64 ["Paul addresses himself again directly to the Galatians with an expression of indignant surprise at their relapse into Judaism and passes from the historical to the doctrinal part of the Epistle, from the apology of his apostolic authority to the defense of his apostolic teaching."-Schaff in Pop. Com.-G. A.]
65 ["Negative side of the life which Paul (from ver. 19) has described as his own. By this negative, with the grave reason assigned for it in the latter part of the verse, the perverse conduct of Peter is completely condemned."-Meyer.-G. A.]
66 ["This blasphemous inference gives the finishing stroke to the false Judaizing gospel.
"This collision between Peter and Paul furnished material to the Ebionites for an attack upon Paul, to the Gnostics for an attack upon the Jewish apostles and to Porphyry for an attack upon Christianity itself [as well as to Baur and the Tübingen school for an attack in modern times from a different standpoint]. But Christianity has surveyed all these attacks and gains new strength from every conflict."-Schaff.-G. A.]
67 [The word ei0kh=, `without a cause,0' occurs in the textus receptus on inferior authority in connection with the words `whosoever shall be angry with his brother0' (without a cause), but no where with the words, `whosoever shall say, Thou fool,0' as Chrys. here connects them.-G. A.]
68 ["The word means `to bewitch by words, to enchant,0' and is not to be explained with Chrysostom, `who has envied you?0' that is, your previous happy condition?"-Meyer.-G. A.]
69 [En u9mi=n is spurious, being omitted by Aleph. A. b.c. versions, Fathers, and Rev. Ver. as well as by W. and H.-G. A.]
70 ["This signifies the life-like pictorial vivacity and effectiveness of Paul's preaching of Christ and Him crucified. The Greek verb is used of placarding public notices and proclamations."-Schaff.-G. A.]
71 ["See how effectually he treats the topic from (their own) experience."-Luther, quoted by Meyer. G. A.]
72 [This distinction between tele/w and e0pitele/w was not in the mind of the Apostle. The contrast with e0narca/menoi, `having begun,0' shows that e0p telei=sqe simply means `are ye made perfect,0' "the compound involving the idea of bringing to a `complete and perfect0' end." (Ellicott.) There may be a slight tinge of irony in the compound word.-G. A.]
73 ["As we know nothing of persecutions endured by Galatians, it seems preferable to take the word in a neutral sense embracing all spiritual experiences (blessings and benefits as well) of the Galatians.(Comp. v.3 and 6.)"-Schaff. Lightfoot refers it to the persecutions endured by the Galatians from Jews citing Gal. v:11; and says "the e0i/ ge leaves a loophole for doubt which the kai/, following, widens." So Ellicott. Meyer says, "It refers to everything which the false apostles in their Judaistic zeal had troubled and burdened the Galatians with. The ei0kh= then means "and all to no profit, all in vain," if indeed it be only (kai/) in vain and not to the positive risk of your Messianic salvation that ye have suffered."-G. A.]
74 The Novatians, who said the revealed covenant of grace did not provide for the case of the lapsed.
75 ["The answer, obvious of itself, to the preceding question is e0c a0koh=j pi/stewj, `from the hearing of faith,0' and to this Paul subjoins that great religious-historic argument for the righteousness of faith which is presented in the justification of the progenitor of the theocratic people."-Meyer.-G. A.]
76 ["The Scripture personified. The only case in N. T. where the personification of Scripture goes beyond le/gei or ei\pen," etc.-Lightfoot.-G. A.]
77 ["After having pointed out from Scripture v. 6 and 7, that none other than believers are sons of Abraham, Paul now shows further from Scripture that none other than believers have a share in Abraham's blessing, i. e., are justified."-Meyer.-G. A.]
78 ["Having shown by postive proof that justification is of faith, he adds the negative argument derived from the impossibility of maintaining its opposite, namely, justification by Law. This negative argument is twofold:
First, it is impossible to fulfill the requirements of the law and nonfulfillment lays us under a curse (Ver. 10); Secondly, supposing the fulfilment possible, still the spirit of the Law is antagonistic to faith, which is elsewhere spoken of as the source of life. (Ver. 11 and 12)."-Lightfoot.-G. A.]
79 ["A parenthetic justification from Deut. xxi:23 of the startling expression just used. The passage refers to those criminals who, alter being stoned, were hung upon a stake, but were not permitted to remain over night lest the holy land should be desecrated. Our Saviour fulfilled the legal curse by hanging dead on the cross. This is one of the strongest passages for the doctrine of a vicarious atonement. The vicarious efficacy lies not so much in the preposition, u9pe/r,' `for,0' as in the whole sentence."-Schaff-G. A.]
