Commentary on Galatians 1.1–1.24

“Paul, an apostle not from men nor through man, but through Jesus Christ and God the Father, who raised him from the dead, and all the brothers who are with me, to the churches of Galatia.” The order at the beginning of the sentence is this: “Paul, an apostle, and all the brothers who are with me, to the churches of Galatia.” And here the apostle commends himself as sent not from men nor through man, but through the Lord Christ and God the Father who raised him from the dead; showing who writes, with whom, and to whom; and although Paul the apostle usually speaks only of himself to the Romans and the Corinthians, to weigh upon the Galatians and mark them as in grave error he has joined with himself also all the brothers who were with him, as though they too were writing to them, making them ashamed that they think contrary to all. “Not from men nor through man,” to give greater force to his precepts and to the gospel he proclaims. For, being about to correct the Galatians, he says that he is not an apostle either from men or through man, but through Jesus Christ and God the Father. So I am to be believed and trusted, and the gospel I bring forth is true, since it is through Jesus Christ and God the Father. An apostle, then, he says, not from men nor through men; since not through the apostles, of whom he says both that he was with them a few days and that they gave him their right hands: so he learned nothing from them. “Nor through man,” whether through some prophet, so as to be ambiguous; nor through Christ as man, but through the Christ who was in a man: for Christ is both God and man. “Not from men nor through man.” When he says “from men,” he seems to point to Matthias, who learned from men: for he was put in the place of the traitor; so he learned from men. And when he said “nor through man,” he means that he was not sent or taught by a man, but through Jesus Christ, that is, God. So in saying “not from men” he hints at the apostles; since the apostle Paul, as he proved, learned nothing from any apostle who had been with Christ. Likewise, so that he would not seem, though he learned through Christ, to deny, like a certain blasphemous heretic, that Christ was a man, having added “not through man,” he adds what it is, saying, “but through Jesus Christ and God the Father.” Since he denied “through man” and added “through Christ,” one may understand “through Christ as God.” But since he added “through God the Father,” some therefore say that Christ is scarcely ever called God by Paul. But we have proved in many places that he is called God by Paul too. Here too it may be understood: for if it is said “not through man,” and added “but through Christ,” it must be understood that Christ too is God. Yet since whatever God does he does through Christ, as we have shown in many places, it is therefore said “through Christ, and God the Father who raised him from the dead.” Surely so that it would not be said, “How did you learn through Christ, you who did not follow Christ, and Christ is dead?” he added that God raised Christ from the dead. So Christ taught me, who was raised from the dead; raised by the power of God the Father. What this mystery of the Son raised from the dead is we have often explained; we will often speak of it when there is occasion. “And all the brothers who are with me”: the apostle Paul has already shown above the order of this thought: “Paul, an apostle, and all the brothers who are with me.” What is added? “To the churches of Galatia.”

Keeping the custom by which we add a greeting or something of that kind: “Grace to you and peace from God the Father and our Lord Jesus Christ, who gave himself for our sins, to free us from the present evil age, according to the will of God and our Father, to whom be glory to the ages of ages.” Let us remember what the Apostle is doing in this letter: since he rebukes the Galatians and wishes to correct them, so that they may have faith in Christ and expect from him alone the hope of salvation, the hope of eternity, the forgiveness of sins; and that they may not at all believe that the works of the law, or sabbaths, or circumcision profit them. So at the beginning he prays for peace and grace for them from God, and then added “from Christ,” because in Christ are all our goods; and he proves that all things are in Christ, and all through Christ, when he says, “who gave himself for our sins, to free us from the present evil age.” So by his benefit, by his grace—from God the Father, indeed, but by his passion—we are freed from the present wicked age; and freed through Christ, but by the power of God, of God, namely, to whom is glory through all eternity. If, then, God is eternal, his glory too is forever. And since by the will of God Christ carried out the mystery and gave himself for our sins to free us all, liberation is by the will of God through Christ. And if it is through Christ, nothing further is to be sought, and the things the Galatians add are vain: that is, Judaism, the works of the law, the observance of the sabbath, and circumcision.

