"But when God, who set me apart from birth and
called me by his grace, was pleased to reveal his Son in me so that I might
preach him among the Gentiles, ..." (Gal 1:15, 16a NIV).
The contexts of both the Jeremiah (1:5) and Isaiah
(49:1-6) passages make clear God's ongoing concern for non-Jews, and Israel's
priestly part in providing them with reconciliation to the Almighty. Paul seems
to be drawing on this biblical backdrop as he gives his Galatian audience a
short autobiography to explain why his gospel differs from that of his
circumcising opponents.
And of his special role in that priestly endeavor.
(see what Paul later wrote in Rom 15:16-- "... to be
a minister of Christ Jesus to the Gentiles with the priestly duty of
proclaiming the gospel of God, so that the Gentiles might become an offering
acceptable to God, sanctified by the Holy Spirit.")
The phrase "to reveal his Son in me" (Gal 1:16)
is both troubling to interpreters and intriguing for its possible implications.
The Greek (αποκαλυψαι τον υιον αυτου *εν εμοι*; i.e. APOKALUPHAI TON HWEEYON
AUTOU *EN EMOI*) could mean Paul was writing that God was pleased "to
reveal his Son IN MY CASE," stressing the uniqueness of the Apostle's
experience with Christ, as opposed to his agitators. Or it could mean that God
was pleased "to reveal his Son TO ME," emphasizing that Paul was the
recipient of God's special revelation, and presumably his opponents were not.
I, however, have a different theory and it comes from
knowing some Hebrew.
Literally the Greek says, "to reveal the son his IN
ME" (εν εμοι), which, as I said, has led to some confusion among the
commentators because it is an unusual idiom for literary Greek. But, as is
often the case, if Paul is thinking as a rabbi -- in Hebrew -- but writing in
Greek (and remember, he was from Tarsus but RAISED in Jerusalem -- Act 22:3),
then the phrase could quite possibly mean "to reveal his Son BECAUSE OF
WHAT I WAS DOING" -- calling attention to Paul's role in bringing the
gospel to Gentiles. If that's the case then the next clause ("... so that
I might preach him among the Gentiles") simply provides the same idea in
different words with a little more elaboration -- a very Jewish way to write!
This view finds further support from the immediate context where the same Greek
construction is used in just this way.
And they praised God BECAUSE OF ME (Gal 1:24; lit.
"IN me" [Gk. εν εμοι; i.e. EN EMOI]).
If this verse (Gal1:24) can be conceptualized to mean
"they praised GOD BECAUSE OF WHAT I WAS DOING" (the previous verse
reads: They only heard the report: "The man who formerly persecuted us is
NOW PREACHING THE FAITH HE ONCE TRIED TO DESTROY" -- Gal 1:23), then it is
easy enough to see that Gal 1:16 could mean something similar.
The thought underlying Paul's entire Galatian letter, and
indeed his call to the Gentiles, appears to flow primarily from Isa 49:1-6 which
portrays Israel as God's servant (remember Paul as the "servant of
Christ" in Gal 1:10, and the emphasis he places on the term; Cf also Gal
1:1), who is experiencing frustration in his mission.
But I said, "I have labored to no purpose; I have
spent my strength in vain and for nothing" (Isa 49:4a).
(Cf. Paul: "I fear for you, that somehow I have
wasted my efforts on you" -- Gal 4:11).
Even so, the servant remembers that his reward is with
the Lord.
"Yet what is due me is in the LORD's hand, and my
reward is with my God" (Isa 49:4b).
(Cf. Paul: "Let US [he includes himself] not become
weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not
give up" -- Gal 6:9, emphasis mine).
But the servant had received a commission to bring the
remnant of Israel back to the LORD ...
"And now the LORD says -- he who formed me in the
womb to be his SERVANT to bring Jacob back to him and gather Israel to himself,
for I am honored in the eyes of the LORD and my God has been my strength -- he
says: 'It is too small a thing for you to be my SERVANT to restore the tribes
of Jacob and bring back THOSE OF ISRAEL I HAVE KEPT'" (Isa 49:5, 6a,
emphasis mine).
(Cf. the calling of Paul: "Then I [Paul] asked, 'Who
are you, Lord?' 'I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting,' the Lord replied. 'Now
get up and stand on your feet. I have appeared to you to appoint you as a
SERVANT and as a witness [cp. Isa 43:10] of what you have seen of me and what I
will show you ...'. "So then, King Agrippa, I was not disobedient to the
vision from heaven ...” "First to THOSE [Jews] in Damascus, then to those
[Jews] in Jerusalem and in all Judea, ... that the Christ would suffer and, as
the first to rise from the dead, would proclaim LIGHT TO HIS OWN PEOPLE
..." -- Act 26:15-23, emphasis mine).
... AND to be a "light to the Gentiles".
"I will also make you a LIGHT FOR THE GENTILES, that
you may bring my salvation to the ends of the earth" (Isa 49:1-6, emphasis
mine).
(Cf. the calling of Paul: 'I [Jesus] will rescue you ...
from the Gentiles. I am sending you [Paul] to them [the Gentiles] to open their
eyes and turn them from darkness to LIGHT, and from the power of Satan to God,
so that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are
sanctified by faith in me...' . "... and to the Gentiles also, I preached
that they should repent and turn to God and prove their repentance by their
deeds.... But I have had God's help to this very day, and so I stand here and
testify to small and great alike. I am saying nothing beyond what the prophets
and Moses said would happen -- that the Christ would suffer and, as the first
to rise from the dead, would proclaim LIGHT to ... the GENTILES." -- Act
26:17-23, emphasis mine).
(Part #3 to come, of a three-part study)
-Michael Millier
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