O senseless Galatians, who hath bewitched you that you should not obey the truth, before whose eyes Jesus Christ hath been set forth, crucified among you?

“Here he passes to another subject; in the former chapters he had shown himself not to be an Apostle of men, nor by men, nor in want of Apostolic instruction. Now, having established his authority as a teacher, he proceeds to discourse more confidently, and draws a comparison between faith and the Law. At the outset he said, "I marvel that ye are so quickly removing;" but here, "O foolish Galatians;" then, his indignation was in its birth, but now, after his refutation of the charges against himself, and his proofs, it bursts forth. Let not his calling them "foolish" surprise you; for it is not a transgression of Christ's command not to call one's brother a fool, but rather a strict observance of it. For it is not said simply, "Whosoever shall say to his brother, Thou fool," but, whosoever shall do so, "without a cause." And who more fittingly than they could so be called, who after so great events, adhered to past things, as if nothing else had ever happened? If on this account Paul is to be called a "reviler," Peter may likewise, on account of Annanias and Sapphira, be called a homicide; but as it would be wildness to do so in that case, much more in this. Moreover it is to be considered, that this vehemence is not used at the beginning, but after these evidences and proofs, which, rather than Paul himself, might now be held to administer the rebuke. For after he had shown that they rejected the faith, and made the death of Christ to be without a purpose, he introduces his reproof, which, even as it is, is less severe than they merited. Observe too how soon he stays his arm; for he adds not, Who has seduced you? who has perverted you? who has been sophistical with you? but, "Who hath cast an envious eye on you?" thus tempering his reprimand with somewhat of praise. For it implies that their previous course had excited jealousy, and that the present occurrence arose from the malignity of a demon, whose breath had blasted their prosperous estate. And when you hear of jealousy in this place, and in the Gospel, of an evil eye, which means the same, you must not suppose that the glance of the eye has any natural power to injure those who look upon it. For the eye, that is, the organ itself, cannot be evil; but Christ in that place means jealousy by the term. To behold, simply, is the function of the eye, but to behold in an evil manner belongs to a mind depraved within. As through this sense the knowledge of visible objects enters the soul, and as jealousy is for the most part generated by wealth, and wealth and sovereignty and pomp are perceived by the eye, therefore he calls the eye evil; not as beholding merely, but as beholding enviously from some moral depravity. Therefore by the words, "Who hath looked enviously on you," he implies that the persons in question acted, not from concern, not to supply defects, but to mutilate what existed. For envy, far from supplying what is wanting, subtracts from what is complete, and vitiates the whole. And he speaks thus, not as if envy had any power of itself, but meaning, that the teachers of these doctrines did so from envious motives. Yet was He not crucified in Galatia, but at Jerusalem. His reason for saying, "among you," is to declare the power of faith to see events which are at a distance. He says not, "crucified," but, "openly set forth crucified," signifying that by the eye of faith they saw more distinctly than some who were present as spectators. For many of the latter received no benefit, but the former, who were not eye-witnesses, yet saw it by faith more clearly. These words convey both praise and blame; praise, for their implicit acceptance of the truth; blame, because Him whom they had seen, for their sakes, stripped naked, transfixed, nailed to the cross, spit upon, mocked, fed with vinegar, upbraided by thieves, pierced with a spear; (for all this is implied in the words, "openly set forth, crucified,") Him had they left, and betaken themselves to the Law, unshamed by any of those sufferings. Here observe how Paul, leaving all mention of heaven, earth, and sea, every where preaches the power of Christ, bearing about as he did, and holding up His cross: for this is the sum of the Divine love toward us.”

