Jerome

(Verse 21, 22.) But what remains will belong to the prince on all sides, either from here or from there ((The Vulgate is silent whether from here or from there)) as the firstfruits of the sanctuary and the possession of the city, bordering (or facing) twenty-five thousand firstfruits to the eastern boundary, and also from the sea ((The Vulgate says to the sea)) bordering (or facing) twenty-five thousand to the boundary of the sea. Similarly, in the areas belonging to the prince, there will be the firstfruits of the sanctuary and the sanctuary of the temple in its midst. There will also be possession of the Levites, and possession of the city in the middle of the prince's territory, between the boundary of Judah and the boundary of Benjamin, and it will belong to the prince. There has been much discussion about this prince above, and that he would receive only as much as one tribe. But now we learn something else, that whatever is left from all the tribes, only he shall receive it: so that there is no tribe that does not offer gifts to the prince: not from elsewhere, but from the firstfruits which serve the temple and the sanctuary and the delegated parts of the city. For this is what he says: From the east boundary to the western boundary, and from the northern boundary to the southern boundary, the firstfruits will belong to the seven and a half tribes. Within these firstfruits will be the city and its surrounding suburbs, as well as the sanctuary of the temple in the middle of the city. As for the land assigned to the Levites and the rest of the city, it will be considered as belonging to the prince. The area next to the firstfruits and the city, in the tribe of Judah, will be the western portion of the seven tribes. The eastern portion, in the tribe of Benjamin, will also belong to the prince. Since the sacraments of Holy Scripture are wondrous and should be contemplated more than spoken (Dan. XXXII). In the former division of the land beyond the Jordan by Moses, the land was divided among the two tribes of Reuben and Gad, and the half tribe of Manasseh (Joshua, XIII). But beyond the Jordan, by Joshua the son of Nun and Eleazar the son of Aaron, Judah possessed the south (Joshua, XV); and Ephraim and the half tribe of Manasseh possessed the north (Joshua, XVIII). Afterwards, with the spies sent to each tribe and a description of the land brought to Joshua and Eleazar, Benjamin received possession next to Judah from the south, and next to Ephraim and half the tribe of Manasseh. The second tribe, Simeon, received an inheritance within the tribe of Judah, so that what is written about Levi and Simeon would be fulfilled: I will divide them in Jacob, and scatter them in Israel (Gen. XLIX, 7). The third tribe, Zebulun, received Galilee, which includes Mount Tabor. On the fourth day, Isachar, where Jezreel is located, to the Jordan. On the fifth day, Aser, up to Mount Carmel, which overlooks the Great Sea, and Tyre and Sidon. On the sixth day, Nephthali, in Galilee and up to the Jordan, where Tiberias, which was once called Chenereth, is located. On the seventh day, Dan up to Joppa, where the towers of Ailon, Selebi, and Emmaus are located, which is now called Nicopolis: although we will later read that they took the city of Lesem in the tribe of Dan, which is now called Paneas. When these things are so, and there is such a difference between the previous description of the tribes and the one now held, let us consider how both in the current description and in the past, the tribe of Judah and Benjamin, the city, and the Temple have been located. In the previous description, Judah was to the south, and Benjamin to the north: but now it is the opposite, with Judah to the north and Benjamin to the south: after them, the second is Simeon, the third is Issachar, and the fourth is Zebulun, the fifth is Gad: namely, five tribes, as it is said in the following verses; for it is written:

(Vers. 23 seqq.) And the rest of the tribes, from the eastern boundary to the western boundary, belong to Benjamin. And against the boundary of Benjamin, from the eastern boundary to the western boundary, belong to Simeon. And along the boundary of Simeon, from the eastern boundary to the western boundary, belong to Issachar. And along the boundary of Issachar, from the eastern boundary to the western boundary, belong to Zebulun. And along the boundary of Zebulun, from the eastern boundary to the sea, belong to Gad. And the border shall go to Gad towards the south side, and the end shall be at Thamar unto the waters of contradiction of Cades: the inheritance shall be against the great sea. This is the land which you shall divide by lot to the tribes of Israel, and these are their portions, says the Lord God. The portion which is always placed at the end in the numbering of the five and seven tribes is understood either as