The life and work of St. Paul

THE EPISTLE TO THE GALATIA3TS. 443
and mercy, and on the Israel of God." And then, as though by a sudden afterthought,
we have the " Henceforth let no man trouble me, for I bear in triumph on
1
my body the brands of Jesus."
" The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit, brethren. Amen." *
Such was the Epistle to the Galatians ; nor can we without some knowledge
of what Judaism then wa3, and what it was daily becoming, form any adequate
conception of tho daring courage, the splendid originality
let us rather say
the inspired and inspiring faith which enabled the Apostle thus to throw off
the yoke of immemorial traditions, and to defy the hatred of those among
whom he had been trained as a Hebrew and a Pharisee. "We must remember
that at this veiy time the schools of Rabbinism were fencing the Law with a
and that while
jealous exclusiveness which yearly increased in its intensity ;
St. Paul was freely flinging open all, and more than all, of the most cherished
hopes and exalted privileges of Judaism, without one of its burdens, the
Rabbis and Rabbans were on the high road to the conclusion that any Gentile
who dared to get beyond the seven Noachian precepts any Gentile, for
instance, who had the audacity to keep the Sabbath as a day of rest without
becoming a proselyte of righteousness, and so accepting the entire yoke of
Levitism, "neither adding to it nor diminishing from it," deserved to be
beaten and punished, and to be informed that he thereby legally incurred tha
penalty of death. 8 "What was the effect of the Epistle on the Churches of
Galatia we cannot tell ; but for the Church of Christ the work was done. By
this letter Gentiles were freed for ever from the peril of having their Chris,
tianity subjected to impossible and carnal conditions. In the Epistle to
the Romans circumcision does not occur as a practical question. Judaism
continued, indeed, for some time to exercise over Christianity a powerful in-
fluence, but in the Epistle of Barnabas circumcision is treated with contempt,
and even attributed to the deception of an evil angel; 4 in the Epistle of
Ignatius, St. Paul's distinction of the true and false circumcision is absolutely
accepted ;
5 and even in the Clementine Homilies, Judaistic as they are, not a
word is said of the necessity of circumcision, but he who desires to be
on-Hellenised must bo so by baptism and the new birth. 6
13) and the dogmatic theses (14, 1C) of the letter ; and that the personal (17) as well as
the doctrinal truth (18) on which he has been dwelling recur in the last two verses.
Thus, from first to last, the Epistle is characterised by remarkable unity.
1 Hence, as one marked with the brands of his master, in his next Epistle (Eom. i. 1)
he for the first time calls himself "a slave of Jesus Christ." Stigmata were usually a
punishment, so that in classic Greek, stiffmatias is "a rascal." Whether St. Paul's
metaphor turns on his having been a deserter from Christ's service before his conversion,
or on his being a Hierodoulos (Hdt. ii. 113), is doubtful. There seem, too, to be traces
of the branding of recruits (Ronsch. Das N. T. Tertullian's, p. 700). The use of
"stigmata" for the "five wounds" has had an effect analogous to the notion of
" "
unknown tongues.
2
vi. 11 18. The one unusual last word, "brethren," beautifully tempers the
general severity of tone.
3 See Sanhedrin, f. 58, c. 2 ; and Maimonides. Yad Hach&akah (Hilchoth Melachim,
10, Hal. 9).
4 Ep. Ps. Barnab. Ix.
fr'jj'fii (Ps. Clem. Horn. iii. 9).
5 Ep. ad Philad. 6, i TJJ? vtpironrjs t|vSoiov5atf.