Charles Ellicott Commentary Galatians 2:15

"We being Jews by nature, and not sinners of the Gentiles," — Galatians 2:15 (ASV)

Who are.—It can be seen that these words are in italics and must be supplied in the Greek. The Received Text, which is followed in our version, also omits a connecting particle found in the best manuscripts at the beginning of Galatians 2:16.

Restoring this, a better way of interpreting the whole passage appears to be to supply only the word “are” in the present verse, and for the next part to mark a certain opposition to it: “We are (indeed) by birth Jews . . . but” (or, and yet), “knowing as we did that the Law cannot justify anyone, we believed in Christ.”

The first clause is concessive: “We grant you that we were born Jews, and not Gentiles: members of the chosen race, and not sinners.” The next clause explains why it was that, with all these privileges, the Christian, though born a Jew, transferred his allegiance from the Law to Christ. The reason was that the Law failed in the one great object—to justify us or obtain our acquittal in the sight of God.

By nature—that is, by birth. The privileges of the Jew belonged to all Jews alike, simply by the mere fact that they were Jews.

Sinners.—The word was almost a synonym for “heathen” in the mouth of a strict Jew. Therefore, there is a slight irony in its use by St. Paul. “I grant you that from our lofty position we can look down upon those poor Gentiles, sinners by virtue of mere descent.”

Of the Gentiles.—“Of” in the sense of natural descent: “Of Gentile parentage (and therefore) sinners.”

On verses 15-21:

The following section is, in form at least, still a continuation of the rebuke addressed to St. Peter; but the Apostle soon drifts away from this and begins imperceptibly to comment on his own words, which are addressed directly to the Galatians. Thus, we are led, without any real break, from the historical and personal to the doctrinal portion of the Epistle. It is impossible to say exactly where the speech at Antioch ends and where the comment upon it begins; the Apostle glides from one to the other without any conscious division in his own mind.

A similar mingling of narrative and comment is found in St. John’s Gospel: compare, for example, John 3:14–21 and John 3:31-36. The first of these sections formally belongs to the discourse with Nicodemus, and the second to the reply of John the Baptist, though it is clear that much of the Evangelist's later comment is interwoven with them.

If we are to draw a dividing line at all in the section before us, it might be said that Galatians 2:15-16 were still most nearly a paraphrase of the words actually addressed to St. Peter, while from Galatians 2:17 onwards the Apostle is giving freer rein to his own reflections. The sequence of thought seems to be somewhat as follows:—

We belong by our birth to a privileged people. We are not of Gentile descent, and therefore abandoned to our sins. And yet, with all our privileges, we found that we could get no justification whatever from the Law; and this sent us to Christ. We thus abdicated our privileged position; we put ourselves on the same level as the Gentiles and became (in the eye of the Law) sinners like them. Sinners? Must we then admit that all Christ has done for us is to make us sinners? Far be such an irreverent thought.

Our sin consists not in leaving the Law, but in returning to what has once been abandoned. The function of the Law was preparatory and transitional. The Law itself taught me to expect its own abrogation. It was a stage on the way to Christ. To Him I have given complete adhesion. In His death I am severed from ancient ties. In His death I ceased to have any life of my own. All the life I have, man as I am, I owe to Christ, my Saviour.

Thus I accept and do not reject and frustrate the gift so freely offered to me; whereas, by going back to the Law for justification, I would be practically declaring the death of Christ useless and unprofitable.