ACC ~ Galatians 4 v8 - 20

OVERVIEW:

The Galatians once did not know God through Christ (MARIUS VICTORINUS) and so were ignorant of the Trinity. Addressing them as Gentiles (AUGUSTINE), Paul reminds them that they have come to knowledge of God only by grace (MARIUS VICTORINUS). Yet they are returning to things that are both unstable and inferior to God (AUGUSTINE), namely, the carnal understanding of the law (MARIUS VICTORINUS), which Christ has superseded (JEROME). Hence they are more culpable than they were in the state of ignorance (CHRYSOSTOM) having adopted obsolete practices of the Jews (MARIUS VICTORINUS, JEROME) and connived with Gentile superstitions (AUGUSTINE). Paul’s fears express his compassion (CHRYSOSTOM) and show that the matter is no slight one (AUGUSTINE). Paul remembers how he once preached the most basic elements of the gospel to them (JEROME). He mollifies them by recalling their discipleship (CHRYSOSTOM, JEROME), alluding to his sufferings (JEROME). He exposes the absurdity of their change of mind (CHRYSOSTOM) as he recalls how they once received him (MARIUS VICTORINUS) and laments the incompleteness of his own work (JEROME). Their past relationship proves that he is not their enemy (AMBROSIASTER), even when he confronts them with the truth (JEROME). Paul speaks like a mother in great solicitude (CHRYSOSTOM, JEROME) as he labors a second time (AUGUSTINE). Christ is formed in us by faith and discipline (CYRIL OF ALEXANDRIA), but slowly as growth occurs (JEROME). Paul longs to express the sadness that a letter cannot convey (CHRYSOSTOM), to impress his teaching upon them and to articulate his perplexed feelings (JEROME). The false teachers envy the faith of the Galatians (THEODORET) and wish to stir up divisions (MARIUS VICTORINUS). Falsehood has taken advantage of the teacher’s absence (CHRYSOSTOM), as laxity does today (JEROME).

4:8 | In Bondage Through Ignorance of God

WHEN THEY DID NOT KNOW GOD. MARIUS VICTORINUS: Not to know God is not to know Christ, for God is known through Christ. But now, since Christ has appeared, who has taught me and has revealed God through himself—both himself as God and the Father through himself—it is no longer permitted not to know God. EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS 2.4.8.

IN BONDAGE TO BEINGS THAT ARE NO GODS. AUGUSTINE: When, however, he says, “you were in servitude to those who are by nature no gods,” he sufficiently proves that one true God is God by nature, by whose name the triune God is received in the most faithful and catholic bosom of the heart. “Those who are by nature no gods” are described by him as governors and overseers. There is no creature, whether it abides in truth by giving glory to God or fails to abide in truth by seeking its own glory—there is, I say, no creature that does not willy-nilly serve divine providence. … But, just as the magistrate under the imperial law does nothing but what is permitted to him, so the governors and overseers of this world do nothing but whatever God allows. EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS 32 [1B.4.7-8].

4:9a | Knowing God, Being Known by God

THOSE WHO KNOW GOD ARE THOSE KNOWN BY GOD. MARIUS VICTORINUS: He preserves the essence of his own teaching, that those who come to Christ are the ones whom God sends and God calls, and those who know God are the ones that God knows. … For those who are known of God receive the Spirit by which they know God. EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS 2.4.9.

REVERSION TO BEGGARLY ELEMENTS. AUGUSTINE: What follows, as it were, reintroduces a question that has already been explored. Through the whole letter he has shown that no one has disturbed the faith of the Galatians except those who were of the circumcision, who wished to lead them into carnal observations of the law as though salvation were in them. In this place alone he seems to speak to those who were attempting to return to Gentile superstitions. … For in saying “you have reverted,” since he is speaking not to the circumcised but to Gentiles, as appears in the whole letter, he does not say at all that they have reverted to circumcision, in which they had never been, but he says “to the weak and beggarly elements,” which you wish to serve again as before. EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS 33 [1B.4.9].