“I marvel that you are so quickly being transferred from him who called you into grace to another gospel.” Since the gospel which the apostle Paul proclaims is certain, namely Christ, the Son of God, the power of God for salvation to all who believe, whether Greeks or Jews, and nothing besides; but all hope of salvation and of God’s grace toward us lies in faith concerning Christ, so that when we believe that he is the Son of God, that he suffered for us, that he rose again, from this we too rise again, with the forgiveness of sins; since this is the true gospel which Paul proclaims, whoever adds anything else, that is, Judaism and circumcision and the observance of the sabbath and the rest, sins in this way and is a stranger to the truth. Since, then, the Galatians thought Judaism should be added to the Apostle’s gospel, therefore, he says, “I marvel that you are so quickly being transferred.” For the first sin is to be transferred quickly; for there is no reason when something is transferred quickly; and then that one is transferred, since one is transferred from someone. Let us see, then, from whom: “from him,” he says, “who called you into grace.” For Christ, who suffered for us all, has called us into grace, if we believe in him; for it is no great thing to obtain his grace, if only we follow him, believing that by his mystery he has bestowed these things; and that freely, and without labor, and without great works. Since he has bestowed this on us, to be quickly transferred from him is a great cause for wonder, that they preferred to be transferred to another gospel, joining to it the discipline of Judaism. But the gospel is one, and only one: to believe that Christ is the Son of God, that Christ by his passion and coming in the flesh and resurrection and passion has loosed all sins, conquered death, and destroyed all corruption: this alone is the gospel. Therefore he adds:

“Which is not another”: for that alone is the gospel which we spoke of above; for there is no other; neither meriting salvation from works, nor from the observance of the sabbath, nor from circumcision is the gospel, that is, our salvation. “Unless there are some who trouble you and wish to pervert the gospel of Christ.” He says, then, that the works of certain people are not done from the truth, as when they wish to trouble you and, as though you were less learned, to teach you. They pervert the gospel of Christ, though there is no gospel except Christ’s. But what is from works or from circumcision is not Christ’s: for these things understood in a fleshly way are not Christ’s; but if they are understood spiritually, so that circumcision is of the heart, and all things that are in the flesh are understood spiritually, these, I say, are the gospel of Christ. But those who go down to works and to fleshly things do not have the gospel of Christ. So those who want and command you to observe the sabbath, or new moons, or circumcision, or the other things that are done by works, do not have the gospel of Christ: hence they want to turn you from the gospel of Christ. And whereas you had believed in Christ, and that all things are to be hoped for in Christ, they wish to trouble you by urging something else.

“But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach a gospel to you other than what we have preached to you, let him be anathema.” He has joined, more sharply and forcefully, a compressed thought: that all err if they proclaim anything besides the gospel of Christ; if we ourselves, whom you have already believed, or even more an angel, even an angel from heaven, should preach to you otherwise—otherwise, that is, beyond the gospel of Christ, which we indeed have preached—let him be anathema; for this is what he said: “other than what we have preached to you.” So to me also, if I preach otherwise, and to an angel from heaven, if, he says, he proclaims otherwise than we once proclaimed to you, let there be anathema; that is, as we explained above, let him be rejected; and let him be without reward, rather with the punishment of his evil deed.

“As we have said before.” It may seem that he had said something of the kind earlier too, that those who preach the gospel otherwise should be anathema; but he said “as we have said before” in order to add, “and now I say again,” so that it may be understood of what he has just said: as we said before, and now again I warn. What? What was said above: “if anyone preaches a gospel to you other than what you received, let him be anathema”: that is, whether I preach and proclaim the gospel otherwise, or an angel, or anyone else, let him be anathema. And he adds a stronger reason: that what he does he does not do in order to persuade men, but to complete the mystery entrusted to him. For so he adds:

“For am I now persuading men, or God?” For what I do, he says, I do not do in order to persuade men, but I persuade before the Lord God, whom I wish to please, so that I may carry out what has been commanded. The Greek has it otherwise: “For am I now persuading men, or God?” That is, I do not preach men, nor the things of men, but God. For I wish to persuade not of men, but of God, Christ. So I have both the necessity and the fear of speaking the truth, and of not saying now one thing and now another. “Or do I seek to please men?” For I do not do what is for men’s advantage, in order to please men, but in order to please God, in that I render obedience and fulfill his commands. And he adds more strongly what he says: “If I were still pleasing men, I would not be a servant of Christ.” For to please men, as is shown by many things, is not to merit the grace of God. Whoever thinks that life is to be led by works pleases men, and does not yet merit grace. “But if I were pleasing men.” So if I wished, he says, to please men, I would not be a servant of Christ, that is, I would not have been redeemed by Christ. For this is to be a servant of Christ: that, redeemed through his passion and freed from the world and from the lords of the world and of the flesh, I now have Christ as Lord and am his servant. And so whoever wishes to please men has not been redeemed by Christ, and serves the lords of the world when he pleases men; but he becomes a servant of Christ who has been redeemed from slavery into freedom: for this is to be a servant of Christ, to be free from worldly slavery: he is a servant of Christ who, redeemed, as we said, knows nothing of that slavery; which is full freedom.

