It is unlikely that he inserted this postscript from a feeling of ironical playfulness, to make the Galatians realize that, after the sternness of the early chapters, he was now treating them like children, "playfully hinting that surely the large letters will touch their hearts" (so Deissmann, Bible-Studies (1901), 346 f.).
In a fine bit of realism we are told how Gaal observed the approaching foe and was told by Zebul, "You see the shadow of the hills as men," and as they drew nearer Zebul's ironical remark became a taunt, "Where is now thy mouth ?
It consists of brief notes - generally very exact and sometimes ironical - which go as far as the year 1522.
It happened, however, to have another association, more significant than any ironical contrast for the present purpose of Antipater.
That his brother retained the throne while James lost it is an ironical demonstration that a more pitiless fate awaits the ruler whose faults are of the intellect, than one whose faults are of the heart.