The Allegory of the Two Covenants: Jerusalem Above Is Free (Galatians 4:21–5:12)

“They are zealous for you” – so eagerly they busy themselves around you, as though they are the most sincere friends, desiring only your good. But do not be deceived by appearances. Look into their intention and you will find that they are zealous for you “not in a good way” – not for your good and not from good will toward you. Their zeal is not good, but evil. “Good zeal draws toward good paths, while evil zeal turns one away from them” (holy Chrysostom). And so they are zealous, but unwisely. What efforts do they exert to gain proselytes? But if they should succeed in gaining them, they bring them not benefit but final ruin, as the Savior himself said (Matt. 23:15). Judaism was the one true faith before the coming of the Lord, but after his coming it is opposed to God and ruinous, and those who follow it are children of Gehenna.

“They want to cut you off” – like wolves, cunning shepherds cut some sheep from the flock so as to strangle them afterward. He does not say from whom to cut them off: for this is clear. From Apostle Paul, from following his teaching, and through this from the Lord and from his flock, the holy Church of God, – from salvation into ruin.

“So that you will be zealous for them.” It does not appear that the Apostle is accusing them of mercenary motives, but points only to what seems to be a teacher’s pride: that you would go over to their side, would honor them, stand with them, be zealous with them about the Law in the same way. “They are concerned,” says holy Chrysostom, “trying to deprive you of perfect knowledge and bring you to superficial and false understanding. And they do this only so that they themselves might take the rank of teachers, and you, who are now above them, be placed in the position of pupils; for this is what the Apostle meant when he said: ‘so that you will be zealous for them.’ But I, on the contrary, wish,” he says, “that you be better than them and serve as an example for the more perfect, such as you truly were during my stay with you.” – One can extend this saying also as follows: they are drawing you to themselves, while I am not drawing you to myself, but to the Lord; they seek that you be zealous for them, while I seek that you be zealous for the Lord and your salvation in him; I seek nothing of yours, but you, and not for myself, but for you, so that you may be saved. Look then, and you will see where the truth is.

At this reminder of the zeal of the false teachers, which they wish the Galatians to emulate, it came to the mind of holy Apostle Paul to pour out before the Galatians all his fatherly love for them. Remembering their zeal, he also remembered their perfection in faith, and that good state in Christ Jesus the Lord in which they had been and which they were now losing or beginning to lose. His heart was moved, his spirit grieved, and he was kindled with intense concern for their restoration to their former rank. And so he cries out: my children!

Gal. 4:18. Indeed, it is good to be zealous for a good thing always, not only when I am present with you.

The Apostle seems to hear an objection from the Galatians themselves: but in Christ were we not zealous? Are you not a witness to it? Yes, yes! – the Apostle answers. You were fervently zealous, but I am not speaking of what was, but of what is. You were zealous and then stopped. And such changeable action has nothing praiseworthy in it. That is good, that zeal is good and honorable, which is always zealous for what is good, and is zealous because it is good in itself. You were zealous when I was with you, but then grew weak. Therefore your zeal was flowing from human considerations, not from love of what is good. That is why, when the considerations that stirred you up ceased, you immediately turned away from it, as soon as the seducers appeared to you. Are you then not steadfast? Are you then not lovers of what is good – “my children!”

Holy Apostle’s thought rests on zeal for what is good, inasmuch as it is good, and zeal that is constant. In this is the unfailing beginning of Christian life. Whoever has it, clinging to the Lord and always bearing him alone in his heart, has one aim – always to be faithful to him in word, deed, and thought. Through this, Christ, beheld by faith, is formed in the believers not only mentally, but actually, in the manifestations of their spiritual life. By this path, and toward this end, the Galatians were journeying while they followed the guidance of holy Paul. But false teachers came and threw them off the path. The image of what ought to be was disturbed in their minds, because the false teachers cast a shadow over the very principal thing – the face of Christ the Savior. Having turned away their gaze of faith from him, they have disrupted the image of him in themselves, and then ceased the very real formation of him in them through their life. Seeing such substantial loss in the spirit of the Galatians, the Apostle, grieving over it, extends to them a word of compassionate parental comfort:

Gal. 4:19. My children, for whom I am in labor again until Christ is formed in you.

