The Great Commentary (Mossman/Cobb English)

Received ye the Spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith ? The Spirit here is the Holy Spirit, with His visible gifts of tongues and prophecy, which He used to give in baptism, as outward tokens of the invisible graces He there infused. S. Paul asks the Galatians whether it is not clear that they received the Spirit and His gifts, not from circumcision, but in baptism. The hearing of faith. Hearing can be taken here either actively, in reference to the preaching they heard, or passively, in reference to their hearkening to and obeying the faith preached. Cf. Isaiah liii. i

Having begun in the Spirit With the spiritual doctrine of Christ, and the spiritual gifts received from Him, enabling you to live the spiritual life. Are ye now made perfect by the flesh t The flesh is put for circumcision and other carnal ceremonies of the law. The interpretation which sees here a reference to the carnal lusts of the flesh is disproved by the context. Made perfect is in the Vulgate consumemini. S. Bernard (Serm. 33 in Cant) applies this text to those who exhaust their strength by unrestrained devotion, through excessive prayers and penances. Afterwards, he says, they become lazy, and are consumed by the flesh, while seeking for health, and so become sensual and carnal Cf. notes to 1 Cor. iii. 2. LAW AND GOSPEL 263 Theophylact observes that S. Paul uses the passive, not the active — “Are you made perfect?” not, “Do you make perfect?” i.e., he hints that they were like brute beasts, in suffering themselves to be circumcised by others. He also notes that he does not say merely r €€ur 0 € i but eirircXcurOc : After being perfected in Christ, will you seek a perfection beyond in the Old Law ? Do you want to add a fifth wheel to the coach ?

They which are of faith A Graecism for they who are faithful, who imitate Abraham's faith. The same are the children of Abraham. Not by blood, but by imitation; to them, therefore, belongs the blessing pronounced on Abraham

Preached before the gospel unto Abraham. Gave him this most joyful news of the blessing to be conferred by Christ on His descendants, i.e., on the faithful In other words, the Gospel about Christ and His righteousness is not new, but is as old as the days of Abraham. In thee shall all nations be blessed. Cajetan observes, in his notes or Genesis xii., that when God called Abraham from his home in 264 THE EPISTLE TO THE Chaldea, and from his kindred, to go to a land to be shown him, He promised him a sevenfold blessing. Seven is the number of completeness. (1.) He promised him that he should be the head or father of a great nation, in the words, “ I will make of thee a great nation ; ” (2.) abundant riches, in the words, “I will bless thee (3.) fame and wide renown, in the words, “ And make thy name great (4.) the sum of all blessings and honours, in the words, “ Thou shalt be a blessing The exact force of the Hebrew here is that thou shalt be so filled with blessings as to seem to be a blessing itself, so that when men may wish to bless any one, they shall put you forward as an example, saying, “ May God bless thee as He blessed Abraham.” In a similar way the Romans saluted their Caesar : “ May you be more fortunate than Augustus, more virtuous than Trajan.” (5.) “The Lord promised His blessing, not to Abraham only, but to his friends, in the words, “ I will bless them that bless tkee.” (6.) He promised that He would avenge him on his adversaries, in the words, “ I will curse him that curseth thee.” (7.) The preceding six are temporal only, but the seventh and the chief is spiritual and eternal, “ In thee shall all families of the earth be blessed” 1. Observe that in thee , i.e ., in thy seed, as is explained in Gen. xxii. 17, is to be understood as in Christ , who was bom of Abraham, according to the Apostle’s interpretation in GaL iii. 16. Through thy seed, Christ, and through faith in Him, all nations shall be blessed, i.e., be justified and made sons and friends of God, and consequently heirs of God’s kingdom, and entitled to hear the blissful words, “ Come, ye blessed of My Father, receive the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world” Abraham’s blessing, therefore, was that he should be the father of the justified. 2. But in thee can be also rendered like thee . As thou art justified by faith, so by faith shall all nations be justified, and not by the works of the law. So say Chrysostom, Augustine, Theophylact, CEcumenius, and S. Thomas. Notice, too, that with God to speak is as efficacious as to do, for, “ He spake the word and they were made” Similarly, to pronounce a blessing with Him is the same as to THE BLESSING OF ABRAHAM 265 confer a blessing (benedicere = benefacere). The greater the blessing promised, the greater the blessing given. But the greatest good we can receive is that grace by which we become sharers of the Divine nature, and the word blessing, therefore, denotes this great gift Hence the Fathers rightly interpret, they shall be blessed as they shall be justified: they shall receive the blessing of justification, than which no greater gift can be given to man by God. From this is evident the error of Paginus, in rendering the phrase before us, In thee shall all nations bless themselves . The Hebrew voice of the verb is the Niphal, which is purely passive, not reflexive ; moreover, S. Paul’s use of the passage is against him

