返回Preface
Preface
Preface
The introduction and almost the entire epistle is filled with strong indignation, for constant leniency toward disciples who require reproof is not befitting a teacher. And the Lord Himself does the same: having praised Peter, He then rebukes him (Matt. 16:17, 23), and calls His disciples foolish (Matt. 15:16). So too Paul, resorting to severity in other epistles as well, such as to the Corinthians, especially resorts to it in the Epistle to the Galatians. The reason for this is as follows. Those who believed from among the Jews, partly holding to the ancestral law and partly seeking to be teachers, persuaded the Galatians that they must be circumcised and observe sabbaths and new moons, since the disciples of Peter did not forbid this. And indeed, they did not forbid it, but not because they taught so, rather out of condescension to the weakness of those who believed from among the Jews, to whom they were preaching. But Paul, preaching to the Gentiles, had no need for such condescension. When it was truly necessary, he himself also made concessions: he circumcised Timothy and himself took on the Nazirite vow according to the law. But the deceivers, without mentioning the reasons for which both the disciples of Peter and they themselves did this, troubled the simple-minded, and faulted Paul precisely for the fact that he sometimes circumcises and sometimes rejects circumcision and preaches one thing in one place and another in another, and that in general one supposedly ought not to trust Paul, who had not seen Christ and was not His disciple but that of the apostles, but that one must hold to those who were with Peter, as eyewitnesses. For this very reason, burning with the Spirit, he writes this epistle, and first of all directs his speech against what they were saying to undermine his dignity — namely, that the rest were disciples of Christ, while he was a disciple of the apostles. Therefore he begins in this manner.
The introduction and almost the entire epistle is filled with strong indignation, for constant leniency toward disciples who require reproof is not befitting a teacher. And the Lord Himself does the same: having praised Peter, He then rebukes him (Matt. 16:17, 23), and calls His disciples foolish (Matt. 15:16). So too Paul, resorting to severity in other epistles as well, such as to the Corinthians, especially resorts to it in the Epistle to the Galatians. The reason for this is as follows. Those who believed from among the Jews, partly holding to the ancestral law and partly seeking to be teachers, persuaded the Galatians that they must be circumcised and observe sabbaths and new moons, since the disciples of Peter did not forbid this. And indeed, they did not forbid it, but not because they taught so, rather out of condescension to the weakness of those who believed from among the Jews, to whom they were preaching. But Paul, preaching to the Gentiles, had no need for such condescension. When it was truly necessary, he himself also made concessions: he circumcised Timothy and himself took on the Nazirite vow according to the law. But the deceivers, without mentioning the reasons for which both the disciples of Peter and they themselves did this, troubled the simple-minded, and faulted Paul precisely for the fact that he sometimes circumcises and sometimes rejects circumcision and preaches one thing in one place and another in another, and that in general one supposedly ought not to trust Paul, who had not seen Christ and was not His disciple but that of the apostles, but that one must hold to those who were with Peter, as eyewitnesses. For this very reason, burning with the Spirit, he writes this epistle, and first of all directs his speech against what they were saying to undermine his dignity — namely, that the rest were disciples of Christ, while he was a disciple of the apostles. Therefore he begins in this manner.