Francis Patrick Kenrick

The Galatians, being Gentiles, had not been subject to the Mosaic law, but they had been enslaved to superstition. The apostle exhorts them not to subject themselves to the Jewish ceremonial, which was a yoke of bondage. " In saying : 'Be not again,' he does not suppose that the Galatians had previously observed the law, but he intimates that idolatry was a heavy yoke. By undertaking to observe stated times, to be circumcised, and to oifer animal sacrifices, they in a measure returned to the same observances to which they had been devoted when idolaters. For they say that the Egyptian priests, and the Ismaelites and Madianites were circumcised ; and we know, alas ! too well that the Gentiles observed days, months, and years." St. Jerome.