Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Galatians 1:22
And was unknown by face unto the churches of Judea which were in Christ:
22. and was unknown ] rather, and I continued unknown. So far from his having learned the truths which he taught from the other Apostles, the Churches of Juda, to which they principally ministered at this time, did not know him even by sight. It is not certain whether the Church of Jerusalem is included among these. Bengel says, “outside Jerusalem.” But it is quite possible that during the fortnight spent in Jerusalem he had not become personally known to the brethren there.
which were in Christ ] The word Church (= ecclesia, an assembly, Act 19:32; Act 19:39; Act 19:41) had not yet acquired the exclusively restricted sense of a Christian congregation. The Church of God (with its component churches or congregations) had existed in the patriarchal age and in subsequent times (even in the dark days when “they that feared the Lord spake often one to another”), until the coming of Christ. But they were not ‘in Christ’, until they had believed in and confessed the faith of Christ crucified.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
And was unknown by face … – Paul had visited Jerusalem only, and he had formed no acquaintance with any of the churches in the other parts of Judea. He regarded himself at the first as called to preach particularly to the Gentiles, and he did not remain even to form an acquaintance with the Christians in Judea.
The churches of Judea – Those which were out of Jerusalem. Even at the early period of the conversion of Paul there were doubtless many churches in various parts of the land,
Which were in Christ – United to Christ; or which were Christian churches. The design of mentioning this is, to show that he had not derived his views of the gospel from any of them. He had neither been instructed by the apostles, nor was he indebted to the Christians in Judea for his knowledge of the Christian religion.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Gal 1:22
Which were in Christ.
Relation of Churches to Christ:
I. They are founded on Christ (Mat 16:18; 1Co 1:2).
II. They are built by Christ (Eph 4:16).
III. They are the body of Christ (Eph 1:23; Eph 4:12).
IV. They are redeemed through Christ (Act 20:28; Eph 5:25).
V. They are consecrated to Christ (Eph 5:26).
VI. They will be glorified in Christ (Eph 5:27). We are reminded of the beautiful symbol of the prophet, as he saw in the Messianic age flecks of doves, varied it may be in their plumage, speeding with fleet wings to the windows of the true ark, safe in Christ from the windy storm and tempest (Isa 9:8); or the still more apposite figure employed by the Redeemer Himself when not only does He speak of the individual members of His flock, calling His own separate sheep by name, and one by one leading them out; but also refers to them in the aggregate. They constitute, though with divers folds and many under-shepherds, one great flock–reposing in green pastures, and by the waters of comfort under Himself, the chief Shepherd and Bishop of souls. (J. R. Macduff, D. D.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 22. And was unknown by face] I was not personally acquainted with any of the Churches of Judea; I was converted in another place, and had not preached the Gospel in any Christian congregation in that country; I knew only those at Jerusalem.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
To be in Christ, signifieth:
1. Their being Christians indeed; they having received Christ by a true and lively faith, and given themselves to the obedience of his precepts. In this sense the apostle saith: If any man be in Christ he is a new creature.
2. Their being Christians in name, by baptism and outward profession. These churches are said to be in Christ in this latter sense.
We have a parallel text, 1Th 2:14. They do not judge improperly, who think that by Judea here is not meant the province, but the whole country of Judea; which comprehended not Judea only, but Samaria and Galilee. John Baptist and our Saviour (who both mostly preached in Galilee) had prepared their due matter for gospel churches. Peter, and John, and Philip, preached the gospel in many villages of the Samaritans, Act 8:25,40. Of all these churches Paul speaks, telling us he was personally unknown unto them; so far he was from learning the Christian doctrine from the apostles or them.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
22. So far was I from being adisciple of the apostles, that I was even unknown in the churchesof Judea (excepting Jerusalem, Ac9:26-29), which were the chief scene of their labors.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
And was unknown by face,…. Or “in person”. This is said to prevent what might be objected, that though the apostle had not received the Gospel he preached from any of the apostles at Jerusalem; yet he might have had it from the churches that were in the land of Judea, and from some of the principal men in them; but this was so far from being truth, that he was not so much as known unto the churches of Judea which were in Christ; for there was not only a famous church of believers in Christ at Jerusalem, the metropolis of the land, but there were several congregated churches in the several parts of that country: by Judea we are to understand that part of the land of Israel so called, which was distinct not only from Samaria; but from Galilee and Perea, or the country beyond Jordan; for according to the Jews d, the land of Israel was divided into