a part, a possession, or an inheritance: although Aquila and Symmachus interpret it as a neutral gender τὸ ὅριον, which means boundary. And it must be noted briefly that in the last five tribes, the tribe of Gad, which was mentioned earlier as being beyond the Jordan, is placed in the same area that Judas previously held, namely the southern region, and its boundary stretches from Thamar to the waters of contradiction at Kadesh, opposite the Great Sea: Thamar itself, which we have already mentioned, is now called Palmyra, and was built long ago by Solomon; for 'palm' in Hebrew is called Thamar, and some believe that it received this name because there are many palm trees there. And what follows: Even to the waters of contradiction of Cades, the inheritance against the great sea; for which seventy transferred from Theman, and the water of Mariboth, ((also Marimoth)) Cades, the inheritance even to the great sea, it is to be observed in the Hebrew language that the same word, Nehela (), is ambiguous, signifying both inheritance and torrent, and here it should be understood more as a torrent than as an inheritance. For this is the torrent that enters the great sea of Rhinocorura, as we have already mentioned. The place called Kadesh, which is also called Kadesh-Barnea in the book of Joshua, is in the desert, extending to the city of Petra. However, Mariboth, which means contradiction, is not a place name as many think, but a name for the waters in which the people contradicted the Lord and Moses offended God, as the Psalm says: They angered him also at the waters of strife, so that Moses suffered for their sins (Psalm 106:32). The entire inheritance of the Holy Land is bordered to the south by the boundaries of Egypt, Rhinocorura, and the River of Egypt. And because Gad is interpreted as temptation, in his possession we pass from the palm groves to the waters of contradiction, even to Kadesh, which is interpreted as holy, so that we may understand that even after the victory of the world we must be solicitous, and always in fear, and remember that verse: The life of man upon earth is a temptation (Job 7:1); and to attain holiness, resisting adversaries, and thus achieve victory, so that we may contemplate the nearby stream full of rain showers.

(Verse 30 and following) And you shall measure five thousand four hundred cubits outside the city on the northern side. And the gates of the city shall be named after the tribes of Israel: three gates on the north side. The gate of Reuben, one; the gate of Judah, one; the gate of Levi, one. And on the eastern side, you shall measure five thousand four hundred cubits, and there shall be three gates. The gate of Joseph, one; the gate of Benjamin, one; the gate of Dan, one. And on the southern side, you shall measure five thousand four hundred cubits, and there shall be three gates. The Gate of Simeon, one; the Gate of Issachar, one; the Gate of Zebulun, one. And on the west side, five hundred and four thousand, and their gates three. The Gate of Gad, one; the Gate of Asher, one; the Gate of Naphtali, one; in all eighteen thousand cubits round about the city. And the name of the city from that day shall be, The LORD is there. Now it is written that it was measured along each side, which is eleven thousand and eighty-five paces, that there were three gates, which Aquila, Symmachus, and Theodotion call διεξόδους (exit passages), and the LXX call διεκβολὰς (projections): we interpret them as the entrances and exits of the city. And first, it must be briefly noted that the same three tribes camped around the tabernacle in such a way that Judah, Issachar, and Zebulun, the sons of Leah, were to the east; and to the south, Reuben, Simeon, and Gad, the two sons of Leah, and the third son of Leah's handmaid, Zilpah. But towards the west Ephraim and Manasseh, and Benjamin namely, the two sons of Rachel; for Joseph, who was from the tribe of Levi, which was appointed for sacrifices, was divided into two tribes, Ephraim and Manasseh. But towards the north, there are Dan, Asher, and Naphtali, of whom the first and third are the sons of Bilhah, Rachel's maidservant, and the second is the son of Zilpah, Leah's maidservant, who are of lowly birth and are positioned towards the north, being descendants of maidservants who were in conflict with each other. According to the book of Numbers and the description of the tabernacle, which was dictated by God to Moses (Num. XXXIV). But our city, which is the city of the great king of which God is the artificer and the founder, of which the psalmist sings: Shall it be said of Sion: This man and that man is born in her? and the Highest himself hath founded her (Ps. LXXXVI, 5), has a different description of the tribes in the holy land, and the measurement of the city and the order of possessions, and the boundaries of each tribe. First, three