“Above, the Apostle refuted the vanity and inconstancy of the Galatians by the authority of the evangelical teaching, showing that his teaching was authenticated by the other apostles; but here he shows this same thing by reason and authority, namely, that the precepts of the law are not to be observed. And this in two ways. First, from the insufficiency of the law; second, from the dignity of those who have been converted to Christ; and this in chapter 4, where he says: "Now I say: as long as," etc. Concerning the first he does two things. First he prefaces a rebuke; second he pursues his proof, where he says: "This only I wish from you," etc. Concerning the first he does two things: first he rebukes them, showing their foolishness; second he assigns the reason for the rebuke, where he says: "before whose eyes," etc. First, therefore, he rebukes them for their foolishness, calling them senseless. Hence he says: "O senseless," etc. Now one is properly called senseless who lacks sense. But spiritual sense is the knowledge of truth; therefore whoever lacks truth is properly called senseless. Matthew 5: "And you are without understanding." Wisdom 5:4: "we senseless ones, their life," etc. But on the contrary, it is said in Matthew 5:22: "Whoever shall say to his brother: Fool," etc.; but "fool" is the same as "senseless"; therefore the Apostle is guilty of the fire of Gehenna. But it must be said, as Augustine says, that this is to be understood of one who says it without cause, and with the intention of reviling; but the Apostle said it for a cause, and with the intention of correcting. Hence it is said in the Gloss: he says this out of sorrow. Second, when he says "Who has bewitched you," etc., he shows the manner in which they had been made senseless. Here it must first be noted that one becomes senseless in many ways. Either because no truth is proposed to him which he could know; or because, although it is proposed to him, he never accepts it; or because he abandons the truth proposed and accepted, withdrawing from the way of truth; and such were these Galatians, who, abandoning the truth of the faith which they had received, refused the truth proposed to them. Above, 1:6: "I wonder that you are so soon," etc. And therefore he reproves in them this degree of senselessness, saying: "Who has bewitched you," etc. Now to know what fascination is, it must be known that according to the Gloss, fascination is properly called a deluding of the sense, which is wont to come about through magical arts; as, for instance, when it makes a man appear to the sight of others as a lion, or horned, and the like. And this can also happen through demons, who have the power of moving phantasms, and of tracing them back to the principles of the senses, by altering the senses themselves. And according to this understanding, the Apostle quite properly says: "Who has bewitched you?" As if to say: you are like a man who has been deluded, who takes manifest things otherwise than they are in the truth of the matter; because, namely, you have been deluded by deceptions and sophisms, "not to obey the truth," that is, you do not see the manifest truth received by you, nor do you receive it by obeying. Wisdom 4:12: "The bewitching of vanity obscures good things." Isaiah 5:20: "Woe to them that call good evil," etc. Fascination is taken in another way, according as someone is harmed by a malevolent gaze, and this especially in old women, who by a burning look and an envious gaze bewitch children, who from this become sick and vomit their food. Wishing to assign the cause of this, Avicenna, in his book On the Soul, says that bodily matter obeys intellectual substance more than it obeys the active and passive qualities in nature. And therefore he holds that, at the apprehension of intellectual substances (which he calls souls or movers of the spheres), many things come about outside the order of the motion of the heavens and of all corporeal agents. In the same way he says that when a holy soul has been purified from affections for earthly things, and from carnal vices, it approaches the likeness of the aforesaid substances, and nature obeys it. And hence it is that some holy men work certain wonders outside the course of nature; and likewise, because the soul of someone defiled by carnal passions has a strong apprehension in malice, nature obeys it for the transmutation of matter, especially in those in whom the matter is apt for this, as happens in tender children. And thus it happens, according to him, that from the strong apprehension of old women, a child is changed into a state of malice and is bewitched. Now this position seems true enough according to the opinion of Avicenna. For he himself held that all corporeal forms in these lower things are infused by separate incorporeal substances, and that natural agents contribute to this only as disposing causes. But this indeed is disproved by the Philosopher. For an agent must be like its subject. Now it is not form alone that comes to be, nor matter alone, but the composite of matter and form. Therefore that which acts toward the being of corporeal things must have matter and form. Hence he says that nothing can transmute matter and form except that which has matter and form, and this indeed either virtually, as God, who is the author of form and matter; or actually, as a corporeal agent. And therefore corporeal matter, as regards forms of this kind, obeys neither angels nor any pure creature at a nod, but God alone, as Augustine says. Hence what Avicenna says about fascination of this kind is not true. And therefore it must be said that, at the imagination or apprehension of a man, when it is strong, the sense, or the sensitive appetite, is changed; and this change is not without an alteration of the body and of the spirits of the body, just as we see that at the apprehension of something delightful the sensitive appetite is moved to concupiscence, and from this the body grows