three parts, Judea, Perea, and Galilee. Judea again was divided into three parts, the hill country, the plain, and the valley; and the plain of Lydda is as the plain of the south, and its mountainous part as the king’s mountain; from Bethhoron to the sea is one province: and elsewhere e it is said, that the hill country of Judea is the king’s mountain, the plain of it is the plain of the south, and the valley is from Engedi to Jericho–from Bethhoron to Emmaus is mountainous, from Emmaus to Lydda is a plain, and from Lydda to the sea a valley; from which may be collected where this country lay, and where were these churches here spoken of; the foundation of which might be laid in the conversion of some in those parts, through the ministry of the disciples of Christ, who were appointed witnesses of him not only in Jerusalem, but in all Judea and Samaria, Ac 1:8 and about the time of the Apostle Paul’s conversion, and his being at Jerusalem, there were churches gathered in Judea, as distinct from Galilee and Samaria, Ac 9:31 particularly at Caesarea, Lydda, Saron, and Joppa. It is very likely that all the apostles, when they first set out to preach the Gospel after the ascension of Christ and the effusion of the Spirit, began in Judea; though some might make a very short stay, and others a longer. The Apostle and Evangelist Matthew is generally thought to have exercised his ministry chiefly in Judea, and to have continued there long; here he wrote his Gospel for the sake of the Jews that believed f; and that, as a very ancient writer says g, when Peter and Paul preached at Rome, and founded the church there. Judas Thaddaeus is also said h to go through Judea, Galilee, Samaria, Arabia, Syria, and Mesopotamia; and certain it is, that Philip, after he had baptized the eunuch, preached in all the cities from Azotus to Caesarea, where he seems to have stayed awhile and preached, Ac 8:40 and where afterwards was a Gospel church state, of which [See comments on Ac 10:48] and at Lydda and Saron, which were both in Judea, there were saints who were visited by the Apostle Peter, and others converted by him, about the time that our apostle here refers to; of the church at Lydda; [See comments on Ac 9:32] at Joppa also, which was in the tribe of Dan, there were disciples at the same time, and very likely a church there; [See comments on Ac 9:38] and it may be observed that the Apostle Peter was the minister of the circumcision, he had the Gospel of the circumcision committed to him, and he continued with and preached much to the circumcised Jews; and so in all likelihood was the instrument of planting the churches in Judea here spoken of. These are said to be
in Christ, as the church at Thessalonica, and that at Corinth are elsewhere said to be; because they professed to believe in Christ, were called by his name, and called upon his name; and though every individual member of them might not be in Christ, really united to him, and have communion with him; yet since they were all under a profession of him, they are considered as in him. The Arabic version reads it, “the churches of Judea which believe in Christ”; which though not a literal translation, gives the true sense of the passage, and distinguishes those churches from the synagogues or assemblies of the Jews which did not believe in Christ.
d Misn. Sheviith, c. 9. sect. 2. e T. Hieros. Sheviith, fol. 38. 4. f Hieron. Catalog. Script. Ecclesiast. sect. 4. fol. 90. A. g Irenaeus adv. Haeres. l. 3. c. 1. h Hist. Eccles. Magdeburg. cent. 1. l. 2. c. 10. p. 449.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
And I was still unknown ( ). Periphrastic imperfect passive of , not to know.
By face ( ). Associative instrumental case.
Of Judea ( ). As distinct from Jerusalem, for he had once scattered the church there and had revisited them before coming to Tarsus (Ac 9:26-30). In Ac 9:31 the singular of is used, but in a geographic sense for Judea, Samaria, and Galilee.
Fuente: Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New Testament
Was unknown [ ] . Better, was still unknown, the imperfect denoting that he remained unknown during his stay in Syria and Cilicia.
Of Judaea. The province, as distinguished from Jerusalem, where he must have been known as the persecutor of the church. See Act 9:1, 2.
Which were in Christ. See on 1Th 2:14.
Fuente: Vincent’s Word Studies in the New Testament
1) “And was unknown,” (emen de agnosumenos) “and I was being unknown,” or continued unknown by sight to the churches of Judea.
2) “By face unto the churches of Judea,” (to prosopo tais ekklesiais tes loudaias) “by face to the churches of Judea,” where these were located is not certain, but it is certain that a plurality of churches existed in Judea by A.D. 54, 1Th 2:14.
3) “Which were in Christ:” (tais en Christo) “which (churches of Judea) were in Christ;” churches, as well as individuals are therefore said to be in “Christ,” meaning in the order of, or in harmony with, his will and purpose, Rom 16:7; 2Co 5:17; 1Th 2:14.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
22. And was unknown by face. This appears to be added for the sake of shewing more strongly the wickedness and malignity of his slanderers. If the churches of Judea who had only heard respecting him, were led to give glory to God for the astonishing change which he had wrought in Paul, how disgraceful was it that those who had beheld the fruits of his amazing labors should not have acted a similar part! If the mere report was enough for the former, why did not the facts before their eyes satisfy the latter?