“For I make known to you the gospel that was preached by me, that it is not according to man.” Either, as he said above, that he is an apostle not from men nor through man, and now he has said this, “not according to man.” For the apostle announces, that is, preaches the gospel, which is that he proclaims Christ, the Son of God, the Savior of all, through whom all things were made: and this I say not according to man, that is, not received from man. Or because that Savior himself is not a man, as some think; nor is he a man because he was sent into a man; but God, taking flesh in the mystery to conquer the flesh, as has been said and treated by many, became man. Not, then, he says, according to man have I preached the gospel to you. I make known, then, brothers, you who err and are carried off and transported toward man by thinking in a fleshly way, observing sabbaths, circumcision, and the rest: my gospel is not according to man, that is, so as to deal with man, that is, with the flesh, but according to the power of the soul. For the whole mystery was done so that we would not think in the way some think according to man, taking everything in a fleshly way; but he himself added what he wishes to be understood: “that it is not according to man.”

“For I did not receive it from man, nor was I taught it, but through the revelation of Jesus Christ.” So I did not preach the gospel according to man, because I did not receive it from man. So if receiving from man is one thing, “according to man” will be another; and likewise if “I did not receive it from man” is one thing, “not according to man” will be another: from which one may understand “according to man” as thinking in a bodily way; since he takes as his argument for it, “I did not receive it from man.” For if a man had handed these things to me, I would receive them according to man, so as to understand everything according to the flesh; but now what I preach is not to be taken according to man, that is, not in a fleshly way but spiritually, since the argument is that I did not receive it so. For if I received it from the spirit and was taught by the spirit, I ought to understand it spiritually; and this will be “not according to man.” Then what does he add? “But it was revealed to me,” he says, “by Christ Jesus.” Saying “revealed” carries more credibility than if he were taught. For men teach, and assert something as if by reasons; but revelation is the sight of the things themselves, which is surely more. And who revealed it? Jesus Christ. For those who already follow Christ ought not to take it as if they understood it to have been received from man, since it had been said, “Jesus Christ revealed it,” and the Galatians have already received both God and the Son of God. The rest that they add is from man, either from those who persuaded them, or from Moses himself, who gave the law. He indeed received it from God, but they, understanding too little, take everything in a fleshly way. So great is the evil! For Moses received this law and believed; but the apostle said that it was revealed to him, and he explains it.

