Charles Ellicott Commentary Galatians 6:11

"See with how large letters I write unto you with mine own hand." — Galatians 6:11 (ASV)

You see.—Rather, See. The Apostle calls the attention of his readers to the handwriting of these concluding paragraphs.

How large a letter.—Rather, in what large letters: i.e., characters. The exact significance of these words is somewhat enigmatic, and can only be a matter of conjecture. Two points, however, are clear:

1. The latter part of the Greek phrase means “in” or “with” letters—i.e., characters of handwriting—and not “a letter,” “an epistle,” as it is taken in the Authorised Version.

2. The former half of the phrase means “how large,” strictly in respect of size.

The Apostle, for some reason or other, points out that the characters in which he is writing are larger than usual. What is his reason? It is hard to say.

Some have thought that the reference was to the “shapelessness” of the letters, whether due to the fact that the Apostle himself was not accustomed to the manual work of writing, or possibly to physical weakness from the hardships he had undergone. The idea of “shapelessness,” however, is not necessarily included in that of size.

It seems, on the whole, most probable that the size of the characters expresses the emphasis and authority with which the Apostle is writing. He adds to the Epistle—which had so far been written by an amanuensis—a few bold, incisive strokes in his own hand, trenchantly exposing the motives of the Judaizing faction and reasserting his own position.

I have written.—Must this be so taken: I have written? or may it be idiomatically translated: I write? In other words, does it refer to the whole previous portion of the Epistle, or only to these concluding paragraphs? The question turns upon a nice point of Greek scholarship, on which such authorities as Bishop Ellicott and Dr. Lightfoot take different sides. It will only be possible in a commentary like this to express a general conclusion, without going into the arguments on which it is based.

That conclusion would be that the Greek may, quite fairly and tenably, be translated: I write; and that being so, considerations of exegesis would seem to tell somewhat decidedly in the same direction. The whole character of this concluding section is very much what we should expect if St. Paul followed his usual custom of taking the pen from the amanuensis to write it, and its brief, weighty, summarizing style would correspond well with the “large letters” in which he says that it was written. If this description is to be applied to the whole Epistle, it must remain a riddle to which there is no clue.

With my own hand.—It was the Apostle’s custom to make use of an amanuensis, and only to add a few final words in proof of the genuineness of the writing. (See especially 2 Thessalonians 3:17; and compare also Romans 16:22; 1 Corinthians 16:21; Colossians 4:18.)

On verses 11-18:

Concluding section of the Epistle, written in the Apostle’s own hand. These Judaizing teachers only wish to have you circumcised as a matter of outward show, in order to disguise their own professed Christianity from their fellow Jews, and so escape persecution.

They show that they really care nothing for circumcision, for they freely break the rest of the Law to which they profess to adhere. Their true object is to make capital out of their influence over you, to boast publicly of your submission to the rite.

I, too, will boast, but of something very different. My boast is in the cross of Christ.

When I attached myself to the crucified Messiah, from that moment the world became nothing to me.

Circumcision and uncircumcision do not matter. The essential point is that total change which such a relation implies.

On all who take this for their rule I can invoke a blessing, for they are the true Israel.

Enough. I have a right to claim exemption from these attacks. The scars that I bear upon me are marks of the place I hold in my Master’s service.