Holy Paul gave them birth through the Gospel; but now, turning away from the substance of the Gospel, they are beginning to grow faint. Therefore he again exerts himself to kindle in them the fire of new life and cares about this with heartfelt labor – not mild, but such as equals the pains of one in childbirth. The comparison is very expressive: it presents the matter vividly and portrays the Apostolic zeal brightly. What a close and living union the holy Paul entered into with those he converted! And how fully did their condition reflect itself in his heart in comfort or sorrow! Yet, calling himself as one in labor of childbirth, holy Paul expresses thereby the hope that the Galatians will again be reborn in that same spirit, having abandoned the death-dealing elements they had embraced.

The previous passage gave holy Apostle occasion to pour out before the Galatians all his fatherly love for them. Remembering their zeal, he also recalled their perfection in faith, and that good state in Christ Jesus the Lord in which they had been and which they now had lost or were beginning to lose. His heart was moved, his spirit grieved, and he was kindled with intense concern for their restoration to their former rank. And so he cries out: my children!

“Until Christ is formed”. By faith and baptism Christ was formed in them. They had clung to him, vividly beholding their deliverance through his death and the gift of new life through his grace. By inclining toward Judaism, they allowed the vision of this bright image of salvation in the Lord Jesus Christ to be darkened and disrupted in them, allowed the very likeness of Christ, given to souls in grace, to diminish. Enlightening them, the Apostle draws them back to that former vision of salvation in the Lord and to the formation of the likeness of Christ in their souls. Hoping for this, he labors and, laboring, suffers as one in childbirth, assuring them that he will not cease to suffer thus until they once again become as they were before.

This is the measure to which those zealous for the salvation of others should bring those they guide, and once they have brought them to this measure, they can say with confidence that they have set them on their feet!

“Portrayals of such strong love, which breathe through these words, ought to have acted victoriously upon the Galatians, which is what holy Apostle seeks in the present section. “See how he is troubled; how he is disturbed,” says holy Chrysostom. ‘Brothers’, he says, ‘I beg you: my children, for whom I am in labor again’. This is the voice of a mother who fears for her children. ‘Until Christ is formed in you’. Do you see both the fatherly love and the sorrow worthy of an Apostle? Do you hear the cry, far more bitter than the cry of one in childbirth. You have destroyed, he says, the image, you have lost the high kinship, you have changed the likeness; you need another birth, a new creation. Yet I still do not cease to call you children, you, your aborted offspring. Yet he does not speak thus, but otherwise; for he spares you and does not wish to harden you by laying wound upon wound. But as skilled physicians treat those who have suffered prolonged illness not all at once, but with intervals, so as not to bring them to despair and not destroy them: so also does blessed Paul act. And these sufferings were all the more painful for him than bodily sufferings, the stronger his love was and the more serious their sin. Yet, as I have always said and will not cease to say, even a small transgression has damaged and disfigured all the beauty and image of God in man”.

Gal. 4:20. I would like to be present with you now and change my tone, because I am puzzled about you.

This expresses the irrepressibility of love. As parents, hearing that some misfortune has befallen their children, cannot sit still, but in their anxiety hurry to them so that with their own eyes they might see the calamity and its extent, and there, by their advice and assistance as much as they can, repair the misfortune, or if they cannot, grieve together with full knowledge of wherein the grief lies: so also holy Paul, hearing that the Galatians, his spiritual children, have suffered calamity in the matter of salvation, the most essential matter in life, feels compelled to hurry to them personally so that he himself might see and feel the calamity in all its force; and there too turn it aside by the means available to him. In fact he was not with the Galatians at that time; but he felt the urge to do so and spoke of it so as to convey how he is not indifferent to what is happening among them. Yet this alone was capable of having an effect. The Galatians did not know that he would not come, but could not help but expect: he might come at any moment. This expectation ought to have restrained them and stopped them from further deviation. For when he was with them they were zealous for what is good, as it truly is without any alien admixture. The personal presence of the Apostle was very influential. Its expectation ought also to have exerted some measure of influence.

