Galatians 4:13 You know how through infirmity of the flesh I preached the gospel to you at the first. Nothing is more natural than that the traversing of vast distances over the burning plains and freezing mountain passes of Asia Minor — the constant changes of climate, the severe bodily fatigue, the storms of fine and blinding sand, the bites and stings of insects, the coarseness and scantiness of daily fare — should have brought on a return of his malady to one whose health was so shattered as that of St. Paul. (Farrar.)The climate and the prevailing maladies of Asia Minor may have been modified by lapse of centuries; and we are without the guidance of St. Luke's medical language which sometimes throws a light on diseases alluded to in Scripture; but two Christian sufferers, in widely different ages of the Church, .occur to the memory as we look on the map of Galatia. We could hardly mention any two men more thoroughly imbued with the spirit of St. Paul than John Chrysostom and Henry Martyn. And when we remember how these two saints suffered in their last hours from fatigue, pain, rudeness, and cruelty, among the mountains of Asia Minor which surround the place where they rest, we can well enter into the meaning of St. Paul's expression of gratitude to those who received him kindly in the hour of his weakness. (Conybeare and Howson.) Parallel Verses KJV: Ye know how through infirmity of the flesh I preached the gospel unto you at the first.WEB: but you know that because of weakness of the flesh I preached the Good News to you the first time. |
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