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Gal_1:18. Ἔπειτα ] After that, namely, after my second sojourn in Damascus—whence he escaped, as is related Act_9:24 f.; 2Co_11:32 f. The more precise statement of time then follows in the words μετὰ ἔτη τρία (comp. Gal_2:1), in which the terminus a quo is taken to be either his conversion (as by most expositors, including Winer, Fritzsche, Rückert, Usteri, Matthies, Schott, Olshausen, Baumgarten-Crusius, de Wette, Hilgenfeld, Ewald, Wieseler, Hofmann, Reithmayr, Caspari) or his return from Arabia (Marsh, Koppe, Borger). The former is to be preferred, as is suggested by the context in οὐδὲ ἀπῆλθον εἰς Ἱεροσόλυμα … μετὰ ἔτη τρία ἀνῆλθον εἰς Ἱεροσολ . Comp. also on Gal_2:1.
ἀνῆλθον εἰς Ἱεροσ .] This is (contrary to Jerome’s view) the first journey to Jerusalem, not omitted in the Acts (Laurent), but mentioned in Act_9:26. The quite untenable arguments of Köhler (Abfassungszeit, p. 1 f.) against this identity are refuted by Anger, Rat. temp. p. 124 f. It must, however, be conceded that the account in Acts must receive a partial correction from our passage (see on Act_9:26 f.); a necessity, however, which is exaggerated by Baur, Hilgenfeld, and Zeller, and is attributed to intentional alteration of the history on the part of the author of Acts, it being supposed that the latter was unwilling to do the very thing which Paul in our passage wishes, namely, to bring out his independence of the original apostles. But this consciousness of independence is not to be exaggerated, as if Paul had felt himself “alien in the very centre of his being” from Peter (Holsten).
ἱστορῆσαι Κηφᾶν ] in order to make the personal acquaintance of Cephas; not, therefore, in order to obtain instruction. But the position of Peter as κορυφαῖος (Theodoret) in the apostolic circle, especially urged by the Catholics (see Windischmann and Reithmayr), appears at all events from this passage to have been then known to Paul and acknowledged by him. Ἱστορεῖν , coram cognoscere, which does not occur elsewhere in the N.T., is found in this sense applied to a person also in Joseph. Bell. vi. 1. 8, οὐκ ἄσημος ὤν ἀνὴρ , ὃν ἐγὼ κατʼ ἐκεῖνον ἱστόρησα τὸν πόλεμον , Antt. i. 11. 4, viii. 2. 5; frequently also in the Clementines. It is often used by Greek authors (comp also the passages from Josephus in Krebs, Obss. p. 318) in reference to things, as τὴν πόλιν , τὴν χώραν , τὴν νόσον κ . τ . λ . See Wetstein and Kypke. Bengel, moreover, well says: “grave verbum ut de re magna; non dixit ἰδεῖν (as in Joh_12:21) sed ἱστορῆσαι .” Comp. Chrysostom.
καὶ ἐπέμεινα πρὸς αὐτόν ] Comp. 1Co_16:7. πρός , with, conveys the direction of the intercourse implied in ἐπέμ . Comp. Mat_26:55; Joh_1:1; and the passages in Fritzsche, ad Marc. p. 202. Comp. Ellendt, Lex. Soph. II. p. 653.
ἡμέρας δεκαπέντε ] For the historical cause why he did not remain longer, see Act_9:29; Act_22:17 ff. The intention, however, which induced Paul to specify the time, is manifest from the whole connection,—that the reader might judge for himself whether so short a sojourn, the object of which was to become personally acquainted for the first time with Peter, could have been also intended for the further object of receiving evangelic instruction, especially when Paul had himself been preaching the gospel already so long (for three years). This intention is denied by Rückert, because the period of fifteen days was not so short but that during it Paul might have been instructed by Peter. But Paul is giving an historical account; and in doing this the mention of a time so short could not but be welcome to him for his purpose, without his wishing to give it forth as a stringent proof. This, notwithstanding what Paul emphatically adds in Gal_1:19, it certainly was not, as is evident even from the high representative repute of Peter.[36] But the briefer his stay at that time, devoted to making the personal acquaintance of Peter, had been, the more it told against the notion of his having received instruction, although Paul naturally could not, and would not, represent this time as shorter than it had really been. Rückert’s arbitrary conjecture is therefore quite superfluous, that Paul mentions the fifteen days on account of the false allegation of his opponents that he had been first brought to Christianity by the apostles, or had, at any rate, spent a long time with them and as their disciple, but that he sought ungratefully and arrogantly either to conceal or deny these facts. According to Holsten, Peter and James were the representatives of the ἕτερον εὐαγγ ., who in consequence could not have exerted any influence on Paul’s Gentile gospel. But this they were not at all. See on Gal_2:1 ff. and on Acts 15.
[36] Hofmann is of opinion that Paul desired his readers to understand that he could not have journeyed to Jerusalem in order to ask the opinion and advice of the “apostolic body” there. As if Peter and James could not have been “apostolic body” enough! Taking refuge in this way behind the distinction between apostles and the apostolic body was foreign to Paul.