The Great Commentary of Cornelius a Lapide: the Epistle to the Galatians
Chapter 1
The Galatians were Gentiles who emigrated from Gaul into Greece, and so were called Gallo-Greeks. Suidas thinks that these Gauls were Sennonians, who, under the leadership of Brennus, invaded Rome, but being repulsed by Camillus, crossed over into Greece, and were there overthrown by a storm of rain and hail while they were attempting to plunder Delphi — the few, he says, who escaped were called Gallo-Greeks or Galatians. However, Justin (lib. 25), S. Jerome, and others give a different account of them. The Galatians were bounded by Cappadocia on the east, Bithynia on the west, Pamphylia on the south, and the Black Sea on the north. According to Pliny (lib. v. c. «//.), their chief cities were Tanium, Pessinuntis, and Ancyra. Of their language, S. Jerome, in his commentary on the Epistle to the Galatians (Proem, lib. 2, in fine), says : “Apart from the Greek used by the whole of the East, their proper language is the same as that of the Treviri” — that is, German. Since, then, the Galatians derived their tongue together with their origin from the Gauls, some think that German was the language of these latter, and they add that the Franks proceeded from German Franconia and thence obtained their name. Moreover, Clovis, the first Christian king of the Frankish Gauls, is styled Sicambrian. So did S. Remigius address him when coming to be baptized : “Meekly bow thy neck, O Sicambrian; adore what once thou didst burn ; burn what thou once didst adore ” (Greg. Tur. de Gestis Franc, lib. 31). Now it is certain that the Sicambrians were Germans. In short, S. Jerome, Josephus, and Isidore lay down that the Galatians were descendants of Gomer, sprung from the Gomari or Cimbri, who were either Germans, or else closely akin to the Germans.
These Galatians some converted Jews had induced to accept a Judaised Gospel, by the example of Peter and other Apostles, who observed the Mosaic Law. Accordingly, S. Paul sharply rebukes them, and calls them back, pointing out that Christians are free from the Old Law, and cannot be subjected to it. Although, he says, the Jews might keep it for a time, so as to give it an honourable burial, yet Gentiles — and such the Galatians were— had not this reason, or any other, for embracing the law of Moses. If, therefore, they had embraced it, they must be supposed to have done so under the belief inculcated by the Judaising Christians, that the law as well as the Gospel was necessary to salvation. This error the Apostle condemns by his declaration, that the profession of Judaism is the overthrowing of Christianity ; for the Christian religion holds that Judaism has been done away, and that there is room for no religion save that of Christ, which alone is necessary and sufficient for salvation. This is the error that the Apostle so sharply condemns.
The argument of this Epistle, accordingly, is the same as that of the Epistle to the Romans, of which this may be considered an epitome, and with which it has many ideas and expressions in common, as is pointed out by Jerome, Anselm, Theophylact, and Chrysostom. There is, however, this difference between the two, that in the Epistle to the Romans he opposes both Jews and Gentiles, here Jews only ; there he rejects the works of the law as well as the works of nature, here those of the law only, that he may establish the faith of Christ and the works of faith. This, then, occupies the first part of the Epistle, viz., chap. i. to v. 12 ; chap. v. 13 to the end is concerned with moral instruction.
Ephrem Syrus, Jerome, Athanasius, Theodoret, and others think that the Epistle was written at Rome ; but Chrysostom and Baronius reject this opinion, on the ground that mention of his imprisonment, customary in his other letters from Rome, is wanting in this. They think, therefore, that it was written before the Epistle to the Romans, and at Ephesus, or some other city of Greece. But the time and place of writing can be determined neither from the Epistle itself nor from any external authority ; and in this respect it is the most obscure of all S. Paul’s Epistles. S. Jerome and Augustine wrote elaborate commentaries on it, which are still extant.
i. He chides the Galatians for suffering themselves to be seduced to Judaism, from the Gospel preached by him, by innovators and false teachers, against whom he pronounces an anathema.
ii. He shows (ver. 11) the certitude of his Gospel, from the fact that he received it directly from Christ.
iii. He describes (ver. 13) how, from the Judaism which he was vigorously defending, he was converted to Christ, and set apart for the preaching of the Gospel, and how he traversed Arabia, Damascus, Syria, and Cilicia.
Ver. 1. — Paul, an apostle , not of men. That is, because the other Apostles were sent by Christ while still mortal, Paul by Christ when wholly deified, and therefore in every way immortal. So says S. Augustine. But the simpler explanation is to take not of men to mean, not of mere men, but of Christ, man and God.
