his conduct proceeded from a regard to the Law, led them to receive both him and his doc- trine with kindness and courtesy, and having gradually received him, and become instructed, they abandoned their old customs. Now this would not have happened had they known his reasons from the first; for they would have turned away from him, and being turned away would not have given him a hearing, and not hearing, would have continued in their former error. To prevent this, he did not disclose his reasons; here too he does not explain the oc- casion of the scheme, (οἰκονομία,) but shapes his discourse differently; thus: Ver. 6. “But from those who were reputed to be somewhat48 (whatsoever they were, it maketh no matter to me, God accepteth no man’s person.)” Here he not only does not defend the Apostles, but even presses hard upon those holy men, for the benefit of the weak. His meaning is this: although they permit circumcision, they shall render an account to God, for God will not accept their persons, because they are great and in station. But he does not speak so plainly, but with caution. He says not, if they vitiate their doctrine, and swerve from the appointed rule of their preaching, they shall be judged with the utmost rigor, and suffer punishment; but he alludes to them more reverently, in the words, “of those who were reputed to be somewhat, whatsoever they were.” He says not, “whatsoever they ‘are,’” but “were,” showing that they too had thenceforth49 ceased so to preach, the doctrine having extended itself universally. The phrase, “whatsoever they were,” implies, that if they so preached they should render account, for they had to justify themselves before God, not before men. This he said, not as doubtful or ignorant of the rectitude of their procedure, but (as I said before) from a sense of the expediency of so forming his discourse. Then, that he may not seem to take the opposite side and to accuse them, and so create a suspicion of their disagreement, he straightway subjoins this correction: “for those who were reputed to be somewhat, in conference imparted nothing to me.” This is his meaning; What you may say, I know not; this I know well, that the Apostles did not oppose me, but our sentiments conspired and accorded. This appears from his expression, “they gave me the right hand of fellowship;” but he does not say this at present, but only that they neither informed or corrected him on any point, nor added to his knowledge. Ver. 6. “For those who were reputed to be somewhat, imparted nothing to me:” 48 [Lightfoot says, “The expression is depreciatory here, not indeed of the twelve themselves but of the extra- vagant and exclusive claims set up for them by the Judaizers.” So also Dr. Schaff. “The addition of τι εἷναι and ὅποιοιbetrays a certain irritation in reference to the opponents who would not concede Paul an estimation given to the original Apostles.”—Meyer.—G.A.] 49 [“It is entirely in opposition to the context that Chrysostom, Theophylact and Jerome refer this to the earlier teaching of the Apostles, making Paul say that whether at an earlier date they had been Judaizers or not was to him a matter of indifference.”— Meyer.—G.A.] 35 Galatians 2:1,2