jection, no, not for an hour; that slave us under their own yoke. the truth of the Gospel might con- To whom I yielded no submission, tinue with you.

no, not for an hour; that you might continue to enjoy the reality of Christ's Glad Tidings.

Every discriminating reader of the first half of this second chapter of the letter to the Galatians, must have been compelled to suppose, either that the original was very obscure, or that the translation was very clumsy. The original is not entirely free from obscurity, something needing to be supplied at the beginning of the fourth verse, but the common version nearly destroys what clearness the original has, besides being clumsy and unreadable. There is nothing answering to the "neither" of the third verse; and there is no sensible connection between the third and fourth. The version of Mr. Conybeare makes the whole passage intelligible.

Gal. 3: 4-5. Have ye suffer- Have you received so many bened so many things in vain? if it efits in vain-if indeed it has been be yet in vain. He, therefore, that in vain? I say, How came the ministereth to you the Spirit, and gifts of Him who furnishes you. worketh miracles among you, doeth with the fulness of the Spirit, and he it by the works of the law, or works in you the power of miraby the hearing of faith? cles? Came they from the deeds of the Law, or from the teaching of Faith?

The change of person here gives a material change in the

sense.

A. V.

Conybeare.

Gal. 3: 19-20. Wherefore then To what end, then, was the Law? serveth the law? It was added It was added because of the transbecause of transgressions, till the gressions of men, till the Seed seed should come to whom the should come, to whom belonged promise was made; and it was or- the promise; and it was ordained dained by angels in the hand of a through the ministration of angels. mediator. by the hands of [Moses, who was]

Now, a mediator is not a medi- a mediator [between God and the ater of one; but God is one.

note.

people.] Now where a mediator is there must be two parties. But God is one, [and there is no second party to his promise.]

To this passage, which has doubtless puzzled every unlearned reader, justice requires us to add our author's explanatory "St. Paul's argument here is left by him exceedingly elliptical, and therefore very obscure; as is evident from the fact that more than two hundred and fifty different explanations of the passage have been advocated by different commentators. The most natural meaning appears to be as follows: 'It is better to depend upon an unconditional promise of God, than upon a covenant made between God and man; for in the latter case the conditions of the covenant might be broken by man (as they had been,) and so the blessings forfeited; whereas in the former case, God being immutable, the blessings derived from His promise, remain steadfast forever.' The passage is parallel with Rom. 4: 13-16."

A. V.

Gal. 3: 24. Wherefore the law was our school-master to bring us

Conybeare.

Thus, even as the slave who leads a child to the house of the unto Christ, that we might be jus- school-master, so the Law led us tified by faith. to our teacher Christ, that by Faith we might be justified.

Пadaɣwrog is here taken to mean "the slave who accomΠαιδαγωγος panies boys to the public schools." See any standard Greek Lexicon. The metaphor is quite as good, and more complete than that of the common version.

Gal. 4: 12-14. Brethren, I I beseech you, brethren, to bebeseech you, be as I am; for I am come as I am [and seek no more a as ye are; ye have not injured me place among the circumcised ;] for at all. Ye know how through in- I too have become as you are [and firmity of the flesh I preached the have cast away the pride of my cirGospel unto you at the first. And cumcison.] You have never wrongmy temptation which was in my ed me hitherto; on the contrary,

flesh, ye despised not, nor reject- although it was sickness (as you ed; but received me as an angel of know) which caused me to preach God, even as Christ Jesus.

the Glad tidings to you at my first visit, yet you neither scorned nor loathed me because of the bodily infirmity which was my trial; but you welcomed me as an angel of God, yea, even as Christ Jesus.

Here again we have an obscure passage rendered comprehensible. It is very unfortunate that the word temptation has so changed its meaning in the last two hundred and fifty years, as to make the Authorized Version of the 14th verse a great source of misapprehension to ignorant readers. Some have even been led to imagine that St. Paul spoke of a sinful habit in which he indulged, and to the dominion of which he was encouraged (see 2 Cor. 12: 9.) contentedly to resign himself! Conybeare.

