Gaius Marius Victorinus — Commentary on Scripture

Galatians 3:4

Lest he should seem to despair needlessly, he has corrected his own reprimand by saying “if indeed it is in vain.” For they could be corrected. If so, what they have suffered will not be without meaning. The meaning they will have will be perseverance in faith, the prize and the confirmation of promises derived from faith in Christ.

EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS 1.3.4

Galatians 3:4

Such a subtle comment requires patience to understand. It both negatively reprimands and positively admonishes. He reprimands them by saying “You have suffered so much in vain.” At the same time he admonishes them by saying “you have suffered so much,” aware that they withstood many things with fortitude when they received faith.

EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS 1.3.4

Galatians 3:5

After confirming that they have suffered and consequently that the Spirit has been given to them, he rightly goes on to ask whether God worked virtues in them from the works of the law or from the hearing of faith. “Obviously not from works,” [he says], “for it was not from yourselves that any works proceeded, but you heard in faith and were attentive to faith. And for this reason God worked virtues in you; and if he worked, he gave you the Spirit.”

EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS 1.3.5

Galatians 3:7

Every mystery which is enacted by our Lord Jesus Christ asks only for faith. The mystery was enacted at that time for our sake and aimed at our resurrection and liberation, should we have faith in the mystery of Christ and in Christ. For the patriarchs prefigured and foretold that man would be justified from faith. Therefore, just as it was reckoned as righteousness to Abraham that he had faith, so we too, if we have faith in Christ and every mystery of his, will be sons of Abraham. Our whole life will be accounted as righteous.

EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS 1.3.7

Galatians 3:10

From his saying “works of the law” we are to understand that there are also good works in the Christian life, especially those that the apostle frequently commends, such as that we should be mindful of the poor and the other precepts for living that are contained in this very letter. The fulfillment of all these works is the calling of every Christian. The cursed works of the law referred to here are therefore other things: obviously observations [of days,] sacrifices of lambs and other such works that they perform concerning circumcision and the choice of foods. But now the paschal feast has been consummated through Christ.

EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS 3.10

Galatians 3:21

Since God gave the law, it is not plausible that that same law should be seen as having been given against the promises. It is certainly against the promises if it embroils us in other things, namely, that we should fulfill the works required by the law and not expect from faith what is promised, that we should obtain through faith an inheritance in God. But let us see what is his answer to this. He first denies it unequivocally: “Certainly not!” That is, it is not right that God should make the giving of the law contrary to the promises.… And next he adds the reason.

EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS 2.3.21

Galatians 3:21

We have said that the law given by Moses teaches nothing but sins, admonishing us what sins are and how they are to be avoided. And Scripture draws no other conclusion but lays down all its precepts in the light of and with reference to sin.… It is not given so that life may be sought from it but is given so that by its written form it may both include all sins in its teaching and show that they should be avoided. Therefore righteousness is not from the law; that is, justification and salvation come not from the law but from faith, as is promised.

EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS 2.3.21

Galatians 3:23

The law was not empty or against the promises. How does he say it was necessary? Because it looked forward to the faith that was to be, and the promise came through faith. “First,” he says, “before the law came we were under a tutor; that is, under the law as a sort of custodian and guardian we lived a life that was pure through the avoidance of and repentance for sins, so that when Christ came we, being as it were confined for the purpose of that faith which was to come, should expect his coming; and being prepared through the law, should have faith in him; and, as we avoided sin and did the works of the law, should easily be able to have what was promised from his advent, namely, faith in Christ.”

EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS 2.3.23

Galatians 3:25

“That faith has come” means that Christ himself has come—for then faith arose. There began to be a time for faith to fully come and for us to believe in him in whom is all salvation, in contrast to the Jews, who did not believe [in him].

EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS 2.3.25-26

Galatians 3:26

The metaphor of inheritance refers to receiving eternal life. But how does this come about? By faith in Jesus Christ, when we believe in him, that he is the Son of God and that he himself saves us and that he has accomplished every mystery on our behalf. All these things are reported in the gospel. But what should be noticed here is that, while Paul is stating this fact, he addresses it to their persons, offering incentives to persuade them more readily. “You all,” he says, “are sons of God.” Before, he had said, “We are under a custodian.” Now as it were he names them anew, saying “You are sons of God”—but sons from faith in Christ Jesus.

EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS 2.3.25-26

Galatians 4:3

The elements of the world were thought to have in themselves at the same time their own motions and, as it were, certain necessary consequences of the motion of other beings, such as stars, by whose revolution human life was brought under necessity. And so humans served the elements as the stars ordained and the course of the world required.

EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS 2.4.3-4

Galatians 4:4

Because he is brought forth from a woman he can be said to be made, but made for this temporary purpose: to be subject to the law.… The Galatians were to understand from this that they had fallen into error, for the Savior himself, in whom they believed, was made subject to the law though he remained the Lord of the law.

EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS 2.4.3-4

Galatians 4:4

As there is a fullness in things, so there is in times. For each thing has its fullness in a full and copious perfection that abounds in everything. Christ is the fullness of things. The fullness of times is the consummation of freedom. So that his fullness may be whole and perfect Christ collects his members who are scattered, and in this way his fullness is achieved. So in the same way the fullness of times was achieved when all had become ripe for faith and sins had increased to the utmost, so that a remedy was necessarily sought in the judgment of all things. Hence Christ came when the fullness of time was completed.

EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS 2.4.3-4

Galatians 4:5

Since the law by its precepts held people bound, as it were, only to decency of life but not to the hope of deliverance and eternity, God sent his own Son. He sent him subject to the law, that is, the law of Israel, that he might redeem those who were there and lived under the law. Now this is a great thing, that he says [Christ came] not merely to show them the way of life or to stir them up toward eternity with harsh commands but to redeem them. This is the mystery of what he performed, the redemption of all who believed in him, that they might become sons by adoption. When, therefore, such a great benefit came from Christ, nothing was to be added beside this. The law was no longer a matter of servitude.

EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS 2.4.5

Galatians 4:6

Behold the whole array of those three powers through one power and one Godhead. For God, he says, who is the Father, sent his own Son, who is Christ, and again Christ, who himself being the power of God is God, … sent the spirit of his Son, who is the Holy Spirit.

EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS 2.4.6

Galatians 4:8

Not to know God is not to know Christ, for God is known through Christ. But now, since Christ has appeared, who has taught me and has revealed God through himself—both himself as God and the Father through himself—it is no longer permitted not to know God.

EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS 2.4.8

Galatians 4:9

He preserves the essence of his own teaching, that those who come to Christ are the ones whom God sends and God calls, and those who know God are the ones that God knows.… For those who are known of God receive the Spirit by which they know God.

EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS 2.4.9

Galatians 4:9

When he introduces the “beggarly elements of this world,” this seems rather to concern the pagans, who make gods for themselves even from the elements of this world.… Since, however, the whole of his discourse and the whole of this treatise were undertaken to reprimand the Galatians for their conversion to Judaism, and all these things are to be understood of the Jews, how do we understand “you are turned again to the weak”? When therefore he says “the beggarly elements” of this world, he means those who, understanding the law carnally, have clung to the contingent elements of this world. For the flesh is always hungering. It yearns for the sustenance of food and drink and objects of desire, all of which, however, are weak.

EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS 2.4.9

Galatians 4:10

So that he may be seen to say this to Jews and about Jews—that is, to the Galatians, who combine the Jews’ way of life with theirs—he adds, “You observe days and months and seasons and years.” … For it is one thing to observe days, as for example to rest on the sabbath, another to observe months, as for example to observe new moons, … another to observe years, another again [to observe] seasons such as fasting, the Passover, the feast of unleavened bread and other things of this kind.

EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS 2.4.9-10

Galatians 4:14

The weakness in my body was no obstacle for you, but you received me as an angel of God, that is, as a messenger, a preacher sent from God (for that is an angel of God); and you received me like Christ Jesus, whom I was preaching to you. And so you truly received Christ Jesus, if you received me as an angel of God, in the same way you received Christ Jesus.

EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS 2.4.14