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'He that soweth sparingly shall reap sparingly'. Again, the two epistles have in common the peculiar phrases, ‘another gospel,' 'a new creature,' 'zealously affect you,' 'persuade men'.' And other instances might be brought. On these special coincidences however I do not lay any great stress.

semblance

The resemblance to the Epistle to the Romans is much Romans. more striking and definite. Setting aside the personal matter and the practical lessons, and excepting here and there a digressive illustration, almost every thought and argument in Close rethe Epistle to the Galatians may be matched from the other in thought epistle. The following table of parallels will show how remark- and lanable this coincidence is. In the first instance I have taken an almost continuous passage, in order better to exhibit the nature of this resemblance.

GALATIANS.

(1) iii. 6. Even as Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness.

iii. 7. Know ye therefore that they which are of faith, the same are the children of Abraham.

iii. 8. And the Scripture foreseeing...preached before the Gospel unto Abraham, saying, 'In thee shall all nations be blessed.'

iii. 9. So then they which are of faith, are blessed with faithful Abraham...

iii. 10. For as many as are of the works of the law are under a curse.

1 2 Cor. ix. 6.

2 Gal. i. 6, 2 Cor. xi. 4; Gal. vi. 15, 2 Cor. v. 17; Gal. iv. 17, 2 Cor. xi. 2; Gal. i. 10, 2 Cor. v. II.

3 Compare Gal. i. 9, v. 21, with 2 Cor. xiii. 2, and Gal. iii. 3 with 2 Cor. viii. 6. Again, the expressions ȧroρεῖσθαι, κανών, κυρόω, τοὐναντίον, φοβοῦ μαι μήπως, and the metaphor κατεσθίειν,

iv. 3.

ROMANS.

guage.

What saith the Scrip- Parallel ture? Abraham believed God, passages. and it was accounted to him for righteousness.

iv. 10, II. How then was it
accounted?...in uncircumcision...
that he might be the father of all
them that believe.

iv. 17.
As it is written, 'I
have made thee a father of many
nations.' iv. 18. 'So shall thy
seed be.'

iv. 23. It was not written for
his sake alone...but for us also to
whom it shall be accounted, who
believe, etc. Comp. iv. 12.

iv. 15. eth wrath.

Because the law work

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iii. 19-21. [But the law was temporary and ineffective: for]

iii. 22. The scripture hath concluded all under sin, that the promise by faith of Jesus Christ might be given to them that believe.

iii. 23-26. [We are now free from the tutelage of the law and are sons of God through Christ.] iii. 27. For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ.

iii. 28. [There is no distinction of race or caste or sex.]

iii. 29. If ye be Christ's, then are ye Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise.

iv. 1-5. [We have been hitherto in the position of an heir still in his minority. Christ's death has recovered us our right.]

iv. 5, 6, 7. That we might receive the adoption of sons. And because ye are sons, God hath

ROMANS.

iii. 21. But now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets.

i. 17. As it is written, 'The just shall live by faith.'

x. 5. Moses describeth the righteousness which is of the law : that 'The man that doeth them shall live in them.'

[iv. 23, 24. The same thought expressed in other language.]

iv. 13, 14, 16. For the proImise that he should be the heir of the world was not made to Abraham...through the law...for if they which are of the law be heirs, faith is made void, and the promise made of none effect... therefore it is of faith, that it might be by grace (xápis). [Comp. Rom. viii. 3, 4.]

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GALATIANS.

sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father. Wherefore thou art no more a servant, but a son; and if a son, then an heir of God through Christ.

(2) ii. 16. For 'by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified (Ps. cxliii. 2).'

ROMANS.

not received the spirit of bond- Parallel
age again to fear, but ye have passages.
received the Spirit of adoption,
whereby we cry, Abba, Father.
The Spirit itself beareth witness
with our spirit, that we are the
children of God: and if children,
then heirs, heirs of God, and joint
heirs with Christ.

iii. 20. For 'by the works of
the law shall no flesh be justified
before him.'

In both passages the quotation is oblique: in both the clause 'by the works of the law' is inserted by way of explanation: in both 'flesh' is substituted for 'living man' (Tâoa ràp for was av of the LXX, which agrees also with the Hebrew): and in both the application of the text is the same.

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vii. 4.

ROMANS.

