GEORGE BELL & SONS, LONDON: YORK STREET, COVENT GARDEN, AND NEW YORK: 66, FIFTH AVENUE. CAMBRIDGE: DEIGHTON, BELL & CO. BY THE REV. chasi erreb FSADLER, PREBENDARY OF WELLS AND RECTOR OF HONITON; AUTHOR OF "CHURCH DOCTRINE BIBLE TRUTH," NOTES CRITICAL AND PRACTICAL ON THE FOUR GOSPELS, ACTS, AND EPISTLES TO THE ROMANS AND CORINTHIANS," ETC. THIRD, EDITION, LONDON GEORGE BELL AND SONS 1895 THE INTRODUCTION. AUTHENTICITY. HE Epistle to the Galatians has, from the first, been reckoned by the Church among the Canonical Books. It is mentioned in the oldest catalogue of these books, the Muratorian fragment, thus: "Ipse beatus apostolus Paulus sequens prodecessoris sui Johannis ordinem, nonnisi nominatim septem ecclesiis scribat ordine tali; ad Corinthios prima, ad Ephesios secunda, ad Philippenses tertia, ad Colossenses quarta, ad Galatas quinta," &c. It is alluded to by name in Iræneus, " Against Heresies," iii. 7, 2 (A.D. 170 or 180). "From many other instances also, we may discover that the Apostle frequently uses a transposed order in his sentences, due to the rapidity of his discourses and the impetus of the Spirit which is in him. An example occurs in the Epistle to the Galatians, where he expresses himself as follows: 'Wherefore then the law of works? It was added until the seed should come to whom the promise was made, (and it was) ordained by angels in the hand of a Mediator,'" &c. Polycarp (before A.D. 150): "For neither I, nor any other such one can come up to the wisdom of the blessed and glorious Paul. And when absent from you he wrote you a letter (or letters) which if you carefully study you will find to be the means of building you up in that faith which has been given you, and which, being followed by hope and preceded by love towards God and Christ, and our neighbour, 'is the mother of us all.'" Again he quotes the words, "God is not mocked,” only to be found in this Epistle. And again he quotes the first chapter: "All that are under heaven who shall believe in our Lord Jesus Christ, and in His Father, Who raised Him from the dead” (ch. xii.). In Justin Martyr's “ Dialogue with Trypho" (ch. xlvii.) there is a short but remarkable discussion 5270 798 DEC 191914 31407 (RECA |