Jerome

(Verse 19) For I through the law am dead to the law, that I might live unto God. To die to the law, is to die to the law as a rule of justification. Who dies to the law, lives to God. Before his conversion, the apostle found experience answer to the word of the Lord. The commandment, which was ordained to life, he found to be unto death. The same enlightening Spirit gives a sight of the hateful nature of sin, and the deceitfulness of the heart. Therefore it is said in Hosea: 'From me is your fruit found' (Hosea 14:9). To whom the mystical interpretation is well applied: 'Who is a wise man and understands these things, and a prudent man and knows them?' Therefore, by the spiritual law, one dies to the law of the letter and lives to God, since he is not without the law of God, but is under the law of Christ. But whoever dies to the law because of sins, although he is dead, it cannot be said of him that he lives to God. But there is another spiritual law beyond the law of the letter, as the Apostle elsewhere teaches, saying: Therefore the law is holy, and the commandment holy, and just, and good (Rom. VII, 12). And Ezekiel speaks in the person of God: I brought them out, that is, the people of Judah, from the land of Egypt: and I led them into the desert: and I gave them my commandments, and showed them my justifications: which if a man do, he shall live in them (Ezek. XX, 10). But about that law which works wrath, to which even the Apostle is dead, afterward he says: And I gave them commands that are not good, and justifications in which they will not live (Ibid., 25). The same is also signified in the Psalter: Because I did not know literature, I will enter into the strength of the Lord (Ps. LXX, 51).

I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me. (Galatians 2:20)

(Verse 20.) But I no longer live; Christ lives in me. The person who once lived under the law no longer lives, for they persecuted the Church. But Christ lives in them, providing wisdom, strength, speech, peace, joy, and other virtues. The one who does not possess these virtues cannot say, 'Christ lives in me.' And all of this is said in opposition to Peter, directed at Peter.

But as for now, I live in the flesh. To be in the flesh is one thing, and to live in the flesh is another. For those who are in the flesh cannot please God (Rom. VIII, 8, 9). Therefore, it is said to those who live well: However, you are not in the flesh.

I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. He speaks about God to the Romans, that he did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us. Now, about Christ, that he gave himself up: 'He loved me,' he says, 'and gave himself for me.' In the Gospel, where the apostles are listed, it is stated: 'And Judas Iscariot ((also Scariot)), who betrayed him' (Luke 6:16). Again, in the same Gospel: 'Look, the one who will betray me is approaching' (Matthew 26:46). But the Scriptures mention the high priests and elders of the people, who condemned Jesus to death and, binding him, led him and delivered him to Pilate the governor (ibid., XXVII, and Mark XV). And afterwards about Pilate: He released Barabbas to them, but Jesus, after being flogged, he handed over to them to crucify (John XIX). Therefore, the Father handed over the Son, and the Son himself handed over, and Judas and the priests handed him over to the rulers, and finally, having been handed over to him, Pilate himself delivered him. But the Father handed over, in order to save the lost world: Jesus himself handed himself over, in order to do the will of the Father and his own: However, Judas and the priests and the elders of the people, and Pilate, delivered him, ignorant of life unto death. And when she also handed herself over for our salvation, blessed and very happy is he who, with Christ living in him, can say through every thought and action: I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me and delivered himself for me.

(Verse 21.) I do not reject the grace of God; for if justice is through the Law, then Christ died in vain. He rejects the grace of God, both the one who lives under the Law after the Gospel, and the one who becomes defiled by sins after baptism. But he who can say with the Apostle: His grace in me was not in vain (1 Cor. XV, 10), he also speaks confidently of this: I do not reject the grace of God. What follows, however, is very necessary against those who think that the precepts of the Law must be observed after the faith of Christ. For it must be said to them: If righteousness comes through the law, then Christ died for nothing. Or certainly they should teach how Christ did not die for nothing if works justify. But even though they may be dull, they will not dare to say that Christ died without cause. Therefore, in regard to the participle of the syllogism that is proposed here, that is: If righteousness comes through the law, then Christ died for nothing, we must accept what is consequentially inferred and cannot be denied: but Christ did not die for nothing; and conclude: Therefore, righteousness does not come through the law. So far he has been against Peter, but now he is turning towards the Galatians.

