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"The writer of this note received a letter from the venerable Neander a few months
before his death . . . . . His letter is written in the fair flowing hand of an amanuensis, but
it ends with a few irregular lines in large rugged characters, written by himself,
explaining the cause of his needing the service of an amanuensis, namely, the weakness
of his eyes (probably the very malady of St. Paul). It is impossible to read this autograph
without thinking of the present passage, observing that he might have expressed himself
in the very words of St. Paul--Ide pelikois soi grammain egrapsa te eme cheiri. "Humin
`to you'. Standing after pelokois `large', this word can scarcely be taken with `I write' or
`I wrote' to you, it is connected with pelokois, as though the Apostle said `How large,
mark you'."."
Whether the large letters were for emphasis, a thought already incipient in the figure
of the `placard' ("evidently set forth") of Gal. 3: 1, or whether Paul's handwriting was,
unlike that of the trained slave, rather irregular, to which may be added the affliction of
his eyes which he mentions in Gal. 4: 15, may not be easy to decide, but emphasis there
is from single or combined causes. Whether Paul wrote the whole epistle in large letters,
or whether the postscript only was written by his hand, and the postscript only in large
letters, the fact remains that we have an emphatic personal summary given by the Apostle
at the close of this most personal epistle.
In Hebrews we have a `summary' given in chapter 8:, where we learn that `a seated
priest in a heavenly sanctuary' sums up what Paul had been teaching in the first seven
chapters. Here in Gal. 6: 12-16, we have the Apostle's own underlining, and we should
be foolish in the extreme if we neglected a guide so capable to the understanding of the
main theme of this most important epistle.
No.80. (38) GALATIANS.
The Emphasized Summary and Salutation (6: 12 - 18).
pp. 195 - 198
The subjects underlined by the Apostle in this personally hand written summary are:
(1) Circumcision. (2) The Cross of Christ. (3) Crucifixion of self.
(4) Creation (new) and (5) Canon (rule).
Of the Circumcision he says:--
"As many as desire to make a fair show in the flesh, they constrained you to be
circumcised; only lest they should suffer persecution for the cross of Christ. For neither
they themselves who are circumcised keep the law; but desire to have you circumcised,
that they may glory in your flesh" (Gal. 6: 12, 13).
After an expansion of the place of `the cross of Christ' in verse 14 the Apostle returns
to the place of circumcision, saying: