ACC ~ Galatians 4 v1 - 7

OVERVIEW:

All humans have become enslaved to death and sin in Adam, under the custody of prophets and princes (JEROME). They all serve the natural elements (MARIUS VICTORINUS, AUGUSTINE), the Jews having their own special days (AMBROSIASTER), while the Gentiles worship the heavenly bodies (JEROME). God was waiting for a time to redeem us (AMBROSIASTER) through his Son, the Lord of times (MARIUS VICTORINUS). He was God’s unique Son (AMBROSE), who became incarnate to do his Father’s bidding (THEODORET). He was born of a virgin (TERTULLIAN), without the usual human agency (PSEUDO-AUGUSTINE), yet he was true man as he was true God (LEO THE GREAT), becoming human to confer his likeness on us and teaching us to be free of the law. The Jews, who served without hope, were promised redemption (MARIUS VICTORINUS) but were not the sole beneficiaries (JEROME). Through the Son we receive adoptive sonship (AUGUSTINE), Jew and Gentile alike (AMBROSIASTER), because of the joint operation of the Trinity (MARIUS VICTORINUS). The cry of “Abba!” unites Jew and Gentile (AUGUSTINE), for the whole human race has obtained the inheritance (JEROME), not by the death but by the eternal life of the Father (AMBROSIASTER).

4:1 | The Status of the Heir

THE OWNER OF THE ESTATE AS SLAVE. JEROME: The infant heir … signifies the whole human race up to the advent of Christ, and, to speak more largely, right up to the end of the world. For, just as all die in Adam the first man, though they are not yet born, so all those who were born before Christ’s advent are now made alive in the second Adam. And so it is that we served the law in the fathers and are saved by grace in the sons. This understanding fits the catholic church, which asserts a single providence in the Old and New Testaments and does not distinguish in time those whom it makes equal in condition. EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS 2.4.1-2.

4:2 | Under Guardians and Trustees

THE AGE OF INFANCY. JEROME: “Guardians and trustees” could be taken as the prophets, by whose words we were made ready, day by day, for the coming of the Savior, just as the law of Moses is described above as a custodian. … Or the phrase could be taken to refer to priests and princes, who then held power over the people and are now a reflection of God’s purpose. People are correctly said to live under tutors and overseers when, having the spirit of fear, they have not yet deserved to receive the spirit of freedom and adoption. For the age of infancy feels dread in relation to sin, fears its custodian and does not believe in its own freedom, even if it is sovereign by nature. EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS 4.1-2.

4:3 | Slaves to the Elemental Spirits of the Universe

ALL HUMANITY IN ITS INFANCY SERVED THE NATURAL ELEMENTS. MARIUS VICTORINUS: The elements of the world were thought to have in themselves at the same time their own motions and, as it were, certain necessary consequences of the motion of other beings, such as stars, by whose revolution human life was brought under necessity. And so humans served the elements as the stars ordained and the course of the world required. EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS 2.4.3-4.

SERVING NEW MOONS BEFORE THE PROMISE FULFILLED. AMBROSIASTER: By the “elements” he means new moons and the sabbath. New moons are the lunar days that the Jews observe, while the sabbath is the day of rest. Therefore, before the promise came (that is, the gift of God’s grace) and justified believers by purifying them, we were subject, like those who are infants and imperfect, to our fellow servants as though to custodians. Our pernicious freedom was the matrix of sin. EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS 4.3.

POSSIBLE VIEWS OF THESE ELEMENTS. JEROME: He has used the name “elements of the world” for those whom he called tutors and overseers above. … Some hold that these are angels that preside over the four elements. … Many think that it is the heaven and earth with their inhabitants that are called the elements of the world, because the wise Greeks, the barbarians and the Romans, the dregs of all superstition, venerate the sun, the moon, … from which we are liberated by Christ’s coming, knowing them to be creatures and not divinities. Others interpret the elements of the world as the law of Moses and the utterances of the prophets, because, commencing and setting out with these letters, we imbibe the fear of God, which is the beginning of wisdom. … The Mosaic law and the prophets can be taken as the elements of writing, because through them syllables and names are put together, and they are learned not so much for their own sake as for their usefulness to others. … Regarding our interpretation of the law and the prophets as the elements of the world, “world” is customarily taken to signify those who are in the world. EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS 2.4.3.

