Online Resource Library
Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadHeinrich Meyer Commentary - Galatians 1:11 - 1:12
(Show All Books | Show All Chapters)
This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
Gal_1:11-12.[23] Theme of the apologetic portion of the epistle. See Introd. sec. 2.
δέ ] carrying on the discourse. The way having been prepared for this theme in Gal_1:8-10, it is now formally announced for further discussion.[24] And after the impassioned outburst in Gal_1:6-10, the language becomes composed and calm. Now therefore, for the first time, we find the address ἀδελφοί .
γνωρίζω δὲ ὑμῖν ] but (now to enter more particularly on the subject of my letter) I make known to you. This announcement has a certain solemnity (comp. 1Co_15:1; 2Co_8:1; 1Co_12:3), which is only enhanced by the fact that the matter must have been already known to the reader. There is no need to modify the sense of γνωρίζω , which neither here nor in 1Co_15:1 means monere vos volo or the like (Morus, Rosenmüller, and others).
τὸ εὐαγγέλιον … ὅτι ] attraction, Winer, p. 581 f. [E. T. 781 f.]
τὸ εὐαγγελισθὲν ὑπʼ ἐμοῦ ] which has been announced by me, among you and among others (comp. ὃ κηρύσσω , Gal_2:2); not to be limited to the conversion of the readers only.
κατὰ ἄνθρωπον ] cannot indicate the mode of announcement, which would require us to conceive εὐαγγελισθέν as repeated (Hofmann). Necessarily belonging to οὐκ ἔστι , it is the negative modal expression of the gospel itself which was preached by Paul; specifying, however, not its origin (Augustine, Cornelius a Lapide, Estius, Calovius, Wolf, and others), which κατά in itself never expresses (Fritzsche, ad Matth. p. 3), but its qualitative relation, although this is conditioned by its origin (Gal_1:12). The gospel announced by me is not according to men, that is, not of such quality as it would be if it were the work of men; it is not of the same nature as human wisdom, human efficiency, and the like. Comp. Xen. Mem. iv. 4. 24, τὸ τοὺς νόμους αὐτοὺς τοῖς παραβαίνουσι τὰς τιμωρίας ἔχειν βελτίονος ἢ κατʼ ἄνθρωπον νομοθέτου δοκεῖ μοι εἶναι . Eur. Med. 673, σοφώτερʼ ἢ κατʼ ἄνδρα συμβαλεῖν ἔπη . Soph. Aj. 747, μὴ κατʼ ἄνθρωπον φρονεῖ . Comp. Aj. 764; Oed. Col. 604; Plat. Pol. 2. 359 D. The opposite, ὑπὲρ ἄνθρωπον εἶναι , Lucian, Vit. auct. 2. Looking to the context, the view of Grotius is too narrow, “nihil humani affectus admixtum habet.” Bengel hits the mark, “non est humani census evangelium meum.”
[23] See Hofmann’s interpretation of i. 11–ii. 14 in his heil. Schr. N. T. I. p. 60 ff., ed. 2. On the other hand, see Hilgenfeld, Kanon u. Kritik d. N. T. p. 190 ff.
[24] If γάρ were the correct reading (Hofmann), it would correspond to the immediately preceding contrast between ἀνθρώποις and Χριστοῦ , confirming ver. 10, but would not introduce a justification of ver. 9, as Hofmann, arbitrarily going back beyond ver. 10, assumes.