4<\/strong>. Have ye suffered so many things in vain?<\/em> ] The reference is, as in Gal 3:2<\/span>, to persecutions experienced by them at the time of their conversion. Though we have no record of these, yet, as Bp. Lightfoot remarks, the history “is equally silent on all that relates to the condition of the Galatian Churches; and while the converts to the faith in Pisidia and Lycaonia on the one side (Act 14:2<\/span>; Act 14:5<\/span>; Act 14:19<\/span>; Act 14:22<\/span>), and in proconsular Asia on the other (2Co 1:8<\/span>; Act 19:23<\/span>, sqq.), were exposed to suffering, it is improbable that the Galatians alone should have escaped”. He adds, “If , as is most likely, the Jews<\/em> were the chief instigators in these persecutions St. Paul’s appeal becomes doubly significant”. Some would render, ‘Have ye experienced so many things?’ i.e. (1) so many spiritual blessings (which would make the question nearly a repetition of Gal 3:2<\/em><\/span>) or (2) such trials and such mercies.<\/p>\n if it be yet in vain<\/em> ] ‘if it be indeed in vain’. This is added in the exercise of that charity which ‘hopeth all things’.<\/p>\n Have ye suffered so many things in vain? – <\/B>Paul reminds them of what they had endured on account of their attachment to Christianity. He assures them, that if the opinions on account of which they had suffered were false, then their sufferings had been in vain. They were of no use to them – for what advantage was it to suffer for a false opinion? The opinions for which they had suffered had not been these which they now embraced. They were not those connected with the observance of the Jewish rites. They had suffered on account of their having embraced the gospel, the system of justification by a crucified Redeemer; and now, if those sentiments were wrong, why, their sufferings had been wholly in vain; see this argument pursued at much greater length in 1Co 15:18-19<\/U><\/span>, 1Co 15:29-32<\/span>. If it be yet in vain. That is, I trust it is not in vain. I hope you have not so far abandoned the gospel, that all your sufferings in its behalf have been of no avail. I believe the system is true; and if true, and you are sincere Christians, it will not he in vain that you have suffered in its behalf, though you have gone astray. I trust, that although your principles have been shaken, yet they have not been wholly overthrown, and that you will not reap the reward of your having suffered so much on account of the gospel.<\/P> <\/p>\n Gal 3:4<\/span><\/p>\n Have ye suffered so many things in vain?<\/em><\/p>\n<\/p>\n The vanity of past Christian life in the case of apostasy<\/strong><\/p>\n Unless you continue faithful to the end, all your former Christian life must remain without the recompense God longs to bestow. Your struggles, your self-sacrifice, will all be unrewarded. The apostasy of the closing days of your life would render worthless the fidelity of all your previous years. You have done so well, that if now you do not fail you will have an abundant entrance into glory. It is not Gods will that any who have suffered with Christ should miss the honour and blessedness of reigning with Him. (R. W. Dale,<\/em> LL. D.<\/em>)<\/p>\n<\/p>\n The power of hopefulness<\/strong><\/p>\n It is worthy of consideration on the part of all who are entrusted with the moral and religious care of others, that throughout Holy Scripture there is the union of kindly loving hopefulness with strong and even stern rebuke. If in despair of men who have gone grievously wrong, they will soon despair of themselves. Those who have been most successful in prevailing others to trust in Christ have commonly had an ardent and unconquerable persuasion that they should succeed; the eager faith of their own hearts has passed into the hearts of those with whom they pleaded. (R. W. Dale,<\/em> LL. D.<\/em>)<\/p>\n<\/p>\n Use of adversity<\/strong><\/p>\n As the skilful pearl-seller and cunning lapidary doth willingly suffer the Indian diamond or adamant to be heavily smitten, because he knoweth well the hammer and anvil will sooner be bruised than the diamond or adamant be broken; so our most wise God suffereth men of excellent virtues, of unquenchable love and charity, and invincible constancy, to fall into divers temptations, great afflictions, and manifold miseries, because He will have their moral grace to break out and shine before men, that they, seeing the constancy of His saints, may glorify God which is in heaven. (Cawdray.<\/em>)<\/p>\n<\/p>\n Backsliders run in vain<\/strong><\/p>\n The philosopher, being asked in his old age why he did not give over his practice, and take his ease, answered, When a man is to run a race of forty furlongs, would you have him sit down at the nine-and-thirtieth, and so lose the prize? We do not keep a good fire all day, and let it go out in the evening, when it is coldest; but then rather lay on more fuel, that we may go warm to bed. He that slakes the heat of his zeal in old age will go cold to bed, and in a worse case to his grave. Though the beginning be more than half, yet the end is more than all. (Spencer.<\/em>)<\/p>\n Verse 4<\/span>. Have ye suffered so many things in vain?<\/B><\/I>] Have ye received and lost so much good? The verb , as compounded with , well<\/I>, or , ill<\/I>, and often without either, signifies to suffer pain<\/I> or loss<\/I>, or to possess<\/I> and enjoy<\/I>. In such a case the man is considered as the patient<\/I>, and the good or ill acts<\/I> upon him. Though it is possible that the Galatians had suffered<\/I> some persecution for the truth of Christ, yet it is as likely that the apostle refers to the benefits<\/I> which they had received. Ye have received faith, the pardon of your sins, the gift of the Holy Spirit, and with it many extraordinary gifts and graces; and have ye suffered the loss<\/I> of all these things? Have ye received<\/I> all these in vain? if yet in vain<\/I>-if it be credible that ye have sacrificed so many excellent benefits for an imaginary good.<\/P> <\/p>\n There is no doubt but these churches in the regions of Galatia had their share in the sufferings of Christians by the Jews for their adherence to and profession of the doctrine of the gospel, which they might either wholly, or in a great measure, have avoided, would they have complied with the Jews in the observance of those legal rites. Therefore, (saith the apostle), to what purpose have you suffered so much for the owning of the Christian religion, if you now bring yourselves under the bondage of circumcision, and other legal observances? <\/P> If it be yet in vain; <\/B>by which words he either correcteth himself, as if he had said: But I hope better things of you, that I shall find that you did not suffer them in vain; or else he hinteth that their suffering so much would not be in vain, because, by their apostacy from the true faith for which they suffered, they would in effect deny it, as if it had been false, and their former suffering would rise up in judgment against them. <\/P> <\/p>\n 4. Have ye suffered so manythings<\/B>namely, persecution from Jews and from unbelievingfellow countrymen, incited by the Jews, at the time of yourconversion. <\/P> in vain<\/B>fruitlessly,needlessly,<\/I> since ye might have avoided them by professingJudaism [GROTIUS]. Or,shall ye, by falling from grace, lose the reward promised for allyour sufferings, so that they shall be “in vain” (Gal 4:11<\/span>;1Co 15:2<\/span>; 1Co 15:17-19<\/span>;1Co 15:29-32<\/span>; 2Th 1:5-7<\/span>;2Jn 1:8<\/span>)? <\/P> yet<\/B>rather, “If itbe really<\/I> (or ‘indeed’) in vain” [ELLICOTT].”If, as it must be, what I have said, ‘in vain,’ is really thefact” [ALFORD]. Iprefer understanding it as a mitigation of the preceding words. Ihope better things of you, for I trust you will return from legalismto grace; if so,<\/I> as I confidently expect, you will not have”suffered so many things in vain” [ESTIUS].For “God has given you the Spirit and has wrought mighty worksamong you” (Gal 3:5<\/span>; Heb 10:32-36<\/span>)[BENGEL].