So then they which be of faith are blessed with faithful Abraham. This is the conclusion from the premisses of the three preceding verses. God promised to Abraham that in him, i.e ., in his seed, i.e., in Christ, all nations should be blessed, i.e., justified. But the promise of God cannot fail ; therefore the consequence contained in this verse follows. If the second sense of in thee, given above, is preferred, the argument is the same. In thee, i.e., like thee, all nations shall be blessed. But thou, O Abraham, wast justified by faith ; therefore, the Gentiles too shall be justified in the same way. And from this it follows that they who are of faith shall be blessed, i.e., justified with faithful Abraham. This last phrase rather favours the second rendering of in thee, and hints that the Gentiles shall be justified by faith like faithful Abraham. Observe again the Graecism, they who are of faith, i.e., who are faithfuL Similarly, he speaks of those who are of the circumcision, i.e., the Jews, followers of the law. Elsewhere he calls them those who are of the works of the law, i.e., those who rely on it and hope for justification from it

For as many as are of the works of the law are under a curse. He inquired in verse 5 whether righteousness comes from the law or from faith. He replied, “ From faith,” and then proved his answer by the example of Abraham. He now proceeds to a third 266 THE EPISTLE TO THE proof, by destroying the alternative, viz., that it is not of the law. So far from the law bestowing a blessing, those who are under it are under a curse — exposed to eternal damnation. This he argues thus : Whoever does not keep the whole law is cursed by the law. But no one keeps the whole law without the grace of Christ, as I suppose you know from your own experience ; for you know that the law teaches, threatens, and punishes only, but does not confer grace ; therefore, without faith no one is free from the curse of the law pronounced by it against those who transgress it. The law curses, faith alone blesses. If any one wishes the argument put more in syllogistic form, it may be thrown into the mood barbara thus : Whoever breaks any law is cursed by it But all who are under the law, and are shut off from the grace of Christ, break the law ; therefore, all who are under the law are cursed by it The major is proved by Deut xxvii. 26 ; the minor is supposed to be known by experience, and hence the conclusion follows. Of course the minor must be granted, else the Judaisers might say to the Galatians: We are as much under a blessing as a curse, for if the law curses those who break it, it also blesses those who keep it, as is said in Deut. xxviii. 2. For it is written. Cursed is every one that eontinueth not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them. Though Aquila, Symmachus, Theodotion, the LXX., render the word we translate eontinueth somewhat differently, yet the sense is the same throughout Whoever does not by his deeds establish, strengthen, settle the law, is accursed by it. This is the major of the syllogism just stated. 1. Observe that he passes over the minor, because it was admitted. Calvin, however, makes it to be this : But no one can fulfil the law ; therefore, the law imposes what is impossible, and consequently all are under its curse. But this is an impious proposition. If modified thus : No one keeps the law without the faith of Christ, therefore all without that faith are under the curse of the law, then it becomes orthodox. God does not command impossibilities* THE CURSE OF THE LAW 267 Although by natural strength a man cannot keep the whole law, yet he can by supernatural, and this latter God gives to all that ask Him, whether Jews or Gentiles. 2. Observe, in the second place, that not all were accursed who broke any law. For some laws, though of Divine origin, obliged under venial sin only, because of the nature of their subject-matter, as, e.g., the law forbidding the mother to be taken in the nest with her young (Deut. xxii. 6.), and the law forbidding a vineyard to be sown with divers seeds (ver. 9), and the law forbidding a garment to be woven of flax and wool (ver. 1 1). It is evident, therefore, that Deut xxvii., quoted by S. Paul, refers to the Decalogue, which contains commandments of great importance. It is because they oblige under mortal sin that he is cursed who breaks one of them. A reference to Deut. xxvii. will show this to be the case. The Apostle assumes that no one can keep the whole Decalogue without the grace of Christ, and he thence concludes that all who are under the law are cursed by it

