Jerome

(Verse 27, 28.) For whoever has been baptized in Christ has clothed themselves with Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female. For you are all one in Christ Jesus. And how we are born as children of God through faith in Christ Jesus, he demonstrates by saying: For whoever has been baptized in Christ has clothed themselves with Christ. And that Christ is our clothing is proven not only in this passage, but also in another by the urging of Paul himself: Clothe yourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ (Rom. XIII, 14). Therefore, if those who have been baptized in Christ have put on Christ, it is clear that those who have not put on Christ have not been baptized in Christ. For it was said to those who were considered faithful and had received the baptism of Christ: Put on the Lord Jesus Christ. If anyone takes only the physical and visible water as a cleansing, they have not put on the Lord Jesus Christ. For even Simon, from the Acts of the Apostles, had received the cleansing of water; but because he did not have the Holy Spirit, he was not clothed with Christ (Acts 8). And heretics or hypocrites, and those who live sordidly, indeed seem to receive baptism, but I do not know whether they have the garment of Christ. Therefore, let us consider lest someone be found among us who, because he does not have the garment of Christ, is accused of not being baptized in Christ. However, when someone has once put on Christ and has been sent into the fire, becoming white with the burning ardor of the Holy Spirit, it is not understood whether it is gold or silver. As long as heat possesses matter in this way, it has a single fiery color, and all diversity of race, condition, and bodies disappears under this covering. For he is not a Jew, nor a Greek. We must understand the Greek as being a Gentile, because 'Ἕλλην' means both Greek and Gentile. Neither is a Jew better because he is circumcised, nor is a Gentile worse because he has a foreskin; but he is better or worse based on the quality of his faith, whether he is a Jew or a Greek. Greetings also to the free, for they are not separated by status but by faith. For a slave can be better than a free person in faith, and a free person can be surpassed by a slave in the quality of faith. Likewise, male and female are separated by the strength and weakness of their bodies. However, faith is considered a devotion of the mind, and it often happens that a woman becomes the cause of salvation for a man, and a man precedes a woman in religion. But when things are like this, and all the diversity of gender, status, and bodies is taken away by the baptism of Christ and his garment, we are all one in Christ Jesus: just as the Father and the Son are one in themselves, so may we be one in them.

(Verse 29.) But if you are Christ's, then you are Abraham's offspring, heirs according to the promise. For the promises were made to Abraham and to his offspring. It does not say, “And to offsprings,” referring to many, but referring to one, “And to your offspring,” who is Christ. This is what I mean: the law, which came 430 years afterward, does not annul a covenant previously ratified by God, so as to make the promise void. For if the inheritance comes by the law, it no longer comes by promise; but God gave it to Abraham by a promise. However, as often as we, who have believed in him after receiving the message of the Savior, receive the nobility of the lineage of Abraham, to whom the promise was made, then we must spiritually receive the seed of faith and preaching. Furthermore, it should also be considered that when it speaks of the Lord, it pluralizes the promises made to Abraham and his offspring, that is, Christ Jesus. But when it speaks of those who are the offspring of Abraham through Christ, it designates the promise in the singular, as in the present passage: Therefore, you are the offspring of Abraham, heirs according to the promise. For it was fitting that what was said in the plural in Christ should be attributed to many individuals in the singular. It follows:

(Chapter IV - 1, 2) However, I say that as long as the heir is a child, he is no different from a slave, even though he is the Lord of all, but he is under guardians and managers until the appointed time by the father. This little heir, who is no different from a slave even though he is the Lord of all, is under guardians and managers until the appointed time by the father, represents the whole human race until the coming of Christ, and, to say more, until the end of the world. For just as all die in the first Adam, not yet born, so also all those who were born before the coming of Christ are made alive in the second Adam. And so it happens that we too served the Law in the fathers, and they are saved by grace in their children. This understanding is in agreement with the Catholic Church, which affirms the one providence of the Old and New Testament and does not distinguish in time those whom it has joined together in