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commission from God (verse 1), St. Paul meets the personal attack of his opponents; by
dwelling on the work of redemption in connexion with the name of Christ (verse 4), he
protests against their doctrinal errors."
We have seen that the key words of the structure are the threefold repetition of the
expressions "not, neither, but" as applied to the three great aspects of Paul's
commission, and his independence in each department. (1) Independent Apostleship;
(2) Independent Revelation of the Gospel; (3) Independence of all human authority.
"Not of men, neither by man" ouk ap' anthropon oude di' anthropon.
"There are indeed few points more characteristic of the apostle's style than his varied
but accurate use of prepositions, especially of two or more in the same or in immediately
contiguous clauses (e.g. eis . . . . . epi, Rom. 3: 22; ex . . . . . dia . . . . . eis, 11: 36) for
the purpose of more precise definition or limitation" (Ellicott).
No two prepositions are synonymous, although at times the difference intended by
their use may be difficult to express. Perhaps an illustration of the apostle's usage will be
the best means of showing the shade of meaning attaching to interchanged prepositions.
"God is one Who will justify the circumcision BY faith, and the uncircumcision BY
MEANS OF (the same) faith" (Rom. 3: 30). Here ek is used in the first reference to
faith, and dia in the second. The former indicates the source of justification and the latter
its means. So in Gal. 1: 1 Paul was neither originally commissioned apo from men, nor
was he commissioned dia through the intervention of any man. In the first clause Paul
distinguishes his calling from that of "false apostles" who certainly did not receive their
commission from God the fountain head; in the second he shows that his apostleship is
on a level with the twelve.
Not only does the apostle vary the prepositions, apo . . . . . dia, he speaks of "men"
and "man", he maintained that his apostleship was not a commission from "man in the
concrete" nor from "man in the abstract" i.e. flesh and blood including a self appointment
arising from his inclinations. Later in this chapter he uses "flesh and blood" and those
which were "apostles" before him in much the same alternative senses, as "men" and
"man" here. Truth however cannot rest upon negatives. It may be necessary for us to
know that Paul's apostleship did not arise out of any commission given him by the
Sanhedrin, or that it did not originate in his own heart and upbringing, but we must pass
to the positive and discover from what source this great commission sprang. This is what
the apostle does:
"Paul an apostle NOT from men, NEITHER BY (the instrumentality of) man, BUT
BY Jesus Christ, and God our Father, Who raised Him from the dead."
It will be observed that whereas we have "men" and "man" put as alternatives, with
their respective prepositions "of" and "by", no such discrimination is made between
"Jesus Christ and God the Father" which are both governed by the one preposition dia.
Whether it be the doctrine which He taught, the miracles which He wrought or the
appointments which He made, whatever the Lord Jesus Christ taught or did was regarded
not as the expression or doing of His own will, but the will of Him that sent Him. If Paul