Chapter 1

Theophylact of Ohrid, Exposition of the Epistle of St Paul to the Galatians

1 Theophylact of Ohrid, Exposition of the Epistle of Paul to the Galatians — Chapter One

¹ Argument of the Epistle to the Galatians. Paul’s preamble is full of wrath, and so is almost the whole Epistle; for always to be gentle toward disciples who have need of rebuke belongs not to a teacher. This the Lord also does; for, having blessed Peter, he then also rebukes him; and the disciples too he calls senseless. And Paul indeed, even now in writing to others, employs severity, as in writing to the Corinthians; but most of all toward these Galatians. And the cause is of this sort. Those of the Jews who had believed, at once both clinging to the law of their fathers and reaching after being teachers, were teaching the Galatians that they ought to be circumcised, and to keep the Sabbaths and the new moons; for those around Peter, they said, did not forbid these things. And in truth these men did not forbid them, not as laying down a doctrine, but as condescending to the weakness of those of the Jews who had believed, to whom indeed they were preaching. But Paul, preaching to the Gentiles, had no need of this condescension. Yet when there came to be need of it, he too consented, and circumcised Timothy, and himself was purified according to the law. But the deceivers, not understanding the reasons for which both those around Peter and Paul himself did these things, were beguiling the simpler sort, and brought forward this very thing as a slander against Paul: that at one time he circumcised, and at another did away with circumcision, and preached different things to different people; and on top of all, that one ought not to give heed to Paul, who neither saw Christ, nor is his disciple, but a disciple of the apostles; whereas those around Peter ought to be received, as eyewitnesses. For these reasons, then, burning in his soul, he composes the Epistle; and first of all he directs himself against that which those men were saying, undermining the esteem in which he was held—that the others, indeed, are Christ’s, but he is a disciple of the apostles. Wherefore he thus begins:

² Chapter One. Paul, an apostle, not from men, neither through man. Straightway he does away with his being a disciple of men. For not from men, but from above, and from heaven, was he called; and not through man, but through Christ himself. For Ananias indeed baptized him; but it was not he who called him to the faith, but Christ from heaven. And why did he not say, Paul, called, but, an apostle? Because the whole dispute was about this very thing, men saying that he had been appointed an apostle by men; against this, then, he stands, showing that it is not so.

³ But through Jesus Christ, and God the Father, who raised him from the dead. And indeed the Acts make clear that he was set apart by the Spirit unto the apostleship. It is plain, then, that the authority of the Son, and of the Spirit, and of the Father is one. And mark also the word through, set down concerning the Father, and that the Son is named first—this on account of the heretics who busy themselves with these matters. And opportunely he calls to remembrance the death and the resurrection, that he may persuade them no longer to give heed to the law, which contributed nothing on their behalf, but to Christ, who died and rose again on their behalf; and [he shows] that to set oneself against such a benefactor is great thanklessness. And the Father is said to have raised him both because of the weakness of the hearers, and because all things whatsoever the Son does are referred to the Father. For surely he himself was not unable to raise himself, who also gave to those who believed in him to raise the dead from the mere shadow of their bodies.

⁴ And all the brethren who are with me. Since they slandered him as preaching these things alone, he shows that he has many others also as partakers of his mind.

⁵ To the churches of Galatia. Behold the wrath and the grief. For he did not say, To the beloved, nor, To the sanctified, nor, To the churches of God, but simply, To the churches of Galatia. And since they were also at variance among themselves, with reason he names these too as many churches; and at the same time, putting them to shame, he gathers them into one by this name. For those who are divided into many cannot be called by this appellation, which signifies concord.

⁶ Grace to you and peace. Since they were in danger of falling away from grace, through giving heed to the law, he prays this for them; and since they had made themselves enemies of God by setting up the things of the law, which he had abolished, he leads them back toward peace.

⁷ From God the Father. God became your Father. Whence? From the law, after which you gape, or from the baptism of Christ? How then do you turn away from your benefactor? And mark the words, From God the Father, set down without the article—this on account of those who bring in the Son as lesser, from John’s saying, And the Word was God, without the article.

⁸ And of our Lord Jesus Christ. Not the law is our lord, but Christ Jesus. And the very names themselves are indicative of the benefaction. For “Jesus” is he who saved the people from their sins; and “Christ,” from the anointing of the Spirit, with which he was anointed on our behalf, having sanctified the nature in that which he assumed, and given to us to be so named.

⁹ Who gave himself for our sins. Behold, he gave himself; not then as a servant did he render service. When, therefore, you hear that he was given by the Father, understand the good pleasure and the will of the Father. And he gave himself, that he might deliver us from the sins from which the law had no strength to deliver. How then, having forsaken him who delivered you, do you give heed to the law, which has profited nothing?

¹⁰ That he might deliver us from the present evil age. Here the Manichaeans pounce upon the saying, declaring: Behold, he has called the present age evil—that is, our life. It is not so. For neither are the days themselves evil in themselves (for what wickedness is there in the course of the sun, or in the interval of the days?); nor is our life itself, in itself, evil; for how could it be, wherein we come to know God and contemplate the things to come? But by “evil age” he means the evil deeds and the corrupted choice. Just as we too are accustomed to say, I had a bad day, slandering not the time, but the circumstance and the deed. For it was not in order that he might slay us and cast us out of the present life that Christ died, but that he might deliver us from evil deeds for the time to come. For since he had said above that he gave himself for our sins, he gave assurance also for the future, that he might deliver us from the evil manner of life. But the law had strength neither for the future.

¹¹ According to the will of God and our Father. Since those men supposed that they were disobeying God in forsaking the law, he corrects their suspicion, showing that it is the will of the Father that we be set free through the Son. And do you see that he did not say, According to the purpose of the Father, but, According to the will—that is, the good pleasure? And having called God our Father, again he puts them in remembrance of Christ the benefactor, who made his own Father our Father also. How then do you depart from him?

¹² To whom be the glory unto the ages of ages. Amen. Nowhere else in his preambles has he set down the Amen; here he has set it down, showing that the discourse is complete for him, and that what has been said suffices for the accusation of the Galatians. For having called to remembrance the unspeakable benefactions of God, by reason of which these men stood condemned for forsaking Christ their benefactor, then, struck with amazement at them, and being able to utter nothing further concerning them, he closes the discourse in a doxology.

¹³ I marvel that you are so quickly removed from him who called you in the grace of Christ. He shows that he had a great esteem concerning them. For I marvel, he says, that you, who have labored so much in the faith, are so quickly removed. And there are two charges, both the are removed and the quickly; so that the deceivers did not even need time—which accuses the levity of those who received them.

¹⁴ And he did not say, You were removed, but, You are being removed; that is, I do not yet believe, nor do I deem the deceiving to be complete. And mark his wisdom. Since, clinging to the law, they thought to do service to the Father, he says that those who give heed to the law are removed from the Father. For from, he says, him who called you—that is, from the Father. In the grace of Christ—that is, so as to be justified by Christ, not from works, but by grace. For the Son bestows the remission in grace, while the Father calls toward this.

¹⁵ Unto another gospel, which is not another, except there are certain men who trouble you, and would pervert the Gospel of Christ. Since the deceivers called their own deception a gospel, he contends even against the name, and says that there is no other gospel beside that which you received. For there is one that contains right belief, which I preached; unless perhaps certain men trouble the eyes of your souls, and make some things appear to you in place of others, wishing to pervert the Gospel of Christ. And indeed they were not overturning the whole Gospel, but only smuggling in the commandment concerning the Sabbath and Circumcision; yet nevertheless he shows that, even when slightly counterfeited, it overturns the whole Gospel—just as he who cuts away a little from the royal coinage renders the whole coin counterfeit. And mark this, on account of those who say that it is a small matter and to be allowed. But the Marcionites lay hold of the saying, and say that from this one ought to receive not the four, but one Gospel—the one which they themselves, having jumbled together [forte: poured out] and cut down, composed. For behold, they say, Paul says that the Gospel is one. And what of this? We too say that the four are one, at least according to their concord; for neither does Paul speak now about number, but about discord. For because, he says, the preaching of the deceivers is discordant, for this reason it is not a gospel; whereas, if it were in accord, it would be a gospel—that is, an apostolic preaching. So that the words of Marcion are manifest babbling.

¹⁶ But even if we, or an angel from heaven, should preach to you any gospel beside that which we preached to you, let him be accursed. [He says this] lest anyone say that for love of glory he is mustering his own doctrines, since he anathematizes even himself. And since they took refuge also in dignities, and brought forward those around Peter, and James, for this reason he made mention also of angels. And he added the words, from heaven, since the priests too were called angels. Therefore, lest you suppose it to be said concerning priests, by the addition of “heaven” he made plain the powers on high. And he did not say, If they should proclaim contrary things, but, Even if they should preach some small thing beside that which we preached. By anathematizing the angels, then, he casts out every dignity; and by the word we, every kinship. For do not say to me that your fellow-apostles preach other things; nor do I spare even myself if I preach other things. Yet not as condemning the apostles does he say these things, but wishing to sew up the mouths of the deceivers, and to show that dignity is not admitted when the discourse is about doctrines.

¹⁷ As we said before, and now I say again: If anyone preaches to you any gospel beside that which you received, let him be accursed. Lest they suppose that he said these things from wrath, and on a sudden impulse, he sets them down a second time, showing that not without judgment, but firmly and steadfastly, having ratified these things within himself, he so pronounced them.

¹⁸ For do I now persuade men, or God? Or do I seek to please men? He is about to make his defense concerning the things laid to his charge. Therefore, lest they be lifted up against him as though sitting in judgment upon their teacher, he says: Do not suppose that I am making my defense to you, or that I seek to persuade you, but my whole discourse is toward God. Whence neither do I write these things out of longing for the glory that is among you, and that I may have disciples, but as making my defense to God on behalf of the doctrines, and not wishing to please men. Or also thus. Since they slandered him as preaching different things to different people, and as changing himself to suit men, he says: Do I strive to persuade men, and to please these, or God? For if I wished to please men, I would assuredly do the things you say.

¹⁹ For if I still pleased men, I would not be a servant of Christ. He establishes that he does not strive to please men; for how could he either flatter them, or preach different things to different people? For if I were striving after this, I would not have departed from the things of the Jews and come to Christ; I would not have despised kinsmen, tribesmen, glory of such a kind, and chosen persecutions, and dangers, and dishonors.

²⁰ But I make known to you, brethren, the Gospel which was preached by me, that it is not according to man. He is about to show them that he was truly transferred from the law, and for this reason he makes mention of his former life and of his sudden change—showing that he would not have been changed so suddenly, had he not received some more divine assurance. Wherefore he also says that my Gospel is not according to man—that is, I had no man for a teacher, but I became a disciple of Christ himself.

²¹ For I neither received it from man, but through the revelation of Jesus Christ. For this is what his slanderers were saying: that not, like the apostles, did he become a hearer of Christ himself, but received all things from men. He says, therefore, that He himself revealed the Gospel to me—the very one who also made disciples of those around Peter.

²² For you have heard of my manner of life in time past in Judaism. Whence is it plain that I received the Gospel through divine revelation? From my former manner of life. For such a persecutor as I was, how could I have been changed so suddenly, had not some divine revelation effectually drawn me? For that I was a vehement persecutor is plain from the fact that even you Galatians, who are so far removed from Judea, heard of it.

