Better, become as I am; free from the bondage of Jewish ordinances.

I am as ye are (κἀγὼ ὡς ἐγώ)

Rather, I became. Supply ἐγενόμην or γέγονα. Become as I am, for I became a Gentile like you. Comp. Philippians 3:7, Philippians 3:8. For the phrase γινέσθαι ὡς to become as, see Matthew 6:16; Romans 9:29; 1 Corinthians 4:13; 1 Corinthians 9:20-22.

Ye have not injured me at all (οὐδέν με ἠδικήσατε)

This translation misses the force of the aorist, and conveys a wrong impression, that Paul, up to this time, had received no wrong at the hands of the Galatians. This was not true. The reference is to his earlier relations with the Galatians, and is explained by Galatians 4:13, Galatians 4:14. Rend. ye did not injure me at all. Ye did not injure me then, do not do so now.

The A.V. omits δὲ which is wanting in some Mss. Δὲ not oppositional as commonly explained: "Ye did not injure me, but on the contrary ye know, etc."; but introducing an explanation of ye did not injure me by reference to the fact that they might easily have been moved to do him wrong by the unfavorable circumstances under which he first preached the gospel to them (through infirmity of the flesh). The formulas οἶδα δὲ, οἴδαμεν δὲ, οἴδατε δὲ, are habitually used by Paul to introduce an explanation of what precedes, from a new point of view. See Romans 2:2; Romans 3:19; Romans 15:29; Philippians 4:15. The general sense therefore is: "Ye did not wrong me at all as you might easily have been moved to do; for (δὲ) you know in what an unfavorable light my infirmities placed me when I first came among you."

Through infirmity (δἰ ἀσθένειαν)

On account of infirmity. Referring to the fact that Paul, in his first journey, was compelled by sickness to remain in Galatia, and preached to the Galatians during this enforced sojourn. This fact made their kindly reception the more commendable.

At the first (τὸ πρότερον)

Either generally, at an earlier time than the present (as John 6:62; John 9:8; 1 Timothy 1:13), or the first time (as Hebrews 7:27). Here in the latter sense. Paul had visited the Galatians twice before he wrote this letter.

The correct reading is πειρασμὸν ὑμῶν your temptation. The trial to which they were subjected by his bodily infirmity (Galatians 4:13), and which might have tempted them to treat him with indifference.

Ye despised not nor rejected (οὐκ ἐξουθενήσατε οὐδὲ ἐξεπτύσατε)

Commonly explained by making both verbs govern your temptation. Thus the meaning would be: "You were tempted to treat my preaching contemptuously because of my bodily infirmity; but you did not despise nor reject that which was a temptation to you." This is extremely far fetched, awkward, and quite without parallel in Paul's writings or elsewhere. It does not suit the following but received me, etc. It lays the stress on the Galatians' resistance of a temptation to despise Paul; whereas the idea of a temptation is incidental. On this construction we should rather expect Paul to say: "Ye did despise and repudiate this temptation." Better, make your temptation, etc., dependent on ye know (Galatians 4:13); place a colon after flesh, and make both verbs govern me in the following clause. Rend. "Ye know how through infirmity of the flesh I preached the gospel to you the first time, and (ye know) your temptation which was in my flesh: ye did not despise nor reject me, but received me." The last clause thus forms one of a series of short and detached clauses beginning with Galatians 4:10. Ὁυκ ἐξουθενήσατε ye did not set at nought, from οὐδέν nothing. The form οὐθέν occurs Luke 22:35; Luke 23:14; Acts 19:27; Acts 26:26; 1 Corinthians 13:2; 2 Corinthians 11:8. For the compound here, comp. Luke 18:9; Luke 23:11; Acts 4:11; 2 Corinthians 10:10. oClass. Ἑξεπτύσατε spurned, N.T.o. Lit. spat out. A strong metaphor, adding the idea of contempt to that of setting at nought. Comp. Hom. Od. v. 322; Aristoph. Wasps, 792. The two verbs express contemptuous indifference. Ἑμέσαι to vomit, as a figure of contemptuous rejection, is found in Revelation 3:16. The simple πτύειν to spit only in the literal sense in N.T. Mark 7:33; Mark 8:23; John 9:6, and no other compound occurs.

As an angel

Bengel says: "The flesh, infirmity, temptation, are known to angels; wherefore to receive as an angel is to receive with great veneration."

As Jesus Christ

With even higher honor than an angel. Comp. Matthew 10:40; John 13:20.

Μακαρισμὸς, Po. Comp. Romans 4:6, Romans 4:9. Not blessedness, but pronouncing blessed, felicitation. "What had become of your self gratulation on my presence and teaching?" Ye spake of is an attempt to render ὑμῶν. Better, "Where is then that gratulation of yours?"

I bear you record (μαρτυρῶ)

Better, witness. Bear record is common in A.V. for bear witness. Record is used both of a person, as God is my record, Philippians 1:8; I call God for a record, 1 Corinthians 1:23, and in the sense of evidence or testimony. So Shaks. Richard II. I. i.:30:

"First, Heaven be the record to my speech."

