Fragmenta in epistulam ad Galatas

Now he calls God "Father," because he wishes the church, having come into adoption, to be free from the slavery of the law. For if the law and its ordinances were sufficient for salvation, there would be no need of the cross and of Christ coming to the cross. He did not say "and the brothers with me," but "all," by "all" indicating that the multitude was one. By calling the present age evil, he showed that evil is not unbegotten but temporary, and among the men to whom he wrote, if concerning men who had persuaded them to use the law inopportunely. And he said "might be taken out" in order to demonstrate that it was not easy for anyone else, neither by law nor by prophets. For "might be taken out" signifies a slight force, but not force—rather the power of the one who rescued; for he did not say "of the one who snatched away" but "of the one who gave himself for our sins, so that he might take us out." This expression showed the difficulty of achievement for everyone else. And God is called our Father so that, with the adoption being made manifest, the compulsion through law might be expelled. He fights against that suspicion which claims that he said one thing among you but lived differently in Judea, and he says: how can I be one thing outwardly and another inwardly, with God as overseer? And what human dignities do I put forward, with which I neither fight nor disagree? 1:11-14. Not having called his own "gospel" at the beginning, here he adds "the gospel preached by me," since it became ambiguous what the gospel of the one who called is, not in fact but in slanders—that it is not according to man, as they say, because they received it from Peter. How is it not according to man?

For I did not receive it, nor was I taught it. "Received" and "taught" are useful and good terms, for these bound people together. For grace illuminates suddenly, while people transmit and teach gradually. The address "brothers" is also necessary; for since he was suspected of plotting, saying one thing but meaning another, through the address "brothers" he dispels the suspicion. "For you have heard of my conduct once in Judaism." And he did not say "in the law." What then was this conduct? That he persecuted the church of God excessively. For since he is about to speak about legal matters, and the law seemed to be of God, while other things were suspected concerning Christ, he did not say "I persecuted the church of Christ excessively" but "the church of God." "And I advanced in Judaism beyond many of my contemporaries in my race, being a more ardent zealot of my ancestral traditions." Again "Judaism," for he does not wish to remind them of the law, lest what is said be harsh. "Beyond many of my contemporaries": "many" and not "all" for the sake of moderation, and "contemporaries" so as not to seem to exalt himself over his elders. "In my race," to show that his root was from there, but the fruit from here. "Being a more ardent zealot," to show through the excess how much he opposed the church. And he said "ancestral traditions" and not "legal ordinances," for he refers to the additions made by the Pharisees, and that in these he was a zealot. "I ran" is well said, for the proclamation had been anticipated; "I run," because it was present. And the right hands signify concord.

James is placed first, he says, because he is the lord of the place. And why is he sometimes called Cephas, sometimes Peter? Those who came to Galatia and caused disturbance were Jews. Therefore Peter, who among them is called Cephas, so that through the name they heard, he might also call him by that name, it is said: The church does not keep the law, does not transgress the law, but goes beyond the law. He who says that the law is fulfilled and has ceased, even if he does not keep the law, does not act unlawfully. But he who sometimes eats what is forbidden by the law, and sometimes does not eat, by not eating indicates that the law is in force and remains, to which he reverts. Therefore, since the law remains, and you have eaten contrary to the lawful things, you rightly hear these things. Christ lives in me, who is not subject to the law, being above the law as a son. And I, because of the one living in me, just as those who receive the sun's rays are bright and transparent, am a son. I do not say that even after the passion of Christ there is need of legal observances. For this is to say that grace has no power, that the passion contributes nothing. The law came after four hundred and thirty years, not from the exodus from Egypt but from the beginning of this promise. So that those who seem to contend with the church about primacies are found to be later by hundreds and tens of years after the faith. He says this: that the ordinance was through angels, in the hand of a mediator, that is, the angels mediating for the law to be given, so that we may hear: the promise he gave himself, but the law he did not give himself, but ordained it through angels mediating.