²³ How that beyond measure I persecuted the Church of God, and laid it waste. See how he sets down each thing with intensity. For he did not say, I persecuted, but, With all excess. And not only this, but also, I laid it waste; that is, I endeavored to raze it to the ground and to make it vanish; for this is the work of a destroyer.

²⁴ And I advanced in Judaism beyond many of my own age in my nation, being more exceedingly zealous for the traditions of my fathers. Beyond all, he says, who were of the same time, I displayed much fervor, and advanced in the war against the Church; or, that I was held in honor among the Jews. But do not suppose that the matter was of vainglory, or of wrath, but of zeal. If, then, the things against the Church I did not for any human reason, but according to zeal for God, even if mistakenly, how should I now, when I have come to know the truth, preach this and that out of desire for human glory, and not the things which the truth demands, and which Christ taught me?

²⁵ But when it pleased God, who set me apart from my mother’s womb. If from his mother’s womb he was set apart unto the Gospel, and was chosen by God, then assuredly it was by some dispensation that he was left in Judaism for the time between—namely, that his change, being thus sudden, might give assurance to many and draw them on. And God set him apart not according to a fulfilling of merit, but according to a foreknowledge of his being worthy.

²⁶ And called me through his grace. God indeed called him on account of his virtue. For a vessel of election unto me, he says, is he. But Paul himself, being modest-minded, says that he was called through grace, not according to desert, but through mercy.

²⁷ To reveal his Son in me. He did not say, To reveal to me, but, In me; showing that he learned not by word alone, but that his heart also was filled with much of the Spirit, the nature being given depth toward the inward man, and Christ speaking in him.

²⁸ That I might preach him among the Gentiles. He revealed the Son to me, not that I might see him only, but that I might also carry him forth to others. For not the believing only, but also the being ordained, came to pass from God. How then do you say that I was taught by men? And not simply, That I might preach him, but, among the Gentiles. So that, how could I preach circumcision to the Gentiles?

²⁹ Immediately I conferred not with flesh and blood. That is, I did not enter into discourse with the apostles; for these he calls flesh and blood, naming them from their nature; or simply he says this concerning all men, that From no man did I learn anything.

³⁰ Neither went I up to Jerusalem to the apostles who were before me. How, then, does the Apostle say these things? Is he so puffed up as even to think himself sufficient unto himself, and to have no need of a counselor? And how did he not hear him who says, Be not wise in your own eyes; and, Woe to those who are prudent in their own sight? God forbid. But since those who slandered him were saying that one ought to follow the apostles, and not him, and that those men were apostles before him, he was constrained to say these things, that he might silence the deceivers. For indeed it was unreasonable that one who had learned from God should thereafter cling to men. Not, then, in despair does he say these things, but that he might show the dignity of his own preaching. And indeed he did go away to Jerusalem—yet not so as to learn himself, but so as to persuade others that these things seem good also to those in Jerusalem. Furthermore, he did not go up immediately—that is, at the outset; but afterward he went up, and then for the sake of persuading others.

³¹ But I went away into Arabia, and again returned to Damascus. He went about the untilled places, and the wild ones; for if he had remained where the apostles were, the preaching would have been hindered, and would not have been spread abroad so quickly. For this reason he ran to the most savage of the nations. And see his humility: how, in recounting the cities, nowhere did he say how many he converted, although in Damascus he so confounded the Jews that he was even plotted against by the ethnarch. So then, not for the sake of vainglory does he speak the great things that must be spoken concerning himself, but that the preaching might not be harmed, he being disbelieved as a man of no account, and a disciple of disciples.

³² Then after three years I went up to Jerusalem to visit Peter. And this too is a mark of humility, seeing that he who had accomplished so much went away to Peter, not for the sake of profit, but only to visit him, honoring him as greater than himself. Wherefore he did not even say, To see Peter, but, To visit him; which is what those say who go to inspect the great and splendid cities, just as we too go away to holy men—yet rather we for the sake of profit, but he only for honor.

³³ And I abode with him fifteen days. The visiting was a sign of honor; the abiding, of friendship and vehement love. And he did not say, I was taught, but, I abode with him, in the sense of, I spent the time together with him.

³⁴ But other of the apostles I saw none, except James the Lord’s brother. On account of Peter he went up, so greatly did he honor and long for him; and he saw James also, not for the sake of profit, but honoring him. And James too he mentions with honor, saying, the Lord’s brother; thus was he also free of envy. And yet, had he wished to designate him, he would have said, The son of Clopas. For neither was he the Lord’s brother according to the flesh, but was reputed to be. And how he was Clopas’s son, hear. Clopas and Joseph were brothers; Clopas having died childless, Joseph raised up seed to him, and begot this man, and his other brethren, and Mary—whom, being the wife of Clopas, the Gospel called the sister of the Lord’s Mother; Joseph having preserved toward the Virgin rather the guardianship of a father than the disposition of a husband.[1]

³⁵ Now the things which I write to you, behold, before God, I do not lie. As though about to render account before a tribunal, so does he contend in his discourse, that he may seem worthy of belief.

³⁶ Then I came into the regions of Syria and Cilicia. And I was unknown by face to the churches of Judea which were in Christ. But they were only hearing that, He who once persecuted us now preaches the faith which once he laid waste. Because he had set foot in Judea only to see Peter, he again departs from it, both because he had been sent as a herald to the Gentiles, and because he would not endure to build upon another’s foundation. Wherefore, he says, I was also unknown by sight to the Christians in Judea. How then could I have preached circumcision to them, I who was not even known to them by sight? For this they slandered him with: that in Judea he preached circumcision. For they were only hearing concerning me that I had turned to Christ, and was preaching him.

³⁷ And they glorified God in me. And this too is of modesty. For he did not say that They marveled at me, were astonished at me; but he showed the whole to be of grace. For they glorified God in me, as being plainly the one who works the whole.

2 Theophylact of Ohrid, Exposition of the Epistle of Paul to the Galatians — Chapter Two

¹ Chapter Two. Then, fourteen years later, I went up again to Jerusalem with Barnabas, taking Titus with me also. And I went up by revelation. The occasion of the former going up was Peter; but of the second, the revelation. He took Titus and Barnabas along as witnesses of his own preaching, namely that it seemed acceptable to the apostles.

² And I communicated to them the Gospel which I preach among the Gentiles. That is, the one without circumcision. But why, after so many years, did he communicate it to them, when he ought to have done this from the beginning, and then learned well whether or not he was running rightly? For it would be senseless that, after running for so many years, he should then need to learn whether he had perhaps run in vain. Yet if he went up in order to learn for himself about his own course, then what was being done was truly without reason. But since he saw that many were being made to stumble—on the ground that Peter accepted circumcision, whereas he himself did not circumcise, and for this reason was suspected of transgressing the law—he went up by revelation, the Spirit prompting him, so that those who were stumbling might be persuaded that there was no disagreement in the preaching, but that those who conceded circumcision conceded it by way of dispensation, since they were preaching to the circumcised. How, then, was what was done without reason? For the Spirit moved him to go up for the setting right of others, and he, with good reason, obeyed.

³ But privately to those who were of repute. Because those who were stumbling were many, Paul speaks privately with Peter’s company, lest a faction arise and the offense be raised to something greater. For those who were stumbling were tens of thousands; and had they heard in public that Paul abolishes circumcision, they would likely have raised an uproar and thrown everything into confusion. For this reason, then, he speaks privately, having Titus and Barnabas as witnesses, who declared to all men that not even the apostles thought it right to preach anything contrary. And in saying “those of repute,” he does not deny that they were such, but together with his own vote he sets down the common vote of all; just as he also said of himself, that he too thinks he has the Spirit of God—not as denying that he has it, but introducing the common estimate. Those of repute, then, means the great, the renowned.

⁴ Lest somehow I should be running, or had run, in vain. That is, In order that I might teach those who were stumbling over me that I do not run in vain—not so that I myself might learn; for I am the very one who had the Son and his Gospel revealed to me by the Father.

⁵ But not even Titus, who was with me, being a Greek, was compelled to be circumcised. Titus, being uncircumcised, he says, was not compelled to be circumcised. And this is the greatest proof that not even the apostles accepted circumcision as a matter of principle, but by way of dispensation, on account of the believers from the circumcision; and that Paul’s preaching had nothing to be blamed in it, since his disciple was uncircumcised.

⁶ And it was because of the false brethren brought in secretly, who slipped in to spy out our freedom which we have in Christ Jesus, that they might bring us into bondage. The construction of the sentence is this: Titus was not compelled to be circumcised even because of the false brethren brought in secretly—that is, Although those who opposed me were present, nevertheless the apostles did not, even on their account, compel Titus to be circumcised. But how does he call these men “false brethren” for introducing circumcision, if indeed the apostles too accepted it? Because the apostles, accommodating themselves to the believers from the circumcision, accepted circumcision inasmuch as they were preaching to Jews; but these men acted as legislating circumcision on principle, and as champions of the law. For this reason, then, he calls them false brethren. Moreover, by saying slipped in, he makes plain their secret plotting; and by to spy out, he hints that they were enemies. For spies slip in for no other purpose than to learn everything thoroughly, and to prepare an easy way for themselves to ravage and to enslave—which is just what these men were doing. For they were looking around to see who were uncircumcised, having the freedom that is in Christ—that is, not being subject to the law—so that they might lay hold of them and force them to be circumcised, and might bring us back again under the bondage of the law, from which Christ set us free. And from this too it is plain that the apostles conceded the things of the law in order that, little by little, they might withdraw men from bondage; but these men were contriving in order to strengthen the bondage.

⁷ To whom we did not yield in subjection, no, not for an hour, that the truth of the Gospel might remain with you. He did not say, “In speech,” but, In subjection. For they were doing these things not in order to teach us anything, but in order to subject and enslave us. For this reason we yielded to the apostles, but to these men no longer. That what we preached to you, he says, may remain firm and true. What things? That the old things have passed away, and that the law has been abolished, and that Christ does not accept those who are circumcised, nor does it profit them anything. Having withstood those men, then, we showed that what we preached to you concerning the inactivity of the law is also true. Do not, therefore, fall away from this truth.

⁸ But from those who were reputed to be something—whatever they once were, it makes no difference to me; God accepts no man’s person. Since it was likely that someone would object to him and say, How then did the apostles command men to be circumcised? he resolves this objection. And the true reason he does not state—namely, that they did this by way of dispensation and accommodation—lest the believers from among the Jews, hearing that even the apostles allow circumcision not truly but by dispensation, should fall away from them as well, on the ground that they too were abolishing the law; for up to that point they held to them precisely because they thought they were keeping the law. This reason, then, Paul conceals. But he bears down hard upon the apostles, saying that It makes no difference to me—that is, I have no concern about those who are reputed to be something, that is, the great apostles, whether they preached circumcision or not; for they themselves will give account to God; and not because they are great and chief will God be put to shame before their persons, for he is no respecter of persons. And observe: he did not say, Whatever they now are, but, Whatever they once were, showing that they too had by then ceased to preach in that manner, once the preaching had shone forth everywhere. And Paul says these things not to disparage the saints, but wishing to profit those who hear.

⁹ For those who were of repute added nothing to me. Whatever sort they were, he says, will be God’s concern; but this I know, that they in no way opposed me, nor added anything to my preaching, nor corrected it.

¹⁰ But on the contrary, when they saw that I had been entrusted with the Gospel of the uncircumcision, just as Peter with that of the circumcision (for he who worked in Peter unto the apostleship of the circumcision worked also in me unto the Gentiles), and when they came to know the grace of God that had been given to me, James and Cephas and John, who were reputed to be pillars, gave to me and Barnabas the right hands of fellowship, that we should go to the Gentiles, and they to the circumcision. Some have interpreted it thus: So they not only corrected nothing of mine, but on the contrary, they themselves were even corrected. But this is not so. For what were they likely to be corrected in by him? For each of them was fully equipped. This, then, is what he says: But on the contrary, they gave me the right hands of fellowship; then the rest comes in parenthetically: When they saw that I had been entrusted with the Gospel of the uncircumcision, and so forth. For so far were they from correcting me that they even praised me, and agreed that I and Barnabas should preach the Gospel to the uncircumcision, that is, to the Gentiles, and they to the circumcision, that is, to the Jews. For by “circumcision” and “uncircumcision” he does not mean the things themselves, but the uncircumcised and the circumcised. And here he shows himself to be of equal honor with Peter. For he who gave to that man the working of the Gospel toward the Hebrews gave this also to me toward the Gentiles. And observe how he showed that not only did his preaching please the apostles, but it also seemed good to God. For the apostles, he says, came to know the grace of God. He did not say, Heard, but, From the very facts they came to know. For how would God have given me the grace, unless such preaching were acceptable to him? Again he made mention of the three with praises. For those who were reputed to be pillars—that is, the great ones, whom all everywhere carry about and glorify—these bear witness to me that my preaching pleases Christ as well. Therefore they also gave the right hands, that is, They agreed, and made us partners, and showed that they are pleased with my preaching, as differing in nothing from their own word.

¹¹ Only that we should remember the poor; which very thing I also was eager to do. The preaching, he says, we divided; but the poor we held in common, undivided. For in Jerusalem there were many of those who had believed who had been plundered of their possessions by the unbelieving Jews, and were in want of the necessary food. For the Greeks did not war against the believers from among themselves as the Jews did against the Christians from among the Hebrews. Therefore Paul makes great effort in the care of them, as he himself confesses, that I was eager to do this very thing. For gathering from the disciples everywhere, he himself conveyed it to them.

¹² But when Peter came to Antioch, I withstood him to his face. Many suppose that Paul is here charging Peter with hypocrisy; but that is not so. For whatever he seems to say against Peter was done and said by way of dispensation. For Peter, while he was in Jerusalem, conceded circumcision—for it was not possible to draw men away from the law all at once; but when he came to Antioch, he used to eat together with the Gentiles. Yet when certain men from Jerusalem came to Antioch, he withdrew himself from the Gentiles, so as not to give offense to those from Jerusalem, and at the same time so as to give Paul a reasonable occasion for the rebuke. For this reason Paul reproves and Peter bears it; for thus the disciples were more easily going to be brought over, when the teacher was being censured and kept silent. So then, the withstanding “to his face” was a thing arranged; since, if there had truly been a quarrel over the truth, they would not have rebuked each other in the presence of the disciples, for they would have given them great offense. Rather, the quarrel arranged in the open was a setting right of the disciples; for Peter does not even gainsay anything—evidently because he accepts Paul’s opposition.

¹³ Because he was to be blamed. He did not say, By me, but simply, by others—those who were ignorant of what was being dispensed, and supposed it to be hypocrisy: that while those from Jerusalem were absent he ate with the Gentiles, but when they were present he withdrew. But some have understood it thus: that he had already been blamed beforehand, he says, for eating together with Cornelius, and for this reason now too he withdrew, fearing lest they should blame him again; so that in the very thing for which he withdrew, I withstood him.

¹⁴ For before certain men came from James, he used to eat with the Gentiles; but when they came, he drew back and separated himself, fearing those of the circumcision. He states also the cause of the blame. This James was the brother of the Lord, who also taught in Jerusalem as their bishop. From him, then, certain men were sent who had believed from among the Jews, yet still clung to the law, and they went off to Antioch. When Peter saw them and was afraid—not lest he himself be endangered, but lest they, being made to stumble, should leap away from the faith—he withdrew himself from associating with the Gentiles. So certain men, being ignorant of the cause, blamed him.

¹⁵ And the rest of the Jews also dissembled with him, so that even Barnabas was carried away by their dissembling. He calls the matter “dissembling.” For he does not wish to disclose Peter’s purpose; and at the same time, on account of those who held vehemently to the law, he named this “dissembling,” in order to root out their disposition toward the law. And by “the rest of the Jews” he means those in Antioch who had believed from among the Jews, who themselves also withdrew from the uncircumcised.

¹⁶ But when I saw that they were not walking uprightly toward the truth of the Gospel, I said to Peter before them all. Let neither this expression trouble you; for he says these things not as condemning Peter, but for the sake of those who were going to be profited by hearing that even Peter was rebuked, as one clinging to the law: and what, then, are you doing any longer? For this is the very reason that even then he rebukes him before them all, so that those men, hearing it, might be afraid, since so great a pillar was being rebuked and had nothing to say in reply. But Eusebius says that it was not the great Peter who was rebuked by Paul, but a certain other Cephas, one of the seventy; and he thinks to establish this by saying that it is not likely that the man who had made his defense at the beginning—when, having eaten with Cornelius, he gave offense to some—should again stand in need of such a rebuke. But, O most learned one, neither do we say that Peter was rebuked by Paul as one ignorant of his duty, but as one able to endure the rebuke, that others might be set right.

¹⁷ If you, being a Jew, live like the Gentiles and not like the Jews, why do you compel the Gentiles to live as Jews? Paul all but cries aloud to everyone: Imitate your teacher. For behold, he too, though a Jew, nevertheless ate together with the Gentiles. And observe how he does not charge Peter that You do wrong in keeping the law, but rather reproves him on behalf of his own Gentile disciples, as one compelling them to be circumcised and to live as Jews. For in this way his word was going to seem more readily acceptable.

¹⁸ We are Jews by nature, and not sinners of the Gentiles. “By nature”—that is, not proselytes, but born of Jewish fathers and reared in the law; yet we forsook the manner of life in which we were reared and took refuge in the faith in Christ.

¹⁹ Knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but only through faith in Jesus Christ; we also have believed in Christ Jesus, that we might be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the law; because by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified. Observe how he speaks everything with caution.[2] For we let the law go not as something evil, but as weak and unable to justify. For no one could fulfill its works, which were burdensome and hard to accomplish—not because of their greatness, but rather because of their pettiness; and besides, because the law did not sanctify the soul, but cleansed bodily defilements. Superfluous, then, is circumcision. And as he goes on he will say that it is even dangerous, estranging one from Christ.

²⁰ But if, while seeking to be justified in Christ, we ourselves also were found sinners, is Christ then a minister of sin? We sought, he says, to be justified in Christ, having forsaken the law; but, as you say, it is a sin to forsake the law; so then Christ thrust us into this sin, for it was because of him that we forsook all the legal observances. So that Christ not only did not justify us, as you say, but even became to us the cause of greater condemnation, by persuading us to forsake the law.

²¹ God forbid. Having led the argument to an absurdity, he then had no further need of demonstration, but was content with the denial—which is what one should do, as is customary in the case of things that are altogether to be rejected.

²² For if I build again the very things which I destroyed, I prove myself a transgressor. Observe the wisdom of it. Those men were saying that he who annuls the law is a transgressor; but he shows the contrary, that he who keeps it is a transgressor—transgressing not only the faith but also the law itself. For the law itself led me to the faith and persuaded me to forsake it. As he goes on he will show this; but for the present he says that the law has ceased, and this we acknowledged by the very acts by which we annulled it, departing from it. If, therefore, we contend to set it up again, we become transgressors, setting up the things that have been annulled by God.

²³ For I through the law died to the law. He establishes how he annulled the law, and says: Through the law of grace and of the Gospel I died to the Mosaic law; or, I died, he says, to the law through the law—that is, The law itself led me to attend to it no longer, having guided me to Christ, both through the words of Moses and through those of the prophets. If, therefore, I attend to it again, I also transgress it. Or thus as well: The law commanded that whoever did not do the things written should be punished and put to death. Therefore, since, so far as the law was concerned, it was impossible for these to be fulfilled, I have been put to death. Let it not, then, lay commands upon me—upon one who, so far as the law’s requirements go, is dead—both a spiritual death, because I was sinning, being unable to fulfill the things of the law, and a bodily death, so far as concerns the law’s condemnation. How then shall I still attend to that which killed me?

²⁴ That I might live to God, I have been crucified with Christ. Lest anyone say, How then do you live, since you have died? he says that the law killed me while I was living; but Christ, taking me when dead, made me alive, since I was crucified with him in a spiritual sense and died together with him through baptism. And the wonder is twofold: both that he made the dead alive, and that he did so through death.

²⁵ And I live, yet no longer I, but Christ lives in me. By saying, I have been crucified with Christ, he hinted at baptism; but by saying, And I live, yet no longer I, he hinted at the manner of life that follows, by which our members are put to death. But Christ lives in me—that is, There is nothing in us that Christ does not will, but he is the one who does all things in us, and rules, and is master. And our own will is dead, while his lives and governs our life. If, then, I live to God another life beside the one in the law, and have been put to death to the law, neither am I able to keep the things of the law.

²⁶ And the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God. What I have said, I said concerning the spiritual life; but he will find that this perceptible life itself is also mine from Christ. For the law, when transgressed, made all men subject to sin and punishment, and nothing hindered all from perishing, as in the flood, as transgressors; but Christ, when he came, snatched us out of the condemnation, having justified us by his own death. So that this very thing too—the living perceptibly and in the flesh—we have through the faith in Christ, which justifies us and snatches us out of the condemnation.

²⁷ Who loved me and gave himself for me. And indeed he gave himself for all, and loved all; but Paul, considering from how much Christ delivered us and what he bestowed, and being set on fire with love, makes what is common his own—as the prophets also do: My God, my God;[3] and at the same time showing that each one ought to acknowledge as great a debt of gratitude to Christ as if Christ had died for him alone. And those who have profited by the benefit are those alone who have believed in him. So that he who attends to the law shows that Christ did not die for him. And how is it that you do not shudder at this, but run back to the law, showing the death of the Master to be useless? And note also the phrase, “having given himself,” against the Arians.

²⁸ I do not set aside the grace of God. Since he has set down the arguments drawn from reasoning, he then declares: I do not shake off the gift of Christ which he bestowed on me, having justified me apart from works by his death, nor do I run back to the law.

²⁹ For if righteousness comes through the law, then Christ died in vain. For if the law, he says, has power to save and to justify, then Christ died to no purpose. For he died precisely for this reason, that he himself might save through his death, since the law had no power; so that if the law saves, the death of Christ is superfluous. Do you see to what point the blasphemy advances?