condition. We are all built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Jesus Christ himself as the chief cornerstone. In him, the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord. Through him, we are also being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit. (Ephesians 2:20-22) Truly, in Christ, we are all one bread, and we have come together in unity on the earth. And just as we are founded upon the prophets, so too did the patriarchs stand upon the foundation of the apostles. Moreover, the prophets can also be understood as tutors and actors, whose words we were daily instructed by in anticipation of the coming of the Savior, just as the Law was expounded by the pedagogue Moses; and the angels of the little ones who daily behold the face of the Father and intercede for them. Concerning whom it is said: 'The angels of the Lord will encamp around those who fear Him, and will deliver them' (Ps. 34:7). Both priests and rulers can be understood, who were once seen as dominating the people, now providing a form. And rightly are they called under tutors and actors, who, having the spirit of fear, have not yet deserved the spirit of liberty and adoption. For the age of infancy fears sins, fears the tutor, does not trust that it is free, even though by nature it is a mistress. And according to both interpretations, whether we called tutors and actors or prophets or angels, this child is under actors and tutors until the appointed time of the perfect man is fulfilled. But the legitimate time, as in Roman law, is terminated by a period of twenty-five years, so it is considered the coming of Christ to the perfection of the human race. As soon as he comes, and we all grow into perfect men, the pedagogue and tutor depart from us. Then we will enjoy the authority of the Lord and the possession of the inheritance, in which before we were considered somewhat estranged.

(Verse 3.) And so we too, when we were little, were enslaved under the elements of this world. He called the elements of the world, the same ones he had mentioned before as tutors and guardians: because we were not yet able to receive the coming of the Son of God, we were being trained in the midst of them. Some think that these are angels who govern the four elements of the world: namely, earth, water, fire, and air: and it is necessary that before anyone believes in Christ, they be governed by these arbitrators. The elements of the world are the sky and the earth, and that which is within them is commonly called: the sun, the moon, the seas, the forests, and the mountains, which the wise men of Greece and the barbarian nations, as well as the Romans, worship as gods, the sink of all superstitions. When Christ comes, we are set free, understanding that these are creatures, not divine beings. Others interpret the elements of the world as the Law of Moses and the words of the prophets, through which we receive the fear of God, which is the beginning of wisdom. Finally, the Apostle writes in his letter to the Hebrews to those who should already be perfect but have neglected the truth and are still clinging to the principles of teachings: 'For when by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the basic principles of the oracles of God' (Hebrews 5:12). On the contrary, it can be objected to us that the Apostle Paul, writing to the Colossians, called the principles of the world something different: 'See to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the world, and not according to Christ' (Colossians 2:8). But from what he added, according to the tradition of men and empty deceit, he shows that not the same elements are named for the Colossians as for the Galatians. For from these elements, once the fullness of time has come, we are redeemed and, advancing to greater things, receive the adoption of sons. But from those elements, nothing such is said to follow; but the elements are simply understood as letters. Therefore, as we said, the Law of Moses and the prophets can be understood as elements of letters, because they are joined by syllables and names for the benefit not so much of themselves as of something else, so that we are able to read a discourse composed, in which the meaning and order of words are considered more than the principles of letters. But as for the Law and the prophets, we have interpreted them as the elements of the world, which the world commonly accepts for those who are in the world, as Paul himself says: 'God was in Christ, reconciling the world to Himself.' And in the Gospel: 'And the world was made through Him, and the world did not receive Him.' Some also wander more freely in this matter: for example, they inquire whether the Law possesses the shadow of future goods in another world, about which the Savior says: 'I am not of this world,' so that we may first be like little children, and, being placed under the elements of the initiations, may gradually advance to the highest point, and receive the place of adoption which we once lost.