What does it mean: “change my tone”? Change it in accordance with what he would see with his own eyes. Perhaps he would not find such great evil among them as he imagined, or perhaps even greater. Moreover, it is probable that, when some had inclined toward Judaism, others remained steadfast in faith, and on both sides in different degrees and shades. Having arrived to them, the Apostle would have spoken in accordance with all of this. To some severity, to others strengthening, to others comfort; now rejoicing, now weeping.

“Holy Chrysostom says: “Observe his impatience and irrepressibility, which he cannot hide in himself. For such is the nature of love. It is not satisfied with words from afar, but seeks also to meet in person. “And change my tone”, – that is, change it to a sorrowful one and shed tears and make you all weep too. But in a letter one cannot weep and wail, therefore he burns with desire to see them. – “‘I am puzzled about you’. I do not know, he says, what to say, I do not know what to think, from which you, having reached such heavenly heights, whether through grievous trials which you endured for the faith, and through signs which he worked according to your faith, now suddenly descended to such humiliation and such poverty, that you turn to circumcision and Sabbaths and unite with the Jews? This very thing is what forced the Apostle to say also at the beginning of the Letter: ‘I am astonished that you are so quickly turning to a different gospel’ (Gal. 1:6) – and here: ‘I am puzzled about you’. As though he is saying: what am I to say, where shall I begin, what am I to think? I am at a loss. Therefore all that remains is to weep. This is what the Prophets also did in hopeless cases. For such a method of healing is not unimportant, that is, not only to exhort, but also to weep”.

3) Exhortations that move the will (Gal. 4:21 – 5:12)

Mind and feeling, passing over to the side of truth, draw the will after them. After them, the will inevitably yields; but it may delay, postpone its decision – at once to begin and act according to the indication of truth. In order to give it tension, to rouse it to this energy, truth turns to it from special aspects, the perception of which is able to exert such kind of influence on it. To this the holy Paul now turns. He shows: a) how glorious it is to remain in freedom from the Law (Gal. 4:21 – 5:1); b) how necessary this is (Gal. 5:2 – 6) and: c) how easy it is for them (Gal. 5:7 – 12). Three aspects which, when understood, move both hands and feet to act in the matters in which they are seen. Gloriousness attracts by its excellence; necessity compels by its unavoidability; ease gives wings by its manageability. In short, holy Paul speaks – in the first respect: do you wish to be children of the Jerusalem above, free, heirs of God, – abandon the Law; in the second: one of two things is unavoidable, either abandon the Law and be with Christ in grace among those being saved, or, holding to the Law, be without Christ and grace among those perishing; in the third: and what does it cost you to do this? You have already been walking as you should and have not yet become tangled up in things alien to truth. Resume the former path – and the matter is done. The false teachers are leading you astray? Turn them away from yourselves. And you will go again straight without all quarreling.

a) The glory of the matter (Gal. 4:21 – 5:1)