<\/P><\/p>\n Have ye suffered so many things in vain<\/strong>?…. These Galatians had suffered great reproach, many afflictions and persecutions for the sake of the Gospel, as all that embrace it must expect to do; and which to them that persevere in the faith of the Gospel will not be in vain, they will be followed with eternal life and glory; not that these things are meritorious of such happiness, or deserve such a reward; the reward of them is not of debt, but of grace. But, if such who have made a profession, and have suffered for it, should after all relinquish it, their sufferings for it are in vain; they will come short of that glory which is promised to them that suffer for righteousness sake: and this is another aggravation of the folly of these persons, that they should suffer so much persecution for the Gospel, which, if not true, they must have suffered in vain, and might as well have avoided it; and, if true, by relinquishing it not only sustain a great loss, but bring great hurt and damage to themselves:<\/p>\n if it be yet in vain<\/strong>; by which words the apostle does, as it were, correct himself, and expresses his hope of them, that they would see their mistake, revoke their error, and abide by the truth of the Gospel.<\/p>\n Did ye suffer? <\/B> (?<\/SPAN><\/span>). Second aorist active indicative of <\/SPAN><\/span>, to experience good or ill. But alone, as here, it often means to suffer ill (<\/SPAN><\/span>, so many things). In North Galatia we have no record of persecutions, but we do have records for South Galatia (Acts 14:2<\/span>; Acts 14:5<\/span>; Acts 14:19<\/span>; Acts 14:22<\/span>).<\/P> If it be indeed in vain <\/B> ( <\/SPAN><\/span>). On <\/SPAN><\/span> see 1Cor 15:2<\/span>; Gal 4:11<\/span>. Paul clings to hope about them with alternative fears. <\/P> <\/p>\n Have ye suffered [] <\/SPAN><\/span>. Or, did ye suffer. The exact sense is doubtful. By some it is held that the reference is to sufferings endured by the Galatian Christians either through heathen persecutions or Judaising emissaries. There is, however, no record in this Epistle or elsewhere of the Galatians having suffered special persecutions on account of their Christian profession. Others take the verb in a neutral sense, have ye experienced, or with a definite reference to the experience of benefits. In this neutral sense it is used in Class. from Homer down, and is accordingly joined with both kakwv evilly, and eu well. Paul habitually used it in the sense of suffering evil, and there is no decisive instance, either in N. T. or LXX, of the neutral sense. In Class., where it is used of the experience of benefits, it is always accompanied by some qualifying word. When it stands alone it signifies to suffer evil. The evidence on the whole makes very strongly for the meaning suffer; in which case the reference is, probably, to the annoyances suffered from Judaising Christians. It must be said, on the other hand, that a reference to such annoyances seems far – fetched. If we could translate did ye experience (so Weizsacker, Lipsius, Sieffert), the reference would be to the impartation of the gifts of the Spirit. <\/P> In vain [] <\/SPAN><\/span>. So that ye have fallen from the faith and missed the inheritance of suffering and the rich fruitage of your spiritual gifts. See Mt 5:10 – 12<\/span>; Rom 8:17<\/span>; 2Co 4:17<\/span>. <\/P> If it be yet in vain [ ] <\/SPAN><\/span>. The A. V. misses the force of the particles. Kai should be closely joined with eijkh, with the sense of really. If, that is, it be really in vain.<\/P> <\/p>\n 1 ) “Have ye suffered so many things in vain;-<\/strong> (tosauta epathete eike;) “Ye suffered so many things in vain? haven’t you?” if salvation were obtained or retained by media of obedience to the law, did you all not act imprudent, foolish in preaching, receiving Christ, which brought the persecution from the Jews?<\/p>\n 2) “If it be yet in vain,”<\/strong> (ei ge kai eike) “if indeed it be in vain.” If it be true that you have gone back to the law, your former sufferings for the name of Christ was actually vain on your part! 2Jn 1:8<\/span>; 1Co 15:12-17<\/span>.<\/p>\n 4. Have ye suffered so many things? This is another argument. Having suffered so many things in behalf of the gospel, would they now, in an instant, lose it all? Nay, he puts it in the way of reproach, if they were willing to lose the advantage of so many illustrious struggles which they had made for the faith. If the true faith had not been delivered to them by Paul, it was rash to suffer anything in defense of a bad cause; but they had experienced the presence of God amidst their persecutions. Accordingly, he charges the false apostles with ill-will in depriving the Galatians of such valuable ornaments. But to mitigate the severity of this complaint, he adds, if it be yet in vain; thus inspiring their minds with the expectation of something better, and rousing them to the exercise of repentance. For the intention of all chastisement is, not to drive men to despair, but to lead them to a better course. <\/p>\n (4) Suffered so many things.<\/strong>The Galatians, like other churches, were subjected to much persecution when first they embraced Christianity. The persecutors were probably their own Jewish countrymen, whose jealousy and rage they had braved in the name of the gospel as preached by St. Paul. Now they were abandoning that very gospel for the principles of those by whom they had been persecuted. Conduct could not be more fickle and foolish.<\/p>\n If it be yet in vain.<\/strong>If it be indeed in vain.<\/em> The Apostle cannot quite bring himself to believe that it is, and he puts in this delicate qualification parenthetically, to show the Galatians that, much as appearances may be against them, he will not give up the hope that a lingering spark of their first joyous conviction, in the strength of which they had undergone persecution, yet remained.<\/p>\n 4<\/strong>. <\/strong> Suffered<\/strong> Appeal to their memory of persecutions suffered <\/strong> by them for Christ. If <\/strong> it can be<\/strong>, alas! yet <\/strong> in vain<\/strong>. The history of their sufferings for the gospel when first preached to them by Paul is not recorded; but the analogy of Luke’s narrative of the persecutions in Lycaonia and elsewhere justifies the belief that these are the subject of St. Paul’s allusion. Calling these sufferings to mind, his heart is touched with sorrow to think that their apostasy from the faith should so nullify their former constancy.<\/p>\n ‘Did you suffer (or experience) so many things in vain? That is if it is indeed in vain.’