CHAPTER 4
That those who were under the law should be subject to condemnation.
Galatians 4:1-3 I say that, insofar as the heir is a child, he differs nothing from a slave; he is master of all things, but is under guardians and stewards until the time appointed by the father. So also we, when we were children, were enslaved under the elemental principles of the world.
For what reason? Because it was decided by the father that he should manage nothing until the lawful age. And he rightly produced the example of the infant. For just as that child, though master of all things, is prevented by his infancy from exercising control over his possessions, so we too, because our mind has long been youthful, are hindered from being deemed worthy of adoption as children of God.
" when we were children ." He says " children " not in respect of age but of knowledge of God, indicating that God had willed to grant these things from the beginning, that is, adoption as sons, but that we are responsible for the delay, being children in our minds. Having then been permitted, by God's patience, to be enslaved to the elements, that is, to the course of the sun and the moon. For being enslaved to Sabbaths and new moons and observances of days, which were prescribed by the law, he says that for the most part we were subject to the sun and the moon, from which come the days and the months and the Sabbaths. Very desirous indeed to reduce those things in the law, he stops and says, "Under the law we were in bondage," he said " under the elemental principles ."
— [THEODORET] When, he says, we were infants and immature, the law acted as a sort of guardian and steward over us. (For he spoke of the basic elements of the world, judicial observations.) Since night and day are named after the sun and moon, and from days weeks and months and years are formed, the law ordered that Sabbaths and new moons and annual festivals and the weeks of years be observed; for this reason he said: "under the elemental principles," since time is also constituted from these. [ end of the excerpt by Theodoret ] —
— [GENNADIUS] " under the elemental principles of the world ." With the oversight of guardians and managers who, for the benefit of the young, guide those not yet mature, he received the elements of the world, with which we were enslaved because our knowledge was incomplete. Therefore, I do not think he took the sun and the moon as part of the order of guardians, because submission to those would be harmful; rather he calls them the elements of the world, or the elementary and introductory law. (For he was also writing to those faithful from the Jews, and here indicates the slightly aforementioned things, and that if you are circumcised, Christ will profit you nothing.) He calls them elements: day, water, fire, which were observations of the law that brought into slavery. Days, namely Sabbaths and new moons and circumcisions. Water, in bodily purifications and baptisms. Fire, in not kindling fire on the Sabbaths, but in eating unseasoned food. See what Eusebius said about this as a foreigner in the fourth discourse of the Proof of the Gospel 1 . [ end of the excerpt by Gennadius ] —
Galatians 4:4-7 But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, that he might redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons. For you are sons; God has sent the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, "Abba! Father!" So you are no longer a slave but a son. And if a son, then also an heir through God by Christ Jesus.
“ But when the fullness of time had come ,” namely the time which it was necessary, he says, for Christ to come. For Daniel the prophet assigned the time of Christ’s coming, which reached its accomplishment in the reign of Caesar Augustus, when also the incarnate economy of Christ began. (Dan. 9:24-27)
" born of a woman ." Therefore he did not say "by a woman," so that you would not suppose his coming to have been by way of the Mother of God [Θεοτόκου], but "of a woman," showing that from her the Lord took his body.
— [PHOTIUS] “ born under the law .” For he became under the law, having also been circumcised, in order, he says, to redeem those who were under the law and under the curse, by the cross, and to be altogether made under the law. [ end of the excerpt by Photius ] —
" so that we might receive adoption as sons ." For he not only freed us from evil, having removed the curse of the law, but also bestowed adoption. And by saying " we might receive " he showed it to be appointed from above, and that we are not able to receive it because of the childishness of our understanding.
“ For you are sons .” And from where, he says, have we been deemed worthy of adoption as sons? From where? From the adoption by the Spirit who descended to prepare us and to teach (for this the One Crying indicates): to call God Father; which would not have been, if we had not been deemed worthy of adoption. And therefore have courage, O man, that you are no longer a slave, but a son of God and his heir. Because of the Son by nature having been incarnate and having taken on our whole humanity, you are no longer a slave and under the yoke of the law. How then is it not absurd for those who have become sons of God, through Christ and through the Spirit, to turn back again to the law? And behold the emphasis of the holy Trinity. The Father sent, the Son became incarnate, and the Spirit cooperated, who also having come into our hearts, teaches to say, Abba, Father . “ also an heir through God by Christ Jesus .” Through his cross.
