiarities of opinion and incli
nations to Jewish observances are
chiefly intended ; here, faults and
weaknesses of character, all those
things which try others in our
intercourse with them.
KCLI ovTMQ arairXripwfftTE TOV vofWV
TOV xptoroiJ.] It has been suggested
that by the law of Christ is meant
the new commandment, " to love
one another." This is the lan
guage of St. John, not of St.
Paul. Rather 6 VO^JLOQ TOV ^ptorov
refers to Christ himself bearing
our infirmities ; comp. Matt. viii.
17. OVTOQ TUQ cifiapTiciQ ijpwv
ai lXa^e Krti TCIQ roaovq iaffT(i(rei\
It might be paraphrased by " the
law of the cross of Christ." It is
an expression of the same kind
with " the law of the Spirit of
life," where the meaning of the
word " law" is self- contradicted.
The law of Christ includes many
associations. " The law which
Christ took upon himself, which
he enjoins upon his disciples ;
the law, not of Moses, but of
Christ ; not old, but new."
el yc/p.] The connection im
plied by yap may be paraphrased
as follows : "Bear one another s
burdens, even as Christ bore your
burdens ; for that opinion of self
which will not suffer a man to
stoop to this, is mere self-decep
tion."
A similar transition of thought
occurs also in Phil. ii. 3, 4. " Let
nothing be done through strife
or vainglory ; but in lowliness of
c c 2
388
EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS.
[Cn. VI.
rts elvai TL iJLTjSev a>i>, (frpevaTraTa eauroV 1 . TO Se epyov 4
eavTov So/a/AaeTOt> eWo-ros, Kal Tore et? iavTov povov TO
i, Kal OVK eis TOP tTepov e/cacrro? yap TO 1810^ 5
/SacTTacreL. KOLVMveiTto Se 6 KaTrj^ovjJiei o^ TOP 6
Xoyoz ra KaTTjxovvTL ev TcoiO iv aya9o1^. jjirj Tc\avacr9e, 7
0os ov p.VKTrjp[>tTai. o yap cu> 2 crrreipr) avOpwiros, TOVTO
Kal 0pLO~L OTL 6 O~7TipO)V CIS Tr]V CTOipKa SaVTOV K TYJS 8
crapKos depioreL (f)0opdv, o e cnreipuiv ets TO irvev^a IK TOV
Oepicrei ^CUT)^ ala>viov. TO Se Ka\ov Troiov^res 9
mind let each esteem other better
than themselves. Look not every
man on his own things, but
every man also on the things of
others."
4. If a man will get a little
more self-knowledge, and see
himself truly as he is, he will
feel no inclination to glory, but
will keep his own praises to
himself.
eavrov,"] as opposed to others.
5. CKCtOTOfi yap TO L^LOV (poprlor
jGaorao-ft.] For every one will
have to bear his own burden.
yap expresses the reason, not
merely of the preceding clause,
but of the whole previous passage.
" Bear one another s burdens, for
every one will have a burden of
his own to bear ;" just as it was
said above, " Restore an erring
brother, for it may be your turn
to err too." In addition to this
there is a slighter band of con
nection in ver. 4, 5. between the
words e LQ kavrov and i3ioj>. When
a man looks into himself, he will
keep to himself; for he will find
within, or without going abroad,
the burden which is his.
6. KoivMreirit) e.] The con
nection, as already observed, is
obscure. The Apostle was passing
on in his mind to speak generally
of duties towards others, when,
seemingly by a sudden impulse,
he lights on a particular point.
As though he said, And now I
am speaking of those duties which
make us members one of another,
let me remind you of the debt
you owe to your ministers. That
such is the Apostle s meaning,
notwithstanding its seeming in
consistency with parts of the
Epistle, is clear (a) from the
mention of KOT^UV and KUTTJ-
yovfjLtvoQ ; (/3) from the same pre
cept occurring in 1 Cor. ix. 11.,
and with a similar context, " He
which soweth sparingly, shall
reap also sparingly;" (y) from
the unmeaningness of diluting
the command into a general one.
The obscurity of the precept
seems to arise from the delicacy
with which the Apostle has stated
it. The same thought is in his
mind as in the Epistles to the
Romans and Corinthians ; but in
writing to a hostile or alienated
communion he does not express
himself with equal clearness.
Compare 1 Cor. xvi. 3., 2 Cor.
viii. 4., also Phil. iv. 17. ; and
for an instance of obscurity
arising from a similar cause,
VER. 49.] EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS.
389
4 thing, when he is nothing, he deceiveth himself. But let
every man prove his own work, and then shall he have
5 rejoicing in himself alone, and not in another. For
6 every man shall bear his own burden. But let* him
that is taught in the word communicate unto him that
7 teacheth in all good things. Be not deceived ; God is
not mocked : for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall
s he also reap. For he that soweth to his flesh shall of
the flesh reap corruption ; but he that soweth to the
9 Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting. But* let
us not be weary in well doing : for in due season we
1 Thess. iv. 4, 5. That the duty
of making the contribution was
urged by him about this time on
the Galatian Church, we know
from 1 Cor. xvi. 1. : " As I have
given order to the churches of
Galatia so do ye."
The particle e may be of
transition only ; it may also have
a slightly adversative force
" Every man will have his own
burden to bear ; but the burden
of the teacher should be lightened
by the taught."
7. The Apostle adds a general
warning : " Be not deceived, God
is not mocked;" which seems
also to have a partial reference
to what has gone before. The
willingness to support ministers
is a substantial proof of the
reality of religion, about which
there can be no mistake. It is
quite another thing from saying
to our brother " Be ye warmed,
or be ye filled."
In the image which follows,
the readiness to give to others
and assist their necessities is
represented under the figure of
the seed. He who supports
teachers of the Gospel shall have
true riches ; he who is faithful
in the unrighteous mammon shall
inherit everlasting life. Such an
explanation of the words gives a
simple connection to the whole
passage. Yet it is possible that
the particular allusion which is
intended by the word " sowing "
in ver. 7., and which is resumed
in ver. 10., may be lost sight of
in the more general idea of
Christian life in ver. 8. Comp.
Essay on the double Senses of
Words in Scripture.
8. Compare Job, iv. 8.: "they
that plough iniquity and sow
wickedness, reap the same." Also,
2 Cor. ix. 6.
He who has his good things in
this life, .who spends his treasure
on earth, who sows to the flesh,
shall of the flesh reap corruption.
Although it is true that aapc,
and TiVtiifjiCL are opposed else
where, as Judaism and Christi
anity, yet the allusion is out of
place here. The Apostle is con
trasting in a general manner
the life of self-indulgence which
disregards the wants of others,
with that spiritual life which is
eternal.
c c 3
390
EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS.
[Cii. VI.
/XT)
TO aaOov
Trpos 10
Kaipq) yap iSio>
apa ovv o>s Kaipov e^o^ev Ipyafjiea TO ay
7raz>ra9, juaXicrra Se 77^09 rous ot/cetous rrjs Tric
v lSere TTT^XtAcoi? VIJLIV ypa^ao LV typaifja ry Ijjifj X L P^" n
ocrot OeXovcTii V7rpocro)7rfjcraL .v crapKi, OVTOL avayKatpv- 12
<TIV v/x,a9 7rpiTjJiveo 0ai, [LOVQV lva l TOJ crravpw TOV
jjirj SiotKcovTai * ovSe yap ol Treptrer/jt^eVot 2 avrol vopov 13
<f)vXdcro"ovo LV, aX\a 0\ovcrLi> vp,as TrepiTefJiveo Oai, Iva iv
1 Insert ^ before r<p
9. mtpw ... to/w.] In our har
vest time. Compare Tit. i. 3.,
1 Tim. iii. 15., 2 Theas. ii. 6.
IJLII f.K\v6jjLroi.~\ Not, " in due
season we shall reap without
fainting;" but, as in the English
Version, " if we faint not. p)
K\v6jj.eroL is the resumption, or
rather repetition, of ^u>) ey^a/cw/xev
= JJlfl f.yKO.KOVVTQ.
10. a)g tsatpoy e-^ofjiE^. ] The use
of the word Kaipov contains an
allusion, rather of sound than
sense, to icatpw ISiy in the pre
ceding verse. See v. 3. ; Rom.
xii. 13, J4. We may paraphrase,
" There is a time in which we
shall reap, and a time in which
we should sow." But such a
paraphrase goes a little beyond
the words.
11. This curious verse has re
ceived several interpretations :
that of the English transla
tion, " Ye see how large a letter
I have written to you with my
own hand ;" to which it is truly
objected that the Greek requires
TrrjXiKa ypapfjiaTa eypa^/a ; it may
be further added, though the
objection is of less weight, that
the word ypappara is not else
where used by St. Paul in the
sense of a letter. Chrysostom
and other Fathers refer the ex
pression to the ill-formed cha
racters which St. Paul had writ
ten with his own hand, to attest
the genuineness of the Epistle.
Such an explanation appears
not improbable, although that of
Jerome is yet more likely, who
takes the aorist for a present.
" See you with what large letters
I write with my own hand," This
explanation is put in its most
probable point of view, if we
suppose the remainder of the
Epistle, which stands in no im
mediate connection with what has
preceded, but is a recapitulation
of the whole, to be also written
with the Apostle s own hand. He
has taken up the pen, and sub
joins in a few emphatic sentences
the substance of what he had
previously dictated. That it was
not his usual custom to write
himself may be inferred from
Rom. xv i. 22., and from the
words of 2 Thess. iii. 17. : " The
salutation of me, Paul, with my
own hand, which is the sign in
every Epistle ; so I write."
12. offot SiXovffu*. ] St. Paul
here brings forward a new aspect
of the party opposed to him ; they
were not only zealots for the law,
VER. 1013.] EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS.
391
10 shall reap, if we faint not. As we have therefore oppor
tunity, let us do good unto all men, especially unto
them who are of the household of faith.
11 See* in what large letters I have written unto you
12 with mine own hand. As many as desire to make a
fair shew in the flesh, they constrain you to be circum
cised ; only lest they should suffer persecution for the
13 cross of Christ. For neither they themselves who are
circumcised keep the law; but desire to have you cir-
but in terror of those who were.
Comp. Gal. ii. 10. Fear and vain
glory as well as party feeling were
their motives of conduct. They
hated the Apostle, they were
afraid of other Jews, they gloried
in the numbers of their followers.
V7rpoffb)Trijffai kv (rap/a ,] to make
a fair shew in externals. OVTOL
is not pleonastic, but emphatic,
" these are the men who."
fj.6vov ira TM trrcivpy TOV y^pt-
These words
may be translated " only that
they may not be persecuted with
the cross of Christ," i. e. may not,
in the figurative language of
the Apostle, be " crucified with
Christ," or have fellowship with
or fill up " what is behind of his
sufferings." According to this
explanation, however, there seems
to be little force in the addition,
" the cross of Christ," as there
can be no object in the Apostle
exalting or magnifying their suf
ferings, when he is speaking not
of what they actually suffered,
but of what they might have
suffered. That is to say, there
would be a false emphasis on
TV a-avjia). It is better, therefore,
to take the words according to a
less common usage of the dative,
found also in classical Greek, in
the sense " because of the cross
of Christ," which, and not the
mere name of Christ, St. Paul
has already pointed out as the
chief object of Jewish hostility.
Comp. v. 11.
13. The yap contains the proof
of the preceding. And that they
are time-servers is evident from
this, that the circumcised them
selves do not keep the law ; but
they desire to have you circum
cised, that they may glory in
making you proselytes to Ju
daism.
In what way could St. Paul
affirm that the Jewish teachers
did not keep the law ? Perhaps,
like St. Peter, they were incon
sistent, and while they retained
some usages of the law gave up
others. This must almost neces
sarily have been the case with
Jews residing out of Palestine ;
they could not, if they would,
have kept the whole law. The
Apostle may also be referring to
the new converts, who, however
zealous for Judaism, were far
from understanding either the
law itself or the traditional inter
pretations of it. The precise
point of the accusation we do not
c c 4
392
EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS.
[Cii. VI.
Tr) vjjLTpa crapKi
CTTOV, St
e/xot
tl
yevoLTO Kav-
Ivjo-ov
V T(> CTTaVpO) TOV KVpiOV
ov IjJiol KoajJios <j-Tavpo)Tai Kayaj 1 KOO-JJLCO iv yap is
~ ITJCTOV OVT TrepLTOp,^ TL ecrTiv 2 ovTe aKpo/3vcrTLa,
d\Xa KawY) KTicrt?, /cat oo~ot rw KOVOVL TOVTO) o~TOi^yjo~ov~ 16
> / 3 >
criv,
Oeov.
\
ra
eTr avTovs /cat eXeos, /cat e?rt ro^ *Io-parj\ TOV
TOV XOLTTOV /co77ov /xot />c^t5 TTape^eTO} lyco yap 17
rou 3 Irjcrov Iv rw crwjaart />cou /^acrra^co.
1 Add T
Add Kvpiov.
know ; its general truth is wit
nessed to by the Church in all
ages. Inconsistency rather than
consistency is natural to man.
He is apt to look with one eye
upon this life, even when the
other is turned towards God. He
finds it hard to be true to himself
when the influences of party or
interest draw him in different
directions. Never, perhaps, since
the Gospel came into the world
has there been any controversy
in which zeal has not at times
shaken hands with expediency,
or in which some degree of
fanaticism has not mingled with
some degree of insanity or im
posture.
14. ejj.01 3e fj.fj yivoiTO Kavya-
<r0ru.] " They desire to glory in
Jewish ordinances, as men-plea-
sers and time-servers ; I, in the
cross of Christ, and in persecu
tion and hostility of men." Two
points of opposition between St.
Paul and the false teachers are
lightly touched: (1.) Circum
cision is contrasted with the
cross of Christ. (2.) The time
serving of the one is contrasted
with the sufferings of the other.
rrap and orravpoQ are the symbols
of Judaism and the Gospel, re
taining their original, and having
also a metaphorical application.
Comp. a similar contrast in 1 Cor.
iv. 9, 10.; also 2 Cor. xi. 30., xii.
1 10.
c)i ou] may be explained either
"through Christ, or through the
cross of Christ ; " loraupwrcu is a
resumption of aravpoc.
KofffjLog.^ Compare above a-oi-
^ela TOV KO(Tfj.ov. The reciprocity
of the expression is characteristic
of the Apostle (coinp. 1 Cor. xiii.
12.); it implies the completeness
of the separation, as we might
say "He is nothing to me, and
I am nothing to him,"
What is meant by being cruci
fied to the world ? Not certainly
being despised by the world, still
less despising the world in return,
nor yet a mere figure of speech ;
but whatever is meant by being
dead or buried with Christ, or by
the life hidden with Christ in
God. Language fails to express
the contrasted paradoxical notion
of the Christian state, which has
a truth of feeling even to those
who are living in the world.
