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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadCambridge Greek Testament for Schools and Colleges - Galatians 1:14 - 1:14
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This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
14. καὶ προέκοπτον. Always intransitive in the N.T. as sometimes in classical Greek. Cf. προκοπή Php 1:12; Php 1:25 and ἐνκόπτω, ch. Gal 5:7. So on a papyrus of the 2nd cent. A.D. a young soldier thinking of his promotion writes ἐλπίζω ταχὺ προκόσαι (προκόψαι, Deissmann, Licht vom Osten, p. 118); and on an inscription of the 1st cent. A.D. it is said of a person that he μέχρι τᾶς τῶν Σεβαστῶν γνώσεως προκό[ψ]αντος “advanced to personal acquaintance with the Emperors (Augustus and Tiberius),” ibid. p. 277.
ὑπὲρ πολλοὺς. With some modesty. Doubtless he could have said πάντας.
συνηλικιώτας[50]. Cf. the quotation from Polybius Gal 1:13. In Theodotion’s translation of Dan 1:10 we find συνήλικος.
[50] Is affixed it means that all the passages are mentioned where the word occurs in the Greek Bible.
περισσοτέρως, “somewhat excessively.”
ζηλωτὴς. Cf. ζηλόω Gal 4:17 bis, 18. So he describes himself as ζηλωτὴς ὑπάρχων τοῦ θεοῦ καθὼς πάντες ὑμεῖς ἐστὲ σήμερον in Act 22:3. Cf. also Php 3:6. The same word is used of the Jewish Christians in Jerusalem, Act 21:20. It would imply that he belonged to the party of the Pharisees but not more than this. On the other hand Simon ὁ καλούμενος Ζηλωτής Luk 6:15, ὁ ζηλωτής Act 1:13, doubtless belonged once to the extreme wing of that party which both before and after this time worked so much mischief politically. For its meaning here cf. Mattathias’ words in Josephus, Ant. XII. 6. 2 (§ 271) εἴ τις ζηλωτής ἐστιν τῶν πατρίων ἐθῶν καὶ τῆς τοῦ θεοῦ θρησκείας ἑπέσθω ἐμοί.
ὑπάρχων. Gal 2:14; Act 16:20; Act 16:37, i.e. from the very first and all the time.
τῶν πατρικῶν[51] μου παραδόσεων, “of the traditions of my fathers.” παράδοσις, when referring to Jewish teachings, is used so specifically of the Oral in contrast to the Written Law (Mar 7:3-13; Josephus, Ant. XIII. 10. 6 (§ 297), 16. 2 (§ 408)), that there can be little doubt that St Paul uses it so here. His phrase is thus a summary statement of the great principle of the Oral Law, the existence and importance of traditions explanatory of the Written Law and supplementary to it, systematically handed down. By the addition of μου St Paul seems to indicate that he uses πατρικός in its stricter sense (Gen 50:8; Lev 22:13; Sir 42:10; 4Ma 18:7) of his own relations, not in the wider sense of ancestral as belonging to all Jews; see πατρῷος (Act 22:3; Act 24:14; Act 28:17[52]) and πάτριος (Ecclus. Prol.). He doubtless mentions his own ancestors as being in the chain of tradition, which began (technically speaking) with Moses, because they were not only of purest Hebrew blood, but also Pharisees (Php 3:5; Act 23:6). In Act 22:3 ὁ πατρῷος νόμος seems to refer primarily to the written Law. See also Col 2:8 note.
[51] Is affixed to a word it means that all the passages are mentioned where that word occurs in the New Testament.
[52] Is affixed to a word it means that all the passages are mentioned where that word occurs in the New Testament.