Galatians 4:8-12a But then, not knowing God, you were enslaved to gods that are not by nature. But now, having known God, or rather, having been known by God, how do you turn back again to the weak and beggarly elements, to which you desire again to be in bondage? You observe days and months and seasons and years. I am afraid for you, for fear that I have labored in vain among you. Become as I am, for I also am as you are.
Paul argues with those from the Jews, showing that the observance of days and months and seasons and years and whatever in the law is observance is idolatry. For this, he says, is nothing else than worshiping the moon and the sun, by which the days have their observance. He said this about property, wanting to depart from the law. For those who preach circumcision also proclaimed such observances.
" But now, having known God ." For it is not you, he says, who find God by your own work, but He himself, while you were wandering in error, seized you.
“ how do you turn back again to ,” He discusses again concerning the sun and the moon and the stars, from which are the observations of the days. But he calls them poor and weak, as having no strength at all. The word “ again ” has much emphasis; after adoption, he says, and being known by God.
— [CYRIL] Elements of the world, the particles of the entire cosmos. [ end of the excerpt by Cyril ] —
— [OECUMENIUS] He calls them weak and poor, not because of their insignificance. (For what is more magnificent than heaven and earth? What more honorable than sun and moon and stars?) But because they are deprived of mind and life and sensation. [ end of the excerpt by Oecumenius ] —
You observe days . From this it is clear that the false apostles proclaimed not only circumcision, but also observances of these, having taken their origin from the law, yet having deviated from the law.
" I am afraid ." See, their insides are in turmoil, and Paul is afraid. The phrase " for fear that " still indicates those standing and not yet fully shipwrecked. And it gives them hope that if they are willing to recover, their labor will not be in vain for them; as he said, Remember my toil and sweat for you, and do not frustrate my anguish.
" Become as I am ." Yet the words are addressed to those from Judea. Become as I am. "Be imitators of me," Paul says, "for I also, having set aside the law, ran to faith." For even I, he says, was as you are, observing the law and carefully practicing it in many respects.
" for I also am as you are ." I longed intensely for the law as well, but see how I have been changed. "You also," he says, "envy that change."
Galatians 4:12b-17 Brothers, I beg you, you have wronged me in nothing. But you know that because of weakness of the flesh I once preached the gospel to you. And you did not despise nor spit out my trial which was in my flesh. Rather you received me as an angel of God, even as Christ Jesus. Who then was the blessing to you? For I bear witness to you that if it were possible, you would have plucked out your eyes and given them to me. So have I become your enemy while I tell you the truth? They envy you, not rightly, but they desire to exclude you, that you might envy them.
— [PHOTIUS 2 ] He appeals to them, considering their salvation as his own. He passes through their acts of gratitude, and the honors by which they honored him, and how greatly they regarded him, wishing to set this right, namely, that the insults now uttered against them by him were not spoken out of any dislike or hatred (for how, he says, could he have been hostile toward you, having treated you with great consideration?); but that what was said came from a mind that was anxious and loving.
“ But you know that because of weakness .” That is, because of bodily weakness, namely, after bonds and blows and imprisonments, which I endured at the hands of those opposed to the preaching.
“ I once preached the gospel .” What do I say, Paul says, did you not wrong me? Therefore you showed me great honor. For even while being flogged and persecuted (for he says this was a weakness of the flesh), I was proclaiming the gospel to you. And yet seeing me suffer these things, you neither were scandalized at me nor spat upon me. For you did not despise, he says, my trial in my flesh, a trial of good things again: the wounds, the imprisonments, the persecutions.
" Rather you received me as an angel of God ." How then is it not unreasonable, he says, that one who is being persecuted and driven away should be received by you as an angel, and even as the Lord himself? Yet he is spat upon while he counsels and exhorts those things that lead to salvation.
