Commentary on Galatians 1

Paul, an apostle — not from men, neither through man, but through Jesus Christ and God the Father, who raised Him from the dead — and all the brethren who are with me, to the Churches of Galatia:

Grace be to you and peace from God our Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ.

The prologue is full of much indignation and lofty spirit;

and not the prologue only, but, so to speak, the whole Epistle.

For always to converse with disciples gently, even when they need severity, would be the mark not of a teacher but of a corrupter and an enemy.

For this reason the Lord also, though He conversed with His disciples in many things kindly, yet in some places used sterner language, and now blesses them, now rebukes them.

To Peter, at least, having said, 'Blessed art thou, Simon Bar-Jonah,' and having promised to lay the foundations of the Church upon his confession, not long after these words He says:

'Get thee behind Me, Satan; thou art an offence unto Me.'

And again elsewhere, 'Are ye also even yet without understanding?' And He instilled in them so great a fear, that John also relates how, when they saw Him speaking with the Samaritan woman, they reminded Him concerning food, but no one dared to say, 'What speakest Thou?' or 'What seekest Thou with her?' Having learned these things, Paul, who walked in the footsteps of his Master, varied his discourse according to the need of his disciples, now cauterizing and cutting, now applying soothing remedies.

And to the Corinthians he said:

'What will ye? Shall I come unto you with a rod, or in love and in the spirit of meekness?' But to the Galatians, 'O foolish Galatians!'

and not once, but a second time he employs this rebuke.

And towards the end, likewise reproving them, he said, 'Let no man trouble me.'

And again he heals them, as when he says, 'My little children, of whom I travail in birth again.'

But that the Epistle is full of indignation is somehow plain to everyone even from the first reading.

But we must state what it was that provoked him against the disciples;

for this was neither small nor trivial, since not even he himself would otherwise have used so vehement an onslaught.

For to be provoked at ordinary matters is the mark of petty-minded, harsh, and wretched men;

just as, on the other hand, to fall back at great ones is the mark of the more sluggish and the more slumbering.

But Paul was not such a man.

What then was the sin that moved him? It was great and monstrous, and one that estranged them all from Christ, as he himself also said further on:

'Behold, I Paul say unto you, that if ye be circumcised, Christ shall profit you nothing;'

and again, 'Whosoever of you are justified by the law, ye are fallen from grace.'

What then is this? For it must be unfolded more clearly.

Those of the Jews who had believed, being at once held fast by their preconceptions of Judaism and at the same time drunk with vainglory, and wishing to invest themselves with the dignity of teachers, came to the nation of the Galatians and taught that it was necessary to be circumcised and to keep sabbaths and new moons,

and not to tolerate Paul's abolishing of these things.

'For those about Peter and James and John,' they said, 'do not forbid these things — they who are the first of the apostles, who were with Christ.'

But it was not as laying down a doctrine that they did this; rather, they were condescending to the weakness of those of the Jews who believed.

But Paul, preaching to the Gentiles, had no need of this condescension.

When, therefore, he was in Judea, he himself also employed this condescension.

But those deceivers, not stating the reasons for which both he and those others condescended, misled the more simple-minded, saying that Paul was not to be tolerated;

'for this man appeared but yesterday and today, whereas those, the men about Peter, were the first;

and this man became a disciple of the apostles, but those of Christ;

and this man is alone, but those are many, and pillars of the Church.'

And they slandered him with hypocrisy as well, saying that this very man who abolished circumcision was evidently seen elsewhere making use of these very things, and preaching in one way to you and in another way to others.

Since, therefore, he saw a whole nation set on fire, and a grievous conflagration kindled against the Church of the Galatians, and the building shaken and in danger of falling, being possessed partly by righteous indignation and partly by dejection —

for indeed he also made this plain when he said, 'I could wish to be present with you now, and to change my voice' — he writes the Epistle, making his defence against all these things.

And from the very outset he at once aims at that point which they, undermining his reputation, kept alleging — namely, that the others became disciples of Christ, but he of the apostles.

'Paul, an apostle — not from men, neither through man.'

For those deceivers used to say, as I have already mentioned, that this man is the last of all the apostles, and was taught by them.

'For Peter and James and John were both called first, and are the chief of the disciples, and received the doctrines from Christ, and one ought rather to obey them than this man;

and they do not forbid circumcision, nor the keeping of the law.'

And saying these and suchlike things, and pulling this man down while exalting the glory of those others — not that they might praise those, but that they might deceive the Galatians — they were persuading them unseasonably to give heed to the law.

For since they cheapened his teaching, saying that it came from men, but Peter's from Christ, from the very outset he at once takes his stand against this, declaring that he is an apostle not from men, neither through man.