“For you have heard of my former way of life in Judaism, how beyond measure I persecuted the church of God and tried to destroy it, and advanced in Judaism beyond many of my contemporaries in my nation, being more abundantly a zealot for the traditions of my fathers.” The sum of this narrative about himself is this: to teach that he did not learn from men nor through man, but from God and from Jesus Christ; and this serves the purpose that the Galatians should not think otherwise, nor think anything must be added to the gospel which Paul proclaimed to them: that faith in Christ must be taken up, and that it must be believed that he gives salvation and no other; that salvation is not given from works, nor is this gospel from circumcision or the observance of the sabbath, nor should anything else be accepted besides what the Galatians received. To prove this easily, he adds, as I said, the narrative about himself: what he was, how he was converted; what he did after he was converted from Judaism and began to believe in Christ; and that he did not learn all these things from men; since I saw neither Peter, except when I was already prepared and taught, nor any of the apostles. For first, he says, I was a Jew; so I was opposed; nor did I learn from them, since what is said in the gospel about Christ is against them. So I was a Jew, doing much against the church; so I learned nothing from the Jews. But after I was converted, and God by his grace began to reveal his Son in me, I began, he says, to preach the gospel among the Gentiles. Then he shows that he did not spare himself, nor did he come to Jerusalem, lest perhaps he should have learned there from the apostles. But I withdrew, he says, into Arabia; from there I returned to Damascus; then after three years I came to Jerusalem. See, he is already preaching the gospel and teaching Christ. So he did not learn these things from men: for he came to Jerusalem after three years. Then he saw Peter, and was with him fifteen days. When, then, did he learn, or could he have learned, from Peter? Then, he says, I saw none of the apostles except James, the brother of the Lord. In this he surely shows that he learned from no one, since he was with Peter only a few days; and seeing James, the brother of the Lord, he confirmed all the more that he could not have learned from James; since Paul holds these things in the gospel, whereas James does not hold them, as we shall show later. Then he says he went to the regions of Syria and Cilicia; yet he was already known to all the churches and to the Jews: that, though he had been a Jew, he was following the gospel and preaching it. After this he narrates that after fourteen years he came to Jerusalem. From where, then, did he learn what he preaches? Not from men nor through man, but through revelation. I set out to them all, he says, the gospel that I preach among the Gentiles. Then, too, it was I rather who told the gospel to the apostles; they did not teach me. There he teaches where and how far he acted by dissimulation in order to keep the gospel: since he accepted a small part of Judaism out of necessity, so that the truth of the gospel might remain; what this is we shall teach in its place. Hence he says that both Peter and he have one gospel; but Peter to preach it to the Jews, he to the Gentiles; and that this was given him by revelation; and that these offices were divided by God and our Lord Jesus Christ: for he worked in both. This Peter and John confirmed, that their view was the same as that of the apostle Paul and of Barnabas; and they agreed that these should preach to the Gentiles, those to the Jews. And he adds and records the greatest proof of his confidence, knowledge, revelation, and gospel: that he says Peter acted soundly before certain men came from James; then, after they came, he changed; and that Paul rebuked this very thing and refuted him. He had changed so that he would not eat with the Gentiles, and used Jewish foods. This he says he rebuked, since before they came from James he lived with the Gentiles; afterward, fearing, as it were, James’s envoys, he lived with the Jews; for James preached Christ with Judaism mixed in, which Paul denies should be done. If, then, this was already rebuked, and in Peter, when he acted so, reproached, overcome, and settled, surely these Galatians too, since they have begun to do this, must be corrected and changed: namely, so that these, believing through faith in Jesus Christ, may be justified by faith, not by the works of the law. So far the account of himself; then there is an admonition and exposition, quite useful and fitting for what he wishes to do, to correct the Galatians, lest, following Judaism, they not follow the gospel; which is one: to have true faith in Christ and to be justified by him, not by the works of the law. After this he gives other arguments that justification comes from Christ, not from the law nor from works; and this is the whole reading I spoke of above, up to that place which begins thus: “But if, seeking to be justified in Christ, we ourselves also are found sinners, is Christ then a minister of sin?” and the rest. But now let us return to the narrative about his own person (we have said why it was undertaken). “You have heard,” he says, “of my former way of life in Judaism.” So that he would not seem to be telling something new about himself, he says, “you have heard of my life”: for this is what he called “way of life”: you know the conduct of life which I once had when I was in Judaism, and how I acted, “how beyond measure I persecuted the church of God.” Not only, he says, was I a Jew and followed the law, but on the other side I persecuted the church and attacked it. So I, who was such as to persecute the church, cannot today, having been converted from Judaism, persecute the church which I persecuted; I cannot, I say, approve both following Judaism and persecuting the church; and at the same time, as I said above, in Judaism I understood and received nothing that belonged to the church. So I was not taught by men. So I tried to destroy the church. “Tried to destroy” is too little; what did he add? “And I advanced in Judaism beyond many of my contemporaries in my nation more abundantly”: and though I had colleagues, I surpassed them all equally in zeal and in profession of Judaism; and I acted “more abundantly,” that is, I was stronger and more vehement in asserting Judaism: “being a zealot for the traditions of my fathers,” so that I expounded and handed on in the same way the traditions of the fathers, that is, the readings of Judaism and of the law. “Zealot,” that is, imitator, and as it were in a kind of rivalry; one who wished to be the same as my fathers were, or as the traditions themselves were.

