ACC ~ Galatians 1 v10 - 17

OVERVIEW:

Though there may be times for pleasing people, Paul is not doing so here (AUGUSTINE, JEROME). He relates his conversion to refute the false apostles (CHRYSOSTOM), arguing that human thoughts cannot understand the gospel (MARIUS VICTORINUS, AUGUSTINE). The fact that he is taught by Christ, not people, enhances his authority (ORIGEN, CHRYSOSTOM) and qualifies him as the teacher for the Galatians (THEODORET). He reinforces his point (MARIUS VICTORINUS) by showing that it was harder for him than for them to reject Judaism (CHRYSOSTOM), which is now condemned (AUGUSTINE), though the law is not (JEROME). Chosen in foreknowledge of his merits (AMBROSIASTER) yet by grace (MARIUS VICTORINUS), Paul has received a new revelation (JEROME, FILASTRIUS). Whether or not he means the apostles by “flesh and blood” (CHRYSOSTOM, JEROME), he does not disparage them in his account of his conversion (CHRYSOSTOM). He went to Arabia to sow the gospel in new places (AMBROSIASTER). From his brief words we learn humility (CHRYSOSTOM).

1:10a | Seeking Divine or Human Favor?

ON NOT DESPISING HUMAN OPINIONS. JEROME: Let us not suppose that the apostle is teaching us by his example to despise the judgments of others … but if it can happen that we can please God and others equally, let us also please others. … The word now is inserted specially here, to show that people are to be pleased or displeased according to the circumstances, so that he who is now displeasing for the sake of gospel truth was at one time pleasing for the sake of people’s salvation. EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS 1.1.10.

HOW WE ARE BEST PLEASED THROUGH THE TRUTH. AUGUSTINE: No one persuades God, for all things are manifest to him. But a person does well in wishing to persuade others when it is not himself that he wishes them to like but the truth that he persuades them of. … When one pleases others on account of truth, it is not the proclaimer himself but the truth that pleases. … Thus the sense is, “Do I then persuade men or God? And since it is men that I persuade, do I seek to please them? If I still sought to please men, I should not be Christ’s servant. For he bids his servants to learn from him to be meek and lowly of heart, which is utterly impossible for one who seeks to please men on his own account, for his own private and special glory.” … Both then can be rightly said: “I please” and “I do not please.” EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS 5 [1B.1.10].

1:10b | A Servant of Christ

PERSONAL EVIDENCE. CHRYSOSTOM: He has said this because he is about to rehearse his previous life and his sudden conversion and to show through manifest proofs that there was truth in his conversion, lest [his opponents] should imagine that he was saying this to defend himself against them and be elated. … For he knew the proper season for the correction of his pupils and how to say something sublime and grand. Now, there was a time to demonstrate the truth of his preaching in another way: from signs, from wonders, from dangers, from imprisonments, from daily deaths, from hunger and thirst and nakedness, and from other things of the kind. But since his argument now was not with pseudoapostles but with apostles, and since they had been partakers of these dangers, he employs a different method of argument. HOMILY ON GALATIANS 1.10.

1:11 | The Gospel Paul Preached4

WHY DOES HE SAY “NOT ACCORDING TO MAN”? MARIUS VICTORINUS: Possibly because the Savior himself is not a man [merely], as some think. Nor because he is sent in the form of a man is he therefore a man but God in a mystery taking flesh to overcome the flesh. … If “from a man” means one thing, “after the manner of man” will mean another. And again if “I did not receive from a man” is one thing. “not after the manner of man” will be another. Therefore “after the manner of man” can be understood to mean “so that you may understand in a corporeal manner,” seeing that the argument received is that “which I did not receive from man.” EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS 1.1.11.

THE MAN FROM GOD. AUGUSTINE: The gospel that is “according to men” is a lie, for every person is a liar, seeing that whatever truth is found in a man is not from the man but through the man from God. EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS 6 [1B.1.11-12]

1:12a | A Gospel from God

THE GOSPEL RECEIVED FROM GOD. PAMPHILUS: Therefore he shows plainly that Jesus was not a [mere] man; and if he is not a man then without doubt he is God. APOLOGY FOR ORIGEN.

NO HUMAN TEACHER. CHRYSOSTOM: Those who are taught by men, when they have been vehement and hot in the opposite cause, require time and much ingenuity for their conversion. But he who was so suddenly converted and was rendered clean and sober at the very peak of his madness had obviously received a divine vision and teaching. HOMILY ON GALATIANS 1.12.

1:12b | A Revelation of Jesus Christ

THE RISEN LORD APPEARED TO HIM. THEODORET: It was very shrewd of him to mention revelation, for the Lord Jesus had been taken up and was no longer seen equally of all. But to Paul he had appeared on the road and made him worthy of the ministry of proclamation. And this again he sets against their slanders, showing that in this too he did not fall short of the apostles. For just as the Galatians received the gospel from him, so likewise he had Christ himself as a teacher. EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS 1.12.

1:13 | One Who Persecuted the Church

WHY HE REMINDS THEM OF HIS OWN STORY. MARIUS VICTORINUS: The point of telling this about himself is to show that he did not learn from a man or through man but from God and Jesus Christ. The aim of this is to prevent the Galatians from entertaining another opinion or supposing that anything needs to be added to the gospel. EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS 1.1.13-14.

