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Gal_4:19. This verse is not to be attached to the preceding (Bos, Bengel, Knapp, Lachmann, Rückert, Usteri, Schott, Ewald, Hofmann),—a construction which makes this earnest, touching address appear awkward and dissimilar in character to what is previously said,—but the words are to be separated from what precedes by a full stop, and to be joined with what follows, the tender affection of which is quite in harmony with this loving address. Difficulty has been felt as to δέ in Gal_4:20 (which therefore is omitted in Chrysostom and some min.); but only from inattention to the Greek use of δέ after the address, when the writer turns to a new thought, and does so with a tacit antithesis, which is to be recognised from the context. It is found so not merely with questions (Hom. Il. xv. 244; Plat. Legg. x. p. 890 E; Xen. Mem. i. 3. 13, ii. 1. 26; Soph, O. C. 323. 1459), but also in other instances (Herod. 1. 115; Xen. Anab. v. 5. 13, vi. 6. 12). Here the slight antithetic reference lies, as the very repetition of παρεῖναι πρὸς ὑμᾶς indicates, in his glancing back to καὶ μὴ μόνον κ . τ . λ ., namely: “Although zeal in a good cause ought not to be restricted merely to my presence with you, I yet would wish to be now present with you,” etc. The δέ of the apodosis, which Wieseler here assumes, is not suitable, because ἤθελον δέ κ . τ . λ . does not stand in any kind of antithesis to τεκν . μου οὓς πάλ . ὠδίνω κ . τ . λ .; and besides, no connected construction would result from it; for the idea: “Because ye are my children … I would wish,” does not correspond with the words. According to Hilgenfeld, that which the address is intended to introduce (viz. to move the readers to return) is wholly suppressed, and is supposed to be thereby the more strikingly suggested. Comp. also Reithmayr. But the affectionate tenor of the wish which follows in Gal_4:20 harmonizes so fully with the tender address in Gal_4:19, that that hypothesis, which Calvin also entertained (“hic quasi moerore exanimatus in medio sententiae tractu deficit”), does not seem warranted. Nevertheless Buttmann also, neut. Gr. p. 331, assumes an anacoluthon.
τεκνία μου ] The word τεκνία , so frequent in John, is not found elsewhere in Paul’s writings. But Lachmann and Usteri ought not to have adopted (following B F G à *) the reading τέκνα , since it is just in this passage, where Paul compares himself to a mother in childbirth, that the phrase “my little children” finds a more special motive and warrant than in any other passage where he uses τέκνα (1Co_4:14; 2Co_6:13 : comp. also 1Ti_1:18; 2Ti_2:1).
οὕς ] The well-known constructio κατὰ σύνεσιν . Winer, p. 133 [E. T. 176].
πάλιν ὠδίνω ] whom I once more travail with. Paul represents himself, not, as elsewhere (1Co_4:15; Phm_1:10), as a father, but in the special emotion of his love, as a mother who is in travail, and whose labour is not brought to an end (by the actual final birth) until nothing further is requisite for the full and mature formation of the τεκνίον . So long as this object is not attained, according to the figurative representation, the ὠδίνειν still continues.[207] Bengel remarks very correctly: “Loquitur ut res fert, nam in partu naturali formatio est ante dolores partus.” The point of comparison is the loving exertion, which perseveres amidst trouble and pain in the effort to bring about the new Christian life. This metaphorical ὠδίνειν had been on the first occasion easy and joyful, Gal_4:13 ff. (although it had not had the full and lasting result; see afterwards, on ἌΧΡΙς ΟὟ Κ . Τ . Λ .); but on this second occasion it was severe and painful, and on this account the word ὨΔΊΝΩ is chosen (and not ΤΊΚΤΩ or ΓΕΝΝῶ ), which, however, is also appropriate to the earlier act of bearing intimated in ΠΆΛΙΝ , since the idea of pains is essential to the conception of a birth, however slight and short they may be. The sense, when stripped of figure, is: “My beloved disciples! at whose conversion I am labouring for the second time with painful and loving exertion, until ye shall have become maturely-formed Christians.” This continuous οὓς πάλιν ὠδίνω is to be conceived as begun, so soon as Paul had learned the apostasy of his readers and had commenced to counteract it; so