PAUL INCLUDES HIMSELF IN THIS SCENARIO OF SUBJECTION. AUGUSTINE: Why does Paul include his own character in this description? He says not “When you were small, you were subject to the elements of this world” but “When we were small we were in servitude under the elements of this world.” This does not have any reference to the Jews, from whom Paul derived his origin. Rather it refers to his identification with the Gentiles in this place at least, since he can properly join himself with the character of those whom he was sent to evangelize. EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS 29 [1B.4.1-3].

4:4a | In the Fullness of Time, God Sent His Son

RIPENESS FOR FAITH IN THE FULLNESS OF TIME. MARIUS VICTORINUS: As there is a fullness in things, so there is in times. For each thing has its fullness in a full and copious perfection that abounds in everything. Christ is the fullness of things. The fullness of times is the consummation of freedom. So that his fullness may be whole and perfect Christ collects his members who are scattered, and in this way his fullness is achieved. So in the same way the fullness of times was achieved when all had become ripe for faith and sins had increased to the utmost, so that a remedy was necessarily sought in the judgment of all things. Hence Christ came when the fullness of time was completed. EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS 2.4.3-4.

GOD’S WAY OF ADOPTING SINNERS. AMBROSIASTER: “The fullness of time” is the completed time which had been foreordained by God the Father for the sending of his Son, so that, made from a virgin, he might be born like a man, subjecting himself to the law up to the time of his baptism, so that he might provide a way by which sinners, washed and snatched away from the yoke of the law, might be adopted as God’s sons by his condescension, as he had promised to those redeemed by the blood of his Son. It was necessary, indeed, that the Savior should be made subject to the law, as a son of Abraham according to the flesh, so that, having been circumcised, he could be seen as the one promised to Abraham, who had come to justify the Gentiles through faith, since he bore the sign of the one to whom the promise had been made. EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS 4.5.1.

NOT ONE OF MANY. AMBROSE: He says “his Son,” not one of many, not “a Son” but his own. When he says “his own” he confirms that he has the property of eternal generation. This is the one whom he subsequently de-clares to have been born from a woman, so as to ascribe the fact of being born not to the Godhead but to the assumed body. He was made from a woman by assuming flesh and made under the law by observing the law. But that heavenly birth of his is prior to the law, while the incarnation happens later. ON THE FAITH 1.14.

4:4b | Born of Woman

THE INCARNATE SENDING. THEODORET: It is right to point out that he has linked the sending of the eternal Son with the incarnation. For he does not say “he sent him to come into being as Godhead from a woman,” so that we would misunderstand the sending to be the sending of the Godhead. Instead only the Son, not the Godhead, is born of a woman. Now this is peculiar to the incarnation. EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS 4.4-5.

WHY MARY IS NOT HERE CALLED A VIRGIN. TERTULLIAN: A certain person thought that he had cleverly solved this question: that Mary was called a woman by the angel and the apostle because she was already betrothed. For a betrothed is in some sense a bride. Yet between “in some sense” and “truly” there is a great distance. … He spoke of one who was a virgin and was called woman according to a proper usage of this term with respect to the basic quality of a virgin, which is therefore vindicated by the generic term woman. N THE VEILING OF VIRGINS 6.

NOT FROM HUMAN SEED. PSEUDO-AUGUSTINE: Although in this place the “making” might be understood of his nativity, for there is indeed a distinction between making and generation, … the apostle spoke in this way since the flesh of the Lord was not produced from a human seed in the virgin’s womb and made into a body but by the efficacy and power of the Holy Spirit. For it is one thing for blood to come together with an admixture of seed and cause birth, another to procreate by divine power. QUESTIONS ON THE NEW TESTAMENT, APPENDIX 50.