(Chapter III - Verse 1) O foolish Galatians, who has bewitched you? This place can be understood in two ways. Either the foolish Galatians are called so because they have come from greater things to lesser things, having begun in the spirit and are now being consumed in the flesh. Or it is because each province has its own peculiarities. The Cretans are always liars, evil beasts, lazy gluttons, truly spoken of by the poet Epimenides, confirmed by the Apostle. The vain Moors and the fierce Dalmatians are struck by the Latin historian. Timid Phrygians, all poets tear apart. They say that more talented people are born in Athens, and philosophers boast about it. Cicero criticizes the Greeks, calling them either frivolous or cruel barbarians before Caesar. And for Flaccus, he says: 'Ingeniousness is innate, he says, and educated vanity.' The true Israel, with a heavy heart and a stiff neck, accuses all the Scriptures. Therefore, I think that the Apostle Paul also rebuked the Galatians for their regional customs. Although some, inserting profound questions as if under the guise of avoiding heresy, which introduces diverse natures, may say that even the Tyrians and Sidonians, Moabites and Ammonites, and Idumaeans, Babylonians and Egyptians, and all the Nations mentioned in the Scriptures, have certain languages for preceding reasons, and deservedly for their prior actions, so that the justice of God may not come into doubt: since it is asserted that every nation has either good or evil, which another does not have. We will pursue those declining heights: either accusing them of foolishness, saying that they cannot judge the spirit of the Law and the letter; or blaming the fault of the nation, that they are unteachable and foolish, and slower to wisdom. But what follows - 'Who bewitched you?' (1 Corinthians 11) - we should explain according to Paul (who, although unskilled in speech, is not lacking in knowledge): not that he knows that there is a bewitching power, which is commonly believed to be harmful; but he uses the word as a trite expression, and as in other things, so also in this place, he takes up the phrase of everyday conversation. We read in Proverbs: The gift of the envious tortures the eyes. The envious person among us is more significantly called a fascinator in Greek, and in the Wisdom of Solomon it is written: The fascination of wickedness obscures good things (Wis. 4:22). With these examples we are taught that the envious person is tormented by the happiness of others, or that someone in whom there is some good is harmed by another person who fascinates, that is, envies. It is said that the fascinus properly harms infants, young children, and those who have not yet firmly set foot. Where and some of the Gentiles:

I do not know who bewitches the tender eyes of my lambs. (Virgil. Eclog. 3.) Whether this is true or not, God knows: because it is possible that even demons may serve this sin; and they may turn away from the good works anyone has learned or achieved in the work of God. Now this is in question, because we consider this example to be taken from the opinion of the common people: just as it is said that a tender age can be harmed by a spell, so too it seems that the Galatians, who were recently born and raised in the faith of Christ, and nourished by milk and not solid food (1 Corinthians 3), have been harmed by some sort of spell, and the spirit of the Holy One has made them vomit the food of faith, causing a nausea in their spirit. But if someone contradicts, let him explain how the ideas of the Titans' valley in the Books of Kings (2 Kings 23), the sirens and centaurs in Isaiah (Chap. 34), Arcturus and Orion, and the Pleiades in Job (Chap. 9), and the like, which are certainly terms borrowed from the myths of the Gentiles, have been taken from common opinion. Let us therefore ask Marcion, who rejects the prophets, how he interprets what follows.


