The Great Commentary of Cornelius a Lapide: the Epistle to the Galatians
Ver. 7. — Which is not another . S. Jerome and Ephrem omit another , and interpret the clause: “You transfer yourselves to another Gospel, which indeed is no Gospel.” The meaning of the received text is “You transfer yourselves to another Gospel, which still is not another ; for there is no other true Gospel save that which I have preached unto you.” To which Ephrem adds : “ But as they are, so is it.” As their teachers are apostates, Judaisers, deceitful liars, so is their Gospel heretical, Judaising, deceitful, and false. If the Judaisers, who left the Gospel and teaching of Paul and the Church intact, overturned the Gospel and the Church of Christ, much more do the Protestants overturn it by introducing new dogmas contrary to the Catholic Church.
Unless there are some . This depends on I marvel. I marvel that ye so soon fall away from the Gospel, unless it be that there are some who are troubling you. And when I think this I partly cease to marvel, and I impute your defection to them rather than to you ; for you would not have fallen away, if you had not been enticed and deceived.
That trouble you , and would pervert the gospel of Christ. To pervert is to subvert, according to Chrysostom. Properly, however, it is to invert , or to turn, as when the outside of a garment is turned inside because it is worn, and the less worn inside becomes the outside. Or, as Jerome says, when what is in front is put behind, and vice versa. So the Church is like a garment of which the part in front or outside, and now somewhat worn thread-bare, was the old Church or the synagogue, with its Mosaic law, while the after part, or inner and sounder, is the new Church with Christ’s Gospel. This Christ so changed round that He substituted the inward for the worn outward side, so making the after or the inner part, viz., the Gospel, the front or the outer, and putting it before all, to be known and adopted as the robe of righteousness and salvation. These self-appointed teachers wished to turn again this garment inside out, and to put the law first, and to subordinate to it the Gospel — in short, to exchange the spirit of piety breathed forth by the Gospel for Jewish ceremonies. So the Judaisers perverted, inverted the Gospel of Christ by substituting for it the law of Moses, and setting that before the Gospel (S. Jerome).
Ver. 8. — But though we, or an angel from heaven , preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you , let him be accursed . Understand : If that can be done ; for, as a matter of fact, it is impossible, for the angels are established as in bliss so in all truth. It is an hyperbole, like that in 1 Cor. xiii. 1 : “ Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels” S. Jerome quotes here a happy remark of Tertullian directed against Apelles and his virgin Philumena, which latter was filled by some perverse angel with an evil spirit, to the effect that this was an angel who, long before Apelles was born, was described as accursed by the Holy Spirit, speaking through the Apostle. Such was the angel who taught Luther, and instructed Zwingli on the Eucharist, and about whom the latter writes, that he did not know whether it was black or white. But it is certain that it was a black angel, and that against it was directed the Apostle’s anathema, as against one introducing a new Gospel, a new faith, and new dogmas, contrary to the accepted creed.
Observe how great is the certainty of the faith preached by the Apostles, confirmed by God by so many signs and miracles, and transmitted to us by the continuous tradition of so many centuries, and reflect how firm and constant in it we should be. So much so that we may better deny the evidence of our senses, of our reason, of the authority of all men and angels — even if they should work miracles as proof, — impossible though this really is — than deny the teaching of faith. For faith rests on the original revelation of God, who is the First and Incommutable Truth ; all else may deceive and be deceived. Nay, to state an impossibility, if God were to reveal a faith contrary to that which we have received, and which He originally revealed Himself, we should be bound to believe the first, and not the second. For if He should reveal one contrary, He would be changed and would cease to be God, and the First and Infallible Truth ; but since this is impossible, it follows that God cannot give a contrary revelation, and hence that those who teach contrary doctrine get it not from God but from their own heads, or from devils.
We have here, then, a canon of faith given us by the Apostle, to this effect : If a new dogma arise anywhere, let it be examined to see whether it agree with the ancient, received faith of the Catholic Church, first preached by Paul and the Apostles; if it be found discordant, let it be regarded as heretical and accursed. This is a canon followed by all the Fathers.
“ If any dispute arise” says Irenæus, “ about any , even a small question , will it not be our duty to have recourse to the oldest churches , and to gather from them what is clear and certain with reference to the question in dispute ? ” (Adv. Hær., lib. iii. c. x.).
So Tertullian : “ I will lay it down as a canon that what the Apostles preached , what Christ revealed , ought not to be proved except by the same churches which the Apostles themselves founded. If this is so, it is clear that all doctrine which agrees with those Apostolic churches , being the very wombs and originals of the faith , must be put down as true, and all the rest condemned as false, without further examination ” (de Præscr., xxi.).
And again : “ What is earlier in tradition is shown by its very date to be the Lord's and to be true ; what has come in later is an importation and false” (Ibid., c. xxxi.). So Origen : “ Every one is to be counted a heretic who, while professing to believe in Christ , believes in a matter of faith otherwise than the traditional definition of the Church declares ”
This same rule is supported by Vincent of Lerins in his golden treatise on Praescription, against the impious novelties of heretics : “ Antiquity is to be followed, novelty spurned. When certain innovators were going throughout provinces and cities , offering their errors for sale , and had arrived among the Galatians ; and when the Galatians had given them a hearing , and were taken with a distaste for the truths so much so that they , as it were , vomited the manna of apostolic and Catholic teaching , and were delighted with the filth of heretical novelty , then the authority of the apostolic power made itself heard in these stern words : ‘ Though we or an angel from heaven preach any other Gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed! What is this that he saith : ‘ Though we ? ’—why not , rather , ‘ Though I?’ He means : ‘ Though Peter, though Andrew, though John — indeed, though the whole college of Apostles preach unto you anything beside what we have preached, let them be accursed.’ An awful pronouncement ! It is but a little thing to spare neither himself nor the other Apostles, so as to secure the firm continuance of the faith first preached. But he adds : ‘ Though an angel from heaven preach any other Gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed .’ It was not enough to bind men to preserve the faith delivered them — he must also bind angels. ‘ Though we,’ he says, ‘ or an angel from heaven.’ Not that the holy and heavenly angels can sin; but supposing it were possible that they should, if any one of them were to attempt to change the faith once delivered, let him be accursed”
So S. John Damascene, who, like a roaring lion, attacked the iconoclastic Emperor Leo the Isaurian : “ Hearken, ye peoples, tribes, tongues — men, women, boys, old men , young men, infants, the whole army of Christian saints : ‘ Though any one preach unto you anything beside that which the Catholic Church has received from the Holy Apostles, from the Fathers and Councils, and has preserved to this day, hear him not, nor follow the counsel of the serpent, as Eve did, who thereby drew upon herself death. Though an angel, though a king preach unto you anything beside what you have received, stop your ears. For I fear lest the warning of Paul be fulfilled, ‘ Let him be accursed.’ ”