Gaius Marius Victorinus — Commentary on Scripture

Galatians 1:1

His reason for saying “through Christ and God the Father, who raised him from the dead” is that what God does he does through Christ. And so that people would not say, “How did you learn from Christ?” since Paul had not previously been a follower of Christ and Christ was dead, he said that God raised Christ from the dead. By this he implies that it is Christ himself, who taught him, who has been raised from the dead—raised, that is, by the power of God the Father.

EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS 1.1.1

Galatians 1:2

Whereas he was accustomed to call himself simply Paul the apostle to the Romans and Corinthians, in order to startle the Galatians and reprove them for a grave error he has joined with himself all the brothers who were with him, saying that they themselves were writing to the Galatians, making them feel the shame of thinking contrary to everyone, so as to give more weight to his own injunctions and the gospel that he preaches.

EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS 1.1.1

Galatians 1:11

Possibly because the Savior himself is not a man [merely], as some think. Nor because he is sent in the form of a man is he therefore a man but God in a mystery taking flesh to overcome the flesh.… If “from a man” means one thing, “after the manner of man” will mean another. And again if “I did not receive from a man” is one thing. “not after the manner of man” will be another. Therefore “after the manner of man” can be understood to mean “so that you may understand in a corporeal manner,” seeing that the argument received is that “which I did not receive from man.”

EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS 1.1.11

Galatians 1:13

The point of telling this about himself is to show that he did not learn from a man or through man but from God and Jesus Christ. The aim of this is to prevent the Galatians from entertaining another opinion or supposing that anything needs to be added to the gospel.

EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS 1.1.13-14

Galatians 1:15

The God who caused me to be born, who separated me from my mother’s womb, also called me through his grace. For no one knows God except one who has been called.

EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS 1.1.15-16

Galatians 1:18

For if the foundation of the church was laid in Peter, to whom all was revealed, as the gospel says, Paul knew that he ought to see Peter. When he speaks of seeing Peter, it is as one to whom Christ had committed so much authority, not as one from whom he was to learn anything.… “How,” [he implies], “could I learn this great knowledge of God from Peter in such a short time?”

EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS 1.1.18

Galatians 1:21

What does he prove by all this? That his gospel had persuaded everyone, even in his absence.

EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS 1.1.21-22

Galatians 1:24

By “glorified God in me” he means they called him great. For what is so magnificent as to have your own opinion turned around and receive the one whom you previously assailed? This being so, you also should follow nothing else than the gospel preached to you by the one who is a miracle among the Gentiles, because he preaches the faith of Christ.

EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS 1.1.24

Galatians 2:1

These men he had as witnesses, through whom he proved that his gospel was given to him through revelation, seeing that he said “Barnabas went up with me,” and he also took Titus, whose faith and gospel were approved by everyone.

EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS 1.2.1

Galatians 2:2

That is, those through whom the commandments and gospel of God were being handed down, such as apostles and the rest. “To these men,” he says, “I privately explained my gospel, which I preach among the Gentiles, so that if there was anything that they were handing on otherwise, they could correct it or could emend anything that I myself was handing on otherwise. This therefore was the cause of my going up to Jerusalem, and for this reason it was revealed to me that I should go up, so that it might be more readily known that my gospel to the Gentiles and their gospel to the Jews were the same.” Now the purpose of his expounding it privately was that shame might be taken from among them, and they might communicate to one another the mysteries that they knew. Since they all shared one opinion and one gospel, what was it that he labored to persuade them of? That they should not add anything new or join anything to it. That is the cause of the present sin of the Galatians in following Judaism and the practice of circumcision, the sabbath and other things.

EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS 1.2.2

Galatians 2:2

“So that I should not run or have run in vain.” That is [he says], “lest I should fail to preach a full gospel. For if I have preached anything less, I have run in vain or I now run in vain.”

EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS 1.2.2

Galatians 2:6

[He means] those who have sprung from those same pseudoapostles but nonetheless “are something,” that is, have undergone change and now follow the gospel. Even if they have sprung from these phonies they are now whole, for that is what it is truly to be something. “It is nothing to me,” he says, “what kind of people they were before, at some past time.” And he adds the reason: God shows no partiality but looks at one’s mental attitude and faith. Whether one be Greek or Jew, whether one was anything, is not what God accepts, but what one is and whether one has received faith and the gospel.

EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS 1.2.6

Galatians 2:9

That is, those who supported the church were like pillars supporting roofs and other things. “These men, then,” he says, “being of such quality and so great, gave me their right hands, that is, joined in friendship, peace and steadfastness and declared that they had only one gospel. In view of this accord, Galatians, you are sinning and follow neither my gospel nor that of Peter, James and John, who are the pillars of the church, when you add things that are not approved by any of them.”

EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS 1.2.7-9

Galatians 2:9

“Not to me alone,” [he says], “did they give the right hand of fellowship, but also to Barnabas who was my companion.” He made the addition so that it should not appear that he alone had received the trust.

EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS 1.2.7-9

Galatians 2:10

When Paul and Barnabas were having these discussions with John and Peter and James, the gospel was accepted and established in the way that Paul describes. The only thing that they did not hear willingly in this dispute was that works were not part of salvation. Their sole injunction, however, was that they should be mindful of the poor. Thus they agree on this point also, that the hope of salvation does not reside in the activity of doing works for the poor, but they simply enjoin—what?—that we be mindful of the poor. Not that we should spend all our efforts on it but that we should share with those who have not what we are able to have. We are instructed simply that we should be mindful of the poor, not that we should place our care and thought upon our own capacity to hold on to our salvation by this means. Thus he is almost corrected and admonished in this matter, but this is not all Paul says. “That we should be mindful,” he says, not “that we should do this” but “that we should keep them in mind,” which is less than putting our work into this and fulfilling this alone. He adds…

When Paul and Barnabas were having these discussions with John and Peter and James, the gospel was accepted and established in the way that Paul describes. The only thing that they did not hear willingly in this dispute was that works were not part of salvation. Their sole injunction, however, was that they should be mindful of the poor. Thus they agree on this point also, that the hope of salvation does not reside in the activity of doing works for the poor, but they simply enjoin—what?—that we be mindful of the poor. Not that we should spend all our efforts on it but that we should share with those who have not what we are able to have. We are instructed simply that we should be mindful of the poor, not that we should place our care and thought upon our own capacity to hold on to our salvation by this means. Thus he is almost corrected and admonished in this matter, but this is not all Paul says. “That we should be mindful,” he says, not “that we should do this” but “that we should keep them in mind,” which is less than putting our work into this and fulfilling this alone. He adds that he took thought even for this matter outside the gospel that he preached, which consisted in being mindful of the poor and bestowing whatever he could upon them. In truth, indeed, no one is poor if, simply keeping faith and trusting in God, he awaits the riches of his salvation.

EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS 1.2.10

Galatians 2:12

Perhaps indeed he would at this point have kept silent about the sin that he says he reproved in Peter, for it was enough that Peter had been corrected by popular reproof and Paul’s open accusation. But it is profitable and extremely requisite for this letter. He has two reasons for relating the incident. First, his own gospel was not reproved, and he himself, when he reproved Peter, heard no reproof from Peter. Next, this too, as I said, was extremely pertinent: it is because the Galatians thought that they needed to add to the principles of the gospel to obtain life … that this letter is being written to them. Hence it is very good to tell the story, because it is this very fault that was reproved by Paul in Peter and by the people also. In this way it follows that the Galatians too are sinning.

EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS 1.2.12-13

Galatians 2:12

But in what way was Peter sinning? He had not adopted this ruse to bring in the Jews, meeting them on their own terms (which Paul himself had done and glories in having done, meeting the Jews on their own terms but for their profit). Rather, the sin of Peter lay in the fact that he withdrew, through fear of those who were of the circumcision.

EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS 1.2.12-13

Galatians 2:13

What then should we understand by “their insincerity”? Even Peter and Barnabas and the other Jews had not truly gone to the length of living their lives according to Jewish practice. They even pretended to do so as an ad hoc measure, because of the fears of those around them. And therefore, he says, even Barnabas acquiesced in their insincerity.

EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS 1.2.12-13

Galatians 2:17

Suppose that we, after receiving faith in Christ, do in Christ what the Jews do. Suppose we have received faith in Christ and wish to be justified in it. Suppose we have understood that a man is not justified by the works of the law. Would we not then, by observing the works of the law, be made sinners? Then it would be the case that Christ, whom we received in order not to sin, would himself become a minister of sin. Now, when after receiving him we return to sin—that is, to the old covenant—is Christ made a minister of sin? Let this possibility, Paul says, be far from us. One ought not to think in this way and act so as to make Christ a minister of sin, when he suffered in order that sin might perish.

EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS 1.2.17

Galatians 2:19

Now it is possible to see Paul as speaking of two laws—one of Moses, the other of Christ—so that he is saying he is dead to that law, which was given to the Jews, through the law that was given through Christ … that is, “I am dead through the law of Christ to the law formerly given to the Jews.” But Paul may also be seen as doing what both he and the Savior himself often do, so that he speaks of two laws because it is itself, as it were, twofold: one thing when it is understood carnally another when understood spiritually.… Thus the sense will be “For I through the law,” which is now spiritually understood, “am dead to the law”—that law obviously which is understood carnally. And since this is so, “I am dead to the carnal law” because I understand the law spiritually, “so that I live to God.” For what it means for someone to live to God is that he understands those precepts contained in the law not carnally but spiritually, that is, what it is to be truly circumcised and what the true sabbath is.

EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS 1.2.19