Before whose eyes Jesus Christ was proclaimed, among you he was crucified. For Christ was rightly proclaimed to us, from whose gallows and suffering, slaps and whips, the chorus of all the prophets foretold: that his cross was not only from the Gospel, in which he is said to be crucified; but long before he deigned to descend to the earth and take on the form of a crucified man, we have known. And it is no small praise of the Galatians that they have believed in the Crucified One, as it was proclaimed to them before: namely, by reading the prophets and knowing all the sacraments of the old Law, they have come to believe in the way and order. It is read in some codices: Who bewitched you to not believe the truth? But because this is not found in the exemplars of Adamantius, we have omitted it.

(Version 2.) This is the only thing I want to learn from you: did you receive the Spirit by works of the Law or by hearing with faith? Indeed, are there many things that can force you to prefer the Gospel to the Law: but because you are foolish and cannot hear those things, I speak to you in simple terms, and I ask about what is obvious: Did you receive the Holy Spirit by works of the Law, by observing the Sabbath, circumcision, and the superstition of new moons, or by hearing with faith, through which you believed from the Gentiles? But if it cannot be denied, it is evident that the Holy Spirit and the virtues that followed the received Spirit at the beginning of faith were given not by the works of the Law, but by the faith of Christ. It is clear that you have begun from better things and fallen into worse. However, let us consider carefully, because he did not say, 'I want to learn from you whether you received the Spirit from works,' but he added, 'from the works of the Law.' For he knew that even Cornelius the centurion had received the Spirit from works (Acts 10), but not from the works of the Law, which he did not know. But if, on the contrary, it is said: therefore, the Spirit can be received without hearing faith. We will respond that indeed the Spirit is received, but through the hearing of faith and the natural law, which speaks in our hearts, the good things to be done and the evils to be avoided: through which we have already mentioned that even Abraham, Moses, and the other justified saints have received it, and the observation of works and the righteousness of the Law can furthermore increase it, not the carnal law, which has passed, but the spiritual law, for the Law is spiritual. Nor indeed do we destroy the works of the Law because we prefer faith (Rom. III), nor do we say, according to some, Let us do evil, so that good may come (whose condemnation is just), but we give preference to grace over slavery. And we say that what the Jews do out of fear, we do out of charity. They are slaves, we are children: they are compelled to do good, we willingly embrace it. Therefore, it is not from the faith of Christ that the license to sin arises; rather, the desire for good works is increased by the love of faith, as we do good not because we fear judgment but because we know that they please the one in whom we believe. Let someone inquire, if faith comes only from hearing, how can those who are born deaf become Christians? Indeed, one can understand God the Father from the magnitude and beauty of creation, and the Creator is consequently recognized from His works. But the birth, cross, death, and resurrection of Christ cannot be known except through hearing. Therefore, either deaf people are not Christians, or if they are Christians, it is false what is said elsewhere by the Apostle: 'So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.' To which, he who is content with a simple response, says, that he did not speak generally; faith comes from hearing; but faith comes from hearing, which can be understood both in part and in whole: namely, the faith of those who hear, who believe. However, whoever attempts to satisfy this doubt, will first try to assert that even the deaf can learn the Gospel through nods, daily conversation, and, so to speak, gestures of the whole body; then also that the word of God, to whom nothing is deaf, speaks more to those ears, about whom he himself says in the Gospel: He who has ears to hear, let him hear (Luke 8:8). And in the Apocalypse: He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the Churches (Rev. II, 11). And Isaiah: The Lord has given me an ear (Isa. VI, 33 and 35). This is another man, to whom God speaks in secret, who cries out in the heart of the believer: Abba, Father (Rom. VIII, 15): and (as we have often explained) just as the body has all its members and senses, so the soul also has all its senses and members, including ears: whoever has them will not greatly need the ears of the body to know the Gospel of Christ. Moreover, also consider this, that here the Holy Spirit is understood without any addition, whom we obtain as a gift from God, and not from man: of which it is written elsewhere: The Spirit is incorruptible in all things (Wis. 12:1). And: The Spirit himself gives testimony to our spirit (Rom. 8:16). And in another place: No one knows the things that are in man, except the spirit of man that is in him (1 Cor. 2:11). And in Daniel: Bless the Lord, spirits and souls of the righteous (Dan. 3:86).

