6. Without the usual expressions of thanksgiving for their faith,
&c., he vehemently plunges into his subject, zealous for "the glory" of
God
(Ga 1:5),
which was being disparaged by the Galatians falling away from the pure
Gospel of the "grace" of God.
I marvel--implying that he had hoped better things from them, whence
his sorrowful surprise at their turning out so different from his
expectations.
so soon--after my last visit; when I hoped and thought you were
untainted by the Judaizing teachers. If this Epistle was written from
Corinth, the interval would be a little more than three years, which
would be "soon" to have fallen away, if they were apparently sound at
the time of his visit.
Ga 4:18, 20
may imply that he saw no symptom of unsoundness then, such as he
hears of in them now. But English Version is probably not
correct there. See see on
Ga 4:18;
Ga 4:20;
also see
Introduction.
If from Ephesus, the interval would be not more than one year.
BIRKS holds the Epistle to have been written from
Corinth after his FIRST visit to Galatia; for this
agrees best with the "so soon" here: with
Ga 4:18,
"It is good to be zealously affected always in a good thing, and not
only when I am present with you." If they had persevered in the faith
during three years of his first absence, and only turned aside after
his second visit, they could not be charged justly with adhering to the
truth only when he was present: for his first absence was longer than
both his visits, and they would have obeyed longer in his
"absence" than in his "presence." But if their decline
had begun immediately after he left them, and before his return to
them, the reproof will be just. But see on
Ga 4:13.
removed--Translate, "are being removed," that is, ye are
suffering yourselves so soon (whether from the time of my last
visit, or from the time of the first temptation held out to you)
[PARÆUS] to be removed by Jewish seducers. Thus he softens the
censure by implying that the Galatians were tempted by seducers from
without, with whom the chief guilt lay: and the present, "ye are
being removed," implies that their seduction was only in process of
being effected, not that it was actually effected. WAHL,
ALFORD, and
others take the Greek as middle voice. "ye are removing" or
"passing over." "Shifting your ground" [CONYBEARE and
HOWSON]. But thus
the point of Paul's oblique reference to their misleaders is lost; and
in
Heb 7:12
the Greek is used passively, justifying its being taken so here.
On the impulsiveness and fickleness of the Gauls (another form of
Kel-t-s, the progenitors of the Erse, Gauls, Cymri, and Belgians),
whence the Galatians sprang, see
Introduction
and CÆSAR [Commentaries on the Gallic
War, 3.19].
from him that called you--God the Father
(Ga 1:15;
Ga 5:8;
Ro 8:30;
1Co 1:9;
1Th 2:12; 5:24).
into--rather, as Greek, "IN the
grace of Christ," as the element in which, and the instrument
by which, God calls us to salvation. Compare Note, see on
1Co 7:15;
Ro 5:15,
"the gift by (Greek, 'in') grace (Greek, 'the
grace') of (the) one man." "The grace of Christ," is Christ's
gratuitously purchased and bestowed justification, reconciliation, and
eternal life.
another--rather, as Greek, "a second and different gospel,"
that is, into a so-called gospel, different altogether from the only
true Gospel.
JFB.
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