4:9b | Turning Back to the Elemental Spirits

MAKING GODS FROM THE ELEMENTS. MARIUS VICTORINUS: When he introduces the “beggarly elements of this world,” this seems rather to concern the pagans, who make gods for themselves even from the elements of this world. … Since, however, the whole of his discourse and the whole of this treatise were undertaken to reprimand the Galatians for their conversion to Judaism, and all these things are to be understood of the Jews, how do we understand “you are turned again to the weak”? When therefore he says “the beggarly elements” of this world, he means those who, understanding the law carnally, have clung to the contingent elements of this world. For the flesh is always hungering. It yearns for the sustenance of food and drink and objects of desire, all of which, however, are weak

. EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS 2.4.9.

THE LAW AN INFANCY OF WEAKNESS. JEROME: Now these same elements that he has now styled “weak and beggarly” he called above merely the “elements of the world.” … And so I think that so long as someone is an infant … he is subject to the elements, namely, the law of Moses. But when after [receiving] the freedom due to an heir he reverts again to the law, desiring to be circumcised and to follow the whole letter of Jewish legal illusions, then those things that were merely the elements of the world to him before are now said to be “weak and beggarly elements.” … The law of Moses, which before was rich, affluent and illustrious, became after Christ’s advent and in comparison with him “weak and beggarly.” … The “weak and beggarly elements” are those unworthy traditions of the Jews, which interpret according to the letter. They were poor excuses for interpretations and “commandments that were not good.” EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS 2.4.8-9.

4:9c | Reverting to Slavery

HARSHER DISCIPLINE DUE TO THOSE WHO STILL HUNGER FOR SLAVERY. CHRYSOSTOM: What he is saying is something like this: “When you were in darkness and lived in error you were in an abject condition. But now, when you have known God or rather been known by him, how can you not bring on yourselves a greater and harsher punishment, when you suffer the same disease after so much therapy?” HOMILY ON GALATIANS 4.8.

4:10 | Observing Days and Seasons

OBSERVING OBSOLETE SEASONS. MARIUS VICTORINUS: So that he may be seen to say this to Jews and about Jews—that is, to the Galatians, who combine the Jews’ way of life with theirs—he adds, “You observe days and months and seasons and years.” … For it is one thing to observe days, as for example to rest on the sabbath, another to observe months, as for example to observe new moons, … another to observe years, another again [to observe] seasons such as fasting, the Passover, the feast of unleavened bread and other things of this kind. EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS 2.4.9-10.

SEASONAL SUPERSTITIONS. AMBROSIASTER: The observers of days are those who say, for example, “Tomorrow there must be no setting out on a journey.” … The observers of months are those who watch the course of the moon, saying, for example, “Contracts must not be sealed in the seventh month.” … Seasons are observed when people say, “Today is the first day of spring, it is a festival and after tomorrow is the feast of Vulcan.” … People pay respect to the year when they say, “The first day of January is the new year,” as though a year were not completed every day. … For if God is loved with the whole heart, there ought not to be any dread or suspicion of these phenomena so long as he is near. EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS 4.10.1-2.

THE YEARS IN JUDAISM. JEROME: By “years” I think he means the seventh year of release, and the fiftieth, which they call the jubilee. EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS 2.4.10-11.

4:11 | Fear of Laboring in Vain

PAUL’S FEAR FOR THEM. CHRYSOSTOM: Do you see the compassion of the apostle? They were being corrupted. He trembles and fears. Therefore he expresses this in a very solicitous manner, saying “I labored for you,” as if to say, “Do not render such strenuous toils ineffectual for me.” In saying “I fear” … he has both stirred them up for a contest and directed them toward better hopes. HOMILY ON GALATIANS 4.8.