3 Theophylact of Ohrid, Exposition of the Epistle of Paul to the Galatians — Chapter Three

¹ Chapter Three. O foolish Galatians, who has bewitched you, that you should not obey the truth? Having shown through what went before that he was an apostle not from men, nor through men, and having established himself as worthy of trust, he now discourses with greater authority; and being about to compare faith with the Law, he first calls them foolish—not as one transgressing the law of Christ, but rather as keeping it strictly. For it is not the one who simply calls his brother a fool that is liable to judgment, but the one who does so without cause. And these men were most justly called foolish, who were insensible to such great good things and were making the death of Christ useless. But observe that, after his proofs, he rebukes them, and at once lets up. For he did not say, Who has deceived you? but, Who has bewitched you? Who has envied you? showing that what they were doing was worthy of envy. And he makes clear that those who were misleading them did these things not as guardians, nor as supplying what was lacking, but as mutilating even what was already present; for such is envy. Yet he said this not as though envy had any strength in itself, but as showing that those who taught these things had come to it through malice.

² Before whose eyes Jesus Christ was openly portrayed, crucified among you. And yet he was crucified in Jerusalem; how then does he say, Before your eyes, and, Among you? Because with the eyes of faith they saw the cross more exactly than those who were then present and looking on. For many of those, having seen it bodily, profited nothing; but these, though they did not see it with their eyes, through faith saw it more exactly. Christ, then, was “openly portrayed”—that is, he was painted before them through the preaching; and you, having believed the preaching, saw him as though present. And these things are both a praise of them and a reproach: a praise, in that they received these things with such full conviction; a reproach, in that the one whom they saw stripped, impaled, dying—him they forsook and ran to the Law. And observe how, setting all else aside, he brings the cross into their midst.

³ This only would I learn from you: Did you receive the Spirit by works of the Law, or by the hearing of faith? Since you do not follow lengthy arguments, nor are willing to behold the greatness of the dispensation, I will say something brief to you. Answer me this little thing: From where did you receive the Holy Spirit, and work such great power and signs? From the works that are in the Law, or from faith? It is plain that it was from faith; for it was not while you held fast to the Law that you had the Spirit and accomplished miracles. How then, having forsaken faith, do you cling again to the Law?

⁴ Are you so foolish? Having begun in the Spirit, are you now being made complete in the flesh? Again he opportunely brought in the reproach. For when you ought, he says, to have made an advance as time went on, not only did you not advance, but you were even drawn backward. For to work miracles is spiritual, which you had in the beginning; but to be circumcised is fleshly, which now, at the end, you have chosen. And he did not say, You make complete, but, You are being made complete, showing that, having taken hold of them like irrational beasts, those men were cutting them down—those who were teaching circumcision.

⁵ Did you suffer so many things in vain? If indeed it be in vain. They had wrestled with many trials for Christ’s sake. So many things, then, he says, have you suffered to no purpose? For if you are circumcised, all those things are in vain, and the deceivers have robbed you of so many crowns. Then he gives them hopes of return, saying, If indeed it be in vain—that is, If you should be willing to come to your senses, it would not be so, nor will what you have toiled at have been in vain. Let those be ashamed, from this passage too, who do away with repentance. For behold, these men were trophy-bearers, and confessors, and martyrs; yet, when they had fallen away, Paul does not cast them off, but gladly receives them back.

⁶ He therefore who supplies to you the Spirit, and works powers among you—is it by works of the Law, or by the hearing of faith? God, he says, who supplies to you the Spirit, so that you prophesy and speak with tongues, and who works powers among you of signs and wonders—did he do these things on account of the works that come from the Law, as though served by you who fulfilled them, or on account of the faith that you showed toward Christ? It is plain that it was on account of this faith. How then, having forsaken this faith, by which you were being glorified, do you run to the Law that has been abolished?

⁷ Even as Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned to him for righteousness. Most of all, he says, you ought to have recognized the power of faith from the signs that you accomplished; but look also to your forefather, of whom you make much account, and you will find that he too was justified by faith. And if he who lived before grace is justified by faith, much more ought those who have been counted worthy of grace to cling to faith.

⁸ Know therefore that those who are of faith, these are the sons of Abraham. Since they were afraid that, having forsaken the Law, they might fall away from kinship with the patriarch (for they prided themselves greatly on this), he shows the contrary: that faith rather makes those who have it sons of Abraham.

⁹ And the Scripture, foreseeing that God justifies the nations by faith, preached the gospel beforehand to Abraham, saying, In you shall all the nations be blessed. He demonstrates how those who are of faith, these are the sons of Abraham; and he brings forward the testimony from the Scripture, that In you shall the nations be blessed—that is, In imitating your faith. And he shows also that faith is older than the Law, seeing that before the Law it was this that justified Abraham; and that what is now coming to pass comes to pass according to the prophecy. For foreseeing, he says, the Scripture—that is, God himself who gave the Law foreordained that we should be justified not by the Law, but by faith. And he did not say, He revealed, but, He preached the gospel beforehand—that you may learn that Abraham too rejoiced in this manner of justification, and longed for it to be set forth.

¹⁰ So that those who are of faith are blessed together with the faithful Abraham. Since they were troubled, lest they should be under a curse as not abiding in the Law (for it was written: Cursed is he who does not abide in the things written in the Law), he shows rather the contrary: that those who forsake the Law and draw near to faith are blessed, even as the faithful Abraham too was blessed.

¹¹ For as many as are of works of the Law are under a curse. For it is written: Cursed is everyone who does not abide in all the things written in the book of the Law, to do them. Lest anyone object, saying, It was fitting that Abraham should be blessed and justified from faith, because there was not yet a Law; but show me that, after the Law was given, faith justifies and makes men blessed—the Apostle now shows not only that faith justifies and blesses, but also that the Law becomes a cause of sin and of cursing; for no one is able to do the things written in the Law, and he who does not do them is accursed. So that to bless belongs to faith, and you fear in vain lest you become accursed by departing from the Law. For rather, in making use of it, you are under a curse, as not being able to fulfill it.

¹² But that no one is justified in the Law before God is plain, for the just shall live by faith. And the Law is not of faith, but the man who has done these things shall live in them. Having shown that the Law makes men accursed, while faith blesses, he now shows that faith alone also justifies, and not the Law; and he brings forward Habakkuk saying that The just shall live by faith, and not by the Law. For the Law requires not faith alone, but works also. And well did he say, Before God. For before men those who hold fast to the Law perhaps seem just, such as the Pharisees, who justified themselves before men. Since, then, the Law, because it was hard to fulfill, neither justified and made men subject to a curse, grace came, showing the easy way, namely faith, through which, being justified, we are blessed. Behold, then, it has been demonstrated that not only before the Law did faith bless and justify, but even more so after the Law as well.

¹³ Christ redeemed us from the curse of the Law, having become a curse for us. For it is written: Cursed is everyone who hangs upon a tree. Lest anyone contradict him, saying, It is true that the one who does not do the Law is accursed, and that faith justifies; but from where is it plain that that curse has been done away? For we fear lest, having once come under the yoke of the Law, we ourselves also be still under the curse—he shows, then, that the curse has been loosed through Christ. For having given the price, in that he himself became a curse, he redeemed us from the curse of the Law, which he himself indeed escaped, inasmuch as he fulfilled the Law; but we were liable to it, not being able to accomplish it. It is as if some man condemned to die were delivered from death by another, a guiltless man, who chose himself to die on behalf of that other. He received, then, the curse that comes from being hanged, and loosed the curse that lay upon us from our not fulfilling the Law, while he himself was not subject to it. For he both fulfilled the Law and committed no sin.

¹⁴ That the blessing of Abraham might come upon the nations in Christ Jesus. For this reason, he says, he became a curse, that upon the nations—that is, those who do not make use of the Law—the blessing of Abraham, that is, the blessing that is of faith, might come in Christ Jesus, that is, in the seed of Abraham; even as it is also written, that In your seed shall they be blessed—that is, in Christ, who came from you according to the flesh; that is to say, those who believe in him.

¹⁵ That we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith. For this reason, he says, the nations have been blessed, that they might also receive the Spirit through faith. For since it was not possible for those still under a curse to receive the Spirit, they are blessed, the curse having been loosed by Christ; and then, being justified through faith, they receive the promise of the Spirit. For the things that God promised to Abraham, Paul understands to be spiritual—the very things, that is, that have now been given to us, both the blessing and the rest.

¹⁶ Brethren, I speak after the manner of men. Having above called them foolish, he now calls them brethren: the former, to bring them up sharply; the latter, to comfort them. I am about, he says, to bring forward to you a human example.

¹⁷ Even a man’s covenant, once it has been confirmed, no one sets aside or adds further conditions to. Now to Abraham were the promises spoken, and to his seed. He does not say, And to seeds, as of many, but as of one, And to your seed, who is Christ. And this I say: A covenant confirmed beforehand by God in Christ, the Law, which came three hundred and thirty years after, does not annul, so as to make the promise of no effect. This he wishes to show: that faith is a covenant older than the Law, and that it would not be just for the Law to be preferred to it. For which reason he also set down the example. For if a man, he says, makes a covenant, let no one presume, coming afterward, to overturn it or to add further conditions—that is, to add anything to it. Much more, then, in the case of God. For God too made a covenant with Abraham, that in his seed the nations should be blessed. And his seed is Christ. For he did not say, To seeds, lest you should suppose the Jews and Ishmaelites descended from him; but, To the seed, in the singular—which is, as has been said, Christ. How then can the Law annul this covenant, and agreement, and promise, so that the nations should be blessed not in Christ, but in the commandments of the Law? For this is nothing else than to make the promise of no effect—which is absurd.

¹⁸ For if the inheritance is of the Law, it is no longer of promise. But God granted it to Abraham by promise. If the Law, he says, bestows the blessings, and makes men heirs of life and of righteousness, then that promise made to

¹⁹ Abraham is void and has been cast out. But this could not stand to reason; for since the Law is of later birth, how shall it annul the earlier covenant? And do not be in haste for the whole example to fit the matter at hand. For this is why he himself said, I speak after the manner of men—that is, I bring forward a human example. So that if it cannot be made equal to things divine, it is nothing strange.

²⁰ What then? The Law was added for the sake of transgressions. Since he had exalted faith and shown it to be older, an objection arose: For what reason, then, was the Law given, if faith was older and it was this that gave the blessings? He says, then, that it was not given without purpose, but for the sake of transgressions, that it might be as a bridle to the Jews, restraining them from transgressing at least some of the commandments, if not all. And well does he say, It was added, that he might show the Law to have been given not as a leading thing, like the promises, but as a thing set alongside, on account of the many transgressions, that it might restrain at least a few.

²¹ Until the seed should come to whom it had been promised. But nevertheless the Law was not given without end, but until Christ should come, to whom it had been promised that the nations would be blessed in him. If, then, it was given until the coming of Christ, why do you drag it out further?

²² Being ordained through angels by the hand of a mediator. The Law, he says, was given, being ministered through angels as intermediaries—either the priests, or angels properly so called. For indeed, at those trumpets, and the thunders, and the signals, angels were ministering. By the hand of a mediator—that is, of Christ. For he shows that Christ also gave the Law; so that he himself is Lord even to abolish it.