I speak after the manner of men. Cf. Job xxxi. 33, and Hos. vi. 7. S. Paul’s meaning is that in dealing with spiritual things he uses material illustrations, as, e.g., that of a testator and his testament, to prove that we inherit Abraham’s blessing, not through the law, but through faith in Christ, according to the covenant made with Abraham, and that, therefore, the Galatians should feel shame for attributing less to God than to the testaments and covenants of men. This is his fifth proof, that we are justified by faith and not by the law. Though it be but a man's covenant. No one adds to or subtracts from a man’s testament when once it is duly drawn up

To Abraham and his seed were the promises made. This refers to Gen. xxil 16. From this we conclude that by his readiness to obey God in sacrificing his son he merited that from his own seed should Christ be bom as a blessing to the Gentiles, and to fulfil the 272 THE EPISTLE TO THE promises. The Apostle, therefore, rightly lays it down that these promises were made to Abraham and his seed, t.e. 9 to Christ, who should spring from his loins ; although the word of Genesis speaks of these promises being made to Abraham in his seed only, and not to his seed. Yet the very fact that they were to be fulfilled in his seed shows that they were made rather to his seed than to Abraham. Just as if a king should promise one of his nobles to exalt his family in his son, by making him a duke or a prince, and thereby makes a promise to the son rather than to the father, so did God to Abraham. It was in Christ, as the seed of Abraham, that the promise, “In thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed f has been fulfilled, and justification assured to all who believe in Christ. To thy seed which is Christ This may be said to meet a possible objection that seed is equivalent to posterity or descendants , and is therefore a noun of multitude, and that S. Paul here denies this interpretation. But seed is sometimes used as a collective term, as for example, in the promise, “ Thy seed shall be as the stars of heaven and sometimes as a particular term ; e.g., in Gen. xxi. 13 : “ Of the son of the bondwoman will I make a nation^ because he is thy seed! S. Paul, in interpreting the word here in the latter sense, might have appealed to the practice of the Rabbinical expositors, who all understood it of Christ Moreover, if it were to be taken in the former sense, the prophecy would have failed of fulfilment, for all the nations of the earth have not been blessed in Abraham's posterity, if by them we are to understand the Jewish people; on the contrary, the Jews are for a reproach, and a curse among the Gentiles