80 ["After a wondrous chain of arguments * * the apostle comes back to the subject of verse 2: the gift of the Holy Ghost came through faith in Christ."-Ellicott.-G. A.]
81 ["Paul now assumes a milder tone and reasons from the common dealings of men."-Schaff.-G. A.]
82 ["A difficulty arises here from the stress which Paul lays on the singular of the word `seed,0' which is a collective noun in Heb. and Greek, and includes the whole posterity. But it is not a question of grammar but of spiritual meaning. The Promise refers to Christ par excellence, and to all those and only those who are truly members of His body, united to Him by a living faith. If all the single descendants of Abraham were meant, the children of Hagar and Keturah and subsequently of Esau and his descendants, would have to be included."-Schaff.-G. A.]
83 ["Not as a single individual but as Head of the church which is His body, Eph. 1:23. The key to the passage is in ver. 28 and 29: `Ye are all one in Christ Jesus.0' "-Schaff.-G. A.]
84 ["This interpretation of Chrysostom must be rejected on lexical grounds. The law was in order to bring sin to light and make it appear in its true character and thus by a knowledge of the disease prepare its cure."-Ellicott and Schaff.-G. A.]
85 ["We may reasonably wonder," says Ellicott, "how the early expositors (Basil and Theodoret excepted) could have so generally coincided in the perplexing view of Origen that the Mediator here mentioned was Christ. On the contrary it is plain that it was Moses, Deut. v:5."-G. A.]
86 ["This verse is counted the most difficult passage in the New Testament, and has given rise to about 300 interpretations."
That of Lightfoot seems to satisfy the context, and is thus forcibly put by him: "The law is of the nature of a contract between two parties. God on the one hand and the Jewish people on the other. It is valid only so long as both parties fulfil the terms of contract. It is therefore contingent and not absolute. Unlike the law the promise is absolute and unconditional. It depends on the sole decree of God. There are not two contracting parties. There is nothing of the nature of a stipulation. The giver is everything and the recipient nothing."-Com. in loco.-G. A.]
87 The heretics refered to are the Anomoeans, who held Arianism in its most developed form, against whom S. Chrysostom has written Homilies. For the particular objection answered in the text, vid. also Basil, in Eunom, iv. p. 294. Athan. Or in Arian, iii. 9. Greg. Naz. Orat. 36, p. 586.
88 ["The Law then though differing widely from the promise is not antagonistic to it, does not interfere with it. On the contrary, we might imagine such a law as would justify and give life. This was not the effect of the law of Moses, however; on the contrary (a0lla;) the Scripture (that, namely, about the curse, v. 10:) testifies that the Law condemned all alike, yet not finally and irrevocably but only as leading the way for the dispensation of faith."-Lightfoot. Meyer takes a different view of v. 21: "For if it had been opposed to the promises, the Law must have been in a position to procure life and if this were so, then would righteousness actually be from the Law, which according to the Scripture cannot be so (ver. 22)"-G. A.]
89 ["The paedagogus or tutor, frequently a superior slave, was entrusted with the moral supervision of the child. Thus his office was quite distinct from that of the dida/skaloj; so the word "Schoolmaster" conveys a wrong idea. As well in his inferior rank as in his recognized duty of enforcing discipline, this person was a fit emblem of the Mosaic law. There is a very complete illustration of the use which Paul makes of the metaphor in Plato (Lysis, p, 208 C)."-Lightfoot.-G. A.]
90 ["This reference of nh/pioj to mental immaturity is quite in opposition to the context."-Meyer. "The heir in his nonage represents the Jewish people and the state of the world before Christ."-Schaff. So Meyer: "The klhrono/moj nh/pioj represents the Christians as a body regarded in their earlier pre-Christian condition."-G. A.]
91 [This interpretation is rejected by Schaff, Meyer, Ellicott, Lightfoot et al. Schaff says: "`Elements0' here represents the religion before Christ as an elementary religion full of external rites and ceremonies. * * Comp. v:10, for a specimen."-G. A.]
92 [So Schaff: "Verse 16 must here be kept in view where Christ is declared to be the seed of Abraham. Union with Christ constitutes the true spiritual descent from Abraham and secures the inheritance of all the Messianic blessings by promise as against inheritance by law." Pop. Com. in loc.-G. A.]