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(22) Was unknown by face.The Greek is a shade stronger: I continued unknown. If in Jerusalem itself the Apostle had not had time to receive instruction from any one, still less was this the case with the other Christian communities of Juda. To these he was not known even by sight. At the same time, so far were they from manifesting any opposition to his teaching, that their one thought was joy to hear of his conversion.
The churches of Juda.Juda is here distinguished from Jerusalem. The phrase is noticeable as pointing to the spread and early organisation of the Church at a date removed by not more than ten years from our Lords ascension.
Which were in Christ.This is added in order to distinguish the Christian from the Jewish communities. It means, however, something more than merely Christian. The various sections of the Christian Church not only professed a common creed, and were called by a common name, but they stood in the same direct and personal relation to Christ as their Head. It was His presence diffused among them which gave them unity.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
22. Unknown churches of Judea And so could not have borrowed the Judean and Jerusalemite type of gospel. He was unknown at Jerusalem, only excepting the acquaintance they acquired with him, according to his own account, during his abode with Peter. Probably his intercourse was mainly with the Hellenists at Jerusalem. See Act 9:29, and note.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Gal 1:22. Which were in Christ: That is, “believing in Christ.” See Rom 16:7. What he takes such particular notice of here, does not tend to the proving that he was a true Apostle; but serves very well to shew, that in what he preached, he had no communication with those of his own nation, nor took any particular care to please the Jews in preference to the Gentiles.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Gal 1:22 . But I was so completely a stranger to the land of Judaea, that at the time of my sojourn in Syria and Cilicia I was personally unknown to the churches, etc. These statements (Gal 1:22-24 ) likewise go to prove that Paul had not been a disciple of the apostles , which is indeed the object aimed at in the whole of the context. As a pupil of the apostles , he would have remained in communication with Jerusalem; and thence issuing, he would first of all have exercised his ministry in the churches of Judaea , and would have become well known to them. According to Hofmann, the end at which Paul aims in Gal 1:22 f. is conveyed by . . . in Gal 1:24 , so that Gal 1:22-23 are only related to this as the protasis to the apodosis. This idea is at variance with the independent and important nature of the two affirmations in Gal 1:22-23 ; if Paul had intended to give them so subordinate a position as that which Hofmann supposes, he would have done it by a participial construction ( , . . ., . . .), perhaps also with the addition of , or in some other marked way. In the form in which the apostle has written it, his report introduced by in Gal 1:21 is composed of propositions quite as independent as those following in Gal 1:18 , and Gal 1:22-23 cannot be intended merely to introduce Gal 1:24 . Hofmann is therefore the more incorrect in asserting that Paul, from Gal 1:21 onwards, is not continuing the proof of his apostolic independence in contradistinction to the other apostles, but is exhibiting the harmony of his preaching with the faith of the mother-church at Jerusalem and its apostles . Others, inconsistently with the context, suppose that Paul desired to refute the allegation that he had been a learner from the churches of Judaea (Oecumenius, Gomarus, Olshausen), or that he himself had taught judaistically in Judaea (Chrysostom, Theophylact, Grotius; comp. Usteri), or that he had visited Syria and Cilicia as the deputy of the churches of Judaea (Michaelis).
] as regards the (my) countenance , that is, personally . Comp. 1Th 2:17 .
.] This is meant to refer to the churches out of Jerusalem, consequently in the , Joh 3:22 . For that he was known to the church in the capital is not only a matter of inference from his pre-Christian activity, but is certain from that fifteen days’ visit (Gal 1:18 ), and is attested by Act 9:26-30 . Neither in Act 9:26-30 nor in Act 26:19 f. (see on these passages) is there any such inconsistency with the passage before us, as has been urged against the historical character of the Acts, especially by Hilgenfeld, Baur, and Zeller.
Fuente: Heinrich August Wilhelm Meyer’s New Testament Commentary
XVI
SAUL, THE PERSECUTOR
Act 7:57-60
In a preceding chapter on Stephen we have necessarily considered somewhat a part of the matter of this chapter, and now we will restate only enough to give a connected account of Saul. In our last discussion we found Saul and other members of his family residents in Jerusalem, Saul an accomplished scholar, a rabbi, trained in the lore of the Jewish Bible and of their traditions, a member of the Sanhedrin, an extreme Pharisee, flaming with zeal, and aggressive in his religion, an intense patriot, about thirty-six years old, probably a widower, stirred up and incensed on account of the progress of the new religion of Jesus.