<\/p>\n It is possible that the Galatian Christians had suffered persecution as a result of their response to Christ (Act 14:22<\/span>). If so, he is pointing out that they would not have suffered like that if they had simply become Jewish proselytes, for that was acceptable and even admired by some. Their suffering arises from the fact that they are following Christ. Thus if they now go back to Judaistic practices their suffering will have been in vain. They will have gained nothing.<\/p>\n But while the word used here means ‘suffer’ in most New Testament uses that is because the context regularly demands it. It originally strictly meant ‘experience’, and the context seems to require this here. There is no suggestion of suffering in the remainder of the context. Thus he may simply be saying, ‘have you had all these experiences to no purpose, if indeed it is to no purpose?’ (However, the word did certainly develop at some time into being used almost solely in its bad sense of suffer, so the other is possible).<\/p>\n ‘If it was to no purpose.’ He adds this as a rider. He still cherishes hope for them.<\/p>\n Gal 3:4<\/span><\/em><\/strong>. <\/strong>Have ye suffered so many things in vain?<\/em><\/strong><\/strong> As much persecution might be declined by admitting this mixture of Judaism, there was reason to fear that a regard to their own present ease and convenience led them to it; (comp. ch. Gal 5:11<\/span> and Gal 6:12<\/span>.) which was, in a manner, cancelling the good effect of their former resolution; and, indeed, any thing which looked like a sinful temporizing, in those who had before been confessors for the truth, might occasion peculiar scandal, and endanger many others. <\/p>\n Gal 3:4<\/span> . After Paul, by the , has reminded his readers of all that they had most foolishly submitted to at the hands of the false apostles, in order to be made, according to their own and their teachers’ fancy, finished Christians, he now discloses to them the uselessness of it in the exclamation<\/em> (not interrogation<\/em> ), “ So much have ye suffered without profit!<\/em> ” What he means by , is therefore everything with which the false apostles in their Judaistic zeal had molested and burdened the Galatians, the many exactions, in name of compliance with the law, which these had necessarily to undergo at the hands of their new teachers. Comp. Gal 1:6<\/span> f., Gal 4:10<\/span> , Gal 5:2<\/span> ; Gal 5:8<\/span> , Gal 6:12<\/span> , Gal 2:4<\/span> . Comp. 2Co 11:20<\/span> . Bengel refers it to the patient endurance of the apostle’s ministry, produced through the Holy Spirit; but this view is not at all suggested by the context, and would not correspond to the sense of (but rather of ). All the expositors before Schomer (in Wolf) and Homberg, as also Grotius, Calovius, Wolf, Semler, Michaelis, Morus, Rckert, Olshausen, Reithmayr, and others, understand it (following Chrysostom and Augustine) of the sufferings and persecutions on account of Christianity;<\/em> so that Paul asks, “Have ye suffered so much in vain? Seeing, namely, that ye have fallen away from the faith and hence cannot attain to the glory which tribulation brings in its train” (2Co 4:17<\/span> ; Rom 8:17<\/span> ). But, apart from the fact that no extraordinary sufferings on the part of the Galatians are either touched upon in the epistle (Gal 4:29<\/span> is quite general in its character) or known to us otherwise, this interpretation is completely foreign to the connection. After Schomer and Homberg, others (including Schoettgen, Raphel, Kypke, Zachariae, Koppe, Rosenmller, Borger, Flatt, Winer, Usteri, Schott, Baumgarten-Crusius, de Wette, Hilgenfeld, Wieseler, Hofmann, Matthias) explain it: “ So many benefits<\/em> (by means of the Spirit) have ye experienced in vain?<\/em> ” So also Fritzsche, Diss<\/em> . I. in<\/em> 2 Cor. p. 54, and Holsten. Certainly , something befalls me<\/em> , is a vox media<\/em> (hence Matthies even wishes to understand it of the agreeable and disagreeable together<\/em> ), which, according to the well-known Greek usage, as the passive side of the idea of , may be employed also of happy<\/em> experiences (Xen. Anab<\/em> . v. 5. 9: , ); but, as the latter use of the word always occurs with a qualitative addition either expressed ( , , , , , or the like) or indicated beyond doubt by the immediate context (as Joseph. Antt<\/em> . iii. 15. Galatians 1 : ), it is not to be found at all in the whole of the New Test., the LXX., or the Apocrypha (not even Est 9:29<\/span> ). Thus the interpretation, even if could convey any such qualitative definition of the text, is without precedent in the usage of Scripture. Paul in particular, often as he speaks about the experiences of divine grace, never uses for this purpose , which with him always denotes the experience of suffering<\/em> . He would have written, as the correlative of the bestowal of grace, or (2Co 6:1<\/span> ). Ewald’s suggestion of powerful and vehement<\/em> movements of the Spirit is forced, and unwarranted by the text. The very word points to the suffering of evil<\/em> , just as , , without or the like, is frequently so used in Greek authors.<\/p>\n ] A hint that the case might be still worse<\/em> than was expressed in : if indeed it is only in vain<\/em> (and not even to the positive jeopardy of your Messianic salvation) that ye have suffered. On , compare Hartung, Partikell<\/em> . I. p. 136; Baeuml. Partik<\/em> . p. 150. So, in substance, Beza, Grotius, Wolf, Semler, Kypke, Michaelis, Rosenmller, Paulus, Matthies, Olshausen, Baumgarten-Crusius, de Wette, Ewald, Wieseler, Matthias, and others. Chrysostom and his followers discover a mitigation<\/em> and encouragement to improvement<\/em> in the words ( , , Chrysostom), as also Ambrose, Luther, [119] Erasmus, Calvin, Clarius, Zeger, Calovius, Cornelius a Lapide, Estius, Zachariae, Morus, and others. In this case <\/em><\/strong> must be understood as really<\/em> (Hartung, I. p. 132); but the idea of improvement<\/em> , whereby the supposed case of the would be cancelled, is not indicated by aught in the context. Even should the words be taken as merely leaving open the possibility, that matters had not actually already gone so far with the readers<\/em> (Hofmann), Paul himself would have rendered his very earnest reproach . both problematical and ambiguous, and would thus have taken the whole pith out of it.<\/p>\n <\/em><\/strong> ] assuming, namely<\/em> , that ye even only, etc., makes the condition more prominent, and serves to intensify the mere . Paul fears that more<\/em> may take place than that which was only expressed by . This, however, is conveyed by the context, and is independent of the <\/em><\/strong> , instead of which <\/em><\/strong> might have been used. See Baeuml. l.c<\/em> . p. 64 f. Comp. on 2Co 5:3<\/span> ; Eph 3:2<\/span> . Still more marked prominence would have been given to the condition by (Plat. Theaet<\/em> . p. 187 D; Herod. vi. 16).<\/p>\n [119] “Objurgat quidem, sed ita ut semper oleum juxta infundat, ne eos ad desperationem adigat. Non omnino abjeci spem de vobis.”<\/p>\n 4 Have ye suffered so many things in vain? if it be<\/em> yet in vain. <\/p>\n<\/p>\n <\/strong><\/p>\n Ver. 4. If it be in vain<\/strong> ] q.d.<\/em> It is not in vain. God keepeth the feet of the saints, that they cannot altogether lose the things they have wrought, they cannot fall below his supporting grace; the Lord puts under his hand, Psa 37:1-7 Yet it cannot be denied that a hypocrite may suffer, and all in vain, 1Co 13:3<\/span> , as did Alexander the coppersmith, who was near unto martyrdom, Act 19:34<\/span> . See Trapp on “<\/em> 1Co 13:3 “<\/em> <\/p>\n 4<\/strong> .] Did ye suffer<\/strong> (not, ‘ have ye suffered<\/em> ,’ as almost all Commentators, E. V., &c., i.e. , Heb 2:18<\/span> ; Luk 13:2 ) so many things in vain?