Ye also are become dead to the law...that we should bear fruit unto God. Comp. vi. 2-5.

vi. 6. Our old man is crucified with him.

vi. 8. Now if we be dead with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him. vi. II. Alive unto God through Jesus Christ.

ix. 7, 8. 'In Isaac shall thy
seed be called.' That is...the
children of the promise are count-
ed for the seed.

xiii. 8, 9, 10. He that loveth
another, hath fulfilled the law;...
it is briefly comprehended in this
saying, namely, (èv T), Thou shalt
love thy neighbour as thyself...
love is the fulfilling of the law.
viii. 4.
In us who walk not
after the flesh, but after the
Spirit.

vii. 23, 25. I see another law

GALATIANS.

Parallel against the spirit, and the spirit passages. against the flesh, and these are contrary the one to the other.

The re

So that ye cannot do the things that ye would.

v. 18. But if ye be led of the spirit, ye are not under the law.

(7) vi. 2. Bear ye one another's burdens.

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It will be unnecessary to add many words on a similarity so is mani- great as these passages exhibit. Observe only that it is mani

semblance

fold.

fold and various. Sometimes it is found in a train of argument more or less extended, and certainly not obvious: sometimes in close verbal coincidences where the language and thoughts are unusual, or where a quotation is freely given, and where the coincidence therefore was less to be expected: sometimes in the same application of a text, and the same comment upon it, where that application and comment have no obvious reference to the main subject of discussion. There is no parallel to this close resemblance in St Paul's Epistles, except in the case of Galatians the letters to the Colossians and Ephesians. Those letters were about the written about the same time and sent by the same messenger; same time and I cannot but think that we should be doing violence to hiswith, toric probability by separating the Epistles to the Galatians and Romans from each other by an interval of more than a few months, though in this instance the similarity is not quite so great as in the other.

written

1 In the above extracts I have only altered the English version where our translators have given different renderings for the same Greek word. Besides these broader coincidences, the following words and phrases are peculiar to the

two Epistles : βαστάζειν, δουλεία, έλευθερόω, ἴδε, κατὰ ἄνθρωπον λέγω (ἀνθρώ πινον λέγω), κατάρα καταρᾶσθαι, κώμοι, μακαρισμός, μέθη, οἱ τὰ τοιαῦτα πράσ σοντες, ὀφειλέτης, παραβάτης, παρ' ὅ, τί ἔτι ; τί λέγει ἡ γραφή;

Romans.

But the comparison advances us yet another stage towards the solution of our problem. There can be no reasonable doubt which of the two epistles contains the earlier expression of the thoughts common to both. The Epistle to the Galatians stands in relation to the Roman letter, as the rough model to the finished statue; or rather, if I may press the metaphor without misapprehension, it is the first study of a single figure, which is worked into a group in the latter writing. To the but before Galatians the Apostle flashes out in indignant remonstrance the first eager thoughts kindled by his zeal for the Gospel striking suddenly against a stubborn form of Judaism. To the Romans he writes at leisure, under no pressure of circumstances, in the face of no direct antagonism, explaining, completing, extending the teaching of the earlier letter, by giving it a double edge directed against Jew and Gentile alike. The matter, which in the one epistle is personal and fragmentary, elicited by the special needs of an individual church, is in the other generalised and arranged so as to form a comprehensive and systematic treatise. Very few critics of name have assigned a priority of date to the Roman Epistle.

ing link between

ians and

Thus connected by striking affinities with these two epistles, A connectthe letter to the Galatians seems naturally to claim an intermediate position, as a chronological link between them. Its ? Corinthclaim, I think, is well illustrated, if it is not vindicated, by a Romans. comparison of the lists of sins in the three epistles, with which I shall close this attempt to trace their common features.

2 CORINTHIANS. Strife, emulation, wraths, factions, backbitings, whisperings, swellings, tumults...... uncleanness and fornication and lasciviousness. xii. 20, 21.

GALATIANS. Fornications,uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, strife, emulations, wraths, factions, seditions, heresies, envies, murders, drunkennesses, revellings, and such like. V. 19-21.

ROMANS. Unrighteousness, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness, full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, malignity, whisperers, backbiters, etc., i. 29, 30; in revellings and drunkennesses, in chamberings and wantonnesses, in strife and emulation. xiii. 13.

But if on the other hand this sequence is altered by inter

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