The glory of life in the spirit of faith, holy Paul presents by clarifying the superiority of faith over the Law. These superiorities are – childhood of the Jerusalem above, birth according to Isaac into freedom, and the inalienable inheritance of heavenly blessings. What is more glorious than such kinship? What is more attractive than freedom? What is more precious than such an inheritance? – that all this belongs to the believers, he has proved above. Now he simply presents it more prominently before the consciousness of the Galatians, showing how all this is reflected even at the very beginning of the division of the providential arrangements of God concerning mankind. He speaks, as if, you wish to be under the Law, hoping thereby to become children of Abraham. But look into the history. Abraham had two sons: one from Hagar, the other from Sarah; the first – born according to the flesh, the other – by promise; the first from a slave woman – a slave, the other from a free woman – free. In this simple history lies a deep meaning: two covenants are depicted here. Hagar with Ishmael depicts the Old Covenant, given on Sinai, around which the tribe of Hagarites settled and gave it a name consonant with Hagar. As Hagar the slave woman bore slaves, so also the Law of Sinai gives birth into bondage and enslaves with its children, ruling in the present Jerusalem, the center of the life under the Law. And Sarah with Isaac depicts the New Covenant of the Gospel, coming forth from Zion concerning Christ Jesus and proclaimed by us. As Sarah the free woman bore the free one, so the Gospel gives birth into freedom and constitutes with its children the Jerusalem above, – the Kingdom of Christ. Its children are we, all the believers. We are children of Isaac, we are the free, we are heirs. Those who hold to the Law are carnal children, they are slaves and, what is chief, – will not inherit with the children of the free woman. These privileges are given to all of you in Christ Jesus. – Stand firm then and do not give yourselves over under the yoke of bondage of the Law

Gal. 4:21. Tell me, you who want to be under the Law, do you not hear what the Law says?

“Having softened their hearts with his tears (in the previous words) and brought them closer to himself, he again begins a dispute, proposing for consideration a matter still more important, showing that even the Law itself requires that it not be observed. If you wish, he says, to be obedient to the Law, abandon it, for even it itself requires that. Yet the Apostle does not say this directly, but by another path brings them to the same thing, making use of history” (holy Chrysostom).

By such an unexpected question he sharpened the attention of the readers. By then proposing a simple history, well-known to all, he did not weaken, but brought it into even greater tension, with the desire to guess what he means to say. When finally the matter was clarified and the comparison of things presented itself so vividly, the impression from it could not but be striking.

By saying that they wish to be under the Law, it suggests the thought that they are not yet fully ensnared by it – they are inclined, but have not yet been inclined. At the same time it offers hope that as they wished, so they can unwish; because if they are attempting it, it is not rational requirements that are driving them to it, but only a whim of desires. Holy Chrysostom says: “Well did he say: you who wish. For the matter depended not on the demand of things, but on an unseemly zeal that was already present”.

In the words: “you who want to be under the Law – and: do you not hear what the Law says?” – the word: Law – does not have one meaning. In the first case it means all the arrangement of life under the Law, and in the second – everything that occurred in the period under the Law according to particular dispositions of God and recorded in Scripture for the instruction of subsequent generations. He takes an event from the Book of Genesis, because it was necessary; but he would have taken what was necessary from any other Book, if something else had been required, and would have spoken in the same way: “do you not hear what the Law says?” do you not hear what God himself, who established the life under the Law, says to you through events? In this “do you not hear” will mean: do you not perceive the meaning and inner significance, do you not take lessons and instruction for yourselves from it and do not follow it. Blessed Jerome writes: “The one who hears the Law, according to the Apostle, is he who sees not merely its surface, but sees through to its heart. The one who does not hear the Law is he who, like the Galatians, stops at its mere outer skin”.

Gal. 4:22 – 23. For it is written that Abraham had two sons, one by a slave woman and the other by a free woman. The one by the slave woman was born according to the flesh; the one by the free woman was born through a promise.

