16.Am I therefore become your enemy? viii. He would glory in his infirmities; and he adds, “And for this purpose, that through the excessive abundance of the revelations I might not be unduly exalted, there was given unto me a thorn in the flesh, a messenger of Satan, that he may buffet me, that I might not be unduly exalted.” The language implies that the σκόλοψ τῇ σαρκί was produced by the excess of the revelations, or it was so connected with them in time and circumstance that it was felt to have resulted from their excess- τῇ ὑπερβολῇ,-they were so many and so grand, that while the spirit might enjoy them, the flesh was so weak that it was worn out by them. (4.) Until comparatively recent times, biblical scholars assumed that this epistle was sent to the churches in the geographical region known as Galatia, in north central Asia Minor. Reiff. p. 91, vol. (2.) Galatians 4:14 "And my temptation which was in my flesh ye despised not, nor rejected; but received me as an angel of God, [even] as Christ Jesus." Another result in such circumstances might be, that strong craving for human sympathy which is often manifested by him. His annotator Nicetas describes it as a disease of the kidneys or of the joints- ποδάγρα, adding that some explained Paul's thorn in the same way. So have I become your enemy by telling you the truth? That the apostle saw the divine essence is maintained by Augustine, Anselm, Aquinas; but what he saw he tells not, what he heard could not be disclosed. See Howson, Lectures on St. Paul, p. 72, 2d edition. Others identify the rapture with the trance in the temple, and the vision and commission connected with it, which himself describes in Acts 22:17-20, as Spanheim, Lightfoot, Rinck, Schrader, Osiander, Wieseler. In mediaeval times this was the current opinion, as of Salvian, Thomas Aquinas, Bede, Lyra, Bellarmine, and the Catholic Estius, a Lapide, and Bisping. Yet he speaks of himself as a man caught up, of passing from one region to another, and of hearing words. Opera, ed. For in Acts 23:1 ἀτενίσας characterizes the apostle's act before he began his address, and describes naturally a sweeping and attentive scrutiny, but with no implied defect of vision. In another allusion, in a passage where he is discussing the power of Satan, he simply says: In sanctos humiliandos per carnis vexationem. The genitive is probably used because ἐχθρός is a virtual substantive-Am I become the hated of you? Still the apostle must have keenly felt this revulsion of sentiment toward himself; for his was not an impassible nature, with nerves that never tingled and a surface that no weapon could pierce. nor its apostle, but in themselves. If this vision took place at his first visit to Jerusalem three years after his conversion, the dates are more in harmony, though the chronology of the apostle's life is very uncertain. In these examples from Luke-and twice the reference is to Paul, Luke 13:9, Luke 23:1 -the look is one of earnest and strong vision, and therefore the occurrence of the same verb in Luke 23:1 cannot form any ground for the opinion which we are controverting; for in making a virtual apology the apostle does not say, “Pardon me, I did not see,” but “I wist not”-perhaps = I forgot at the moment—“that he was the high priest.” The allusion also to the “large letters” in which he wrote the Galatian Epistle, and to the marks of the Lord Jesus which he bore, admit of a different and satisfactory interpretation. But in the verses quoted he speaks of being “weighed down beyond strength, so that we despaired even of life.” These terms certainly are inapplicable to such a sudden or momentary terror as the swift gathering of a mob might produce; they rather describe the result of sore personal sickness, so long, heavy, oppressive, and continuous, that “we utterly despaired even of life.” That sickness was καθ᾿ ὑπερβολήν in itself grievous, and on this account ὑπὲρ δύναμιν, beyond our power of endurance. Galatians 5 is the fifth chapter of the Epistle to the Galatians in the New Testament of the Christian Bible.It is authored by Paul the Apostle for the churches in Galatia, written between AD 49–58. But we prefer the active sense, with many of the ancient versions, and with Bengel, Beza, Grotius, Rückert, Schott, Hilgenfeld, Meyer, and Ellicott. 