HarperCollins Study Bible
Page 519
12.2 Person, Paul himself, who in vv. 2–4 is describing one ecstatic experience. Third heaven, i.e., where Paradise (v. 4) is located. Heavenly journeys were a popular means of claiming divine authentication and were apparently used by Paul’s opponents for this purpose.
12.7 The exact nature of the thorn is unknown; suggestions include physical or mental illness, spiritual trials, persecution, and opposition by adversaries.
12.10 For hardship lists, see note on 4.8–9.
12.11–13 The epilogue to the fool’s speech.
12.11 Super-apostles. See 11.5.
12.12 Signs and wonders and mighty works, three different terms for miracles, which functioned in antiquity to validate wonder-workers and their claims; see Acts 2.22; 14.3; 15.12; Rom 15.19; Heb 2.4.
12.13 I myself did not burden you, i.e., by demanding payment for missionary activities as his rivals apparently did; see 11.7–11; 12.14.
12.14–13.10 Preparations for a third visit.
12.14 Parents for their children. Cf. Mt 15.5–6; 1 Tim 5.4, 8.
12.15 Be spent for you. See Phil 2.17.
12.16–18 Paul was charged with refusing support for himself while deceitfully enriching himself by means of the collection (see chs. 8–9).
12.18 For the role of Titus and the brother, see 8.16–9.5. Many scholars regard this verse as a retrospective reference to the same visit for the collection that is only anticipated in 8.6, 18.
12.19 Building you up. See 10.8.
12.20–21 For other vice lists, a traditional device used by both Jews and Greeks, see Mk 7.21–22; Rom 1.29–31; 13.13; 1 Cor 5.10–11; 6.9–10; Gal 5.19–21.
12.21 Again may modify humble: “my God may humble me again,” i.e., by a repetition of what happened at the second visit; see 2.1–4.
2 Corinthians 13
Further Warning
1This is the third time I am coming to you. “Any charge must be sustained by the evidence of two or three witnesses.” 2I warned those who sinned previously and all the others, and I warn them now while absent, as I did when present on my second visit, that if I come again, I will not be lenient—3since you desire proof that Christ is speaking in me. He is not weak in dealing with you, but is powerful in you. 4For he was crucified in weakness, but lives by the power of God. For we are weak in him,a but in dealing with you we will live with him by the power of God.
5Examine yourselves to see whether you are living in the faith. Test yourselves. Do you not realize that Jesus Christ is in you?—unless, indeed, you fail to meet the test! 6I hope you will find out that we have not failed. 7But we pray to God that you may not do anything wrong—not that we may appear to have met the test, but that you may do what is right, though we may seem to have failed. 8For we cannot do anything against the truth, but only for the truth. 9For we rejoice when we are weak and you are strong. This is what we pray for, that you may become perfect. 10So I write these things while I am away from you, so that when I come, I may not have to be severe in using the authority that the Lord has given me for building up and not for tearing down.
Final Greetings and Benediction
11Finally, brothers and sisters,b farewell.c Put things in order, listen to my appeal,d agree with one another, live in peace; and the God of love and peace will be with you. 12Greet one another with a holy kiss. All the saints greet you.
13The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the communion ofe the Holy Spirit be with all of you.
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a Other ancient authorities read with him
b Gk brothers
c Or rejoice
d Or encourage one another
e Or and the sharing in
13.1 Any charge…witnesses. Deut 19.15; used also in Mt 18.16; 1 Tim 5.19.
13.2 Paul had canceled a previous trip out of leniency; see 1.23.
13.3 The ideas of testing and proving were important in Corinth; see, e.g., 1 Cor 11.28; 16.3; 2 Cor 8.8, 22; 9.13; see also 13.5–7.
13.5 Christ is in you. See Rom 8.10; Gal 2.20; Col 1.27.
13.9, 11 The words translated perfect and put things in order are related in Greek.
13.10 I write these things. This verse gives the ultimate purpose of 2 Cor 10–13; see also 10.8.
13.11–13 The closing of the Letter is typically Pauline; see, e.g., 1 Cor 16.20; 1 Thess 5.23–28.
