feebleness (of mind or body) · noun — accusative singular feminine
flesh
σαρκὸςsarkos
G4561
flesh (as stripped of the skin) · noun — genitive singular feminine
gospel
εὐηγγελισάμηνeuēngelisamēn
G2097
to announce good news ("evangelize") especially the gos… · verb — aorist middle indicative, 1st person singular
you
ὑμῖνhymîn
G5213
to (with or by) you
first
πρότερονpróteron
G4386
previously
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Cross-references
1 Corinthians 2:3 And I was with you in weakness, and in fear, and in much trembling.
2 Corinthians 12:7-10 And lest I should be exalted above measure through the abundance of the revelations, there was given to me a thorn in the flesh, the messeng…
2 Corinthians 10:10 For his letters, say they, are weighty and powerful; but his bodily presence is weak, and his speech contemptible.
2 Corinthians 11:30 If I must needs glory, I will glory of the things which concern mine infirmities.
2 Corinthians 11:6 But though I be rude in speech, yet not in knowledge; but we have been throughly made manifest among you in all things.
2 Corinthians 13:4 For though he was crucified through weakness, yet he liveth by the power of God. For we also are weak in him, but we shall live with him by…
Galatians 1:6 I marvel that ye are so soon removed from him that called you into the grace of Christ unto another gospel:
Acts 16:6 Now when they had gone throughout Phrygia and the region of Galatia, and were forbidden of the Holy Ghost to preach the word in Asia,
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Galatians 4:12-16
That these Christians might be the more ashamed of their defection from the truth of the gospel which Paul had preached to them, he here reminds them of the great affection they formerly had for him and his ministry, and puts them upon considering how very unsuitable their present behaviour was to what they then professed. And here we may observe,
I. How affectionately he addresses himself to them. He styles them brethren, though he knew their hearts were in a great measure alienated from him. He desires that all resentments might be laid aside, and that they would bear the same temper of mind towards him which he did to them; he would have them to be as he was, for he was as they were, and…
how through infirmity--rather, as Greek, "Ye know that because of an infirmity of my flesh I preached," &c. He implies that bodily sickness, having detained him among them, contrary to his original intentions, was the occasion of his preaching the Gospel to them.
at the first--literally, "at the former time"; implying that at the time of writing he had been twice in Galatia. See my Introduction; also see on Gal 4:16, and Gal 5:21. His sickness was probably the same as recurred more violently afterward, "the thorn in the flesh" (Co2 12:7), which also was overruled to good (Co2 12:9-10), as the "infirmity of the flesh" here.
Adam Clarke on Galatians 4:13
Ye know how through infirmity - The apostle seems to say that he was much afflicted in body when he first preached the Gospel to them. And is this any strange thing, that a minister, so laborious as St. Paul was, should be sometimes overdone and overcome by the severity of his labors? Surely not. This might have been only an occasional affliction, while laboring in that part of Asia Minor; and not a continual and incurable infirmity, as some have too hastily conjectured.
John Gill on Galatians 4:13
Ye know how, through infirmity of the flesh,.... Meaning either their infirmity, to which the apostle accommodated himself in preaching the Gospel to them, delivering it in such a manner as suited with their capacities, feeding them with milk, and not with strong meat; or his own infirmity, respecting either some particular bodily infirmity and disorder, as the headache, with which he is said to be greatly troubled; or the weakness of his bodily presence, the mean outward appearance he made, the contemptibleness of his voice, and the great humility with which he behaved; or rather the many reproaches, afflictions, and persecutions which attended him, when, says he,
I preached the Gospel unt…
The Church Fathers
"But you know that because of weakness." That is, because of bodily weakness, namely, after bonds and blows and imprisonments, which I endured at the hands of those opposed to the preaching.
"I once preached the gospel." What do I say, Paul says, did you not wrong me? Therefore you showed me great honor. For even while being flogged and persecuted (for he says this was a weakness of the flesh), I was proclaiming the gospel to you. And yet seeing me suffer these things, you neither were scandalized at me nor spat upon me. For you did not despise, he says, my trial in my flesh, a trial of good things again: the wounds, the imprisonments, the persecutions.
This is an obscure passage and demands closer attention. "I preached to you initially," he says, "as if to infants and sucklings on account of your bodily weakness.… This economy and pretense of weakness in preaching was my own policy. You were trying to decide whether things that were rather small in themselves and were presented by me as of little account would be acceptable." … The passage could also be explained another way: "When I came to you … as a lowly and despised man … you perceived that my lowliness and the plainness of my dress were meant to try you." … Or we might suppose that the apostle was sick when he came to the Galatians.… And this could also be said, that in his first coming to the Galatians he was subject to abuse and persecution and physical beatings from the adversaries of the gospel.
The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).
Dictionary and topics
Galatia — Has been called the “Gallia” of the East, Roman writers calling its inhabitants Galli. They were an intermixture of Gauls and Greeks, and hence were called Gallo-Graeci, and the country…
Galatians, Epistle to — The genuineness of this epistle is not called in question. Its Pauline origin is universally acknowledged. Occasion of. The churches of Galatia were founded by Paul himself (Acts 16:6; Gal. 1:8;…
Heaven — (1.) Definitions. The phrase “heaven and earth” is used to indicate the whole universe (Gen. 1:1; Jer. 23:24; Acts 17:24). According to the Jewish notion there were three heavens, (a) The firmament,…
Paul — =Saul (q.v.) was born about the same time as our Lord. His circumcision-name was Saul, and probably the name Paul was also given to him in infancy “for use in the Gentile world,” as “Saul” would be…
Thorn in the flesh — (2 Cor. 12:7-10). Many interpretations have been given of this passage. (1.) Roman Catholic writers think that it denotes suggestions to impiety. (2.) Luther, Calvin, and other Reformers interpret…
Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).
Galatians 4:12-20
12. Brethren, I beseech you, be as I am; for I am as ye are: ye have not injured me at all.
12. Estote ut ego; quia ego quoque sum ut vos. Fratres, rogo vos; nihil mihi fecistis injuriae.
13. Ye know how through infirmity of the flesh I preached the gospel unto you at the first.
13. Novistis antem, quod per infirmitatem carnis evangelizaverim vobis prius;
14. And my temptation which was in my flesh ye despised not, nor rejected; but received me as an angel of God, even as Christ Jesus.
14. Et experimenturn mei, quod fuit in carne mea, non contempsistis, neque respuistis; sed tanquam angelum Dei suscepistis me, tanquam Christum Iesum.
15. Where is then the blessedness…
I was sick: Paul might have had a chronic physical ailment, but it is not certain what it was (cp. 2 Cor 12:7). Paul’s condition was serious and apparently caused difficulty or even offense to the new church in Galatia. Physical trouble was often regarded by both Jews and Gentiles as a sign of God’s judgment (cp. John 9:1-2; Acts 28:4). The Galatians saw past Paul’s outward condition and received him as God’s messenger (literally angel; Greek angelos). • or even Christ Jesus himself: Cp. Luke 10:16.
