Tool Beta
The Ancient World Behind the Text
Pick a passage anywhere in the New Testament. See the customs and ideas a first reader knew without being told.
Galatians 4:12-20, Welcomed as an angel of God
Paul appeals to the Galatians as friends, reminding them that when he first preached to them in bodily weakness they did not scorn him but welcomed him as an angel of God, and asks whether he has now become their enemy by telling them the truth.
Galatians 4:12-20, in every translation this tool compares.
Paul begs them to become like him, since he became like them. They did him no wrong; they know he first preached to them because of a weakness of the body, and though his condition was a trial to them they did not scorn or despise him but welcomed him as an angel of God, as Christ Jesus himself, and would have torn out their own eyes and given them to him. Has he now become their enemy by telling them the truth? The rivals court them for no good end, wanting to shut them out so that they will court the rivals instead; he is in the pains of childbirth again until Christ is formed in them, and wishes he could be with them now and change his tone, for he does not know what to make of them.
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- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-ideas\/honor-and-shame\/","n":"Honor before a crowd","s":"Public standing was the currency of the ancient Mediterranean. People competed for honor and dreaded being shamed in front of others.","r":""}
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-ideas\/friendship\/","n":"Friendship, and the friend of Caesar","s":"The ancient world prized friendship: loyalty to the death, goods held in common, secrets shared. The same word covered a patron and his dependents, and friend of Caesar was a title a governor could not afford to lose.","r":""}
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-ideas\/letters-and-letter-carriers\/","n":"Letters, scribes and carriers","s":"Letters were usually dictated to scribes, carried by trusted travelers because there was no public post, and read aloud to the people they were sent to.","r":""}
Paul here uses the themes of friendship letters (Keener and his notes). The weakness could be illness or injuries from persecution, and "Physical infirmities were quite often regarded as the curse or punishment of the gods" (Keener). What it was is not known (the ESV Study Bible). Proposals include malaria, prompting a move to the higher interior (the cultural backgrounds notes; the CSB Study Bible), eye trouble (the CSB Study Bible, though Keener and his notes call the giving of eyes a known figure of speech), and injuries from the stoning at Lystra (the CSB Study Bible), which Wright prefers. Wright suggests that people seeing a man so disfigured would have spat to ward off the evil eye. To welcome a guest as one would an angel of God was a sign of very great honor (Keener and his notes), and Carson, Moo and Morris report the suggestion that it recalls the Lystrans hailing Paul as Hermes (Acts 14:12). They add that I first preached can mean simply formerly, not the first of two visits. Teachers were often called fathers, but Paul takes a mother's part: labor pains were counted the worst pain people knew (Keener and his notes).
- Craig S. Keener, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament, introduction to Galatians 4:12-20, and on Galatians 4:13, 4:14, 4:15 and 4:19
- NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible, notes on Galatians 4:12-20, 4:13, 4:14 and 4:19
- ESV Study Bible, study note on Galatians 4:13
- CSB Study Bible, notes on Galatians 4:13 and 4:14-15
- N. T. Wright, Galatians, Commentary, True Friends and False Friends (4:12-20)
- D. A. Carson, Douglas J. Moo and Leon Morris, An Introduction to the New Testament, ch. 10, Galatians, Destination and Date