Since this, then, had been his life, where did so great a conversion come from? He adds: “But when it pleased him who set me apart from my mother’s womb, and called me through his grace, to reveal his Son in me, that I might preach him among the Gentiles.” The order is: “but when it pleased God to reveal his Son in me.” What is “it pleased God to reveal his Son in me”? That is, that I should know Christ: for first one must know, then preach. So, he says, he “who set me apart from my mother’s womb,” that is, who caused me to be born. Likewise “and called me through his grace”; that is, he called me out so that I might come to his grace and know God: for no one knows God except one who has been called. So he called me, and it pleased him to reveal his Son in me; so that I, he says, might know, and so then that I might preach him among the Gentiles. After this pleased him, what followed? “Immediately I did not consult flesh and blood.” So, he says, what I preach was revealed to me. And I did not labor at all in a fleshly way [?]. For this is not labor. For if one announces divine things and things that have the grace of God, there is no labor for the soul, but the labor of flesh and blood, that is, to run about, to bear the labor of travel, to traverse provinces and nations. But “I did not consult,” he says, “flesh and blood.” For flesh and blood is the whole outer man. “Nor did I go up to Jerusalem to those who were apostles before me.” For from this it could have seemed that he learned from men or through men, if he had gone to Jerusalem and lived long with his elders and predecessors. I did not, he says, go to the apostles my predecessors; I did not learn from them; “but I went away into Arabia, and again returned to Damascus.” This is what he received by revelation from God, that he should preach among the Gentiles. “I went away,” he says, “into Arabia.” What a long journey! And when he returns to Damascus, how different a direction! “Then after three years I came to Jerusalem to see Peter.” So for three years he had already been preaching among the Gentiles. What, surely, but what he had received from God, to preach to the Gentiles the Christ revealed to him? After three years, he says, I came to Jerusalem. Then he adds the reason: “to see Peter.” For if the foundation of the church was laid in Peter, as is said in the gospel, Paul, to whom all things had been revealed, knew that he ought to see Peter, as one to whom so great an authority had been given by Christ, not so as to learn anything from him. Then what does he add? “And I stayed with him fifteen days.” So I only stayed. Could I in a few days, in so short a time, have learned from Peter so great a knowledge of God? “But I saw none of the other apostles except James, the brother of the Lord.” This too he added with great learning and great skill: first, in that he said, “I saw no other of the apostles”: for the Symmachians make James an apostle, as it were the twelfth; and those follow him who add to our Lord Jesus Christ the observance of Judaism; although they also confess Jesus Christ; for they say that he is Adam himself, and that he is the universal soul, and other blasphemies of this kind. So here Paul denied that James is an apostle, by saying, “I saw none of the other apostles,” since he said he had seen no other of the apostles, except James. And the reason why James is added: “the brother of the Lord,” who was regarded as his brother according to the flesh. When he said “brother,” he denied him the title of apostle. But he had to be seen, for honor’s sake. But he could learn nothing from James either, since James thinks otherwise. Nor from Peter, either because he stayed only a few days with Peter, or because James is not an apostle and is in heresy. But he added James too. So I saw by name what James teaches and preaches; and yet, since this blasphemy is known to me, it has been rejected by me, as it must be rejected by you also, O Galatians. For you cannot say, “You deny James, and therefore you reject what we follow, because you did not see James.” So he added, “I saw James too.” Nor is it an error: this James, he says, the brother of the Lord, that is, the author of your opinion. So he counted for nothing with me. And although I did not follow him, I also know his opinion. Since, then, nothing is unknown to me, and he could not persuade me, you follow him in vain.

“What I write to you, behold, before God, I do not lie.” Credibility had to be secured even by an oath. For to those who have already strayed from the faith he says, what I write to you, I do not lie; behold, before God I declare that I narrate everything as it happened.

“Then I came into the regions of Syria and Cilicia,” that is, to preach the gospel among the Gentiles.

“But I was unknown by face to the churches of Judea which are in Christ.” That is, the gospel which I proclaimed was already known to almost all the churches of Judea (but a Judea that is in Christ, not in the Judaism of the Jews). And there are many churches in Christ, to all of which the gospel he holds about Christ was known. Yet he himself was unknown by face. By all this, then, what does he show? That he had already persuaded all of his gospel even while he was absent.

“They only heard that he who once persecuted us now preaches the faith.” He says this was a marvel to all, as it surely ought to be a marvel: all heard, he says, that I, who had been a Jew, who once persecuted the Christians and the churches, now preached the faith, that is, that all should have faith in Christ: the faith which he had formerly denied, which he once tried to destroy. So it was a marvel that he who had once tried to destroy it should now preach the faith; which he himself had done.

“And in me,” he says, “they glorified the Lord.” Because all now grasped the power of God and called God magnificent because I had been converted; and I who had been an attacker was now a preacher. So it came about that they glorified God in me; that is, they called him great, since with a mind suddenly turned I preached the Lord Christ, whom I had formerly attacked. For what is so magnificent as for a mind to be conquered, to take up the contrary, and to preach the faith which you had formerly attacked? If this is so, then you too ought to follow nothing else but what preaches to you the faith of Christ. “Then after fourteen years I went up again to Jerusalem with Barnabas, taking Titus also.” For once before, after three years; now after fourteen years, he says, I went up again. So the gospel proclaimed by me to the Gentiles I received by revelation; I did not learn it from men nor through man. “With Barnabas, and taking Titus.” These he has as witnesses, by whom he proves that his gospel was given him by revelation; since Barnabas, he says, went up with me; he also took Titus; whose faith and gospel were approved by all.