There is a fourfold mission, says S. Jerome. Some are sent by God alone, as Paul ; some by God through man’s instrumentality, as Joshua was through Moses; some by man alone, as those who are promoted by their friends to be abbot, dean, or bishop ; some , as heretics. The preposition “of” (ab) therefore, used here, denotes the principal cause, while “by” (per ) denotes the instrumental; for the meaning is that he was not called by man, nor by God by means of man, but immediately by God Himself.
Ver. 4. — Who gave Himself— to be an expiatory victim for an atonement, and to the death of the Cross, that He might pay the price of our redemption.
For our sins. “ Righteousness Himself” says S. Jerome, “gave Himself that He might destroy the unrighteousness in us; Wisdom gave Himself to undo our foolishness ; Holiness and Fortitude offered Himself that He might blot out our uncleanness and weakness .”
From this present evil world. Why does he call the world evil ? The Manichaeans reply: Because the world is material, it is evil and the creation of the devil. But this is a foolish reply. The evil world is worldly and carnal life and conversation, such as this world lives, and such as it invites us to ; and worldly men are such as by hook or by crook hunt after the goods of this world only — riches, honours, and pleasures. The figure of speech here is a metonymy; the world is put for those who are in, or who are coming into the world. “ The whole world lieth in wickedness.” Not that the world itself is evil, but that things in the world become evil through men. So says the Apostle himself: Redeeming the time, because the days are evil. Sylvan glades become of evil report when they are filled with gins ; not that the soil and the trees sin, but because the very places gain notoriety for murder. So the world (seculum, i.e., a period of time, in itself neither good nor evil) is called good or evil through the actions of those who are in it” (S. Jerome).
Note that the word here rendered evil in the Greek, πονηρόν, is rendered by S. Jerome bad, by Augustine great , by Erasmus crafty or miserable or full of toils , by Vatablus wearisome , especially on account of sins committed in this present life, which affords so many occasions of sin ; whereas the future world, to which Christ is leading us, is free from sin and is altogether pure. Valentinus evolved from his own consciousness his own aeons or worlds, declaring them to be animated beings, and the parents by quadrads, ogdoads, decads, and dodecads, of as many worlds as the son of Æneas had pigs (S. Jerome).
Ver. 6. — I marvel that ye are so soon removed — from Christianity to Judaism, from the liberty of the Gospel to the slavery of legal ceremonies, from the church to the synagogue. “The allusion,” says S. Jerome, “ is to the Hebrew ‘to roll,’ ” and hints that, “ You Galatians are as easily moved as a globe or a wheel, since you suffer yourselves to be so quickly transferred from the Gospel of Christ to the law of Moses.” Elsewhere, however, S. Jerome sees an allusion to γάλα, “milk,” and supposes that the Galatians were so called from the whiteness of their skin.
From Him that called you . You are apostates from the Gospel, nay, from God and Christ Jesus, and that to the greatest injury and contempt of God and Christ, who called you, without any merits of your own, nay, against your demerits, out of His abounding love, into grace, reconciliation, friendship with God, and salvation. S. Jerome reads, by the grace of Christ, instead of into the grace of Christ, and so gets a more forcible rendering : I marvel that ye are so soon removed unto another Gospel from Christ, who called you by His grace, i.e., out of pure love and unmerited good-will towards you ; I marvel that ye are so readily become apostates from God and from Christ, who hath called you so graciously and lovingly ; that ye are so ungrateful, so heedless of His love, that ye trample on it.
Unto another gospel. Unto another doctrine about salvation, and your Saviour Christ, as though mine and Christ’s were not sufficient, as though Moses must be taken into partnership with Christ, and the ceremonial law wedded to the Gospel. For even if these Judaisers preach that the Gospel is to be embraced together with the Mosaic law, yet they thereby preach another Gospel, and destroy the true Gospel preached by Paul. For, according to him, the true Gospel of Christ is this : The law of Christ is necessary and sufficient to salvation, nor can any other be admitted. Whoever introduces or allows to be introduced any other, is injurious to Christ and His law, as implying that it is insufficient, and he, therefore, robs Christ, his only Redeemer, of His glory, and brings in another Saviour. This is what the Judaisers did. They declared the insufficiency of the law of Christ by adding to it the law of Moses as requisite for salvation and bliss. Hence they overturned the Gospel by introducing another, nay, a contrary Gospel. Therefore the Apostle proceeds,