Gal. 3:1 Portrayed as "crucified" >?

[adolfo123]

Gal 3:1 O foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you, before whose eyes Jesus Christ was publicly portrayed as crucified?

Does this verse show support for crucifixes; what does the original language mean in this verse?

 

[Church_Militant]

John Martignoni makes that case in the following:

I had a friend ask me why Catholics have Crucifixes in our churches…don’t we believe Jesus has risen? Why do we keep Him on the cross?
First of all, you would want to check out 1st Corinthians, chapter 1, verse 23. Paul says, “…but we preach Christ crucified…” Why does Paul preach Christ crucified? Doesn’t he know Jesus has been raised from the dead? Of course he does! But, he knows that it is through the power of the crucified Christ on the cross that the bonds of sin and death are broken. As Paul says in verse 24, Christ crucified is the “power of God”.
1 Cor 2:2, “For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified.” Again, didn’t Paul know that Jesus had risen from the dead? Of course, he did.
Paul preaches Christ crucified because an empty cross has no power. The cross that bears the beaten, battered, and bloodied body of Jesus Christ, however, that cross is the “power of God”. This is why, we “keep Jesus on the cross,” because we, too, preach Christ crucified. The Crucifix reminds us not only of God’s power, but also His love for us - giving His only begotten Son up for suffering and death.
Also, here in this life we do not share so much in the glory of the Resurrection, as we do in the suffering of Jesus on the cross; after all, we must take up our cross daily if we are to follow Jesus, as it says in Lk 9:23.
And, we must die with Christ in order to live with Him as Romans 6:8 tells us. Where did Christ die? On the cross. The Crucifix serves to remind us of these things.
One other passage to keep in mind is Galatians 3:1, “O foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you, before whose eyes Jesus Christ was publicly portrayed as crucified?” Did you catch that? Jesus was publicly portrayed, before their “eyes”, as being crucified. Sounds kind of like they may have been looking at a Crucifix, doesn’t it?

 

[COPLAND_3]

Here is an explanation from CORNELIUS À LAPIDE

The Galatians had not been spectators of the actual Crucifixion, but Christ had by preaching and faith been represented to them as crucified. This interpretation makes it necessary to supply as though before crucified.

The sense, then, is: Though crucified at Jerusalem in fact, yet Christ has been represented as though crucified before you, 0 Galatians, by my preaching and your faith. By the eyes of faith you have seen Christ hanging on the Cross more clearly than did the Jews who stood at its foot. Who, then, has cast a spell upon those eyes which have so clearly seen Christ crucified?

 

[COPLAND_3]

before whose eyes Jesus Christ was publicly portrayed as crucified?

Just a thought that crossed my mind, maybe this could apply to the Mass and the commemorative representation of Calvary.

 

[SemperReformada]

The NAS New Testament Greek Lexicon:

Strong’s Number: 4270 Browse Lexicon
Original Word Word Origin
prografo from (4253) and (1125)
Transliterated Word TDNT Entry
Prographo 1:770,128
Phonetic Spelling Parts of Speech
prog-raf’-o Verb

Definition
to write before (of time)
of old set forth or designated before hand (in the scriptures of the OT)
to depict or portray openly
to write before the eyes of all who can read
to depict, portray, paint, before the eyes

NAS Word Usage - Total: 5
beforehand marked 1, earlier times 1, publicly portrayed 1, written in earlier times 1, wrote before 1

NAS Verse Count
Romans 1
Galatians 1
Ephesians 1
Jude 1

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Total 4

Greek lexicon based on Thayer’s and Smith’s Bible Dictionary plus others; this is keyed to the large Kittel and the “Theological Dictionary of the New Testament.” These files are public domain

While I am not Greek expert it would appear that there isn’t much of a reason to assume Paul made a crucifix for the Galatians.

 

[Church_Militant]

While I am not Greek expert it would appear that there isn’t much of a reason to assume Paul made a crucifix for the Galatians.

But there is also no reason to assume that he did not, and we know from early Christian art, (late 4th century, [curiously around the time of the canonization of the scriptures]) that the cross was used nearly from the outset and the crucifix from the time when Christians were at last free to practice their faith.

(Link)—>We have seen the progressive steps, artistic, symbolical, and allegorical, through which the representation of the Cross passed from the first centuries down to the Middle Ages; and we have seen some of the reasons which prevented Christian art from making an earlier display of the figure of the cross.

Now the cross, as it was seen during all this time was only a symbol of the Divine Victim and not a direct representation. We can thus more easily understand, then, how much more circumspection was necessary in proceeding to a direct portrayal of the Lord’s actual Crucifixion. Although in the fifth century the cross began to appear on public monuments, it was not for a century afterwards that the figure on the cross was shown; and not until the close of the fifth, or even the middle of the sixth, century, did it appear without disguise. But from the sixth century onward we find many images—not allegorical, but historical and realistic—of the crucified Savior.What does St. Paul say (BTW today is the feast of his conversion! :bible1? Galatians 6:12 For as many as desire to please in the flesh, they constrain you to be circumcised, only that they may not suffer the persecution of the cross of Christ.

There is nothing wrong with a crucifix and there is nothing in the New Testament that might even infer that they did not exist in apostolic times or that the apostles like St. Paul did not use them.

 

[SemperReformada]

But there is also no reason to assume that he did not, and we know from early Christian art, (late 4th century, [curiously around the time of the canonization of the scriptures]) that the cross was used nearly from the outset and the crucifix from the time when Christians were at last free to practice their faith.What does St. Paul say (BTW today is the feast of his conversion! :bible1? Galatians 6:12 For as many as desire to please in the flesh, they constrain you to be circumcised, only that they may not suffer the persecution of the cross of Christ.

There is nothing wrong with a crucifix and there is nothing in the New Testament that might even infer that they did not exist in apostolic times or that the apostles like St. Paul did not use them.

There isn’t anything in the NT that infers the apostles used them either. I only said that there isn’t any reason to jump to the conclusion that Paul used a crucifix based on the lexical evidence I posted.

If you want to think Paul and the apostles used them…I don’t have a problem with that but you do so w/ no evidence.

 

[ryanoneil]

My IGNATIUS Catholic Study Bible say- O foolish Galatians: Paul is irked and dismayed that his readers have succumbed to the pressure of the Judaizers (1:6). portrayed as crucified: The Galatians did not witness the Crucifixion of Jesus in person but embraced the message of the Cross that Paul so vividly proclaimed (1 Cor 1:18,23)