18.177, κεφαλὴν . And a Lapide claims something like infallibility for this opinion, insisting on it as an instance of the vox populi, vox Dei. If the Galatians become slaves…all over again to the law , Paul will have worked in vain among them. Wieseler also labours hard to prove against Ebrard and Meyer, that the ἄῤῥητα ῥήματα are not things impossible, but only unlawful for a man to utter: die nicht gesagt werden dürfen,-quae non licet homini loqui. The period could not therefore be that of his conversion, as is thought by Damasus, Thomas Aquinas, OEder, Keil, and Reiche, for considerably more than fourteen years must have elapsed since that turning-point in his life. The Judaizers designated him 'that enemy' (Clement, 'Recogn.' The term σκόλοψ occurs only here in the New Testament, and originally signifies a pointed stake, defined by Hesychius ξύλον ὀξύ, for fixing heads on; as in Homer, Il. ῎ακανθαι καὶ σκόλοπες ὀδύνας σημαίνουσι διὰ τὸ ὀξύ, Artemidorus, Oneirocritica, 3.33, p. 280, vol. 6. This ancient and traditionary notion of some physical ailment is the correct one, though of its special character we are necessarily ignorant. An old and prevailing opinion refers it to some affection of the head. The “third heaven” is evidently the highest heaven-it was no common honour; and paradise may not be a distinct, loftier, or remoter region, but perhaps a portion of the same glorious abode. “The devil and his angels” is a phrase found in Matthew 25:41. Opera, ed. A third theory refers the thorn to some inner temptation which fretted and distracted him. In Luke 22:56 it depicts the searching survey of the damsel in the act of detecting Peter as one of the twelve- καὶ ἀτενίσασα αὐτῷ. “After all the love and devotion you showed to me your spiritual father, have I now become your enemy by telling you the truth of Christ and urging you to hold firmly to it?? Galatians 4:22 The Offering of the Natural; ... Spurgeon - This is a most careful attempt to ascertain the meaning of the Apostle by a painstaking analysis of his words. Galatians 4:16. Итак, неужели я сделался врагом. His whole inner nature was under the influence of the divine charm, in whatever way it was effected, though hearing in the ordinary sense implies organs of sensation. Such a stimulus could not be said to be given him by God as a special means of humbling him, and in coincidence with superabundant visions and revelations. “I would,” he affirms, referring to incontinency and to marriage,—“I would that all men were even as I.” 1 Corinthians 7:7. in Taur. The term ἐχθρός is taken in a passive sense by Estius, Koppe, Rosenmüller, Trana, and Meyer in his second edition. lib. Terent. Amid all his enthusiasm and chivalry, he needed frequent comfort and assurance; so that we find the voice saying to him at Corinth, “Be not afraid;” in his confinement in Jerusalem, “Be of good cheer;” and during the voyage to Rome, “Fear not.” Acts 18:9; Acts 23:11; Acts 27:24. Baxter thought the disease may have been stone-his own torment; his tormentor is preserved in the British Museum. According to one probable hypothesis, the Epistle to the Galatians and the second Epistle to the Corinthians were written about the same period, and it is a natural conclusion that the reference in the two preceding paragraphs is to the same sharp distressing visitation. Galatians 4:16. ὥστε is often used in the sense of therefore to introduce an imperative or an affirmative conclusion in the Epistles of Paul, but not an interrogation. But, as Meyer remarks, the apostle in the beginning of 2 Corinthians 12 goes on to tell something distinctly new, and quite different from the incidents of previous rehearsal. The truth—For telling them the truth is he who was once their angel now their enemy? 1431. 