By the previous question he roused only their attention. Here he points to the very event from which, if one perceives it, they themselves can draw a lesson that teaches them. This event is well-known to all. The Apostle does not even recount it in detail. This, moreover, was not necessary. It was necessary only to distinguish certain features from this event, which serve as the starting point for the subsequent conclusion. On them does holy Paul dwell, not distracting attention with other circumstances. These features are the following: of Abraham’s two sons – one from a slave woman a slave, the other from a free woman free; one according to the flesh, the other by promise, that is, one – born by a natural way, the other – formed by a Higher power, though from elements of nature; that one of lower, earthly origin, and this one of higher, heavenly. Already by this reminder alone the Apostle conveys to the Galatians: by submitting yourselves under the yoke of the Law, you wish thereby to become children of Abraham by right. The matter is good, worthy of care and zeal. But see that you do not make a mistake in the way to attain it. Abraham after all had two sons, completely opposite. And you are faced with the need to determine more precisely: in the spirit of which of these two sons you wish to become children of Abraham. An error in choice is so significant that you, thinking yourselves to be sons of Abraham, will in fact be nothing more than slaves.

Holy Chrysostom says: “Again he refers to Abraham; yet it is not mere repetition. But since this patriarch was greatly esteemed among the Jews, the Apostle shows that images had their beginning in him, and in him were also prefigured the present events. And first he shows that they (the Galatians) are sons of Abraham. But since the sons of this patriarch did not have equal dignity, for one was born from a slave woman, and the other – from a free woman, then further he says that they are not only sons of Abraham, but such sons as his free and wellborn son was. Such is the power of faith!”

What the spoken history means and what it teaches is clarified by the Apostle next in detail. But the words cited can by themselves, even before the interpretation of their mysterious sense, give rise to thoughts significant in the matter under consideration. According to holy Chrysostom, here the question is decided: how do we become children of Abraham, not being descended from him according to the flesh? In the same way as Isaac was descended from him, not according to the flesh, but by promise, that is, by the power of God. “Before he said that faith unites us with Abraham. But since it seemed unclear to those listening that those not descended from Abraham he calls his sons, he shows that such an extraordinary deed had already been done by God at the very beginning. For Isaac, though a natural son, was – not according to the natural order, and not according to the law of marriage, and not from fleshly strength; inasmuch as he was born from faded bodies and a barren womb. Not flesh brought about conception and not seed made the fruit, for the womb of his mother was dead both from age and from barrenness, but the word spoken by God formed him. On the other hand, the slave was born in the usual way, according to the laws of nature and marriage. And he who was born not according to the flesh was preferred to him who was born according to the flesh. So do not be troubled that you were not born according to the flesh from Abraham. For it is precisely because you were not born according to the flesh from him that you stand in kinship with him. Birth according to the flesh does not increase, but diminishes dignity. On the other hand, birth not according to the flesh is a wondrous and spiritual birth; and those alone produce it who themselves are born from above. Ishmael was born according to the flesh, but was a slave, and not only a slave, but even cast out from his father’s house. And Isaac, born by promise, since he was a son both of a free woman, remained the master of all”.

Gal. 4:24 – 25. These women are two covenants. One woman, in fact, is Hagar, from Mount Sinai, bearing children into slavery. Hagar is, moreover, Mount Sinai in Arabia and corresponds to the present Jerusalem, for she is in slavery with her children.

Having pointed to the event, he now interprets what it means, what it teaches. “These are to be understood in an allegorical way”. He speaks not in the sense: this is allegory, but in the sense: in this there is also allegory, or: this can be understood also allegorically, or: there is here also a hidden divine meaning. “The divine Apostle said: ‘allegorized’, – that is, can be understood also differently. For he does not reject the historical sense, but explains what is prefigured by the history” (blessed Theodoret). “With these words he wished to say that this history depicts not only what appears at first glance, but expresses also something else; wherefore he called it an allegory” (holy Chrysostom).

The mysterious sense is not obligatory, for not everyone can perceive it. The holy Apostle perceives it; others did not perceive it, but will only now begin to perceive it from his words. Therefore one cannot prove it to them. The Apostle does not prove it here, but only clarifies what has already been proved. He has proved his truth before; now he simply presents more prominently the advantages of those holding to it, by pointing to its reflection in the very first events that paved the way to the life under the Law. Such a turn of speech is the same as a comparison, which does not prove, but the stronger the reflection of the truth in it, the greater force of persuasion it gives to the already proved truth.