gates or exits of the city are opposed to the blows of the North Wind, of which the firstborn is Reuben, and Judah the founder of the royal line, and Levi, over whose name nothing is said in the description of the tabernacle and the sacred things, so that as possessors of the firstborn, we may despise the cold of the North. Second, towards the East are Joseph, Benjamin, and Dan: both sons of Rachel, and one of her maidservant Bilhah. But towards the South, Simeon, Issachar, and Zebulun, who are three sons of Leah. Furthermore, towards the West, Gad, Asher, and Naphtali: the first two of whom are sons of Zilpah, Leah's handmaid, and the third son of Bilhah, Rachel's handmaid. Who is wise and understands these things? Understanding, will he know them? For the ways of the Lord are straight, and the just shall walk in them, but transgressors shall stumble upon them (Hosea, 14:10). I think that these twelve gates, or exits, were assigned to each tribe under the names of the Apostles and Patriarchs, according to the quality of their merits and virtues: of which it is written more explicitly in the Apocalypse of John, and many sacraments of the divine Scriptures testify (Apoc. 21). And it is necessary for such a city to hold eighteen thousand revolutions of calamities: under which number, and in the twenty-second Psalm, the natural law is written, and the grace of the Gospel is described: for which the Church, that is, the city of the Savior, is built. The name of this city will by no means be as before Jerusalem, which means vision of peace, but Adonai Sama ((Al. Adonaisan et Adonaisamia)) () which is translated into the Latin language, the Lord is there, who will never depart from it, as He said to the disciples before departing from the previous people: Arise, let us go from here (John XIV, 31). And to the Jews: Let your house be left desolate to you (Matt. 23:38): but let it have eternal possession, and let it be its own possession, promising the same to his disciples: Behold, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world (Matt. 28:20).

Whether it may be more difficult to do or not to do what you have requested, I have not yet established. For it is also not my desire to refuse your commands, and the greatness of weight imposed thus press upon the neck, so that before a falling under the bundle, there might rather be a lightening (of the load). The efforts of the envious agree with this, who consider all that I write reproof, with conscience occasionally fighting against them, publicly tearing apart what they read secretly, to such a degree that I am compelled to cry out and to say: "O Lord, free my soul from crooked lips and a false tongue" (Ps 119.2). It is the third year that you always write and write again, that I might translate the book of Ezra for you from Hebrew, as though you do not have the Greek and Latin scrolls, or whatever it is which is translated by us might not be something immediately spat upon by all. As a certain person says, "For to strive without effort, and not to seek anything by wearying except hatred, is extreme insanity" (Sallust, Jugurtha 3). Therefore, I implore you, my dearest Domnius and Rogatian, that, keeping the reading private, you will not bring the book forth into the public, nor throw food to the fastidious, and you will avoid the pride of them who know only (how) to judge others, and themselves (know how) to do nothing. And if there are any of the brothers whom we do not displease, give the text to them, admonishing that they transcribe the Hebrew names, of which there is a great abundance in this book, separately and with intermediate spaces. For it will profit nothing to correct the book, without diligence being preserved in the correction of the copiers.
Neither should it disturb anyone that the book edited by us is one, nor should they be delighted by the dreams of the third and fourth books (which are) of the apocrypha, both because among the Hebrews the discourses of Ezra and Nehemiah are confined to one scroll, and those things which are not found among them, nor are of the twenty-four elders, are for throwing away. And if anyone sets the (version of the) Seventy interpreters before you, the variety of the texts of which shows them torn and perverted, nor indeed can it be asserted truth is diverse, send him to the Gospels, in which are set down many things as though from the Old Testament, things which are not found among the Seventy interpreters, like this: "He will be called a Nazarene," and "From Egypt I have called my son," and "They will look on him whom they have pierced" and many other things which we are saving for a more extensive work, and ask of him where they might be written, and when he has not been able to reveal (where), you must read from these texts which recently were edited by us, daily pierced by the tongues of the slanderous.
But so that I might come to a shortcut, certainly what I will introduce is the most reasonable. I have given, in what is translated by me, anything that is not found in the Greek or is found otherwise (than there). Which interpreter do they mangle? They may ask the Hebrews and their authors, whether they accept or reject the sense of my translation. Furthermore, it is another thing if, as is said, with eyes closed they want to slander me and not imitate the study and goodwill of the Greeks, who, after the Seventy translators, with the Gospel of Christ now shining, they both attentively read the Jewish and Ebionite interpreters of the Old Law, namely Aquila, Symmachus, and Theodotion, and have also dedicated (them) to the churches, through the labor of Origen in the Hexapla. How much more should Latins be grateful, having understood that the joy of Greece is to borrow anything from itself (?). For firstly, it is of great expense and of infinite difficulty to be able to have all of the texts; then also, those who have (them) and are ignorant of the Hebrew words will err more, not knowing which ones of the many will have said the truth. Which thing also happened recently to a certain very wise man among the Greeks, so that occasionally leaving the sense of the Scriptures, the error of some particular translator was followed. And we, who at least have a little knowledge of the Hebrew tongue, and our Latin does not lack style in any way, are both better able than others to judge, and to express those things of them which we understand in our language. Therefore, even if a serpent hisses, "and the victor Sinon throws burning torches," with Christ helping, my speech will never be silenced, for (even my) severed tongue will stutter (something). Those who will, may read; those who won’t, may throw away. They may scatter (?) the writings; they may slander the letters. Much more by your love will I be provoked toward study, rather than be deterred by their detraction and hatred.

(Chapter 1, Verse 1) Paul, an apostle not from men nor by man but through Jesus Christ and God the Father, who raised him from the dead. He does not propose himself as an apostle arrogantly, as some think, but necessarily, neither from men nor by man. Instead, he does so through Jesus Christ and God the Father, in order to confound those who were belittling Paul outside of the twelve apostles and claiming that he suddenly emerged from somewhere or was ordained by the elders, with this authority. However, it can also be understood indirectly as being said to Peter and the others, that the Gospel was not handed down to him by the apostles, but by Jesus Christ himself, who had chosen those apostles. But all of this is prepared so that no one who disputes the burdens of the Law for the sake of the Gospel may be able to object: 'but Peter said this,' 'but the apostles decreed this,' 'but your predecessors determined something else.' Indeed, he makes this clearer in the following, now seemingly in hidden speech, by citing that nothing contributed by those who seem to be something is relevant to him, and that he himself resisted Peter to his face, saying that he was not compelled by any necessity to yield to the hypocrisy of the Jews. But if it seems rash to some that he spoke against the apostles, even though secretly, who had gone to Jerusalem in order to confer with them about the Gospel, lest perhaps he had run in vain or had run in vain, let us transfer that understanding there: Even to this day, the apostles are sent by the Jewish patriarchs, from whom I also believe that the Galatians, led astray, began to observe the Law, or certainly other Jews who believed in Christ had gone to Galatia, who asserted that Peter, too, was the leader of the apostles, and that James, the Lord's brother, observed the ceremonies of the Law. Therefore, in order to distinguish between those who are sent by men and those who are sent by Christ, he took the following beginning: Paul, an apostle, not from men, nor through man. But apostle, which properly is a Hebrew word, means one who is sent, which also signifies Silas (or Silai), to whom a name was given by being sent. The Hebrews say that among themselves there are certain prophets and holy men who are both prophets and apostles, and others who are only prophets. Finally, Moses, to whom it is said, 'And I will send you to Pharaoh' (Exod. III, 10, 11); and he responds, 'Provide someone else whom you will send.' And Isaiah, to whom God speaks, 'Whom shall I send, and who will go to this people?' (Isai. VI, 8) ? There were also apostles and prophets. Therefore, we can understand that John the Baptist is also to be called a prophet and apostle, since the Scripture says, 'There was a man sent from God, whose name was John' (John I, 6). And in the Epistle to the Hebrews (Heb. III), Paul, according to his usual custom, did not put his own name or the title of Apostle before it, because he was going to speak about Christ: Therefore, having a high priest and an apostle of our confession, Jesus; it was not fitting that where Christ was to be called an apostle, Paul should also be called an apostle. There are, however, four kinds of apostles. One, which is neither from men nor through man, but through Jesus Christ and God the Father; another, which is indeed from God, but through man; a third, which is from man, not from God; and a fourth, which is neither from God, nor through man, nor from man, but from itself. The first category can include Isaiah, the