For Ananias indeed baptized him, but it was not he who delivered him from his error, nor who led him to the faith;

but Christ Himself from above sent forth to him that wondrous voice, by which He caught him as in a net.

For Peter and his brother, and John and his brother, He called while walking by the sea, but Paul after He had ascended into the heavens.

And just as those did not need a second call, but immediately, leaving their nets and all else, followed Him;

so also this man, from his first calling, ascended to the highest peak, being both baptized and choosing at once an implacable war against the Jews, and in this especially surpassing the apostles;

'For I laboured more abundantly than they all,' he says.

But for the present he does not establish this, but is content to bear himself as equal.

For what he was earnest about was not to show himself superior to them, but to overthrow the very foundation of the error.

Now the phrase 'Not from men' was common to them all;

for from above the preaching has its origin and its root;

but the phrase 'Not through man' was peculiar to the apostles;

for He called them not through men, but Himself, through His own self.

But why did he not mention the calling and say, 'Paul, called not from men,' but rather the apostleship? Because the whole discourse was concerning this.

For they used to say that this teaching had been entrusted to him by men, that is, by the apostles, and that he ought to follow those men.

But that it was not by men that he was entrusted with it, Luke made plain, saying:

'As they ministered to the Lord and fasted, the Holy Spirit said, Separate Me now Paul and Barnabas.'

Whence it is plain that there is one authority of the Son and of the Spirit.

For having been sent forth by the Spirit, he says that he was sent forth by Christ.

This he shows in another place also, reckoning the things of God to the Spirit.

For conversing with the elders of Miletus, he says, 'Take heed to yourselves and to the flock, over which the Holy Spirit hath made you shepherds and overseers;'

and yet in another Epistle he says, 'Whom God hath set in the Church, first apostles, secondly prophets, then shepherds and teachers.'

Thus he uses the expression indifferently, saying that the things of the Spirit are God's, and the things of God are the Spirit's.

And in another way also he stops the mouths of the heretics, saying, 'Through Jesus Christ and God the Father.'

For since they say that this expression, as being one of inferiority, is applied to the Son, observe what he does:

he sets it upon the Father, teaching us not to legislate for the ineffable Nature, nor to define measures of divinity between the Son and the Father;

for having said, 'Through Jesus Christ,' he added, 'And God the Father.'

For if, having made mention of the Father by Himself, he had said 'through whom,' perhaps they might have played the sophist, saying that 'through whom' befits the Father, in that the works of the Son are referred back to Him;

but as it is, having made mention of the Son together with the Father, and having set down the phrase in common, he no longer leaves any room for this argument to stand.

For he does this not as one who now ascribes the things of the Son to the Father, but as showing that this phrase introduces no difference of essence.

And what, moreover, would those say here who from baptism devise some diminution, on the ground that we are baptized into the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit? For if the Son is inferior because He is placed after the Father, then, since here the Apostle, beginning from Christ, proceeds to the Father, what would they say? But we would say nothing blasphemous.

For we must not, out of contentiousness toward them, depart from the truth; but even though they rave ten thousand times, it is necessary that we preserve the measures of piety.

Just as, then, we would not say that the Son is greater than the Father because he mentioned Christ first—

for that would be the utmost madness and the very height of all impiety—

so neither there, because the Son is placed after the Father, ought we to think that the Son is inferior to the Father.

'Of Him who raised Him from the dead.'

What are you doing, O Paul? Wishing to lead men who were Judaizing into the faith, you bring forward into the midst none of those great and splendid things—such as what you wrote to the Philippians, saying that 'being in the form of God, He counted it not a thing to be grasped to be equal with God';

or what afterward, writing to the Hebrews, you cried aloud, that 'He is the effulgence of His glory and the express image of His substance'; or what from the very outset the son of thunder proclaimed, that 'In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God';

or what Jesus Himself, speaking often to the Jews, used to say—that He can do the same things as the Father, and has the same authority.

Of these you say nothing, but letting all this go, you make mention of the dispensation according to the flesh, bringing the cross and death into the midst? Yes, he says.

For if the discourse were addressed to men who imagined nothing great concerning Christ, it would have been fitting to speak of those things;

but since they rise up against us as though they were about to be punished if they fell away from the law, therefore he mentions that fact by which he casts out all the necessity of the law—I mean, that which comes from the cross;

and the benefit of the resurrection, which comes to be for all.