SUPERSTITIOUS OBSERVANCES IMPERIL THE LABOR FOR THE GOSPEL. AUGUSTINE: So, let the reader choose whichever interpretation he wishes, so long as he understands that such superstitious observances of times bring great peril to the soul, so much so that the apostle adds, “I am afraid, lest perhaps I should have labored in you in vain.” … And yet if someone, even a catechumen, is caught observing the sabbath by the Jewish rite, the church is confused. As it is, innumerable members of the church say with great complacency in open view of us, “I do not travel on the day after the first.” … Alas for human sinfulness, that we only denounce what is unfamiliar, but with familiar things we tolerate them, although they may be great and cause the kingdom of heaven to be shut against them absolutely. It is for them that the Son of God shed his blood. We come to tolerate them through frequent acquaintance with them, and through increased toleration we share in them. EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS 35 [1B.4.10-11].

4:12a | The Apostle’s Plea

BECOME AS I AM. CHRYSOSTOM: He is saying this to those of a Jewish background, and so he brings himself to the fore, persuading them on this ground also to depart from the ancient ways. “For if you have no one else as a paradigm, it is enough simply to look at me as an instance of this change, and you will easily be encouraged. Consider then: I also was in this state and burned with great zeal for the law, and yet later I was not afraid to discard the law and depart from that way of life.” HOMILY ON GALATIANS 4.12.

4:12b | Becoming as You Are

MADE WEAK FOR YOUR WEAKNESS. JEROME: He is saying something like this: “Just as I was made weak for your weakness and could not speak as to spiritual people … so you should also be as I am, that is, understand more spiritually.” … This he says indeed as an imitator of the Savior, who … “was found in fashion as a man,” that we might come to the divine life from being men. EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS 2.4.12.

4:12c | You Have Done Me No Harm

A CHANGE OF TONE. CHRYSOSTOM: See how again he addresses them by a name of honor, remembering to be gracious … for just as continual flattery ruins people, so a continuously severe mode of speech hardens them. Therefore it is good to maintain a balance everywhere. See now how he defends what he has said, showing that it was not in mere indignation but in concern for them that he said what he has said. For since he has given them a deep cut he next injects this appeal like oil. And showing that his words did not come from hatred or enmity, he reminds them of the charity that they displayed toward him and carries on his argument ironically. HOMILY ON GALATIANS 4.8-12.

WHEN HE FIRST PREACHED, THEY DID HIM NO HARM. JEROME: A disciple harms his master if he wastes his precepts and his work by his own neglect. The Galatians had not harmed the apostle, because they had observed his gospel and his commands right up to the present. … Or else [he means]: “When I first preached the gospel to you … I pretended to be weak that I might be helpful to you in your weakness; did you not receive me as an angel, as Christ Jesus? When, therefore, you did me no harm at that time and thought me in my downcast and lowly state to be like the Son of God, why am I harmed by you when I stir you up to greater things?” EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS 2.4.13.

4:13 | Paul’s Reason for Preaching

A BODILY AILMENT. JEROME: This is an ob-scure passage and demands closer attention. “I preached to you initially,” he says, “as if to infants and sucklings on account of your bodily weakness. … This economy and pretense of weakness in preaching was my own policy. You were trying to decide whether things that were rather small in themselves and were presented by me as of little account would be acceptable.” … The passage could also be explained another way: “When I came to you … as a lowly and despised man … you perceived that my lowliness and the plainness of my dress were meant to try you.” … Or we might suppose that the apostle was sick when he came to the Galatians. … And this could also be said, that in his first coming to the Galatians he was subject to abuse and persecution and physical beatings from the adversaries of the gospel. EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS 2.4.14.

4:14a | A Trial to You

PAUL’S CONDITION TESTED THE GALATIANS. CHRYSOSTOM: What is he saying? “I was persecuted, I was flogged, I underwent many near-deaths in preaching to you, and even so you did not despise me.” For that is the meaning of “you did not scorn or despise me.” Do you perceive his spiritual understanding? For even in the course of his self-defense he continues to exhort them anew, showing what he has suffered on their account. HOMILY ON GALATIANS 4.14.

4:14b | You Did Not Scorn or Despise Me

THEY PASSED THE TEST. AMBROSIASTER: The ailment of the apostle was a temptation to the Galatians. But they were found constant, not doubting as to his faith. For they could have stumbled and said, “What virtue or hope is there in this faith when its minister is so humiliated?” But when he had inspired their minds with future hopes, they did not fear present death for the sake of Christ’s name. … This caused them later to blush, because after these laudable acts they became again entrapped so as to deserve reproach. EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS 4.14.1-2.