(Verse 4.) But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons. Pay close attention to the fact that it does not say 'made through a woman,' which the heresies of Marcion and others assert, pretending that Christ's flesh was imaginary. Rather, it says 'born of a woman,' so that he may be believed to have been born not just through her, but from her. And the fact that the holy and blessed Mother of the Lord is called a woman and not a Virgin is also written in the Gospel according to Matthew: when Joseph is called her husband (Luke 2), and when the Lord Himself rebukes her as a woman (John 2). For it was not necessary to always speak cautiously and timidly of the Virgin, when the word 'woman' signifies the sex more than the union with a man. And according to the understanding of Greek, both γυνὴ can be interpreted as both 'wife' and 'woman'. But to pass over all else: just as he was made under the law, in order to redeem those who were under the law, so he wanted to be born of a woman for the sake of those who were born of a woman. For he also received baptism in the river Jordan, as though repenting, when he was free from sins, so that he could teach others that they should be cleansed through baptism and be born again as the new children of the Spirit. Not understanding at all, John the Baptist was prohibiting him from approaching the bath, saying: I owe to be baptized by you (Matt. III, 14). And immediately the sacrament is taught: Without hesitation: for thus it befits us to fulfill all righteousness, so that he who came for the salvation of men would not pass over anything concerning the conduct of men. Let someone ask and say: If he became under the Law for this reason, to redeem those who were under the Law, which indeed would have been impossible to redeem those who were under the Law unless he himself had become under the Law: or if he became without the Law, in order to redeem those who were not under the Law; or if he did not become without the Law, he does not redeem those who were not under the Law. But if it was possible to redeem those who were without the Law, so that he himself would not be without the Law, then he was made superfluous under the Law, in order to redeem those who were under the Law. He will solve this question briefly, if anyone uses that example: and he was considered with those who were without the Law. For although it may have been poorly edited in the Latin codices due to the simplicity of the interpreters, 'And he was reckoned with the transgressors' (Luke 22:37) means something different among the Greeks, which is written here, and something different 'unjust', which is found in the Latin volumes. Anomos is called that person who is without law, and is bound by no right. Unjust is also referred to as iniquitous or unjust. Hence the Apostle himself says in another place: 'When I was not, he says, without the Law of God; but I was in the Law of Christ' (I Cor. IX): and certainly in this testimony, 'anomos' is written in Greek; and the one who interprets it here correctly could have interpreted the same word there in a similar way, if ambiguity had not deceived him. But someone will examine the word itself more sharply and will say that those who were first on God's side and then ceased to be are called redeemed; but those who were not under the Law are not so much redeemed as bought. Hence, in the letter to the Corinthians, where fornication was heard of, and such fornication that not even among the Gentiles (Ibid. V), it is written: You were bought at a price, not redeemed: for they had not been under the Law. Therefore, we receive the adoption of the children of God: and having been redeemed by Christ, we cease to be under the servitude of the elements of the world and the power of guardians. Just as we have shown the difference between redeeming and buying, let us also consider what the difference is between receiving and accepting the adoption of children.

(Verse 6.) But because you are sons of God, God has sent the spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying out, Abba, Father. Clearly the Apostle Paul mentions three spirits, the Spirit of the Son of God, as in this present place, God has sent the Spirit of His Son into our hearts (Rom. VIII, 14). And the Spirit of God, as in that place: For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God. And the Holy Spirit, as in that place: Your bodies are the temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you (I Cor. VI, 19). That the Holy Spirit is distinct from the Son of God is clearly and convincingly confirmed in the Gospel: Whoever speaks a word against the Son of man will be forgiven. But whoever speaks against the Holy Spirit, neither in this age nor in the age to come will be forgiven (Luke 12:10). This is because many, due to their lack of knowledge of the Scriptures (as Firmianus also states in the eighth letter to Demetrianus), assert that the Holy Spirit is often referred to as the Father and sometimes as the Son. And while we believe clearly in the Trinity, removing the third person, they do not want to be his substance, but his name. But in order not to take too long (for this is not a dialogue, but a commentary), I will briefly show the three spirits named in the fiftieth psalm, as the prophet says: Create a clean heart in me, O God, and renew a right spirit