For to say that 'In the beginning was the Word,' and that 'He was in the form of God,' and to make Himself equal with God, and all such things, belonged to one demonstrating the Godhead of the Word, but contributed nothing of the sort to the present purpose;

whereas to say, 'Of Him who raised Him from the dead,' belonged to one recalling the sum of the benefit wrought on our behalf, which contributed not a little to what he had before him.

For indeed the multitude of men are wont not so much to attend to words that set forth the greatness of God, as to those which display the benefit toward men.

Wherefore, letting those things go, he makes his discourse concerning the benefit that has come to be toward us.

But the heretics leap upon this, saying, 'Behold, the Father raises the Son.'

For since they are once for all diseased, toward the lofty doctrines they willfully make themselves deaf, but the lowly sayings—those spoken thus either on account of the flesh, or for the honor of the Father, or for some other dispensation—these they pick out; and examining them in isolation, they do despite to themselves (for I would not say to the Scripture).

For what reason do they say these things? Is it because they wish to show the Son as weak, and not strong enough for the resurrection of a single body? And yet faith in Him made even the shadows of those who believed in Him raise the dead.

Then, if the men who believe in Him, being mortal, raised the dead by the mere shadow of those clay-formed bodies of theirs, and by the garments cast about these bodies, but He Himself had not the strength to raise His own self—how is this not manifest madness and an extremity of derangement? Have you not heard Him saying, 'Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up'? and again, 'I have authority to lay down my soul, and I have authority to take it again'? For what reason, then, is the Father said to have raised Him? Just as He is said to do the other things also, which He Himself does.

For indeed this was said both for the honor of the Father, and on account of the weakness of the hearers.

'And all the brethren who are with me.'

Why, pray, did he nowhere add this in his epistles? For he either sets down his own name alone, or that of two or three others by name;

but here he set down an entire multitude;

wherefore he mentioned no one by name.

For what reason, then, does he do this? They were slandering him as one who alone preached these things, and as introducing some innovation into the doctrines.

Wishing, therefore, to remove their suspicion, and to show that he has many who share his view, he joined together the brethren, making clear that what he writes, he writes also from their mind.

'To the Churches of Galatia.'

For it was not one city, nor two or three, but the whole nation of the Galatians that this conflagration of error had ravaged.

And observe for me here also his great indignation.

For he did not say, 'To the beloved,' nor, 'To the sanctified,' but, 'To the Churches of Galatia.'

And this was the mark of one exceedingly grieved and displaying his pain—that he called them neither from love nor from the honor of the titles, but only from the assembly;

and that he did not add, 'To the Churches of God,' but simply, 'To the Churches of Galatia.'

In another way also, from the very outset he is eager to knit together what was in a state of faction;

wherefore he has set down the name of the Church, putting them to shame, and gathering them into one.

For those who are divided into many parts could not be called by this appellation;

for the name of the Church is a name of concord and of harmony.

'Grace to you and peace from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.'

Everywhere he sets this down as necessary, but especially now in writing to the Galatians.

For since they were in danger of falling away from grace, he prays for them that they may recover it again.

For since they had made themselves enemies toward God,

having made war upon Him, he beseeches God to lead them back to the same peace.

And here again the heretics are easily caught.

For since they say that John, in the prologue of the Gospels, saying, 'And the Word was God,' set this down without the article for this reason—as introducing a lesser Godhead of the Son—and again that Paul, saying that the Son 'was in the form of God,' did not speak concerning the Father, because it too stands without the article;

what would they say here, when Paul says not 'from the God,' but 'from God the Father'? And he here calls God 'Father,' not to flatter them, but rather sternly rebuking them, and reminding them of the cause through which they became sons.

For not through the law, but through the washing of regeneration were they deemed worthy of this honor.

For this reason everywhere, even in his prologues, he sows the traces of God's benefit, all but saying:

You who were slaves, and enemies, and estranged—whence do you suddenly call God 'Father'? Surely the law did not grant you this kinship? Why then, forsaking Him who brought you into this nearness, do you again run back to the pedagogue? And not only in the case of the Father, but also in the case of the Son, the names are sufficient to display to them this benefit.

For the name 'Lord Jesus Christ,' when examined with precision, displays the whole benefit.

For 'He shall be called Jesus,' it says, for this reason, 'because He shall save His people from their sins';

and the title 'Christ' called to mind the anointing of the Spirit.

'Who gave Himself for our sins.'

Do you see that He did not undergo a servile ministry, nor one that was compelled, nor was He given up by anyone, but gave Himself? So that, when you hear John saying that the Father gave His only-begotten Son for us, do not for this reason diminish the dignity of the Only-begotten, nor suspect anything human.