15. The text of the greater
part of the Epistle has been " If
ye be circumcised, Christ shall
profit you nothing." But here,
VER, 1417.] EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS.
393
u cumcised, that they may glory in your flesh. But God
forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord
Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me.
15 and I unto the world. For in Christ Jesus neither cir-
any
thing,
nor uncircumcision, but a
cumcision is
iG new creature. And as many as shall* walk according
to this rule, peace be on them, and mercy, and upon the
17 Israel of God. From henceforth let no man trouble me ;
for I bear in my body the marks of 2 Jesus.
1 Availeth.
as at chap. v. ver. 6., the Apostle
touches on a yet higher aspect of
the subject. "Neither uncircum
cision any more than circum
cision, but a new creature." It
is remarkable that nearly the
same words "In Christ Jesus
neither circumcision availeth
anything, nor uncircumcision "
occur three times, and each time
with a different termination of
the sentence ; here " But a new
creature;" at v. 6. "But faith
which worketh by love ; " 1 Cor.
vii. 19. "But the keeping of the
commandments of God." So far
was the Apostle from describing
true religion, even when opposed
to the law, under the formula of
faith only.
16. TV KCLVOVL Tovru, i.e. the rule
of the new creature.
eTrt TOV IvpaijX. rov $eov.~] The
difficulty of this verse is, how we
are to distinguish the Israel of
God from those who walk accord
ing to this rule. " Peace upon
all those who serve the Lord
Jesus Christ truly, and upon the
Israel of God."" The Apostle
regards the same persons in two
points of view, and with a cer
tain inaccuracy divides them into
2 Add the Lord.
two. The inaccuracy has been
occasioned, and is partly con
cealed by, the opposition between
the Israel of God, and Israel ac
cording to the flesh. It is a bad
way of meeting the difficulty to
refer the words, " those who
walk according to this rule " to
the Gentiles, and "the Israel of
God" to believing Jews. "Peace
be upon the believing heathen to
whom circumcision or uncircum
cision is indifferent, and upon the
Israelite indeed."
Compare, though not exactly
parallel, 1 Cor. x. 32.: "Give
none offence, neither to the Jews
nor to the Gentiles, nor to the
Church of God;" also Rom. iv.
12.
17. TO. or/y^Ltara, the marks. ]
The feeling of this verse is anger
passing into sorrow. The Apostle
rightly thinks that the sufferings
which he had endured should
give him a kind of sacredness in
their eyes. The expression, "I
bear in my body the marks of
Jesus," is of the same kind as
"I am crucified with Christ,"
Rom. vi. 6., Gal. ii. 20.; or "I
fill up what is behind of the
sufferings of Christ in my flesh,"
394
H ^
r v
EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS. [Cn. VI.
l^crot) ^otcrroi) />ieTa TOV
1 Ilpbs TaAaras
Col. i. 24. Having recently suf-
fered persecution, he felt that
this was a new link which bound
him to his Lord. The marks
which he saw in his flesh, re-
air))
minded him of the wounds of
Christ, perhaps suggesting also
the thought that he was His
branded slave. There have been
those in later ages of the Church,
VER. 18.] EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS. 395
is Brethren, the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with
your spirit. Amen. 1
1 Unto the Galatians written from Rome.
who have by a self-imposed pe- trace of the influence of these
nance borne the marks of the Lord words.
Jesus. In the well known story Comp. St. Paul s own record of
of St. Francis of Assisi there is a his sufferings, 2 Cor. xi. 23 33.
396 EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS.
PALEY ON THE GALATIANS.
THE most sceptical criticism has left untouched the Epistle to the
Galatians. No one has imagined that it is based on the narrative of
the Acts ; no one doubts that it is a writing of St. Paul. We may,
therefore, cease to raise up defences of its genuineness. The anxiety
to increase a certainty is liable to cast suspicion on what would
otherwise be undoubted.
For this reason it is unnecessary to follow Paley at length through
the proof which he offers in No. 1., that the Epistle could only
have been written in the beginning of Christianity, while the ques
tion of circumcision was recent; or, in No. 2., that the Acts and the
Epistle are independent of, and yet in numerous particulars confirm,
each other ; or, in No. 3., that the particularity and number of the
points of connection between them, prove the Epistle to be a genuine
writing of the Apostle ; or, in No. 4., that the indirect allusion to his
infirmity in iv. 11 16. is too subtle a coincidence with 2 Cor. xii.
1 9., to be within the range of the forger s ingenuity ; or, in No. 5.,
that the figure of chap. iv. 29., which implies that the Apostle was
persecuted by them " that were born after the flesh," is curiously, and
apparently incidentally, confirmed by the ever-recurring persecu
tions of Jews in the Acts ; or, in No. 6., that the spirit of Gal. vi. 1.,
"Brethren, if a man be overtaken in a fault, ye which are spiritual
restore such an one in the spirit of meekness," singularly agrees with
the actual conduct of the Apostle, in his second admonition about
the incestuous person, in 2 Cor. ii. 6 8.; or, in No. 7., that the
disavowal of the obligation of the Jewish law, either on Jews or
Gentiles, in the Galatians, similarly agrees with his acknowledged
PALEY ON THE GALATIANS. 397
exceptional conformity to the law for a particular purpose. All
these points of agreement are interesting, and many of them are of
real importance ; the last being, perhaps, the least satisfactory ; as
although the Acts of the Apostles no where assert that St. Paul
insisted on the observance by Gentiles of the Jewish law, but quite
the reverse ; yet they no where imply the same universal disavowal
of the law for Jews as well as Gentiles which is found in the Epistle
to the Galatians. "Behold I Paul say unto you, that if ye be
circumcised Christ shall profit you nothing," is not the tone of the
writer of the Acts.
Paley makes several remarks in confirmation of his argument, in
which it is not possible, however, to agree. As in the Epistle to
the Thessalonians, he shows the tact of an advocate, not the impar
tiality of a judge. This is especially exhibited in the manner in
which he marshals his evidence. There are points in which the
history of the Acts confirms the narrative of the Epistle, and in
which the Epistle bears incidental testimony to the truth of the
history, as there are points also of discrepancy between them. But
to use the latter as proving the independence of the two narratives,
and the former as witnessing to their truth and accuracy, is not an
equitable method of proceeding, unless we balance the one with the
other, and acknowledge the joint result. The case with which
Paley has to deal is not that of a witness whose (see No. 2.) whole
evidence is to be accepted because it is partially confirmed by the
evidence of another, but of one whose testimony -is partially denied
as well as confirmed. Two things which ought to be inseparable
have been separated by him ; and his argument gains by the artificial
division. He is admirable in picking out and putting together a
portion of the facts, and the reader who has no one to plead the
other side to him is satisfied that he sees the bearings of the whole.
I do not make these remarks from any wish to discredit a great
name. A strong conviction of the injury which in the long run
ex parte statements must occasion to the cause of Scriptural or of any
other kind of truth (especially when they are quite popular and
398 EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS.
intelligible), is my only reason for commenting on the portions of
the "Horse Paulinae" which fall in with the subject of these
volumes.
No. 8., in which Paley argues from the allusion in Acts xxii. 18.,
" Make haste, and get thee quickly out of Jerusalem : for they will
not receive thy testimony concerning me," to the agreement between
the statement of the Galatians, chap. i. 18., that St. Paul abode at
Jerusalem, on his first visit, fifteen days only, and the apparently
longer stay implied in the ninth chapter of the Acts, when he is
described as "coming in and going out with the Apostles at Jerusalem,
and speaking boldly in the name of Jesus," contains an instance of
the want of fairness alluded to. For in the twenty-second chapter
of the Acts there is nothing to indicate that the message, " get thee
quickly out," was given immediately after the Apostle s entry into
Jerusalem ; and a discrepancy remains behind, which Paley has
omitted to notice. For in the first chapter of the Galatians the
Apostle distinctly says that " he was unknown by face to the churches
of Judea ; " and the tenor of his narrative shows that his visit of
fifteen days was as private as possible. But in the ninth chapter of
the Acts (see notes on Gal. i. 18.) it is stated with equal clearness,
" that he spake boldly (at Jerusalem) in the name of the Lord Jesus,
and disputed against the Grecians, but they went about to slay him."
Paley should have drawn attention to this discrepancy, because it
materially affects the probability of the coincidence. Nor should
the eighteenth verse of the twenty-second chapter of the Acts have
been separated from the words which follow, in which (though the
passage is obscure) the reason given for the unwillingness to receive
the Apostle s testimony appears to be the fact of his former perse
cution of the Church.
Nor, again, in No. 10., when Paley is remarking on the coinci
dence in the position of James as head of the Church at Jerusalem,
in the Acts and the Epistle, is it quite satisfactory that he should
omit to notice the character in which James is exhibited in the Acts,
as the supporter of St. Paul on two great occasions of dispute (Acts,
PALEY ON THE GALATIANS. 399
xv. 13., xxi. 18.) between Jew and Gentile, and the light in which
he is incidentally alluded to in Gal. ii. 12. (comp. ver. 9.); or that
he should explain the inconsistency in Peter s conduct at Antioch
with the vision at Joppa, by supposing that " he might have con
sidered the latter as a direction for the occasion, rather than as
universally abolishing the distinction between Jew and Gentile."
(See Acts, xi. 18.)
But the greatest instance, not of unfairness in the writer, but of
want of perception of what is due to the reader, occurs in the com
parison of the visit of Gal. ii. with the council in Acts xv. The
true result of such a comparison is to show the identity of the two
occasions (see note at the end of chap, ii.), amid the diversity of the
accounts of them. Paley, while half admitting this identity, over
looks the difficulty of supposing that St. Paul should have referred
to this visit, and yet omitted to mention the decree of the council
which was directly to the point in dispute.
The critic may be firmly convinced of the genuineness of the
Epistle to the Galatians, though his convictions will not always rest
on the grounds which are alleged by Paley. It is not a flourish of
theological rhetoric to ask : " How could the art of man have invented
a state which has no parallel in succeeding ages ? Who could have
acted that passionate emotion which is called forth by circumstances
to which the Epistle only remotely alludes ? " No forgery so deep
and intricate, and so natural, ever existed. The single passage, Gal.
ii. 1 14., closely connected as it is with the rest of the Epistle, is
of itself nearly sufficient to establish the genuineness of the whole.
The narrative of the Acts of the Apostles, when compared with
the Epistle to the Galatians, does not show equal historical accuracy.
It differs in many details, and also in the point of view in which its
author regards the question of Jew and Gentile. It is a noble record
of primitive Christianity, quite free, too, from suspicion of bad faith
or imposture, yet it cannot be denied that in many material points,
as, for example, the relation of the Apostle to the Church at Jeru
salem, it disagrees in its spirit, and also in several of its facts from
400 EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS.
the Epistles of St. Paul. Was it that years had passed away, and
the differences of the Apostles were no longer seen in the distance ?
Dates and circumstances which had been once known may have
been no longer preserved with accuracy. Whatever may be the
reason, the amount of discrepancy between the earlier chapters of
the Acts and the Epistle to the Galatians contrasts with the precise
agreement of the later chapters with the Epistles to the Romans and
Corinthians, as well as with the internal consistency of the Epistle
to the Galatians itself.
In inquiries of this sort it is often supposed that, if the evidence
of the genuineness of a single book of Scripture be weakened, or the
credit of a single chapter shaken, the whole is overthrown. Some
times the danger of losing the whole is made an argument against
criticism of any part. Much more true is it that, in short portions
or single verses of Scripture the whole is contained. Had we but
one discourse of Christ, one Epistle of Paul, more than half would
have been preserved. There is a story of a solitary of the desert,
who came into the city of Alexandria and carried back with him a
text of Scripture, refusing afterwards to learn another, because he
could never completely practise the first. The story belongs to
another age ; it may still be applied by those who interpret a doubt
respecting the least portion of Scripture into a denial of the Chris
tian faith.
401
ON THE QUOTATIONS FROM THE OLD TESTA
MENT IN THE WRITINGS OF ST. PAUL.
THE New Testament "is ever old, and the Old is ever entwined
with the New." Not only are the types of the Old Testament
shadows of good things to come ; not only are the narratives of
events and lives of persons in Jewish history " written for our in
struction ;" not only is there a deep-rooted identity of the Old and
New Testament in the revelation of one God of perfect justice and
truth ; not only is " the law fulfilled in Christ to all them that
believe ;" not only are the spiritual Israel the true people of God,
and the taking of Jerusalem a figure of the end of the world : a
nearer though more superficial connection is formed by the volume
of the Old Testament itself, which, like some closely fitting vesture,
enfolds the new as well as the old dispensation in its language and
imagery, the words themselves, as well as the thoughts contained in
them, becoming instinct with a new life, and seeming to interpene
trate with the Gospel.
This verbal connection of new and old is not peculiar to Christi
anity. All nations who have ancient writings have endeavoured to
read in them the riddle of the past. The Brahmin, repeating his
Vedic hymns, sees them pervaded by a thousand meanings, which
have been handed down by tradition : the one of which he is ignorant
is that which we perceive to be the true one. Without more reason,
and almost wjth equal disregard or neglect of its natural import, the
Jewish Alexandrian and Rabbinical writers analysed the Old Testa
ment ; in a similar spirit Gnostics and Neoplatonists cited lines of
Homer or Pindar. Not unlike is the way in which the Fathers cite
VOL. I. D D
402 EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS.
both the Old and New Testament ; and the manner in which the
writers of the New Testament quote from the Old has more in
common with this last than with modern critical interpretations of
either. That is to say, the quotations are made almost always with
out reference to the connection in which they originally occur, and
in a different sense from that in which the prophet or psalmist in
tended them. They are fragments culled out and brought into some
new combination ; jewels, and precious stones, and corner-stones
disposed after a new pattern, to be the ornaments of another temple.
It is their place in the new temple, not their relation to the old,
which gives them their effect and meaning.
Such tessellated work was after the manner of the age : it was no
invention or introduction of the sacred writers. Closely as it is
wrought into the New Testament, it belongs to its externals rather
than to its true life. All religions which are possessed of sacred
books, and many which are without them, have passed through a
like secondary stage, although the relation of the earlier to the later
form of the same religions may have been quite different from that
in which the Gospel stands to the Old Testament. In heathenism,
as well as Christianity, language has played a great part in connect
ing the old and the new. There seem to be times in which human
nature yearns towards the past, though it has lost the power of
interpreting it. Overlooking the chasm of a thousand years, it seeks
to extract from ancient writings food for daily life. The mystery of
a former world lies heavy upon it, hardly less than of the future, and
it lightens this burden by attributing to "them of old time" the
thoughts and feelings of contemporaries. It feels the unity of God
and man in all ages, and attempts to prove this unity by reading
the same thoughts in every word which has been uttered from the
beginning. A new spirit takes possession of the words, and imper
ceptibly alters them into accordance with itself.