“Now these are the two covenants”. Earlier in: “which are allegorical”—there stands: ατινα,—indefinitely or in general, this, that, this event. But here stands: αυται,—that is, the women. Upon them he directs attention, because he intends to clarify what the Law brings forth and what the Gospel brings forth, what fruit comes from each. “Who are these—‘these’ (αυται)? The mothers of the mentioned sons—Sarah and Hagar. What do they mean? Two covenants, two laws. And since in history these were the names of Abraham’s wives, the Apostle, adhering to the general meaning of these titles, from the names draws forth an important and great consequence” (St. Chrysostom). “Abraham had two wives and became the father of two sons; but one of them was born of a slave woman, the other of a free woman. And this accords with what is accomplished in us. For as there is one father, but two mothers and two sons; so also here one God, but two covenants and two peoples” (blessed Theodoret).

First Hagar’s meaning is clarified, so that after the dark picture of bondage under the Law, called Hagar, the mind’s eye the more readily and joyfully rests upon the picture of the spiritual freedom of the Gospel, depicted as Sarah, and the more persistently fixes attention upon it and draws the heart there as well through affection.

Hagar depicts bondage under the Law. A striking feature of their likeness—Hagar the slave bore a slave into slavery; the Law, given on Sinai, also brings forth slaves; that is, those upon whom it was laid and who follow it, it binds as slaves who dare not take a step without the master’s will, and moreover under deadly fear for breaking anything whatsoever. Expressive is the word: “bringing forth to slavery”. Bondage under the Law develops persons with a spirit of slavery, by which they are so permeated that freedom does not even occur to them as a thought. The Law cannot bring forth anything else while someone is wholly devoted to it, insofar as it is such.

The likeness stands out vividly; so much so that one could leave it without further comparisons. But the holy Apostle goes further and shows that such comparison is not arbitrary, but that the thought of Hagar necessarily brings to mind Sinai’s legislation. For this he uses the name by which Sinai is called in Arabia, that is, among the Hagarenes, and the topographical relationship between Sinai and Jerusalem—the center of life under the Law and of all the forces governing it.

How does the name Hagar relentlessly bring to mind the thought of the Law? It does so because “Sinai in the language of the Arabs is called Hagar” (Ecumenius, blessed Theophylact). “For Hagar is Mount Sinai in Arabia”. Sinai, in Arabia, among the inhabitants of Arabia, descendants of Hagar, bears the name Hagar. Therefore, having remembered Hagar, you recall Sinai, and having recalled Sinai, you remember the Sinai legislation. St. Chrysostom explains this connection of names and the combination of thoughts thus: “Hagar was called a slave woman; and Mount Sinai in the language of that land also means a slave woman.” The Vulgate and others read not: “Hagar is Mount Sinai”,—but, without “Hagar”,—“Sinai is a mountain in Arabia”. The thought is that Mount Sinai is located in Arabia, where the Hagarenes, descendants of Hagar, dwell. Why, at the thought of Sinai, one thinks also of Arabia, from it passes to its inhabitants, the Hagarenes, and from them to Hagar; as also conversely, by that same path from Hagar, thought following thought one reaches both Sinai and the Sinai legislation. However one explains it, this thought must be held: that, according to the Apostle, the relationship of Hagar to Sinai is providential, and that, consequently, in indicating the reflection of the character of Sinai’s Law in the properties of Hagar, he acts in accordance with the intentions of God.

How Sinai topographically points to Jerusalem, the center of bondage under the Law. “And corresponds to the present Jerusalem”. “Corresponds”, — αυστοιχει: “that mountain corresponds to this earthly Jerusalem” (blessed Theodoret). “It is akin to it and closely points to it” (St. Chrysostom). One may also say it stands opposite (vis-à-vis).