For even though the Father is said to have given Him, this is said not that you should conceive of a servile ministry, but that you should learn that this seemed good to the Father also—which indeed Paul here too made clear, saying:

'According to the will of God, even our Father';

not by command, but 'according to the will.'

For since the will of the Father and of the Son is one, what the Son willed, these things the Father also willed.

'We had impaled ourselves,' he says, 'on ten thousand evils, and were liable to the uttermost punishment.'

And the law not only did not deliver us, but even condemned us, making the sin more manifest, yet having no strength to set us free, nor to appease the wrath of God;

but the Son of God made even this impossible thing possible, both loosing our sins, and setting the enemies in the rank of friends, and freely bestowing ten thousand other good things.

'That He might deliver us out of the present evil age.'

Again, other heretics lay hold of this phrase, slandering the present life, and bringing forward the testimony of Paul.

'For behold,' they say, 'he has called the present age evil.'

And what, tell me, is an age? A time in days and hours.

What then? Is the interval of days evil, and the course of the sun? But no one would ever say this, even were he brought down to the utmost unreason.

'But he did not speak of the time,' he says, 'but called the present life evil.'

And yet the words do not say this; rather, he does not rest upon the words from which you have woven your accusation, but you cut out for yourself a path of interpretation.

Therefore you will also grant us the right to interpret what has been said, and all the more so, inasmuch as our interpretation is both pious and reasonable.

What then shall we say? That no evil could ever be the cause of good things; rather, the present life is the cause of countless crowns and of so many rewards.

Indeed this very blessed Paul praises it with exceeding emphasis, speaking thus:

But if to live in the flesh, this is for me the fruit of labour, then what I shall choose I do not know.

And having set before himself the choice of living here, and of departing and being with Christ, he prefers the sojourn here.

But if it were evil, that man would neither have said these things concerning himself, nor could anyone else have turned it to the service of virtue, however earnestly he might strive.

For by means of vice one could never turn anything to good, nor by fornication to chastity, nor by envy to kindly affection.

For indeed, when Paul says concerning the mind of the flesh, that it is not subject to the law of God,

he means this: that vice, while remaining vice, cannot be virtue.

So that when you hear of an evil age, understand the evil deeds, the corrupted purpose of will.

For Christ came, not that He might slay us and lead us out of the present life, but that, leaving us in the world, He might prepare us to become worthy of the manner of life in the heavens.

For this reason also, when conversing with the Father, He said:

And these are in the world, and I come to Thee.

And again, I do not ask that Thou take them out of the world, but that Thou keep them from the evil one, that is, from vice.

But if you do not accept these things, and still assert that the present life is evil, then do not blame those who take their own lives.

For just as he who withdraws himself from vice is worthy not of accusation but even of crowns,

so too he who by a violent death, whether by hanging or by some other means, puts an end to his life, could not justly be accused, according to you.

But as it is, God punishes such men more than murderers, and we all abhor them, and rightly so.

For if to slay others is not good, much more to slay oneself.

But if the present life were evil, one would have to crown murderers, because they deliver us from wickedness.

And apart from these things, they fall into contradiction even out of their own assertions.

For while affirming the sun to be God, and after it the moon, and worshipping them as authors of many good things, they speak in conflict with themselves.

For the use of these and of the remaining stars serves for no other end, but contributes to this present life of ours—the life which they call evil—both nourishing our bodies, and illuminating them, and bringing fruits to their ripeness.

How then do these gods, according to you, introduce so great a ministry toward the maintenance of an evil life? But neither are the stars gods—God forbid—but works of God, made for our use; nor is the world evil.

But if you should cite to me murderers and adulterers and grave-robbers, these have nothing to do with the present life;

for these are not the sins of the life in the flesh, but of the corrupted purpose of will.

For if these belonged to the present life, as being altogether allotted to it, no one would be free or pure.

Observe therefore the properties of the life in the flesh, which no one is able to escape.

And what are these? To eat, to drink, to sleep, to grow, to hunger, to thirst, to be born, to die, and all things like to these.

And of these no one could get the better—neither sinner nor righteous, neither king nor commoner—but all of us are subject to the necessity of nature.

So too, if the doing of base things were allotted to the nature of life, no one would escape them, just as no one escapes those.

For do not say this to me, that those who succeed in virtue are rare.

For among the necessities of nature you will find no one who has ever got the better of them.

So that, as long as even one is found who has achieved virtue, the argument will suffer no harm.

What do you say, wretched and miserable man? Is the present life evil—the life in which we have come to know God, in which we philosophize concerning things to come, in which from men we have become angels and join the choir of the powers above? And what other proof shall we seek of your wicked and perverse opinion?

