Interpretation of Galatians

Contents

Reading pages: 0–2.19 · 3.1–4.31 · 5.2–6.18

1. 0Theodoret's introduction: Jewish-Christian teachers had persuaded the Galatians to keep the law and be circumcised, so Paul wrote to defend his calling and show the law superfluous after grace.
2. 1.1Theodoret explains that Paul's apostleship came from Christ and the Father, not from men, and that “through” used of both persons implies no difference of nature.
3. 1.2Theodoret comments on Paul's greeting, explains the “present evil age” as this mortal life rather than an evil creation (against the Manichees), and shows that turning back to the law means deserting God who called the Galatians.
4. 1.8Theodoret explains why Paul includes himself and angels under the curse on anyone preaching another gospel.
5. 1.9Theodoret notes that Paul repeats the curse to show it was not said in anger, and that he seeks to please God rather than men.
6. 1.12Theodoret explains that Paul received his gospel by revelation from Christ, recounts his former zeal for the law, and notes that he did not consult the apostles after his calling.
7. 1.18Theodoret explains Paul's visit to Peter, identifies James the Lord's brother as his cousin, son of Clopas, and relates Paul's second visit to Jerusalem to the dispute settled in Acts 15.
8. 2.3Theodoret takes the uncircumcised Titus as proof that the apostles did not require Gentile believers to keep the law.
9. 2.5Theodoret explains that Paul refused to yield to the advocates of the law, and that when the leading apostles kept the law out of condescension to weak Jewish believers he left the matter to God's judgment.
10. 2.6Theodoret explains the agreement with James, Cephas and John and Paul's rebuke of Peter at Antioch, which he reads as a rebuke Peter accepted in silence for the benefit of both Jewish and Gentile believers.
11. 2.10Theodoret distinguishes the moral commands of the law, which nature also teaches, from its ceremonial works (Sabbath, circumcision, purity, sacrifices), which he identifies as the works of the law that cannot justify.
12. 2.17Theodoret explains that if leaving the law for faith were transgression, the blame would fall on Christ, who gave the New Covenant, which is unthinkable.
13. 2.18Theodoret notes that Paul turns the charge around: returning to the law, not leaving it, is the transgression.
14. 2.19Theodoret explains that the law itself led Paul to Christ, so that he died to the law, was crucified with Christ in baptism, and lives by faith, and that justification by the law would make Christ's death superfluous.
15. 3.1Theodoret reads “bewitched” (literally “cast the evil eye on”) as implied praise of the Galatians' former prosperity in faith, and Paul's lament as fatherly affection.
16. 3.2Theodoret explains that the Galatians received the Spirit's gifts through faith, not the law, and that “flesh” here means the bodily observances of the law.
17. 3.4Theodoret explains that the Galatians' sufferings for Christ would be wasted if they turned to the law, but Paul leaves them hope.
18. 3.5Theodoret notes that the gifts of the Spirit came through faith, and turns to the example of Abraham.
19. 3.6Theodoret notes that Paul here summarizes the argument of Romans that Abraham was justified by faith.
20. 3.7Theodoret explains that the promise to Abraham foretold the Gentiles' justification by faith, and that the law curses all who fail to keep every command.
21. 3.11Theodoret notes that Paul supports his argument with Habakkuk's word that the righteous shall live by faith.
22. 3.12Theodoret explains that the law demands deeds, and that Christ freed all from its curse by accepting the death it calls accursed, so that the blessing promised to Abraham comes to the Gentiles.
23. 3.15Theodoret explains that the law, given 430 years later, cannot alter God's covenant with Abraham, whose “seed” in the promise is Christ alone, through whom the nations are blessed.
24. 3.18Theodoret contrasts the law, which threatened a curse to guide its subjects, with the promise, which brings blessing to the nations.
25. 3.19Theodoret explains that the law was given through angels and Moses for the care of Israel until Christ, that the one God gave both promise and law, and that only the law's ceremonial additions are the “statutes not good” of Ezekiel.
26. 3.25Theodoret explains the law as a wall and a tutor guarding Israel until Christ, and teaches that believers, having put on Christ in baptism, are sons of God, one body without distinction, and Abraham's seed.
27. 4.1Theodoret explains the law as guardian of an underage heir, the “elements of the world” as the law's observance of days and seasons, and the sending of the Son born of a woman as belonging to the incarnation, not to the Godhead.