<\/strong> There is much controversy about the meaning. (1) Chrys., Aug., and the ancients, Grot., Wolf, Rck., Olsh., &c., understand it of the sufferings which the Galatians underwent at the time of their reception of the Gospel. And, I believe, rightly. For (a) occurs (see reff.) seven times in St. Paul, and always in the strict sense of ‘ suffering<\/em> ,’ by persecution, or hardship (similarly in Heb., 1 Pet., &c.): (b) the historic aorist here marks the reference to be to some definite time. Now the time referred to by the context is that of their conversion to the Gospel, cf. . , above. Therefore the meaning is, Did ye undergo all those sufferings<\/strong> (not specially mentioned in this Epistle, but which every convert to Christ must have undergone as a matter of course) in vain<\/strong> (Schomer first, and after him many, and Winer, B.-Crus., De Wette, understand here in a good sense<\/em> , in reference to divine grace bestowed on them. But seems never to be thus used in Greek without an indication in the context of such a meaning, e.g. , or as in Jos. Antt. iii. 15. 1, . , where the added clause defines the ; and never in N. T., LXX nor Apocrypha at all. (3) Bengel refers it to their patience with Paul ( patientissime sustinuistis pertulistisque me<\/em> ); but this, as Meyer remarks, would be expressed by , hardly by . (4) Meyer, to the troubles of their bondage introduced by the false and judaizing teachers. But not to dwell on other objections, it is decisive against this, (a) that it would thus be present<\/em> , (see ch. Gal 4:10 ), not past<\/em> at all, and (b) that even if it might be past, it must be the perfect and not the aorist. I therefore hold to (1); , Thdrt.: , , , , . . Chrys. (So Ellic. Exo 2<\/span> .) When Meyer says that this meaning is ganz isolirt vom Context, he is surely speaking at random: see above. (Ellic. Exo 1<\/span> took in a neutral sense, as applying to both persecutions and blessings, and nearly so Jowett: ‘Had ye all these experiences in vain?’ objecting to (1) that it is unlike the whole spirit of the Apostle. But we find surely a trace of the same spirit in Phi 1:29-30<\/span> ; as there suffering is represented as a special grace from Christ, so here it might well be said, ‘let not such grace have been received in vain’)) ? if it be really in vain<\/strong> (on , see note on 2Co 5:3<\/span> ; the construction is, ‘if, as it must be, what I have said, , is really the fact.’ The Commentators all take it as a supposition, some, as Chr., &c., E.V., ‘if it be yet in vain,’ as a softening of , others, as Meyer, De W., al., as an intensification of it, ‘if it be only in vain (and not something worse)’).<\/p>\n Gal 3:4<\/span> . The persecutions endured by the Galatian converts had all been due to the jealous animosity of the Jews: if they were now to accept the Law after all, they would proclaim their former resistance to have been wanton caprice on their part, which had led them to provoke persecution to no purpose ( ) without any sufficient object.<\/p>\n Galatians<\/p>\n LESSONS OF EXPERIENCE <\/strong><\/p>\n Gal 3:4<\/p>\n Preached on the last Sunday of the year. <\/p>\n This vehement question is usually taken to be a reminder to the fickle Galatians that their Christian faith had brought upon them much suffering from the hands of their unbelieving brethren, and to imply an exhortation to faithfulness to the Gospel lest they should stultify their past brave endurance. Yielding to the Judaising teachers, and thereby escaping the ‘offence of the Cross,’ they would make their past sufferings vain. But it may be suggested that the word ‘suffered’ here is rather used in what is its known sense elsewhere, namely, with the general idea of feeling , the nature of the feeling being undefined. It is a touching proof of the preponderance of pain and sorrow that by degrees the significance of the word has become inextricably intertwined with the thought of sadness; still, it is possible to take it in the text as meaning experienced or felt , and to regard the Apostle as referring to the whole of the Galatians’ past experience, and as founding his appeal for their steadfastness on all the joys as well as the sorrows, which their faith had brought them.<\/p>\n Taking the words in this more general sense they become a question which it is well for us to ask ourselves at such a time as this, when the calendar naturally invites us to look backwards and ask ourselves what we have made of all our experiences in the past, or rather what, by the help of them all, we have made of ourselves.<\/p>\n I. The duty of retrospect. <\/strong><\/p>\n For almost any reason it is good for us to be delivered from our prevailing absorption in the present. Whatever counterpoises the overwhelming weight of the present is, so far, a blessing and a good, and whatever softens the heart and keeps up even the lingering remembrance of early, dewy freshness and of the high aspirations which, even for a brief space, elevated our past selves is gain amidst the dusty commonplaces of to-day. We see things better and more clearly when we get a little away from them, as a face is more distinctly visible at armslength than when held close.<\/p>\n But our retrospects are too often almost as trivial and degrading as is our absorption in the present, and to prevent memory from becoming a minister of frivolity if not of sin, it is needful that such a question as that of our text be urgently asked by each of us. Memory must be in closest union with conscience, as all our faculties must be, or she is of little use. There is a mere sentimental luxury of memory which finds a pensive pleasure in the mere passing out from the hard present into the soft light, not without illusion in its beams, of the ‘days that are no more.’ Merely to live over again our sorrows and joys without any clear discernment of what their effects on our moral character have been, is not the retrospect that becomes a man, however it might suit an animal. We have to look back as a man might do escaping from the ocean on to some frail sand-bank which ever breaks off and crumbles away at his very heels. To remember the past mainly as it affected our joy or our sorrow is as unworthy as to regard the present from the same point of view, and robs both of their highest worth. To remember is only then blessed and productive of its highest possible good in us, when the question of our text insists on being faced, and the object of retrospect is not to try to rekindle the cold coals of past emotions, but to ascertain what effect on our present characters our past experiences have had. We have not to turn back and try to gather some lingering flowers, but to look for the fruit which has followed the fallen blossoms.<\/p>\n II. The true test for the past. <\/strong><\/p>\n The question of our text implies, as we have already suggested, that our whole lives, with all their various and often opposite experiences, are yet an ordered whole, having a definite end. There is some purpose beyond the moment to be served. Our joys and our sorrows, our gains and our losses, the bright hours and the dark hours, and the hours that are neither eminently bright nor supremely dark, our failures and our successes, our hopes disappointed or fulfilled, and all the infinite variety of condition and environment through which our varying days and years have led us, co-operate for one end. It is life that makes men; the infant is a bundle of possibilities, and as the years go on, one possible avenue of development after another is blocked. The child might have been almost anything; the man has become hardened and fixed into one shape.