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Gal_1:15. But when it pleased, etc. Comp. Luk_12:32; 1Co_1:21; Rom_15:26; Col_1:19; 1Th_2:8; 1Th_3:1. It denotes, of course, the free placuit of the divine decree, but is here conceived as an act in time, which is immediately followed by the execution of it, not as from eternity (Beza).
ὁ ἀφορίσας με ἐκ κοιλίας μητρός μου ] who separated me, that is, in His counsel set me apart from other men for a special destination, from my mother’s womb; that is, not in the womb (Wieseler); nor, from the time when I was in the womb (Hofmann, comp. Möller); nor, ere I was born (Rückert); but, as soon as I had issued from the womb, from my birth. Comp. Psa_22:11; Isa_44:2; Isa_49:1; Isa_49:5; Mat_19:12; Act_3:2; Act_14:8 (in Luk_1:15, where ἔτι is added, the thought is different). ἐκ γενετῆς , Joh_9:1, has the same meaning. Comp. the Greek ἐκ γαστρός , and the like. We must not assume a reference to Jer_1:5 (Grotius, Semler, Reithmayr, and others), for in that passage there is an essentially different definition of time ( πρὸ τοῦ με πλάσαι σε ἐν κοιλίᾳ κ . τ . λ .). We may add, that this designation of God completely corresponds with Paul’s representation of his apostolic independence of men. What it was, to which God had separated him from his birth and had called him (at Damascus), is of course evident in itself and from Gal_1:1; but it also results from the sequel (Gal_1:16). It was the apostleship, which he recognised as a special proof of free and undeserved divine grace (Rom_1:4; Rom_12:3; Rom_15:15; 1Co_15:10); hence here also he adds διὰ τῆς χάριτος αὐτοῦ .[28] Rückert is wrong in asserting that καλέσας cannot refer here to the call at Damascus, but can only denote the calling to salvation and the apostleship in the Divine mind. In favour of this view he adduces the aorist, which represents the κλῆσις as previous to the εὐδόκησεν ἀποκαλύψαι , and also the connection of καλέσας with ἀφορίσας by means of καί . Both arguments are based upon the erroneous idea that the revelation of the gospel was coincident with the calling of the apostle. But Paul was first called at Damascus by the miraculous appearance of Christ, which laid hold of him without any detailed instruction (Php_3:12), and thereafter, through the apocalyptic operation of God, the Son of God was revealed in him: the κλῆσις at Damascus preceded this ἀποκάλυψις ;[29] the former called him to the service, the latter furnished him with the contents, of the gospel. Comp. on Gal_1:12. Moreover, the ΚΛΉΣΙς is never an act in the Divine mind, but always an historical fact (Rom_8:30). This also militates against Hofmann, who makes ἘΚ ΚΟΙΛΊΑς ΜΗΤΡΌς ΜΟΥ belong to ΚΑΛΈΣΑς as well—a connection excluded by the very position of the words. And what a strange definition of the idea conveyed by ΚΑΛΕῖΝ , and how completely foreign to the N.T., is the view of Hofmann, who makes it designate “an act executed in the course of the formation of this man”! Moreover, our passage undoubtedly implies that by the calling and revelation here spoken of the consciousness of apostleship—and apostleship in reference to the heathen—was divinely produced in Paul, and became clear and certain. This, however, does not exclude, but is, on the contrary, a divine preparation for, the fuller development of this consciousness in its more definite aspects by means of experience and the further guidance of Christ and His Spirit.
[28] For διὰ τ . χάρ . αὐτοῦ belongs to καλέσας as a modal definition of it, and not to ἀποκαλύψαι , as Hofmann, disregarding the symmetrically similar construction of the two participial statements, groundlessly asserts. Paul knew himself to be κλητὸς ἀπόστολος διὰ θελήματος Θεοῦ (1Co_1:1; 2Co_1:1), and he knew that this θέλημα was that of the divine grace, 1Co_15:10; 1Co_3:10; Gal_2:9; Rom_1:5; Rom_12:3.
[29] Hence also ἐν ἐμοί by no means diminishes the importance of the external phenomenon at Damascus (as Baur and others contend).