²³ Now a mediator is not of one; but God is one. So that Christ too is a mediator of two—of God, that is, and of men. For he mediated between both, making peace and loosing the war that men had against God. For from the time that he united human nature to himself, from then he made peace, having marvelously blended with the divine nature the flesh that was hostile through sin. So that, since he himself is mediator and reconciler, it is quite plain that he is the one who saves, and not the Law.

²⁴ Is the Law then against the promises of God? God forbid. If the promises blessed, while the Law brings in a curse, it is plain that, if we run after the Law as having authority, it loosens the promises of God that bestow the blessing. But God forbid. And hear what follows as well.

²⁵ For if a Law had been given that was able to give life, then righteousness would indeed have been of the Law. Then, he says, the Law would have been more powerful than faith, and would have blessed and justified man, if it had been able to give life and to save. But as it is, it rather puts to death, in so far as it is not able to free from sins. How then shall it prevail over faith, which is able to give life through baptism, and which blesses and justifies?

²⁶ But the Scripture shut up all things under sin, that the promise by faith of Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe. The Law, he says, had not the strength to set men free from sins, but it worked together toward this—toward shutting men up under sin; that is, toward showing them to be sinners, and pressing them on so that they might desire forgiveness, and run to Christ, who is able to grant it. For since the Jews, not perceiving their sins, did not desire forgiveness either, he gives the Law to shut them up—which means, pressing them hard and choking them with reproofs, and showing them to be sinners, and pressing them on to seek the way by which it is possible to be forgiven; and this is the faith in Christ, through which we are blessed and justified.

²⁷ But before faith came, we were kept under the Law, shut up unto the faith that was about to be revealed. The Law, he says, furnished much security to those who were under it and kept by it, fencing them off from the greater part of their sins, and being like a kind of wall, and shutting men up and gathering them unto faith. How? For by reproving sins, and not being able to set men free, it of necessity pointed to the faith that justifies—which was indeed hidden long before, but was later revealed, when God too was made manifest in the flesh.

²⁸ So that the Law has become our tutor unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith. For just as the tutor frees the young man from all wickedness, and prepares him to receive the lessons from the teacher with all diligence and attention, so also the Law trained those under it in a measured virtue, and led them to Christ, who is the teacher, by reproving and pointing out their sins, making them more eager to seek the one who gives forgiveness and justifies by faith. Let those, then, be ashamed who slander the Law. For neither does the tutor oppose the teacher, nor is the Law contrary to the New Covenant.

²⁹ But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a tutor. For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus. Now that faith has come, he says—the faith that makes one a full-grown man—we who have been perfected through it, and have passed beyond childhood, would no longer be under a tutor. For that we are full-grown men by faith is plain from the fact that we are also sons of God through the faith that is in Christ; for this is the construction of the words. And surely one who has been counted worthy to become a son of God is neither imperfect nor a child. So that it is ridiculous for those who have become men to be subject to the tutor that is the Law—just as it would be, when day has appeared, not to look at the sun, but at the lamp. And observe how above he showed faith making men sons of Abraham, but now sons of God; so great are the things it can do.

³⁰ For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. He establishes how we are sons of God, and says that it is through baptism. But he did not say, As many of you as were baptized have become sons of God, as the sequence indeed required; but something far more awe-inspiring: that you have put on Christ. For if we have put on Christ the Son of God, and have been made like to him, we have been brought into one kinship and one form, having become by grace what he is by nature.

³¹ There is neither Jew nor Greek; there is neither slave nor free; there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus. Each one, he says, of those who are baptized has put off the natural distinctions; and all received one stamp and one form—not that of an angel, but of the Master himself, showing forth Christ in themselves. So that we are also all one in Christ Jesus—that is, inasmuch as we have one form, that of Christ, laid upon us; or inasmuch as we are one body, having one head, Christ.

³² And if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to promise. Since he said before that the seed of Abraham, in which the nations are blessed, is Christ, to whom indeed the promises were given; and since he demonstrated that You too have the form of Christ; he now concludes that You too, therefore, are Abraham’s seed, and consequently heirs also of the promised blessing. How then do you give heed to the Law, you who have been blessed by putting on Christ and being made like to him, and from this becoming Abraham’s seed?

4 Theophylact of Ohrid, Exposition of the Epistle of Paul to the Galatians — Chapter Four

¹ Chapter Four. Now I say that, for as long a time as the heir is a child, he differs nothing from a servant, though he is lord of all, but is under guardians and stewards until the time appointed by the father. That is, the father has ordained that he should administer nothing until the lawful age, and he must be content with this.

² So we also, when we were children, were in bondage under the elements of the world. Children, not in age, but in the knowledge concerning God. And by “elements of the world” he means the new moons and the sabbaths; for these days come to us from the course of the moon and the sun. So that those who now lead us under the law make us children, and place us under the elements of the world—and that, though we have become men and perfect, and sons of God, and masters of households, and lords. And we learn that God, on the one hand, wished from the beginning to give the adoption as sons (for this is the inheritance), but our childhood hindered it. And since he wished thoroughly to overthrow the law, he did not say, “We were in bondage to the days,” but, Under the elements of the world, so as the more to put to shame those who were still persuading them to give heed to the law. And do not be troubled if, by what follows, the elements are understood as the guardians and stewards. For, first, you ought to understand the law as the guardian, just as also the schoolmaster, and not these things; and, in the next place, he called the new moons and the sabbaths “elements.” Besides, he said it thus also in order, out of abundance, to draw them away from the law and to put them to shame, as he will show still more clearly as he proceeds. But some have understood “elements” to mean the elementary and introductory law.

³ But when the fullness of time came, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law, that he might redeem those who were under the law, that we might receive the adoption as sons. For a while, then, being children, we were under new moons and sabbaths; but when the appointed time of the incarnation of Christ came—when human nature, having run through every kind of wickedness, was in need of healing—God sent forth his Son (that is, he was well pleased that he should come); made, he did not say “through a woman,” lest those should find a means who say that the Lord passed through the Virgin as through a channel, entirely in appearance; but, Of a woman; that is, taking a body from her very substance, and being the fruit of her womb. And he became under the law, being circumcised and fulfilling all things, that, having come to be outside the curse, he might redeem us. And he speaks of two achievements of the incarnation of Christ: both the redeeming of us from the curse of the law, and the restoring of the adoption as sons. And he said we might receive, showing that this was owed to us from of old and out of promise, even if it was not given on account of our childhood. For indeed the inheritance promised to Abraham was the adoption as sons. For it is the son who inherits.

⁴ And because you are sons, God sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father. So that you are no longer a servant, but a son; and if a son, then also an heir—an heir indeed of God, and a fellow-heir of Christ. How, he says, is it plain that we have been deemed worthy of the adoption as sons? He demonstrated it indeed even before, when he showed us to have put on Christ, who is the Son; but he shows it now also, from our having received the Spirit, who prepares us to call God Father, laying hold of our hearts in a divine and wholly new manner. And this would not have come to pass unless we had been deemed worthy of the adoption as sons. So that, since we are sons and heirs—not of ordinary things, but of the things of God—and sharers with the Only-begotten, why do we again become servants, and set aside the faith that adopted us as sons, by giving heed to the law?

⁵ But at that time, indeed, not knowing God, you were in bondage to those which by nature are not gods. Here he turns his discourse toward those who had believed from among the Gentiles, showing that the observance of days is also idolatry, and that they sin more grievously than of old. Of old, he says, you did not know God, inasmuch as you were darkened and led astray; and on this account you were in bondage to the sun and the moon, which by nature are not gods. But now, after the recognition of the truth, if you observe days, you do nothing else than render service to the elements, and the impiety is worse.

⁶ But now, having come to know God, or rather having been known by God, how do you turn again to the weak and beggarly elements, to which you wish to be in bondage over again? But now, he says, you have come to know God—or rather, it is not you who found and recognized God by your own labor (for you did not even seek him at all), but he himself sought you and took you to himself while you were passing your life in deep darkness. For having been known stands in place of, Having been taken up by God. How, then, do you turn again to the beggarly and weak elements? That is, to the things that have no power toward the good things set before us, nor strength to profit us spiritually? And at the same time, as being bereft of mind, and of perception, and of life, he calls these things beggarly and weak, even though the Greeks may be displeased. The false apostles, then, as champions of the law, were introducing the observances of days; but he, most wisely, calls the matter idolatry, which the law itself also forbids. So that those who teach these things are opposed even to the law.

⁷ You observe days, and months, and seasons, and years. From these things it is plain that the false apostles were proclaiming not only circumcision, but also the feasts and the new moons.

⁸ I am afraid for you, lest somehow I have labored over you in vain. Behold his tender affection: they are being shaken, and Paul is afraid. And the word lest somehow shows that they were still surviving, and had not yet been utterly shipwrecked; and he gives them hope that, if they were willing to come back to sobriety, the labor expended upon them would not have been in vain. As though, then, he says to them: Remember my labors for you, and do not bring my labors to nothing.

⁹ Become as I am, for I also am as you are. He says these things to those who were from among the Jews: namely, Imitate me. For I too was exceedingly inflamed for the law, as you are; but I let it go, and now I fight on behalf of Christ and the faith—such become you also. And he has set this down later with good reason. For men are drawn more by examples of their own kind than by reasonings.

¹⁰ Brethren, I beseech you, you have not wronged me at all. Since he had taken hold of them very severely, he wishes to soften matters. For neither is severe rebuke profitable, nor is complete indulgence. Therefore he also calls them brethren, at the same time reminding them of the grace of baptism, out of which we all became brethren, as from one Father, God. And he makes a defense also concerning the things that were said, that they were not spoken out of hostility. For you have not wronged me at all, that I should bear myself toward you as an enemy; but rather you displayed toward me countless works of honor and grace. How, then, could I have said these things out of hostility? But plainly because I care for you, and wish rather to make return of favor.

¹¹ You know that it was because of an infirmity of the flesh that I preached the Gospel to you the first time; and you did not despise nor reject the temptation that was in my flesh. You know, he says, that it was with infirmity of the flesh—that is, with persecutions and dangers—that I preached the Gospel to you, and not even so did you turn away from me; nor did this temptation of mine—that is, the persecutions, and the scourgings, and such things—cause you to stumble, or make you despise and reject me. And at the same time he secretly puts them to shame, showing how much he suffered at the hands of his adversaries for their sake.

¹² But you received me as an angel of God, as Christ Jesus. So greatly, he says, did you honor me, as one greater than according to man. How, then, is it not absurd that at that time, when I was persecuted and driven out, you received me as an angel and as Christ, and were not made to stumble; but now, when I counsel you the things that are needful, you reckon me as an enemy, and do not receive me?

¹³ What then was your blessedness? He is at a loss and astonished, and he says: What has become of your blessedness? That is, Where has all that gone, for which you were counted blessed by all, as lovers of your teacher? What, then, is it now? Into what has that blessedness of yours been changed? For now I do not see it, since you are disposed toward me in a contrary way.

¹⁴ For I bear you witness that, if it had been possible, you would have plucked out your own eyes and given them to me. You held me even more precious than your own eyes, for the sake of the preaching. What, then, has happened, that now you even suspect me as an enemy? For it is absurd that one so honored by you should say these things to you out of a hostile mind.

