ACC ~ Galatians 4 v21 - 31

OVERVIEW:

The Law, including the patriarchal narrative (JEROME), is here shown to prefigure the New Testament (AUGUSTINE). Abraham is used by Paul in a new way, to show that birth by spirit is better than birth by flesh. Paul describes typology as allegory (CHRYSOSTOM), taking the term from the schools (JEROME), but does not diminish or deny the literal history (THEODORE OF MOPSUESTIA). He relates Hagar to the Sinai testament (AMBROSIASTER) and leaves us to interpret the other wives (AUGUSTINE). We might interpret Hagar by etymology (JEROME). We might suggest four meanings to Jerusalem (JOHN CASSIAN), assuming that the church is the heavenly Jerusalem on earth (AMBROSIASTER). The true Jerusalem, deserted by sinners (AUGUSTINE), has now acquired children in all nations so as to outnumber those of the law’s bride, the synagogue (CHRYSOSTOM). Christians obtain by faithful baptism (THEODORET) the promise that Paul holds out to the Galatians (JEROME), even amid Jewish persecutions (CHRYSOSTOM), which will be requited like Ishmael’s persecution of Isaac (JEROME). Citing Sarah’s banishment of Hagar (THEODORET), Paul exhorts us to claim our freedom (AMBROSIASTER). We share this with the Jewish patriarchs (AUGUSTINE) but not with those who enslave themselves to the law (CHRYSOSTOM).

4:21 | Hearing the Law

HEARING THE OLD TESTAMENT NARRATIVE. JEROME: One should note that the whole narrative in Genesis is here called Law, not, according to the popular assumption, simply statements of what is to be done or avoided but everything that is rehearsed concerning Abraham and his wives and sons. EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS 2.4.21.

HAGAR’S STORY AS PROPHECY. AUGUSTINE: People might suppose that in the case of Hagar Abraham acted [merely from human desire for procreation]. But the apostle makes the reverse clear, viewing this in relation to prophecy. QUESTIONS ON GENESIS 1.70.

THE NEW TESTAMENT PREFIGURED IN THE OLD. AUGUSTINE: Because in the Old Testament the New is prefigured, those men of God who then understood this in the manner appropriate to their times are shown to have been ministers and performers of the old covenant but heirs of the new. AGAINST TWO LETTERS OF PELAGIUS 3.6.

4:22 | Two Sons, One by a Slave and One by a Free Woman

WHY RETURN TO ABRAHAM? CHRYSOSTOM: He returns once again to Abraham, not repeating the same thing but because the reputation of Abraham was great among the Jews. He shows that the types have their origin in him and that present things were adumbrated in him. HOMILY ON GALATIANS 4.22.

4:23a | A Son According to the Flesh

BIRTH ACCORDING TO THE SPIRIT DOES NOT YIELD LESS KINSHIP THAN BIRTH ACCORDING TO THE FLESH. CHRYSOSTOM: Isaac was not born in the natural manner usual in marriages, or according to the body’s natural power, and yet was a lawful son. … Natural processes did not produce his conception, nor did the seed conceive him. For Sarah’s womb was dead both through age and through sterility. But the Word of God formed him. … Nevertheless the one not born according to the flesh was in greater honor than the one who was. Do not, then, be dismayed that you were not born according to the flesh, for your not being born according to the flesh makes you all the more kin to him. For conception that is not according to natural processes is more remarkable and more spiritual. HOMILY ON GALATIANS 4.23.

4:23b | The Son Through the Promise

MADE HEIR THROUGH A TESTAMENT. JEROME: From God’s own Scripture it is evident that the birth of Ishmael also was according to promise. But the answer is that a promise is truly fulfilled in the giving of a covenant. It is one thing to bless, increase and multiply greatly, as is written in Ishmael’s case, but another to make an heir through a covenant. EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS 2.4.22-23.

THE UNIQUENESS OF ISAAC’S BIRTH ACCORDING TO THE PROMISE. AUGUSTINE: Now the fact that Isaac was born of a free wife is not enough to make him signify the people who inherit the New Covenant. What is more important is that he was born according to the promise. For he could have been born according to nature’s norms from a slave and in the same way from a free woman, just as Abraham received from Katurah, whom he subsequently married, sons not according to a promise but according to nature. EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS 40 [1B.4.21-31].