(Verse 3.) So foolish are you, that having begun in the Spirit, you are now being perfected in the flesh? If the Galatians received the Holy Spirit, how were they foolish? But it is immediately resolved, that although they did receive the Spirit, they were deprived of it when they were being perfected in the flesh. Hence they suffered so much in vain. In order to avoid this happening to themselves after sin, David prays, saying: Do not take your Holy Spirit from me (Ps. 50:13). Pay careful attention to the fact that those who follow the Scriptures literally are said to be perfected in the flesh. Therefore, what is written to the Corinthians, 'Living in the flesh, we do not wage war according to the flesh' (2 Cor. X, 3), can be better understood as meaning that those who humbly adhere to the Old Testament are said to wage war in the flesh. However, those who follow the spiritual understanding, though they are in the flesh because they have the same letter as the Jews, do not wage war according to the flesh but transcend from the flesh to the spirit. When you see someone who was the first to believe among the Gentiles, and extends his hand to the plow of Christ, having been preceded by a wise teacher, in such a way as to proceed from the path of the Law to the Gospel, so that he may understand all those things that are written there, about the Sabbath, about unleavened bread, about circumcision, about sacrifices, in a worthy manner for God, and afterwards, after the reading of the Gospel, be persuaded by a Jewish person or a fellow Jew, so that he may abandon the shadows and cloudy allegories and interpret the Scriptures as they are written: can you say of this person: 'Are you so foolish, that after beginning with the Spirit, you are now being perfected by the flesh?'

(Verse 4) You have suffered so much without cause, if indeed without cause. Let us consider the unfortunate Jews, how they live among other nations in such superstition and the labor of observance, saying, do not touch, do not taste, do not handle, and we will prove that what is said is true: You have suffered so much without cause. But the judgment is not immediately applied to them, and there is doubt if indeed without cause, because this is said of those who can turn from the Law to the Gospel. However, this can be understood better in the following way: that the Galatians, believing in the Crucified One, have endured many reproaches from both the Jews and the Gentiles, and have endured considerable persecutions. These persecutions are in vain criticized, if they depart from the grace of Christ, for which they have endured so much. At the same time, there is the hope that whoever labors for the faith of Christ and afterward falls into sin, just as it is said that he suffered the former without cause while sinning, likewise does not lose it if he returns to the original faith and the former zeal. Otherwise: If you think that circumcision should be followed after grace, then all that you have suffered while living without circumcision up until the present time has been in vain. But it seems to me that you have not endured these things without purpose, for I know that the Law is no longer valid after the Gospel. Or at least this way: It would not be a small loss if, by following circumcision, you had lost so much of the previous effort of faith. But now, in addition to this loss, there is also the punishment of transgression, so that you have suffered in the past without cause and will suffer in the future as well. Some people understand it more forcibly as follows: Consider the former freedom of grace and the present burdens of observation in the Law, and you will see how many things you have done in vain: although the fruit of this error is not completely to be despaired of, since you have been led to this by the zeal of God. For ignorance can be forgiven to those who, if they are converted to better things, teach that the knowledge in you has fluctuated, not the zeal.

(Verse 5.) So then, does he who supplies the Spirit to you and works miracles among you do so by works of the law, or by hearing with faith? Not that the works of the Law should be despised, and without them a simple faith should be sought; but that the works themselves may be adorned by the faith of Christ. For that saying of the wise man is well known, 'The just shall live by faith, not by righteousness.' At the same time it is shown that the Galatians, after receiving the Holy Spirit by faith, had the gifts of virtues, that is, prophecy, kinds of tongues, healings, and other things that are enumerated in the spiritual gifts to the Corinthians (1 Cor. VII). And yet, after so many (because perhaps they did not have the grace of discerning spirits), they were ensnared by false teachers. It should also be noted that they claim to work miracles in those who do not hold the truth of the Gospel: just as in those who, not following the Lord, were performing miracles in His name, with John in particular complaining: Teacher, we saw someone driving out demons in Your name, and we tried to stop him because he does not accompany us (Mark 9:37). Against heretics who believe that the proof of their faith consists in performing some miracle. Those who eat and drink in the name of the Lord (for they also have a sacrilegious altar) and boast of having performed many signs, calling upon the Savior, will deserve to hear on the day of judgment: 'I never knew you, depart from me, you workers of iniquity' (Matthew 7:23).