¹⁵ Have I then become your enemy by telling you the truth? I know, he says, no other cause of enmity than that I told you the truth, and reproved you as men being corrupted concerning the doctrines. But on this account I rather ought to have been loved the more by you, as one who has done the work of a guardian.

¹⁶ They are zealous for you, but not honorably; rather, they wish to shut you out, that you may be zealous for them. Zeal is good when one imitates the virtue of another; but zeal is not good when one is eager to cast out from virtue the one who is doing rightly. These men, then, are eager to shut you out—that is, to cast you out of the most perfect condition and knowledge that is in Christ, and to cast you into the more imperfect condition that is in the law—so that you may honor them as teachers, and be zealous for them and imitate them, as disciples.

¹⁷ But I, on the contrary, wished that you should be even now leaders for them toward the more perfect things. Which indeed also came to pass, when I was with you. And he hints at these things in what follows.

¹⁸ But it is good to be zealously sought after in a good thing always, and not only when I am present with you. Do you see that he hints at this, namely, that they were objects of zeal to all on account of their perfection while the Apostle was present? And he hints also at this, that his absence wrought these things. Blessed, then, he says, is it when, not only while the teacher is present, but also while he is absent, the disciples are minded as they ought.

¹⁹ My little children, of whom I am again in travail until Christ be formed in you. He imitates a mother trembling over her children. You have corrupted, he says, the form of Christ which you had within yourselves from baptism, and you need again another regeneration and refashioning, so that the form of Christ may again come to be in you, in such a way that you are stamped with his character. For again I am in travail of you—that is, through teaching I again beget you. For I do not despair. On this account also I call you little children, that you yourselves may not despair. And this too is against the Novatians; for Paul is again in travail of the Galatians and refashions them, but those men do not accept the correction that comes from repentance.

²⁰ I could wish to be present with you now, and to change my voice, for I am perplexed about you. I am not content with letters, but I could wish both to be present and to change my voice—that is, to turn it into wailings and lamentations. For indeed I am perplexed what to say concerning you: how it is that you who were so exalted as even to be endangered for the faith, and to work signs through the faith, are now being dragged down into the cheapness of the law. On this account, then, I could wish, being present, to lament over you. For whenever we are at a loss, we are wont to fall into tears.

²¹ Tell me, you who wish to be under the law, do you not hear the law? Since he had sufficiently softened them and drawn them to himself, he enters again into the contests, showing that the law itself does not wish to be observed; and he says: Answer me. And he said well, who wish. For the matter was not one of the natural sequence of things, but of their own untimely contentiousness. And by “the law” he means the book of Genesis; for it is his custom to call the whole of the Old Testament “law.”

²² For it is written that Abraham had two sons: one by the bondwoman, and one by the freewoman. He said above, You are sons of Abraham. But since the sons of the patriarch were not of the same dignity—the one being from the bondwoman, the other from the freewoman—he now shows that you are not only sons, but also such as the free and well-born one is: so did the faith ennoble you.

²³ But the one by the bondwoman was born according to the flesh; the other by the freewoman, through the promise. Since, in saying that they were sons of Abraham, he seemed to be saying things hard to believe—if indeed those not born of Abraham according to the flesh are his sons—he says that even Isaac, the more proper son of Abraham, was not himself born according to the flesh either; for how could he be, when nature was deadened and the womb disabled? Rather, the Word of God and the promise fashioned him. But Ishmael was born by the sequence of nature. For this is what according to the flesh means; and yet, nevertheless, the one according to the flesh was a servant and a stranger to the inheritance, while the one not according to the flesh was master and heir. What, then, is to hinder you also, even if you have not been born of Abraham according to the flesh, from being his sons? For you too were fashioned through the words pronounced over the baptismal font.

²⁴ Which things are allegorized. That is, this history not only signifies this, but also proclaims certain other things; wherefore it is also called an allegory. For those things were a type of the things present.

²⁵ For these are the two covenants: the one indeed from Mount Sinai, bearing children unto bondage, which is Hagar. For this Hagar is Mount Sinai in Arabia, and corresponds to the Jerusalem that now is, and is in bondage with her children. These. Which? The two women are allegorized as referring to both the New and the Old Covenant. How? Hagar, on the one hand, refers to the Old. For indeed the law was given from Mount Sinai. And Sinai is in Arabia, and is called “Hagar” in the Arabic tongue; and it corresponds also to Jerusalem—that is, it borders upon her, or touches her, or because it is likened to the Jerusalem below, and is analogous to her, and is taken as referring to her, since there is a likeness between the two. As, then, Hagar was a bondwoman and bore children unto bondage, so also the law that is from Mount Sinai—the law of Hagar, which belongs to Jerusalem as being correspondent and analogous to her—bears unto bondage those who give heed to it. For indeed in the law there is much that is unfree and servile. For virtue was prescribed for a corruptible reward—the good things of the earth, I mean; and the avoidance of wickedness was introduced through punishments and fears.

²⁶ But the Jerusalem above is free, which is the mother of us all. The type of Hagar, then, is in these things; but see also that of Sarah, for she prefigured the Jerusalem above. For that is the city of the faithful, from which also is the law for us; for the Gospel is from heaven. And it is free from the observances of the law, and orders all things freely and nobly. For nothing is accomplished by us for a visible reward, nor do bodily punishments hang over us; but the promises are more divine, and the punishments such as befit the well-born—namely, to be shut out from the mystical table, and to be censured.

²⁷ For it is written: Rejoice, you barren one who does not bear; break forth and cry aloud, you who are not in travail, for many are the children of the desolate one, more than of her who has the husband.[4] He is not content with the types, but brings forward Isaiah also as a witness, who calls the Church from among the Gentiles barren and desolate. For indeed she was desolate of divine knowledge, and childless, having brought forth no prophet of God or teacher; whereas she who has the husband is the synagogue of the Jews, either because she had the law administering her affairs, or because she had God himself. Break forth, then, stands in place of, Pour forth a voice of gladness, because now your children have been fulfilled to you—both prophets, and teachers, and sons of God from you—and you have given birth to the whole inhabited world, not one nation only, as the synagogue of the Jews did.

²⁸ But we, brethren, are children of promise, after the manner of Isaac. But just as then he who was born according to the flesh persecuted him who was born according to the Spirit, so also now. The Church, he says, being barren like Sarah, not only became the mother of many children as Sarah did, but also gave birth freely as she did. For just as it was not nature, but the promise, that made her a mother (for he who said, At this season I will come, the Word, entering into the womb, fashioned the infant), so indeed also in our case, as has been said above, divine words effect the refashioning—the words pronounced over the baptismal font. Then, lest anyone should say: And what kind of freedom is this, when the Jews scourge the believers, and those who seem to be free are persecuted?—he says that even then it happened so. For indeed Ishmael persecuted Isaac; yet nevertheless nothing hindered the persecuted one from being the genuine son of Abraham, and the master of his persecutor. And so from this very thing—the being persecuted by the Jews—is shown both our likeness to Isaac and our kinship with Abraham.

²⁹ But what does the Scripture say? Cast out the son of the bondwoman; for the son of the bondwoman shall by no means inherit with the son of the freewoman. Lest anyone should say: What then? Is it a comfort to the faithful who are now persecuted by the Hebrews, that Isaac too was persecuted at that time?—he says: Hear what the Scripture says, and then you will be comforted. For in return for the temporary persecution with which he persecuted Isaac, he is cast out completely; and not only does the being cast out suffice him as punishment, but rather the not becoming a partaker of the things prepared for the child. Which is also the greater punishment, having taken its force from the judgment and decision of God, and not from the persecution. See how it is not the son of Abraham, but the son of the bondwoman, that he names the one not deemed worthy to inherit, calling him by the more lowly lineage. Consider, then, that he showed the law itself introducing its own dissolution, if indeed all the things that were said, being types of the things now coming to pass, are recorded in the law—that is, in the book of the Old Testament.

³⁰ So then, brethren, we are not children of the bondwoman, but of the freewoman. He sets all these things in motion in order to show that what is now coming to pass concerning us was prefigured many ages before. How, then, is it not absurd that, having obtained freedom so many years before, we should again willingly become servants?

5 Theophylact of Ohrid, Exposition of the Epistle of Paul to the Galatians — Chapter Five

¹ Chapter Five. Stand fast, therefore, in the freedom with which Christ has set us free.[5] For it was not you yourselves, he says, who set yourselves free, but he who gave the price on your behalf. How, then, do you subject yourselves to the lordship of the law, against the mind of Christ, who set you free? And by saying Stand fast, he showed that they were being shaken.

² And do not be entangled again in a yoke of slavery. In speaking of a “yoke,” he indicates the heaviness of the slavery under the law. And the word again charges them with insensibility, seeing that, having learned by experience how burdensome the slavery is, they nevertheless desert back to it.

³ Behold, I Paul say to you, that if you are circumcised, Christ will profit you nothing. He sets down the trustworthiness of his own person in the place of every proof. And Christ does not profit the one who is circumcised, because such a man sets aside grace, and runs to the law as to his benefactor, while he utterly disbelieves Christ, as though he had conferred no benefit on him; and the one who disbelieves gains nothing from the one he disbelieves.

⁴ And I testify again to every man who is circumcised, that he is a debtor to fulfill the whole law. Lest they suppose that these things are said against them alone: I say it, he says, not to you only, but to every man who is circumcised, that he lays a great burden upon himself; for the ordinances of the law hang together with one another. And when you take up some small part of the law and subject yourself to the yoke, you have drawn the whole lordship upon yourself. For circumcision both demands a sacrifice and observes a particular day; and the sacrifice demands a pattern and a manner, and purifications; for the unclean man does not sacrifice. The purifications, in turn, have other observances. Do you see how the one who has apostatized from Christ not only gains no profit from him, but has also subjected himself to ten thousand burdens? For if the law is lord, fulfill the whole of it; but if it is not lord, do not submit to it even in part.

⁵ You have been severed from Christ, you who would be justified by the law; you have fallen away from grace. That is: You have no fellowship at all with Christ; you who, as you suppose, are justified by the law have fallen away from grace, which truly justifies. Great indeed is the shipwreck, when you neither uphold the things of the law and yet cast away the things of grace.

⁶ For we through the Spirit, by faith, wait for the hope of righteousness. We who are faithful, he says, hope to be justified not by the law, but by the Holy Spirit. How? By faith. For faith must come first, and then, by the visitation of the Holy Spirit, one receives the forgiveness of sins and is justified in baptism.

⁷ For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision avails anything, nor uncircumcision, but faith working through love. And yet he was saying that circumcision is harmful; how, then, does he now make it a matter of indifference? We say, then, that he means the circumcision that precedes faith—as if he said that those who are enrolled under the New Covenant are neither profited if they have been circumcised, nor harmed if they are uncircumcised. For faith is everything, working through love—that is, faith that ought always to show itself active and living through love toward Christ. And he hints that they had indeed believed, but had not grown fervent in their love toward Christ, and for this reason had deserted to the law; or else he is also setting them right with regard to love toward their neighbor. And at the same time he shows that those who were leading them astray, had they but had love toward them, would not have dared to do these things. Learn, then, that faith is made active through love—that is, it is shown to be living; but when it does not have love, it is inactive. It is like the saying, Faith without works is dead.