22 For it is written, that Abraham had two sons, the one by a bondmaid, the other by a freewoman. [⇑ See verse text ⇑] Paul has been reminding the Galatians about how enthusiastically they received him and his message. Galatians 4:16. is often used in the sense of therefore to introduce an imperative or an affirmative conclusion in the Epistles of Paul, but not an interrogation. And it is called ἀσθένεια- ἀσθένεια σαρκός. Now no statement of such a nature occurs in any other part of the apostle's letters; and though the second descriptive clause, “a messenger of Satan,” may correspond so far with the hypothesis, the first phrase, “thorn in the flesh,” indicates something not in his mind, but acting from without or from his physical organism upon it. Galatians 4:16. Note on Paul’s “Infirmity in the Flesh”—“The Thorn in the Flesh.”, Galatians 4:13-15. οἴδατε δὲ ὅτι δἰ ἀσθένειαν τῆς σαρκὸς εὐηγγελισάμην ὑμῖν τὸ πρότερον, καὶ τὸν πειρασμὸν ὑμῶν ἐν τῇ σαρκί μου οὐκ ἐξουθενήσατε οὐδὲ ἐξεπτύσατε· ἀλλ᾿ ὡς ἄγγελον θεοῦ ἐδεξασθέ με, ὡς χριστὸν ᾿ιησοῦν. Meyer connects ὥστε directly with τίς οὖν ὁ μακαρισμὸς ὑμῶν, but the connection is better taken with the entire verse or paragraph-not a direct conclusion, as the result of the previous statement. This opinion has several points in its favour. Winer, § 40, 2, c, § 45, 1; Schmalfeld, pp. Anthony's fire,” in which there is not the least idea of supernatural agency. The fool and sinner hate, the righteous love, faithful reproof (Psalms 141:5; Proverbs 9:8). Have I therefore become your enemy because I tell you the truth? In most of the biblical texts, and certainly here in Galatians 5:16, the meaning of the spirit is the Spirit of God (although the reader should be aware that a small percentage of commentaries interpret this as the renewed human spirit). Such is the prevailing meaning of the word, adjective and substantive, in the New Testament; and it is followed here, as usually, by the genitive of person (Sophocles, Ajax, 500; Demosthenes, de Legat. пояснение к ст. Some describe those trials as temptations to unbelief, the stirring up of remaining sin, or as pangs of sorrow on account of his own past persecuting life. (16) Your enemy.—“The enemy” was the name by which St. Paul was commonly referred to by the party hostile to him in the next century. Not at his first visit, commentators reply, for then he was as an angel to them. But surmises as to the nature of the malady so referred to in both epistles in these strong and significant terms, have been numerous and conflicting. And I know such a man, whether in the body or without the body I cannot tell, God knoweth, that was caught up to paradise, and heard unutterable utterances, which it is not lawful for a man to speak.” This repetition with a difference refers apparently to two raptures; and we may almost infer from the construction, broken and resumed, asserted and repeated, that the remembrance of the indescribable glory, and his untraceable translation into it, produced a momentary maze or mental bewilderment like that which preceded or followed the mysterious ascensions. He would not be the object of any idolatrous veneration because access had been given to the light inaccessible; but he would be judged by the common criterion-what they saw him to be, what they heard of him, that is, by their own experience of him, in his daily life, and by his work which was ever patent and palpable to them. Galatians 4:16 King James Version (KJV) with a word-for-word translation and meaning from the original Greek Scriptures, its context and search popularity level. It is difficult to say at what period these revelations were given. For, 1. p. 4, ed. Circumstances forced him to take up strong ground at that time on the subject of circumcision and to denounce the opposition and intrigues which he had encountered from the Pharisaic party. Even there the result is dwelt upon, but the nature of the infliction is not clearly described. c. 29, p. 832, vol. And your temptation which was in my flesh ye despised not, nor loathed; but received me as an angel of God, even as Christ Jesus. In the chapter he asks why they went back to their old habits, and reminds them of when he visited them. because, &c. = dealing truly with. 1. Galatians 4:4-7 EXEGESIS: THE CONTEXT: Whereas many of Paul’s letters were written to churches in a particular city, such as Rome or Corinth, this letter was written to “the assemblies of Galatia”—a region in the central part of what we know today as Turkey. IϚʹ ὥστε ἐχθρὸς ὑμῶν γέγονα ἀληθεύων ὑμῖν TR, 1550. p. 785, ed. no, dear Paul,” Luther says, “it was no such trial that afflicted thee.”. Galatians 4:16 - Understand the meaning of Galatians 4:16 with Christian Bible study, teaching, sermons, and commentary search on hokma.com. Nor can the interpretation of δἰ ἀσθένειαν in the paper referred to be sustained. Calvin says, 16 am I become your enemy, because I tell you the truth? places conversion! 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