The Gnostic and Alexandrian writings furnish a meeting-point
between the past and future in which the present is lost sight of, and
ideas supersede facts. But something analogous is observable in the
QUOTATIONS FROM THE OLD TESTAMENT. 403
New Testament itself; which may be described also as the confluence
of past and future on the ground of the present, the person of Christ
and "the Church which is his body" being the centre in which they
meet. Some Divine heat or force welds together the old and new.
The scattered rays of prophecy are collected in one focus. Language
becomes plastic and refashions itself on a new type. Gradually and
naturally, as it were a soul entering into a body that had been pre
pared for it, the new takes the form of the old. The truth and moral
power of the Gospel prevent this new formation from resembling the
fantastic process of Eastern heresy. The writers of the New Testa
ment use the modes of speech of their contemporaries, but they also
ennoble and enlighten them. That traces of their age should appear
in them is the necessary condition of their speaking to the men of
their age. " The water of life " was not to be strained through the
sieve of grammar and logic ; nor is it conceivable how a Gospel
could have been "preached to the poor" which was founded on a
critical interpretation of the Old Testament.
But although the quotations from the Old Testament in the New
conform to the manner of the age, and have a superficial similarity
with the use of Homer or Pindar in later classical authors, essential
differences lie beneath. First, the connection is not, as in the case
of heathen authors, merely accidental ; the Old Testament looks for
ward to the New, as the New Testament looks backward on the
Old. Reading the psalmists or prophets, we feel that they were
pilgrims and strangers, hoping for more than was on the earth,
whose sadness was not yet turned into joy. s There are passages in
which the Old Testament goes beyond itself, in which it almost
seems to renounce itself ; "lively oracles" of which it might be said,
either in Christian or heathen language, " that it speaks not of
itself ;" or, that " its voice reaches to a thousand years." It is other
wise with heathen literature. There is no future to which Homer or
Hesiod looked forward ; no moral truth beyond themselves which
they dimly see. The life of the world was not to awaken in their
song. They were poetry only, out of which came statues of gods
404 EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS.
and heroes. The deeper reverence for the "volume of the book"
may be in part the reason why the half-understood words of the Old
Testament exercise a greater power over the mind. But the mere
application of them is also a new creation. They are not dead and
withered fragments of the wisdom of ancient times ; the force of the
new truth which they express reanimates and reillumines them. Se
condly, if we admit that the superficial connection between the Old
and New Testament is arbitrary, or, more properly speaking, after the
manner of the age, there is a deeper connection also which is founded
on reason and conscience. The language of the Psalms and prophets
is the natural voice of Christian feeling. In the hour of sorrow, or
joy, or repentance, or triumph, we turn to the Old Testament quite
as readily as to the New. Thirdly, a difference in kind is observable
between the use which is made of quotations by the Alexandrian
writers and in the New Testament. In the one they are the form
of thought ; in the other the mode of expression. That is to say,
while in the one they exercise an influence on the thought ; in the
other they are controlled by it, and are but a sort of incrustation on
it, or ornament of it ; in some cases the illustration or allegory
through which it is conveyed. The writings of St. Paul are not the
less one in feeling and spirit, because the language in which he con
tinually clothes his thoughts is either avowedly or unconsciously
taken from the Old Testament.
It is remarkable that the Old Testament in many places is built up
out of its own materials, in the same way as the New out of the Old.
Later Psalms repeat the language of earlier ones ; successive pro
phets use the same words and images, and deliver the same precepts.
For example, Jeremiah and the later Isaiah both speak of " the Lamb
led to the slaughter;" and Jeremiah and Ezekiel alike revoke the old
" proverb in the house of Israel." The Book of Deuteronomy, espe
cially, is full of prophetic elements, either received from or communi
cated to the later prophets. Instead of the repetition being wearisome
or unmeaning, it adds to the depth and power of the words that they
are not used for the first time. No happy combination of new Ian-
QUOTATIONS FROM THE OLD TESTAMENT. 405
guage could have imparted to them the weight which they derive
from associations of the past. In like manner the portions of the New
Testament in which the verbal connection with the Old is most
striking, such as the Epistle to the Hebrews, and the fifteenth chapter
of 1 Corinthians, are also those which are most awful and impressive
to us. It is a circumstance not always attended to by commentators on
the Apocalypse (at any rate by English ones), that this wonderful
book is a mosaic of Old Testament thoughts and words, the pieces of
which are put together on a new and glorious pattern. A glance
at the marginal references is sufficient to show in how subtle a
manner they are interlaced. The inspired author is not merely
narrating a new vision which he had seen and heard, to be added to
the former visions of Ezekiel or Daniel ; but he is collecting and
bringing together the scattered elements of prophecy and sacred
imagery in one last vision or revelation of the day of the Lord. The
kingdom of God is not at a distance ; it already exists ; it has
gathered to itself the figures and glories of the Old Testament. Many
other apocryphal writings exhibit signs of the same imitation ;
they borrow the imagery of the elder prophets. But none of them
are inspired with the faith or power which conceives the glorious
things that have been said as a living reality.
Perhaps it may be thought paradoxical that the words of the Old
Testament should receive a new meaning in the Epistles, and also
retain their original power and sacredness ; yet in our own use of
quotations a similar inconsistency may be observed. For, not only in
ancient but in modern times, a certain waywardness is discernible
in the application of the words of others. Quotation, with ourselves,
is an ingenious device for expressing our meaning in a pointed or
forcible manner ; it implies also an appeal to an authority. And
its point frequently consists in a slight, or even a great, devia
tion from the sense in which the words quoted were uttered by their
author. Its aptness lies in being at once old and new ; often in
bringing into juxtaposition things so remote, that we should not
have imagined they were connected ; sometimes in a word rather
D D 3
406 EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS.
than in a sentence, or in the substitution of one word for another ;
nor is its force diminished if it lead to a logical inference not strictly
warranted. In like manner the quotations of the New Testament
are at once new and old. They unite a kind of authority and anti
quity with a new interpretation of the passage quoted. Sometimes
the application of them is a sort of argument from their exact rheto
rical or even grammatical form. Their connection often hangs upon
a word, and there are passages in which the word on which the con
nection turns is itself inserted. There are citations too, which are a
composition of more than one passage, in which the spirit is taken
from one and the words from another. There are other citations in
which a similarity of spirit, rather than of language, is caught up
and made use of by the Apostle. There are passages which are
altered to suit the meaning given to them ; or in which the spirit of
the New Testament is substituted for that of the old ; or the spirit
of the Old Testament expands into that of the New. Lastly, there
are a few passages which have one sense in the Old Testament, and
have an entirely different or opposite one in the New. Almost all
gradations occur between exact verbal correspondence with the
Greek of the LXX. and discrepancy in which resemblance is all
but lost ; between the greatest similarity and difference, even oppo
sition, of spirit in the original passage and its application. The
first connection is nearly always lost sight of; only in Rom. iv. 10.
it is referred to generally, and in Rom. xi. 4. imperfectly remem
bered.
The quotations in the writings of St. Paul may be classified under
the following heads :
i. Passages in which the meaning or the words of the Old Testa
ment are altered, or both ; the alterations sometimes arising from a
composition of passages ; in other instances from an adaptation of
the text quoted to its new context. In one case a verse of the Old
Testament is repeated with variations in two places. See Rom.
xi. 34. ; 1 Cor. ii. 16.
ii. Passages in which the spirit or the language of the Old Testa-
QUOTATIONS FROM THE OLD TESTAMENT. 407
ment is exactly retained, or with no greater variation of words than
may be supposed to arise out of difference of texts, and no greater
diversity of spirit than necessarily arises from the transfer of any
passage in the Old Testament into another connection in the New.
To which may be added
iii. Passages which contain latent or unacknowledged quotations.
iv. Allegorical passages.
i. (1.) An instance in which the meaning of the quotation has
been altered, and also in which the new meaning given to it is
derived from another passage, occurs in Rom. ii. 24. : TO yap ovo^a
TOV SEOV Si vfjiac /3Xa<r^7jjU7rat iv TGIQ eOveffiv, where the Apostle is
speaking of the scandal caused by the violence and hypocrisy of the
Jews. The words are taken from Is. Iii. 5. : ci vpag ^LawavTOQ TO
ovopa JJ.QV /3\ao-0^/ie7rcu iv TO~IQ tdvevt ; where, however, they refer
not to the sins of the house of Israel, but to their sufferings at the
hand of their enemies. The turn which the Apostle has given the
passage is gathered from Ez. xxxvi. 21 23. : KO.I tytiaa.^* cu/rwy Sta
TO ovo[j.a. fj.ov TO ayiov 6 i&e&iXuaav OIKOQ lopar/X iv TO"IQ iQveaiv ov
eifftlXOoffdl EKEl, K.T.X.
A composition of passages occurs also in Rom. xi. 8., which
appears to be a union of Is. vi. 9, 10. and xxix. 10. The twenty-
sixth and twenty-seventh verses of the same chapter also furnish a
singular instance of combination. (Is. lix. 20, 21. : KOI UVTIJ O.VTO~IQ ?/
Trap e]j.ov ^Lad^Kr], to which the clause, OTO.V a^)\wjLtat Taq bpapriag
av-aH , is added from Is. xxvii. 9.) The play upon the word edvrj
(nations = Gentiles) is repeated in Rom. iv. 17. (Gen. xvii. 5.), Gal.
iii. 8. (Gen. xii. 3.), Rom. xv. 11. (Ps. cxvi. 1.).
(2.) Another instance in which the general tone of a quotation
is from one passage, and a few words are added from another, is
to be found in Rom. ix. 33. : l$ov TiQripi EY Ztwv \iQov TTjOoovcoyu/mT-oe
KOI Trirpav ffKavdaXov ical 6 TTKTTEVWV CTT avrw ov KaTaiff^yvdtjaeTai. The
greater part of this passage occurs in Is. xxviii. 16. : ISov eyh e^-
/3a\Xui elg TO. S ejueA.ta Siwy \idov TroAureXf/ EK\KTOV aKpoywvtalor, tVrt-
JJ.QV elg TCI SepeXia avTrjs KOI 6 Trtarfviov ov pfj Koratff^vvOp. But the
D P 4
408 EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS.
words XiOov TTjOOfffcoju/zaroe are introduced from Is. viii. 14. And the
remainder of the passage (KCU . . . /ccmuo-xvvfl^orerou) is really incon
sistent with these words, though both parts are harmonised in Him
who is in one sense a stumblingstone and rock of offence ; in another
a foundation stone and chief corner stone.
(3.) A slighter example of alteration occurs 1 Cor. iii. 19., where
the Apostle quotes from Ps. xciv. 11. : Kvpiog yivwovcet roue dtaXoyio--
povQ T&V ffofywv on elal fjLaratoi. Here the words T&V aofywv are sub
stituted for Twy avdpuTrwv in the LXX., which in this passage agrees
with the Hebrew. They are required to connect the quotation in
the Epistle with the previous verses. A similar instance of the
introduction of a word (nag) on which the point of an argument
turns, occurs in Rom. X. 11. : Xeyt yap rj ypct^, TTOLQ 6 Trt/rrevwv ETT
aurw ov KaTaia^yvQi]ffETai t where the addition is the more remarkable,
as the Apostle had quoted the verse without TTO.Q in the preceding
passage (ix. 33. Lach.). The insertion seems to be suggested by the
words of Joel which follow.
(4.) Another instance of addition and adaptation is furnished by
1 Cor. xiv. 21. ; kv rw voyuw yiypairTai on kv irepoy\wffaoiQ /ecu kv
erepw XctX//<rw rw Xaw TOVTO), KCLI ovd OVTMC; tlffctKovffovTai JJLOV,
Kvpioe. This quotation, which is said to be "written in the
law" (comp. John, x. 34., xii. 34., xv. 25.), is from Is. xxviii. 11,
12., where the words in the LXX. are, 3m ^avXioy^oy ^ffXtW, 5m
yXwffffrjQ ert joae, ort XaXr/ffovtrt ry Xaw rovrw, and in the English trans
lation, " with stammering lips and another tongue will He speak
unto this people." But the last words, ov3* OVTWQ tlaaKovaovrai, are
taken from the following verse, where a clause nearly similar occurs
in a different connection : \iyovTEQ ctvro7f, TOVTO TO avcnravpa TU
KIIVUVTL KO.I TOVTO TO avfTpifJifJia, leal ovK fi6l\r}ffav arovecv, v. 12. The
whole is referred by the Apostle to the gift of tongues, which he
infers from this passage " to be a sign to unbelievers."
(5.) An adaptation, which has led to an alteration of words, occurs
in Rom. X. 6 9. : rj $e EK TT/OTEWC StKCuoffvrr) ovrw Xt yet prf eiiryG tv rrj
ffov TIG a.vdr]ffTai els Toy ovparov ; TOVT ECTTI
QUOTATIONS FROM THE OLD TESTAMENT. 409
yeiv ; 7} rte Kara%fferat elg rr\v a&vaaov ; TOVT tarn, xptorov ZK vtKp&v
avayayelv. dXXa rl Aeyei ; iyyvQ trou ro p^a eoTtv, eV rai ardjuari
0-ou /cat ev rjj KOjOcU a aov TOVT e ort ro p^yua r//e ?r tore we, o Krjpvaaopev
on icti opoXoyrjayg ev rw orojuari 0-ov KVULOV lr)aovi>, KOI TriaTevarjiQ eV
r^f Kapfiiq. aov ort 6 Sfoe CLVTOV ijyeipev K vtKpGtv aitidija-rj. The intro
ductory formula in this passage, /xj) eiTrrjg kv T^ Kapdiq. aov, is taken
from Deut. viii. 17. j the substance of the remainder is abridged
from Deut. xxx. 11 14.: OTL >; ivroXi} avrrj YJV eyw fireXXo/jcu ffot
cn ljj,f.pov ov-% vTTtpoyKoe iffrtv, ov$e pciKpav curb aov iaTiv OVK iv TU>
avw tart, Xeywv, T LQ avafif] VETCH ?/yutv etc TOV ovparbr, /cai Xr/^erat
avrrjv Kal a.Kovaa.vTc avTrjv Troirjcropef ; ou^e Tre joav r^c 9 r aXa<T<77/G
etrrt, Xeywr, r/c ^laTTfjOao-fi //ju7v etc ^o TTepav TYJC SaXaaarjc, Kcil Xa/3j/
ji , feat aKOva-Trjv r]fjuv Troifjffy a.VTi]v, KOI Troirjaojj.ev ; eyyvg aov
TO prjfj-a afyodpa, iv TU> trrofiofri aov KCU ev TTJ Kapfiiq, aov KOI iv TCUQ
i aov Troietf avro. To these verses the Apostle has added what
may be termed a running commentary, applying them to Christ.