⁸ You were running well; who hindered you, that you should not obey the truth? This is not the language of one asking a question, but of one lamenting and saying: You had reached perfection; what has happened? Who has prevailed so far as to hinder you, that you should not obey the truth of the Gospel, but the law, which has been abolished and is but a shadow?

⁹ This persuasion is not from him who calls you. That is, this obeying of those who deceive you is not from Christ; for he did not call you in order that you should obey those who counsel you to Judaize.

¹⁰ A little leaven leavens the whole lump. Lest they should say: Why have you laid hold of us so vehemently (for we have set aside but one commandment of the law), and magnify the charge?—he says that this thing, which seems small, does harm in matters of vital importance. For just as the leaven, though it is small, leavens to its own likeness and transforms the whole lump, so also circumcision, though it is a single commandment, summons you over to a complete Judaism.

¹¹ I have confidence in you in the Lord, that you will be of no other mind. I take courage, he says, concerning you; for I know my own disciples; I know how easily you may be set right. I take courage, then, concerning you, as being able to be corrected; and I take courage also in the Lord, who does not will that even a single one should perish. He urges them, therefore, both to bring in what is from themselves and to hope in the Lord. For there is no other way to attain the things that are from God, unless, he says, you also bring in the diligence that is from yourselves.

¹² But he who troubles you shall bear the judgment, whoever he may be. You indeed, he says, shall be set right; yet not for this reason shall those who deceived you be freed from punishment, but they shall pay the penalty, even if some of them seem great and worthy of credit. For this is the meaning of whoever he may be. And he says this so that others, in turn, may not again set upon them.

¹³ But I, brethren, if I still preach circumcision, why am I still persecuted? Since those who slandered him said that he was a hypocrite, in one place preaching circumcision and in another not, he says: You are witnesses that I am persecuted by the Jews. If, then, I preach circumcision, for what else am I persecuted? For it is plain that they persecute me because I overthrow their ancestral customs. But if I am introducing circumcision, why then do they persecute me? “What of this,” they say; “did he not circumcise Timothy?” Yes—but by way of dispensation.

¹⁴ But to circumcise is one thing, and to preach circumcision is another. For he did not say, If I performed circumcision, but, If I preach it. For the one who preaches it lays down as a doctrine that this must always be done, as being simply good; whereas the one who has done something even by way of dispensation does not do it as a thing simply good, but as serviceable for a particular occasion.

¹⁵ Then is the stumbling block of the cross abolished. If I preach circumcision, he says, then the stumbling block has ceased at which the Jews take offense in the cross. For at the preaching of the cross they take offense, and do not receive it, for no other reason than that through it circumcision and the law are abolished. So that, if circumcision were preached by me, the conflict of the Jews against the cross, and the stumbling block at which they take offense in it, would be abolished and would cease.

¹⁶ Would that those who are unsettling you would even mutilate themselves! Those who had been deceived he called foolish at the beginning, rebuking them as nothing more than children; but upon those who had done the deceiving, as men incurably diseased, he calls down a curse, saying this: Would that they would not only be circumcised, but would even cut themselves off entirely, mutilating their own parts! And observe, too, how he said unsettling, which is the word we use of those who take men captive. For these men too were taking away their freedom, and, raising them in revolt against the Jerusalem that is above, were removing them, like exiles, over to the law and to Jewish pettiness. And note, against those who mutilate themselves, that they draw the Apostle’s curse upon their own heads.

¹⁷ For you were called unto freedom, brethren; only do not use your freedom for an occasion to the flesh.

¹⁸ It was not, he says, that we should be slaves to the law that we were called by God, but that we should be set free from the yoke of the legal slavery. Then, lest anyone suspect that, because we are free, it is therefore permitted us henceforth to do whatever we wish, he corrects this and says that we should not hold our freedom for an occasion to the flesh, that is, to the desires of the flesh. For it was not for this that we were loosed from the yoke of the law—that we should be flung headlong over a cliff—but that we should walk straight even without a yoke, as men already rightly trained. For it is not that we should transgress the things of the law that we are set free, but that we should even surpass the law itself.

¹⁹ But through love be servants to one another. Since he has taken away the yoke of the law, he lays on another yoke, that of love, both lighter and safer than the former. And he hints that it was out of love of rule that the deceivers had broken in upon them; for this is the mother of the heresies. Since, then, love of rule has divided you, through love be servants to one another—showing the intensity of the love by the word be servants. And turning now to the moral discourse, he shows the way by which it may be brought about that one not be a slave to the desires of the flesh.

²⁰ For the whole law is fulfilled in one word, in this: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. If, then, he says, you wish to fulfill the law, fulfill it not in being circumcised, but in love; for this is the fullness of the law. And observe how, even while going through the moral discourse, he does not forget the doctrinal one—so exceedingly was he grieved over the matter in which they had been led astray.

²¹ But if you bite and devour one another, take heed that you be not consumed by one another. What he knows to be truly happening, he sets down as though in doubt; and likewise what follows, that you be not consumed by one another—for this is the language of one warning and putting on guard, not of one condemning. And he did not say bite only (which belongs to wrath), but also devour, which belongs to the utmost savagery. These things he says, on the one hand, concerning the corrupted doctrines; but they are understood also of the plots against one another, and the acts of plunder, and the acts of greed. And since those who do wrong and lay snares seem to be catching others, he says: Take heed lest the thing be turned back upon yourselves.

²² I say, then: Walk by the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the desire of the flesh. Since he said that biting and devouring is destructive, he states also the remedy for this, which both preserves love and is preserved by it—I mean, the being spiritual. For if we are spiritual, we love the more; and if we love, we become spiritual, and thereafter we do not fulfill the desire of the flesh.

²³ For the flesh desires against the spirit, and the spirit against the flesh; and these are opposed to one another, so that you may not do the things that you would. Here the Manichaeans fasten on, and all heretics of that sort, saying that man is composed of two contrary substances, and that the Apostle bears witness to this by what he now says. But it is not so; for he is not discoursing about substance, but by “flesh” he means the earthly reasoning, the slothful and the negligent, not the body; and by “spirit,” the spiritual reasoning, not the soul. The earthly reasoning, then, he says, is opposed to the spiritual, and the spiritual reasoning to the earthly. He therefore introduces a battle of evil and good thoughts, not of body and soul. For the willing and the not willing belong to the soul, which reasons. For he adds: so that you may not do the things that you would; since the body is a fellow worker with the soul, not its adversary; and the soul clings to the body, and suffers all things so as not to leave it, and grieves when it is torn away from it. How, then, are things contrary that have so great an affinity for one another?

²⁴ But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law. The one who has the Spirit quenches the evil desires. And the one who has been delivered from these has no need of the counsel of the law, nor is he under it. For the one who is not even angered, how does he need the precept that forbids murder? And the one who does not even lust, how does he need the counsel that forbids fornication? Which is what he also said elsewhere: The law is not laid down for a righteous man. And he seems also to be speaking in praise of the law, seeing that it stood in the place of the Spirit, training men according to its own power, when it had its season. How, then, do you again come under a tutor, having let go the Spirit that makes you perfect? It is as if some man who is a philosopher should need a tutor.

²⁵ Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are fornication and adultery. These, he says, are the works of the corrupted and fleshly choice, by which fornication and adultery are also recognized. And it is plain how fornication differs from adultery.

²⁶ Uncleanness, licentiousness. He hints here at shameful practices, which he could not bear even to name.

²⁷ Idolatry, sorceries, enmities, strifes, jealousies, fits of wrath, factions, dissensions, heresies, envyings, murders, drunkenness, revelings, and the like; of which I forewarn you, just as I also foretold, that those who do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God. Let those who disparage the flesh tell us: granted that licentiousness and fornication are sins of the body—but enmities, and heresies, and the like, how could they belong to the flesh? So that it is plain that they all belong to the corrupted choice. And if they were of the flesh, belonging to us by nature, how could they cast us out of the kingdom of God? For it is not of nature, but of choice, that both the punishments and the crowns come. And in another way: if the passions were of nature, he would not have said doing, but, suffering; for “doing” makes manifest a choice.

²⁸ By “enmities” understand the unjust ones; for there are also just enmities—those, namely, that arise for the sake of the faith, and those against all who swerve from what is right. And by “jealousies” he means envious rivalries; for there is also a good zeal, when one imitates the man who does what is noble. And rightly has he placed the heresies after the dissensions and the factions; for every heresy arises from contentiousness, since the contentious man wishes to set up his own will, and for this reason establishes a heresy. And murder, too, comes from envy, and the revelings from drunkenness. For revelings are the songs of drunken men, attended with insolence; and therefore he has placed first the things that beget, and then the things begotten of them.

²⁹ But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace. The evil works arise from ourselves alone; therefore he called them works of the flesh, and at the same time as things having toil and heaviness. But the good ones need not only our own diligence, but also the working-together from above; therefore he called them the fruit of the Spirit—since the seed, that is, the purpose, is given by us, while the becoming of fruit lies in God. And he sets down love first as the root of all good things, then joy. For the one who loves always rejoices, even when he suffers ill; for he regards the one who does him ill as a benefactor. And he rejoices also in God, as one who does and suffers all things for his sake, and therefore is gladdened by a good conscience. And out of love and joy he is at peace both in soul, not being troubled by his thoughts, and toward all those who are outside. For even if he seems to be at enmity with some, it is not with them, but with the evil that is in them, that he is at enmity—loving those men as brothers, and showing this enmity for their benefit, that they may be set right.

³⁰ Long-suffering, kindness, goodness, faith, gentleness, self-control. Long-suffering seems in this respect to differ from gentleness in Scripture: that the long-suffering man, being abundant in prudence, lays the fitting penalty upon the offender not quickly, but at leisure; whereas the gentle man lets it go altogether—as Moses, who, forgiving Miriam and Aaron, was called gentle above all who dwelt upon the earth. And kindness is something more general than goodness. For the Lord is kind to all alike; but goodness benefits only those who are worthy, according to the saying, Do good, O Lord, to those who are good. And by “faith” he means not the simple faith, but that which even removes mountains, which believes without wavering that the things impossible with men are possible with God; and above all, self-control—not of foods only, but of every evil thing.

³¹ Against such there is no law. For the soul that accomplishes these things from the Spirit has no need of the admonition that comes from the law, being itself loftier than it—just as horses that are by nature spirited have no need of the whip. And neither here does he cast out the law as evil, but as inferior to the philosophy that is given by the Spirit.

³² And those who are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. As though someone had said, Who is it that accomplishes these things that you have spoken of?—he says that those who are Christ’s, that is, those who are of Christ’s portion, have crucified the flesh, that is, they have put to death the fleshly mind. For they did not, of course, destroy themselves—so that you may understand by “flesh” not the substance of the flesh, but the earthly reasoning—so that neither the passions of wrath live on in them, nor the desires, but both these and those are crucified and put to death. Or by “passions” he simply means the impassioned actions, whether they be from wrath or from desire. He says, then, that not only the actions are put to death, but also the very beginnings of these, namely the desires.