In considering this distinguished Jew in the role of a persecutor, we must find, first of all, the occasion of this marvelous and murderous outbreak of hatred on his part at this particular juncture, and the strange direction of its hostility. On three all-sufficient grounds we understand why Saul did not actively participate in the recent Sadducean persecution. First, the issue of that persecution was the resurrection, and on this point a Pharisee could not join a Sadducean materialist. Second, the motive of that persecution was to prevent the break with Rome, and Saul as a Pharisee wanted a break with Rome. Third, the direction of that persecution was mainly against the apostles and Palestinian Christians, who, so far, had made no break with the Temple and its services and ritual, or the customs of Moses. To outsiders they appeared as a sect of the Jews, agreeing, indeed, with the Pharisees on many points, and while they were hateful in their superstition as to the person of the Messiah, they were understood to preach a Messiah for Jews only and not for Gentiles. That is why Saul did not join the Sadducean persecution because of the issue of it, because of the motive of it, and because of the direction of it.
1. Five causes stirred him up to become a persecutor: First, the coming to the front of Stephen, the Hellenist, whose preaching evidently looked to a Messiah for the world, and not only looked to a break with Jerusalem and the Temple, but the abrogation of the entire Old Covenant, or at least its supercession by a New Covenant on broad, worldwide lines that made no distinction between a Jew and a Greek. That is the first cause of the persecuting spirit of Saul.
2. Stephen’s Messiah was a God-man and a sufferer, expiating sin, and bringing in an imputed righteousness through faith in him wrought by the regenerating Spirit, instead of a Jewish hero, seated on David’s earthly throne, triumphant over Rome, and bringing all nations into subjection to the royal law. This is the difference between the two Messiahs. So that kind of a Messiah would be intensely objectionable to Saul.
3. Stephen’s preaching was making fearful inroads among the flock of Saul’s Cilicean synagogue, and sweeping like a fire among the Israelites of the dispersion, who were already far from the Palestinian Hebrews.
4. Some of Saul’s own family were converted to the new religion, two of them are mentioned in the letter to the Romans as being in Christ before him, and his own sister, judging from Act 23 , was already a Christian.
5. Saul’s humiliating defeat in the great debate with Stephen.
These are the five causes that pushed the man out who had been passive in the other persecution, now to become active in this persecution. They account for the vehement flame of Saul’s hate, and the direction of that hate, not toward the apostles, who had not broken with the Holy City, its Temple, its sacrifice, nor the customs of Moses, but against Stephen and those accepting his broader view. We cannot otherwise account for the fact that Saul took no steps in his persecution against the apostles, while he did pursue the scattered Christians of the dispersion unto strange cities.
We may imagine Saul fanning the flame of his hate by his thoughts in these particulars:
1. “To call this Jesus ‘God’ is blasphemy.
2. “To call this convicted and executed felon ‘Messiah,’ violates the Old Testament teaching of David’s royal son triumphing over all of his enemies.
3. “That I, a freeborn child of Abraham, never in bondage, must be re-born, must give up my own perfect and blameless righteousness of the law to accept the righteousness of another, is outrageous.
4. “That I must see Jerusalem perish, the Temple destroyed, the law of the Mosaic covenant abrogated, and enter into this new kingdom on the same humiliating terms as an uncircumcised Gentile, is incredible and revolting.
5. “That this Hellenist, Stephen, should invade my own flock and pervert members of my own family, Andronicus and Junias, my kinsmen [Rom 16:7 ], and my own sister [Act 23:16 ], and shake the faith of my other kinsmen, Jason and Sosipater [Rom 16:21 ], is insulting to the last degree.
6. “That I, the proud rabbi, a member of the supreme court of my people, the accomplished and trained logician, should be overwhelmed in debate by this unscholarly Stephen, and that, too, in my own chosen field the interpretation of the Law, Prophets, and Psalms, is crucifixion of my pride and an intolerable public shame. Let Stephen perish!
7. “But more humiliating than all, I find myself whipped inside. This Stephen is driving me with goads as if I were an unruly ox. His words and shining face and the Jesus he makes me see, plant convicting pricks in my heart and conscience against which I kick in vain; I am like a troubled sea casting up mire and filth. To go back on the convictions of my life is abject surrender. To follow, then, a logical conclusion, is to part from the counsel of my great teacher, Gamaliel, and to take up the sword of the Sadducee and make myself the servant of the high priest. Since I will not go back, and cannot stand still, I must go forward in that way that leads to prison, blood, and death, regardless of age or sex. Perhaps I may find peace. The issue is now personal and vital; Stephen or Saul must die. To stop at Stephen is to stop at the beginning of the way. I must go on till the very name of this Jesus is blotted from the earth.”
That is given as imagined, but you must bring in psychology in order that you may understand the working of this man’s mind to account for the flaming spirit and the desperate lengths of the persecution which he introduces.
Seven things show the spirit of this persecution, as expressed in the New Testament:
1. In Act 8:3 (Authorized Version), the phrase, “making havoc” is used. That is the only time in the New Testament that the word “havoc” is found. It is found in the Septuagint of the Old Testament. But it is a word which expresses the fury of a wild boar making havoc a wild boar in a garden: rooting, gnashing, and trampling. That phrase, “making havoc,” gives us an idea of the spirit that Saul had, which is the spirit of a wild boar.