The covenant that was before of God in Christ If, as was said in verse 15, no one annuls the testament of a man, still less can the law, which came 430 years afterwards, annul the promise of God confirmed to Abraham in Christ Note that the Hebrew berith, the Greek diatheke , and the Latin testamentum , have all the same meaning of covenant, and that the diatheke , of the LXX. is identical with sunt hike, according to Jerome, Chrysostom, Theophylact, and GEcumenius. Budaeus proves the same from Demosthenes and Aristophanes. Cf. notes to 1 Cor. xi. 25. THE SOJOURN IN EGYPT 2/3 But S. Augustine understands the term of a will. “ Because? he says, " the death of the testator has the effect of confirming his will so the unchangeableness of God has the effect of confirming His promise .” An important question is here raised as to the date from which these 430 years should be reckoned, for the terminus ad quern alone is clearly defined in this passage, viz., the year when the law was given on Mount Sinai. S. Paul’s computation seems in conflict with Exod. xii. 40, which speaks of the sojourning of the children of Israel in Egypt as lasting 430 years, or, in other words, which represents the time between the going down of Jacob into Egypt and the Exodus as 430 years; but the Apostle seems to count the interval between Abraham and the Exodus as 430 years. But from Abraham to Jacob’s descent was 200 years, and therefore if Exod. xii. 40 is to be followed, the Apostle should have said 630 years. I reply briefly with S. Augustine (qu. 47 in Exod.); with Athanasius, or rather Anastasius, in his “Synopsis of Holy Scripture” (in loco) ; with Eusebius, in his Chronicon; with Rupert, Tostatus, Cajetan (in Exod.), that the computation of S. Paul is identical with that of Moses in Exod. xii. 40, and that both begin to reckon, not from the descent of Jacob into Egypt, but from the seventy-fifth year of Abraham’s life, when he was called from his country to go into Canaan. It was in that year that he received the blessings S. Paul is referring to, as is evident from the beginning of Gen. xii. 1. This appears from the obvious fact that the Hebrews did not dwell in Egypt 430 years ; for Kohath went down with his grandfather, Jacob (Exod. vi. 18). But Kohath lived 133 years, and his son Amram 137 years. When Moses, Amram’s son, went out of Egypt with the Hebrews, he was in his eighty-first year ; and if all these three are added together, we get 351 only. But we must deduct from this total the years that Kohath lived after begetting Amram, and that Amram lived after begetting Moses. From this it follows that the number of 430 must be reckoned from a date long anterior to the descent into Egypt, viz., from the migration of Abraham from Haran, and this the LXX. expressly say in their rendering of Exod. xii. 40 : “ But the sojourning of the children of VOL. 11. s 274 THE EPISTLE TO THE Israel which they and their fathers made in the land of Egypt and Canaan , was 430 years I 2. Moreover, the Apostle says here that the law was given 430 years after, not the descent of Jacob, but the promise to Abraham ; but the law was given in the same year that the Hebrews left Egypt, in the third month after their departure. Cf. Exod. xix. 1, and the notes to Exod. xii. 40

Is the law then against the promises of God l Jerome correctly points out that this is an answer by anticipation to the objection to which S. Paul had exposed himself in verse 19, when he said, “ The law was added because of transgressions till the seed should come.” For any one might say : If the law was added to the promise, and, as it were, removed it, it seems to have taken to itself the office of quickening and justifying men, so that it may be regarded as doing the work of the promise till Christ should come ; for if not, why was it added, unless it were, as you say youi> self, because of transgressions , to destroy them by the living and virtuous actions prescribed by the law for Justification? If this be so, then the law is against the promises of God, for God promised this justification to faith in Christ, not to the law, nay. He thereby excluded it from the law. That S. Paul is meeting an objection of this sort is obvious from what follows. The law, he exclaims, cannot give life; therefore, it 280 THE EPISTLE TO THE is not against the promises of God which offer that spiritual life in Christ. The antecedent is proved thus : If the law could give life it could also justify; but this it cannot do (ver. 22). Hence the law was only given to be our paedagogue to Christ, to lead as to justification by faith. Or it may be put thus : When I said that the law was given because of transgressions, I meant that its function was to prevent them by fear of punishment, that passion might not issue in action ; I did not mean that the law alone could calm the violence of passion within, or give that grace by which we fulfil the law. God forbid. It is impossible that God should give a law contra* dictory to His promises, for this would be for God to contradict Himself. The law which came after was not opposed to the preceding promises, but its office was to admonish men to prepare themselves worthily for Christ and His GospeL Therefore the law is not contrary to the promise, but establishes it For if there had been a law given which could have given life. To give life is to impart righteousness to the soul. But, as S. Paul appears to distinguish between life and righteousness , it is better to say that to give life stands for to quicken man's works . This is done when a man does virtuous actions out of the spirit of charity. The argument is from the effect to the cause, from a living work to life ; as we say : This man eats, talks, moves, therefore he is alive. In the same way, if the law could produce in us living works, it could also give us the spirit of charity from which they spring, for the works of the Spirit presuppose the Spirit, just as motion does life