<\/p>\n But all this variety of impulses and complicated experiences need the co-operation of the man himself if they are to reach their highest results in him. If he is simply recipient of these external forces acting upon him, they will shape him indeed, but he will be a poor creature. Life does not make men unless men take the command of life, and he who lets circumstances and externals guide him, as the long water weeds in a river are directed by its current, will, from the highest point of view, have experienced the variations of a lifetime in vain.<\/p>\n No doubt each of our experiences has its own immediate and lower purpose to serve, and these purposes are generally accomplished, but beyond these each has a further aim which is not reached without diligent carefulness and persistent effort on our parts. If we would be sure of what it is to suffer life’s experiences in vain, we have but to ask ourselves what life is given us for, and we all know that well enough to be able to judge how far we have used life to attain the highest ends of living. We may put these ends in various ways in our investigation of the results of our manifold experiences. Let us begin with the lowest–we received life that we might learn truth, then if our experience has not taught us wisdom it has been in vain. It is deplorable to have to look round and see how little the multitude of men are capable of forming anything like an independent and intelligent opinion, and how they are swayed by gusts of passion, by blind prejudice, by pretenders and quacks of all sorts. It is no less sad for us to turn our eyes within and discover, perhaps not without surprise and shame, how few of what we are self-complacent enough to call our opinions are due to our own convictions.<\/p>\n If we ever are honest enough with ourselves to catch a glimpse of our own unwisdom, the question of our text will press heavily upon us, and may help to make us wiser by teaching us how foolish we are. An infinite source of wisdom is open to us, and all the rich variety of our lives’ experiences has been lavished on us to help us, and what have we made of it all?<\/p>\n But we may rise a step higher and remember that we are made moral creatures. Therefore, whatever has not developed infant potentialities in us, and made them moral qualities, has been experienced in vain. ‘Not enjoyment and not sorrow is our destined end and way.’ Life is meant to make us love and do the good, and unless it has produced that effect on us, it has failed. If this be true, the world is full of failures, like the marred statues in a bad sculptor’s studio, and we ourselves have earnestly to confess that the discipline of life has too often been wasted upon us, and that of us the divine complaint from of old has been true: ‘In vain have I smitten thy children, they have received no correction.’<\/p>\n There is no sadder waste than the waste of sorrow, and alas! we all know how impotent our afflictions have been to make us better. But not afflictions only have failed in their appeal to us, our joys have as often been in vain as our sorrows, and memory, when it turns its lamp on the long past, sees so few points at which life has taught us to love goodness, and be good, that she may well quench her light and let the dead past bury its dead.<\/p>\n But we must rise still higher, and think of men as being made for God, and as being the only creatures known to us who are capable of religion. ‘Man’s chief end is to glorify God and to enjoy Him for ever.’ And this chief end is in fullest harmony with the lower ends to which we have just referred, and they will never be realised in their fullest completeness unless that completeness is sought in this the chief end. From of old meditative souls have known that the beginning of wisdom is the fear of the Lord, and that that fear is as certainly the beginning of goodness. It was not an irrelevant rebuke to the question, ‘What good thing shall I do?’ when Jesus set the eager young soul who asked it, to justify to himself his courteous and superficial application to Him of the abused and vulgarised title of ‘Good,’ and pointed him to God as the only Being to whom that title, in its perfectness, could be given. If ‘there is none good but one, that is God,’ man’s goodness must be drawn from Him, and morality without religion will in theory be incomplete, and in practice a delusion. If, then, men are made to need God, and capable of possessing Him, and of being possessed by Him, then the great question for all of us is, has life, with all its rapid whirl of changing circumstance and varying fortunes, drawn us closer to God, and made us more fit to receive more of Him? So supreme is this chief end that a life which has not attained it can only be regarded as ‘in vain’ whatever other successes it may have attained. So unspeakably more important and necessary is it, that compared with it all else sinks into nothingness; hence many lives which are dazzling successes in the eyes of men are ghastly failures in reality.<\/p>\n Now, if we take these plain principles with us in our retrospect of the past year we shall be launched on a very serious inquiry, and brought face to face with a very penitent answer. Some of us may have had great sorrows, and the tears may be scarcely dry upon our cheeks: some of us may have had great gladnesses, and our hearts may still be throbbing with the thrill: some of us may have had great successes, and some of us heavy losses, but the question for us to ask is not of the quality of our past experiences, but as to their effects upon us. Has life been so used by us as to help us to become wiser, better, more devout? And the answer to that question, if we are honest in our scrutiny of ourselves, and if memory has not been a mere sentimental luxury, must be that we have too often been but unfaithful recipients alike of God’s mercies and God’s chastisements, and have received much of the discipline of life, and remained undisciplined. The question of our text, if asked by me, would be impertinent, but it is asked of each of us by the stern voice of conscience, and for some of us by the lips of dear ones whose loss has been among our chiefest sufferings. God asks us this question, and it is hard to make-believe to Him.