(V.7) So you know, those who are of faith, these are the children of Abraham. He discusses more fully in the letter to the Romans that faith was reckoned to Abraham as righteousness, not in circumcision but in uncircumcision (Rom. 4). And carefully observing, he teaches that those who believed with this mindset are the children of Abraham, just as Abraham believed when he was uncircumcised, who rejoiced to see the day of the Lord, and saw it and was glad (John 8). And it is also said to the unbelieving Jews: If you were children of Abraham, you would do the works of Abraham (Ibid. 39). But what other works was the Lord seeking from them at that time when these things were said, except faith in the Son of God, whom the Father had sent to speak: Whoever believes in me, does not believe in me, but in him who sent me (John XII, 44)? And in another place, when they were clapping and boasting about their ancient and noble lineage, the response is given: And do not say, 'We have Abraham as our father.' For God is able to raise up children to Abraham from these stones (Matth. III, 9). By these stones, no one doubts that the hardened hearts of the Gentiles are signified, which were later softened and received the seal of faith. Enumerate the virtues of Abraham in which he pleased God before circumcision, diligent reader, and wherever you find them in a similar work, say that they are the children of Abraham, justified in the foreskin, who received circumcision not because of the merit of works, but as a sign of prior faith. For indeed Christ was to be born from his seed (in whom the blessing of all nations was promised, and from Abraham until Christ many centuries were to pass), God foreseen that the children of beloved Abraham might mix with other nations, and gradually his family would become uncertain, he marked the Israelite flock with a certain circumcision seal, so that they would be distinguished by this sign while living among the Egyptians, Assyrians, Babylonians, and Chaldeans. Finally, for forty years in the desert, no one was circumcised: for they alone lived without the mixture of another nation. As soon as the people crossed the banks of the Jordan and poured themselves into the land of Palestine, the circumcision, necessary for the future mix of nations, guarded against error. And that which is written a second time about the circumcised people (Joshua 5) signifies that the circumcision ceased in the desert, which was reasonably practiced in Egypt; and that believers are to be cleansed by the spiritual circumcision of the Lord Jesus Christ.

(Verse 8, 9.) But the Scripture, foreseeing that by faith God would justify the Gentiles, foretold to Abraham that all nations would be blessed in him. So then, those who are of faith are blessed with faithful Abraham. Not that the Scripture itself, namely the ink and the parchment, which are insensible, can foreknow the future; but rather the Holy Spirit and the senses, hidden in the letter, have foretold things to come many centuries later. Moreover, the example taken from Genesis is contained in its own volume: 'And in your seed all the nations of the earth shall be blessed' (Gen. XXVI, 4). The apostle interpreted this concerning Christ, saying: 'It is not written of seeds, as if in many; but as in one, and in your seed, which is Christ.' However, we must observe in all the almost testimonies (as taken from the old books in the new Testament), which the evangelists or apostles believed in memory; and having only explained the meaning, they often changed the order, and sometimes removed or added words. But there is no doubt that all nations were blessed in Isaac and Jacob, or in the twelve patriarchs, and others who descended from the lineage of Abraham; but in Christ Jesus, through whom all nations praise God, and a new name is blessed on the earth. However, the apostle can also be understood to have drawn an example of the seed from another passage in Genesis, where it is written: 'And (no doubt Abraham) God brought him outside and said to him: Look up at the sky and count the stars, if you are able to count them.' And he said to him: Thus shall your seed be; and Abraham believed God, and it was reputed to him unto justice (Gen. XV, 5, 6) . Therefore, whoever believes, shall be blessed with faithful Abraham, who is said to have believed in God first, for his remarkable faith in him. Just as Enos is said to have hoped in the Lord God, the principal hope in God, and above all the others, is written to have called upon the Lord God (Gen. IV, 26) . Not that Abel, about whom the Lord says: The voice of your brother's blood cries to me (Ibid. IV, 10) ; and the others afterwards, did not hope to call upon God; but each one may be called upon from the part that he has, to the greatest extent possible.