warm. Likewise, from the apprehension of something fearful, it grows cold. Now the alteration of the spirits especially infects the eyes, which, once infected, infect a thing by their gaze, as is evident in a clean mirror, which is tainted by the gaze of a menstruating woman. So, then, because old women are obstinate and hardened in malice, from their strong apprehension the sensitive appetite is altered, and from this, as has been said, the infection passes especially from the veins to the eyes, and from the eyes to the thing looked upon. Hence, because the flesh of a child is soft, it is infected and bewitched by their envious gaze. And sometimes, indeed, demons work toward this effect. He says, then: "Who has bewitched you not to obey the truth?" As if to say: you at one time obeyed the truth of the faith, but now you do not; therefore you are like children who, infected by some envious gaze, vomit the food you had received. Now he assigns the reason for the rebuke, saying: "before whose eyes," etc. This can be read in three ways. In one way, according to Jerome, so that it corresponds to the first understanding of fascination; as if to say: I say you are bewitched, because "before whose eyes," etc., that is, the proscription of Christ, who was condemned to death, was so manifest to you that it was as if it had been before your eyes, and "crucified among you," that is, the crucifixion of Jesus Christ was in your understandings, so that you knew how it had been done; hence, if you do not see it now, nor obey it, this happens because you have been deluded and bewitched. Against which it is said in the last chapter of the Song of Songs: "Put me as a seal upon your heart," etc. In another way, according to Augustine; as if to say: you are rightly bewitched, because the truth which you received, namely Christ, through faith, in your hearts, you vomit up like children. And this because "before your eyes," that is, in your presence, "Jesus Christ was proscribed," that is, he is expelled and cast out of his inheritance, which ought to be grievous to you; because he whom you ought not to suffer to be proscribed and expelled by others has been proscribed in you, that is, he has lost his inheritance in you, that is, in your very selves. And then what follows, namely "crucified," ought to be read with weight and a show of grief, because he added this so that they might consider at what price Christ had bought the possession which he was losing in them, and might be moved the more by this. As if to say: Christ has been proscribed in you, namely, he who was crucified, that is, who acquired this inheritance by his own cross and blood. 1 Corinthians 6:20: "For you are bought with a great price," etc. 1 Peter 1:18: "Not with corruptible things, gold or silver," etc. In a third way, according to Ambrose, as if to say: you are truly bewitched, "before whose eyes," that is, in whose estimation, namely according to your judgment, "Jesus Christ was proscribed," that is, condemned, not saving others. And "crucified among you," that is, according as you understand it, that is, he only died, but did not justify others, although it is said of him, 2 Corinthians, last chapter, that "if he died from our weakness, yet he lives from the power of God." It can also, in a fourth way, be expounded according to the Gloss, so that by this the Apostle designates the gravity of their fault, because in this — that, observing the law, they abandon Christ — they were sinning in a certain way equally with Pilate, who proscribed Christ, that is, condemned him. So that, while believing Christ insufficient for saving, they are like the crucifiers of Christ in sinning, who hung him upon the wood, condemning and afflicting him with a most shameful death. The equality, however, is to be taken on the part of him against whom the sin is committed, because the Galatians were sinning against Christ, just as Pilate and the crucifiers of Christ.”

“The apostle is here dealing with those who, having embraced the faith of Christ, still continued to seek for justification by the works of the law; that is, who depended upon their own obedience to the moral precepts as their righteousness before God, and, wherein that was defective, had recourse to the legal sacrifices and purifications to make it up. These he first sharply reproves, and then endeavours, by the evidence of truth, to convince them. This is the right method, when we reprove any for a fault or an error, to convince them that it is an error, that it is a fault. He reproves them, and the reproof is very close and warm: he calls them foolish Galatians, Gal 3:1. Though as Christians they were Wisdom's children, yet as corrupt Christians they were foolish children. Yea, he asks, Who hath bewitched you? whereby he represents them as enchanted by the arts and snares of their seducing teachers, and so far deluded as to act very unlike themselves. That wherein their folly and infatuation appeared was that they did not obey the truth; that is, they did not adhere to the gospel way of justification, wherein they had been taught, and which they had professed to embrace. Note, It is not enough to know the truth, and to say we believe it, but we must obey it too; we must heartily submit to it, and stedfastly abide by it. Note, also, Those are spiritually bewitched who, when the truth as it is in Jesus is plainly set before them, will not thus obey it. Several things proved and aggravated the folly of these Christians. 1. Jesus Christ had been evidently set forth as crucified among them; that is, they had had the doctrine of the cross preached to them, and the sacrament of the Lord's supper administered among them, in both which Christ crucified had been set before them. Now, it was the greatest madness that could be for those who had acquaintance with such sacred mysteries, and admittance to such great solemnities, not to obey the truth which was thus published to them, and signed and sealed in that ordinance. Note, The consideration of the honours and privileges we have been admitted to as Christians should shame us out of the folly of apostasy and backsliding. 