Tag Archives: Galatians 1:19

ἕτερον δὲ τῶν ἀποστόλων οὐκ εἶδον εἰ μὴ Ἰάκωβον τὸν ἀδελφὸν τοῦ κυρίου. (Galatians 1:19) Paul’s Personal Testimony and Apostolic Distinction

This brief verse from Paul’s autobiographical defense in Galatians offers more than a factual statement about his travels — it is a masterclass in Greek syntax. Paul carefully crafts a statement to defend his independence from the Twelve, yet acknowledges one crucial exception: James, the brother of the Lord.

The Greek here demonstrates several elegant syntactic features, especially the partitive genitive, exception clauses with εἰ μή, and apposition. Let’s look deeper into the grammatical richness embedded in this verse.

Partitive Genitive: τῶν ἀποστόλων

The phrase ἕτερον δὲ τῶν ἀποστόλων employs the partitive genitive, a common construction in Koine Greek used with pronouns or adjectives like ἕτερος (another) to express a part of a whole.… Learn Koine Greek