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Gal_6:16. The heart, full of the great truth in Gal_6:15, has now a wish of blessing for all who follow it in their conduct. The simple and, carrying on the train of thought and linking it with Gal_6:15, serves to express this wish. A reference to Gal_6:14, so as to connect our verse with the wish therein contained (Hofmann), is not required by καί , and is forbidden by the importance of Gal_6:15, which would in that case have to be reduced to a mere parenthetical insertion.
The emphasis lies not on τούτῳ , but on τῷ κανόνι (comp. on 1Co_15:19); for it is the very canonical character of the saying in Gal_6:15 which has to be brought out: “who shall walk according to the guiding line, which is herein given.” We are prohibited from assigning to κανών the non-literal meaning rule, maxim (as is usually done; see Schott in loc.), by the figurative στοιχήσουσιν , which requires the literal meaning guiding line (2Co_10:13 ff.), that is, in this passage, a line defining the direction of the way; as such, the maxim expressed in Gal_6:15 is placed before them. As to στοιχεῖν , comp. on Gal_5:25. The anacoluthic nominative ὅσοι κ . τ . λ . has rhetorical emphasis, directing the whole attention of the readers first to the subject in itself which is under discussion. Comp. on Mat_7:24; Mat_10:14; Joh_1:12; Act_7:40. The future στοιχήσ . (comp. Gal_5:10) applies to the time of receiving the letter (comp. τοῦ λοιποῦ , Gal_6:17). Paul hopes that the letter will have a converting and strengthening effect upon many readers, but makes the question, who should be warranted in applying to himself the concluding blessing, depend on the result.
εἰρήνη ἐπʼ αὐτοὺς καὶ ἔλεος ] sc. εἴη ,[270] welfare ( ùìåí ; see on Eph_6:23; Joh_14:27) on them, and mercy (Tittm. Synon. p. 69 f). Comp. 1Ti_1:2; 2Ti_1:2; Jud_1:2; 2Jn_1:3, in which passages ἜΛΕΟς stands first. Here it follows after, not because Paul intended at first to write ΕἸΡΉΝΗ only (so, arbitrarily, Olshausen), nor because in ἜΛΕΟς he had specially in view the day of judgment (Hofmann), which indeed is expressly added in 2Ti_1:18, but because he has thought of the effect produced before the producing cause. What welfare it is that Paul wishes—namely, all Messianic welfare—is obvious of itself. The peace of reconciliation forms a part of it. ἜΛΕΟς is, moreover, to be considered as neuter, because Paul throughout so uses it (even in Tit_3:5 it is neuter, according to decisive testimony); although the neuter form, which very often occurs in the LXX., is but very rarely found in classical authors. See Dindorf, ad Diod. iii. 18; Kühner, I. p. 396, c. ed. 2.
In ἐπʼ αὐτούς is implied the idea that welfare and mercy come down upon them from heaven. Comp. Luk_2:25; Luk_2:40; Luk_4:18; 2Co_12:9; Mar_1:10; Act_19:6, et al.