2. He appeals to the experiences they had had of the working of the Spirit upon their souls (Gal 3:2); he puts them in mind that, upon their becoming Christians, they had received the Spirit, that many of them at least had been made partakers not only of the sanctifying influences, but of the miraculous gifts, of the Holy Spirit, which were eminent proofs of the truth of the Christian religion and the several doctrines of it, and especially of this, that justification is by Christ only, and not by the works of the law, which was one of the peculiar and fundamental principles of it. To convince them of the folly of their departing from this doctrine, he desires to know how they came by these gifts and graces: Was it by the works of the law, that is, the preaching of the necessity of these in order to justification? This they could not say, for that doctrine had not then been preached to them, nor had they, as Gentiles, any pretence to justification in that way. Or was it by the hearing of faith, that is, the preaching of the doctrine of faith in Christ as the only way of justification? This, if they would say the truth, they were obliged to own, and therefore must be very unreasonable if they should reject a doctrine of the good effects of which they had had such experience. Note, (1.) It is usually by the ministry of the gospel that the Spirit is communicated to persons. And, (2.) Those are very unwise who suffer themselves to be turned away from the ministry and doctrine which have been blessed to their spiritual advantage. 3. He calls upon them to consider their past and present conduct, and thence to judge whether they were not acting very weakly and unreasonably (Gal 3:3, Gal 3:4): he tells them that they had begun in the Spirit, but now were seeking to be made perfect by the flesh; they had embraced the doctrine of the gospel, by means of which they had received the Spirit, and wherein only the true way of justification is revealed. And thus they had begun well; but now they were turning to the law, and expected to be advanced to higher degrees of perfection by adding the observance of it to faith in Christ, in order to their justification, which could end in nothing but their shame and disappointment: for this, instead of being an improvement upon the gospel, was really a perversion of it; and, while they sought to be justified in this way, they were so far from being more perfect Christians that they were more in danger of becoming no Christians at all; hereby they were pulling down with one hand what they had built with the other, and undoing what they had hitherto done in Christianity. Yea, he further puts them in mind that they had not only embraced the Christian doctrine, but suffered for it too; and therefore their folly would be the more aggravated, if now they should desert it: for in this case all that they had suffered would be in vain - it would appear that they had been foolish in suffering for what they now deserted, and their sufferings would be altogether in vain, and of no advantage to them. Note, (1.) It is the folly of apostates that they lose the benefit of all they have done in religion, or suffered for it. And, (2.) It is very sad for any to live in an age of services and sufferings, of sabbaths, sermons, and sacraments, in vain; in this case former righteousness shall not be mentioned. 4. He puts them in mind that they had had ministers among them (and particularly himself) who came with a divine seal and commission; for they had ministered the Spirit to them, and wrought miracles among them: and he appeals to them whether they did it by the works of the law or by the hearing of faith, whether the doctrine that was preached by them, and confirmed by the miraculous gifts and operations of the Spirit, was that of justification by the works of the law or by the faith of Christ; they very well knew that it was not the former, but the latter; and therefore must needs be inexcusable in forsaking a doctrine which had been so signally owned and attested, and exchanging it for one that had received no such attestations.”

“O foolish Galatians,.... Referring not to any national character, as some have thought, by which they were distinguished from others for their rudeness in knowledge, their ignorance and folly, as the Cretians for their lying, &c. nor to their former state in unregeneracy, it being common to all men, to God's elect themselves, before conversion, to be foolish in a moral and spiritual sense; but to their present stupidity about the article of justification, it being an instance of most egregious folly to leave Christ for Moses, the Gospel for the law, and the doctrine of free justification by the righteousness of Christ, which brings so much solid peace and comfort with it, for the doctrine of justification, by the works of the law, which naturally leads to bondage. Now this was said, not rashly, nor in anger, or on purpose to reproach and provoke, and so not at all contrary to Mat 5:22 but in like manner as Christ said to his disciples, "O fools, and slow of heart to believe", &c. Luk 24:25. So the apostle here, as pitying the Galatians, grieved for them, and as one surprised and astonished that ever people of such light, that had had the Gospel so clearly preached to them, should ever give into such a notion. Who hath bewitched you? some false teacher or another had, or it cannot be conceived how their heads should ever have been turned this way; which must be understood, not in a literal and proper sense, as Simon Magus bewitched the people of Samaria with his sorceries, but in a figurative and improper one; that as sorcerers and enchanters cast a mist before people's eyes, or, by some evil arts or juggling tricks, deceive their sight, and make objects seem to appear which do not, or in a different form than they really do, so these