within me. Do not cast me away from your presence, and do not take your Holy Spirit from me. Give me the joy of your salvation, and strengthen me with your principal spirit. He calls the principal spirit Father, because the Son is from the Father, and not the Father from the Son. But the spirit of righteousness, truth, and justice signifies Christ the Lord: for the Father has given all judgment to the Son (John V, 22), as David says: O God, give your judgment to the king, and your power to the son of the king (Psalm LXXI, 1). Moreover, he calls the Holy Spirit by its explicit name. These things, although they differ in terms and persons, are associated by substance and nature: and the same Spirit, due to the fellowship of nature, is now called the Father, now the Son. However, the argument by which he endeavors to assert that we are no longer under the Law, but under the grace of the Lord Jesus, concludes with such a purpose. He had said above that we should receive the adoption of sons: now he proves that we are children of God by the Spirit whom we have in us. For never, he says, would we dare to say: Our Father who art in heaven: Hallowed be thy name, unless from the consciousness of the Spirit dwelling within us, and with a great voice of senses and teachings crying out: Abba, Father (Rom. VIII, 15). Abba is a Hebrew word, signifying the same as Father. And Scripture preserves this custom in several places, putting the Hebrew word in its own interpretation. Aser, riches. Tabitha, Dorcas (Acts IX): and in Genesis, Mesech, a slave (Gen. XV), and so on and so forth. However, since Abba Father is said in both Hebrew and Syriac language, and our Lord in the Gospel commands that only God should be called Father (Matt. XXIII), I do not know by what license we either call others by this name in monasteries, or consent to be called by it. And certainly, he himself commanded this when he said there should be no swearing (Matt. V). If we do not swear, we should not even mention anyone's father. If we interpret the father differently, we will be forced to have different opinions about swearing. It should also be noted that in the Scriptures, a shout is not understood as a loud voice, but as an expression of knowledge and the magnitude of teachings. For in Exodus, the Lord responded to Moses: Why do you cry out to me (Exodus 14:15)? when Moses' voice did not go before him. However, Scripture called it a shout when his heart was deeply moved and he groaned for the people with tears. Therefore, just as one who has the Spirit of the Son of God is a son of God, so in reverse, one who does not have the Spirit of the Son of God cannot be called a son of God.

(Verse 8, 9) But at that time, not knowing God, you served those who by nature are not gods. But now, knowing God, or rather being known by God, how are you turning again to the weak and impoverished elemental forces, to which you desire to be enslaved again? He reproves the Galatians for having turned from the worship of idols to the true faith of God, and asks how they, after abandoning the idols which are not gods by nature, and knowing God, or rather being known by Him, and even receiving the Spirit of adoption, can return as it were to their earlier state of infancy, desiring to be under tutors and guardians, and enslaved again to weak and impoverished elemental forces, which were given to the weak and impoverished people in the desert because they could not bear greater things. However, the same elements that he now called weak and needy, he placed only above the elements of the world. And where the elements of the world are mentioned, there it is not added, weak and needy. Hence again, where they are called weak, world, as we said above, is a silent name. Therefore, I think as long as someone is little and has not fulfilled the appointed time by the father, so that he may be called a son and heir, he is under the elements of the world, namely the Law of Moses. But when he returned to the Law, which he owed to his son after his freedom, desiring to be circumcised and to follow the whole letter of Jewish superstition, then those things which had previously been the elements of the world for him are also called weak and needy beginnings. For they are so useless to their worshippers that they are not even able to provide them with what they had previously bestowed, Jerusalem, with the temple and altar destroyed. Let someone respond and say: If the laws and commandments written in the Law are weak and needy elements, and those who have come to know God, or rather, have been known by Him, should not observe the Law (so that they do not begin to worship not so much the God by whom they have been known, but rather those who are not gods by nature), then did Moses and the prophets observe the Law, and yet did not come to know God, nor were they known by Him? Or if they did come to know God, they certainly did not fulfill the commands of the Law. To say that both are dangerous: either they did not do what the Law commands, and thus they have come to know God, or they do not know God while they keep the weak and poor elements of the Law. And this can be resolved by saying that they, like Paul, became a Jew to the Jews in order to win Jews over (1 Corinthians 9), and according to a vow he had taken, he shaved his head in Cenchrea (Acts 18), and in Jerusalem he