WHETHER THE LAW ITSELF IS TO BLAME FOR LEGALISTIC SERVITUDE. AUGUSTINE: If therefore he showed prowess in Judaism by persecuting and wasting God’s church, it is obvious that Judaism is contrary to the church of God, not through that spiritual law which the Jews had received but through their carnal habit of servitude. And if Paul as a zealot—that is, an imitator of late Judaic traditions—persecuted the church of God, his paternal traditions are contrary to God’s church, but the blame does not belong to the law itself. For the law is spiritual and does not allow itself to be interpreted carnally. That is the fault of those who understand carnally the things that they have re-ceived and who also have handed down many things of their own, undermining, as the Lord said, the command of God through their traditions. EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS 7 [1B.1.13-14].

1:14 | Advanced in Judaism

ZEAL FOR GOD. CHRYSOSTOM: What he is saying is, “If what I then did against the church was done not on man’s account but through zeal for God—mistaken but zeal nonetheless—how can I now be acting for vainglory when I operate on behalf of the church and know the truth?” HOMILY ON GALATIANS 1.14.

SUBMISSION TO JEWISH TRADITION. JEROME: He prudently inserts the statement that he served not so much God’s law as the paternal traditions—that is, those of the Pharisees, who teach doctrines and precepts of men and reject the law of God to set up their own traditions. EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS 1.1.13.

1:15a | Set Apart Before Birth

SET APART. AMBROSIASTER: Just as he said to Jeremiah, “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you,” so, knowing what Paul would be, God called him because he was able to serve. EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS 1.16.2.

1:15b | Called Through Grace

CALLED THROUGH GRACE FROM THE WOMB. MARIUS VICTORINUS: The God who caused me to be born, who separated me from my mother’s womb, also called me through his grace. For no one knows God except one who has been called. EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS 1.1.15-16.

1:16a | The Son Revealed to Paul22

WHY REVEALED “IN” HIM? JEROME: If something is revealed to someone, that may be revealed to him which was not in him before; but if it is revealed in him, that is revealed which was previously in him and had been subsequently revealed … from which it clearly appears that there is natural knowledge of God in all. EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS 1.1.15.

WHAT WAS REVEALED. FILASTRIUS: This means that he showed him the meaning of the Law and the Prophets. BOOK OF HERESIES 155.5.

1:16b | Preaching Christ Among the Gentiles

PAUL’S FITNESS TO PREACH. AMBROSIASTER: When he had faith in the law, not knowing that it was not the time for observance of the law, and was intensely striving to resist the gospel of Christ, he thought that he acted by God’s will. God, seeing that his zeal was good, though he lacked knowledge, chose to summon him into his grace. He knew that this man was suitable to preach his gospel to the Gentiles. For if he was so swift and faithful in so poor a cause through boldness of conscience, not through adulation of anyone, how much more constant would he be in preaching the gift of God through the hope of the promised reward? EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS 1.15.1.

1:16c | Not Conferring with Flesh and Blood

TO WHOM IS HE REFERRING? CHRYSOSTOM: “I did not confer with flesh and blood.” Here he is hinting at the apostles, describing them by their human nature. Yet if he means to refer here to all people we shall not contradict him. HOMILY ON GALATIANS 1.15-16.

COULD THERE BE ANOTHER MEANING? JEROME: I know that many think that this was said of the apostles … but far be it from me to reckon Peter, John and James as “flesh and blood,” which cannot possess the kingdom of God. … It is obvious that Paul did not confer with flesh and blood after the revelation of Christ because he would not throw pearls before swine or that which is holy to the dogs. EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS 1.1.16.

1:17a | Paul and the Apostles in Jerusalem

PAUL’S MOTIVE NOT ARROGANCE. CHRYSOSTOM: If one interprets these words by themselves, they seem suggestive of some great conceit or a sentiment not worthy of an apostle. To rely on one’s own choice and have no one else to share one’s estimate seems a mark of folly. … But we should not interpret bare words, or many absurdities follow. … Let us now interpret the mind of Paul when he wrote these words. Let us consider his aim and his whole attitude to the apostles, and then we shall know his intention in saying this. … For since those who plunder the church were saying that one should follow the apostles, who did not forbid these things, he is forced to withstand them stoutly, not wishing to disparage the apostles but to restrain the folly of those who were falsely puffed up. HOMILY ON GALATIANS 1.17.

1:17b | Into Arabia and Damascus

WHY ARABIA? AMBROSIASTER: He set out from Damascus to Arabia, therefore, to preach where none of the apostles had been and where Judaizing had not been promoted through the intrigues of pseudoapostles. And from there he returned again to Damascus so that he could attend to those who were still immature when he preached to them the gospel of God’s grace. EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS 1.17.2.

HIS MODESTY. CHRYSOSTOM: And let me point out to you his humility. For, having said “I went up to Arabia,” he has added “and I returned to Damascus.” He does not recount his conversions or what people and how many he instructed, even though he showed such zeal after his baptism that the Jews were enraged against him, and their animosity became so intense that they laid an ambush for him and wanted to kill him, along with the Greeks. … But he says nothing of these things here, nor would he have spoken of them in that place had he not seen that the occasion demanded that he recount his own history. HOMILY ON GALATIANS 1.17.

COULD THERE BE A DEEPER MEANING? JEROME: How are we to explain this narrative, if we read later that Paul went immediately to Arabia after the revelation of Christ? … He teaches that the Old Testament, that is, the son of the bondwoman, was established in Arabia. And so, as soon as Paul believed, he turned to the Law, the Prophets and the symbols of the Old Testament that were then lying in obscurity and sought in them the Christ whom he was commanded to preach to the Gentiles. EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS 1.1.17.