his conversion he stayed fifteen days with Cephas, and afterwards
preached in Syria and Cilicia (i.).

Fourteen years after his conversion[4] he again went to Jerusalem "by
revelation." False brethren attempted to get Titus circumcised, but in
vain. James, Cephas, and John were most friendly to Paul and Barnabas,
agreeing that they should go to the Gentiles while remembering the poor
in Jerusalem. Cephas rebuked at Antioch by St. Paul (ii.).

(2) St. Paul defends justification by faith: iii. 1-v. 1.--Galatian
fickleness, even Abraham was justified by faith, and in the Old
Testament the righteous live by faith, the Jewish Law merely a
parenthesis between God's promise and its fulfilment, the Law a tutor
to bring us to Christ (iii.).

Judaism is the state of a son who is a minor, Christianity is the state
of a son who has attained his majority. Why return to the beggarly
rudiments of knowledge? The Jew is like the child of Hagar, the
Christian is like the child of Sarah (iv.-v. 1).

(3) Practical exhortation: v. 2-vi. 18.--Circumcision useless, freedom
and love are the allies of the true Law, the works of the flesh and the
fruits of the Spirit (v.). Bearing one another's burdens, supporting
our teachers. A conclusion in St. Paul's handwriting (vi.).

[1] The law implied in Gal. iv. 2 is in accordance with Syrian law. If
a father died, he left his son under the authority of a steward until
he was fourteen, and left his property in the hands of a guardian until
he was twenty-five. It is probable that in South Galatia as in Syria
this law was made under the reign of the Seleucids.

[2] For the explanation of this quarrel, see p. 121.

[3] The argument about "seeds" and "seed," in iii. 16, looks like a
mere verbal quibble in English. But it becomes quite intelligible when
we remember that in rabbinical Hebrew the word "seed_s_" was used in
the sense of descendant_s_.

[4] See Gal. ii. 1, "at an interval of fourteen years." This third
visit to Jerusalem (the second mentioned here) was in A.D. 49. The
verse probably means fourteen years after his _conversion_, and eleven
years after his first visit. If we reckon the fourteen years from his
_first visit_ to Jerusalem, the first visit would be in A.D. 33. This
will not agree with Acts ix. 25, 26; 2 Cor. xi. 32, which show us that
the first visit was made while Aretas ruled at Damascus. Aretas became
master of Damascus in A.D. 37.

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CHAP