4:24a | An Allegory: Two Women Are Two Covenants

ALLEGORY DEFINED. CHRYSOSTOM: Allegory is used improperly for typology. His meaning is this: “This story does not say only what is evident but relates other things as well; hence it is called allegory.” OMILY ON GALATIANS 4.24.

THE LITERARY TRADITION OF ALLEGORY. JEROME: Allegory is properly a term in the art of grammar. How it differs from metaphor and other figures of speech we learn as children. It presents one thing in words and signifies another in sense. … Understanding this, Paul (who had a certain knowledge of secular literature also) used the name of the figure of speech and called it allegory according to the usage of his own circle. EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS 2.4.24.

PAUL DOES NOT THEREBY DENY THE PLAIN OR LITERAL SENSE OF SCRIPTURE. THEODORE OF MOPSUESTIA: Those who are at great pains to pervert the meaning of the divine Scriptures … abuse this saying of the apostle’s, as though they thought that they could derive from it the power to suppress the entire sense of holy Scripture in their aspirations to speak “allegorically,” as if in the manner of the apostle. They fail to see how great a difference there is between their own position and that of the apostle in this passage. For the apostle does not deny the history or pick apart the events of the distant past, but he has stated them as they happened at the time, while using for his own purpose the interpretation of these events. … He would not have said “referred to one who was born” if he had not believed that person had really existed. There cannot be a simile if one takes away the historical reality itself. COMMENTARY.

4:24b | Bearing Children for Slavery

WHY THE LAW BEARS CHILDREN FOR SLAVERY. AMBROSIASTER: These women represent the two covenants. Moses, taking the blood of a calf in a vessel, sprinkled the people, saying “this is the blood of the covenant, etc.” … The law was given on Mount Sinai. In reciting it to the people, Moses called this the book of the testament. He then sprinkled the people with blood, as I have said. This law held sinners as offenders. They soon began to be slaves of sin, as if they had been made sons of Hagar, as if returning to slavery. EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS 4.24.1-2.

FALSE TEACHERS ARE LIKE SONS OF THE FREE WOMEN WHO BACKSLIDE TO SLAVERY. AUGUSTINE: Under the sure guidance of the apostle we see how clearly he shows that these two are to be taken allegorically. One may also consider the sons of Keturah under some figure of things to come. The fact that such people did these things is recorded not without purpose but under the guidance of the Holy Spirit. We will perhaps find that heresies and schisms are signified in this allegory. For these are sons of the free woman, that is, of the church, and yet they again revert to life according to the flesh, not spiritually according to a promise. EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS 40 [1B.4.21-31].

4:25 | Mount Sinai and the Present Jerusalem

THE ETYMOLOGICAL CLUE IN HAGAR. JEROME: Hagar, who is interpreted as “sojourning,” “wandering” or “tarrying,” gives birth to Ishmael. … No wonder that the Old Covenant, which is on Mount Sinai, which is in Arabia and nearby to Jerusalem, is stated and alleged in writing to be ephemeral and not perpetual. The sojourning of Hagar stands in contrast with perpetual possession. The name of Mount Sinai means “tribulation,” while Arabia means “death.” EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS 2.4.25-26.

4:26 | The Jerusalem Above

HOW WE ENTER THE HEAVENLY JERUSALEM IN THIS LIFE. AMBROSIASTER: Jerusalem, which he calls our mother, represents the Lord’s mystery, through which we are reborn into freedom, just as she is free. And she is called heavenly because heaven is her seat. Those to whom she gives birth will be there with her. EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS 4.26.

THE FOURFOLD MEANING OF JERUSALEM. JOHN CASSIAN: One and the same Jerusalem can be understood in a fourfold way: historically as the city of the Jews, allegorically as the church of Christ, anagogically as the heavenly city of God, which is the mother of all, and tropologically as the human soul, which is often upbraided or praised under this name by the Lord. CONFERENCES 14.8.4.

4:27a | “Rejoice, O Barren One Who Does Not Bear”

SARAH DESERTED BECAUSE OF HER STERILITY. AUGUSTINE: Sarah signifies the heavenly Jerusalem, having been deserted for a long time by her husband’s embraces because of her perceived sterility. For men such as Abraham did not use women to satisfy lust but for the procreation of offspring. Now to her sterility age had also been added. … The age of Isaac’s parents serves to signify that, new though the people of the New Covenant are, their predestination lies nonetheless with God and is that heavenly Jerusalem of old. EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS 40 [1B.4.21-31].

