Commentary on Galatians

Contents

Reading pages: 0 · 1.1–1.24 · 2.2–2.20 · 3.1–4.3 · 4.4–4.24 · 4.26–5.17 · 6.1–6.16

1. 0Victorinus states the purpose of Galatians: to call the Galatians back from adding Judaism, understood bodily, to faith in Christ, by first establishing Paul’s authority as an apostle taught by revelation.
2. 1.1Paul claims an apostleship received not from men, as Matthias’s was, nor through any man, but through Christ, who is God and man, and the Father who raised him, and he adds the brothers with him to shame the Galatians.
3. 1.3The greeting already makes Paul’s point: grace and peace come from God through Christ, who gave himself to free us, so nothing need be added to him, neither the law’s works, nor sabbath, nor circumcision.
4. 1.6The one gospel is faith in Christ, the Son of God, whose death and resurrection forgive sins and conquer death, freely and without works, so the Galatians’ quick turn to Judaizing is cause for wonder.
5. 1.7There is no other gospel; those who urge sabbath, new moons, and circumcision understood in a fleshly way pervert the gospel of Christ, though these things understood spiritually belong to it.
6. 1.8Anyone, Paul or even an angel, who preaches a gospel other than the one first preached is to be rejected and punished.
7. 1.9Paul repeats the anathema on any other gospel, because his concern is not to persuade men but to fulfill the mystery entrusted to him.
8. 1.10Paul seeks not to please men but God, since to be Christ’s servant is to have been redeemed from the slavery of the world into the full freedom of serving Christ.
9. 1.11Paul’s gospel is “not according to man”: not received from a man, about a Savior who is God become man, and not to be understood in a fleshly way through sabbaths and circumcision.
10. 1.12Because Paul received his gospel by revelation from Christ, which is sight of the realities themselves, it must be understood spiritually, while the Galatians’ additions come from men who read Moses’ law in a fleshly way.
11. 1.13Victorinus outlines Paul’s autobiographical argument in Gal 1–2, that he learned his gospel from no one, including his rebuke of Peter, whom he says James’s envoys had swayed, and then explains Paul’s former zeal in Judaism.
12. 1.15God revealed his Son to Paul, who consulted no one but went to Arabia and Damascus, then saw Peter, the church’s foundation, only fifteen days; Victorinus claims Paul denied James the title of apostle and treats James as the source of the Judaizing view, citing the Symmachians.
13. 1.20Paul confirms his account with an oath before God because the Galatians had already strayed from the faith.
14. 1.21Paul went to Syria and Cilicia to preach among the Gentiles.
15. 1.22The churches of Judea knew Paul’s gospel though not his face, showing that his gospel had persuaded them even in his absence.
16. 1.23That the former persecutor now preached the faith he had attacked was a marvel to the churches.
17. 1.24The churches glorified God for Paul’s conversion; after fourteen years Paul went up to Jerusalem with Barnabas and Titus as witnesses that his gospel came by revelation.
18. 2.2Paul went up to Jerusalem by revelation and set out his gospel privately to the leading apostles, who agreed with it, showing that nothing may be added to it, for if circumcision or sabbath were needed, salvation would not be by Christ’s grace.
19. 2.3Titus, a Gentile, was not compelled to be circumcised, showing that the Jerusalem leaders agreed with Paul’s gospel against the false apostles.
20. 2.4Victorinus defends the reading “we yielded for an hour” in Gal 2:5, holding that Paul, like one perfect in faith, could accommodate for a time, as in circumcising Timothy or conceding second marriages and certain foods, in order to lead others to the true rule.
21. 2.6God looks not at what a person was but at present faith, and the leaders in Jerusalem added nothing to Paul’s gospel, so nothing should be added for the Galatians.
22. 2.7The pillars of the church, Peter, James, and John, recognized that the same God had entrusted Paul with the Gentiles as Peter with the Jews, and gave Paul and Barnabas the right hand of fellowship in one gospel.
