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Gal_1:6. Without prefixing, as in other epistles, even in those to the Corinthians, a conciliatory preamble setting forth what was commendable in his readers, Paul at once plunges in mediam rem. He probably wrote without delay, immediately on receiving the accounts which arrived as to the falling away of his readers, while his mind was still in that state of agitated feeling which prevented him from using his customary preface of thanksgiving and conciliation,—a painful irritation ( πυροῦμαι , 2Co_11:29), which was the more just, that in the case of the Galatians, the very foundation and substance of his gospel threatened to fall to pieces.
θαυμάζω ] often used by Greek orators in the sense of surprise at something blameworthy. Dem. 349. 3; Sturz, Lex. Xen. II. p. 511; Abresch, Diluc. Thuc. p. 309. In the N.T., comp. Mar_6:6; Joh_7:21; 1Jn_3:13.
οὕτω ταχέως ] so very quickly, so recently, may denote either the rapid development of the apostasy (comp. 2Th_2:2; 1Ti_5:22; Wis_14:28), as Chrysostom ( οὐδὲ χρόνου δέονται οἱ ἀπατῶντες ὑμᾶς κ . τ . λ .), Theophylact, Koppe, Schott, de Wette, Windischmann, Ellicott, Hofmann, Reithmayr understand it; or its early occurrence (1Co_4:19; Php_2:19, et al.), whether reckoned from the last visit of the apostle (Bengel, Flatt, Hilgenfeld, Wieseler) or from the conversion of the readers (Usteri, Olshausen). The latter is preferable, because it corresponds with ἀπὸ τοῦ καλέσαντος κ . τ . λ ., whereby the time of the calling is indicated as the terminus a quo. Comp. Gal_3:1-3. This view is not inconsistent with the fact that the epistle was written a considerable time after the conversion of the readers; for, at all events, they had been Christians for but a few years, which the οὕτω ταχέως as a relative idea still suits well enough. By their μετατίθεσθαι they showed themselves to be πρόσκαιροι (Mat_13:21), and this surprises the apostle. As to οὕτω , comp. on Gal_3:3.
μετατίθεσθε ] μετατίθημι , to transpose, in the middle, to alter one’s opinion, to become of another mind, and generally to fall away (with εἰς , App. Hisp. 17; Sir_6:8; with πρός , Polyb. xxvi. 2. 6). See Wetstein in loc.; Kypke, II. p. 273; Ast. ad Plat. de Leg. p. 497; from the LXX., Schleusner, s.v.; and from Philo, Loesner, p. 325. It might also be understood in a passive sense (Theodoras of Mopsuestia, μετατίθ ., not μετάγεσθε , is used: ὡς ἐπὶ ἀψύχων ; Beza, “verbum passivum usurpavit, ut culpam in pseudo-apostolos derivet”). But the use of the middle in this sense is the common one; so that the passive sense, and the nicety which, according to Beza, is involved in it, must have been more definitely indicated to the reader in order to be recognised. The present tense denotes that the readers were still in the very act of the falling away, which began so soon after their conversion. According to Jerome, the word itself is intended to convey an allusion to the name Galatia: “Galatia enim translationem in nostra lingua sonat” ( âÌÈìÈä ; hence âÌå̇ìÈä , âÌÈìåÌú carrying away). Although approved by Bertholdt, this idea is nevertheless an empty figment, because the thing suggested the expression, and these Hebrew words denote the μετατίθεσθαι in the sense of exile (see Gesenius, Thes. I. p. 285). But from an historical point of view, the appeals of Grotius and Wetstein to the fickleness of the Gallic character (Caes. B. Gall. iii. 19, iv. 5, ii. 1, iii. 10) are not without interest as regards the Galatians.
ἀπὸ τοῦ καλέσαντος ὑμᾶς ἐν χάριτι Χ .] On ἀπό , away from, comp. 2Ma_7:24; and see generally, Kühner, § 622 c. The τοῦ καλέσαντος is not to be taken with Χριστοῦ , as Syr., Jerome, Erasmus (in the version, not in the paraphrase and annotations), Luther, Calvin, Grotius, Bengel, and others, also Morus and Flatt, understand it; against which may be urged, not (with Matthies and Schott) the want of the article before Χριστοῦ (see on Rom_9:5; comp. also 1Pe_1:15), but the fact that the calling into the kingdom of the Messiah is presented by Paul (and the apostles generally) so constantly as the work of God, that we must not deviate from this analogy in explaining the words (see on Rom_1:6; and Weiss, Bibl. Theol. p. 387). Thence, also, τοῦ καλέσ . is not to be taken as neuter, and referred to the gospel (Ewald); but ὁ καλέσας is God, and Χριστοῦ belongs to ἐν χάριτι , from Him who has called you through the grace of Christ. Ἐν χάριτι Χριστοῦ is instrumental; for the grace of Christ (Act_15:11; Rom_5:15; 2Co_8:9; Tit_3:6 : comp. also Rom_16:20; 2Co_12:9; 2Co_13:13; Phm_1:25), that is, the favour of Christ unmerited by sinful men, according to which He gave up His life to atone for them (comp. Gal_1:4), is that by which, that is, by the preaching of which, the divine calling reaches the subjects of it; comp. Act_14:3; Act_20:24. So καλεῖν with ἐν , 1Co_7:15; Eph_4:4; 1Th_4:7; to which passages the interpretation “on the ground of grace” (Wieseler) is not suitable. Others take ἐν for εἰς (Vulgate, Tertullian, Cyprian, Ambrose, Beza and others, also Borger and Rückert); so that by brevity of language ἐν , indicating the result of the direction, includes within it this also; see Winer, p. 388 [E. T. 514]. This is unnecessarily forced, for such a constructio praegnans in Greek and in the N.T. is undisputed only in the case of verbs of motion (as ἔρχεσθαι , εἰσιέναι , ἐμπίπτειν , κ . τ . λ .). Comp. also Hartung, über d. Kas. p. 68 f. In point of sense, moreover, this view is liable to the objection that the κλῆσις always refers to the Messianic kingdom (1Th_2:12; 1Ti_6:12; 2Th_2:14; 1Pe_5:10; Rev_19:9, et al.; also 1Co_1:9, and passages such as Col_3:15; 1Th_4:7), and the grace of Christ is that which procures the Messianic σωτηρία (Rom_5:15, et al.), and not the σωτηρία itself. On the absence of the article before χάριτι , see Winer, p. 118 f. [E. T. 147 f.]
Observe, moreover how the whole mode of setting forth the apostasy makes the readers sensible of its antagonism to God and salvation! Comp. Chrysostom and Theodoret.
εἰς ἕτερον εὐαγγ .] to a gospel of a different quality, from that, namely, which was preached to you when God called you. Comp. 2Co_11:4. The contrast is based on the previous designation of their calling as having taken place ἐν χάριτι Χριστοῦ (not somehow by the law),—a statement clearly enough indicating the specific nature of the Pauline gospel, from which the nature of the Judaistic teaching, although the Galatians had likewise received the latter as the gospel for which it had been passed off, was withal so different ( ἕτερον ). Comp. Gal_1:8.