2. In Act 9:1 , it is said of Saul, “Yet breathing out threatenings and slaughter.” How tersely expressed that is! The expiration of his breath is a threat, and death. Victor Hugo, in one place, said about a man, “Whenever he respires he conspires,” and that is the nearest approach in literature to this vivid description of the state of a man’s mind that the very breath he breathed was threatenings and slaughter.
3. The next word is found in Act 26:11 . He says, “being exceedingly mad against them.” That is the superlative degree. He was not merely angry at the Christians, but it was an anger that amounted to madness; he was not merely mad but “exceedingly mad.” So that gives you the picture of that wild boar.
4. “He haled men and women.” “Haled” is an old Anglo Saxon word. We don’t use it now, but it means “to drag by violence.” He didn’t go and courteously arrest a man; he just went and grabbed men and women and dragged them through the streets. Imagine a gray-haired mother, a chaste wife, a timid maiden, grabbed and dragged through the streets, with a crowd around mocking, and you get at the spirit of this persecution.
5. The next word is “devastate.” Paul used this word twice, and Ananias used it once (Act 9:21 ). That word is the term that is applied to an army sweeping a country with fire and sword. We say that Sherman devastated Georgia. He swept a scope of country seventy-five miles wide from Atlanta to the sea, leaving only the chimney stacks not a house, not a fence with fire and sword. And that word is here employed to describe Saul’s persecution.
6. Twice in Galatians he uses this word in describing it: “I persecuted them beyond measure,” that is, if you want to find some kind of a word that would describe his persecution, in its spirit, you couldn’t find it; you couldn’t find a word that would mean “beyond measure.”
7. The last phrase is in Act 22:4 , “unto death.” That was objective in spirit, whether men or women. These seven expressions, and they are just as remarkable, and more so, in the Greek, as they are in English, give the spirit of this persecution.
The following things show the extent of this persecution:
1. Domiciliary visits. He didn’t wait to find a man on the streets acting in opposition to any law. He goes to the houses after them, and in every place of the world. The most startling exercise of tyranny is an inquisition into a man’s home. The law of the United States regards a man’s home as his castle, and only under the most extreme circumstances does the law allow its officers to enter a man’s home. If you were perfectly sure that a Negro had burglarized your smokehouse, and you had tracked him to his house, you couldn’t go in there, you couldn’t take an officer of the law in there, unless you went before a magistrate and recorded a solemn oath that you believed that he was the one that did burglarize your place, and that what he stole would be found if you looked for it in his house.
2. In the second place, “scourges.” He says many times I have scourged them, both men and women, forty stripes save one; thirty-nine hard lashes he put on the shoulders of men and women. Under the Roman law it was punishable with death to scourge a Roman citizen. Convicts, or people in the penitentiary, can be whipped. Roman lictors carried a bundle of rods with which they chastised outsiders, but on home people they were never used. Cicero makes his great oration against Veres burn like fire when it is shown that Veres scourged Roman citizens. Seldom now do we ever hear of a case where a man is dragged out of his house and publicly whipped by officers of the law, just on account of his religion.
3. The next thing was imprisonment. He says, “Oftentimes I had them put in prison.” A thunderbolt couldn’t be more sudden than his approach to a house. Thundering at the door, day or night, gathering one of the inmates up, taking him from the home and taking him to jail. What would you think of somebody coming to your house when you were away in the night, and dragging your wife and putting her in jail, just because she was worshiping God according to the dictates of her conscience? We live in a good country over here. We have never been where these violent persecutions were carried on.
4. He says that when they were put to death he gave his voice against them. He arrested them and scourged them, and then in the Sanhedrin he voted against them.
5. In the next place he compelled them to blaspheme. The Greek doesn’t mean that he succeeded in making them blaspheme, but that he was trying to make them blaspheme. For instance, he would have a woman up, and there was the officer ready to give her thirty-nine lashes in open daylight: “You will get this lashing unless you blaspheme the name of Jesus,” Paul would say. Pliny, in writing about the Christians in the country over which he presided when he was ordered to persecute the Christians, says, “I never went beyond this: I never put any of them to death if when brought before me he would sprinkle a little incense before a Roman god. If he would Just do that I wouldn’t put him to death.”
6. Expatriation, ex , from, patria terra , “one’s fatherland” exiled from one’s country. It was an awful thing on those people at a minute’s notice either to recant or else just as they were, without a minute’s preparation, to go off into exile, father, mother, and children. The record says, “They were all scattered abroad except the apostles.”
7. Following them into exile into strange countries, and cities, getting a commission to go after them and arrest them, even though they had gotten as far from Jerusalem as Damascus.