To make the words irepav rjje SaXaaarjs thus applicable, the Apostle
has altered them to ttg TTJV avaaov, a change which we should hesi
tate to attribute to him, but for the other examples which have been
already quoted of similar changes. (Compare also Rom. xi. 8.,
xii. 19.; Eph. iv. 8., quoted from Ps. Ixvii. 18. ; Eph. v. 14. The
latter passage, in which as here the name of Christ is introduced, is
probably an adaptation of Is. Ix. i.) He has also omitted eV rate
X e p ff l> which was not suited to his purpose. Considering the fre
quency of such changes, it would be contrary to the rules of sound
criticism to attribute the introduction of ihe^ words to a difference of
text in the Old Testament.
(6.) An example of a new turn given to a passage from the Old
Testament occurs in Rom. xi. 2, 3., where the Apostle has put
together in one connection two verses which are disconnected in the
original. In the Book of Kings (1 Kings, ix. 15 18.), the words,
"I have left to myself seven thousand men who have not bowed the
knee to Baal," are a continuation of the instruction to anoint Jehu
and Hazael. But, in the application which the Apostle makes of
410 EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS.
them, they are quoted as the answer of God to the complaint of
Elijah. The misplacement seems to have arisen from the words,
"I am left alone," and the allusion to the worshippers of Baal.
Compare Jus. Dial. c. 39. n. 2, 3. ; 46. n. 18.
(7.) The words of 1 Cor. xv. 45., OVTWQ mi yeyjOctTrrat * EyeVero 6
TrpwTog Acaju EIQ ^v^rjy u>ffav 6 ia^arog Ae)aju etc; Trvsvpa ^WOTTOIOV^,
afford a remarkable instance of discrepancy, both in expression and
meaning, from Gen. ii. 7. : eVe<|>i 0-77 ore v etc TO TTJOOO-WTTOV avrov TTVOYIV
w7e KCLI eyeVero 6 avdpwTrog etc \fjvxrjv ^wcrav ; to the two clauses of
which the Apostle appears to have applied a distinction analogous
to that which Philo draws (De Legum Alleg. i. 12. ; De Creat.
Mun. 24. 46.) between the earthly and the heavenly man (Gen. ii. 7.
and i. 27.). The words are apparently inconsistent with the twenty-
second verse of the same chapter : " As in Adam all die, even so in
Christ shall all be made alive ;" which, in the sense sometimes given
them, are also inconsistent with the forty-seventh verse: "The
first man is of the earth, earthy ; the second man is the Lord from
heaven." An instructive parallel to both inconsistencies is offered
by the application of the expression of Genesis, " the image of God,"
not only to the regenerate man and to Christ (Col. iii. 10. ; 2 Cor.
iv. 4.), but also to the natural man, or to man in general, without
any such allusion, as in 1 Cor. xi. 7. Compare James, iii. 9.
(8.) A curious instance of a subtle and at the same time strained
application of a passage occurs in Gal. iii. 16 19., to which (r
ffTrt jojuart) attention has been drawn in the notes. Compare Hebrews,
vii. 1.; 1 Tim. ii. 13, 14.
(9.) Cases occur in which the words of the Old Testament are
quoted in contrast to the Gospel ; as, for example, the words of
Leviticus xviii. 5., a Trot^o-ac avra avQpwwog, r/0-ercu eV avrotg,
repeated in Rom. x. 5., Gal. iii. 12. ; so Deut. xxvii. 26., in Gal.
iii. 10. The first of the two examples affords an instance of a minor
peculiarity, viz. disorder introduced into the grammatical construc
tion by quotations.
ii. A good example of the second class of quotations is the pas-
QUOTATIONS FROM THE OLD TESTAMENT. 411
sage from Hab. ii. 4. quoted in Rom. i. 17., 6 3e S/JOGUOC e*c
r)ffTat ; which occurs also in two other places, Heb. x. 38., Gal.
in. 11., which the LXX. read, 6 Se uccuoe EK TriarewQ JJLOV >/arcu,
and the English version translates from the Hebrew, "but the just
shall live by his faith. It is remarkable, that in Rom. i. 17., Gal. iii.
11., the verse should be quoted in the same manner, and that slightly
different, either from the LXX. or the Hebrew ; in Heb. x. 38. it
agrees precisely with the LXX. Like the other great text of the
Apostle, "Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him for
righteousness," which is also repeated three times in the New Testa
ment (Rom. iv. 3. ; Gal. iii. 6. ; James, ii. 23.), it offers an example
of the way in which the language of the Old Testament is enlarged
and universalised in the New ; the particular faith of Abraham or of
the Israelite becoming the type of faith as opposed to the law. The
wider sphere of Messianic prophecy, which extends the promise of
the root of Jesse to the Gentiles (Is. xi. 10.), is also appropriated as
of right by St. Paul. Here too the meaning is enlarged, as in the
application of the words of Isaiah: "I was found of them that
sought me not" (Ixv. 1.), Rom. x. 20. It is less characteristic of the
Apostle, that the predestinarian language of the Old Testament is
in some instances transferred by him to the New, as in Rom. ix. 13.
after Mai. i. 2, 3. ("Jacob have I loved ; Esau have I hated"), and
in Rom. ix. 20. after Is. xxix. 16. Some of the passages which speak
of the vanity of human wisdom are taken from the Old Testament
(1 Cor. i. 19, 20. after Is. xxix. 16., xlv. 9.).
Other examples of the second class of quotations are such places
as the following : " Blessed is the man whose iniquity is forgiven,
and whose sin is pardoned ; blessed is the man to whom the Lord
doth not impute sin," Rom. iv. 7., from Ps. xxxii. 1, 2. " The
reproaches of them that reproached thee fell on me," Rom. xv. 3.,
from Ps. Ixix. 9. "Who hath believed our report ?" Rom. x. 16.,
from Is. liii. 1. " For thy sake we are killed all the day long, we
are accounted as sheep for the slaughter," Ps. xliii. 22., quoted in
Rom. viii, 36. ; in which the instinct of the Apostle has caught the
412 EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS.
common feeling or spirit of the Old and New Testament, though the
texts quoted contain no word which is a symbol of his doctrine.
Passages which might be placed under either head are Rom.
x. 13. : "Jacob have I loved, and Esau have I hated," the words of
which exactly agree with the LXX., although their original meaning
in Mai. i. 2, 3., whence they are taken, has to do, not with the indi
viduals Jacob and Esau, but with the natives of Edom and Israel :
the cento of quotations in Rom. iii. descriptive of the wickedness of
the Psalmist s enemies, or of those who were the subjects of the pro
phetical denunciations, which are transferred by the Apostle to the
world in general (compare Justin Dial. c. 27. n. 6., where several of
the quotations occur in the same order); Rom. xii. 20. : "Therefore
if thine enemy hunger, feed him ; if he thirst, give him drink ; for
in so doing thou shalt heap coals of fire on his head," the words of
which are exactly quoted from the LXX. (Prov. xxv. 21, 22.),
though the meaning given to them is ironical ; for which reason the
succeeding clause, " But the Lord shall reward thee," which would
have destroyed the irony, is omitted.
iii. What may be termed latent or unacknowledged quotations
vary in extent from whole verses down to single words ; there are
instances in which mere resemblances of form may be traced, with
no word the same. A remarkable example of an entire verse which
is thus quoted is furnished by the application of Prov. xxv. 21, 22.
(Rom. xii. 20., " Therefore if thine enemy," &c.), already referred to.
A few words are traceable in Eph. v. 30., also affording a good instance
of what may be termed the spiritualisation of the natural or physical
language of the Old Testament. Gen. ii. 23., xxix. 14. : TOVTO vvv
OGTOVV IK T&V doreW pov, Kal ffapl- SK rfJQ arapKoe fjiov; so of Christians,
fJieXr) eorfjiev rov ffa)fj.aro avrov, IK rijc (rapKog avrov Koi EK T&V dorewj
avrov. So 1 Cor. x. 20., after Deut. xxxii. 17. ; Ephes. i. 22. (com
pare 1 Cor. xv. 27, 28.), taken from Ps. viii. 6. ; and without any
change of meaning, Eph. iv. 26., from Ps. iv. 4. In like manner, Eph.
ii. 13 17. contains a remembrance of Is. Ivii. 19. ; Eph. vi. 14. 17. of
Is. lix. 17. A single word, 6 o^tc r/Tran/o-e yue, Gen. iii. 13. (which is
QUOTATIONS FROM TIlE OLD TESTAMENT. 413
also quoted 2 Cor. xi. 3), has probably left a trace of itself in the
personification of sin, Rom. vii. 11. : rj apapTia e^rjirarriae pe . . . KUI
cureKretve. The verses 2 Cor. vi. 9. 11. contain two examples of
verbal allusion. The slightest thread is enough to form a con
nection. In 2 Cor. xiii. 1., eVt arofjiaTog Svo fjiapTvpcjv Kal rpiwv
ffradfiaeTai TTO.V pfjpct, the association which leads the Apostle s mind
to the quotation (from Deut. xix. 15. : compare Matt, xviii. 16. ;
John, viii. 17.) seems to be only the word rjoe/c, arising out of the
circumstance that he has mentioned just before that he is coming to
them for the third time. 1 Cor. v. 13. offers another example of
the use of the language of the LXX. (Deut. xxii. 24.), in which
the Apostle clothes a command to the Church. The verse 1 Cor.
xv. 32., "Let us eat and drink, for to-morrow we die," is taken
word for word from Isaiah, xxii. 13. ; and in the same chapter
the words, " O death, where is thy sting ? O grave, where is thy
victory?" (vers. 55, 56.), with almost verbal exactness, from Hosea,
xiii. 14.
iv. Once more. In a few passages the Apostle, after the manner
of his time, has recourse to allegory. These are : 1. the allegory of
the woman who had lost her husband, in Rom. vii. (compare Gal.
iv. 1 3., which is supported by Is. liv. 1.); 2. Of the children of
Israel in the wilderness, in 1 Cor. x. ; 3. Of Hagar and Sarah, in
Gal. iii. ; 4. Of the veil on the face of Moses, in 2 Cor. iii. ; 5. Abra
ham himself, who is a kind of centre of allegory, the actions of whose
life, as well as the promises of God to him, are symbols of the
coming dispensation ; 6. The history of the .patriarchs, and cutting
short of the house of Israel, in Rom. ix. x. Of these examples, the
first, third, and fourth are what we should term illustrations ; while
the second, fifth, and sixth have not merely an analogous or meta
phorical meaning, but a real inward connection with the life and
state of the first believers.
A few general results of an examination of the quotations from
the Old Testament in St. Paul s Epistles may be summed as fol
lows :
414 EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS.
1. The number of direct quotations in which reference is made to
the original is about 87, of which about 53 are found in the Epistle
to the Romans, 15 in 1 Corinthians, 6 in 2 Corinthians, 10 in Gala-
tians, 2 in Ephesians, 1 in 1 Timothy. Of these nearly half show a
precise verbal agreement with the LXX. ; while, of the remaining
passages, at least two thirds exhibit a degree of verbal similarity
which can only be accounted for by an acquaintance with the LXX.
Minuter traces of the Old Testament language are far more nume
rous.
2. None of these passages offer any certain proof that the Apostle
was acquainted with the Hebrew text.* That he must have been
so can hardly be doubted ; yet it seems improbable that he could
have had a familiar knowledge of the original without straying into
parallelisms with the Hebrew, in those passages in which it varies
from the LXX. His acquaintance with the Hebrew was probably
of such a kind as we might acquire of a version of the Scriptures not
in the vernacular. No Englishman incidentally quoting the English
version from memory would adapt it to the Greek, though he might
very probably adapt the Greek to the English. The inference is,
that the Greek and not the Hebrew text must have been to the Apo
stle what the English version is to ourselves.
3. While many of these quotations are introduced, as we have
already seen, without any acknowledgment in the" New Testament,
a few others, as for example, Rom. xii. 19., 1 Cor. xv. 45., are
hardly, if at all, discernible in the text of the Old. The familiarity
with the Old Testament which has led to the first of these two phe
nomena is probably also the cause of the second. As the words
suggest themselves unconsciously, so the spirit without the words
occasionally comes into the Apostle s mind ; or the language and
spirit of different passages blend in one.
4. There is no evidence that the Apostle remembered the verbal
connection in which any of the passages quoted by him originally
* Compare Bom. ix. 7., x. 15.. 1 Cor. ii. 9., as the best instances on the other
side ; they do not, however, disprove the truth of the remark.
QUOTATIONS FROM THE OLD TESTAMENT. 415
occurred. He isolates them wholly from their context ; he reasons
from them as he might from statements of his own, "going off upon
a word," as it has been called, in one instance almost upon a letter
(Gal. iii. 16.), drawing inferences which in strict logic can hardly be
allowed, often extending the meaning of words beyond their first
and natural sense. There is nothing to distinguish his use of quota
tions from that of his age, except greater power and life ; he clings
more than his contemporaries to the spirit and less to the letter, his
inaccuracy about the latter arising in some instances from his feeling
for the spirit.
5. There is no reason to think that the Apostle ever quotes from
apocryphal writings, nor could it be gathered from the language of
his Epistles that he was acquainted with the works of classical
authors. Similarities are found with apocryphal writings ; but they
are all explainable on the supposition of a common source. Three
or four verses from Greek poets also occur in the Acts and Epistles ;
these, however, are common and proverbial expressions, which the
Apostle might very well have known without having been read in
the works of Aratus, Epimenides, Euripides, or Menander.
6. Vestiges of Old Testament language are so numerous, as to
admit of an argument from their occurrence to the genuineness of
the Epistles. If the same interpenetration of new and old phraseo
logy occurs in the Epistle to the Ephesians that we find in the
Epistles to the Romans, Corinthians, and the Galatians, here is con
siderable reason for supposing that they are writings of the same
author, or at any rate of the same date. A new argument from
coincidence arises, for no one would imagine that it could have
occurred to a forger of a later age to imitate the manner in which
St. Paul used the language of the LXX. The argument is only
suggested ; it requires careful consideration to enable an estimate
to be formed of its exact value. It certainly applies, however, with
some force, to the Epistle to the Ephesians, in which there are very
few traces of direct citation, but many of verbal resemblances.
7. The study of the quotations from the Old Testament draws
416 EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS.
attention to the knowledge which the Apostle must have had of the
Greek Scriptures. It is hardly possible to exaggerate the minute
ness of this acquaintance. In the greater number of quotations he is
verbally accurate. Hence, we may also infer that it is not from
want of memory that he disregards the connection. His writings
teem with the phraseology of the Psalms and the Prophets. They
suggest his thoughts, they are his weapons of controversy, they
supply him with words and expressions as well as with a " form of
truth." The Greek Old Testament Scriptures are not only sacred
books to him, they are also his language and literature. What are
often termed the Hebraisms of the Apostle are, for the most part, if
not always, Hellenisms; that is to say, Hebraisms contracted
through the influence of the LXX.