<\/p>\n III. The best issue of the retrospect. <\/strong><\/p>\n The world says, ‘What I have written I have written,’ and there is a very solemn and terrible reality in the thought of the irrevocable past. Whether life has achieved the ends for which it was given or no, it has achieved some ends. It may have made us into characters the very opposite of God’s intention for us, but it has made us into certain characters which, so far as the world sees, can never be unmade or re-made. The world harshly preaches the indelibility of character, and proclaims that the Ethiopian may as soon be expected to change his skin or the leopard his spots as the man accustomed to do evil may learn to do well. That dreary fatalism which binds the effects of a dead past on a man’s shoulders, and forbids him to hope that anything will obliterate the marks of ‘what once hath been,’ is in violent contradiction to the large hope brought into the world by Jesus Christ. What we have written we have written, and we have no power to erase the lines and make the sheet clean again, but Jesus Christ has taken away the handwriting ‘that was against us,’ nailing it to His cross. Instead of our old sin-worn and sin-marked selves, He proffers to each of us a new self, not the outcome of what we have been, but the image of what He is and the prophecy of what we shall be. By the great gift of holiness for the future by the impartation of His own life and spirit, Jesus makes all things new. The Gospel recognises to the full how bad some who have received it were, but it can willingly admit their past foulness, because it contrasts with all that former filth their present cleanness, and to the most inveterately depraved who have trusted in Christ rejoices to say, ‘Ye were washed, ye were sanctified, ye were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.’ <\/p>\n in vain. See Rom 13:4. <\/p>\n if. Greek. ei. App-118.<\/p>\n 4.] Did ye suffer (not, have ye suffered, as almost all Commentators, E. V., &c.,-i.e. , Heb 2:18; Luk 13:2) so many things in vain? There is much controversy about the meaning. (1) Chrys., Aug., and the ancients, Grot., Wolf, Rck., Olsh., &c., understand it of the sufferings which the Galatians underwent at the time of their reception of the Gospel. And, I believe, rightly. For (a) occurs (see reff.) seven times in St. Paul, and always in the strict sense of suffering, by persecution, or hardship (similarly in Heb., 1 Pet., &c.): (b) the historic aorist here marks the reference to be to some definite time. Now the time referred to by the context is that of their conversion to the Gospel, cf. . ,- above. Therefore the meaning is, Did ye undergo all those sufferings (not specially mentioned in this Epistle, but which every convert to Christ must have undergone as a matter of course) in vain (Schomer first, and after him many, and Winer, B.-Crus., De Wette, understand here in a good sense, in reference to divine grace bestowed on them. But seems never to be thus used in Greek without an indication in the context of such a meaning, e.g. , or as in Jos. Antt. iii. 15. 1, . , where the added clause defines the ; and never in N. T., LXX nor Apocrypha at all. (3) Bengel refers it to their patience with Paul (patientissime sustinuistis pertulistisque me); but this, as Meyer remarks, would be expressed by , hardly by . (4) Meyer, to the troubles of their bondage introduced by the false and judaizing teachers. But not to dwell on other objections, it is decisive against this, (a) that it would thus be present, (see ch. Gal 4:10), not past at all, and (b) that even if it might be past, it must be the perfect and not the aorist. I therefore hold to (1); , Thdrt.: , , , , . . Chrys. (So Ellic. ed. 2.) When Meyer says that this meaning is ganz isolirt vom Context, he is surely speaking at random: see above. (Ellic. ed. 1 took in a neutral sense, as applying to both persecutions and blessings, and nearly so Jowett: Had ye all these experiences in vain? objecting to (1) that it is unlike the whole spirit of the Apostle. But we find surely a trace of the same spirit in Php 1:29-30; as there suffering is represented as a special grace from Christ, so here it might well be said, let not such grace have been received in vain))? if it be really in vain (on , see note on 2Co 5:3; the construction is, if, as it must be, what I have said, , is really the fact. The Commentators all take it as a supposition,-some, as Chr., &c., E.V., if it be yet in vain, as a softening of , others, as Meyer, De W., al., as an intensification of it, if it be only in vain (and not something worse)).<\/p>\n Gal 3:4. ) have you suffered? While you suffered and bore with me most patiently (and this patience is the fruit of the Spirit), when I portrayed before your eyes Christ and His cross, Gal 3:1, note, and laboured among you in the weakness of the flesh; as he speaks more explicitly afterwards at Gal 4:11 (where the word , in vain, is repeated), 13, etc. He does not say, have you done (comp. 2 John Gal 3:8), because he refutes in this passage those that work; but he says, have you suffered, with great propriety of language (for he suffers, who is brought to the birth[19] [in Christ], Gal 4:19; as also, he who runs, Gal 5:7); also appositely to his argument, in order to amplify the indignity of their loss. There is a use of this verb not dissimilar, at Amo 6:6; Zec 11:5. Sometimes , , is to receive [to be favoured with] a benefit, Bar 6:33 (34): but this is not the notion of the word adopted by Paul.- , if it be yet in vain) This is as it were a correction;[20] ye have not suffered so many things in vain; for God has given you the Spirit, and has wrought mighty works [virtutes, miracles, Gal 3:5] in you. Comp. Heb 10:32.<\/p>\n [19] The patitur qui paritur of the original cannot be imitated in a translation.-TR.<\/p>\n [20] See App.<\/p>\n Gal 3:4<\/p>\n Gal 3:4<\/p>\n Did ye suffer so many things in vain?-They in common with all Christians had suffered most severely for their faith in Christ. If they now turn to Judaism, they give up all that for which they suffered and say that the sufferings were needless and vain. The chief persecution against Paul was because he forsook Judaism. The Jews scattered throughout Gentile lands persecuted those who followed Christ. When Paul was arrested in Jerusalem and sent to Rome, it was at the instigation of the Jews. Luke says: The Jews from Asia, when they saw him in the temple, stirred up all the multitude and laid hands on him, crying out, Men of Israel, help: This is the man that teacheth all men everywhere against the people, and the law, and this place. (Act 21:27-28). And Paul says: If I still preach circumcision, why am I still persecuted? (Gal 5:11). The offending of the Jewish law was the cause of the persecution. [These persecutions had failed to move them from their faith in Christ. Would they now succumb before the subtler methods of the Judaizers?]<\/p>\n if it be indeed in vain.-[In this he shows that he is unwilling to believe that they had actually turned away from the faith, and that he hopes they will yet shake themselves free from the trammels of the false teachers. The question addressed to the Galatians addresses itself to the churches untrue to the spiritual principles that gave them birth. The faith of the apostolic church that endured so faithfully the severe persecutions finally yielded its purity to the blandishments of wicked and designing men. The pioneers of the restoration movement of the nineteenth century staked their lives on a thus saith the Lord in faith and practice. For this glorious principle they suffered bitter persecution and ostracism; and now that the victory is won, there are those among their children who scout the very idea of such a struggle and even ostracize those who contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all delivered unto the saints. (Jud 1:3). And now that the victory is won, there are those of their children who are wholly indifferent and care nothing for the principles for which their fathers so nobly fought and suffered. Out of indifference and worldly pride they have abandoned the spiritual heritage bequeathed to them. Did their fathers suffer so many things in vain? Was it an illusion that sustained these faithful heroic souls, who through faith wrought righteousness, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions? Was it for nought that so many of Christs faithful servants suffered the loss of all things rather than yield by subjection to a usurping and worldly clergy? And can we who reap the fruits of their faith and courage afford, in these perilous times, to surrender the principles whose maintenance cost our fathers so dear a price?]