other prophets, and the apostle Paul himself, who was sent not by humans or through a human, but by God the Father and Christ. In the second category is Jesus, the son of Nun, who was indeed appointed by God as an apostle, but through a human, Moses. The third category is when someone is ordained by the favor and zeal of the people. As we see now, many are being appointed to the priesthood not by the judgment of God, but by the favor of the redeemed crowd. The fourth [sign] is [the sign] of false prophets and false apostles, about whom the apostle [Paul] says: 'Such pseudo-apostles are workers of iniquity, transforming themselves into apostles of Christ, who say, "Thus says the Lord," and the Lord did not send them' (2 Corinthians 11:13). But not such [was] the apostle Paul, who was sent not by men nor through man, but by God the Father through Jesus Christ. From this it is approved that the heresies of Ebion and Photinus should also be refuted, [namely] that our Lord Jesus Christ is God, since the apostle, being sent by Christ to preach the Gospel, denies that he was sent by man. In this place, other heresies arise, which claim that Christ's flesh is pretended and assert that Christ is God, not man. There is also a new heresy that declares a divided dispensation of Christ. Thus, among the shipwrecks of so many false teachings, if one confesses Christ as a man, the Ebionites and Photinus creep in; if one contends that he is God, the Manicheans and Marcion, authors of a new doctrine, bubble up. In the community, they hear that Christ is both God and man. Not that there is another God and another man, but rather the one who was always God deemed it worthy to become man for our salvation. It should also be known that in the Apostle of Marcion it is not written that Christ is explained by God the Father, but rather is raised up by himself, as it is written: Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up (John II, 19). And elsewhere: No one takes my soul from me; but I lay it down of myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again (Ibid., X, 18).

(Vers. 2.) And all the brothers who are with me, to the churches of Galatia. In other Epistles, Sosthenes and Silvanus, and sometimes even Timothy, are mentioned at the beginning. In this one, however, because the authority of many was necessary, the name of all the brothers is assumed. They themselves perhaps were also of the circumcision, and were not held in contempt by the Galatians. For it is of great importance to correct the people, to have the agreement and consensus of many in one matter. But when he says 'to the churches of Galatia,' it should be noted that here he writes not only to one church of one city, but to the churches of the whole province, and he calls them churches, which he later accuses of being corrupt by error. From this it is to be understood that the Church can be said in two ways: the one which has no spot or wrinkle and truly is the body of Christ, and the one which gathers in the name of Christ without full and perfect virtues (Ephesians 5). The wise are called in two ways, both those who are full of perfect virtue and those who are just beginning and are in progress. Concerning the perfect, it is said: 'I will send to you wise men' (Luke 11:49). Concerning the foolish: 'Reprove a wise man, and he will love thee' (Proverbs 8:9). For he who is full and complete in virtue does not need correction. This sense can be understood in regard to the other virtues as well, namely that the courageous and prudent, pious, chaste, just, and temperate are sometimes understood correctly, sometimes incorrectly.

(Verse 4) He gave himself for our sins, that he might deliver us from this present evil world, according to the will of God and our Father, to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen. Neither did the Son give himself for our sins without the will of the Father, nor did the Father deliver the Son without the Son's will; but this is the will of the Son, to fulfill the will of the Father, as he himself speaks in the psalm: 'I desired to do your will, O my God' (Psalm 40:8). But the Son gave Himself, in order to overthrow the injustice that was in us with justice itself. Wisdom offered itself in order to conquer ignorance. Holiness and strength presented themselves in order to eliminate impurity and weakness. And in this way, not only in the future age according to the promised hope in which we believe, but also here in the present age, He has freed us: while we have died together with Christ, we are transformed into a new way of thinking, and we are not of this world, from which we are rightly not loved. The question is how the present age is called evil. For heretics often take advantage of this, asserting that one is the creator of light and the future age, another of darkness and the present. But we say, that it is not so much the age itself, which runs day and night, years and months, that is called evil, but rather the things that happen in the age: how it is said to be sufficient for its own evil (Matthew VI): and the days of Jacob are said to be few and evil (Genesis XLVII). Not that the period of time in which Jacob lived was bad, but that the things he endured through various trials tested him. Finally, during the time he served for his wives and struggled with many difficulties (Gen. XXIX), Esau was at rest, and so the same period of time was good for some and bad for others; and it would not be written in Ecclesiastes: Do not say