13.13 The trinitarian formula is anticipated in 1.21–22; also Mt 28.19.
The Letter of Paul to the GALATIANS
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THE BITTERLY POLEMICAL Letter of Paul to the Galatians reflects a critical moment in the early Christian movement’s struggle to define its mission and identity. The apostle Paul founded the churches of Galatia (1.2; 4.13–14), but he now finds his work challenged by unidentified Jewish-Christian teachers who are urging Paul’s converts, formerly pagans (4.8–9), to be circumcised (5.2–12; 6.12–13). Apparently these teachers are also urging the Galatians to observe some other elements of Jewish law and ritual, such as the sabbath and festivals (4.10) and perhaps food laws (4.17, taken with 2.12). Paul discerns in this situation a threat to “the truth of the gospel” (2.5, 14) and composes an impassioned letter to dissuade the Galatians from adopting these religious practices.
Addressees and Date
HOW MANY “CHURCHES OF GALATIA” there were is unknown, and their exact location is a matter of long-standing debate. The term “Galatians” (3.1) originally designated a people of Celtic origin who migrated into central Asia Minor and settled in the region around Ancyra (modern Ankara); however, the Roman province of Galatia extended south toward the Mediterranean to include the cities of Iconium, Lystra, and Derbe, where Paul and Barnabas, according to Acts 14.1–23, founded churches (see map on p. 2060).
Some interpreters hold that the Letter was addressed to these “south Galatian” churches during the period prior to the “apostolic council” described in Acts 15; the council then addressed the controversy that Galatians exemplifies (see Acts 15.1) This reconstruction requires the assumption that the Jerusalem meeting mentioned in Gal 2.1–10 occurred during the “famine relief” visit of Acts 11.27–30. Majority scholarly opinion, however, identifies the council of Acts 15 with the meeting described in Gal 2.1–10, though the two accounts differ somewhat. Under this reading, the Galatian churches were probably in “north Galatia,” and Paul’s missionary activity there is identified with the brief references in Acts 16.6; 18.23.
Both reconstructions presuppose a positive view of Acts as a historical framework within which the Pauline Letters can be placed. The internal evidence of Galatians, however, offers no basis for determining either the geographical location of the churches or the Letter’s date of composition. Some scholars regard Galatians as the earliest of Paul’s Letters (perhaps 48–49 CE); others place it during the mid-50s CE. The Letter’s many thematic links with 2 Corinthians and Romans favor the latter view.
Rival Missionaries and Contested Issues
THE GALATIANS HAVE ENCOUNTERED “a different gospel” (1.6), proclaimed by missionaries whom Paul decries as agitators (5.12) and troublemakers who “want to pervert the gospel of Christ” (1.7). These rival missionaries are not Pharisaic Jews seeking to persuade Paul’s converts to abandon their faith in Jesus; rather, they are Christian Jews who argue that the appropriate next step for Gentiles who have come to trust in Jesus as the Messiah is to undergo circumcision as a sign of their inclusion in God’s covenant. Consequently, the Letter reflects an intra-Christian dispute over whether the marks of Jewish identity should be imposed upon gentile converts.
Even the categories “Christian” and “Jewish” are anachronistic here; the Letter was written before the irrevocable split of church and synagogue, and Paul, no less than the rival missionaries, understands himself as the true interpreter of the Jewish law (4.21; 5.14). Thus he contends that all who live under the cross of Christ in the “new creation” are members of “the Israel of God” (6.14–16).
It appears
that the missionaries wanted gentile converts not just to be circumcised, but to adopt comprehensive observance of Jewish law—particularly if the quotation of Deuteronomy in 3.10 echoes the missionaries’ message. The Antioch incident (2.11–16) shows that some Jewish Christians were adopting a “separate but equal” policy toward gentile Christians, which Paul regards as a manipulative tactic to force gentile Christians to observe Jewish law (2.14).
The rival missionaries must have spotlighted the figure of Abraham (regarded in rabbinic tradition as “the father of proselytes”) and emphasized that God had commanded circumcision to him as a sign of the covenant (Gen 17.9–14). Paul’s extended interpretation of the Abraham story (3.6–18; 4.21–5.1) is a rebuttal to their exegesis.