<\/p>\n ye: Eze 18:24, Heb 6:4-6, Heb 10:32-39, 2Pe 2:20-22, 2Jo 1:8 <\/p>\n so many: or, so great <\/p>\n Reciprocal: 1Ki 2:26 – hast been Ezr 9:13 – after all Luk 8:13 – receive 1Co 15:2 – unless 2Co 6:1 – ye Jam 1:26 – this<\/p>\n Gal 3:4. ; -Did ye suffer so many things in vain, if it be really in vain? We hold this to be the right translation of the verb, that it has not a neutral sense, and that it cannot be used in bonam partem-have ye experienced so many blessings in vain? The verb has such a meaning in extra-biblical writings, but not in itself-never having it when used absolutely, such a sense being determined by the context, or by the addition of such words as , , , etc. Rost und Palm, sub voce; Joseph. Ant. 3.15, 1; , Artemidorus, 4:67; , Theognis, 342, p. 20, ed. Welcker; , Chares, ap. Stobaei Florileg. 17.3, vol. i. p. 345, ed. Gaisford; Kypke and Raphel. in loc., and Hombergk’s Parerga, p. 278; Bos, Ellips. p. 131. In Homer and Hesiod it never has such a sense at all; nor in the Hellenistic Greek (Septuagint and Apocrypha); nor in the New Testament, though it occurs in it above forty times, and eleven times in the Pauline writings. But this meaning is given it here by Schomer, the first apparently to propose it, and by Borger, Flatt, Homberg, Winer, Wieseler, Bagge, Holsten, Sardinoux, De Wette, Usteri, Schott, Trana, Ewald, Hilgenfeld, Jowett, and the lexicographers Robinson, Wahl, Bretschneider, and Wilke. The sense then will be, Did ye experience so many things,-or, Have you had all those experiences in vain? (Jowett.) But the proper translation is the natural one-Did ye suffer so many things in vain? Such a reference to previous suffering is surely not unlike the noble spirit of the apostle; for he is rebuking that inconsistency which, as it turns its back on blessing, forgets the lessons of persecution. The Syriac appears to favour this view-have ye borne; and the Vulgate has passi estis. But if the verb do refer to suffering, what sufferings are spoken of? Not <\/p>\n 1. Suffering with the apostle himself, though they had borne with him most patiently. Such is Bengel’s view, unsupported alike by the diction and by the context. Nor is it <\/p>\n 2. Sufferings of bondage which were brought upon them by their false teachers. For, as Alford remarks, a different tense would have been employed, as the apostle would consider them as suffering from that source still. But the aorist refers to a specific period in their past history. The appeal would also be in vain; for the Galatians, so long as their delusion lasted, would not admit that they were suffering in this sense. The ceremonial under which they were brought was hailed by them as a means of perfection, and not a source of suffering. The apostle alludes to a previous epoch. And <\/p>\n 3. To the sufferings endured by them on their first conversion, when the Crucified One was so vividly set before their very eyes, and they received the Spirit, and began in the Spirit. Thus Theodoret, ; and Augustine, multa jam pro fide toleraverant. It is objected, first, that there is no historical account of persecution endured by the Galatian churches; but the silence of the Acts of the Apostles can furnish no argument. The record is there so very brief and incidental-it is not even a sketch. We cannot suppose that the Jews were less busy in Galatia than in other places, as at Antioch in Pisidia, Lystra, and Thessalonica. 1Th 2:13-14. The probability is, that the Galatians suffered like so many of the infant churches, and suffered just because they professed faith in the doctrines of the cross-apart from any Jewish modification, supplement, or admixture: Gal 5:11, Gal 6:12. It is objected, secondly, by Meyer and Usteri, that the idea of suffering is not in harmony with the course of thought. But surely the appeal is quite in keeping with previous statements. The argument rests on the folly of the Galatians. It was folly to be so bewitched as to revert to the law, which did not and could not give them the Spirit; folly to begin in the Spirit, and apostatize to the flesh which could not perfect them; and folly assuredly all the more unaccountable, after they had suffered so severely for their first and opposite views and opinions. They were so foolish as to renounce blessings which they had once prized, nay, for which they had also undergone persecution. Men naturally cling to that for which they have suffered, but they had in childish caprice flung it away. The apostle thus appeals first to what they had enjoyed, and then to what they had endured, as the proof of their folly-their senselessness. See under Php 1:29. <\/p>\n -if indeed they be in vain. The particle , different from , does not express doubt,-the usage, according to Hermann, being, usurpatur, de re quae esse sumitur sed in incerto relinquitur utrum jure an injuria sumatur; , autem, de re quae jure sumpta creditur. signifies truly or really-if it really be in vain. Klotz-Devarius, 2.308; Hartung, 1.136. If what has been said is true, and it must be true, those sufferings are in vain-though he is loath to believe it. There is therefore no need, first, to weaken the sense, and render the clause, si modo frustra, si modo dicere ita liceat (Morus); nor secondly, with the Greek fathers, and many others, as Bengel and Hofmann, to suppose the apostle as hinting, on the one hand, that possibly after all the might be prevented; nor, thirdly, with Augustine, Meyer, Wieseler, etc., as surmising, on the other hand, that worse than may be dreaded-ne ad perniciem valeat. The Syriac reads, And I would-5-that it were in vain. <\/p>\n Gal 3:4. Suffered . . . in vain. The Gentiles who accepted the Gospel were persecuted by the Judaaizers who wished them to be satisfied with the law of Moses. They could have avoided these persecutions had they yielded to the pressure of the Judaizing teachers. Now, after having stood firm at first in spite of the persecutions, if they backslide and take up the ordinances of the law, it would render all of their past sufferings for Christ to be vain. (See Heb 10:32-35.)<\/p>\n Gal 3:4. Did ye experience so many things in vain? The usual rendering suffer would refer to persecutions which the Galatians had to endure (probably from the Jews); but as we know nothing of them, it seems preferable to take the Greek verb () in the neutral and wider sense (otherwise not found in the New Testament, except perhaps in Mar 5:26), embracing all spiritual experiences (blessings and benefits as well) of the Galatians (comp. Gal 3:3; Gal 3:5).<\/p>\n If it be really in vain. This leaves room for doubt; the Apostle cannot believe that the Galatians will lose all the benefit of their spiritual experiences and continue in their folly. Others take the words in the sense: if it be only in vain, and not much worse; since spiritual expeperiences increase the responsibility and risk. Comp. Luk 12:47-48; 2Pe 2:21.