For what reason then, one says, did Paul call the present age evil? Because he was employing the common manner of speaking.

For we too are accustomed to say, 'I had a bad day,' finding fault not with the time, but with the deed or the circumstance.

So too Paul, in finding fault with wicked purposes, made use of the common manner of speaking;

and he shows that Christ has both delivered us from our former sins and made us secure with regard to what is to come.

For by saying, 'Who gave Himself for our sins,' he declared the former;

and by adding, 'That He might deliver us from the present evil age,' he made plain the security with regard to what is to come.

For the law was too weak even for the one, but grace has become mighty for both.

According to the will of God and our Father.

For since they supposed that they were disobeying God, as having given the law, and were afraid, if leaving the Old they should come to the New,

he corrects this suspicion of theirs also, saying that these things are pleasing to the Father as well.

And he did not simply say 'of the Father,' but 'of our Father,' and he sets it down continually, putting them to shame by showing that Christ has made His own Father to be our Father.

And this too is something new and out of the ordinary.

For the 'Amen' we nowhere find placed at the beginning and in the opening words of an Epistle, but after much has been said.

But here, showing that what has been said contained a sufficient accusation of the Galatians, and that the discourse is complete, he has placed this doxology at the outset.

For manifest accusations do not need much elaboration.

For having called to mind the cross and the resurrection, the redemption from sins, the security with regard to what is to come, the mind of the Father, the counsel of the Son, the grace, the peace, His whole gift, he brought the discourse to a close in a doxology.

And he did this not for this reason alone, but also because he was struck beyond measure by the greatness of the gift, the surpassing abundance of the grace, and reflected upon what manner of men we were and what God had wrought all at once and in a mere moment of time;

and being unable to set these forth in words, he brought it to a close in a doxology, sending up on behalf of the whole world not the worthy praise, but that which was possible for him.

For this reason too he employs more vehement language in what follows, as one set fiercely ablaze by the thought of the benefactions of God.

For having said, 'To whom be the glory unto the ages, Amen,' he begins from a more vehement rebuke, speaking thus:

I marvel that you are so quickly removing from Him who called you in the grace of Christ, unto another gospel.

For since through the keeping of the law they imagined they were pleasing the Father, just as the Jews also, in persecuting Christ, he first demonstrates this: that in doing this they were provoking not Christ only, but the Father as well.

For it is not from Christ, he says, but also from the Father that you are departing by doing this.

For just as the Old Testament is not of the Father only, but also of the Son, so too grace is not of the Son only, but also of the Father, and all things are held in common;

For all things that are the Father's are Mine.

Therefore, having said that they are departing also from the Father, he sets down two accusations: both the removal, and the exceedingly swift removal.

And indeed the opposite would seem worthy of accusation—to fall away after a long time;

but here the discourse is about deception.

For he too is worthy of accusation who falls away after a long time;

but he who at the first assault, and in the very skirmishes, falls down, has furnished an example of the utmost weakness, which he lays to their charge as well, saying:

What is this, that those who deceive you do not even require time, but the first approach suffices to overthrow you all and to capture you? And what pardon could you have? For if this, when it happens among friends, is a matter of accusation, and he who forsakes his earlier and useful acquaintances is worthy of condemnation, then he who, when God

calls, leaps away, consider to how great a punishment he would be liable.

And when he says, 'I marvel,' he speaks not only to put them to shame, that after so great a gift, after so great a forgiveness of sins and surpassing loving-kindness, they had deserted to a yoke of slavery;

but at the same time he also shows what manner of opinion he holds concerning them—namely, a great and earnest one.

For had he thought them to be ordinary men, easily deceived, he would not have marveled at what had happened; but since (he says) you were of the genuine sort, and men who had toiled much, for this reason I marvel.

This alone was enough to win them back, and to lead them back to their former state.

This too he was declaring in the middle of the Epistle when he said:

Have you suffered so many things in vain? if indeed it be in vain.

He did not say, 'you have been removed,' but, 'you are being removed'; that is to say: I do not yet believe it, nor do I regard the deception as complete.

This too, again, is the language of one who is winning them back.

Having therefore said this more plainly beforehand, he declares: I have confidence in you, that you will be of no other mind.

From Him who called you in the grace of Christ.

The calling is of the Father, but the cause of the calling is of the Son; for it is He who reconciled us and gave freely.

for it is He who reconciled us and freely gave.

for we were not saved by works done in righteousness.

Rather, these things belong to Him and those to this One; for what is Mine is Thine, He says, and what is Thine is Mine.

For 'what is Mine is Thine,' He says, 'and what is Thine is Mine.'