4:14c | Received as an Angel of God

RECEIVED AS A MESSENGER SENT FROM GOD. MARIUS VICTORINUS: The weakness in my body was no obstacle for you, but you received me as an angel of God, that is, as a messenger, a preacher sent from God (for that is an angel of God); and you received me like Christ Jesus, whom I was preaching to you. And so you truly received Christ Jesus, if you received me as an angel of God, in the same way you received Christ Jesus. EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS 2.4.14.

THE EARLIER RECEPTION MAKES ABSURD THE LATER NONRECEPTION. CHRYSOSTOM: Do you see the absurdity of receiving him as an angel of God when pursued and persecuted but not receiving him when he commands what is necessary? OMILY ON GALATIANS 4.14.

4:15 | The Satisfaction You Felt

FIRM TO BEGIN, INFIRM TO CONTINUE. MARIUS VICTORINUS: You were satisfied at the time when you received the gospel, because you were zealous at the outset. Yet now, since I do not see the finishing of the edifice, I am forced to say, “where is your satisfaction?” EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS 2.4.15-16.

4:16 | Have I Become Your Enemy?

THE UNEXPECTED REVERSAL. AMBROSIASTER: He says this as to imply: “It is not possible that I should become an enemy to those from whom I received such services. But because no one wants to be exposed when he errs, I seem to be your enemy when I justly reprimand you.” EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS 4.16.

AN ENEMY FOR PREACHING THE TRUTH. JEROME: He has finished his sentence elegantly, asking: “Have I become an enemy for preaching the truth to you?” He says this to show that his initial bodily ailment in preaching was not so much truth as a shadow and image of truth. … He has tempered this sentence and made it personal because he has addressed it to the Galatians in person. … Today also, so long as we … explain the Scripture according to the letter, we are praised and respected and held in admiration. But when we make a small attempt to provoke people personally to pass on to greater things, they stop acclaiming us and become resistant. EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS 2.4.15-16.

4:17 | Making Much of You and Them

GOOD AND BAD EMULATION. MARIUS VICTORINUS: Since emulate signifies two things—one when someone emulates what he finds pleasing because it is good and another when people are emulators because they feel envy—these people, he says, emulate you in a bad way, by which he means that they are imitators through envy. … When he adds the phrase “so that you may emulate them” [meaning] “that you may follow them,” he has thus used the double sense of emulation in different places, since emulation is imitation, and especially when it is also directed to what is good. … [He continues:] “Emulate therefore better gifts—not those of Jewish law, which are not gifts and are not better; but emulate those things which are good and better gifts. That is, whatever belongs to faith and love, emulate that with regard to Christ and follow it. It is always good to emulate better things. Emulation as such is not good, but the emulation of better things is always good, and not only when I am present.” EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS 2.4.17-18.

THE MALICE BORNE BY FALSE TEACHERS. THEODORET: He says this with reference to those evil teachers. “For seeing your conspicuous faith,” he says, “they are grieved and all try by every means to rob you of those goods and subject you to their own authority.” For that is what he means by writing “that you may emulate them.” EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS 4.16.

4:18 | Achieving Stability

THEIR LOSS OF EQUILIBRIUM IN PAUL’S ABSENCE. CHRYSOSTOM: Here he hints that his absence had caused these troubles and that the truly blessed state is one in which the disciples have the proper opinion not only when the teacher is present but also when he is absent. But since they have not yet advanced to this degree of responsiveness, he does everything to get them there. HOMILY ON GALATIANS 4.18.

THE EPHEMERAL ENDURANCE OF THE FICKLE. JEROME: No wonder indeed that on the apostle’s departure … the Galatians were changed, since even now we witness the same occurrence in the church. For never was there a teacher in the church so distinguished in speech and life. … We see people busy with haste and fervor about alms, fasting, sexual abstinence, relief of the poor, taking care of graves, etc. But when he departs we see that they waste away and, from loss of their food, grow thin, pale and languid. Then follows the death of all that was thriving before. EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS 2.4.17-18.