WHETHER BIRTH IS COMPATIBLE WITH HIS GODHEAD. LEO THE GREAT: He is God in that “all things were made through him and nothing was made without him.” He is human in that he was “made from a woman, made under the law.” The nativity of his flesh shows his human nature. The virgin birth is an indicator of his divine nature. LETTER 28, TO FLAVIAN 4.

4:4c | Born Under the Law

THE SON’S SUBJECTION TO THE LAW. MARIUS VICTORINUS: Because he is brought forth from a woman he can be said to be made, but made for this temporary purpose: to be subject to the law. … The Galatians were to understand from this that they had fallen into error, for the Savior himself, in whom they believed, was made subject to the law though he remained the Lord of the law. EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS 2.4.3-4.

4:5a | To Redeem Those Under the Law

THE REDEMPTION OF ALL WHO BELIEVE. MARIUS VICTORINUS: Since the law by its precepts held people bound, as it were, only to decency of life but not to the hope of deliverance and eternity, God sent his own Son. He sent him subject to the law, that is, the law of Israel, that he might redeem those who were there and lived under the law. Now this is a great thing, that he says [Christ came] not merely to show them the way of life or to stir them up toward eternity with harsh commands but to redeem them. This is the mystery of what he performed, the redemption of all who believed in him, that they might become sons by adoption. When, therefore, such a great benefit came from Christ, nothing was to be added beside this. The law was no longer a matter of servitude. EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS 2.4.5.

THOSE OUTSIDE AND UNDER THE LAW REDEEMED. JEROME: Someone might raise the problem: “If then he was made subject to the law to redeem those who were subject to the law … if he himself was not made also outside the law, he did not redeem those who had not been subject to the law.” Another, however, will scrutinize the word redeemed more closely and will say that by the “redeemed” are meant those who were once of God’s party and later ceased to be so, whereas those who were not subject to the law were not so much redeemed as purchased. EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS 2.4.4.

4:5b | Receiving Adoption

OUR SONSHIP BY ADOPTION, HIS BY NATURE. AUGUSTINE: He says “adoption” so that we may clearly understand that the Son of God is unique. For we are sons of God through his generosity and the condescension of his mercy, whereas he is Son by nature, sharing the same divinity with the Father. EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS 30 [1B.4.4-5].

4:6a | Sending the Spirit of His Son

THE WORK OF THE TRIUNE GOD. MARIUS VICTORINUS: Behold the whole array of those three powers through one power and one Godhead. For God, he says, who is the Father, sent his own Son, who is Christ, and again Christ, who himself being the power of God is God, … sent the spirit of his Son, who is the Holy Spirit. EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS 2.4.6.

GENTILES BECOME SONS OF GOD BY THE SPIRIT. AMBROSIASTER: He says of the Gentiles who believed in Christ, “You are sons,” having previously been enemies. There can be no doubt that believing Jews were also said to be sons of God, since they had long been called by that name. They had received the name of sons at one time as though by anticipation in order that this sonship might subsequently be understood in Christ, being incomplete without the Spirit. EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS 4.6.1.

4:6b | Crying “Abba! Father!”

WHY BOTH ARAMAIC AND GREEK. AUGUSTINE: There are two words that he has set down so that the former may be interpreted by the latter, “for Abba” means the same as “Father.” Now we see that he has elegantly, and not without reason, put together words from two languages signifying the same thing because of the whole people, which has been called from Jews and Gentiles into the unity of faith. EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS 31 [1B.4.6].

4:7 | No Longer a Slave but an Heir

IF SON, THEN HEIR. AMBROSIASTER: There is no doubt that one adopts a son in order to leave him an heir; but inheritance depends on the death of someone. How then can mortals be called the heirs of him who lives forever? The fact is that Scripture speaks in our own manner so that we may understand. In order to show that the Father will give from his goods those things that he is going to give his sons, it calls this “inheritance.” PISTLE TO THE GALATIANS 4.7.

ONE IN CHRIST. JEROME: What we say in this place we should also observe in others, that the whole human race is being treated under a single term. For all we who believe are one in Christ Jesus and members of his body. EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS 2.4.7.