— [PHOTIUS] " Who then was the blessing to you? " He was someone, not asked as a question, but as if marveling and lifting up their former faith and the blessing upon that faith. What it was, how great it was, wondrous, he says: from what great blessedness you have fallen. Or by interrogation, What was it? Remember, he says, how great your blessedness was: for I was blessing you very greatly; but now what? I reproach; therefore I am held in hatred. But why do I reproach? For your salvation. For if this were not so, how could I, without offering any other pretext of yours, the one who praises and blesses, have come to reproach?" [end of the excerpt by Photius ] —
" the blessing to you .” Who was, he says, the blessing to you, whom I and many others blessed you for, concerning obedience and submission to the Gospel? Who then was he? he says; for now I do not see him. Where, he says, are the zealously accomplished works of faith? for he has put the who instead of where.
“ your eyes ." I know, Paul says, that you regard me as more precious than your own eyes because of my long-standing preaching.
“ So I have become your enemy .” Elsewhere, he says, I do not know any cause for enmity other than that I deliver to you truths and teachings that lead to salvation, by which it would even have been fitting for you to increase your love toward me.
— [OECUMENIUS] " They envy you ." He says they do not welcome the same faith in Christ for your benefit, but in order to exclude you from it and persuade themselves to follow, because such a plan has been formulated against your deception. [ end of the excerpt by Oecumenius 3 ] —
" not rightly ." For there is also good envy, when someone so envies that he imitates virtue. And there is also bad envy, when someone envies in such a way as to drive the virtuous person out of virtue.
" but they desire to exclude you ." Paul says, They wish to shut you off and to carry you away from the true knowledge, so that having become your teachers themselves, they may lead you to the same envy and imitation. For this reason they carry you away from true knowledge and bring you to the law.
Galatians 4:18-20 It is good, however, to strive enthusiastically in what is good always, and not only when I am present with you. My little children, again I labor in birth until Christ be formed in you. I would indeed be present with you now, and to change my tone, because I am perplexed about you.
He wishes to show that those who now are overturning them, and persuading them to observe to the law, and by this preparing them to become zealous imitators of it, had long ago envied them in the knowledge of the Gospel, when Paul was present and was teaching them.
" It is good, however ," he says, " to strive enthusiastically in what is good always, and not only when I am present with you ." And he shows that they have been deceived during his absence.
" My little children ." Even if, Paul says, you have corrupted the form of Christ and the image upon you, yet you are still my little children. And he says "little children,” those small and unbegotten, or aborted infants, and lacking birth. For this reason he did not say "children," but "my little children."
" until Christ be formed in you ." You have corrupted, he says, the image of Christ in you, which you wore through baptism. As many as were baptized into Christ, you have clothed yourselves with Christ, and you have lost his form, and his being as members. There is therefore need of another birth, which will again imprint upon you the divine form of Christ. What then? Again I labor you by teaching. Again I beget, through catechesis, until you are again imprinted with the divine form of Christ. What then do the Novatians say in response to these things? For behold, I write these things plainly to the faithful.
— [CYRIL] Those whom I labor, until the great and excellent characters of the divinity of Christ be formed into your minds. [ end of the excerpt from Cyril of Alexandria 4 ] —
" I would indeed be present with you now ." — [OECUMENIUS] See love. "I am not content," he says, with letters; I sought to be present with you, and to exchange weeping and mourning for teaching delivered in words, so that, he says, I taught you with weeping. For I too am at a loss what to say about you. How is it that you who were exalted by the knowledge of the Gospel have been cast down and dragged to the ground, again held by the law? [ end of the excerpt by Oecumenius ] —
" and to change my tone ." For some, to turn it into weeping; for others, to marvel at the certainty.
That in the free woman the things of Abraham are represented to the genuine child, one must not be enslaved by the law.
Galatians 4:21-24a Tell me, you who desire to be under the law, do you not hear the law? For it is written that Abraham had two sons, one by the bondwoman and one by the freewoman. But the one of the bondwoman was born according to the flesh, the one of the freewoman through the promise, which things are spoken allegorically.
