Galatians 4:12

I beseech you, brethren, become as I am, for I also am become as ye are. Ye did me no wrong: but ye know that because of an infirmity of the flesh I preached the gospel unto you the first time.

Paul has given up all ceremonies of Judaism, the few times he observed any of them after becoming a Christian always having some special purpose in mind, like that of avoiding unnecessary persecution or looking to the purpose of preventing disunity in the church. The statement here shows Paul's utter repugnance for such things. It is in this that he wishes the Galatians to become like himself.

Ye did me no wrong ... As Howard said, "The Galatians would certainly have known what Paul means by this, but it is not clear to modern readers."[18] Perhaps, as Phillips translated this place, we should read it, "I have nothing against you personally."

Because of an infirmity of the flesh ... Endless speculations concerning the illness (that is the way it must be understood) that caused Paul to preach to the Galatians have found no general agreement among scholars; but the most reasonable explanation of it would seem to be that advocated by William M. Ramsay and accepted by Dummelow, Barclay and many others to the effect that when Paul came to Perga in Pamphylia on the first missionary journey (Acts 13:13ff), he did not preach there (at Perga), due to a sudden onset of malaria, taking refuge in the highlands of Pisidian Antioch (and later going to the other cities of the first tour). The question is not really important.

Preached the gospel unto you the first time ... The last two words of this clause are important with regard to the problem of dating Galatians, some scholars reading these words as a declaration that Paul had made "two missionary tours" to the Galatians before writing this epistle, which, if allowed, would make it considerably later than if only one tour is mentioned here. See introduction. Dummelow, Sanday, Huxtable and many others insist that the words imply two tours had been made when this was written; but, as Howard observed, "From a lexical point of view, it is not possible to prove that Paul wished here to differentiate between a later visit and an earlier one."[19] The simple truth is that the words merely mean "formerly" or "on the first occasion" of Paul's seeing them; and William Hendriksen, who accepted the implication of two tours previous to this letter, translated the place "on the former occasion,"[20] which certainly allows that Paul's writing this letter was the occasion present, to be distinguished from the other. It seems to this student that all of the arguments about this are futile, because on the first tour, Paul made two visits to every one of the cities of south Galatia, with the lone exception of Derbe, the second visit being the occasion when Paul appointed elders in each of the churches he had established (Acts 14:23). Therefore, if two visits are a mandatory understanding of this verse, one has to look no further than the first missionary journey of Paul to find both of them!

Of course, it is declared that "The explanation that the apostle intended to distinguish his first arrival at the several South Galatian churches from his return in the course of the same journey cannot be accepted!"[21] Such an opinion, however, is unsupported by any hard evidence, being quite arbitrary and unreasonable. Why could not Paul have made such a distinction? Especially in view of the fact that at Perga he did not preach on the first of those two occasions, whereas on the other he did. It is ridiculous to suppose that Paul counted his journeys in exactly the same manner as the latest Sunday school lesson, and the fact of the evangelist Luke having distinguished the two we have cited is more than sufficient authority for our doing the same thing. Scholars get carried away. They neatly classify Paul's labors as Tour I, II and III, then suppose that when Paul is speaking of "journeys" he is using their terminology!

[18] R. E. Howard, Beacon Bible Commentary (Kansas City, Missouri: Beacon Hill Press, 1965), Vol. IX, p. 74.

[19] Ibid.

[20] William Hendriksen, New Testament Commentary on Galatians (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Baker Book House, 1968), p. 170.

[21]; ISBE, p. 1159.