that my former days (were better) than these (Eccles. VII, 11), unless in comparison to the bad. Where John says: The whole world is set in evil (1 John 5:19). Not that the world itself is evil, but that evil things happen in the world because of humans. Let us eat and drink, they say, for tomorrow we will die (Isaiah 22:17). And the Apostle himself says: Redeeming the time, because the days are evil (Ephesians 5:16). Even the fields and forests are defamed, when they are full of robberies, not because the earth and woods sin, but because they have also drawn infamy to the places of murder. We detest both the sword by which human blood is shed and the cup in which poison has been mixed, not the sword or the cup themselves, but those who have misused them. Thus, this world, which is a span of time, is not inherently good or evil, but is called such by those who are in it. Therefore, the delusions and fables of Valentinius, who invented thirty aeons based on the mention of ages in the Scriptures, are to be despised. He claimed that they are beings and that he produced as many aeons as the Aeneas's sow produced litters, using squares and octads, decades and duodecades. Also to be sought is what is the difference between saeculum and saeculum saeculi, or saecula saeculorum, and where it is placed for a brief span of time, where it is placed for eternity: because in Hebrew saeculum, that is, Olam (), where the letter Vav is added, signifies eternity, but when it is written without Vav it signifies the fiftieth year, which they call Jubilee. For this reason, that Hebrew who, because of his wife and children, loving his Lord, willingly subjects himself to perpetual servitude, is commanded to serve forever (Exod. XXI), that is, until the fiftieth year. Both the Moabites and the Ammonites (Deuteronomy XXIII) are not allowed to enter the Church of the Lord until the fifteenth generation and even forever: because every hard condition of the Jubilee was solved by His coming. Some say that the same sense exists in the ages of ages as in the holy of holies, in the heavens of heavens, in the works of works, in the Songs of Songs: and they have the same difference as the heavens have from those who belong to the heavens, and as the holy things which are holier than the comparison of the holy things, and as the works which are better than the comparison of the works, and as the Songs which excel among all the Songs: in the same way, they say, the ages have the same relationship to the comparison of ages. Therefore, they have determined that the present age should be counted from the time when the heavens and the earth were created, and it will continue until the end of the world, when Christ will judge all things. They also recall the past and advance to a higher level, debating about past and future ages, whether they have been good or bad, or will be in the future. They delve into such deep questions that they have even written books and countless volumes on this subject. But as for the conclusion of the prologue of Paul in the Hebrew language: Amen (), the Seventy translated it as γένοιτο, that is, let it be done. Aquila rendered it as πεπιστωμένος, truly or faithfully. This is also constantly embraced in the Gospel by the Savior, affirming his own words by Amen.

(Verse 6) I am amazed that you are so quickly shifting away from him who called you into the grace of Christ Jesus, to a different gospel which is not another. There are some who are confusing you and want to pervert the gospel of Christ. We read about the word 'translation' first in Genesis (Gen. 5), where Enoch was translated by God and was not found. And in the books of Kings afterwards (1 Kings 21), when Ahab turned his wife Jezebel from the worship of God to the worship of idols, to do all that the Amorites did, whom the Lord destroyed before the face of the children of Israel. But since there are two translations, one is from God, the other from the devil. Whoever is translated by God is not found by his enemies: nor can the deceiver ambush him. For I think that this signifies and is not found. But whoever is translated by the devil, in this he is translated because he appears to be, but is not. Moreover, the wise men of the world call those who are translated from one teaching to another, translated, like that Dionysius (whose opinion was that pain is not evil: after being overwhelmed by misfortunes and pain of torment, he began to affirm that pain is the greatest of all evils) was called Transposed by them, or Translated, because departing from his previous decree, he fell into the opposite. And so Paul marvels, first because they have been transferred from the freedom of the Gospel to the servitude of legal works. Secondly, because they have been transferred so quickly: for it is not easy to be transferred away from someone's guilt, and to be transferred quickly; just as in martyrdom, not the same punishment is inflicted on one who immediately jumps to denial without struggle and torture, and on one who, between stakes, ropes, and fires, distorted and compelled, denies what he believed. The preaching of the Gospel was still recent, not much time had passed since the Apostle had led the Galatians from idols to Christ. He wonders how quickly they have turned away from Him, to whom they had recently become Christians. And the place itself is remarkable, which can be read in its proper order: I wonder that you are so quickly transferring yourselves from Christ Jesus, who called you by