Plucked out (ἐξορύξαντες)

Lit. dug out. Only here, and Mark 2:4, of digging up the roof in order to let down the paralytic before Jesus.

Your own eyes (τοὺς ὀφθαλμοὺς ὑμῶν)

Better, your eyes. Eyes, as most treasured possessions. Comp. Psalm 17:8; Proverbs 7:2; Zechariah 2:8. Some have found here evidence that Paul was afflicted with disease of the eyes. See Dr. John Brown's Horae Subsecivae. Accordingly they explain these words, "You would have given me your own eyes to replace mine." But ὑμῶν is unemphatic, your. All attempts to connect the passage with Paul's "thorn in the flesh" (2 Corinthians 7:7) are to be dismissed as fanciful.

Better, so then: seeing that your love for me has waned.

Your enemy (ἐχθρὸς ὑμῶν)

Ἐχθρὸς enemy, in an active sense, as is shown by the next clause. Not passive, an object of hatred, which would have the pronoun in the dative.

Because I tell you the truth (ἀληθεύων ὑμῖν)

Ἀληθεύειν, only here and Ephesians 4:15, means to speak the truth or to deal truly. The present participle refers to the same time as γέγονα I am become, the time of his second visit. The clause is usually construed as interrogative (A.V.). It is rather a direct statement with a slight interrogative suggestion. "So then, I am become your enemy, am I."

They are zealously paying you court in order to win you over to their side. Affect, in this sense, is obsolete. It is from affectare, to strive after, earnestly desire. So Shaks. Tam. of Shr. I. i. 40:

"In brief, sir, study what you most affect."

Ben Johnson, Alchem. iii.:2:

"Pray him aloud to name what dish he affects."

As a noun, desire. So Chaucer, Troil. and Cress. iii.:1391:

"As Crassus dide for his affectis wronge" (his wrong desires).

Comp. 1 Corinthians 12:31; 1 Corinthians 14:1.

Not well (οὐ καλῶς)

Not in an honorable way.

Nay (ἀλλὰ)

So far from dealing honorably.

They would exclude you (ἐκκλεῖσαι ὑμᾶς θέλουσιν)

From other teachers who do not belong to their party - those of anti-Judaising views who formed the sounder part of the church.

continued...

Ζηλοῦσθαι to be zealously sought, in the same sense as before. It is passive. It is good for you Galatians to be zealously sought. In a good thing (ἐν καλῷ) answers to οὐ καλῶς not honorably, Galatians 4:17. In a good matter - the interest of the gospel. Thus Paul would say: "These Judaisers zealously strive to win you over to their views; but they do not do this in an honorable way. There is no harm in seeking to interest and enlist you, provided it is in a good cause."

Only here in Paul, but often in John. See John 13:33; 1 John 2:1, 1 John 2:12, 1 John 2:28; 1 John 3:7, 1 John 3:18, etc. See on Galatians 3:26.

I travail in birth again (πάλιν ὠδίνω)

Better as Rev. of whom I am again in travail. Ὡδίνω only here and Revelation 12:2. Galatians 4:27 is a quotation. The metaphorical use of the word is frequent in O.T. See Psalm 7:14; Sir. 19:11; 31:5; 43:17; Micah 4:10; Isaiah 26:18; Isaiah 66:8. Paul means that he is for the second time laboring and distressed for the Galatian converts, with the same anguish which attended his first efforts for their conversion. The metaphor of begetting children in the gospel is found in 1 Corinthians 4:15; Plm 1:10. It was a Jewish saying: "If one teaches the son of his neighbor the law, the Scripture reckons this the same as though he had begotten him."

Until Christ be formed in you (μέχρις οὗ μορφωθῇ Χριστὸς ἐν ὑμῖν)

The forming of Christ in them, their attainment of the complete inner life of Christians, is the object of the new birth. By their relapse they have retarded this result and renewed Paul's spiritual travail. The verb μορφοῦν N.T.o. The idea under different aspects is common. See Romans 8:9; 1 Corinthians 2:16; 1 Corinthians 6:15; 2 Corinthians 3:18; Galatians 2:20; Ephesians 3:17; Colossians 1:27.

Better, I could wish, the imperfect tense referring to a suppressed conditional clause, as if it were possible. Comp. Acts 25:22; Romans 9:3.

To change my voice (ἀλλάξαι τὴν φωνήν μου)

To address you, not with my former severity, so as to make you think me your enemy, but affectionately, as a mother speaks to her children, yet still telling them the truth (ἀληθεύων).

I stand in doubt of you (ἀποροῦμαι ἐν ὑμῖν)

Lit. I am perplexed in you. For this use of ἐν, comp. 2 Corinthians 7:16; Galatians 1:24. Paul's perplexity is conceived as taking place in the readers. For the verb, see on Mark 6:20; see on 2 Corinthians 4:8. Paul means: "I am puzzled how to deal with you; how to find entrance to your hearts.