4:19a | Again in Labor

PARENTING THE FAITH OF THE REGENERATE. MARIUS VICTORINUS: Sons are spoken of in many senses, sometimes as by love, sometimes as by nature, sometimes as by blood, sometimes even as by religion. This is what Paul means now by “my sons,” either because when the new birth occurs through faithful baptism, he who guides the baptized toward maturity or receives them when fully ready is called their father, or because when he calls them back into Christ he makes them his own sons. EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS 2.4.19.

THE ANALOGY OF THE APOSTLE AS MOTHER. JEROME: He who in another place had spoken like a father now speaks not like a father but like a mother in Christ, so that they may recognize the dutiful anxiety of both parents. EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS 2.4.19.

THE MISCARRIAGES AND ABORTIONS STILL MY CHILDREN. CHRYSOSTOM: Do you see his parental compassion? Do you see the anguish that is fitting for an apostle? Do you see how he has lamented more bitterly than women giving birth? “You have ruined the image of God,” he is saying. “You have lost the kinship, you have exchanged the likeness. You need a rebirth and a reformation. Yet nonetheless I still call the miscarriages and the abortions my children.” HOMILY ON GALATIANS 4.19.

LIKE A MOTHER HE IS IN TRAVAIL. AUGUSTINE: Humans are conceived in their mother’s womb in order to be formed, yet only when fully formed do they go into labor. One might be surprised by his statement: “You with whom I am again in travail until Christ be formed in you.” We are to understand this travail to stand for the agonies of concern that they might be born in Christ. Then he labors for them once again because of the dangers of their seduction, by which he sees them being disturbed. EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS 38 [1B.4.19].

4:19b | Until Christ Is Formed in You!

THE LABOR OF THE MOTHER DOES NOT END IN BIRTH. JEROME: This example which he has taken from a pregnant woman deserves our close attention, so that we may understand what is being said. Nature is something to be not ashamed of but revered. For just as the seed is unformed when first sown into the mother … then at a determined time issues into the light and is now born with difficulties as great as those with which it is later nourished to keep it from dying—so too, when the seed of Christ’s word falls into the soul of the hearer it in-creases by its proper degrees and … remains in jeopardy so long as the one who has conceived it is in labor. Nor does the work end as soon as it emerges This is but the beginning of a new labor, so that he may lead the infant, by diligent nourishment and study, up to the full maturity of Christ. EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS 2.4.19.

CHRIST IS FORMED IN YOU BY LIVING FAITH. CYRIL OF ALEXANDRIA: Christ is “formed in you” by nothing else but irreproachable faith and the way of gospel. FESTAL LETTER 10.1.

4:20a | Wishing to Be Present

A LETTER CANNOT WEEP. CHRYSOSTOM: Let me show you how impatient, how incensed he is, how he cannot bear these things. For such is love: it is not content with words but seeks also to be personally present. “To change my tone,” he says, that is, to cry out and to make mournful noise and tears and to turn everything into lamentation. For in a letter it was not possible to show his tears and mourning. HOMILY ON GALATIANS 4.20.

THE PRESENT TEACHER IS MORE THAN THE ABSENT WRITER. JEROME: Holy Scripture edifies even when read but is much more profitable if one passes from written characters to the voice. … Knowing, then, that speech has more force when addressed to those who are present, the apostle longs to turn the epistolary voice, the voice confined within written characters, into actual presence. EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS 2.4.20.

4:20b | The Apostle’s Perplexity

HIS PRESENT PERPLEXITY INTENSIFIED BY HIS ABSENCE. JEROME: “I used coaxing words to you just now, … but for the sake of that love which prevents me from allowing my sons to perish and stray forever I wish that I were now present—if the bonds of my ministry did not prevent me—and change my coaxing tone to one of castigation. It is not because of fickleness that I am now coaxing, now irate. I am impelled to speak by love, by grief, by diverse emotions.” EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS 2.4.20.