<\/p>\n As if the apostle had said, “To what purpose have you suffered so many persecutions from the Jews, for the cause of Christianity? All which sufferings will be in vain, if, after all, you bring yourselves under the bondage of the Jewish yoke; for these might have been escaped, had you owned the necessity of circumcision, and other legal observances: But I hope you will recollect yourselves, and persevere in your first profession, without which all your former labours, your past and present sufferings, will avail you nothing.” Intimating, that all the good actions we have done and the hard things which we have suffered, will be altogether in vain to us, if we do not persevere in well doing, and patient suffering unto the end: Have ye suffered so many things in vain? if it be yet in vain. <\/p>\n Note here, 1. That it has been from the beginning the lot and portion of such as profess Christianity, to suffer many things in the defense of it.<\/p>\n Note, 2. That it is very possible for some of those who have made an early and long profession of Christianity, yea, and suffered hard things for it, after all, to make a foul defection and apostasy from it.<\/p>\n Note, 3. That all such sufferings have been, are, and will be in vain, and return to no joyful account, if the persons suffering do afterwards apostatize from, and turn their backs upon the truths of God, formerly embraced and maintained by them: Have ye suffered so many things in vain? if it be yet in vain.<\/p>\n Did ye suffer so many things in vain? If it be indeed vain. [Paul here reproves them in that they have begun their life in the manhood of the Spirit, with the attendant spiritual powers, liberties and graces, and were now seeking to advance or perfect that life by turning back to the childhood of the law with its fleshly forms, rites and ordinances. They were advancing backward! (See Gal 4:1-6) He next reminds them of their sufferings, which were vain, since they might have escaped them altogether, had they begun by embracing Judaism, for the Jews were not being persecuted, but were the very parties who had stirred up the hostility of the Gentiles against all Christians. “If it be indeed vain,” as translated in the text, expresses a hope that they may repent of their apostasy, and so not lose the reward of their sufferings (Mat 5:11-12). But the phrase may be rendered “if indeed it is only in vain,” which expresses a desire that the loss may be confined to the reward of their sufferings, and may not be extended to something further, as the loss of their salvation. Cook, Meyer, etc., prefer this latter meaning, but, though less commonplace and more forceful, it is also more strained.] <\/p>\n Did you suffer so many things in vain, if indeed it is even in vain? <\/p>\n It seems Paul refers their minds back to the persecution they suffered by the hands of the Jews when they were first saved – the persecution of rejection etc. when they converted from Judaism to Christianity. (You might find Act 14:1-7 of use, as it depicts the Jews reaction to Christians.) <\/p>\n Some logical conclusions might be derived here: Did you suffer all that in vain, if it is in vain then it was. All that they had gone through was in vain, including accepting Christ by faith would be in vain if indeed their suffering was in vain. <\/p>\n Actually, Paul is saying, did you suffer all these things in vain, even if it wasn’t in vain – again calling their logical minds to reality. Was it in vain? No, certainly not. Why would they then take on the works of those that persecuted them to become spiritual? <\/p>\n One might wonder if the persecution had softened their resolve and they had somewhere started wondering if their lost persecutors were right – then along came the Judaizers and they decided they had been wrong somehow. <\/p>\n 3:4 {3} Have ye suffered so many things in vain? if [it be] yet in vain.<\/p>\n (3) An exhortation by manner of reproach, so that they do not in vain suffer so many conflicts.<\/p>\n Question 3: Have your experiences been useless? "Suffer" can mean suffer persecution or simply to experience something. In the former case it would refer to the persecution the Galatians had experienced since they became Christians (cf. Act 14:21-22). The point would be that all of those afflictions would have been needless suffering. In the latter case it would refer to all the experiences that the Galatians had gone through, good and bad, since their conversion. The point would be that all of those experiences would have been meaningless. Perhaps we should prefer the wider significance here since the other questions in this pericope concern positive benefits the Galatians had received from God by faith.<\/p>\n Have ye suffered so many things in vain? if [it be] yet in vain. 4. Have ye suffered so many things in vain? ] The reference is, as in Gal 3:2, to persecutions experienced by them at the time of their conversion. Though we have no record of these, yet, as Bp. Lightfoot remarks, the … Continue reading “Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Galatians 3:4”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-29049","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-commentary"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/bible-commentary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29049","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/bible-commentary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/bible-commentary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/bible-commentary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/bible-commentary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29049"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/bible-commentary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29049\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/bible-commentary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29049"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/bible-commentary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29049"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/bible-commentary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29049"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible <\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
Fuente: Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New Testament<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
Fuente: Vincent’s Word Studies in the New Testament<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
Fuente: Heinrich August Wilhelm Meyer’s New Testament Commentary<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
Fuente: Expositions Of Holy Scripture by Alexander MacLaren<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
Fuente: The Greek Testament<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
Fuente: Gnomon of the New Testament<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
Fuente: Commentary on the Greek Text of Galatians, Ephesians, Colossians and Phillipians<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
Fuente: A Popular Commentary on the New Testament<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
Fuente: Expository Notes with Practical Observations on the New Testament<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
Fuente: McGarvey and Pendleton Commentaries (New Testament)<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
Fuente: Mr. D’s Notes on Selected New Testament Books by Stanley Derickson<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"