28. 4.6Theodoret explains that believers dare to call God Father only because they have received the gift of adoption through the Spirit.
29. 4.7Theodoret explains that the Galatians are sons and heirs through Christ, treats their observance of days under the law as a return to the deification of the elements, and dwells on Paul's fatherly grief and their former honor of him.
30. 4.16Theodoret notes that Paul's harsh words were spoken for the sake of the truth.
31. 4.17Theodoret explains that the false teachers, envious of the Galatians' faith, want to cut them off from its blessings and bring them under their own power.
32. 4.18Theodoret notes that Paul wants the Galatians to excel in good always, and introduces his lament as a mother's.
33. 4.19Theodoret explains Paul's second labor over the Galatians and uses it against the Novatianists' denial of repentance.
34. 4.20Theodoret explains Paul's allegory of Hagar and Sarah as the two covenants and two peoples under one God, insisting that the allegory does not abolish the history.
35. 4.31Theodoret explains the freedom of Gal 5:1 as life outside the law and the yoke of slavery as life under it, citing Peter in Acts 15.
36. 5.2Theodoret stresses Paul's solemn warning that circumcision would cancel the benefit of faith in Christ.
37. 5.3Theodoret explains that whoever accepts circumcision binds himself to the whole law and its curse.
38. 5.4Theodoret explains that, once grace has been given as the lawgiver promised, those who seek justification by the law lose the gifts of grace.
39. 5.5Theodoret explains that believers, holding the Spirit as a pledge, await an immortal life free of sin.
40. 5.6Theodoret explains that faith has removed the distinction between circumcision and uncircumcision, and that love of neighbor fulfils the necessary part of the law.
41. 5.7Theodoret notes Paul's praise of the Galatians' former course and his grief at its halt.
42. 5.8Theodoret distinguishes God's call from the hearers' response.
43. 5.9Theodoret reads the proverb of the leaven as Paul's fear that the error will spread.
44. 5.10Theodoret explains Paul's confidence in the Galatians, the judgment awaiting their troubler, and Paul's defense that his persecution by Jews proves he does not preach circumcision.
45. 5.12Theodoret explains Paul's harsh wish against the advocates of circumcision and his warning that freedom from the law is not license to sin, but calls for service in love.
46. 5.14Theodoret explains that love of neighbor fulfils the law, and that Paul's warning against biting one another points to strife between circumcised and uncircumcised Galatians.
47. 5.16Theodoret explains that following the Spirit's counsels masters the passions of the flesh.
48. 5.17Theodoret explains “flesh” as the mind's inclination to the worse and “spirit” as indwelling grace, which, unlike the law, is given to all the baptized.
49. 5.19Theodoret argues that the works of the flesh, which include sins of the soul such as idolatry, show that Paul means the fleshly mind, not the body, and that the fruit of the Spirit is achieved by grace working with the soul.
50. 6.1Theodoret explains that the spiritual should restore a fallen brother gently, mindful of their own frailty.
51. 6.2Theodoret explains bearing one another's burdens as mutual help in each other's faults, which fulfils Christ's law of love.
52. 6.4Theodoret advises that any pride should rest on one's own work, not on comparison with others.
53. 6.5Theodoret notes that each will answer for his own sins.
54. 6.6Theodoret explains that hearers should support their teachers, and that each will reap as he sows, corruption from the flesh or eternal life from the Spirit.
55. 6.9Theodoret encourages perseverance in doing good, since the heavenly harvest, unlike an earthly one, is reaped without toil.
56. 6.10Theodoret comments on doing good to all, Paul's writing the letter in his own hand, and the false teachers who preach circumcision to avoid persecution.
57. 6.13Theodoret argues that the advocates of circumcision cannot keep the law away from Jerusalem and seek only to boast, while Paul boasts in the cross alone.
58. 6.15Theodoret explains the “new creation” as the transformation after the resurrection, of which baptism is an image, and in which circumcision and uncircumcision make no difference.
59. 6.16Theodoret explains the “rule” as Paul's teaching and the “Israel of God” as the faithful, who see God through faith.
60. 6.17Theodoret reads the “marks of the Lord Jesus” as the scars of Paul's sufferings for the gospel, offered as testimony to its truth.
61. 6.18Theodoret calls the closing blessing a seal on the letter, and ends with an exhortation to guard the grace of the Spirit and a doxology.