Lastly, It may be asked whether St. Paul regarded these texts of
Scripture as prophecies or accommodations, as illustrations or argu
ments, as types or figures of speech, as designed or undesigned coin
cidences ? The answer is, that such distinctions had no place in his
mind ; to attribute them to him is a logical anachronism. He did
not say to himself : This was designed, that undesigned ; this is an
illustration, that an argument. He adopted what appeared to his
own mind a natural form of expression, what he conceived would
convey his meaning to others. His own language and that of the
psalmists and prophets are bound together by him in various ways:
1.) Often (as we have already seen) whole verses of the Old
Testament are latent in the Epistle, without note or sign.
2.) In other passages they are preceded by fcaflwe ytypcnrrai : ri
\iyti fj ypa.(f>{] ; At yei r; ypct(f>f] : Kadatrep MwaJ/e \eyei. David, Isaiah,
Elijah, Hosea, are also cited by name.
3.) A stronger formula is found in Gal. in. 8. : Trpo itiovffa e f}
rj ; and one more emphatic still in 1 Cor. x. 11.: ravra e
ffvvtflaivov tKftVoic, lypatyr) c)e TrpOQ vovdeffiav fjfjL&i , els
Kari]VTr}K.
417
ST. PAUL AND THE TWELVE.
THE narrative of the second chapter of the Epistle to the Galatians
suggests an inquiry, which lies at the foundation of all inquiries into
the earliest history of the Church : "In what relation did St. Paul
stand to the Apostles at Jerusalem ? " To which inquiry three
answers may be given : (1.) the answer which identifies the preach
ing of St. Paul and the Twelve ; or, (2.) which opposes them ; or,
(3.) which is between the two, admitting a degree of unity, yet
allowing also for great differences of external circumstances and
individual character. The first answer is that which would be
gathered from the Acts of the Apostles, which offer only the
picture of an unbroken harmony ; a view to which the Church in
after ages naturally inclined, and which may be said to be carica
tured in the explanation of Origen and Chrysostom, that the dispute
between the Apostles at Antioch was a concerted fiction. Secondly,
the answer which would be supplied by the Clementine homilies, in
which St. Paul sustains the character of Simon Magus, and St.
Peter is the Apostle of the Gentiles ; such an answer as might pro
bably have been drawn from the writings (had they been preserved
to us) of Marcion, by whom St. Paul in turn was magnified to the
exclusion of the Twelve ; which falls in also with the conclusions of
an extreme school of modern critics, who maintain the Acts of the
Apostles to have been written in the second century, with a view of
concealing the differences in which the Church began. The third
answer is that which we believe would be drawn from an impartial
examination of the Epistles of St. Paul himself, the only contem
porary documents : " Independence of each other in their ministry
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418 EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS.
and apostleship ; antagonism of the followers, and on one or two
occasions of the leaders also ; some difference of spirit, together
with great personal hostility on the part of the Judaizers to St. Paul,
but not of St. Paul to the Twelve."
The question to which these three answers have been given im
plies a further inquiry into the relation of Jew and Gentile, of the
preaching of the Gospel of the uncircumcision to that of circumcision.
If in the second century these distinctions yet survived, if animosi
ties against St. Paul were burning still, if a party without the
Church ranged itself under his name, if later controversies have
anything in common with that first difference, if in the earliest
ecclesiastical history we find a silence respecting the person and an
absence of the spirit of St. Paul, it is natural to connect these cir
cumstances with the record of the Apostle himself, that on a great
occasion the other Apostles "added nothing to him;" and that at
Antioch, which was his own sphere, he withstood Peter to the face.
In the personal narrative of the Epistle to the Galatians, we seem
to recognise the germ of what reappears afterwards as the history of
the Church. And had no memorial remained, had there been no
hint anywhere dropped of divisions between St. Paul and the Twelve,
no record of Judaizing heresies, we should feel that some account
was wanting of the manner in which circumcision became uncircum
cision, and the Jew was lost in the Gentile. Probably, we might
conjecture, not in all places with equal readiness, nor equally after
and before the destruction of Jerusalem or the revolt under Adrian,
nor without imparting some elements of the law to the Gospel, nor,
in accordance with the general laws of human nature, without a
certain violence of party and opinion.
Events of the greatest importance in the annals of mankind are
not always seen to be important, until the hour for preserving them*
is past. There is a time before biography passes into history, when
a society has not yet learned to register its acts, and individuals have
not awoke to the consciousness of national or ecclesiastical life. In
this intermediate period, events the most fruitful in results may lie
ST. PAUL AKD THE TWELVE. 419
buried (the unfolding of the germ in the bosom of the earth is not the
least part of the growth of the plant) ; they may also be reproduced in
a new form and their spirit misunderstood by the imperfect know
ledge of after ages. Two or three centuries elapse ; documents are
lost or tampered with, or confused ; there is no eye of criticism to
penetrate their meaning. The historian has " the veil upon his face"
of a later generation ; he cannot see through the events, institutions,
opinions in the circle of which he lives. Who can tell what went
on in a " large upper room" about the year 40 ? which may, never
theless, have had great consequences for the world and the Church.
Who, when Christianity was triumphant in the fourth century,
would comprehend the simple ways and thoughts of believers in the
first ? Nor is there anything more likely to be misunderstood, than
the differences between the first teachers of a religion, and the dis
putes of their respective followers, about a matter of discipline or
doctrine which has passed away. The transition may be too gradual
to be observed while it is going on. Literature is of a later date ;
beginning when the Church has already arrived at its full stature,
it cannot describe the stages of its infancy and growth. In the
extreme distance the objects of earth are no longer distinguishable
from the clouds of heaven.
These are the reasons why, in the consideration of our present
subject, there is so much room for speculation and for conjecture ;
why the result of so many books is so small ; why there is endless
criticism, and very little history. The materials are slender, and the
light by which they are seen is too feeble to enable us to combine or
construct them. They cannot be left as they are on the page of
Scripture (the human mind has no hold upon flat surfaces) ;
least of all, can they be put together on the pattern of ecclesiastical
tradition. Church history, like other history, may be made to
acquire a deceitful unity ; it may gather to itself form and feature ;
it may convey a harmonious impression, which, from its internal
consistency, it is sometimes difficult to resist. The philosophy of
history readily weaves the tangle, developing the progress of opi-
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420 EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS.
nions and connecting together causes and effects ; but the unity
which is created by it is artificial. Some other combination may be
equally possible. Tradition, on the other hand, has a natural unity ;
but only the unity of idea, which a later age gives to the past. It
tells what an after generation thought that a former one ought to
have been. It embodies a sort of corporate or national belief in the
past. Its continuity is unbroken, and therefore no suspicion arises
that the first link is really wanting.
Many causes combine to produce a singular illusion in reference
to the Church of the Apostolic age. There is the temptation to
look back to a time when human nature was better than it is, when
virtue and brotherly love were not a dream only, when the ideal
had a dwelling among men. The times of the Apostles are the
golden age of the Church, in which, without " spot, or wrinkle, or
any such thing," it came from the hands of its Divine Author the
New Jerusalem descending from heaven, arrayed in a portion of
that glory with which prophecy clothed it. The old always seems
to be better than the new in religion ; and the sacredness which we
attribute to the first century insensibly overshadows the lives of
individuals. Institutions acquire a sort of fixedness from anti
quity ; feeling their value, we readily believe that they are of
Apostolic origin. What is familiar to us becomes distinct ; it is
impossible to doubt what is daily repeated in our ears. The ten
dency to error is increased by the circumstance, that in modern
as in ancient times we have made the first century the battle
field of our controversies. Instead of asking what was right, or
true, or probable, what was the spirit or mind of Christ, we have
constantly repeated the question, " What was the belief, constitution,
practice, of the primitive Church ?" a question which we had no
materials for answering, and which we had, also, the greatest tempt
ation to answer according to our own previous notion. There is
room enough in the unknown space for every denomination of
Christians to consecrate a temple and raise an altar. Churches, as
well as castles, may easily be built in the air. If we inquire
ST. PAUL AND THE TWELVE. 421
closely into the nature of many familiar conceptions about the
constitution of the Apostolic society, we shall find that they consist
of a sort of model of perfection invested with some of the externals
of Tertullian or of Augustine, and conforming in other respects to
the use and practice of our own time.
All history receives a colour from the age in which it is written.
This is the case with Ecclesiastical history even more than secular ;
it glows with the faith and feelings of the historian ; it reflects his
principles or convictions, it is sometimes embittered by his preju
dices. Eusebius, " the father of Ecclesiastical history," believing as
he did that the constitution of the Church which he saw around
him had existed from the first, was not likely to give a consistent
account of its origin or growth. Nor was it to be expected that he
should trace the history of doctrines, who, within the Church at
least, could have admitted of no doctrinal difference or development.
It was impossible for him to describe that of which he had no con
ception. Had he been disposed to write an accurate account of the
progress of the Christian faith in the first two centuries, the scanti
ness of his materials would have prevented him from doing so.
The antiquarian spirit had awoke too late to recover the treasures of
the past. Those who preceded him had a similar though less defi
nite impression of the first age, of which they knew so little, and
wrote in the same way. It would be an anachronism to expect that
he should sift critically the few cases in which the earlier authorities
witness against themselves. In point of judgement, he is about on a
level with the other " Father of History ; " that is to say, he is not
wholly destitute of critical power : yet his criticism is accidental
and capricious ; most often observable in the case of Ecclesiastical
writings, which his literary tastes led him to explore. But real
historical investigation is unknown to him. No resisting power of
inquiry prevents his acceptance of any facts which fell in with the
orthodox faith of his age, or seemed to afford a witness to it. Mira
cles are believed by him, not upon greater, but upon rather less
evidence than ordinary events. He catches, like Herodotus, at any
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422 EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS.
chance similarity, such as that bet-ween the first Christians and
the Therapeutae of Egypt, (ii. c. 17.) He feels no difficulty in
receiving the statement of Justin Martyr, that Simon Magus was
honoured at Rome under the title of the Holy God (Semo San-
cus) ; or the testimony of Tertullian, that the Emperor Tiberius
referred the worship of Christ to the senate. He sees the whole
history of the Church through the medium of that victory over
Paganism and heresy which he had witnessed in his own day. He
carries the struggle back into the previous centuries, in which he
finds almost nothing else but the conflict of the truth with heresy, and
the blood of martyrs the seed of the Church. No one can suppose
that the heresiarchs were such as he describes them, or that he has
truly seized the relation in which they stood to the primitive Church.
The language in which he denounces them is a sufficient evidence
that he could not have investigated with calmness the character of
the " wolf of Pontus," or the false prophet Montanus and his " rep
tile " followers. Though living at a distance of a century and a half,
he repeats and adopts the conventional abuse of their contemporary
adversaries.
Records of the earliest heretics have passed away ; no one of
them is fairly known to us from his own writings. Their names
have become a by-word among men ; at another tribunal we may
believe that many judgements passed upon them have been reversed.
The true history of the century which followed the withdrawal of
the Apostles has also perished, or is preserved only in fragmentary
statements. It is a matter of conjecture how the constitution of
the Church arose ; it is a parallel speculation, out of what simpler
elements the earliest liturgies were compiled. But it does not follow
that nothing happened in an age of which we know nothing. The
least philosophy of history suggests the reflection that in the primi
tive Church there must have existed all the varieties of practice
belief, speculation, doctrine, which the different circumstances of
the converts, and the different natures of men acting on those
circumstances, would be likely to produce. The Church acquired
ST. PAUL AND THE TWELVE. 423
unity in its progress through the world ; it was more scattered
and undisciplined at first than it afterwards became. Even the
Apostles do not work together in the spirit of an order ; they and
their followers are not an army "set under authority," of which
the leaders say to one man " come, and he cometh," and to
another "go, and he goeth." The Church of the Apostles may be
compared more truly to "the wind blowing where it listeth." or even
to " the lightning shining from one part of the heaven to the other.
Paul and Barnabas and Apollos, and even Priscilla and Aquila,
have their separate ways of acting ; they walk in different paths ;
they do not attempt to control one another. Whatever caution is
observable in their mode of dealing with each other s spheres of
labour is a matter of courtesy, not of ecclesiastical discipline. It is
not certain, perhaps on the whole improbable, that those who came
from James to Antioch (Gal. ii. 12.) represented the community at
Jerusalem, There is no Church which claims to be the metropolis of
other Churches ; nor any subordination within the several Churches
to a single authority. The words of the Epistle to the Ephesians
(iv. 11.), "He gave some apostles, and some prophets, and some
evangelists, and some pastors and teachers," are hardly reconcil
able either with three orders of clergy, or with the distinction of
clergy and laity. They describe a state of the Church in which
there was less of system and more of impulse than at a later period ;
in which " all the Lord s people were prophets," and natural or
spiritual gifts became offices "in the beginning of the Gospel."
Compare Rom. xii. 6. ; 1 Cor. xii. 28, 29.
Leaving these introductory considerations, we will return to the
subject out of which they arose, the difference of St. Paul and the
Twelve, " the little cloud no bigger than a man s hand," the sign of
the coming storm which darkened the face of the Church and the
world.
The narrative of this difference is contained in the second chapter
of the Epistle to the Galatians. The Apostle begins by asserting
his Divine commission and independence of human authority ; he
E E 4
424 EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS.
was an Apostle "not of man nor by man," and there was no other
Gospel but that which he preached. After a few words of rebuke,
he touches on such points in his personal history as tended to show
that he had no connexion with the Twelve. It was not by their
ministry that he was converted ; and, after his conversion, he had
seen them only twice ; once for so short a time that he was unknown
at that period to the Churches of Judea ; on the latter of the two
occasions, they had " added nothing to him " in a conference about
circumcision. Afterwards, at Antioch, when Peter showed a dis
position to retrace his steps at the instigation of certain who came
from James, he withstood him to the face, and rebuked his incon
sistency, even though his helper Barnabas and all the other Jews
were against him. The reason for narrating this is to show, not
how nearly the Apostle agreed with the Twelve, but how entirely
he maintained his ground, meeting them on terms of freedom and
equality.