23. 2.10The Jerusalem leaders added only that Paul remember the poor, which Victorinus takes as a reminder, not a condition of salvation, though Paul was eager to do it.
24. 2.11Paul publicly rebuked Peter at Antioch for withdrawing from table fellowship with Gentiles out of fear of men from James; Victorinus holds that Peter only pretended, but sinned by acting from fear and by leading Gentiles to judaize.
25. 2.15Paul reminds Peter that even Jews believed in Christ because no one is justified by the works of the law, and faith alone gives justification and sanctification, so returning to Judaism is an error.
26. 2.17If believers who sought justification in Christ return to the law’s works, they become sinners as though Christ served sin, which must not be.
27. 2.18Returning to the law’s works after faith in Christ rebuilds what was torn down and makes one a transgressor of Christ’s commandments.
28. 2.19Paul died to the law through the law, either through Christ’s law to Moses’ law or, as Victorinus prefers to explain, through the law understood spiritually to the same law understood in a fleshly way, and so his old man is crucified with Christ.
29. 2.20Christ now lives in Paul, who lives in the flesh by faith in the Son of God who gave himself for him; to seek righteousness from the law would make Christ’s death pointless.
30. 3.1The Galatians were foolish to let themselves be bewitched into Judaism, by which Christ’s goods in them were, as it were, auctioned off and Christ crucified again in them.
31. 3.2The Galatians received the Spirit from hearing with faith, not from the law’s works, so adding the law now contradicts the faith by which the Spirit was given.
32. 3.3The works of the law serve the flesh, so those who began in the Spirit through the gospel would be ending in the flesh by adding them.
33. 3.4The Galatians’ sufferings for the faith would be in vain if they abandon it, but Paul softens the rebuke because they can still be corrected and win the reward.
34. 3.5The powers by which the Galatians endured their sufferings were worked by God and came with the Spirit given from the hearing of faith, not from the law’s works.
35. 3.6As Abraham’s faith was reckoned as righteousness, so those of faith are his sons, and the whole mystery of Christ seeks faith alone, by which life is reckoned as righteousness.
36. 3.8Scripture foretold to Abraham that the Gentiles would be justified and blessed by faith as he was, so faith is everything, and those who rely on works are not blessed but cursed.
37. 3.10Those who rely on the works of the law, such as sacrifices, circumcision, and food rules, as distinct from the Christian works Paul commands, are under a curse; the commentary then breaks off and resumes on Christ as mediator.
38. 3.20The law, which only judges deeds, is not a mediator, whereas Christ, the promised seed, is the one mediator who joins what was separated and frees the church held by the world, so justification is through him and not through the law.
39. 3.21The law is not against the promises, for it was not given to give life but to show and warn against sin, shutting all under sin so that the promise might come by faith in Christ, which alone suffices for justification.
40. 3.23Before faith came, the law kept people from sin like a guard and served as a pedagogue until Christ, preparing them to receive justification by faith in him.
41. 3.25With the coming of Christ, who is faith itself, believers no longer live under the law as pedagogue but by faith.
42. 3.26Through faith in Christ the Galatians are all sons of God and heirs of eternal life, and Paul addresses them directly to persuade them gently.
43. 3.27Those baptized into Christ have put on Christ and are therefore sons of God in him.
44. 3.28In Christ the distinctions of nation, condition, and sex are removed, and all who have received his Spirit are one in him and sons of God.
45. 3.29Being in Christ through baptism, the Galatians are Abraham’s seed and so heirs of the promised inheritance.
46. 4.1Like an heir who is still a child and so no different from a slave, those under the law before Christ were kept in custody until the time came to receive the inheritance.
47. 4.2The law of Moses acted as guardian and steward over the heirs until the time set by the Father, when they could take up the inheritance in freedom.
