Ambrosiaster

In his own words on Galatians

• Galatians 1:3

  He shows that the human race is sustained by the goodness of both, as much Father as Son. Nor does he indicate that the Son is less than the Father when he calls him our Lord, nor that the Father is greater when he calls him our God. He will not be a true Father unless he is also Lord, nor will the Son be a true Lord unless he is also God.

  EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS 1.3

• Galatians 1:4

  Now Christ by atoning for our transgressions not only gave us life but also made us his own, so that we might be called children of God, made so through faith. What a great error it is, therefore, to go under the law again after receiving grace.

  EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS 1.4.2

• Galatians 1:4

  For when the human race was held in the dominion of the devil, the Savior offered himself to the willing devil, so that deceiving him by the power of his virtue—for the devil wanted to take possession of one whom he was unable to hold—he could carry off those whom the devil was detaining by a false right.

  EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS 1.4.1

• Galatians 1:8

  Let no one be surprised that the apostle, when quieting ferocious characters, was so annoyed. He is indignant, for the sake of the Galatians' salvation, with the enemies of the Christian way of life. For this indignation shows that it is no light sin to transfer allegiance to the law after receiving faith.

  EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS 1.9.1

• Galatians 1:15

  Just as he said to Jeremiah, "Before I formed you in the womb I knew you," so, knowing what Paul would be, God called him because he was able to serve.

  EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS 1.16.2

• Galatians 1:16

  When he had faith in the law, not knowing that it was not the time for observance of the law, and was intensely striving to resist the gospel of Christ, he thought that he acted by God's will. God, seeing that his zeal was good, though he lacked knowledge, chose to summon him into his grace. He knew that this man was suitable to preach his gospel to the Gentiles. For if he was so swift and faithful in so poor a cause through boldness of conscience, not through adulation of anyone, how much more constant would he be in preaching the gift of God through the hope of the promised reward?

  EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS 1.15.1

• Galatians 1:17

  He set out from Damascus to Arabia, therefore, to preach where none of the apostles had been and where Judaizing had not been promoted through the intrigues of pseudoapostles. And from there he returned again to Damascus so that he could attend to those who were still immature when he preached to them the gospel of God's grace.

  EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS 1.17.2

• Galatians 2:1

  His renown had been growing for a long time among all the Jews, though he had not been seen face to face … but on account of the law he had acquired a bad reputation among the Jews, as though his preaching was out of harmony with the preaching of the other apostles. Many were having doubts on account of this, which were sufficient to make the Gentiles anxious, in case they had been trained in something other than that which was preached by the apostles who had been with the Lord. For on this precise occasion the Galatians were undermined by Jews who were saying that Paul taught something other than Peter taught. This is the reason for his going up to Jerusalem, at the bidding of the Lord's revelation, disclosing to them the implications of his preaching, with Barnabas and Titus as witnesses of his preaching, one from the Jews and one from the Gentiles, so that if any took offense at him it might be assuaged by their testimony.

  EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS 2.2.1

• Galatians 2:3

  The implication is "Why should you be circumcised, when Titus was not compelled to undergo circumcision by the apostles? Titus, who had an important role, was accepted without circumcision."

  EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS 2.3

• Galatians 2:4

  By "secretly" he means that they had entered by deception, passing themselves off as brothers when they were enemies. By "slipped in" he means that they came in a humble manner, feigning friendship.… To "spy out" is to enter in such a way as to invent one thing and discover another, whereby they may challenge our liberty.… "Liberty in Jesus Christ" means not being subject to the law. "That they might bring us into bondage" means … to subject us to the law of circumcision.

  EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS 2.5.3-4

• Galatians 2:7

  He names Peter alone because he has received the primacy in the founding of the church; and he himself had likewise been chosen to have the primacy in the founding of Gentile churches, but with the proviso that Peter should preach to the Gentiles, should cause arise, and Paul to the Jews.

  EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS 2.7.8

• Galatians 2:9

  Just as he allots to Peter companions who were the outstanding men among the apostles, so he joins to himself Barnabas, who was associated with him by God's appointment. Yet he claims that the grace of his primacy was entrusted to him alone by God, just as the primacy among the apostles was entrusted solely to Peter.

  EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS 2.10.1-2

• Galatians 2:20

  One who is fixed to the cross of Christ is one who, in imitation of his footsteps, is not ensnared by any worldly desire. Living to God, he appears dead to the world.

  EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS 2.19

• Galatians 2:20

  There is no doubt that Christ lives in the one who is delivered from death by faith. When Christ forgives the sins of one who is worthy of death, he himself lives in that person, since by his protection the person is snatched from death.

  EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS 2.20

• Galatians 2:21

  Since a future life is promised to Christians, the one who now lives with God's assistance lives in the faith of the promised life. For this one contemplates his image, having the pledge of the future life, which was procured for us by Christ's love in accordance with God's will. The one who is grateful to Christ is therefore the one who endures in faith toward him. He knows that he has no benefit from anyone but Christ and treats Christ with dishonor if he compares any other to him.

  EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS 2.21

• Galatians 2:21

  The law could not give remission of sins, nor triumph over the second death nor free from captivity those who were bound because of sin. The reason for Christ's death was to provide those things that the law could not. He did not die in vain, for his death is the justification of sinners.

  EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS 2.21

• Galatians 3:2

  He sets forth a tenet that could not at that time be denied: the Holy Spirit dwells in believers. This gift was manifested by God to recollect the rudiments of the faith, as it was at the beginning when it was practiced among the apostles and the other disciples. … On these the Holy Spirit descended and gave the capacity to speak in many tongues, with the gift of interpretation, so that no one dared deny the presence of the Spirit of God in them.

  EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS 3.3.3

• Galatians 3:4

  At that time believers were subject to reproach from others, whether at home or abroad, being pointed out as guilty of treason. Hence the Galatians, who had likewise suffered a great deal, were more perverse than those who had been spared, because they had lost the merit of their suffering by their resubmission to the law.

  EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS 3.4

• Galatians 3:13

  Since no one could obey the law, all were convicted by the curse of the law, so that it was right to punish them. But Christ, born as a man and offered for us by his Father, redeemed us from the devil. He was offered for those who were liable to the curse of the law. Jesus was made a curse in the way that under the law a victim offered for sin is said to be sin.… Thus he did not say "cursed for us" but "made a curse."

  EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS 3.13.1-2

• Galatians 3:17

  Once the promise had been established, the law was given subsequently, not so that it could undermine the promise but so that it might point to what was to be fulfilled and when it would come.

  EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS 3.17

• Galatians 3:18

  The Jews maintain two opposing tenets. For in no way and by no argument can they be persuaded that the promise to Abraham was rendered void by the law, and they are right. But in their short-sighted vanity they maintain another contrary principle, thinking that justification could not come without the practice of the law. They know that Abraham, who is the type [of justification], was justified through faith alone, without the practice of the law.… The heirs to the promise of Abraham are therefore those who are his successors in the adoption of the faith by which Abraham was blessed and justified. The testimony of the promise to Abraham is therefore called a covenant [to signify] that after his death there would be heirs in the promise, made sons of Abraham through faith.

  EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS 3.18.1-3

• Galatians 3:19

  By "angels" he means God's messengers—that is, Moses, [Joshua] son of Nun and the other prophets up to John the Baptist. … Through these, therefore, the Law and Prophets are ordained and disposed by God in the hand, that is, the power, of the Savior. For he is the Mediator, the reconciler of God and humanity, so that he may save whom he will out of those who have received the law from the angels.

  EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS 3.19.1-2

• Galatians 3:20

  Without doubt, a mediator, that is, arbiter, is not of one but two. For when two peoples were contending against one another, always at odds and enemies because of the disparity in their doctrines, the Savior came as their Mediator, taking from each people the cause of discord so that they might be at peace. So he took from the Gentiles the plurality of gods and cult of the elements, and he took from the Jews the works of the law, that is, new moons, circumcision, the keeping of the sabbath, the distinction of foods and other things that the Gentiles abhorred. And thus those who were formerly enemies came to be at peace. If then this is the case, how could the Galatians be so dull-witted as to violate this reconciliation by conversion back to Judaism?

  EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS 3.20.1-2

• Galatians 4:3

  By the "elements" he means new moons and the sabbath. New moons are the lunar days that the Jews observe, while the sabbath is the day of rest. Therefore, before the promise came (that is, the gift of God's grace) and justified believers by purifying them, we were subject, like those who are infants and imperfect, to our fellow servants as though to custodians. Our pernicious freedom was the matrix of sin.

  EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS 4.3

• Galatians 4:4

  "The fullness of time" is the completed time which had been foreordained by God the Father for the sending of his Son, so that, made from a virgin, he might be born like a man, subjecting himself to the law up to the time of his baptism, so that he might provide a way by which sinners, washed and snatched away from the yoke of the law, might be adopted as God's sons by his condescension, as he had promised to those redeemed by the blood of his Son. It was necessary, indeed, that the Savior should be made subject to the law, as a son of Abraham according to the flesh, so that, having been circumcised, he could be seen as the one promised to Abraham, who had come to justify the Gentiles through faith, since he bore the sign of the one to whom the promise had been made.

  EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS 4.5.1

• Galatians 4:6

  He says of the Gentiles who believed in Christ, "You are sons," having previously been enemies. There can be no doubt that believing Jews were also said to be sons of God, since they had long been called by that name. They had received the name of sons at one time as though by anticipation in order that this sonship might subsequently be understood in Christ, being incomplete without the Spirit.

  EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS 4.6.1

• Galatians 4:7

  There is no doubt that one adopts a son in order to leave him an heir; but inheritance depends on the death of someone. How then can mortals be called the heirs of him who lives forever? The fact is that Scripture speaks in our own manner so that we may understand. In order to show that the Father will give from his goods those things that he is going to give his sons, it calls this "inheritance."

  EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS 4.7

• Galatians 4:10

  The observers of days are those who say, for example, "Tomorrow there must be no setting out on a journey." … The observers of months are those who watch the course of the moon, saying, for example, "Contracts must not be sealed in the seventh month." … Seasons are observed when people say, "Today is the first day of spring, it is a festival and after tomorrow is the feast of Vulcan." … People pay respect to the year when they say, "The first day of January is the new year," as though a year were not completed every day.… For if God is loved with the whole heart, there ought not to be any dread or suspicion of these phenomena so long as he is near.

  EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS 4.10.1-2

• Galatians 4:14

  The ailment of the apostle was a temptation to the Galatians. But they were found constant, not doubting as to his faith. For they could have stumbled and said, "What virtue or hope is there in this faith when its minister is so humiliated?" But when he had inspired their minds with future hopes, they did not fear present death for the sake of Christ's name.… This caused them later to blush, because after these laudable acts they became again entrapped so as to deserve reproach.

  EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS 4.14.1-2

• Galatians 4:16

  He says this as to imply: "It is not possible that I should become an enemy to those from whom I received such services. But because no one wants to be exposed when he errs, I seem to be your enemy when I justly reprimand you."

  EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS 4.16

• Galatians 4:24

  These women represent the two covenants. Moses, taking the blood of a calf in a vessel, sprinkled the people, saying "this is the blood of the covenant, etc." … The law was given on Mount Sinai. In reciting it to the people, Moses called this the book of the testament. He then sprinkled the people with blood, as I have said. This law held sinners as offenders. They soon began to be slaves of sin, as if they had been made sons of Hagar, as if returning to slavery.

  EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS 4.24.1-2

• Galatians 4:26

  Jerusalem, which he calls our mother, represents the Lord's mystery, through which we are reborn into freedom, just as she is free. And she is called heavenly because heaven is her seat. Those to whom she gives birth will be there with her.

  EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS 4.26

• Galatians 4:31

  We were therefore sons of the slave woman when we were liable for our sins. But, having received the remission of sins from Christ, we have been made free.

  EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS 4.31

• Galatians 5:3

  There are some who serve the law to a certain extent without being circumcised; for many Romans in Judea served the law without circumcision.… Yet there is no one who is circumcised without being required to serve the whole law. He is a debtor, since the law was given to the circumcised. His meaning here was that they had become so negligent as to deserve to bear all the burdens of the law.

  EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS 5.3

• Galatians 5:8

  The truth is that the Jews imposed the yoke of the law on them by a human decision, not by the judgment of God, who was calling them to grace through his apostle.

  EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS 5.8

• Galatians 5:10

  He says he trusts in this hope concerning them, because they had entered the path of error not willingly, but being deceived. Therefore, having shown them the true way, he believes that they can easily return. But whoever troubles you will bear judgment, whoever he may be. Just as the one who turns a wandering person back is to be rewarded, as James the Apostle says in his letter: Whoever turns a sinner back will save his soul from death and cover a multitude of sins (James 5:20); so too the one who forces the one walking in the right path to turn aside onto a way of error will obtain condemnation, whoever he may be. For this reason, he subjects these; so that they would not defend themselves based on their merit, because they were descendants of Abraham according to the flesh. Finally, exalting themselves, they say to Jesus: We are children of Abraham (John 8:33).

  Commentary on Galatians

• Galatians 5:12

  [The point is] that those who had deprived the Galatians of the grace of God should themselves be cut off from the grace of God.

  EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS 5.12

• Galatians 5:19

  These and others like them are the members of sin, which the apostle calls "the works of the flesh" because these errors come from the world, from which also the flesh comes. For all these sins arise from the side of the flesh, not from that of the Spirit.

  EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS 5.21

• Galatians 5:23

  Paul did not mention more than ten excellent behaviors because he is referring to the fruits of the Spirit. These fruits embrace everything in the tablets of God's covenant, in which no more than ten words of command are succinctly handed down.

  EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS 5.24.2

• Galatians 5:26

  What he is saying is that if we live well and honestly we should also express this in good conduct. This is what it is to live in the Spirit: to have an unblemished life. We walk in the Spirit if we study peace. For this is what engenders love. It is, on the other hand, empty glory to seek a victory where there is no prize, so that someone would end up having only a zeal for strife and spiritual competition. These things tend toward discord and wrangling.

  EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS 5.26

• Galatians 6:1

  Now Paul speaks to those who were spiritually stronger, lest by becoming proud in their own good life they should think it right to despise and reject one who had perhaps been overtaken by sin. And so they must be told that people struggling with sin are to be spurred toward reform with kindness. If they were to be more harshly punished with coercive authority, they would not accept reproof. They would begin to defend themselves against seeming to be base and worse. If you protect a person from strife and arrogance, he will become meek in relation to you, since humility tends to make even the proud humble.

  EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS 6.2.1-2

• Galatians 6:3

  It is true, and no one is unaware of it, that if we consider honestly our acts and thoughts we find ourselves superior to no one and cannot easily pass judgment on another. For the person who is puffed up as if he were something special is misled, since he does not know that humility becomes a means of growth. For he does not have before his eyes the words and deeds of the Savior, who, though he be Lord of all, humbled himself so as to give us a pattern that we might follow should we wish to grow. If we were to exalt ourselves, we would stumble as a result of the ignorance of a heart elated by the hope of presuming to be more worthy of praise.

  EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS 6.4.1

• Galatians 6:5

  Finally he wants it to be clear to those who are proud that nobody is incriminated for another's sin. So no one should be afraid to associate with a sinner or to aid him if he comes to him so that he may be of benefit to him.

  EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS 6.5

• Galatians 6:6

  He says this so that hearers may share all their goods with their teachers. But if teachers practice otherwise than they teach, hearers should protest rather than share these goods. It may be clear thereby that the law is your guide rather than the person. For it will be his problem, not yours.

  EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS 6.6

• Galatians 6:12

  To please "in the flesh" means to please human beings. For those he calls false apostles, in order that they gain the approval of the Jews or at least not elicit their hostility, were preaching Christ in such a way that they also taught the necessity of observing the law. Paul was never intimidated by his opponents. He consistently refused to keep silent about the truth. He constantly was attentive to what he was teaching and how he was living.

  EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS 6.11

• Galatians 6:17

  He does not wish to be annoyed any longer by people advocating circumcision—people who would force him to write another letter. He wants the Galatians to respond quickly to his letter and get rid of their mistakes. This hard work will result in genuine rest. If, however, they show themselves to be reluctant and stubborn, refusing to change, Paul wants to be left alone. Let the Galatians spend their time and effort trying to please the Judaizers in an empty search for temporary reward.

  EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS 6.17