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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comVincent Word Studies - Galatians 6:11 - 6:11
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How large a letter (πηλίκοις γράμμασιν)
More correctly, with how large letters. Γράμματα may mean an epistle, as Lat. literae, or epistles; but Paul habitually uses ἐπιστολή for an epistle. Γράμμασιν means with characters, and πηλίκοις refers to their size. It is claimed by some that the large characters are intended to call the attention of the readers to the special importance of the close of the letter. See below.
I have written (ἔγραψα)
The aorist may refer to the whole of the preceding letter, or to the concluding verses which follow. In either case it is probably an instance of the epistolary aorist, by which the writer puts himself at the time when his correspondent is reading his letter. To the correspondent, I write has changed itself into I wrote. Similarly the Lat. scripsi. Ἔπεμψα I sent is used in the same way. See Act 23:30; Phi 2:28; Col 4:8; Phm 1:11.
With mine own hand (τῇ ἐμῇ χειρί)
The aorist ἔγραψα is epistolary, and refers to what follows. The concluding verses emphasize the main issue of the letter, that the Judaising intruders are trying to win the Galatians over to the economy of circumcision which is opposed to the economy of the cross. It is therefore quite probable that Paul may have wished to call special attention to these verses. If so, this special call lies in the words with my own hand, and not in with how large letters, which would seem to have been added to call attention to the apostle's handwriting as distinguished from that of the amanuensis. “Mark carefully these closing words of mine. I write them with my own hand in the large characters which you know.”