There are features in this narrative which indicate a hostile, as
there are other features which indicate also a friendly, bearing in the
two parties who are here spoken of. Among the firSt may be classed
the mention of false brethren, " who came in to spy out our liberty
in Christ Jesus." Were they Jews or Christians ? and how came
they to be present, if the Apostles at Jerusalem could have pre
vented them ? In a remarkable passage of the Acts of the Apostles
(xxi. 20, 21.) the believers at Jerusalem are spoken of as a great
multitude " all zealous for the law," which leads to the inference
that their profession and way of life were not inconsistent with
Jewish customs : living as they were under the eye of the chief
priests, this could hardly have been otherwise ; there could have been
no strong line of demarcation between Jews and Jewish Christians
at Jerusalem. The tone of the narrative implies further, that
the other Apostles scarcely resisted the false brethren, but left
the battle to be fought by St. Paul. The second point which tends
to the unfavourable inference is, the manner in which the Apostles
of Jerusalem are spoken of " those who seemed to be somewhat,
ST. PAUL AND THE TWELVE. 425
whatsoever they were, it makcth no matter to me;" ol
cli/cu re, ver. 6., who are shown by the form of the sentence to be
the same as ol SOKOVVTEQ orvXot EIJ CU, in ver. 9. Thirdly, the distinc
tion of the Gospels of the circumcision and uncircumcision, which
was not merely one of places, but of teaching also. Fourthly, the
use of the words (vTroKptais) " hypocrisy " and (/careyrwer/^Vos) " con
demned," in reference to Peter s conduct ; and, lastly, in ver. 12.,
the mention of certain who came from James, under whose influence
the Apostle supposed Peter to have acted ; which raises the suspicion
of a regular opposition to St. Paul, acting in concert with the heads
of the Church at Jerusalem. At the meeting, the other Apostles
had been determined by the fact, that a Church had grown up ex
ternal to them, which was its own witness.
This is one way in which the record of the second chapter of the
Galatians may be read. Yet, there are gentler features also, which
must not be omitted, and which restore us more nearly to our pre
vious conception of the Apostolic Church. In the first place, there
is no appearance here, or anywhere in the Epistles, of an open
schism between St. Paul and the Twelve. Secondly, the differences
are not of such a nature as to preclude the Church of Jerusalem
from receiving, or the Apostle from giving, the alms of the Gentiles.
Thirdly, the expression, ol ZOKOVVTFQ di>ai rt, " who seemed to be
somewhat/ although ironical, is softened by what follows, ol ^OKOVVTEQ
elyai orvAot, "who seemed to be pillars," in which the Apostle ex
presses the greatness and dignity of the Twelve in their separate
field of labour. Lastly, the interview enda with an arrangement
which shows the goodwill of the Apostle St. Paul to his poor fellow-
Christians at Jerusalem, and the unwillingness of the Twelve to
interfere with a work for which " they gave glory to God " (Acts,
xi. 18.), or of St. Paul himself " to build upon another man s
foundation " (Rom. xv. 20.).
But after thus balancing the question on either side (and it is
probable that the spirit of the second chapter of the Galatians will
be differently seized by different minds), we naturally turn over the
426 EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS.
pages of the other Epistles of St. Paul to collect the intimations
which occur elsewhere on the same subject. Let us endeavour to
replace the passage in what may be termed the context of the
Apostolical age. Is it a mere accident, happening once only,
that the Twelve and St. Paul met and had a partial difference ?
or is the difference alluded to an indication of a greater and more
radical difference in the Church itself, which is partially reflected
in the persons of its leaders ? We might be disposed to answer
"yes" to the first alternative, were the first two chapters of the
Galatians all that remained to us ; we are compelled to say " yes "
to the second, when we extend our view to other parts of Scripture.
Everywhere in the Epistles of St. Paul we find traces of an oppo
sition between the Jew and Gentile, the circumcision and the uncir-
cumcision. It is found, not only in the Epistle to the Galatians, but
in a scarcely less aggravated form in the two Epistles to the Corin
thians, softened indeed and generalised in the Epistle to the Romans,
and still distinctly traceable in the Epistle to the Philippians ; the
party of the circumcision appearing to triumph in Asia, at the close
of the Apostle s life, in the second Epistle to Timothy. In all these
Epistles we have proofs of a reaction to Judaism, but, though they
are addressed to Churches chiefly of Gentile origin, never of a
reaction to heathenism. Could this have been the case, unless within
the Church itself there had been a Jewish party urging upon the
members of the Church the performance of a rite repulsive in itself
if not as necessary to salvation, at any rate as a counsel of perfection ;
seeking to make them, in Jewish language, not merely proselytes of
the gate, but proselytes of righteousness ? What, if not this, is the
reverse side of the Epistles of St. Paul ? that is to say, the motives,
object, or basis of teaching of his opponents, who came with " epistles
of commendation" to the Church of Corinth (2 Cor. iii. 1.); who
profess themselves " to be Christ s " in a special sense (2 Cor. x. 7.) ;
who say they are of Apollos, or Cephas, or Christ (1 Cor. i. 12.),
or James (Gal. ii. 12.) ; who preach Christ of contention (Phil. i.
15. 17.); who deny St. Paul s authority (1 Cor. ix. L, Gal. iv. 16.);
ST. PAUL AND THE TWELVE. 427
who slander his life (1 Cor. ix. 3. 7.). We meet these persons at
every turn. Are they the same, or different? Are they chance
opponents ? or do they represent to us one spirit, one mission, one
determination to root out the Apostle and his doctrine from the
Christian Church ?
The epistolary form of St. Paul s writings, and the tendency
to lose sight of their marked characteristics in the more general
picture of the Acts of the Apostles, have concealed from view the fact
that there was a continuous opposition to him, commencing pre
viously to his second missionary journey, and lasting down to the
period of the riot at Jerusalem which led to his imprisonment. It is
also evident that this hostility is not equally felt towards the Apostles
at Jerusalem ; for it arrays itself under their authority. Not only
in the second chapter of the Epistle to the Galatians, but in the
Epistle to the Corinthians also (2 Cor. xi. 5., xii. 11.), St. Paul
seems to assert himself against the Twelve. He fears that his
relation to them will be misconceived ; he knows the magic power
of Judaism which appeals to the names of some of them. Though
the Corinthian as well as the Galatian Church was in some sense
a Gentile community, he never seems to be in the least degree
apprehensive of a return to "dumb idols;" what he fears is the
enforcement of circumcision, the observance of days and weeks, the
loss of the freedom of the Gospel. And the opponents, on whom
he pours forth his indignation, are at once heathens and also
Judaizing Christians. Still the question recurs, In what relation
did these Jewish Christians stand to the Apostles at Jerusalem ?
Let us gather up the fragments that remain in the Acts of the
Apostles.
That in the beginning the elements of a division existed in the
Christian society appears from the murmuring of the Grecians
against the Hebrews, for the neglect of their widows in the daily
ministration, which led to the appointment of the seven deacons.
Indeed, they may be said to have pre-existed in the Jewish and
Gentile world ; even among those who were called by a holier name
428 EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS.
than that of country, differences of race did not wholly disappear.
A first epoch in the history of the division is marked by the death
of Stephen, which scattered a portion of the Church, whom the
circumstance of their persecution, as well as their dispersion in
foreign countries, would tend to alienate from the observance of the
Jewish law. A second epoch is distinguished by the preaching of
St. Paul at Antioch ; immediately after which we are informed that
the disciples were first called Christians. Then follows the Council,
the more exact account of which is supplied by the Epistle to the
Galatians, to which, however, one point is added in the narrative of
the Acts, the mention of certain who came from Jerusalem to
Antioch, saying, " Except ye be circumcised, ye cannot be saved."
Passing onwards a little, we arrive at the address of St. Paul to the
elders of the Church of Ephesus (Acts, xx. 29, 30.), which seems to
allude to the same alienation from himself which had actually taken
place in the second Epistle to Timothy (2 Tim. i. 15.). At length
we come to St. Paul s last journey to Jerusalem, and his interview
with James, which was the occasion on which, by the advice of
James, he took a vow upon him, in hope of calming the apprehen
sions of the multitude of " the many thousand Jews who believed
and were all zealous for the law," in which passage express reference
is made to the decree of the Council. These leading facts are inter
spersed with slighter notices, which rather arouse than gratify our
curiosity. Such are the words " of the re&t durst no man join
himself to them" (Acts, v. 13.), touching the way of life of the
Apostles ; " a great company of the priests were obedient unto the
faith " (vi. 7.) ; " they that were scattered abroad upon the persecu
tion of Stephen, preached the word to Jews only " (viii. 4.) ; the
moderate counsels of Gamaliel (v. 34 40.) ; the priority attributed
to James in Acts, xii. 17. (" Go shew these things to James and
the brethren ") ; the mention of the alms brought by Barnabas and
Saul to Jerusalem in the days of Claudius Caesar (xi. 29.) ; the men
tion also in Acts, xv. 5., of certain of the sect of the Pharisees which
believed. Such is the declaration of St. Paul himself at a later
ST. PAUL AND THE TWELVE. 429
period, that he is a Pharisee " (Acts, xxiii. 6.). Nor is it without
significance that in the discussion of this question of the admission of
the Gentiles, no reference is made to the command of the Gospels,
"Go and baptize all nations;" and that nowhere are the other
Apostles described as at variance with the Jewish Christians ; nor
in the later history of the Acts as suffering persecution from the
Jews, or as sharing in the persecution of St. Paul. For twenty
years after the death of Herod Agrippa the Church of Jerusalem
seems to have had rest ; scattered by persecution in its first days,
and remaining unmolested a t a later period, though increasing in
numbers and under the immediate control of the Sanhedrim, it had
apparently ceased to incur their enmity or arouse their jealousy.
Many doubts and possibilities arise in our minds respecting the
age of the Apostles when we look on the picture " through a micro
scope," and dwell on those points which are commonly unnoticed.
We are tempted to frame theories and reconstructions, which are
better, perhaps, represented by queries. Did those who remained
behind in the Church regard the death of the martyr Stephen with
the same feelings as those who were scattered abroad ? or was he
in their eyes only what James the Just appeared to be to the
historian Josephus ? Were the Apostles at Jerusalem one in heart
with the brethren at Antioch ? Were the teachers who came from
Jerusalem to Antioch saying, " Except ye be circumcised, ye cannot
be saved," commissioned by the Twelve ? Were the Twelve ab
solutely at one among themselves ? Are the " commendatory
epistles " spoken of in the Epistle to the Corinthians, to be ascribed
to the Apostles at Jerusalem ? Can " the grievous wolves," whose
entrance into the Church of Ephesus the Apostle foresaw, be other
than the Judaizing teachers? Were "the multitude" of believing
Jews, who were all zealous for the law, and liable to be quickened
in their zeal for it by the very sight of St. Paul, engaged in the
tumult which follows ? Lastly, how far does the narrative of the
Acts convey the lively impression of contemporaries, how far the
recollections of another generation ? These questions cannot have
430 EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS.
detailed answers ; to raise them, however, is not without use, for
they make us regard the facts in many points of view ; they afford a
help in the prosecution of the main inquiry, " What was the relation
of St. Paul to the Twelve ?"
If we conceive of the Apostles as exercising a strict and definite
rule over the multitude of their converts, living heads of the
Church as they might be termed, Peter or James of the circumcision
and Paul of the uncircumcision, it would be natural to connect
them with the acts of their followers. One would think that, in
accordance with the spirit of the concordat, they should have " de
livered over to Satan" the opponents of St. Paul, rather than have
lived in communion and company with them. To hold out the right
hand of fellowship to Paul and Barnabas, and yet secretly to sup
port or not to discountenance their enemies, would seem to be
treachery to their common Master. Especially when we observe
how strongly the Judaizers are characterised by St. Paul as " the
false brethren who came in unawares," " the false Apostles trans
forming themselves into Apostles of Christ," "grievous wolves
entering in," and with what bitter personal weapons they assailed
him. (1 Cor. ix. 3 7.) Indeed, the contrast between the vehe
mence with which St. Paul treats his Judaizing antagonists, and the
gentleness or silence which he preserves towards the Apostles at
Jerusalem, is a remarkable circumstance.
It may be questioned whether the whole difficulty does not arise
from a false conception of the authority of the Apostles in the early
Church. Although the first teachers of the word of Christ, they
were not the rulers of the Catholic Church ; they were not its
bishops but its prophets. The influence which they exercised was
personal rather than official, derived doubtless from their " having
seen the Lord," and from their appointment by Him, yet confined
also to a comparatively narrow sphere ; it was exercised in places in
which they were, but hardly extended to places where they were
not. The Gospel grew up around them they could not tell how ;
and the spirit which their preaching first awakened passed out of
ST. PAUL AND THE TWELVE. 431
their control. They seemed no longer to be the prime movers, but
rather the spectators of the work of God, which went on before
their eyes. The thousands of Jews that believed and were zealous
for the law would not lay aside the garb of Judaism at the bidding
of James or Peter ; the false teachers of Corinth or of Ephesus
would not have been less likely to gain followers, had they been
excommunicated by the Twelve. The movement which, in twenty
years from the death of Christ, had spread so widely over the earth,
they did not seek to reduce to rule and compass. It was beyond
their reach, extending to communities of the circumstances of which
they were hardly informed, and in which, therefore, it was not to be
expected that they should interfere between St. Paul and his
opponents.
The Apostolic name acquired a sacredness in the second century
which was unknown to it in the first. We must not attribute
either to the persons or to the writings of the Apostles the authority
with which after ages invested them. No Epistle of James and Paul
was received by those to whom it was sent, like the Scriptures of
the Old Testament, as the Word of God. Nor are they quoted in the
same manner with books of the Old Testament before the time of
Irenseus. We might have imagined that every Church would have
preserved an unmistakable record of its lineage and descent from
some one of the Twelve. But so far is this from being the case,
that no connexion can be traced certainly, between the Gentile
Churches of the second century and that of Jerusalem in the first
Jerusalem was not the metropolis of all Churches, but one among
many ; acknowledged, indeed, by the Gentile Christians with affection
and gratitude, but not prescribing any rule, or exercising authority
over them.
The moment we think of the Church, not as an ecclesiastical or
political institution, but, as it was in the first age, a spiritual body,
that is to say, a body partly moved by the Spirit of God, dependent
also on the tempers and sympathies of men swayed to and fro
by religious emotion, the perplexity solves itself, and the narrative
432 EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS.
of Scripture becomes truthful and natural. When the waves are
high, we see but a little way over the ocean. The first fervour of
religious feeling does not admit a uniform level of Church govern
ment. It is not a regular hierarchy, but " some apostles, some pro
phets, some evangelists, others pastors and teachers," who grow
together " into the body of Christ." The description of the early
Church in the Epistles everywhere implies a great freedom of indi
vidual action. Apollos and Barnabas are not under the guidance
of Paul ; those " who were distinguished among the Apostles before
him," could hardly have owned his authority. No attempt is made
to bring the different Churches under a common system. We
cannot imagine any bond by which they could have been linked
together, without an order of clergy or form of Church government
common to them all ; this is not to be found in the New Testament.
It was hard to keep the Church at Corinth at unity with itself; it
would have been still harder to have brought it into union with
other Churches.
Of this fluctuating state of the Church, which was not yet addicted
to any one rule, we find another indication in the freedom, almost
levity , with which professing Christians embraced " traditions of
men." The attitude of the Church of Corinth towards the Apostle
was not that of believers in a faith "once delivered to the saints."
