Listen up!
Martin Fair
October 01, 2024
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Galatians 6:11 (NRSVA)
11 See what large letters I make when I am writing in my own hand!
Biblical scholars are certain that, at least in some cases, the Apostle Paul used a scribe — a secretary, we might say — for the writing of his letters. He would dictate and someone else would write. In Romans, for example, we find this at the end of the letter: ‘I, Tertius, who wrote down this letter, greet you in the name of the Lord.’
When it comes to Galatians, the clue comes here in the 11th verse of chapter 6 where Paul says, ‘See what large letters I use as I write to you with my own hand!’
By saying that he’s writing this part with his own hand, he’s implying that someone else — a secretary — had been writing what went before. Some scholars suggest that in referring to ‘large letters’ he’s saying something about his poor eyesight but there’s no need to make that leap.
Instead, I suggest that Paul is doing a first-century version of what we do when wanting to emphasise a point in a text or email. We use bold, italics, underline or BLOCK CAPITALS, and for the same effect, he used ‘big letters.’ Just as would be our intention, he didn’t want his readers to miss the point!
And what is his point? That he didn’t want those young Christians in the Galatian churches to be drawn into Jewish practices that he felt, for them, to be entirely unnecessary. He wants to say to them: You’re free from all of that! Don’t give up the freedom that Jesus has won for you!
If you were to go through the Bible, what words or phrases would the Holy Spirit want you to see? Where would the ‘big letters’ be so that you didn’t miss the message? What about this verse at the end of Matthew’s Gospel: ‘I am with you always even until the end of the age.’
Prayer:
Open the eyes of my heart, Lord, and write in big, bold letters, I pray, that I don’t miss anything you want to say to me.
In Jesus’ name, AMEN.
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