4:27b | The Children of the Desolate One

LIKE SARAH, THE BARREN CHURCH ACQUIRED CHILDREN. CHRYSOSTOM: The church was not only barren like Sarah and did not only become rich in children like her, but it also gave birth in the same way as Sarah. For just as it was not nature but the word of God that made her a mother … so too in our own regeneration it is not nature of any kind but the word of God spoken through the presbyter, as the faithful know, in the waters of the font, as in a womb, that fashions and regenerates the one who is being baptized. HOMILY ON GALATIANS 4.27.

4:27c | The Children of Her That Is Married

HOW THE ONCE BARREN CHURCH NOW SURPASSES THE SYNAGOGUE IN CHILDBEARING. CHRYSOSTOM: Who is the woman with the husband? Is it not obviously the synagogue [as married to the law]? Yet the barren one has surpassed her in childbearing. For the synagogue contains one nation, whereas the children of the church fill Greece, Africa, land, sea and the whole inhabited world. Do you see how Sarah foreshadowed our future in deeds and the prophet in words? HOMILY ON GALATIANS 4.27.

4:28 | Like Isaac We Are Children of Promise

THE GALATIANS CALLED ONCE AGAIN TO BECOME SONS OF THE FREE WOMAN. JEROME: One might ask how he speaks of the Galatians, whom he had called fools. He accused them of starting in the Spirit and finishing in the flesh. When the apostle called them “sons of promise” in the way that Isaac was, he meant that he did not completely despair of their salvation and judged that they would return again to the Spirit, in which they had begun, and become sons of the free woman. EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS 2.4.28.

CHILDREN OF PROMISE, BORN ACCORDING TO GRACE. THEODORET: We were born not according to nature but according to grace. For, just as in Isaac’s case, it was not the law of nature but that of the gospel that fashioned us. Thus the promise given to Abraham engendered us. EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS 4.28.

4:29 | Persecution for Those Born of the Spirit

PERSECUTION ANTICIPATED. CHRYSOSTOM: “And what sort of freedom is this,” someone might ask, “when the Jews oppress and beat the faithful, and those who are reckoned free are persecuted?” For that is what happened then, as the faithful were persecuted. “But do not let even this discourage you, for this too he included beforehand in the type.” HOMILY ON GALATIANS 4.29.

THE SPIRITUAL PERSECUTED BY THE NATURAL BROTHER. JEROME: Ishmael, the elder brother, persecuted him while still a nursing infant, claiming for himself the prior right of circumcision and the inheritance of the firstborn. … And it is aptly said that he who is born according to nature persecutes the spiritual. The spiritual one never persecutes the natural one but forgives him like an untutored brother, for he knows that he may progress. EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS 2.4.29-31.

4:30 | What Does the Scripture Say?

THE TRUTH AND TYPE OF SCRIPTURE EXPLAINED. THEODORET: By “the words of Scripture” he means those spoken of Sarah explaining the goal of the Scripture, for the sake of which he has written these things afresh, so that after the truth the type also may be explained. EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS 4.30.

4:31 | Children of the Slave, Now Children of the Free Woman

BEFORE WE WERE CHILDREN OF THE SLAVE. AMBROSIASTER: We were therefore sons of the slave woman when we were liable for our sins. But, having received the remission of sins from Christ, we have been made free. EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS 4.31.

FOREORDAINED THROUGH AGES. CHRYSOSTOM: He raises and treats all these points in his wish to prove that what has occurred is not an afterthought but was prefigured from above and through many ages. Do you see how it is absurd that those who were foreordained through so many ages and had obtained freedom should happily put themselves again under the yoke of slavery? HOMILY ON GALATIANS 4.31.

NOW CHILDREN OF THE FREE WOMAN. AUGUSTINE: Let us consider whether we should say that the righteous people of old were children of the slave woman or the free. But God forbid that they should be the slave woman’s. If therefore they are the free woman’s, they belong to the new covenant in the Holy Spirit, whose life-giving power the apostle contrasts with “the letter that kills.” AGAINST TWO LETTERS OF PELAGIUS 3.12.