Galatians 4:14

A temptation to you in my flesh (ton peirasmon umwn en th sarki mou). "Your temptation (or trial) in my flesh." Peirasmon can be either as we see in James 1:2 James 1:12 . If trial here, it was a severe one. Nor rejected (oude exeptusate). First aorist active indicative of ekptuw, old word to spit out (Homer), to spurn, to loathe. Here only in N.T. Clemen (Primitive Christianity, p. 342) thinks it should be taken literally here since people spat out as a prophylactic custom at the sight of invalids especially epileptics. But Plutarch uses it of mere rejection. As an angel of God (w aggelon qeou), as Christ Jesus (w Criston Ihsoun). In spite of his illness and repulsive appearance, whatever it was. Not a mere "messenger" of God, but a very angel, even as Christ Jesus. We know that at Lystra Paul was at first welcomed as Hermes the god of oratory ( Acts 14:12 ). But that narrative hardly applies to these words, for they turned against Paul and Barnabas then and there at the instigation of Jews from Antioch in Pisidia and Iconium.