that his operations during his second visit (comp. ἀληθεύων ὑμῖν , Gal_4:16) are thus also included: hence we cannot, with Fritzsche (l.c. p. 244) and Ulrich (in the Stud. u. Krit. 1836, p. 459), consider Gal_4:18-19 as intimating that Paul had only once visited Galatia. According to Wieseler, πάλιν ὠδίνω is intended to express the idea of the ΠΑΛΙΓΓΕΝΕΣΊΑ , Tit_3:5; Paul had regenerated his readers already at their conversion, and here says that he is still continuously occupied in their regeneration, until they should have attained the goal of perfection on the part of the Christian—similarity with Christ. This is incorrect, because πάλιν must necessarily denote a second act of travail on the part of Paul. Paul certainly effected the regeneration of his readers on occasion of the first ὠδίνειν , which is presupposed by ΠΆΛΙΝ ; but because they had relapsed (Gal_1:6, Gal_3:1, Gal_4:9 f., et al.), he must be for the second time in travail with them, and not merely still continuously (an idea which is not expressed) their regenerator, so that the idea of the πάλιν , the repetition, would be on the part of the readers. Theophylact (comp. Chrysostom) aptly defines the sense of πάλιν ὠδίνω not as that of a continued ἈΝΑΓΈΝΝΗΣΙς , but as that of ΠΆΛΙΝ ἙΤΈΡΑς ἈΝΑΓΕΝΝΉΣΕΩς . The sense, “whose regeneration I am continuing,” would have been expressed by Paul in some such form as ΟὛς Οὐ ΠΑΎΟΜΑΙ ἈΝΑΓΕΝΝῶΝ or ΟὛς ἜΤΙ ΚΑῚ ΝῦΝ ἈΝΑΓΕΝΝῶ .
ἌΧΡΙς ΟὟ ΜΟΡΦΩΘῇ ΧΡΙΣΤῸς ἘΝ ὙΜῖΝ ] A shadow is thus thrown on the result of the first conversion (birth), which had undergone so sudden a change (Gal_1:6). The reiterated labour of birth is not to cease until, etc. This meaning, and along with it the emphasis of the ἄχρις οὗ κ . τ . λ ., has been missed by Hofmann, who, instead of referring ΠΆΛΙΝ to ὨΔΊΝΩ only, extends it also to ἌΧΡΙς ΟὟ Κ . Τ . Λ . In connection with the general scope of the passage, however, the stress is on ΜΟΡΦΩΘῇ : “until Christ shall have been formed, shall have attained His due conformation, in you,” that is, until ye shall have attained to the fully-formed inner life of the Christian. For the state of “Christ having been formed in man” is by no means realized “so soon as a man becomes a Christian” (Hofmann), but, as clearly appears from the notion of the ἄχρις οὗ , is the goal of development which the process of becoming Christian has to reach. When this goal is attained, the Christian is he in whom Christ lives (comp. on Gal_2:20); as, for instance, on Paul himself the specific form of life of his Master was distinctly stamped. So long, therefore, as the Galatians were not yet developed and morally shaped into this complete inward frame, they were still like to an immature embryo, the internal parts of which have not yet acquired their normal shape, and which cannot therefore as yet come to the birth and so put an end to the ὠδίνειν . In the Christian, Christ is to inhabit the heart (Eph_3:17): in him there is to be the ΝΟῦς of Christ (1Co_2:16), the ΠΝΕῦΜΑ of Christ (Rom_8:9), the ΣΠΛΆΓΧΝΑ of Christ (Php_1:8); and the body and its members are to be the body and members of Christ (1Co_6:13; 1Co_6:15). All this, which is comprehended in the idea ΧΡΙΣΤῸς ἘΝ ὙΜῖΝ , is in our passage rendered intelligible by the representation that Christ is to be formed in us, or to become present in the life-form corresponding to His nature. This view is not different in reality, although it is so in the mode of representation, from that of spiritual transformation after the image of Christ (2Co_3:18); for, according to our passage, Christ Himself is in Christians the subject of the specific development. Bengel moreover, well remarks: “Christus, non Paulus, in Galatis formandus.”
μορφόω ] occurs here only in the N.T.; but see LXX. Isa_44:13 (ed. Breit.); Symmachus, Psa_34:1; Arat. Phaen. 375; Lucian, Prom. 3; Plut. de anim. general, p. 1013; Theophr. c. pl. v. 6, 7. See also Jacobs, ad Anthol. VI. p. 345.
[207] Heinsius, Grotius, Koppe, Rückert, and others, erroneously hold that ὠδίνειν here means to be pregnant, which it never does, not even in the LXX., Isa_26:17; Psa_7:15; Son_8:5; Philo, quod Deus immut. p. 313 B; Plat. Theaet. p. 148 C, 210 B. On ὠδίνειν with the accusative of the person, comp. parturire aliquem, Isa_51:2; Son_8:5; Eur. Iph. A. 1234.