We know not whether Apollos was or was not a teacher of Alexan
drian learning among its members, or what was the exact nature of
" the party of Christ," 1 Cor. i. 12. But that heathen as well as
Jewish elements had found their way into the Corinthian community,
is intimated by the " false wisdom," and the sitting at meat in the
idol s temple. It is a startling question which is addressed to a
Christian Church : "How say some among you that there- is no re
surrection ?" (1 Cor. xv. 12.) It is not less startling that there should
have been fornication among them, such as was not even named
among the Gentiles. In the Church at Colossas again something
was suspected by the Apostle, probably half Jewish and half heathen
in its character, which he designates by the singular expression of a
ST. PAUL AND THE TWELVE. -433
"voluntary humility and worshipping of angels." And mention is
made in the Roman Church of those who preached Christ of envy
and strife, as well as those who preached Christ of peace and
goodwill. (Phil. i. 15.)
Amid such fluctuation and unsettlement of opinions we can
imagine Paul and Apollos, or Paul and Peter, preaching side by side
in the Church of Corinth or of Antioch, like Wesley and Whitfield
in the last century, or Luther and Calvin at the Reformation, with
a sincere reverence for each other, not abstaining from commenting
on or condemning each other s doctrine or practice, and yet also
forgetting their differences in their common zeal to save the souls of
men. Personal regard is quite consistent with differences of reli
gious belief; some of which, with good men, are a kind of form
belonging only to their outer nature, most of which, as we hope,
exist only on this side of the grave. We can imagine the followers
of such men incapable of acting in their noble spirit, with a feebler
sense of their high calling, and a stronger one of their points of dis
agreement ; losing the principle for which they were alike contend
ing in "oppositions of knowledge," in prejudice and personality.
And lastly, we may conceive the disciples of Wesley or of Whit-
field (for of the Apostles themselves we forbear to move the question)
reacting upon their masters and drawing them into the vicious circle
of controversy, disuniting them in their lives, though incapable of
making a separation between them.
Of such a nature the differences seem to have been which divided
St. Paul and the Twelve, arising, in some degree, from individual
character, but more from their followers and the circumstances of
their lives. They were differences which seldom brought them into
contact, and once or twice only into collision. It may have been,
"I unto the heathen, and they unto the circumcision;" and yet
St. Paul may have felt a deep respect for those " that seemed to be
pillars," while they acknowledged with thankfulness the success of
his labours. It is not necessary to suppose that the agreement of
VOL. I. F F
434 EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS.
the Council, the terms of which are differently described in Gala-
tians ii. and Acts xv., was minutely observed for a long period of
years. The instinct which animated the Jewish race made it im
possible that the Twelve should always be able to control their
followers, and unlikely that they themselves should wholly abstain
from sympathising with those who seemed to be joined to them
by the ties of nationality. Even at Jerusalem the " multitude zeal
ous for the law" were not to be swayed by the authority of James,
who accordingly exhorts St. Paul to " become to the Jews a Jew,"
that he might regain their confidence. Many things may have been
done by the zeal of professing adherents, of which it was impossible
for the Twelve to approve, which at a distance it was impossible for
them to repress. A party in the Church of Corinth sought to call
itself by their name, in opposition to that of St. Paul ; they added
nothing to St. Paul when the false brethren crept in unawares ;
they, or at least one of their number, sent messengers from Jerusa
lem to Antioch, at a critical moment in the dispute about circum
cision. And yet, both after and before this variance, St. Paul
had collected alms in the Gentile Churches for " the poor saints at
Jerusalem" (Acts, xi. 30.) ; among whom probably were some of
his own kinsmen (Acts, xxiii. 16.) ; and at a late period of his life,
some of his friends and followers in prison are described as " of the
circumcision" (Col. iv. 10, 11.).
Regarding the whole number of believers in Judea, in Greece, in
Italy, in Egypt, in Asia, as a fluctuating mass, of whom there were
not many wise, not many learned, not all governed by the maxims
of common prudence, needing many times to have the way of God
expounded to them more perfectly, and, from their imperfect know
ledge, arrayed against one another, subject to spiritual impulses,
and often mingling with the truth Jewish and sometimes heathen
notions, we seem to see the Twelve placed on an eminence above
them, acting upon them rather than governing them, retired from
the scene of St. Paul s labours, and therefore hardly coming into
conflict with him, either by word or by letter. They led a life such
ST. PAUL AND THE TWELVE. 435
as St. James is described as leading by Hegesippus *, " going up into
the temple at the hour of prayer," reverenced by a multitude of
* The narrative of Hegesippus quoted by Eusebius is the earliest considerable
fragment of Ecclesiastical History (about the year 160). It is as follows :
"But James, the brother of the Lord, who, as there were many of this name,
was surnamed the Just by all from the days of our Lord until now, received the
government of the Church with the Apostles. This Apostle was consecrated from
his mother s womb. He drank neither wine nor fermented liquors, and abstained
from animal food. A razor never came upon his head, he never anointed with oil,
and never used a bath. He alone was allowed to enter the Sanctuary. He never
wore woollen, but linen garments. He was in the habit of entering the temple
alone, and was often found upon his bended knees and interceding for the forgive
ness of the people, so that his knees became as hard as camels in consequence of his
habitual supplication and kneeling before God. And, indeed, on account of his
exceeding great piety he was called the Just, and Oblias (or Zaddick and Ozleam),
which signified justice and protection of the people, as the prophets declare con
cerning him. Some of the seven sects therefore of the people, mentioned by me
above in my Commentaries, asked him what was the door to Jesus ? And he
answered that he was the Saviour. From which some said that Jesus is the
Christ. But the aforesaid sects did not believe either a resurrection or that he was
coming to give to every one according to his works ; as many, however, as did
believe did so on account of James.
"As there were many, therefore, of the rulers that believed, there arose tumult
among the Jews, Scribes, and Pharisees, saying that there was danger that the
people would now expect Jesus as the Messiah.
"They came therefore together, and said to James, We entreat thee restrain the
people who are led astray after Jesus as if he were the Christ. We entreat thee
to persuade all that are coming to the Feast of the Passover rightly concerning
Jesus ; for we all have confidence in thee. For we and all the people bear thee
testimony that thou art Just, and thou respectest not persons.
" Persuade, therefore, the people not to be led astray by Jesus, for we and all
the people have great confidence in thee.
" Stand, therefore, upon a wing of the temple, that thou mayest be conspicuous
on high, and thy words may be easily heard by all the people ; for all the tribes
have come together on account of the Passover, with some of the Gentiles also.
" The aforesaid Scribes and Pharisees, therefore, placed James upon a wing of
the temple, and cried out to him, O thou just man, whom we ought all to believe,
since the people are led astray after Jesns that was crucified, declare to us what is
the door to Jesus that was crucified. And he answered with a loud voice, Why
do ye ask me respecting Jesus the Son of Man ? He is now sitting in the heavens,
on the right hand of Great Power, and is about to come on the clouds of heaven.*
" And as many were confirmed and glorified in this testimony of James, and
said, Hosanna to the son of David, these same Priests and Pharisees said to one
F F 2
436 EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS.
followers zealous for the law, themselves, like Peter, half-conscious
of a higher truth, and yet by their very position debarred from being
its ministers. At first " the doors were shut for fear of the Jews ;"
a short time afterwards they are spoken of as " continuing daily
with one accord in the temple praising God and having favour with
all the people." (Acts, ii. 47.) Then follows a temporary persecu
tion, in which the Apostles are taken by a guard before the council
" without violence, for they feared the people, lest they should have
been stoned." They are let go by the advice of Gamaliel, but pre
sently the persecution is renewed with increased fury ; after the
stoning of Stephen, Saul made " havock of the Church," and driving
out the disciples from Jerusalem, became the indirect cause of the
spread of the Gospel to Phrenice and Cyprus and Antioch. Once
again, about the year 44, the arm of Herod was put forth to please
the Jews, when he imprisoned Peter and slew James the brother of
John. But for above twenty years after this event, that is to say,
until the death of James the Just, there is no trace of the Church of
Jerusalem suffering from persecution; in the outrage on St. Paul the
other Apostles are not the objects of popular odium. The narrative of
Hegesippus, the words of James and the Elders (Acts, xxi. 20.), the
another, We have done badly in affording such testimony to Jesus, but let us go
up and cast him down, that they may dread to believe in him.
"And they cried out, Oh, oh, Justus himself is deceived. And they fulfilled
that which is written in Isaiah, Let us take aAvay the just, because he is offensive
to us ; wherefore they shall eat the fruit of their doings. (Isaiah, iii.) Going up,
therefore, they cast down the just man, saying to one another, Let us stone James
the Just. And they began to stone him, as he did not die immediately when cast
down ; but turning round, he knelt down, saying, * I entreat thee s O Lord God and
Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do. Thus they were stoning
him, when one of the priests of the sons of Rechab, a son of the Rechabites spoken
of by Jeremiah the Prophet, cried out, saying, * Cease; what are you doing ? Justus
is praying for you. And one of them, a fuller, beat out the brains of Justus with
the club that he used to beat out clothes.
" Thus he suffered martyrdom, and they buried him on the spot, where his
tombstone is still remaining by the temple.
" He became a faithful witness, both to Jews and Greeks, that Jesus is Christ.
Immediately after this Vespasian invaded and took Judea." H. E. ii. 21.
ST. PAUL AND THE TWELVE. 437
mere fact that "a great company of the priests were obedient to
the faith," or that at a later period there were a great multitude of
believers " all zealous for the law; "the still more general fact of
the existence of a Christian Church at Jerusalem, as far as we
know, unmolested; all these things tend to show that the first
Jewish Christians could not have been outwardly distinguishable
from their brethren. To the Jew himself they probably appeared
only as a Jewish sect within the pale of the covenant and the pro
mises, like the Pharisees or the Essenes. And at a later, as at an
earlier, period, it is likely that they would have been truly described
in the words of the Acts, as gathering in the temple and " having
favour with all the people."
But the Apostle St. Paul was called upon to labour in a wider
sphere ; perhaps also to do a higher work. There was no
temple or altar at which he served ; no difference of days, or
distinctions of meats and drinks, which he imposed on his Gentile
converts. The words, " Behold I, Paul, say unto you, that if
ye be circumcised Christ shall profit you nothing," would have
aroused a tumult in the courts of Jerusalem. They were the
strongest, almost the paradoxical, expression of that which was the
idea, the inspiration of his life the freedom of the Gospel. He
cast aside at once those national and political bands, which clung
like a second nature to the Jewish Church. Nothing short of a
moral principle could embrace the world, or deliver the Jew himself.
There have been reformers of mankind who have lived in their
appointed sphere, thinking the task sufficient of improving their
own lives and working by example only, not seeking to influence
opinion or reconstruct the institutions of their Church and country.
There have been others whose individual life seemed to themselves
to be bound up with the truth ; with whom the love of Christ has
been the symbol of a universal charity; who have sought to throw
down the narrower limits of party or creed, by a divine justice, one
and the same to all mankind. St. Peter and St. James are types
of the first class, living according to the commands of " those who
F F 3
438 EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS.
sat in Moses s seat," but not " doing after their works." St. Paul is
a type of the second, finding no rest for his soul until the Gospel
has been preached to all mankind; proclaiming faith without the
deeds of the law, not as a technical formula, but because " God
was not the God of the Jews only, but also of the Gentiles."
II. The inquiry into the relation in which St. Paul stood to the
Twelve expands into a further question respecting the Gospel which
they preached. " What was that form or aspect of Christian truth
which is termed by St. Paul the Gospel of the uncircumcision, as
contrasted with that of the circumcision " (Gal. ii. 7.), which he
speaks of in other places as "my Gospel"? (Rom. ii. 16., xvi. 25.)
Or, without insisting on the point of expressions which are some
what obscure, " What was the difference between the teaching of
St. Paul and the Twelve?" Was it one of doctrine or of practice,
of belief or of spirit ? Viewed as a matter of doctrine or belief the
difference was not great. So the Apostle himself seems to allow
when denouncing most strongly the Judaising teachers. All baptized
in the name of Christ, with whom the Twelve had walked while
He was upon earth, whose witnesses they were ; of whom too
St. Paul claimed to be a later witness (1 Cor. ix. l.J, as "one born
out of due time" (1 Cor. xv. 8.). It was the same Christ whom
they preached ; there was no dispute about this " false know
ledge " had not yet severed from reality the person of Jesus of
Nazareth. " Other foundation could no man lay than that is laid "
(1 Cor. iii. 11.), as the Apostle says to the Church at Corinth, though
he might build many superstructures. It was not " another Gospel,"
as he indignantly declares to the Church in Galatia (Gal. i. 7.), for
there was not, and could not be another. Or, according to another
manner of speaking (2 Cor. xi. 4.), it was still Jesus, though another
Jesus ; and the Spirit, though another Spirit. In the Church of
Rome, as the Apostle writes to the Philippians (Phil. i. 16.), there
were those who preached Christ of contention in which the Apostle
nevertheless rejoiced, as an honour to the name of Christ. These
last words have been already quoted for another object ; they may
ST. PAUL AND THE TWELVE. 439
be referred to once more with the view of showing the toleration of
St. Paul. They prove that he regarded not only the twelve Apostles,
but some, at least, of his Judaising opponents, as true though erring
preachers of the Word of Christ.
Gentile teachers of a later period, whom the Church branded as
heretical, as, for example, Marcion, who professed to follow St. Paul,
renounced the authority of the Old Testament. St. Paul himself
also renounces the authority of the Law. But he does not snap the
chain of Providence or of history ; the God of Abraham is with him
the God of the Gentiles also; to him, equally with the Twelve, the
Old Testament is the source of the New ; the Gospel which he
received from Christ he read over again in the Psalms and in the
Prophecies. It had been misunderstood or unknown " in the times
of that ignorance ; " it had now come to light. The same God, who
in these last days spoke to men by His Son, had at sundry times and
in divers manners spoken in years past to the Fathers by the
Prophets. Not the Old and New Testament, but the law, with its
burden on the conscience, and its questions respecting meats and
drinks, and new moons and sabbaths, contrasted with the Gospel.
Once more : besides the name of Christ and the connexion of the
Old and New Testament, another point common to St. Paul and the
Twelve was their expectation of the " day of the Lord." Nowhere
does the Apostle appear so much " a Hebrew of the Hebrews," as in
speaking of the invisible world. He opposes this world and the
next, as the times before and after the coming of the Messiah were
divided by the Jews themselves; he sees^them peopled with a
celestial hierarchy of good and evil angels. He is waiting for the
revelation of Antichrist and the manifestation of the Sons of God.
He is living like the other Apostles in the latter days ; all that has
preceded in Jewish history is leading up to the Advent of Christ.