I speak now of precedence, not forgetting the promise of primacy, but because milk is useful at one time and not useful thereafter. So before faith came, we were guarded by law, the law having been interposed between the promise and the very arrival of faith. God sent his son. Preserving the genuine sense with the article, he said "his son," the one who is son, born from a woman. For since a woman procured sin, from a woman comes the savior. And because the law was not given with the power to give life, the one who came to heal was also under law. "Elements" he calls the legal ordinances. If you seek interpretation from him: in order to ransom those under law, in order that we might receive the adoption, which was already stored up in the promises, but was held back in the interim because the law was introduced and the times were not yet fulfilled. When the time was fulfilled, God sent his son, to whom these things were reserved. If then you call "Father," you have clearly become a son, and the Spirit bears witness to you. If a son, then you are also an heir through Christ, that is, by grace, not by nature. But then, not knowing God, O Galatians, you served those not gods by nature, the idols. How have you turned back again to the weak and poor elements? How is it possible for one who is a Greek, a Galatian, to turn back to the elements of the law from which they never even departed? First let us learn what he calls poor elements, to which you again wish to serve from the beginning. If one attends from the beginning to the speaker:

But at that time, not knowing God, you served gods that are not gods by nature—clearly he speaks of Hellenism. Rather, having been known by him, how do you turn back again to the weak things? Again, one might think that he is accusing them of idolatry, for to turn back again is to run back to those things from which one departed. Therefore, according to this sequence, the weak and poor elements are considered to be of Hellenism. Let us see what the following says: "to which you wish to serve again from the beginning." He interprets what "you turn back" is by the phrase "to which you wish to serve again from the beginning." You observe days and months and seasons and years; I fear that I have labored in vain among you. If they began from Hellenism, how do they come to Judaism? But both of these things happened to the Galatians, and he applies the remedies to both. Let it be, he says, that you were ignorant of God; but now, having known him—rather, having been known by him—how do you turn back again to the law, which not even those who had it truly possessed? And thus the law was established, just as he speaks both of their former Hellenism and of the regression of those judaizing back to the law. And indeed, neither were you a Greek nor were these Jews; but since they judaized, and he himself had come from Judaism, he says: "Brothers, I beseech you." The one in pain beseeches, and the one suffering entreats. He calls them brothers, by the intimacy of the address casting out the suspicion of treachery; for if he thought one thing but said another among them, he would be a plotter and an enemy. "And you did not despise the trial of you in my flesh." And he says: I endured these things, and you

You were being tested, being put to the proof, whether you would accept me and the word proclaimed through me, seeing me in these dangers. Therefore my sufferings and the persecutions, O Galatians, were your test. Since I happened to be bound and held fast, he says, I wished to come to you and change my voice, to proclaim to you now these very things which those who are disturbing you say I proclaim elsewhere, that one must be circumcised and keep the legal ordinances. Would you not yourselves, who then received those things from me and now hear the opposite, have considered my affairs a stage show and a game? For I am amazed if, having heard those things from me, you suspect that I have other things in my mind and have proclaimed other things to those who have honored me thus. Not by the law that threatens slaves, but by the spirit that leads children of God. Since the law contains the declaration that cursed is the one who does not abide by all, therefore the one who does not keep all has not kept it. But they wish you to be circumcised, so that they may boast in your flesh, that is, that the nations follow us, and not be compelled to say that we have made common cause with the nations. Those men wish to put a good face on it by flesh and to boast. But I write with my own hand. The Christian is not circumcised, nor is he in the Greek foreskin; for he has his own circumcision. He is not circumcised with the Jews, since he has a better one, and with the Greeks he is not in foreskin, because he has circumcision. Therefore he who is neither with the Greeks nor with the Jews is a new creation.

And all who align themselves with this rule, that of the new creation, all who neither judaize nor hellenize but christianize, peace and mercy be upon them—mercy for the remission of sins, peace for union with God. And upon the Israel of God. Take up all those things of that kind: the whole law is in you, because you fulfill the law of Christ. And who is the Israel of God, given that the one once called Israel is no longer of God?