8. The last thing in connection with the extent of this persecution is to see, first, the size or number of the church. Let us commence with 120 (that is, before Pentecost), add 3,000 on the day of Pentecost, add multitudes daily, add at another time 5,000 men and women, add twice more, multitudes, multitudes, then we may safely reach the conclusion that there were 100,000 Jewish communicants in that first church at Jerusalem. That represents a great many homes. This man Paul goes into every house, he breaks up every family. They are whipped; they are imprisoned; they are put to death or they are expatriated; and over every road that went out from Jerusalem they were fleeing, the fire of persecution burning behind them. The magnitude of the persecution has never been fully estimated.
There are eight distinct references by him in two speeches and four letters that show his own impressions of this sin. One of them you will find in the address that he delivered on the stairway in Jerusalem when he himself was a prisoner (Act 22 ); another one is found in his speech at Caesarea before King Agrippa (Act 26 ). You will find two references in Gal 1 of the letter to the Galatians (1:13, 23) ; there is one in 1Co 15:15 ; another in Phi 3 ; still another, and a most touching one, when he was quite an old man (1 Timothy). We may judge of the spirit and the extent of a thing by the impression that it leaves on the mind of the participator.
Everything that he inflicted on others, he subsequently suffered. He had them to be punished with forty stripes save one; five times he submitted to the same punishment. He had them put in prison; “oftentimes” he was imprisoned. He had them expatriated; so was he. He had them pursued in the land of expatriation; so was he. He had them stoned; so was he. He attempted to make them blaspheme; so they tried to make him blaspheme under Nero, or die, and he accepted death. He had them put to death; so was he. Early in his life, before a great part of his sufferings had yet commenced, we find his catalogue of the things that he suffered in one of the letters to the Corinthians, and just how many particular things that he had suffered up to that time.
Two considerations would naturally emphasize his unceasing sorrow for this sin:
1. His persecution marked the end of Jewish probation, the closing up of the last half of Daniel’s week, in which the Messiah would confirm the covenant with many. From this time on until now, only an occasional Jew has been converted. Paul did it; he led his people to reject the church of God and the Holy Spirit of God, the church which was baptized in the Spirit, and attested by the Spirit. He, Saul, is the one that pushed his people off the ground of probation and into a state of spiritual blindness judicial blindness from which they have not yet recovered.
2. The second thought that emphasized this impression was that he thereby barred himself, when he became a Christian, from doing much preaching to this people. In Rom 9 he says, “I could wish that I myself were anathema from Christ for my brethren’s sake, my kinsmen according to the flesh.” “I bear them witness,” he says in the next chapter, “that they have a zeal for God,” and in Act 22 he says that when he was in the Temple wanting to preach to Jews, wanting to be a home missionary, God appeared to him, and said, “Make haste, and get thee quickly out of Jerusalem; because they will not receive of thee testimony concerning me.” That was one of the most grievous things of his life, and we find it, I think (some may differ from me on this), manifested in the last letter of his first Roman imprisonment the letter to the Hebrews. He wouldn’t put his name to it. He didn’t want to prejudice its effect, and yet he did want to speak to his people.
Let us compare this persecution with Alva’s in the Netherlands, and the one following the revocation of the Edict of Nantes. In a few words, it is this: There were two great bodies of Christian people, so-called, in France the Romanists and the Huguenots. Henry of Navarre was a Huguenot. He became king of France, outwardly abjuring his Huguenot principles, but on the condition that liberty of conscience should be allowed to the people. His grandson, Louis XIV, revoked that great edict of toleration, and by its revocation, in one moment, commanded hundreds of thousands of his people to adopt the king’s religion. If they didn’t, troops or soldiers were placed in their homes with the privilege of maltreating them, and destroying their property, without being held responsible for any kind of brutal impiety that they would commit. Their young children were taken away from the mothers and put in the convents to be reared in the Romanist faith; the men had their goods confiscated, and in hundreds of thousands of instances were put to death. They were required to recant or leave France at once. Before they got to the coast an army came to bring them back, and when some of them did escape, my mother’s ancestors, the Huguenots, when that edict was revoked, came to South Carolina. Some of them went to Canada, some to other countries where there was extradition. The Romanists pursued them, and when they were able to capture them, brought them back to France to suffer under the law. Some of those that reached Canada left the settlements and went to live among the Indian tribes. There they were pursued.
When Alva came into the Netherlands (Belgium and Holland), the lowlands, under Philip, the King of Spain, the inquisition was set up and he entered the homes; he made domiciliary visits; he compelled them to blaspheme; he put to death the best, the most gifted, those holding the highest social and moral positions in the land, to the astonishment of the world. With one stroke of his pen he not only swept away all of their property, but anyone that would speak a kind word to them, or would keep them all night in the house, such a person was put to death. All over that country there was the smoke going up of their burning, and the bloodiest picture in the annals of the world was what took place when Alva’s soldiers captured a city. I would be ashamed before a mixed audience to tell what followed. The devastation was fearful.