And he did not say, 'You are being removed from the Gospel,' but, 'from God who called you.'

For what was more dreadful, and more capable of striking them with awe, this is what he set down.

For those who wished to deceive them did not do this all at once, but quietly shifting them from the realities, while not shifting the names.

For such is the deceit of the devil, not to set the traps out bare.

For if they had said, 'Depart from Christ,' the Galatians would have guarded against them as deceivers and destroyers; but as it was, leaving them for the time being in the faith, yet fixing the name of 'Gospel' upon their deception, they undermined the edifice with great impunity, while by means of these names — like so many curtains — they concealed the burglars.

but as it was, leaving them for the time being in the faith, and putting the name of 'Gospel' upon their deception, with great licence they were undermining the building, while by means of these names, as if by certain curtains, they hid the burglars.

Since therefore they called their own deception a 'gospel,' rightly does he do battle even against the name, and speaks with boldness, saying:

Unto another gospel, which is not another.

But nevertheless, the very thing that the sick suffer when they are harmed by wholesome foods, this is precisely what the Marcionites here suffered.

For he laid hold of what was said, declaring: 'Behold, Paul too said, There is no other gospel.'

For they do not accept all the evangelists, but one only, and even that one they mutilated and jumbled together as they pleased.

What then, when he himself says, 'According to my Gospel and the preaching of Jesus Christ'? Indeed, the things said by them are worthy of much laughter; yet even though they be ridiculous, it is necessary to refute them, for the sake of those who are easily deceived.

yet even though they be laughable, it is necessary to refute them, for the sake of those who are easily deceived.

What then shall we say? That even if ten thousand men write Gospels, but write the same things, the many are one, and nothing will be prejudiced against their being one by reason of the multitude of the writers;

just as, again, even if there be but one writer, and he say contradictory things, what is written is not one.

For the being one and not one is judged, not by the number of the writers, but by the sameness or difference of the things said.

Whence it is clear that even the Gospels of the four are one Gospel.

For when the four say the same things, it is not one and another by reason of the difference of persons, but one by reason of the agreement of what is said.

For Paul is not now speaking about number, but about a discord in the things said.

If then Matthew's is one thing and Luke's another, in the force of what is written and in the exactness of the doctrines, they rightly lay hold of the argument;

but if it be one and the same, let them cease their folly, and cease pretending to be ignorant of things which are plain even to those who are utterly simple.

Unless there be some who trouble you, and would pervert the Gospel of Christ.

That is: So long as you are sound in mind, you will not recognize another gospel; so long as you see rightly, and not distortedly, imagining things that have no existence.

For just as the eye, when disordered, sees one thing instead of another,

so also the mind, clouded by the confusion of evil thoughts, is wont to suffer this very same thing.

For it is because of this that madmen also imagine one thing instead of another.

But this madness is more grievous than that, working its harm not in the sensible things, but in the intelligible; not in the pupil of the body's eyes, but preparing its ruin in the eyes of the understanding.

And would pervert the Gospel of Christ.

And indeed they were introducing only one commandment, or a second — that of circumcision, and innovating only in the matter of days;

but showing that a small falsification corrupts the whole, he said that the Gospel is being perverted.

For just as in the royal coinage, he who has clipped a little of the stamp has made the whole coin counterfeit,

so also he who has subverted even the very smallest part of the sound faith, corrupts the whole, going on from the beginning to worse things.

Where then are those who condemn us for contentiousness on account of our separation from the heretics? Where now are those who say that there is nothing at issue between us and them, but that the difference arises from love of rule? Let them hear what Paul says, that they perverted the Gospel who innovated even but a little.

For how should it not be so with those who call the Son of God a creature? Have you not heard that even in the Old Testament, one who gathered sticks on the Sabbath, and transgressed one commandment — and that not the greatest — paid the extreme penalty? And Uzzah, when he steadied the ark that was about to be overturned, straightway died, because he touched a ministry that did not belong to him? Then if the transgression of the Sabbath, and the touching of the falling ark, brought God to such indignation that those who dared these things obtained not even the slightest pardon,

shall he who has corrupted dread and unspeakable doctrines obtain a defense and pardon? It is not so, it is not so.

But indeed this very thing is the cause of all evils — the not being indignant even over these small matters.

For this reason the greater sins have come in, because the lesser ones do not meet with the fitting correction.

And just as in bodies those who have despised wounds have brought forth fevers and putrefactions and death,

so also in the case of souls, those who overlook the small things bring in the greater.

'So-and-so,' he says, 'errs concerning the fast, and it is nothing great';

'another is indeed firm in the right faith, but, dissembling because of the occasion, has betrayed his boldness of confession';

'neither is this any great and terrible thing.'