But the scripture hath concluded all under sin. This Scripture is cited in Rom. iii. 9

Before faith came. Like slaves under the stem discipline of the law, we were kept as though by walls and hedges from sin, and were held, and kept in, that we might be thereby prepared, and might learn to long for the righteousness which Christ should give

As many of you as have been baptized into Christ To be baptized into Christ is to receive His baptism as distinct from that of Moses or John Baptist. The change from the first person {we) of verse 25 to the second person (you) here denotes the change of subject from Jews to Gentiles. Have put on Christ You have received plenteously in your baptism the grace and gifts of Christ ; you have put them round you like a garment (cf. Ps. cix. 18), so that you are made partakers of the Divine nature, and therefore of the workings of God’s power, 282 THE EPISTLE TO THE by which Christ shines in your lives. " Your daily conversation” says Anselm, “ like a splendid rode, is Chris fs holiness and Christ's religion ” These words may be explained in a better way, thus : As matter takes its form, the body its soul as a substantial robe to hide its nakedness and ugliness ; so you in baptism have put on Christ by grace, so that the Spirit of Christ is, as it were, your form and soul ; consequently you have been brought into such close union with Christ that, as He is the Son of God by nature, so are you by adoption and grace. This is the explanation of Chrysostom and Theophylact The conjunction for shows that Paul wishes to prove that we are the sons of God by the fact that we have put on Christ, who is the Son of God by nature, and hence are one with Him, and, as it were, are Christ Himself. C f. notes to i Cor. xii. 12. We should note from this the efficacy of baptism, which not only adorns us with graces and gifts, but with Christ Himself. What have the Protestants to say to this who make baptism to be a bare sign of righteousness already received by faith ? S. Ambrose ( Sernu 90) gives some beautiful words of S. Agnes about the baptismal robe of Christ, both that which is within, and that material robe which formerly was given to adults at their baptism as a symbol of the first. 14 He adorned me,” she said, “ with a glorious bracelet. He covered my hand and neck with precious stones . He put pearls in my ears, and loaded me with glistening gems. On my face He put his seal, that I might admit no lover save Him alone. He clad me in a robe of cloth of gold, and with glorious jewels did He beautify me.” And a little farther she continued: “ Now have I drunken milk and honey from His mouth. Now have I been clasped in His most chaste embraces . Now has His body been united to mine, and His blood has bedewed my cheeks.” This last of course refers to the Eucharist, which used to be given to those newly baptized, that they might be wholly united to Christ To them too used to be given milk and honey, as symbols of the sweetness of Christ, and of the law of Christ, of which they then become partakers. UNION WITH CHRIST 283

There is neither Jew nor Greek . — i.e, in Christ. In the Church of Christ there is no distinction before God of birth, position, or sex. All, whether Jews or Greeks (= Gentiles), whether slaves or freemen, whether males or females, make one mystical body, the Church, of which the Head is Christ. Or we may take it, and better, with S. Chrysostom, to mean that ye are one in the sense that ye have put on one form, or one soul, like the garment described above, and this not of any angel, but of Christ. This garment is the faith, charity, and holiness of Christ, and it makes you to seem like one man, to be one Christ. The Jews, therefore, have nothing of their Judaism to pride themselves on when they pass into Christ; therefore they have nothing of their own to invite you to, O Galatians, for you are equal sharers in Christ with them