³³ If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit. Since, he says, so great is the strength of the Spirit, let us live by him, let us be governed by him. For this is the meaning of let us walk—that is, Let us be governed by the power of the Spirit, and not seek for the addition that comes from the law.

³⁴ Let us not become vainglorious, provoking one another, envying one another. He hints here that those who led them astray came to this out of vainglory (for this is the cause of all evils), provoking one another, that is, to contentiousness and strife—as when someone says to his rival: If you are able, come, let us do such-and-such a thing. And since envy comes from vainglory, he forbids this also.

6 Theophylact of Ohrid, Exposition of the Epistle of Paul to the Galatians — Chapter Six

¹ Chapter Six. Brethren, even if a man be overtaken in some trespass, you who are spiritual, restore such a one in a spirit of meekness. Since many, thinking that they were rebuking those who sinned, were in fact giving vent to their own passions, coming to this out of a love of domineering, he says that if anyone be overtaken—that is, be caught off guard, having suffered an assault from a demon—you who are spiritual, restore him; that is, Do not punish, but set him right in a spirit of meekness. He did not say, In meekness, but, In a spirit of meekness, showing both that this seems good also to the Spirit, and that it is a spiritual gift to set right those who sin with gentleness.

² Considering yourself, lest you also be tempted. So that the one who restores another may not be lifted up, he secures him. For consider, he says, and keep watch over yourself, lest you too fall into the same things, suffering temptation from the adversary. And he spoke emphatically the word

³ You. For through it he called to mind human weakness.

⁴ Bear one another’s burdens. For since, being human, it is not possible to be without sin, he exhorts us not to be exacting toward our neighbor’s sins, but to bear them, so that our own sins in turn may be borne by another.

⁵ And so fulfill the law of Christ. He did not say, Fulfill, but, Fill up together; that is, All of you in common fulfill it, through the things by which you bear one another. For example, let the quick man bear with the sluggish, and the sluggish with the other’s vehement impulse; and thus neither will the one go astray while borne by the other, nor the other by him. And in this way, stretching out a hand to one another, fulfill through one another the law of Christ, each one filling up whatever is lacking in his neighbor by bearing with him. For in another way too, bearing one another’s burdens belongs to love; and love is the fulfilling of the commandments of Christ.

⁶ For if anyone thinks himself to be something, when he is nothing, he deceives himself. Here again he casts down arrogance, showing that the one who thinks himself to be something is nothing, this very thinking being brought forward as proof of his own nothingness; and he deceives no one else, but himself.

⁷ But let each one prove his own work, and then he will have his boasting in himself alone, and not in another. Let him examine, he says, his own deeds with exactness (for this is what let him prove means), whether he did them not for vainglory, not in hypocrisy, not from some other human motive; and then let him not boast against another. But if indeed he stands beyond reproach, let him have his boasting in himself—that is, comparing himself with himself, let him reckon today’s work better than yesterday’s, and rejoice in the good work. Yet Paul says these things by way of concession, not as laying down a law, so that little by little he may strip away the boastings of such a character. For the one who has been habituated not to boast over his neighbor, as the Pharisee did, will quickly cease also from exulting over himself.

⁸ For each one shall bear his own load. For why do you boast over your neighbor? Both you and he shall bear your own loads, and then each one’s work shall be proved. So then, since you too have loads and burdens, neither boast against another, nor exult over yourself in your good deeds.

⁹ But let him who is taught the word share with him who teaches in all good things. He now discourses concerning teachers, that those who are taught by them should share with their teachers—not in some one thing, but in all good things: imparting food, clothing, honor, good will, and, in a word, all good things. For you receive greater things than you give; for in exchange for carnal things, spiritual things. Therefore he also calls the matter a sharing, since a giving-in-return takes place. And for what reason did Christ ordain that teachers be supported by their disciples? For these two reasons: that the teachers might not be greatly lifted up, but, as being in need of their disciples, might be modest-minded, and that they might devote themselves to the word alone, not being distracted over food; and that the disciples, in their gratitude toward their teachers, might be trained to be the same toward others also, and at the same time might not be ashamed, even when they themselves are poor and begging, seeing that their very teachers are such.

¹⁰ Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatever a man sows, that shall he also reap. For he who sows to his own flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he who sows to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting. Since often certain people, blaming their teachers as living a bad life, look down upon them and do not support them in their poverty, he says, as he goes on, that in doing good let us not grow weary; and now too he shows that one ought to be unsparing even toward such teachers, since the expenditure is made for a spiritual matter. Comparing, then, the expenditures made for carnal things and those made for spiritual things, he says: If you spend on the flesh, preparing tables and delicacies, and sowing drunkenness and luxury and gluttony, you will reap corruption; for these things both perish themselves, and corrupt the body along with them. But if you sow to the Spirit—that is, to spiritual works, doing almsgiving toward all and pursuing self-control—you will reap life everlasting. For God is not mocked or deceived, but renders to each then what is his own. It is better, therefore, to spend on spiritual things, among which is included also the expenditure for teachers, than on carnal indulgences that perish and corrupt the body. For from indulgences and excesses come diseases.

¹¹ But in doing good, let us not grow weary; for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not. Now he reveals more plainly that, even if those who are in need of us be wicked, we ourselves should not grow weary in doing good to them. And he indicates both bounty and continual giving by saying that we must not grow weary. Then, since he had demanded something great, he sets down the reward at once, that we shall reap. How? If we faint not—that is, having no toil, but all rest. For here there are droughts and toils in the harvest; but there it is not so.

¹² So then, as we have opportunity, let us work that which is good toward all, but especially toward those who are of the household of faith. Just as it is not always the season for sowing, so neither for showing mercy; and the virgins and Lazarus make this plain. So long, then, as we have the season in this life, let us work that which is good not only toward teachers, but also toward Greeks and Jews—that is, beneficence, almsgiving. We must not, however, use the same measure toward these and toward those who are of the household of faith, but show greater generosity toward the faithful. For this is what he indicates by the word especially. And observe how in this too he leads them away from Jewish narrowness; seeing that the law opened its bowels of compassion toward those of the same race, but grace calls land and sea alike to the table of mercy—though not in equal measure, as has been said.

¹³ See with what large letters I have written to you with my own hand. Having said a little on the ethical theme, he returns again to the former matters, those that gnaw at his heart, and makes plain that he himself wrote the whole Epistle with his own hand, not only that he might display his love toward them, but also that he might remove an evil suspicion. For he was being slandered as one who preached different things in different places; he was compelled, therefore, to set down a written testimony of his own preaching. And yet, while others wrote his other epistles, he himself wrote, if anything, only the salutation. And the phrase with what large is not indicative of size, but of the unshapeliness of the letters, as if he were saying: Although I do not know how to write very well, nonetheless I was compelled to write the Epistle in my own hand.

¹⁴ As many as desire to make a fair show in the flesh, these constrain you to be circumcised. As many, he says, as desire to be well thought of in the flesh—that is, among men, the Jews namely (for they were reproached among them as having forsaken their ancestral customs)—these constrain you to be circumcised, making their defense to the Jews by means of your flesh. And by saying they constrain, he showed that they endured these things unwillingly, giving them an occasion to withdraw, as men now stumbling against their will.

¹⁵ Only that they may not be persecuted for the cross of Christ. And for another reason too, he says, they do this; for in order that they may not be persecuted and driven on account of the cross and the faith, as transgressors of it, they, being circumcised, wish to have others also as partners in their circumcision.

¹⁶ For not even those who are circumcised keep the law themselves, but they wish you to be circumcised, that they may boast in your flesh. Not only out of men-pleasing, he says, but also out of love of vainglory do they do these things. For they perform this neither out of zeal for the law, nor for the sake of piety, he says, but out of love of vainglory, that they may boast in your flesh; that is, That they may boast in cutting up your flesh, as your teachers, having you for disciples.

¹⁷ But God forbid that I should boast, except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. Those men, he says, boast in circumcision, a thing that has been abolished; but God forbid that I should boast in anything else, except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ (that is, in faith in the Crucified), who has abolished the law. And as of something forbidden he prayed it away, calling also upon God’s alliance for this. But how does one boast in the cross? Because, For my sake, the worthless one, my Master was crucified, having loved me so greatly as even to give himself up. The cross, therefore, is the boast of Paul and of every believer, since in it is shown the love of the Master toward us. And what servant does not boast when he is loved by his master?

¹⁸ Through whom the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world. By “world” he means the affairs of this life—glory, wealth, luxury. These, then, have become dead to me, and I in turn am dead to them, a double deadness having come about. For neither can those things lay hold of me, since they are dead; nor can I run to them, for I am dead.

¹⁹ For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision avails anything, nor uncircumcision, but a new creation. And as many as walk according to this rule, peace be upon them and mercy, and upon the Israel of God. Do not speak to me, he says, of circumcision, which can do nothing and is useless, just as uncircumcision is also. For Christ made all things new, and requires of us another way of life. For the life according to Christ is a new creation, because now our souls, grown old in sin, have been made new again by baptism; and because in the age to come we shall be honored with incorruption and glory, having our bodies also made new and made incorruptible. As many, therefore, as abide by this rule of the new way of life according to Christ, fleeing the circumcision that has grown old and become powerless, shall attain to peace with God, being delivered from the sins that wage war against God on our behalf, and shall be deemed worthy of his love for mankind—no longer hated as enemies of God, but deemed worthy of mercy, since peace has come to them through the cross and through grace. And such men are also Israel in the proper sense, as seeing God; whereas those who are not such, even if they be Israelites by race, are so called falsely. And this Paul received from David, who says: Peace be upon Israel.

²⁰ From now on let no one cause me troubles. He says this not as one shrinking back, nor as one who has grown weary. For how could he, who exhorts, Be ready in season, out of season? Rather, it is because he wishes the laws laid down by him to remain unshaken, and so that they may not expect anything else from him, but may receive full assurance that he preaches in this way.

²¹ For I bear in my body the marks of the Lord Jesus. I have a defense, he says, against those who tell you that I am a hypocrite and preach circumcision elsewhere: the marks and the perils endured for Christ. For these, more brilliantly than any voice, bear witness that it was not for the law, but for the teaching according to Christ, that I exposed myself to danger. And he did not say, I have, but, I bear, as one bears a trophy or a royal ensign, and in these I exult.

²² The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit, brethren. Amen. By praying for them, he shows that it was not in anger and hostility that he said what he said. And this is not only a prayer, but also a teaching, setting a seal upon all that has been said. For he reminds them of the grace they enjoyed, not through the law, but by having believed in Christ. And he did not say, With you, but, With your spirit, leading them away from carnal things, and showing that they received the Spirit not from the law, but from grace; and that it is not the law, nor circumcision, but grace that is able to preserve the Spirit for them, just as it also gave it. But by addressing them as brethren as well, he called to mind the font, from which we become brethren, being sons of one Father, who is God, and not from the law. And may the grace of God be with us also, as we live spiritually and do not cast away the divine sanctification of the Paraclete in the mire of sins, but ever procure more of it for ourselves in Christ Jesus our Lord, who has shown forth the new and spiritual life through the doing away of the old and bodily life. To whom be the glory unto the ages. Amen.