Paul’s Response: Key Emphases
PAUL INSISTS THAT “RIGHTEOUSNESS” (right covenant relation with God) depends not on observance of Jewish law but on God’s promise and its fulfillment through the death of Jesus Christ (2.21; 3.18, 29). It is debated whether the slogan pistis Iesou Christou (Greek, “faith of/in Jesus Christ” see note on 2.16) refers to Jesus’ faithful death or to the community’s subsequent trust in him; despite venerable interpretive tradition, the former sense is more probable. Either way, Paul’s emphasis falls consistently on God’s initiative in setting human beings free from bondage to sin and to the norms and powers (Greek stoicheia) of the present age (1.4; 2.20–21; 3.13–14; 3.21–22; 4.3–9; 5.1). The crucifixion is an apocalyptic event that marks the end of the old age and the beginning of God’s new creation (6.14–15). To require gentile believers to be circumcised would be to revert to the era “before faith came” and would render the death of Christ pointless (2.21; 3.23–25). Insisting on “works of the law” (2.16) as signs of covenant membership perpetuates a division that Christ’s death was meant to destroy (3.28). That is why the message of the rival missionaries is, in Paul’s eyes, no gospel (1.7).
Significance
GALATIANS OFFERS A WINDOW into formative Christianity and shows that the question of continuity with Jewish law and tradition was an urgent concern at this early date. Paul’s statements about the law in Galatians created acute theological tensions that demanded further reflection (see Romans). His insistence on the radical character and universal scope of God’s grace became a crucial factor in the early church’s self-definition, and it has played a generative role in subsequent Christian theology. [RICHARD B. HAYS]
Galatians 1
Salutation
1Paul an apostle—sent neither by human commission nor from human authorities, but through Jesus Christ and God the Father, who raised him from the dead—2and all the members of God’s familya who are with me,
To the churches of Galatia:
3Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, 4who gave himself for our sins to set us free from the present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father, 5to whom be the glory forever and ever. Amen.
There Is No Other Gospel
6I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting the one who called you in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel—7not that there is another gospel, but there are some who are confusing you and want to pervert the gospel of Christ. 8But even if we or an angelb from heaven should proclaim to you a gospel contrary to what we proclaimed to you, let that one be accursed! 9As we have said before, so now I repeat, if anyone proclaims to you a gospel contrary to what you received, let that one be accursed!
10Am I now seeking human approval, or God’s approval? Or am I trying to please people? If I were still pleasing people, I would not be a servantc of Christ.
Paul’s Vindication of His Apostleship
11For I want you to know, brothers and sisters,d that the gospel that was proclaimed by me is not of human origin; 12for I did not receive it from a human source, nor was I taught it, but I received it through a revelation of Jesus Christ.
13You have heard, no doubt, of my earlier life in Judaism. I was violently persecuting the church of God and was trying to destroy it. 14I advanced in Judaism beyond many among my people of the same age, for I was far more zealous for the traditions of my ancestors. 15But when God, who had set me apart before I was born and called me through his grace, was pleased 16to reveal his Son to me,e so that I might proclaim him among the Gentiles, I did not confer with any human being, 17nor did I go up to Jerusalem to those who were already apostles before me, but I went away at once into Arabia, and afterwards I returned to Damascus.
18Then after three years I did go up to Jerusalem to visit Cephas and stayed with him fifteen days; 19but I did not see any other apostle except James the Lord’s brother. 20In what I am writing to you, before God, I do not lie! 21Then I went into the regions of Syria and Cilicia, 22and I was still unknown by sight to the churches of Judea that are in Christ; 23they only heard it said, “The one who formerly was persecuting us is now proclaiming the faith he once tried to destroy.” 24And they glorified God because of me.
next chapter
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a Gk all the brothers
b Or a messenger
c Gk slave
d Gk brothers
e Gk in me
1.1–5 Key themes of the Letter are introduced: Paul’s apostolic authority and Christ’s death as an act liberating his people from bondage.
1.2 No coauthor is named (cf., e.g., 1 Cor 1.1; 2 Cor 1.1), but Paul does present the Letter as coming from a group of believers (all…with me).
1.3–4 The naming of God as Father anticipates 4.6–7.
1.4 Gave himself for our sins. See 2.20; Mt 26.28; Rom 4.25; 5.8, 15–19; 8.3; 2 Cor 5.21; Titus 2.14; 1 Pet 2.24. According to Jewish apocalyptic thought, the present evil age would be supplanted by “the age to come,” a messianic era in which God’s justice would prevail (see Isa 60; 65.17–25; 2 Esd 7.50, 113; 1 Enoch 91.15–17). Paul sees the death and resurrection of Jesus as a sign that this transformation has already begun (see 6.14–15; Rom 12.2; 1 Cor 7.31; 10.11).
