ACC ~ Galatians 1 v1 - 5

OVERVIEW:

Speaking vehemently for their sake (CHRYSOSTOM), Paul tells the Galatians that true apostles are made by God (CASSIODORUS, JEROME) and used by him (AUGUSTINE). He indicates that Christ was more than man (ORIGEN) and equal to God the Father (THEODORET). He mentions “all the brethren” to shame the Galatians (MARIUS VICTORINUS) and defend himself (CHRYSOSTOM) in the face of a general secession from the gospel (THEODORET). He wishes them both grace and peace (AUGUSTINE), reminding them of their duty to the Father (CHRYSOSTOM), who is united with the Son in mission. Christ outwitted the devil on our behalf, thus giving us grace instead of the law (AMBROSIASTER) and freeing us from the propensity to sin (THEODORET). He did this voluntarily (JEROME). We should both recognize the Father’s will in him (CHRYSOSTOM) and imitate his submission (AUGUSTINE) as we contemplate God’s marvelous work (CHRYSOSTOM).

1:1a | Paul an Apostle

HIS AUTHORITY IS NOT OF HUMAN ORIGIN. CASSIODORUS: When he calls himself an apostle not of human making but through Christ Jesus, he does away with those who had only human authority for styling themselves apostles. The churches at that time were being thrown into turmoil by false preachers. He greets these churches with all the brethren who are with him. In that greeting he also blesses them, so that their fitness to receive the word of the Lord may be established. SUMMARY OF GALATIANS 1.1.1.

1:1b | Not from Humans or Through Humans

PAUL SPEAKS WITH PASSION. CHRYSOSTOM: [The first verse] is full of great passion and strong sentiment; and not the prologue only but, as it were, the whole letter. For always to speak mildly to those who are being taught, even when they need vehemence, is not the part of a teacher but of a corrupter and an enemy. HOMILY ON GALATIANS 1.1-3.

PAUL, NOT ONE OF THE TWELVE, DEFINES HIS APOSTOLATE. JEROME: Not in pride, as some suppose, but by necessity, he said that he was not an apostle from men or through man … so that by this he might confound those who were alleging that Paul was not one of the twelve apostles or ordained by his elders. This might also be taken as aimed obliquely at Peter and the others, because the gospel was committed to him not by the apostles but by the same Jesus Christ who had chosen those apostles. EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS 1.1.1.

TRUTH DOES NOT COME FROM HUMAN SOURCES PRONE TO LIE. AUGUSTINE: The one sent “from men” is a liar; the one sent “through man” tells the truth, as God too, who is truthful, may send truth through men. The one, therefore, who is sent not from men or through man but “through God” derives his truthfulness from the One who makes truthful even those sent through men. EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS 2.

1:1c | Through Jesus Christ and God the Father

DIVINELY APPOINTED. PAMPHILUS: We are clearly given to understand that Jesus Christ was not a [mere] man but was of divine nature. … Because he knew him to be of a more sublime nature, he therefore said that he was not appointed by a man. APOLOGY FOR ORIGEN.

THE SON IS NOT LESS THAN THE FATHER. THEODORET: So that no one might suppose the Son to be a mere ancillary to the Father, finding the word through in this passage, he immediately adds “but through God the Father, who raised him from the dead.” For he has applied the word through to both persons, teaching that this usage does not imply any difference of nature. And the phrase “the one who raised him from the dead” does not hint at any defect in the Son’s divinity, for the suffering did not happen to the Godhead but illustrates the concord of the gospel, because it was not the Son alone who bestowed the mystery of the divine incarnation, but the Father himself is a sharer in this dispensation. EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS 1.1.

CHRIST-TAUGHT. MARIUS VICTORINUS: His reason for saying “through Christ and God the Father, who raised him from the dead” is that what God does he does through Christ. And so that people would not say, “How did you learn from Christ?” since Paul had not previously been a follower of Christ and Christ was dead, he said that God raised Christ from the dead. By this he implies that it is Christ himself, who taught him, who has been raised from the dead—raised, that is, by the power of God the Father. EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS 1.1.1.

RAISED FROM THE DEAD. CHRYSOSTOM: To say “who raised him from the dead” is to encapsulate the essence of God’s beneficence toward us, which coincides in no small part with his present purpose. For the majority are much less apt to listen to words that establish the majesty of God than to those which demonstrate his good will to humanity. HOMILY ON GALATIANS 1.1-3.

1:2a | All the Brethren with Me

ALL THE BROTHERS WITH ME. MARIUS VICTORINUS: Whereas he was accustomed to call himself simply Paul the apostle to the Romans and Corinthians, in order to startle the Galatians and reprove them for a grave error he has joined with himself all the brothers who were with him, saying that they themselves were writing to the Galatians, making them feel the shame of thinking contrary to everyone, so as to give more weight to his own injunctions and the gospel that he preaches. EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS 1.1.1.

PAUL SPEAKS WITH THE CONSENT OF OTHERS. CHRYSOSTOM: Why does he nowhere else add this in his letters? For he puts his own name alone, or names two or three; but here he speaks of the whole community and therefore mentions no one’s name. Why then does he do this? Because their slander against him was that he was the only person proclaiming this and was introducing novelty to doctrine. So as to destroy their calumny, therefore, and to show that his opinions are shared by many, he adds on “the brothers,” showing that what he writes he writes with their consent. HOMILY ON GALATIANS 1.1-3.