'Another, being provoked, threatened to fall away from the right faith;

but neither is this worthy of punishment;

for he sinned in anger,' he says, 'and in wrath.'

And one might find ten thousand such sins introduced into the Churches every single day.

For this reason we have become a laughingstock both to Jews and to Greeks, since the Church is being torn asunder into ten thousand parts.

For if those who from the beginning attempt to leap away from the divine ordinances and to disturb them even a little had met with the fitting rebuke, the present pestilence would not have been begotten, nor would so great a tempest have seized the Churches.

See then how Paul calls circumcision a subversion of the Gospel.

But now there are many among us who both fast on the same day as the Jews, and keep the Sabbaths in like manner;

and we bear it nobly — or rather, wretchedly.

Do I speak of the practices of the Jews? Why, many Greek customs too are observed among some of our own people: divinations and augury and omens and observances of days, and eager concern about one's birth, and those documents full of all impiety, which, as soon as children are born, they at once compose to the ruin of their own heads, teaching them from the very outset to overthrow the labors on behalf of virtue, and, so far as in them lies, bringing them under the erring tyranny of fate.

But if Christ profits nothing those who are circumcised, what will faith henceforth profit unto salvation those who drag along so many evils? And yet circumcision had been given by God; but nevertheless, since it was corrupting the Gospel by being performed out of season, Paul did everything to cut it away.

Then, if Paul made such great effort concerning Jewish customs, because they were observed out of season, shall we not even cut away the Greek habit? And what defense could we have? Because of these things our affairs are now in turmoil and uproar, and the disciples, filled with much arrogance, have overturned all order, and things have been turned upside down.

And if one rebukes them even a little, they spit upon their rulers, since we have trained them badly.

And yet, even if the leaders were more depraved, and laden with ten thousand evils, not even so was it lawful for the disciple to disobey.

For if concerning the teachers of the Jews he says that, because they sat on the seat of Moses, they were justly to be heard by their disciples — and yet they had works so wicked that he bade the disciples not to emulate nor imitate those deeds — what pardon could they deserve who spit upon and trample under foot the presidents of the Church, who by the grace of God live in gentleness? For if it is not lawful to judge one another, much more is it unlawful to judge the teachers.

But even if I, or an angel from heaven, should preach to you contrary to what you received, let him be accursed.

For lest anyone say that he sets up his own teachings for the sake of vainglory, he even pronounced an anathema upon himself.

And since they were also taking refuge in dignities—James and John—for this reason he made mention of angels as well.

For do not, he says, cite to me James and John;

for even if one of the foremost angels from heaven should corrupt the preaching, let him be accursed.

And he did not simply say 'from heaven,' but since the priests too were called angels—

'For the lips of a priest shall keep knowledge, and they shall seek the law from his mouth, because he is the messenger of the Lord Almighty'—

in order that you might not suppose that these are the angels now spoken of, by the addition of 'from heaven' he hinted at the powers on high.

And he did not say, 'If they should proclaim things contrary, or overturn the whole,' but, 'Even if they should preach some small thing beside what we preached, even if they should disturb the least matter, let them be accursed.'

As we have said before, so now I say again.

For lest you should think these words to be words of anger, or spoken in exaggeration, or by some sudden impulse, he sets down the same things a second time.

For he who is led by anger to say something might quickly change his mind;

but he who says the same things a second time shows that he spoke thus after deliberation, and having first ratified it in his judgment, so uttered what was said.

Now Abraham, when asked to send Lazarus, said, 'They have Moses and the prophets;

if they do not hear those, neither will they hear though the dead should rise.'

And Christ introduces him as saying these things, showing that he wills the Scriptures to be more worthy of trust even than the raising of the dead.

But Paul—and when I say Paul, I again say Christ,

for it was He who moved Paul's soul—sets them even above angels coming down from heaven;

for the angels, though great, are yet but servants and ministers;

but the Scriptures, all of them, were written and sent forth not by servants, but by the Lord and Master of all, God Himself.

If anyone preach to you a gospel beside that which we preached to you.

And he did not say, 'so-and-so and such-a-one,' very prudently and without giving offense.

For what further need was there to mention names, for one who had employed so great an emphasis as to include all, both those above and those below? For by anathematizing the evangelists and angels, he set a bound upon every dignity;

and by himself, every close relation and kinship.

For do not say to me, 'Your fellow apostles and companions say these things;'

for I do not spare even myself when I preach such things.

But he says these things not as condemning the apostles, nor as though they transgressed the preaching—far from it!

