For I could wish that myself were accursed from Christ for my brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh:
For I could wish that myself were accursed from Christ, х Eeuchomeen (G2172) gar (G1063) autos (G846) egoo (G1473) anathema (G331) einai (G1511) apo (G575) tou (G3588) Christou (G5547) ...-or, better, anathema (G331) einai (G1511) autos (G846) egoo (G1473) etc.]
For ('in behalf of') my brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh. In proportion as he felt himself spiritually severed from his nation, he seems to have realized all the more vividly his natural relationship to them. Some interpreters, deeming such a wish as is here expressed to be too strong for any Christian to utter, or even conceive, have rendered the opening words, 'I did (once) wish;' understanding it of his former unconverted state. The Old Latin version and the Vulgate revision of it led the way in this wrong direction (optabam), and Pelagius followed. Even Luther fell into this mistake (Ich habe gewunscht). But what sense or force does this interpretation yield? No doubt, when a virulent persecutor of Christians, the apostle had no desire for any connection with Christ, and wished the very name of Christ to perish. But can that be all that is here meant? or even if it were, would the apostle have expressed it in the terms here employed-that he wished, not Christ and Christians accursed, but himself accursed from Christ, and this not for the truth's sake, but for his brethren's sake? It is true that the verb is in the past (the imperfect) tense.
But according to the Greek idiom, the strict meaning of the phrase is, 'I was going to wish, and should have wished, had that been lawful, or could it have done any good (or, according to the English idiom) 'I could have wished.' [See Winer, section 41. a; Donaldson, section426. ff; Hermann, de part. an (G302).; also Fritzsche and DeWette, on this place; and compare the analogous use of the imperfect in Acts 25:22, and Galatians 4:20.] Much also has been written on the word "accursed," to soften its apparent harshness, and represent it as meant only in a modified sense. But if we view the entire sentiment as a vehement or passionate expression of the absorption of his whole being in the salvation of his people, the difficulty will vanish; and instead of applying to this burst of emotion the cold criticism which would be applicable to definite ideas, we shall rather be reminded of the nearly identical wish so nobly expressed by Moses, Exodus 32:32, "Yet now, if thou wilt forgive their sin ... and if not, blot me, I pray thee, out of thy book which thou hast written." This is what Bacon (quoted by Wordsworth) calls 'an ecstasy of charity and infinite feeling of communion' ('Advancement of Learning').