1:2b | To the Churches of Galatia

ADDRESSED TO THE WHOLE CHURCH OF GALATIA. CHRYSOSTOM: This fire had overtaken not one city, or two or three, but the whole Galatian people. And let me point out here his extreme irritation. He does not write “to the beloved” or “to the sanctified” but “to the churches of Galatia.” This is the act of one who is intensely displeased and showing his pain, that he addresses them not with love nor with the names of honor but only by that of the congregation. He does not even say “to the churches of God” but “to the churches of Galatia.” HOMILY ON GALATIANS 1.1-3.

WRITTEN FROM ROME. THEODORET: The epistle to the Galatians was written from Rome. The divine apostle had already seen and taught them. EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS 6.18.

1:3 | Grace and Peace from God the Father and Our Lord Jesus Christ

DISTINGUISHING GRACE AND PEACE. AUGUSTINE: The grace of God, by which our sins are forgiven, is the condition of our being reconciled to him, whereas peace is that wherein we are reconciled. EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS 3 [1B.1.3-5].

WHY WE CALL GOD “FATHER.” CHRYSOSTOM: He calls God “Father” here not to flatter them but vehemently reproving them and reminding them how it was that they became sons. For it was not through the law but through the bath of regeneration that they were deemed worthy of this honor. … “You slaves and enemies and aliens,” [he says], “why are you so quick to call God your Father? Surely it was not the law that gave you this kinship? So why do you desert the one who was leading you to this sense of affiliation and return to your previous mentor?” HOMILY ON GALATIANS 1.1-3.

SUSTAINED BY THE FATHER AS MUCH AS BY THE SON. AMBROSIASTER: He shows that the human race is sustained by the goodness of both, as much Father as Son. Nor does he indicate that the Son is less than the Father when he calls him our Lord, nor that the Father is greater when he calls him our God. He will not be a true Father unless he is also Lord, nor will the Son be a true Lord unless he is also God. EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS 1.3.

1:4a | Christ Gave Himself for Our Sins

WHY CHRIST GAVE HIMSELF UP. AMBROSIASTER: For when the human race was held in the dominion of the devil, the Savior offered himself to the willing devil, so that deceiving him by the power of his virtue—for the devil wanted to take possession of one whom he was unable to hold—he could carry off those whom the devil was detaining by a false right. EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS 1.4.1.

FOR OUR SINS. AMBROSIASTER: Now Christ by atoning for our transgressions not only gave us life but also made us his own, so that we might be called children of God, made so through faith. What a great error it is, therefore, to go under the law again after receiving grace. EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS 1.4.2.

1:4b | Delivering Us from This Evil Age

IS THE WORLD THEREFORE EVIL? THEODORET: By “the evil age” he does not mean the elements, as the Manichaeans portentously assert, but the present life, that is, this secular human way of living, in which sin has made a home. For, being enveloped in a mortal nature, some of us venture on the greater sins, some on the lesser. But when we make the transition to that immortal life, and are free from our present corruption and have put on incorruption, we shall be made able to conquer sin. … Yet the present age as such is not vile, but vileness is the enterprise of some who live in it. EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS 1.3-4.

1:4c | The Will of Our God and Father

IS CHRIST THEREFORE SUBORDINATE TO GOD. JEROME: Neither did the Son give himself without the Father’s will, nor did the Father give up the Son without the Son’s will. … The Son gave himself, that he himself, as righteousness, might do away with the unrighteousness in us. Wisdom gave itself that it might oust foolishness. EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS 1.1.3.

CHRIST MADE HIS FATHER OUR FATHER. CHRYSOSTOM: Since they thought that they were disobeying God, as the giver of the law, and were afraid to forsake the old and pass to the new, he corrects this reasoning of theirs, saying that this also pleased the Father. And he said not simply “of the Father” but “of your Father.” He adds this immediately, exhorting them by showing that Christ made his Father our Father. HOMILY ON GALATIANS 1.4.

1:5a | Glory for Ever and Ever

CHRIST DID NOT SEEK HIS OWN GLORY. AUGUSTINE: How much more, therefore, ought men not to claim the credit for themselves if they perform any good work, when the very Son of God in the Gospel said that he sought not his own glory. Nor had he come to do his own will but the will of him who sent him! This will and glory of the Father the apostle now commemorates, that he also, by the example of the Lord who sent him, may indicate that he seeks not his own glory or the performance of his own will in the preaching of the gospel, just as he says a little later, “if I were to please men, I should not be a servant of Christ.” EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS 3 [1B.1.3-5].

1:5b Amen

WHY SAY “AMEN” SO EARLY? CHRYSOSTOM: We nowhere find the word amen placed at the beginning or in the prologue of his letters but after many words. But here, showing that what he has said is a sufficient accusation of the Galatians and that the argument is closed, he made this the prologue. For it does not take long to establish charges that are patently true. … But not only for this reason does he do it but because he is exceedingly astonished by the magnitude of the gift, the excess of grace and what God did at once in a tiny space of time for those in such a state. Unable to express this in words, Paul breaks into a doxology. He holds up for the whole world a blessing, not indeed worthy of the subject but such as was possible to him. HOMILY ON GALATIANS 1.5.