καὶ ἐπὶ τὸν Ἰσραὴλ τοῦ Θεοῦ ] That this is a reminiscence of Psa_125:5; Psa_128:6 (Theophylact, Erasmus, and others; also Rückert, Schott, de Wette, Reiche), could only be assumed without dealing arbitrarily, if, instead of καὶ ἐπὶ τὸν Ἰσρ . τοῦ Θεοῦ , Paul had written: εἰρήνη ἑπὶ τὸν Ἰσραήλ ! which, after the instruction given by him in Gal_4:21 ff., he might have written without any danger of misunderstanding. Still less can the expression be referred to Psa_73:1; for which purpose Hofmann employs an impossible interpretation of the Hebrew text of the passage. The Israel of God, that is, as contrasted with Jacob’s bodily descendants as such (comp. Rom_9:6; 1Co_10:18; Php_3:3), the Israelites who belong to God as His own, and therefore form the real people of God ideally viewed (comp. also Joh_1:48), are at any rate the true Christians.[271] But according as καί is taken either as explanatory or as conjunctive, we may understand either the true Christians in general, Jewish and Gentile Christians (Chrysostom, Theodoret, Luther, Calvin, Pareus, Cornelius a Lapide, Calovius, Baumgarten, Koppe, Rosenmüller, Borger, Winer, Paulus, Olshausen, Baumgarten-Crusius, Wieseler, and others), or the truly converted Jews (Ambrosiaster, Beza, Grotius, Estius, Schoettgen, Bengel, Rückert, Matthies, Schott, de Wette, Ewald, Reithmayr, and others; Usteri does not decide). If we adopt the latter interpretation, we must either (with Grotius, Schott, Bengel, Ewald) refer the foregoing ὅσοι and ΑὐΤΟΎς to the Gentile Christians,—a view which is, however, decisively at variance with the universal ὍΣΟΙ , and with the description excluding any national reference, Τῷ ΚΑΝΌΝΙ ΤΟΎΤῼ ΣΤΟΙΧ .—or (with Rückert, Matthies, de Wette, Reithmayr, and others) we must explain the train of thought as follows: “Salvation be upon all true Christians, and more especially (to mention these in particular; see on Mar_1:5; Mar_16:7) on all true Jewish Christians!” But however near Paul’s fellow-countrymen were to his heart (Rom_9:1), he not only had no ground in the context for bringing them forward here so specially; but any such distinction would even be quite improperly introduced—especially in the deeply-impassioned close of the letter—in presence of churches which consisted principally of Gentile Christians and had been involved by Jewish interference in violent controversies. And even apart from this, no reader to whom the teaching of the apostle as to the true Israelites was familiar (and see Gal_3:7, Gal_4:21 ff.) could think that τὸν Ἰσρ . τοῦ Θεοῦ referred to Jewish Christians only; this would be opposed to the specific conception of Paul on this point. We must adhere, therefore, to the explicative view of καί as the correct one (1Co_3:5; 1Co_8:12; 1Co_15:38; Joh_1:16), and indeed, namely, so that it introduces an appropriate, more precise description (Hartung, Partikell. I. p. 145 f.; Winer, p. 407 [E. T. 545 f.]) of the subjects previously characterized. Hofmann is wrong in objecting that the epexegetical καί is always climactic; see Hermann ad Viger. p. 838. Moreover, the designation of all those, who shall walk according to that entirely anti-Jewish rule of conduct, as the Israelites of God, forms as it were the final triumph of the whole epistle over the Judaistic practices, the very aim of which was to assert the title of the Ἰσραὴλ κατὰ αάρκα to the heritage of salvation. Hofmann is entirely mistaken in his view that ΚΑΊ is even, and that the Israel of God are the Jew-Christians, so that Paul expresses the idea that he desired to include even these in his wish. It was, indeed, obvious that in ἐπʼ αὐτούς they could not be, and were not intended to be, excluded; but Paul was neither so unwise nor so devoid of tact as expressly to state that self-evident point, as if there could possibly be any doubt about it. By adding this last word, he would only have offended the theocratical point of honour (Rom_1:16). Lastly, Matthias also is wrong in supposing that καὶ ἐπὶ τὸν Ἰσρ . τοῦ Θεοῦ begins the new sentence (Gal_6:17): “And concerning the Israel of God henceforth let no man,” etc. This interpretation ought to have been prevented by the solemn repetition of the preposition, which indeed on the second occasion would acquire quite a different sense (concerning).
[270] Taken as a wish of blessing, the thought harmonizes more naturally with the conclusion of the epistle, than if it is taken as an affirmation (de Wette, ἔσται or ἐστίν ). Chrysostom and Theophylact appear to have supplied ἔσται ; but Theodoret takes it as wish: ἐπηύξατο τὸν ἔλεον κ . τὴν εἰρήνην .
[271] Not the Jews (Morus), nor even the pious Jews,—those, namely, who have not rejected the gospel out of stubbornness, and permit the hope of their coming to recognise the rule expressed in ver. 15 (Reiche, p. 97 f.). The apostle, according to his whole system, could not understand under the ideal Israel of God any others than believers (Gal_3:7; Gal_3:29, Gal_4:26; Rom_9:6-8). To him the καινὴ κτίσις in ver. 15 was not conceivable otherwise than as necessarily conditioned by faith (Gal_3:28; Eph_2:10); hence he could not expect of any Jew not yet converted, however pious he might be as an observer of the law, that he would walk according to the canon of ver. 15.