A. V. Gal. 4: 24-26. Which things Now, all this is allegorical; for are an allegory; for these are the these two women are the two cov. two covenants; the one from the enants; the first given from Mount Mount Sinai, which gendereth to Sinai, whose children are born inbondage, which is Agar. For this to bondage, which is Hagar, (for Agar is Mount Sinai in Arabia, the word Hagar signifies Mount and answereth to Jerusalem which Sinai in Arabia ;) and herein she now is, and is in bondage with her answers to the earthly Jerusalem, children. But Jerusalem which for she continues in bondage with is above is free, which is the moth- her children. But [Sarah is the er of us all. second covenant,which is in Christ, and answers to the heavenly Jerusalem; for] the heavenly Jerusalem is free, and is the mother of us all.

It is sometimes impossible to render intelligibly the elliptical arguments of Paul without supplying in the translation what is left to be implied in the original. This is done in the 26th verse, the parallel being incomplete without it.

Gal. 6: 2. Bear ye one anoth- Bear ye one another's burdens

er's burdens, and so fulfil the law and so fulfil the law of Christ. * *

of Christ.

Verse 5. For every man shall bear his own burden.

For each will bear the load [of sin] which is his own [instead of magnifying the load which is his brother's.]

The translation of the two words Φορτιον and βαρος, by the same term "burden," seems to make St. Paul contradict himself. His meaning evidently is, that self-examination will prevent us from comparing ourselves boastfully with our neighbor; we shall have enough to do with our own sins, without scrutinizing his.

A. V.

Gal. 6:11. Ye see how large a letter I have written unto you with mine own hand.

Conybeare.

Observe the size of the characters in which I have written to you with my own hand.

Mr. Conybeare here differs from nearly all the English commentators and critics, in making this the beginning of the Apostle's usual autograph postcript, the body of the Epistle being written by an amanuensis. Only two reasons are adduced, the one verbal, the other general, viz: That los γραμμασιν, cannot well be taken as equivalent to επιστολή; and that none of the epistles bear more evident marks than this one of having been written from dictation. These reasons, together with the fact that what follows verse 11, is a recapitulation of the pith of the whole Letter, have some plausibility; there is, however, a verbal difficulty left unnoticed. Why should the writer of such a postcript merely, use the aorist Erpaya, instead of a term indicating present or future time? Why say, "I have written," instead of "I write," or "I am writing?"

We have but a few instances to cite from the Epistle to the Romans; which may seem strange considering that it is the longest and most elaborate of all Paul's Letters. But owing to its didactic and metaphysical character, and the absence of the same abundance of local allusion and illustration, which characterizes most of the other epistles, there is not the same room in it for variation of rendering, or for the display of those

peculiar excellencies which distinguish Mr. Conybeare as a translator. And though his translation is done with great care and accuracy, and by its nice shades of meaning throws much light upon many obscure passages, yet we have not been able to note a large number of points which we deem worth contrasting with the Authorized Version according to the method which we are now pursuing. A few will suffice.

A. V.

Rom. 1: 18. *

*

*

men,

Conybeare.

men, who keep who hold the truth in unrighteous- down the truth [which they know]

ness.

by the wickedness wherein they live.

For we know that our old man

6: 6-7. Knowing this that our old man is crucified with him, was [then] crucified with Christ, that the body of sin might be de- that the sinful body [of the old stroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin. For he that is dead is freed from sin.

man] might be destroyed, that we might no longer be the slaves of sin; (for he that is dead is justified from sin.)

The gist of this closing illustration seems to be that if a criminal charge is brought against a man who died before the perpetration of the crime, he must be acquitted, since he could not have committed the act charged against him.

A. V.

Rom. 7:25. So then, with the mind I myself serve the law of God; but with the flesh the law of sin.

8:20. For the creature was made subject to vanity, &c.

9:19. Thou wilt say then unto me, Why doth he yet find fault? for who hath resisted his will?

verse.

Conybeare.

So then, in myself, though I am subject in my mind to the law of God, yet in my flesh I am subject to the law of sin.

For the creation was made subject to corruption and decay, &c.

Thou wilt say to me, then, Why does God still blame us? for who can resist his will?"

We cannot refrain from giving the entire note on this last "Here comes the great question-no longer made from the standing-point of the Jew, but proceeding from the feeling of universal justice. St. Paul answers the question by treating the subject as one above the comprehension of the