" Tell me ," Paul says, " you who desire to be under the law, do you not hear the law ." But "desire" is fitting; for the matter was one of ill-timed quarrelsomeness on their part.
" do you not hear the law ." What, he says, does he say about himself? and furthermore he brings testimony from Genesis. For it is his habit to call the entire Old Testament "the law." "do you not hear the law," that is, the book of Genesis? and see how he constructs his argument. "you who desire," he says, "to be under the law, do you not hear the law." For therefore you will be convinced by him. The law itself, he says (if you know what is in it), advises that you depart from it. If then you are persuaded by it, withdraw from it. But observe the construction.
“ Abraham had two sons .” He wishes to show that those who are Abraham’s offspring by physical kinship, that is, the Jews, are related by flesh, while those who are brought into Abraham’s offspring by faith, that is, the Christians, are offspring of Abraham by promise. But even then, he says, the son according to the flesh, Ishmael, was cast out, just as now his fleshly kin, the Jews, have been. And he calls the son according to the promise, Isaac, who remained inside, just as now, he says, the kin according to the promise, the Christians. Do you see that the law knows how to expel those who belong to it alone, that is, the Jews?
“ But the one of the bondwoman .” Properly he speaks of Ishmael according to the flesh. For by the law of nature he was born of the flesh; for Isaac was not by the law of the flesh (How could a hundred-year-old man beget?) but by the individual promise.
— [PHOTIUS] Therefore do not assume that being related to Abraham according to the flesh is enough; let this be corrected and let it be believed that unless you are born as children by the promise of Abraham, that is, members and fellow-body of Christ (for he is, by promise, the seed of Abraham), you are outside the promise. [ end of the excerpt by Photius ] —
“ which things are spoken allegorically .” That is, they were types of the future covenants: the births of these two children. For not only the visible things, but also other matters are signified by the births. “ which things are spoken allegorically .” Instead of what is otherwise meant. For it does not recount the history, but teaches the things foreshadowed in the history. For he introduces:
Galatians 4:24b-27 For these are two covenants. One indeed is born from Mount Sinai into slavery, or is someone named Hagar. For Hagar is Mount Sinai in Arabia. And she corresponds to Jerusalem. And she serves with her children. But the upper Jerusalem is free, which is the mother of us all. For it is written: Rejoice, barren one who does not bear; break forth and cry aloud, you who do not suffer birth, because many are the children of the desert more than of her who has a husband.
Mount Sinai is in Arabia . There the law was given to Moses. It is near Jerusalem. That mountain Sinai itself, in the language of the Arabs, is called Hagar. And, it is said, therefore: Hagar and Sarah were types of the two covenants. The slave-girl was a type of the Old Covenant, for she begets servants of the law. The free woman is a type of the New Covenant, for she bears those freed from the yoke of the law. For, it is said, Mount Sinai, where the law was given, is neighboring to Jerusalem, and in the Arabs’ tongue it has the same name as Hagar the slave, Hagar herself being likewise called, as from the name, the type becoming near to the truth:
“She is born into slavery .” That of the law.
" or is someone named Hagar ." He says: “someone” is a covenant, which has the form of Hagar. And therefore: for the mountain Sinai in the language of the Arabs is called Hagar.
" corresponds to ," that is, it touches, it borders.
— [PHOTIUS] " to Jerusalem ." That is, to the one here on earth. So the upper and the free one, both stand apart. [ end of the excerpt by Photius ] —
“ And she serves .” This, he says, is the old covenant given on Mount Sinai; it serves with her children, the Jews. It serves under the law.
" the upper Jerusalem ." The one is the figure of Hagar; in these things, behold also the figure of Sarah. The figure of her is the upper Jerusalem, that is, the heavenly. For that city of the faithful is free from the observances of the law, and is our mother, he says. Therefore Hagar fulfills the figure of the Old Covenant and of the Jews. But Sarah of the New Covenant and of us. And he called the upper Jerusalem also the Church.