For 'whether we or they,' he says, 'so we preach;'

but wishing to show that he does not admit dignity of persons, when the discourse is concerning truth.

'For do I now persuade men, or God? Or do I seek to please men? For if I still pleased men, I would not be a servant of Christ.'

'For even if I were deceiving you,' he says, 'in saying these things, can I beguile God, who knows the hidden things of the mind, and to whom is my whole endeavor at all times to please?' Do you see the apostolic spirit? Do you see the loftiness worthy of the Gospel? These same things he said also when writing to the Corinthians: 'We do not defend ourselves to you, but give you occasion to glory;'

and again, 'But to me it is a very small thing that I should be judged by you, or by man's day.'

For since, being a teacher, he is compelled to defend himself to his disciples, he endures it indeed, but is vexed—not out of arrogance, God forbid, but because of the fickleness of the disposition of those who were being deceived, and their not greatly trusting him.

Wherefore he said these things also, all but saying:

'Is my discourse then addressed to you? Are men going to be my judges? Our discourse is toward God, and it is for the account there that we do all things; nor would we ever have come to such a depth of wretchedness, that—being about to give account to the Master of all for what we preach—we should corrupt the doctrines.'

So that at once defending himself, and at once rising up against them, he set down these things.

For it was fitting that the disciples should not sit in judgment upon their teachers, but believe them;

'but since the order has been reversed,' he says, 'and you sit as judges, learn that I make no great account of defending myself to you, but do everything for God's sake, and so as to give account to Him concerning these doctrines.'

For he who wishes to persuade men does many underhanded and crooked things, and employs deceit and falsehood, so as to persuade and capture the minds of his hearers;

but he who would persuade God, and is zealous to please Him, has need of a simple and pure mind;

for the Deity is not to be deceived.

Whence it is clear, he says, that we too write these things not for the sake of love of rule, nor in order to have disciples, nor as coveting glory from you;

for we have been zealous to please, not men, but God.

For if I wished to please men, I should still be with the Jews, I should still be persecuting the Church.

But he who despised a whole nation, and his household and friends and kinsfolk and so great glory, and in exchange for these took on persecutions and enmities and wars and daily deaths, it is plain that these things also which I now say, he says not from coveting the glory of men.

And he said this because he is about to relate also his former manner of life, and his sudden transformation, and to demonstrate by plain proofs that he changed sides in accord with the truth—lest they should think that he does these things in order to defend himself to them, and be lifted up.

'For do I now persuade men?' For he knows how, at the fitting occasion, to utter something lofty and great for the correction of his disciples.

And yet it was possible to make the proofs of his preaching in accord with the truth from another source—from the signs, from the wonders, from the

dangers, from the imprisonments, from the daily deaths, from hunger and thirst, and nakedness, and from the other things of this kind;

but since his discourse now was not against the false apostles, but toward the apostles—and those had been sharers even in these things, the dangers, I mean—he conducts his argument from another source;

since, when he directed his words against the false apostles, he thus brings forward the comparison, setting his endurance in dangers in the midst and saying:

'Are they ministers of Christ? (I speak as one beside himself)—I am more;

in labors more abundantly, in stripes above measure, in prisons more frequently, in deaths often.'

But here, however, he speaks of his former manner of life, and says:

But I make known to you, brethren, the Gospel which was preached by me, that it is not according to man.

For neither did I receive it from man, nor was I taught it, but through a revelation of Jesus Christ.

See how up and down he strongly maintains this, that he became a disciple of Christ, with no man mediating, but with Christ Himself through Himself deigning to reveal to him all knowledge.

And what proof could there be to the unbelieving that God revealed to you through Himself, and not through some intermediary, those unspeakable mysteries? 'My former manner of life,' he says;

for I would not, had it not been God who was uncovering it, have undergone so sudden a transformation.

For those who are taught by men, when they are vehement and burning in the opposite course, have need of time and much contrivance to be persuaded;

but he who thus suddenly changed, and became purely sober in the very height of his madness, it is plain that having obtained a divine vision and teaching, he suddenly returned to pure health.

For this reason he is compelled to relate his former manner of life, and he calls them witnesses of the things that happened.

'For that the only-begotten Son of God deigned to call me through Himself out of the heavens, you do not know;

for how could you, not being present? But that I was a persecutor, you know full well.

For indeed even as far as you my vehemence was spread abroad;

and yet great is the distance between the Palestinians and the Galatians;

so that the report would not have crossed so far, had there not been a great excess in the things done, and one unbearable to all.

For you have heard of my manner of life in time past in Judaism, that beyond measure I persecuted the Church of God, and laid it waste.