At about half a day’s journey from Mount Sinai begins a level plain and stretches to the very mountains of Judea, where immediately Jerusalem stands,—so that if one could rise above this plain, then, looking to the south, one would rest one’s gaze on Sinai, and turning to the north, one would meet Jerusalem. In the interval nothing would arrest attention; Sinai seems to escort toward Jerusalem, and Jerusalem toward Sinai. In this respect the other saying of Chrysostom is not without truth: “Jerusalem in location is not at a far distance from this mountain, whose name means a slave woman.” The actual distance between them is twelve days’ journey. Thus does Sinai correspond to Jerusalem! God so arranged it that the Sinai legislation found its seat in Jerusalem and reigns there. By all this, says the Apostle as if, must one come to understand. All this is pointing to us the finger of God.

“And serves with her children”. Who is it that serves or is enslaved, is in a state of subjection? One may understand both Hagar with her offspring, and the Law with those under the Law, and Jerusalem with her inhabitants and the inhabitants of all Judea, for whom Jerusalem is the metropolis or civic mother. In the original it is not clear to what exclusively to refer these words; but since Jerusalem stands above and what follows is about Jerusalem itself, though opposite to the present one, but by reason of it, it is nearer to refer them to Jerusalem. The slavery of Jerusalem is understood here not as civic—not that he was at that time under the power of Rome,—but as a religious and moral slavery to the Law, whose weight was felt most of all in Jerusalem, full of such zealots for the Law as the Pharisees and from among them the Zealots. The Apostle himself had more than once experienced this burden; and later he suffered for his unwillingness to be enslaved as they were.

Gal. 4:26. But the Jerusalem above is free, which is the mother of us all.

The holy Paul said that these two women, Hagar and Sarah, depict two covenants; then he explained in detail that Hagar depicts the Old Covenant, given on Sinai, demanding slavery and bringing forth into slavery, whose realization the present Jerusalem represents, serving with her children. One would expect him to say: and Sarah depicts the other covenant, the Evangelical, demanding free service to God and bringing forth into freedom, whose full realization the heavenly Jerusalem represents, the Church of Christ, free with all her children, that is, with all of us, believers in the Gospel of Christ. But the holy Paul decided to shorten such a comparison, so simple and obvious that anyone can easily make it himself; and he stopped only at his last word about the present Jerusalem, the center of slavish bondage under the Law, in order the more quickly to set against it the heavenly Jerusalem, the holy Church, the seat of evangelical freedom, not obscuring this contrast with other images, for the stronger impressiveness of the comparison.

The heavenly Jerusalem, set in opposition to the present one by the holy Paul, evokes the thought of what is to come. All that was bright in the future then merged into one representation of the promised Kingdom of the Messiah. It is nothing else that the holy Paul means by this word. This is for him the Kingdom of the Messiah, formerly promised, and now realized and represented by the holy Church. “The heavenly Jerusalem is the Church, and those born in it are not slaves” (St. Chrysostom). She is the heavenly Jerusalem, not because she is in heaven, but because she is heavenly in her sublime perfections, in the heavenly powers working in her, in her close union with heaven, with which she forms one whole, because she has no earthly aims and because, being filled with heavenly elements, she forms heavenly citizens in herself.

“Free” by her very nature, “that is, has no yoke of the Law upon her” (blessed Theodoret). If she is opposed to the present enslaved state, then she must be free and by you, as well as by all, must be recognized as such. Or thus: and the heavenly Jerusalem, the holy Church is free. He, as if pointing to her, says: and the holy Church is free. Look! So it ought to be. He sets against the actual Jerusalem not something conceived, ideal,—but an actual community of persons, freely serving God and free from every tie of bondage under the Law. His thought is that this is indeed how it should be, as follows from the comparison of covenants he has presented. That one could point to such a community as actual, the Galatians themselves are witnesses, who until now were completely free and only now have begun to bind themselves, without any necessity, contrary to all the indications and signs of God.