48. 4.3By saying “under the elements of the world” instead of “under the law,” Paul shows that both Jews and Gentiles lived under worldly laws and the necessities of the stars, from which faith in Christ frees believers, so the Jewish law must all the more be left behind.
49. 4.4In the fullness of time the Father sent his eternal Son, born of a woman and made under the law in Israel, to redeem those under the law and make believers sons by adoption, and sent the Spirit of the Son, by whom, knowing the Father, they cry “Abba, Father.”
50. 4.7Whoever calls God Father is a son and no longer a slave, and so an heir, not by works but through God’s mercy and grace.
51. 4.8Before knowing God through Christ, the Galatians served false gods, not even the angels sometimes called gods, but worldly powers invented by the devil.
52. 4.9Turning back to “weak and needy elements” could mean pagan worship of the elements, but Victorinus takes it chiefly of the Galatians’ fleshly reading of the Jewish law, which serves the ever-needy flesh, after they had been known by God.
53. 4.10Paul lists sabbaths, new moons, years, and seasons such as the fast and Passover, which the Judaizing Galatians had begun to observe.
54. 4.11Paul fears his labor in teaching the Galatians faith in Christ will be wasted if they take up Jewish observances.
55. 4.12Paul, who left the Jewish discipline for Christ, asks the Galatians to live as he does.
56. 4.13Paul reminds the Galatians that he preached to them long ago despite bodily weakness, withholding nothing, so they should not add what he did not preach.
57. 4.14Victorinus takes the Galatians’ “temptation” as their testing of Paul, weak in body, to see whether his preaching was firm, and they received him as God’s messenger and as Christ himself.
58. 4.15The Galatians, who once loved Paul so much they would have given him their eyes, have lost their blessedness by adding the law to the simple faith in Christ he taught.
59. 4.16Paul, who preached the true gospel of Christ, cannot rightly be treated as an enemy for telling the Galatians the truth.
60. 4.17The Judaizers court the Galatians out of envy, to shut them out of the blessedness of Christ and make them their followers; instead the Galatians should always strive for the better gifts of faith and love.
61. 4.19Paul, father of the Galatians through baptism and renewal, labors again until Christ, the spirit, is formed in their souls, which brings them to salvation.
62. 4.20Paul wishes he could be present to speak to the Galatians in anger, being ashamed that they so quickly lost their faith.
63. 4.21Paul turns the law itself against the Judaizers, since rightly read it points to faith in Christ as the whole of salvation.
64. 4.22Abraham’s two sons, by Hagar the slave and Sarah the free woman, signify two peoples, the Jews under the law and the church, with Isaac a figure of Christ.
65. 4.23Ishmael was born according to the flesh, but Isaac, promised by God to aged parents, was born by the spirit through promise.
66. 4.24Paul’s allegory makes Hagar and Mount Sinai stand for the old covenant and the earthly Jerusalem, which bear children into slavery.
67. 4.26The Jerusalem above, free and spiritual, is the mother of Christians, while the earthly Jerusalem is fleshly and enslaved.
68. 4.27Isaiah’s barren woman who rejoices over many children is Sarah, who bore Isaac by God’s promise rather than by the flesh, and so a type of the church, which bears many spiritual children with joy, unlike the law and the synagogue.
69. 4.28As Isaac was a spiritual son of promise, so Christians, sons of faith, are children of the free woman.
70. 4.29As Ishmael persecuted Isaac, so those who understand in a fleshly way now persecute those who live by the Spirit.
71. 4.30Scripture’s command to cast out the slave woman and her son shows that those who take the law in a fleshly way cannot share the inheritance, so the Galatians must hold to Christ alone.
72. 4.31Believers are sons of the free woman, of faith, and Christ has freed them with the true freedom of faith in God and his promises.
73. 5.1Paul urges the Galatians to stand upright in freedom and not return to the yoke of slavery under the law or paganism.
74. 5.2Those who seek salvation in circumcision show that they think Christ insufficient, which is to lack faith in him, so Christ will profit them nothing.