This persecution illustrates the proverb, “The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church.” Whenever Saul put one to death, a dozen came up to take the place of that one. Indeed, he himself caught on his own shoulders the mantle of Stephen before it hit the ground, as God put the mantle of Elijah on Elisha, and as God made John the Baptist the successor in spirit to Elijah. The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church.
The effect of this persecution on the enlargement of the kingdom, and on missions, was superb. Those Jewish Christians in Jerusalem those terrapins would never have crawled away from there, if Saul hadn’t put fire on their backs, but when the fire began to burn and they began to run, as they ran, they preached everywhere. It was like going up to a fire and trying to put it out by kicking the chunks. Whenever a chunk is kicked it starts a new fire. When that persecution came, then Philip, driven out, preached to the Samaritans. Then men of Cyrene, pushed out, preached to Greeks in Antioch, and they opened up a fine mission field. Peter himself, at last, was led to see that an uncircumcised Gentile like Cornelius could be received into the kingdom of God. So it had a great deal to do with foreign missions.
The effect of this persecution in bringing laymen to the front was marvelous. They never did come to the front in the history of the world as they did in this persecution. The apostles were left behind. The preachers right in the midst of the big meeting in which 100,000 people had been converted, were left standing there, surrounded by empty pews, with no congregation. The congregation is now doing the preaching. A layman becomes an evangelist. These people carry the word of God to the shores of the Mediterranean, into Asia Minor, to Rome, to Ephesus, to Antioch, to Tarsus, to the ends of the earth, and laymen do an overwhelming part of this work.
It is well, perhaps, in this connection to explain how Saul, in this persecution, could put to death Christian people, since they, the Jews, had no such authority. In the case of Christ we know that it was necessary for the Jews to obtain Roman authority in order to put to death, but just as this time Pontius Pilate was recalled, the Roman Procurator was withdrawn, and a very large part of the Roman military force and the successor of Pilate had not arrived, so the Jews were left pretty much to themselves until that new procurator with new legions came to the country.
QUESTIONS 1. What of Saul already considered in a preceding chapter?
2. Why did not Saul participate actively in the Sadducean persecution?
3. What five causes stirred him up to become a persecutor?
4. How may we imagine Saul fanning the flame of his bate by his thoughts?
5. What seven things show the spirit of this persecution as expressed in the New Testament?
6. What things show the extent of this persecution?
7. What eight distinct references by him in two speeches and four letters which show his own impressions of this sin?
8. What were his own sufferings, in every particular? Were they such as he inflicted?
9. What two considerations would naturally emphasize the unceasing sorrow for this sin?
10. Compare this persecution with Alva’s in the Netherlands and the one following the revocation of the Edict of Nantes.
11. How does this persecution illustrate the proverb, “The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church”?
12. What was the effect of this persecution on the enlargement of the kingdom, and missions?
13. What was the effect of this persecution in bringing laymen to the front?
14. How do you explain that, in this persecution, Saul could put to death Christian people, since they, the Jews, had no such authority?
Fuente: B.H. Carroll’s An Interpretation of the English Bible
22 And was unknown by face unto the churches of Judaea which were in Christ:
Ver. 22. And was unknown ] So far was Paul from learning aught of them.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
22, 23 .] ‘So far was I from being a disciple of the Apostles, or tarrying in their company, that the churches of Juda, where they principally laboured, did not even know me by sight.’
, the referential, or adverbial dative: Donalds., Gramm. 457.
excludes Jerusalem, where he was known . Jowett doubts this: but it seems to be required by Act 9:26-29 . Chrys. seems to mistake the Apostle’s purpose, when he says, , , : and Olshausen, in supposing him to be refuting the idea that he had learned the Gospel from other Christians in Palestine.
Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament
Gal 1:22 . . The correct translation is not I was unknown (as our versions render it), but I was becoming unknown . At the beginning of this period he was a familiar figure in Jerusalem, but in the course of ten years’ absence he gradually became a stranger to the Christians of Juda. . This passage speaks of the Churches of Juda in the plural, as does also 1Th 2:14 . In the Acts the Church throughout Juda, Galilee and Samaria is described as a single Church according to the text of the best MSS. (Act 9:31 ): the funds contributed for the relief of the poor Christians in Juda are handed over to the Elders at Jerusalem (Act 11:29 , (Act 12:25 ); brethren from Juda are censured as members of their own body by the assembled Church at Jerusalem (Act 15:1 ; Act 15:24 ). It would seem from this that an effective unity of administration and control existed in Jerusalem side by side with local organisation of the several Churches of Juda.
Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson
was unknown = continued unknown Compare 2Co 6:9.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
22, 23.] So far was I from being a disciple of the Apostles, or tarrying in their company, that the churches of Juda, where they principally laboured, did not even know me by sight.
, the referential, or adverbial dative: Donalds., Gramm. 457.
excludes Jerusalem, where he was known. Jowett doubts this: but it seems to be required by Act 9:26-29. Chrys. seems to mistake the Apostles purpose, when he says, , , : and Olshausen, in supposing him to be refuting the idea that he had learned the Gospel from other Christians in Palestine.
Fuente: The Greek Testament
Gal 1:22. , of Juda) with the exception of Jerusalem.
Fuente: Gnomon of the New Testament
Gal 1:22
Gal 1:22
And I was still unknown by face-In Jerusalem itself Paul had not time to receive instruction from anyone, still less was this the case with the other Christian communities in Judea. At the same time, so far were they from manifesting any opposition to his teaching that their one thought was joy to hear of his conversion.
unto the churches of Judaea-Judea is here distinguished from Jerusalem. The phrase is noticeable as pointing to the spread and early establishment of the church at a date not more than ten years from the ascension of Jesus. Until this time the churches in Judea did not know Paul by sight.
which were in Christ:-The churches in different sections had a common faith, and were called by a common name, and stood in the same direct and personal relation to Christ as their head. It was his presence diffused among them which gave them unity.
Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary
the churches: Act 9:31, 1Th 2:14
in: Rom 16:7, 1Co 1:30, Phi 1:1, 1Th 1:1, 2Th 1:1
Reciprocal: Act 20:25 – see 2Co 6:9 – well 2Co 12:2 – in Christ
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Gal 1:22. -and I was unknown by face to the churches of Judaea which are in Christ. The first words are a strong form of the imperfect, equivalent to I remained unknown. Jelf, 375, 4. The is the dative of reference, carrying in it that of limitation or the defining or qualifying element which characterizes this case. Winer, 31, 6; Bernhardy, p. 82; Donaldson, 459. The apostle was known to these churches in many aspects, but he was unknown in this one thing-in person or face. The churches in Judaea did not know him personally, and they are thus distinguished from the churches in Jerusalem, many of whom had a knowledge of his person, and could recognise him if they saw him, for he had been going in and out among them, speaking boldly and disputing, having sojourned fifteen days with Peter. Act 9:28. The object of Hilgenfeld, following Baur and others of the same school, in maintaining that the church in Jerusalem is here included, is to bring the statement into conflict with the Acts, so as to ruin the credibility of the narrative. But compare Joh 2:23 with Joh 3:22, Act 1:8; Act 10:39; Act 26:20; and for an analogous foreign example, Act 15:23. The churches in Judaea are characterized as , that are in Christ,-in Him as united to Him, the Source of life and power, and having fellowship with Him,-so included in Him as the members are organically united to the head. It is not certain that this definition is added because unconverted Jewish communities might be called churches of God (Lightfoot). Is there any example in the New Testament? The apostle was hurried away to Caesarea, where he took shipping for Tarsus, and thus had no opportunity of becoming acquainted with the Judaean churches; nor had they, for the same reason, any opportunity of gaining a personal knowledge of him. He is not showing that he could not learn the gospel from Judaean Christians, as OEcumenius and Olshausen suppose, nor, as Chrysostom thinks, that he had not taught circumcision in Judaea. For these are not topics in dispute. The apostle means to affirm, that so little intercourse had he with the apostles, that the church in Judaea, having constant correspondence with those apostles, did not know him, so wholly was he away from their home sphere of labour. The notion of Michaelis is out of the question, that the church of Jerusalem is included among those that did not know him personally, because, though known to a few individuals of them, he was not known to them as a body, since his labours were principally among his unconverted brethren.
Fuente: Commentary on the Greek Text of Galatians, Ephesians, Colossians and Phillipians
Gal 1:22. Unknown by face means they had not seen Paul personally. This is not strange, for he had spent the years following his conversion in Damascus and Arabia, and was in Jerusalem only fifteen days (verse 18) before being driven out by persecution.
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
Gal 1:22. And was still unknown by face, by sight, personally.
Juda is here the district without the capital, as Italy is often distinguished from Rome (Heb 13:24). The congregation of Jerusalem must be excepted; for there Paul was known from his visit mentioned in Gal 1:18, and from his former life when he studied at the feet of Gamaliel and persecuted the Christians. Comp. again Act 9:26-30.
Fuente: A Popular Commentary on the New Testament
And I was still unknown by face unto the churches of Judaea which were in Christ:
Fuente: McGarvey and Pendleton Commentaries (New Testament)
Verse 22
The churches of Judea; that is, to those churches generally. It would seem, from the account in the Acts, that he must have been well known in Jerusalem. (Acts 9:26-28.)