practiced barefoot and baldness in the temple to appease the jealousy of those who had been taught about him, because he was accused of acting against the Law of Moses and God's prophets. In this way, holy men also did the things that the Law required, but they followed the spirit of the Law more than the letter. Those who, like Abraham, desired to see the day of Christ and rejoiced when the veil was lifted, were made weak to make the weak people strong, so that they could separate them from the idols to which they had become accustomed in Egypt, as if they themselves were under the Law. For it is absurd to think that Moses and the other speakers of God were in such a condition that we should not believe them, and that the appointed time came from the Father, and that they were redeemed from legal bondage, and obtained the adoption of sons, and inherited with Christ. For whatever wisdom God bestowed on the entire human race like a beloved Son, He has also generously bestowed the same wisdom to each of the saints in their own order and dispensation. Heretics find an opportunity to criticize the Creator by calling the Law of Moses weak and inadequate, because He created the world and established the Law. To them, we will respond with what we have already said, that those who return to those weak and inadequate elements after the grace of the Gospel are truly weak and inadequate themselves. But before the appointed time came from the Father, the elements were called not so much weak and needy as the world. Finally, before the Gospel of Christ spread throughout the whole world, they had their own brightness with the commands of the Law. But after the greater light of the grace of the Gospel shone forth, and the sun of justice revealed itself to the whole world, the light of the stars was hidden and their rays grew dim, so that the Apostle says elsewhere: For that which was glorified had no glory in this part, by reason of the excellent glory (2 Corinthians 3). What he is now saying in other words, in order to say that the Law of Moses, which was rich, wealthy, and glorious before the Gospel, became weak, poor, diminished, and destroyed after the advent of Christ, who was greater than Solomon, the temple, and Jonah. For what is written, 'He must increase, but I must decrease' (John 3:30): I believe this is said not so much by John as by the representative of the Law, because the lesser always yield to the greater, and the perfect is always preferred to the beginnings. But indeed, we will confirm the weak and meager elements, the traditions of the Jews, and the letter of low intelligence, which are not good justifications and not good precepts. For truly, the strong and rich understanding of the Law is spiritual, so that it should not be called a mere element, or rather, it should be compared to the future age and the life in Christ Jesus, in which the angels and heavenly powers now live. But in comparison to the Jewish mind, it is called not so much the beginning as the fulfillment. And when he says, 'Now that you know God, or rather are known by Him,' he shows that after the worship of idols, the Galatians understood God, or rather were considered worthy of knowing Him. Not because God, the Creator of all things, is ignorant of anything; but because it is said that they alone know who have changed error for piety. The Lord knows those who are His (II Tim. II, 19). And the Savior in the Gospel: I am the good shepherd, and I know mine, and mine know me (John X, 14). On the other hand, to the wicked: I do not know you, depart from me, workers of iniquity (Luke XIII, 27). And to the foolish virgins: I do not know you, (Matth. XXV, 12).

(Verses 10, 11.) Observing days, and months, and seasons, and years, I fear for you, lest perhaps I have labored in vain among you. Whoever does not worship the Father in spirit and truth, does not know the Sabbath rest that is reserved for the holy ones, about which God speaks: 'If they shall enter into my rest' (Psalm 94:11); and does not remember those times, of which it is written: 'Remember the days of old' (Isaiah 46:9). And elsewhere: 'I remembered the days of old, and I had in mind the eternal years' (Psalm 76:6). He observes the Jewish days, and months, and seasons, and years. Days, such as the Sabbath, the new moon, and from the tenth day of the first month until the fourteenth, when the literal lamb of the sacrifice is reserved, and from the fourteenth until the twenty-first of the same month, when unleavened bread is eaten, not in sincerity and truth, but in the old leaven of malice and wickedness of the Pharisees. He also celebrates the seven weeks, which the Jewish custom calculates after the unleavened bread, the days of the Israelite Pentecost. And also the sound of trumpets on the seventh day of the first month. Similarly, on the tenth day of the same month, they observe a day of expiation and fasting, as well as the custom of setting up booths, in the Jewish manner. They also observe the months, those who observe the first and seventh month, not understanding the mystery of truth. They also honor the seasons, who come to Jerusalem three times a year, thinking they fulfill the Lord's command, saying: Three times in the year you shall hold a feast for me, the feast of unleavened bread and the feast of the first fruits of the harvest, and the feast of the