75. 5.3Whoever is circumcised is bound to the whole law, including its food rules, observances, and marriage laws such as levirate marriage, which Victorinus calls unfitting for a chaste Christian, so taking only part of it makes the Galatians sinners even by the law.
76. 5.4Seeking justification from the law means falling from grace, which comes from God’s goodness and not from merits, and being cut off from Christ.
77. 5.5Christians await righteousness by the Spirit and faith, since forgiveness and eternal life come by grace, not by works or merits.
78. 5.6In Christ neither circumcision nor uncircumcision counts, but faith working through love toward God and every person, which fulfills the whole law: faith frees and love builds up.
79. 5.7The Galatians had run well in the true gospel, and Paul wonders who turned them from obeying the truth and urges them to agree with no other teaching.
80. 5.8The faith the Galatians were persuaded of comes from God who called them.
81. 5.9The small addition of circumcision is like leaven that corrupts the whole lump of the gospel, for whoever hopes in anything beside Christ lacks faith.
82. 5.10Paul trusts the Galatians will hold to faith in Christ alone and warns that whoever troubles them will bear God’s judgment.
83. 5.11That the Jews persecute Paul shows he does not preach circumcision, and preaching it would empty the offense of the cross.
84. 5.12Paul boldly wishes that those troubling the Galatians might be cut off, a play on circumcision, showing he does not fear their persecution.
85. 5.13The freedom Christ gives is not a license for the flesh but calls believers to serve one another in spiritual love.
86. 5.14The whole law is fulfilled in love of neighbor, which includes every person, and such spiritual love excludes adultery, theft, and every harm.
87. 5.15Discord destroys, while love alone, not circumcision or works, fulfills the law.
88. 5.16Living by the Spirit, with nothing of the flesh in mind or hope, keeps one from fulfilling the desires of the flesh, from which all sin comes.
89. 5.17Flesh and Spirit are opposed, and the flesh has motions of its own like the elements; the commentary breaks off here.
90. 6.1The spiritual should restore one who has fallen, mindful of their own temptation.
91. 6.2Bearing and correcting one another’s faults fulfills the law of Christ, who bore our ills.
92. 6.3Whoever thinks himself something in worldly terms is nothing and deceives himself, since God raises the lowly and the world’s wisdom is foolishness to him.
93. 6.4Each should test his own work honestly, so that any glory comes from the work itself before God, not from others’ praise.
94. 6.5Each person will carry his own load, good or bad.
95. 6.6Explaining the Greek verb “to catechize” as to sound the word into a new Christian’s ears, Victorinus says the catechumen should share all good things with his teacher.
96. 6.7God is not mocked, so the Galatians must not deceive themselves by adding anything to the gospel.
97. 6.8As one sows, so one reaps: those who place their hope in the flesh, as the Galatians did with Jewish observances, reap corruption, while those who sow in the Spirit reap eternal life.
98. 6.9Doing good must be continued without weariness, even amid suffering, since the harvest will come in due time.
99. 6.10Since time is short, believers must do good to all without exception, but especially to fellow believers who hold to faith alone in Christ.
100. 6.11Paul writes in his own hand as a sign of love, so that correction may come privately from him.
101. 6.12Those urging circumcision want to make a good showing in the flesh and avoid persecution for the cross, wrongly adding circumcision to hope in Christ.
102. 6.13The circumcisers do not keep the law, rightly understood, but want to boast in the Galatians’ circumcised flesh as proof that Christ alone does not suffice.
103. 6.14Paul glories only in the cross, where Christ, having a body that represents all humanity, crucified the world and all flesh with himself.
104. 6.15In Christ neither circumcision nor uncircumcision counts, but only being reborn as a new creation, through which all equally gain eternal life.
105. 6.16Peace rests on all who follow the rule of hope in Christ alone and on the true Israel of the Lord; Paul, bearing Christ’s marks of suffering, asks to be troubled no more and blesses them with Christ’s grace.