1.6–9 Among Paul’s Letters, only Galatians lacks an opening thanksgiving; instead, Paul rebukes his readers.
1.6 The one who called you, God, not Paul. See v. 15; Rom 8.30; 1 Cor 1.9; 7.17; 1 Thess 2.12; 5.24.
1.8 This shows that Paul is defending not his own personal authority but the truth of the gospel (2.14).
1.9 On the gospel they have received, see note on 3.1; 1 Cor 15.1–5.
1.10 A retort to the charge that Paul is “soft” on observance of the Jewish law for reasons of expediency.
1.11–24 Responding to challenges, Paul tells the story of his own calling in a way that highlights God’s initiative.
1.12 Not…from a human source. Elsewhere (1 Cor 11.23–25; 15.3–7) Paul shows his dependence on early Christian traditions.
1.13 Persecuting the church. See also Acts 8.3; 1 Cor 15.9; Phil 3.6; 1 Tim 1.12–14.
1.14 Advanced, a word commonly used by Stoic philosophers to describe progress in cultivating virtue. Traditions of my ancestors, the Jewish law and the oral traditions concerning its interpretation, as handed down in Pharisaic Judaism. See Acts 22.3; Phil 3.4–6. Zealous recalls the examples of Phinehas (Num 25.10–13), Elijah (1 Kings 19.10), and Mattathias (1 Macc 2.26–27), who employed violence to defend the purity of Israel’s faith.
1.15 God…his grace. The language echoes OT prophetic call narratives; see Isa 49.1–6; Jer 1.5; Rom 1.1–2.
1.16 Reveal his Son to me, lit. reveal his Son in me (see text note e). Paul is to be the instrument of God’s revelation to the Gentiles.
1.17 Arabia, perhaps the Nabatean kingdom, south of Damascus and east of the Jordan River; however, in 4.25 Paul links Arabia with Mount Sinai.
1.18 It is debated whether the three years are to be counted from Paul’s call experience (vv. 15–16) or from his return to Damascus (v. 17). Cephas, Aramaic, “rock.” Paul uses Peter’s Greek name (Petros) only in 2.7–8; cf. Jn 1.42; 1 Cor 1.12; 15.5.
1.19 James, the brother of Jesus (Mk 6.3)
, became a key leader in the Jerusalem church; see 2.9, 12; Acts 12.17; 15.13; 21.18.
1.21 Syria and Cilicia, the areas around Antioch and Tarsus; see Acts 15.23, 41.
Galatians 2
Paul and the Other Apostles
1Then after fourteen years I went up again to Jerusalem with Barnabas, taking Titus along with me. 2I went up in response to a revelation. Then I laid before them (though only in a private meeting with the acknowledged leaders) the gospel that I proclaim among the Gentiles, in order to make sure that I was not running, or had not run, in vain. 3But even Titus, who was with me, was not compelled to be circumcised, though he was a Greek. 4But because of false believersa secretly brought in, who slipped in to spy on the freedom we have in Christ Jesus, so that they might enslave us—5we did not submit to them even for a moment, so that the truth of the gospel might always remain with you. 6And from those who were supposed to be acknowledged leaders (what they actually were makes no difference to me; God shows no partiality)—those leaders contributed nothing to me. 7On the contrary, when they saw that I had been entrusted with the gospel for the uncircumcised, just as Peter had been entrusted with the gospel for the circumcised 8(for he who worked through Peter making him an apostle to the circumcised also worked through me in sending me to the Gentiles), 9and when James and Cephas and John, who were acknowledged pillars, recognized the grace that had been given to me, they gave to Barnabas and me the right hand of fellowship, agreeing that we should go to the Gentiles and they to the circumcised. 10They asked only one thing, that we remember the poor, which was actually what I wasb eager to do.
Paul Rebukes Peter at Antioch
11But when Cephas came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face, because he stood self-condemned; 12for until certain people came from James, he used to eat with the Gentiles. But after they came, he drew back and kept himself separate for fear of the circumcision faction. 13And the other Jews joined him in this hypocrisy, so that even Barnabas was led astray by their hypocrisy. 14But when I saw that they were not acting consistently with the truth of the gospel, I said to Cephas before them all, “If you, though a Jew, live like a Gentile and not like a Jew, how can you compel the Gentiles to live like Jews?”c