(Vers. 11, 12.) But since no one is justified before God by the law, it is clear that the righteous shall live by faith. The law is not of faith, but the one who does them shall live by them. An example that proves the righteous live by faith and not by works is taken from Habakkuk, as the Seventy interpreters have rendered it: But the righteous shall live by my faith (Hab. II, 4). Aquila and Theodotion: But the righteous shall live by his faith, that is, by God's faith. Therefore, it must be considered that when it is said that a man or a person lives by faith, it is not to give occasion for the despising of virtuous works, but rather, that the just person lives by faith. So, whoever is faithful and lives by faith can only come to faith or live in it if they have first become just and ascended to faith through the purity of life as if by certain steps. Therefore, it is possible for someone to be just and yet not live without the faith of Christ. If someone reading is troubled, let them take the words of Paul, in which he says about himself: According to the righteousness which is in the Law, blameless (Philippians 3:6). Therefore, Paul was at that time righteous in the Law, but he could not yet live, because he did not have Christ speaking in him: I am the life (John 11:25). Believing in Him, he began to live. Let us also do something similar to this which is said, the righteous lives by faith; and let us say: the chaste lives by faith, the wise lives by faith, the strong lives by faith, and let us bring forth a similar sentence against those who, not believing in Christ, consider themselves to be strong, wise, temperate, or righteous: so that they may know that no one can live without Christ, without whom all virtue is faulty. The present testimony can be read as follows: the just person lives by faith, as is inferred afterwards. But when he says, 'The law is not of faith, but he who does it shall live in it,' it is very clear that not just any life is being spoken of, but rather one that is referred to something. For the just person lives by faith, and it is not added 'in them' or 'in those.' But the one who lives in the law and does it, lives in them, that is, in those things that he has done, which he considered to be good. He receives the reward of his labor, only those works that he has done, whether it be the length of his life (as the Jews believe) or its decline, which is the punishment by which the transgressor of the law is killed. However, we cannot consider these words to be those of the Apostles, but of the prophet Ezekiel, who said: 'I led them into the wilderness and gave them my commandments and showed them my statutes, which if a man does, he shall live by them.' (Ezek. 20:10-11).' And when he said that those who walked in the commandments and statutes would live, he added: 'I also gave them statutes that were not good and ordinances by which they could not live' (ibid., 25). What a consideration in these words! Where he said: I gave them precepts and justifications in which they could live, he did not add goods. But where he placed, in which they could not live, he added: And I gave them precepts that are not good, and justifications in which they will not live. But these things are explained more fully in Ezekiel: now let us return to the order of the Letter.

