ACC ~ Galatians 2 v6a

THOSE REPUTED TO BE SOMETHING ARE NOTHING. MARIUS VICTORINUS: [He means] those who have sprung from those same pseudoapostles but nonetheless “are something,” that is, have undergone change and now follow the gospel. Even if they have sprung from these phonies they are now whole, for that is what it is truly to be something. “It is nothing to me,” he says, “what kind of people they were before, at some past time.” And he adds the reason: God shows no partiality but looks at one’s mental attitude and faith. Whether one be Greek or Jew, whether one was anything, is not what God accepts, but what one is and whether one has received faith and the gospel. EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS 1.2.6.

THE TEMPTATION TO APPEASEMENT. CHRYSOSTOM: Here he not only offers no defense of the apostles but is hard on the saints so that he may assist the weaker among them. What he is saying is something like this: “If these men enjoin circumcision, they will give an account to God. For God will not accept their persons because they are great and in authority.” Yet he has not said this openly, but sparingly. … And he does not say “what they are” but what they were, indicating that they also later gave up the preaching of circumcision, once the gospel was manifest everywhere. … It is as though he were saying, “I do not condemn or disparage those saints; for they knew what they were doing, and they will give an account to God.” HOMILY ON GALATIANS 2.5-6.

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