Sudden conversion, miraculous signs, accompany the preaching
both of St. Paul and the Twelve. "The Holy Ghost fell upon them
as upon us at the beginning," might have been the description of
the Church of Corinth, or of Ephesus, no less than of the Church at
F F 4
440 EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS.
Jerusalem. And, as St. Paul says, in the Epistle to the Romans, in
reference to the admission of the Gentiles, " God is no respecter of
persons," Peter commences his address to Cornelius with the words,
" Of a truth I perceive God is no respecter of persons."
Admitting such points of agreement, the differences lie within
comparatively narrow limits ; they could not have related to any
thing that we should consider to be a fundamental article of the
Christian faith. The disciples or companions of St. Paul and the
Twelve may have felt a sympathy for or antipathy towards the
Alexandrian learning. The mere difference of language may have
made the same kind of separation between the Church at Jerusalem
and those founded by St. Paul, as divides the Old Testament from
the later Apocryphal Books. The interval between the three first
Gospels, or the Epistle of James and the Epistles of St. Paul, is also
a measure of the distance between the Apostle of the Gentiles and
the Apostles of the Circumcision. An ascetic mode of life may
have prevailed more or less among their respective followers. Place
alone probably had a great influence. Those who went up to the
Temple at the hour of prayer, who lived amid the smoke of the
daily sacrifices, could hardly have felt and thought and spoken as
the Apostle of the Gentiles, wandering through Greece and Asia,
from city to city, in barbarous as well as civilised countries ; they
at least could not have been expected to say, "Let no man judge
you of a New Moon or a Sabbath day." Remaining like our Lord
himself within the confines of Judea, there were many truths which
" James and the brethren " were not called upon to utter in the
same emphatic way as St. Paul.
Such are a few conjectures respecting the nature of the difference
which separated St. Paul from the Twelve. The point that is inde
pendent of conjecture is that it related to the obligation on the
Gentiles to keep the Mosaic Law. It is characteristic of the earliest
times of the Church, that the dispute referred to a matter of practice
rather than of doctrine. Long ere the Gospel was drawn out in a
system of doctrine, the difference between the spirit of Judaism and
ST. PAUL AND THE TWELVE. 441
Christianity was instinctively felt. Jewish prejudices were some
times too strong even in the mind of the Christian for the freedom
wherewith Christ had made him free. There had been an under
growth of Christianity in Judaism ; there was an overgrowth of
Judaism on Christianity. That all nations were to be baptized in
the name of Christ, and that there was to be one fold and one
Shepherd, had been determined by an authority from which there
was no appeal. But whether this extension of the borders of Israel
was to be for the glory of Israel, or whether Israel itself was to be
lost among " the nations," in what sense " the law was to be ful
filled," or " the temple destroyed," was still left veiled; and declara
tions apparently opposite, or the same declarations in opposite
senses, might be repeated on different sides. The general principle
was admitted in words, but in the application of it there was room
for difference of practice. Custom did not at once relax its hold.
Jewish pride desired to make the Gentiles proselytes of the gate
to draw them on, as a " counsel of perfection," to become proselytes
of righteousness by undergoing the rite of circumcision. Jewish
nationality fondly hoped that the Saviour of the world would first
" restore the kingdom to Israel."
III. Our inquiry reaches a third stage in what may be termed the
twilight of Ecclesiastical history that century after the withdrawal
of the Apostles of which we know so little ; the aching void of which
we are tempted to fill up with the image of the century which follows.
It would carry us too far out of our way to put together all the
doubtful indications which we find, within and without the Church,
of the character of this unknown time. Many powers were at work,
of which the names only have been preserved to after ages. Many
questions also arise respecting the genuineness of Patristic writings,
and the truth of events narrated in them. The " romance of heresy "
would be the mist of fiction, through which we should endeavour to
penetrate to the light. The origin of Episcopal government, which
has a sort of antagonism to heresy, would be one of the elements of
our uncertainty. The bearing of the Easter controversy would
442 EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS.
demand an investigation. Whether Ebionitism retained any of the
features of a primitive Jewish Christianity would also be a serious
inquiry. It would be necessary to mount up to a time when opinions,
which were afterwards called heresy, were latent in the Church
itself. We should have to form a criterion of the credibility of
Irenaeus, Clement, Tertullian, Origen. and Eusebius. But a subject
so wide is matter not for an essay but for a book ; it is the history
of the Church of the first two centuries. We must therefore narrow
our field of vision as much as possible, and content ourselves with
collecting a few general facts which have a bearing on our present
inquiry.
First among these general facts, is the ignorance of the third and
fourth centuries respecting the first, and earlier half of the second.
We cannot err in supposing that those who could add nothing to
what is recorded in the New Testament of the life of Christ and
His Apostles, had no real knowledge of lesser matters, as, for
example, the origin of Episcopacy. They could not understand,
they were incapable of preserving the memory of a state of the
Church which was unlike their own. The contemporaries of the
Apostles have nothing to tell of their lives and fortunes ; the next
generation is also silent ; in the third generation the license of con
jecture is already rife. No fact worth mentioning can be gathered
from the writings of the Apostolical Fathers. Irenseus, who lived
about fifty years later, and within a century of St. Paul, has not
added a single circumstance to what we gather from the New Tes
tament ; he has fallen into the well-known error of supposing that
our Lord was fifty years old at the time of his ministry ; he has
stated also that " Papias was John s hearer, and the associate of
Polycarp, though Papias himself, in the preface to his discourses, by
no means asserts that he was " hearer and eyewitness of the holy
Apostles " (Eus. H. E. iii. 39.) ; he has repeated as a discourse of
Christ s the fable of Papias respecting the bunches of grapes ; this
he would have literally interpreted. Justin, who was somewhat
earlier than Irenaeus, has given a measure of the knowledge and
ST. PAUL AND THE TWELVE. 443
criticism of his own age in the story of Simon Magus. Tertullian,
at the close of the next century, believed that the emperor Tiberius
had consulted the Roman senate respecting the worship of our Lord.
(Euseb. H. E. ii. 2.) Eusebius himself verified from the Archives
of Edessa the fabulous correspondence of Abgarus and Jesus, and
the miraculous narrative which follows. (H. E. i. 13.) In at least
half the instances in which we are able to test his quotations from
earlier writers, they exhibit some degree of inaccuracy or confusion.
It is hard to believe the statement of Polycrates of Ephesus (about
A. D. 180), that " John, who rested on the bosom of the Lord, was a
priest, and bore the sacerdotal plate " (Eus. H. E. iii. 32.), or that
Philip the Evangelist was one of the Twelve Apostles. But what
use can be made of such sandy materials ? It is idle to have
recourse to remote reconcilements when the facts themselves are
uncertain ; equally so to argue precisely from turns of expression
where language is rhetorical.
The second general fact is the unconsciousness of this ignorance,
and the readiness with which the vacant space is filled up, and the
Church of the second century assimilated to that of the third and
fourth. History often conceals that which is discordant to precon
ceived notions ; silently dropping some facts, exaggerating others,
adding, where needed, new tone and colouring, until the disguise can
no longer be detected. By some process of this kind the circum
stance into which we are inquiring has been forgotten and repro
duced. Nothing has survived relating to the great crisis which
Christianity underwent in the age of the Apostles themselves; it
passed away silently in the altered state of the Church and the world.
Not only in the strange account of the dispute between the Apostles,
given by Origen and others, is what may be termed the " animus" of
concealment discernible, but in fragments of earlier writings, in which
the two Apostles appear side by side as co-founders of the Corin
thian, as well as of the Roman Church (Caius and Dion, of Corinth,
quoted by Euseb. ii. 25.), pleading their cause together before Nero;
dying on the same day, their graves being appealed to as witnesses
444 EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS.
to the tale, probably as early as the first half of the second century.
The unconscious motive which gave birth to such fictions was,
seemingly, the desire to throw a veil over that occasion on which
they withstood one another to the face. And the truth indistinctly
shines through this legend of the latter part of the second century,
when it is further recorded that St. Paul was at the head of the
Gentile Church at Rome, Peter of the circumcision.
Bearing in mind these general considerations, which throw a
degree of doubt on the early ecclesiastical tradition, and lead us to
seek for indications out of the regular course of history, we have to
consider, in reference to our present subject, the following state
ments :
1. That Justin, who is recorded to have written against Marcion,
refers to the Twelve in several passages, but nowhere in his genuine
writings mentions St. Paul. And when speaking of the books read
in the Christian assemblies, he names only the Gospels and the
Prophets. (Apol. i. 67.)
2. That Marcion, who was nearly contemporary with Justin, is
said to have appealed to the authority of St. Paul only.
(On the other hand, it is true that in numerous quotations from
the Old Testament, Justin appears to follow St. Paul. It is difficult
to acccount for this singular phenomenon.)
3. That in the account of James the Just, given by Josephus and
Hegesippus (about A.D. 170; see above), he is represented as a Jew
among Jews ; living, according to Hegesippus, the life of a Naza-
rite; praying in the Temple until his knees became hard as a
camel s, and so entirely a Jew as to be unknown to the people for a
Christian ; a description which, though its features may be exag
gerated, yet has the trace of a true resemblance to the part which
we find him acting in the Epistle to the Galatians. It falls in, too,
with the fact of his peaceable continuance as head of the Church at
Jerusalem, in the Acts of the Apostles ; and is not inconsistent with
the spirit of the Epistle which bears his name (Comp. Euseb. ii.
23.)
ST. PAUL AND THE TWELVE. 445
4. That the same Hegesippus regards the heresies as arising out
of schism in the Jewish Church. He was himself a Hebrew con
vert ; arid after stating that he travelled to Rome, whither he went
by way of Corinth, and had familiar conversation with many
bishops, he declares " that in every succession and in every city the
doctrine prevails according to what is declared by the law and the
prophets and the Lord." (Euseb. iv. 22.) This is not the language
of a follower of St. Paul.
* 5. That in the Clementine Homilies, written about the year 160,
though a work generally orthodox, St. Paul is covertly introduced
under the name of Simon Magus, as the impersonation of Gnostic
error, as the enemy who had pretended " visions and revelations,
and who "withstood" and blamed Peter. No writer doubts the
allusion in some of these passages to the Epistles of St. Paul.
Assuming their connexion, we ask, What was the state of mind
which led an orthodox Christian, who lived probably at Rome,
about the middle of the second century, to affix such a character to
St. Paul ? and what was the motive which induced him to veil his
meaning ? What, too, could have been the state of the Church in
which such a romance grew up ? and how could the next generation
have read it without perceiving its true aim ? Doubtful as may be
the precise answer to these questions, we cannot attribute this
remarkable work to the wayward fancy of an individual ; it is an
indication of a real tendency of the first and second centuries, at a
time when the flame was almost extinguished, but still slumbered in
the mind of the writer of the Clementine Homilies. It is observable
that at a later date, about the year 210 230, in the form which the
work afterwards received under the title of " the Clementine Recog
nitions," which have been preserved in a Latin translation, the
objectionable passages have mostly vanished.
6. Lastly, that in later writings we find no trace of the mind of
St. Paul. His influence seems to pass from the world. On such a
basis " as where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty," it might
have been impossible to rear the fabric of a hierarchy. But the
446 EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS.
thought itself was not present to the next generation. The tide of
ecclesiastical feeling set in another direction. It was not merely
that after-writers fell short of St. Paul, or imperfectly interpreted
him, but that they formed themselves on a different model. It was
not only that the external constitution of the Church had received a
definite form and shape, but that the inward perception of the
nature of the Gospel was different. No writer of the latter half of
the second century would have spoken as St. Paul has done of the
law, of the sabbath, of justification by faith only, of the Spirit, of
grace, of moderation in things indifferent, of forgiveness. An echo
of a part of his teaching is heard in Augustine ; with this exception,
the voice of him who withstood Peter to the face at Antioch was
silent in the Church until the Reformation. The spirit of the
Epistles to the Romans and to the Galatians has revived in later
times. But there is no trace that the writings of the Apostle left
any lasting impress within the Church, or perhaps anywhere in the
first ages.
Yet the principle of the Apostle triumphed, though at the
time of its triumph it may seem to have lost the spirit and
power of the Apostle. The struggle which commenced like Atha-
nasius against the world, ended as the struggle of the world against
the remnant of the Jewish race. Beginning within the confines of
Judea, it spread in a widening circle among the Jewish proselytes,
still wider and more faintly marked in the philojudaising Gentile,
fading in the distance as Christianity became a universal religion.
Two events had a great influence on its progress. First, the de
struction of Jerusalem, and the flight to Pella of the Christian com
munity ; secondly, the revolt under Barchocab ; both tending to
separate, more and more, both in fact and the opinion of mankind,
the Christian from the Jew.
It would be vain to carry our inquiry further, with the view of
gleaning a few results respecting the first half of the second cen
tury. Remote probabilities and isolated facts are not worth
balancing. The consciousness that we know little of the times
ST. PAUL AND THE TWELVE. 447
which followed the Apostles is the best part of our knowledge. And
many will deem it well for the purity of the Christian faith, that
while Christ himself is clearly seen by us, as a light, at the foun
tain of which a dead Church may receive life, and a living one
renew its strength, the origin of ecclesiastical institutions has
been hidden from our eyes. In the second and third centuries
Christianity was extending its borders, fencing itself with creeds
and liturgies, taking possession of the earth with its hierarchy.
Whether this great organisation was originally everywhere the
same, whether it adopted the form chiefly of the Jewish worship
and ministry or of the Roman magistracy, or at first of the one and
afterwards of the other, cannot be certainly determined. A cloud
hangs over the dawn of ecclesiastical history. By some course of
events with which we are not acquainted, the Providence of God
leading the way, and the thoughts of man following, the Jewish
Synagogue became the Christian Church ; the Passover was super
seded by Easter ; the Christian Sunday took the place of the Jewish
Sabbath. While the Old Testament retained its authority over
Gentile as well as Jewish Christians, the law was done away in
Christ, and the Judaiser of the first century became the Ebionitish
heretic of the second and third.
448 EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS.
ST. PAUL AND PHILO.
Canst thou speak Greek ?" (Acts, xxi. 37.) "Men and brethren, I am a Pharisee,
the son of a Pharisee" (Acts, xxiii. 6.), " brought up in this city at the feet of
Gamaliel, and taught according to the perfect way of the law of the Fathers"
(Acts, xxii. 3.).
CHRISTIANITY admits of being regarded either from within or from
without. We may begin with our own hearts, with the study of the
word of God, with the received views which have grown up within
the sphere of the Christian Church ; or we may place ourselves
without that sphere, and look upon Christianity under the aspect
which it presented to the contemporaries of Seneca or Pliny ; which
it continues to present to the eye of the secular historian. Those
who take this latter course are sometimes said to put themselves in
a false position, which has no rest or stability, until the heavenly is
all brought down to the level of the earthly, and the narrative of
Scripture has passed into a merely secular chronicle. The Gospel
is thought to lose its sacredness when explained by secondary causes
or brought into contact with ordinary events. This feeling has
been strengthened by the circumstance that, of the age which im
mediately precede 
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