(Verse 13.) Christ redeemed us from the curse of the Law, becoming cursed for us. In this passage, Marcion sneaks in the power of the Creator, whom he slanders as bloody, cruel, and a punisher (or judge), asserting that we are redeemed through Christ, who is the Son of another good God. If he understood the difference between buying and redeeming (because one who buys buys someone else's, but one who redeems properly buys what was his own and ceased to be his), he would never twist the simple words of Scripture to the detriment of his own dogma. Therefore, Christ redeemed us from the curse of the Law, which was established for sinners, whom He Himself reproaches through the prophet, saying: Behold, you are sold for your sins, and I have dismissed your mother for your iniquities (Isa. 50:1). And the apostle repeats this very thing, saying: But I am carnal, sold under sin (Rom. 7:14). The curses of the Law which are written in Leviticus and Deuteronomy are not fulfilled by the authority of God, but by the prophetic spirit, they are announced to those who were going to sin, the things that were going to happen to them. But if the apostles wanted to restrict us by their testimony, saying: Whoever of the works of the Law there are, they are under a curse, for it is written: Cursed is everyone who does not remain in all the things that are written in the book of the Law, to do them (Deut. XXVII, 26), and to assert that all those who were under the Law were cursed, let us ask him whether those who are under the Gospel of Christ and do not follow his commandments are cursed or not. If he speaks evil, he will have in the Gospel what we have in the Law. If he denies the cursed, therefore the precepts of the Gospel will be in vain, and those who fulfill them will be without reward. Both are solved in this way: just as Christ Jesus freed us from the curse of the Law, by becoming a curse for us, so he also delivers us from the curse of the Gospel which is imposed on those who do not fulfill its precepts, by becoming a curse for us himself, knowing not to withhold even the smallest portion of talent, and to demand the last quarter (Matthew 5 and Mark 12).