" For it is written ." And therefore, he says, Sarah was a type of the Jerusalem above, that is, of the Church, because she too being barren and without children, like the church once from the Gentiles, triumphed in offspring over Hagar; and the Church triumphed over the synagogue. And Isaiah is witness to these things: "Rejoice, you barren, who do not bear." (Isa. 54:1) Is Isaiah speaking to the Church composed of Gentiles? He commands her to cry out with joy. "Break forth now," either the barrenness into fruitfulness, or break forth the voice of gladness.
" because many are the children of the desert ." He calls the Church from among the nations a desert and barren. For it was a desert of every good thing before they believed in Christ.
" more than of her who has a husband ." He called him a man having or directing, governing and providing for the synagogue of the Jews: or as formerly enjoying the providence of God.
Galatians 4:28-31 But we, brothers, are children of the promise according to Isaac. Yet as at that time the one born according to the flesh persecuted the one according to the Spirit, so also now. But what does the Scripture say? Cast out the bondwoman and her son. For the son of the bondwoman shall not inherit with the son of the free woman. Therefore, brothers, we are not children of the bondwoman but of the free woman. Stand then firm in the freedom by which Christ has made us free, and do not again submit yourselves to a yoke of slavery.
Not only was the Church barren as Sarah was, nor afterwards did she have much offspring like her, but it was begotten in the same manner. For Sarah did not bear Isaac by the law of nature, but by divine grace. Nor does the Church give birth by the law of nature in the baptismal font, but by divine grace. Do you see how the type in every respect agrees with the truth?
“ according to Isaac .” For we were not begotten according to nature, but according to grace, as Isaac through the promise.
— [THEODORET] Let this not trouble us either, that those entrusted are driven out by the unbelievers. For we find something of this kind also in the type, but it in no way prevailed against Isaac. [ end of the excerpt by Theodoret ] —
He says, " But we, brothers, are children of the promise according to Isaac ." Therefore being free, we ought not to be enslaved under the law of Moses.
“ Yet as at that time .” And from that very fact that the faithful were persecuted by the Jews (for they were then persecuted), he shows the pattern to be true. For even Ishmael, who was born according to the flesh, persecuted Isaac, who was born according to the Spirit and the promise. “ But what does the Scripture say? ”
Above, where the chapter was being interpreted, that: "you who desire to be under the law, do you not hear the law," (Gal. 4:21) we said this was contrived concerning Paul, namely that even the law itself, that is the old covenant, seemed to need to permit the law and Judaism, and behold it has been demonstrated. For when Hagar was a type of the Jews and of the old law, and Sarah and Isaac of the faithful and of the new covenant, in that very old covenant Hagar and Ishmael were cast out (for, he says, she cast out the bondwoman and her son), plainly in that very old one the expulsion of the Jews was foreshadowed. Do you see that one ought not to hold to the law? Because those who trusted in it were cast out? Behold then that even the old covenant in its power counseled not to hold to the law, to cast out those who adhere only to it, that is, the Jews. For if one must always conform to the law and the old covenant, Hagar and her child, who were a type of the Jews, would not have been cast out. Isaac alone inherited, who was a type of those who trust in Christ. And again, she was not cast out merely because she was persecuted, but that she might not become a sharer of the inheritance.
" Therefore, brothers, we are not children of the bondwoman ." If then we are not children of a bondwoman, nor of slaves, how do we submit ourselves to the servitude of the law? We are not, since Hagar is not our example, but of the Jews. For Sarah is our example.
“ in the freedom by which Christ has made us free .” The law enslaved; Christ has freed us from the curse of the law. Therefore, he says, one must stand in the freedom given by Christ. But the “ Stand firm ” [Στήκετε] indicates being unshaken.
“ do not again submit yourselves to a yoke of slavery .” The word again indicates their insensitivity. And by saying yoke, it shows the heavy burden of the law’s slavery.
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Translator notes for Galatians chapter 4.
1. Eusebius, Proof of the Gospel 4, 8:1-5
2. The Patrologia Graeca attributes this excerpt to Photius but I found no confirmation for this.
3. Staab claims that this excerpt is from Gennadius and Oecumenius. Probably an error.
4. Cyril of Alexandria, Glaphyrorum in Genesis, PG 69.3.141A