his grace, saying: I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance (Mark 2:17). For by grace you have been saved, through faith; and this is not of yourselves, it is the gift of God. (Ephesians 2:8) But, he says, you have been transferred to another Gospel, which is not another: because everything that is false does not stand, and what is contrary to the truth does not exist, like this: 'Do not give, O Lord, your scepter to those who are not.' (Esther 14:12) And the things that were not, God called into being, in order to make what is not. But if this is said about those who believed in the same God and had the same Scriptures, that they have been transferred to another Gospel, which is not the Gospel, what should we think about Marcion and other heretics, who reject the Creator and falsely pretend to be followers of another God, Christ? Those who do not adhere to the interpretation of the law and letter, or engage in the battle between flesh and spirit, fall and crumble, but they are in discord with the entire authority of the Church. But beautifully he says: Unless there are some who trouble you and want to pervert the Gospel of Christ. They want, he says, to change, pervert, and trouble the Gospel of Christ: but they are not able. For it is the nature of this Gospel that it cannot be anything other than true. Everyone who interprets the Gospel with a different spirit and mind than what is written, disturbs and perverts the Gospel of Christ, turning what is in front into what is behind, and what is behind into what is in front. If someone follows only the letter, they put the later things in the face. If someone relies on Jewish interpretations, they send behind those things which are established in their nature in the face. Moreover, it is appropriately said that the word 'translation' is adapted to the Galatians: for Galatia in our language means 'translation'.

(Verse 8) But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be accursed. As we have said before, so now I say again: If anyone is preaching to you a gospel contrary to the one you received, let him be accursed. This statement can also be understood hyperbolically, not that either an apostle or an angel could preach differently than they had once said: but even if it were possible for both apostles and angels to be changed, one must not deviate from what had once been accepted, especially since the apostle himself demonstrates the steadfastness of his faith elsewhere, saying: I know that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord (Rom. 8:38). I speak the truth, I do not lie, with my conscience bearing witness (Rom. IX, 1). Indeed, these words are not those of one who can ever depart from the Christian faith and love. However, those who do not want this to be understood hypothetically, but truly: that is, that even apostles and angels can be turned to worse things, they oppose it with what even Paul himself knew, that he could stumble if he acted too lazily, saying: But I discipline my body and bring it into subjection, lest, when preaching to others, I myself should become disqualified (I Cor. IX, 27). Angels also are mutable, who have not preserved their principality; but leaving their own habitation, are reserved in everlasting chains under darkness unto the judgment of the great day (Jude, VI). ||The nature of God alone is immutable, of whom it is written: But thou art always the selfsame (Psalm 101: 28). And of himself: For I am the Lord your God, and I change not (Malachi 3: 6). Lucifer has fallen, who once shone brightly; and the one who was once sent to all nations has been crushed on the earth. In this place, the very learned man Tertullian elegantly writes against Apelles and his virgin Philumena, whom a certain angel, possessed by a diabolical and perverse spirit, claimed to be. This angel, according to the prophecy of the Holy Spirit foretold by the Apostle, was cursed long before the birth of Apelles. Furthermore, ἀνάθεμα, a word proper to the Jews, is used both in the book of Joshua (Joshua 6:7) and in the book of Numbers (Numbers 21), when the Lord commanded that everything in Jericho and the detestable Midianites be devoted to destruction and to anathema. Let us question those who assert that Christ and the Apostle Paul, the beloved of God and hitherto unknown, are either the son or the servant who knows not how to curse and does not know how to condemn anyone: how does their Apostle now, in the language of the Jews, that is, of the Creator, use it, and wish to destroy either an angel or an apostle, when he himself is not accustomed to avenge? Moreover, what he added, as we have foretold, and now I say again, shows that he, being careful of this very thing from the beginning, had denounced anathema to those who would preach otherwise, and now that it has been preached, he enforces the anathema which he had foretold before. Therefore, they accused him of doing one thing in Judea and teaching another, and they pronounced a curse on the angel, whom it was even known to be greater than his predecessors, the apostles, so that the authority of Peter and John would not be considered great, since it was not allowed for him who had taught them before, nor for the angel to preach differently than they had learned once. Therefore, he mentioned himself and the angel by name, but the others without a name. If anyone, he said, were to proclaim the gospel to you without doing harm to your predecessors; and yet, he would secretly reveal their names.