deceitful workers, who had transformed themselves into the apostles of Christ, as Satan sometimes transforms himself into an angel of light, had set this doctrine in a false light before them, thereby to corrupt their minds from the simplicity that is in Christ. Though the apostle reproves the Galatians for their folly and weakness in giving in so easily to such deceptions, yet he imputes the chief fault unto, and lays the greatest blame on the false teachers; whom he represents as sorcerers and enchanters, and their doctrine, particularly that of justification by works, as witchcraft; it being pleasing to men, a gratifying of carnal reason, and operating as a charm upon the pride of human nature. What Samuel said to Saul, Sa1 15:22 may be applied to the present case, "to obey" the truth "is better than sacrifice", than all the rituals of the ceremonial law: "and to hearken" to the Gospel of Christ, "than the fat of rams", or any of the legal institutions; "for rebellion" against, and opposition to any of the doctrines of the Gospel, and especially to this of justification by the righteousness of Christ, "is as the sin of witchcraft". The Greek word, signifies "to envy", and hence, "to bewitch"; because the mischief, by witchcrafts, generally proceeds from envy; and so the Syriac version, which the Arabic follows, renders it, , "who hath envied you", which suggests this sense, that the false apostles envying their light and knowledge in the Gospel, their faith, peace, comfort, and happiness, had endeavoured to introduce another doctrine among them, subversive of all this. That ye should not obey the truth. This clause is left out in the Alexandrian copy, and in some others, and in the Syriac version. By "the truth" is meant, either the whole Gospel, often so called, in opposition to the law, and the types and shadows of it; and because it is contained in the Scriptures of truth, and comes from the God of truth; the substance of it is Christ, who is the truth, and is what the Spirit of truth leads into; or else particularly the doctrine of justification by the righteousness of Christ, which is the truth the apostle is establishing, and these Galatians seemed to be going off from, through the artful insinuations of the false teachers. Formerly these people had not only heard this truth, but embraced it: they received the love of it, were strongly affected to it, and firmly believed but now they began to hesitate and doubt about it; they were not so fully persuaded of it as heretofore; they seemed ready to let it go, at least did not hold it fast, and the profession of it, without wavering as before; they were fallen from some degree of the steadfastness of their faith in, and of the obedience of it to this truth, which is what was the design of the false apostles, and is here charged upon the Galatians. The aggravations of which follow in this, and in some subsequent verses, before whose eyes Jesus Christ hath been evidently set forth; meaning in the ministry of the Gospel, in the clear preaching of it by the apostle; Jesus Christ was the sum and substance of his ministry, in which he was set forth and described, and, as it were, painted to the life by him; the glories and excellencies of his divine person, the nature of his office, as Mediator, the suitableness of him as a Saviour, the fulness of his grace, the efficacy of his blood, sacrifice, and righteousness, were so fully, and in such a lively manner expressed, that it was as if Christ was personally and visibly present with them; yea, he was so described in his sufferings and death, as hanging, bleeding, dying on the accursed tree, that he seemed to be as it were, as the apostle adds, crucified among you: for this cannot be understood literally, for he was crucified without the gates of Jerusalem; nor does it respect the sin of the Galatians in departing from the Gospel, as if that was a crucifying of him again, and a putting him to open shame; nor their sufferings for the sake of Christ, as if he, in that sense, was crucified in them, and with them: but it intends the clear Gospel revelation of a crucified Christ, in the preaching of him by the apostle, which was such that no picture, no image, no crucifix would come up to, and which, where such preaching is, are altogether vain and needless; and the clear view these saints had, by faith, in the glass of the Gospel of Christ, and him crucified, which so realized the object, as if it was present and before the natural eye. Now this was an aggravation of their weakness and folly, that after such clear preaching, and clear sight, they had of the Gospel, and of Christ in it, that they should in the least degree depart from it.”

“O foolish Galatians - O infatuated people; you make as little use of reason as those who have none; you have acted in this business as those do who are fascinated - they are led blindly and unresistingly on to their own destruction. That ye should not obey the truth - This clause is wanting in ABD*FG, some others, the Syriac, Erpenian, Coptic, Sahidic, Itala, Vulgate MS., and in the most important of the Greek and Latin fathers. Of the clause Professor White says, Certissime delenda, "It should certainly be expunged." There are several various readings on this verse, from which it appears that the verse in the best ancient MSS. and versions was read thus: O foolish Galatians, who hath bewitched you? Before whose eyes Jesus Christ crucified hath been plainly set forth. Among you? - Εν ὑμιν is wanting in ABC, several others, the Syriac, Erpenian, Coptic, Sahidic, Ethiopic, Armenian, Vulgate MS., one copy of the Itala, and in several of the fathers. The words appear to disturb the sense, and have obliged commentators to have recourse to a sort of technical meaning; viz. "The doctrine of the Gospel had been so fully preached among these people that it might be said Jesus Christ had been crucified among them; so fully had his sufferings been detailed, and the design of them pointed out."”