(Verse 14) Because it is written: Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree, so that the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles in Christ Jesus, so that we might receive the promised Spirit through faith. Before we discuss the meaning and words of the Apostle, it seems fitting to briefly respond to the testimony of Deuteronomy, from which the Apostle drew these words (Deut. 21:22-23), and to compare it to other editions. Therefore, the Seventy interpreters translated this passage as follows: But if there is any sin and deserving of death, and he is put to death, you shall hang him on a tree, his body shall not remain overnight on the tree, but you shall surely bury him that day; for cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree, and you shall not defile your land which the LORD your God is giving you as an inheritance. Aquila: And when there is a sin in a man deserving the judgment of death, and he is killed, and you hang him on a tree, his dead body shall not remain on the tree overnight, but you shall bury him on the same day, for a hanged man is cursed by God; so you shall not defile your land, which the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance. Symmachus: But if a man commits a sin deserving the judgment of death, and he is killed, and you hang him on a tree, his dead body shall not remain on the tree overnight, but you shall bury him on the same day, for he is hanged as a blasphemer against God; so you shall not defile your land, which the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance. Theodotio: And because there will be sin in a man, deserving of the judgment of death, and he will die, and you shall hang him on a tree, his dead body shall not remain overnight on the tree, but you shall surely bury him on the same day, for a hanged man is cursed by God; so you shall not defile your land which the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance. Furthermore, Adama, which means earth or soil, is called in the Hebrew language. In the place where Aquila and Theodotio likewise translated it, saying, "for a hanged man is cursed by God," it is written in Hebrew as Chi Calalath Eloim Thalui. These words were interpreted by Ebion, the half-Christian and half-Jewish heresiarch, as meaning 'because it is an insult to God to be hanged.' I remember finding in the debate between Jason and Papiscus, which was written in Greek, the phrase 'the blasphemy of God who is hanged.' A Hebrew who taught me Scripture to some extent told me that it can also be read as 'because contemptuously God was hanged.' We have collected these things for this reason, because it is a very famous question, and we are often accused by the Jews of infamy, that our Savior and Lord was cursed by God. First of all, it must be understood that not everyone who hangs on a tree is cursed by God, but only those who have sinned and have been sentenced to death for their crime and been lifted up on a cross. He is not cursed because he was crucified, but because he has fallen into such guilt that he deserved to be crucified. Then it should be added, that lower down, the cause of the crucifixion is more fully explained, as Scripture testifies, because he was crucified for the blasphemy and curse against God. This was translated more clearly by Symmachus, who said: because he was suspended for the blasphemy against God. Finally, let us ask them, if Ananias, Azarias, and Misael, who refused to worship the idol of Nebuchadnezzar, were suspended on a tree (Dan. III); and also Eleazar, a ninety-year-old man, and the glorious mother with her seven sons under the reign of Antiochus, should they be considered cursed (II Mach. VII) or most worthy of all blessings? Certainly, if Haman had prepared the cross for Mordecai (Esther VII), I think that Mordecai would have ascended it not as a cursed man, but as a holy man. These and similar things prove that he is cursed who commits a worthy crime on the gallows: not he who is crucified by the injustice of judges, the power of enemies, the outcry of the crowd, the envy of virtues, or the anger of the king. And Naboth, formerly known as Nabutham, was condemned to death by the whole city of Jezrael upon Jezebel's letters (3 Kings 21); but his blood is avenged in the figure of Christ, many centuries later, as the Lord declares to Osec: Call his name Jezrael, because in a little while I will avenge the blood of Jezrael upon the house of Jeu. (Hosea 1:4). These things are against the Jews. However, in order to return to our discussion, I do not know why the Apostle, in that which is written: Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree (Deuteronomy 21:2), would remove or add anything. For if he was following the authority of the Seventy Interpreters, he ought, as they had published, to have added the name of God. But if he thought fit to follow the Hebrew, written in Hebrew letters, only that which he read for most true, and which is not found in the Hebrew language from the sawn tree, he ought not to assume. Hence it appears to me that either the ancient books of the Hebrews were different from those which we have now: or the Apostle (as I have said before) retained the sense of the Scriptures, but not the words: or, what is most to be accounted of, after the Passion of Christ, some one added the name of God to the Hebrew and to our copies, to bring disgrace upon us, who believe that Christ was cursed of God. Therefore, I proceed with bold foot into this contest, that I may challenge the books, saying that nowhere is it written that anyone is cursed by God, and wherever a curse is placed, God's name is never attached. 'Cursed are you among all beasts,' it is said to the serpent. And to Adam: 'Cursed is the earth in your works.' And to Cain: 'Cursed are you upon the earth.' And elsewhere: 'Cursed be Canaan, a servant he will be to his brethren.' And also in another place: Cursed be their fury, for it is bold, and their wrath, for it is hard (Gen. XLIX, 7). It is too long if I were to enumerate all the curses, which are written in Leviticus, Deuteronomy, and Joshua, and yet in none of them is the name of God added, to the extent that even Satan himself, when he promised concerning Job that if he were severely afflicted, he would blaspheme, indicated this from the better side, saying: Unless you bless him to his face (Job I, 11). And in the Books of Kings, Naboth (or Nabutham) is reported to have been stoned because he blessed God and the king (3 Kings 21). But nothing should move us that Christ was made a curse for us, because it was God himself who is said to have made him a curse, he who (as Christ did not know sin) made him sin for us, and the Savior, from the fullness of the Father, emptied himself, taking the form of a servant (Philippians 2): he died and the wisdom of God is called foolishness, so that what was foolish in the sight of God might become wiser to men (1 Corinthians 1). And in the sixty-eighth psalm, it says of Him: 'O God, you know my foolishness, and my sins are not hidden from you.' (Psalm 68:7) Therefore, the Lord's injury is our glory. He died so that we may live. He descended into hell so that we may ascend to heaven. He became foolishness so that we may become wise. He emptied Himself of the fullness and form of God, taking on the form of a servant, so that the fullness of divinity may dwell in us and we may become servants of the Lord. He hung on the wood, so that the sin which we committed on the wood of the knowledge of good and evil might be erased, hung on the wood. His cross turned bitter waters into sweet taste, and the lost axe, immersed in the deep, lifted up when thrown into the waters of the Jordan (2 Kings 6). In the end, he became a curse, yes, a curse: so that the blessings that were promised to Abraham might be transferred to the nations, with him as the author and forerunner, and the promise of the Spirit might be fulfilled through faith in him: which we ought to receive in two ways, either in spiritual gifts of virtues, or in the spiritual understanding of the Scriptures (1 Corinthians 9).