ingathering at the end of the year (Exodus 23:14ff.). And elsewhere: In three times of the year your male shall appear in the sight of the Lord your God (Ibid. XVII). But what he says, 'and years,' I think is said concerning the seventh year of remission, and the fiftieth, which they call Jubilee. The Apostle explains this passage more fully in his letter to the Colossians, saying: Therefore let no one pass judgment on you in questions of food and drink or with regard to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath. These are a shadow of the things to come (Coloss. II, 16). He placed a part of the festival to be celebrated for the distinction of perpetual festivity, so that we have not a brief, and, as it were, a certain portion of the whole body, but the entire space of our life in perpetual celebration in Christ. And in order to connect the later with the earlier, he immediately adds and says: If you have died with Christ from the elements of this world, why do you still decree as if living in this world? You shall not touch, nor taste, nor handle, which are all things destined to perish with the using, according to the commandments and doctrines of men. Let no one judge you in matters of observing days, months, seasons, and years. We also incur a similar crime by observing the fourth day of the Sabbath, and Preparation Day, and the Lord's Day, and the fasting of Lent, and the celebration of Easter, and the joy of Pentecost, and the different times established in honor of the martyrs according to the custom of each region. To which, one who responds simply will say: the Jewish observance days are not the same as ours. For we do not celebrate the Passover of unleavened bread, but of the resurrection and the cross. Nor do we count seven weeks in Pentecost according to the custom of Israel, but we honor the coming of the Holy Spirit. And so that the disorderly gathering of the people would not diminish faith in Christ, certain days were established so that we all would come together as one. Not so much that day on which we meet is more famous, but that on whichever day we should meet, mutual joy should arise out of sight (or even out of aspect). However, whoever attempts to answer the opposite question more sharply affirms that all days are equal, not only the Friday on which Christ was crucified and the Sunday on which He rose, but that every day is holy and every day we partake of the flesh of the Lord. However, fasts and gatherings among days have been established by wise men for those who are more occupied with the world than with God, and they cannot, no, they do not want to gather together in the Church during the whole time of their lives, and to offer the sacrifice of their prayers to God before human actions. For how many people are there who at least practice these few things that have been established, either the times of prayer or the times of fasting? Therefore, just as it is permissible for us to fast at all times, or to pray at all times, and to continuously celebrate the Lord's day with the reception of the Lord's body, so it is not permissible for the Jews to sacrifice a lamb at all times, to celebrate Pentecost, to set up tabernacles, and to fast daily. However, with caution and moderation, he balanced the authority of the Apostle and the gentleness of the holy man, saying: I fear lest I have labored in vain among you. For if he had wanted to condemn them abruptly, he would certainly have said: I fear you: for I have labored without cause in you. But now, seeing that they have zeal for God, but not according to knowledge, he did not entirely despair of their salvation, who had been deceived by a godly error, nor did he leave them blameless, lest he give occasion both to them to persist in error, and to others to make a similar mistake. I fear you, he said, for what you are. I fear for you. The teacher labors without cause, when he himself challenges the students to greater things, and they, having fallen back, return to lesser and lower things.

(Verse 12) Be as I am, for I am also as you are. What he says is such, as I became weak to you who are weak, and I could not speak to you as spiritual, but as carnal and as little ones in Christ, and because you were not yet able to eat solid food, I fed you with only milk, not wanting you to remain in infancy forever, but gradually leading you to adolescence and youth, so that you could receive solid food. Thus, you should also be as I am, to have a more perfect understanding, leaving behind milk and moving on to stronger food, and to greater nourishment. But he speaks as if he were an imitator of the Savior, who did not consider equality with God as something to be seized, but emptied himself, taking the form of a servant; he was found in appearance as a man, so that we might become gods from humans, and no longer die; but rising with Christ, we are called his friends and brothers, and to be his disciples as the master, and servants as the Lord. But it can also be understood this way: I beseech you, he says, brothers, that you imitate me, who, without complaint, lived by the Law, considering everything as rubbish and garbage, so that I may gain Christ. For indeed I myself, like you now are, was held fast by the same strict observances and I persecuted and ravaged the Church of Christ because it did not follow these things.