He plunges into the subject without introduction, and with a direct appeal.

Desire (θέλοντες)

Are bent on being under the law. See on Galatians 4:9.

Under the law (ὑπὸ νόμον)

For νόμος with and without the article, see on Romans 2:12. Here, unquestionably, of the Mosaic law.

Hear (ἀκούετε)

(Do ye not) hear what the law really says: listen to it so as to catch its real meaning? Comp. 1 Corinthians 14:2; lxx, Genesis 11:7; Deuteronomy 28:49.

The law (τὸν νόμον)

In a different sense, referring to the O.T. For a similar double sense see Romans 3:19. For νόμος as a designation of the O.T. generally, see 1 Corinthians 14:21; John 10:24; John 11:34; John 15:25.

Your determination to be under the law is opposed by Scripture, if you will understand it, for it is written, etc.

A bondmaid (τῆς παιδίσκης)

The bondmaid, indicating a well known character, Hagar, Genesis 16:3. The word in Class. means also a free maiden; but in N.T. always a slave. So almost always in lxx; but see Ruth 4:12; Judith 12:13.

Has been born, or is born: perfect tense, treating the historical fact as if present.

After the flesh (κατὰ σάρκα)

According to the regular course of nature. Very common in Paul.

By promise (δἰ ἐπαγγελίας)

Most editors retain the article, the promise of Genesis 17:16, Genesis 17:19; Genesis 18:10. Comp. Romans 9:9. In virtue of the promise; for according to natural conditions he would not have been born.

N.T.o. Lit. are allegorised. From ἄλλο another, ἀγορεύειν to speak. Hence, things which are so spoken as to give a different meaning from that which the words express. For parable, allegory, fable, and proverb, see on Matthew 13:3. An allegory is to be distinguished from a type. An O.T. type is a real prefiguration of a N.T. fact, as the Jewish tabernacle explained in Hebrews 9, or the brazen serpent, John 3:14. Comp. Romans 5:14; 1 Corinthians 10:6, 1 Corinthians 10:11. An allegory exhibits figuratively the ideal character of a fact. The type allows no latitude of interpretation. The allegory lends itself to various interpretations. This passage bears traces of Paul's rabbinical training. At the time of Christ, Scripture was overlaid with that enormous mass of rabbinic interpretation which, beginning as a supplement to the written law, at last superseded and threw it into contempt. The plainest sayings of Scripture were resolved into another sense; and it was asserted by one of the Rabbis that he that renders a verse of Scripture as it appears, says what is not true. The celebrated Akiba assumed that the Pentateuch was a continuous enigma, and that a meaning was to be found in every monosyllable, and a mystical sense in every hook and flourish of the letters. The Talmud relates how Akiba was seen by Moses in a vision, drawing from every horn of every letter whole bushels of decisions. The oral laws, subsequently reduced to writing in the Talmud, completely overshadowed and superseded the Scriptures, so that Jesus was literally justified in saying: "Thus have ye make the commandment of God of none effect through your tradition."

Paul had been trained as a Rabbi in the school of Hillel, the founder of the rabbinical system, whose hermeneutic rules were the basis of the Talmud. As Jowett justly says: "Strange as it may at first appear that Paul's mode of interpreting the Old Testament Scriptures 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 association in his own day." His familiarity with this style of exposition gave him a real advantage in dealing with Jews.

It is a much-mooted question whether, in this passage, Paul is employing an argument or an illustration. The former would seem to be the case. On its face, it seems improbable that, as Dr. Bruce puts it: "it is poetry rather than logic, meant not so much to convince the reason as to captivate the imagination." Comp. the argument in Galatians 3:16, and see note. It appears plain that Paul believed that his interpretation actually lay hidden in the O.T. narrative, and that he adduced it as having argumentative force. Whether he regarded the correspondence as designed to extend to all the details of his exposition may be questioned; but he appears to have discerned in the O.T. narrative a genuine type, which he expanded into his allegory. For other illustrations of this mode of treatment, see Romans 2:24; Romans 9:33; 1 Corinthians 2:9; 1 Corinthians 9:9, 1 Corinthians 9:10; 1 Corinthians 10:1-4.

For these are

Hagar and Sarah are, allegorically. Signify. Comp. Matthew 13:20, Matthew 13:38; Matthew 26:26, Matthew 26:28; 1 Corinthians 10:4, 1 Corinthians 10:16.

The one

Covenant.

From Mount Sinai (ἀπὸ ὄρους Σινά)

The covenant emanating from Sinai: made on that mountain. The old covenant. See 2 Corinthians 3:14.

Which gendereth to bondage (εἰς δουλείαν γεννῶσα)

That is, the Sinaitic covenant places its children in a condition of bondage; note the personification and the allegorical blending of fact and figure.

Which is Hagar (ἥτις ἐστὶν Ἅραβίᾳ)

The Sinaitic covenant is that which, in Abraham's history, is Hagar: which is allegorically identified with Hagar the bondmaid.