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Ask a QuestionAnd after many days were fulfilled, the Jews took counsel to kill him--Had we no other record than this, we should have supposed that what is here related took place while Saul continued at...
Compare Ac 9:27, 28, wherein Luke, as an historian, describes more generally what Paul, the subject of the history, himself details more particularly. The history speaks of "apostles"; and Paul's...
contrariwise--on the contrary. So far from adding any new light to ME, THEY gave in THEIR adhesion to the new path on which Barnabas and I, by independent revelation, had entered. So far from...
certain--men: perhaps James' view (in which he was not infallible, any more than Peter) was that the Jewish converts were still to observe Jewish ordinances, from which he had decided with the...
persecuted--Ishmael "mocked" Isaac, which contained in it the germ and spirit of persecution (Ge 21:9). His mocking was probably directed against Isaac's piety and faith in God's promises. Being...
Observe the apostle's faithfulness in giving a full account of the doctrine he had preached among the Gentiles, and was still resolved to preach, that of Christianity, free from all mixture of...
The history thus explained is applied. So then, brethren, we are not children of the bond-woman, but of the free. If the privileges of all believers were so great, according to the new covenant,...
We are to bear one another's burdens. So we shall fulfil the law of Christ. This obliges to mutual forbearance and compassion towards each other, agreeably to his example. It becomes us to bear...
collection for the saints--at Jerusalem (Ro 15:26) and in Judea (Ac11:29, 30; 24:17; compare 2Co 8:4; 9:1, 12). He says "saints" rather than "the poor," to remind the Corinthians that in giving, it...
apostle--in the earliest Epistles, the two to the Thessalonians, through humility, he uses no title of authority; but associates with him "Silvanus and Timotheus"; yet here, though "brethren" (Ga...
But--however weighty they may seem "who trouble you." Translate as Greek, "Even though we," namely, I and the brethren with me, weighty and many as we are (Ga 1:1, 2). The Greek implies a case...
by revelation--not from being absolutely dependent on the apostles at Jerusalem, but by independent divine "revelation." Quite consistent with his at the same time, being a deputy from the Church...
James--placed first in the oldest manuscripts, even before Peter, as being bishop of Jerusalem, and so presiding at the council (Ac15:1-29). He was called "the Just," from his strict adherence to...
walked not uprightly--literally, "straight": "were not walking with straightforward steps." Compare Ga 6:16. truth of the gospel--which teaches that justification by legal works and observances is...
I speak after the manner of men--I take an illustration from a merely human transaction of everyday occurrence. but a man's covenant--whose purpose it is far less important to maintain. if it be...
The apostle deals plainly with those who urged the law of Moses together with the gospel of Christ, and endeavoured to bring believers under its bondage. They could not fully understand the...
Paul, having thus shown he was not inferior to any apostle, not to Peter himself, speaks of the great foundation doctrine of the gospel. For what did we believe in Christ? Was it not that we...
Proud, vain, and carnal hearts, are content with just so much religion as will help to keep up a fair show. But the apostle professes his own faith, hope, and joy; and that his principal glory...
For--accounting for the strong language he has just used. do I now--resuming the "now" of Ga 1:9. "Am I now persuading men?" [Alford], that is, conciliating. Is what I have just now said a sample...
Peter--"Cephas" in the oldest manuscripts Paul's withstanding Peter is the strongest proof that the former gives of the independence of his apostleship in relation to the other apostles, and upsets...
this I say--"this is what I mean," by what I said in Ga 3:15. continued...of God--"ratified by God" (Ga 3:15). in Christ--rather, "unto Christ" (compare Ga 3:16). However, Vulgate and the old...
But--as the law cannot give life or righteousness [Alford]. Or the "But" means, So far is righteousness from being of the law, that the knowledge of sin is rather what comes of the law [Bengel]. ...
"So that the law hath been (that is, hath turned out to be) our schoolmaster (or "tutor," literally, "pedagogue": this term, among the Greeks, meant a faithful servant entrusted with the care of...
and heirs--The oldest manuscripts omit "and." Christ is "Abraham's seed" (Ga 3:16): ye are "one in Christ" (Ga 3:28), and one with Christ, as having "put on Christ" (Ga 3:27); therefore YE are...
desire--of your own accord madly courting that which must condemn and ruin you. do ye not hear--do ye not consider the mystic sense of Moses' words? [Grotius]. The law itself sends you away from...
Translate, "For not even did I myself (any more than the other apostles) receive it from man, nor was I taught it (by man)." "Received it," implies the absence of labor in acquiring it. "Taught...
after three years--dating from my conversion, as appears by the contrast to "immediately" (Ga 1:16). This is the same visit to Jerusalem as in Ac 9:26, and at this visit occurred the vision...
I am crucified--literally, "I have been crucified with Christ." This more particularizes the foregoing. "I am dead" (Ga 2:19; Php3:10). nevertheless I live; yet not I--Greek, "nevertheless I live,...
"Wherefore then serveth the law?" as it is of no avail for justification, is it either useless, or contrary to the covenant of God? [Calvin]. added--to the original covenant of promise. This is not...
But--How graciously, after necessary censure, He returns to praise for our consolation, and as an example to us, that we would show, when we reprove, we have more pleasure in praising than in...