Theodoret of Cyrus — Commentary on Scripture

Galatians 1:1

So that no one might suppose the Son to be a mere ancillary to the Father, finding the word through in this passage, he immediately adds “but through God the Father, who raised him from the dead.” For he has applied the word through to both persons, teaching that this usage does not imply any difference of nature. And the phrase “the one who raised him from the dead” does not hint at any defect in the Son’s divinity, for the suffering did not happen to the Godhead but illustrates the concord of the gospel, because it was not the Son alone who bestowed the mystery of the divine incarnation, but the Father himself is a sharer in this dispensation.

EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS 1.1

Galatians 1:2

The epistle to the Galatians was written from Rome. The divine apostle had already seen and taught them.

EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS 6.18

Galatians 1:4

By “the evil age” he does not mean the elements, as the Manichaeans portentously assert, but the present life, that is, this secular human way of living, in which sin has made a home. For, being enveloped in a mortal nature, some of us venture on the greater sins, some on the lesser. But when we make the transition to that immortal life, and are free from our present corruption and have put on incorruption, we shall be made able to conquer sin.… Yet the present age as such is not vile, but vileness is the enterprise of some who live in it.

EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS 1.3-4

Galatians 1:6

He is saying, “You have not departed from this teaching to that but from the one who called you.… The very Father who gave the law is the one who called you to this gospel.… And if you desert this gospel, you will not find another. For the Lord does not preach some things through us and others through the other apostles.”

EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS 1.6-7

Galatians 1:8

He mentioned the angels, not speculating that any of the holy angels would say something contrary to the divine gospel, for he knew this to be impossible. But through this he reprehended every novelty of humanity.

EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS 1.8

Galatians 1:12

It was very shrewd of him to mention revelation, for the Lord Jesus had been taken up and was no longer seen equally of all. But to Paul he had appeared on the road and made him worthy of the ministry of proclamation. And this again he sets against their slanders, showing that in this too he did not fall short of the apostles. For just as the Galatians received the gospel from him, so likewise he had Christ himself as a teacher.

EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS 1.12

Galatians 1:19

He was called “the brother of the Lord” but was not so by nature. For he was not, as some suppose, the son of Joseph by a previous marriage but the son of Clopas and cousin of the Lord. For his mother was the sister of the Lord’s mother. … He was thought by others to be the Lord’s brother, both because their mothers had the same names and because the families shared one house. And he was so called even by believers, both because of the extreme virtue that he possessed (for he was called “the Just”) and because of the kinship. For the sacred story of the Gospels tells us that the Blessed Virgin had no other son. For seeing her by the cross, the Lord gave her to the most divine John, but he would not have committed her to another if the blessed James, a man possessed of extreme virtue, had been her son.

EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS 1.19

Galatians 2:1

Both [Barnabas and Titus] spent an extended time in Antioch, making a large body of converts and binding them to live according to the law of grace. But some supporters of the law who arrived from Judea tried to persuade the Gentiles to adopt the way of life according to the law But those great heralds of the truth, Paul and Barnabas, repudiated the teaching they promoted. They wished to persuade the congregation of the faithful that this was also the view of the great apostles. So they immediately went straightway to Judea, to apprise the apostles of what was going on.

EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS 2.1-2

Galatians 2:5

“Not even for a short while,” [he says,] “would we endure their arrogant opinions, but we preferred the truth of the gospel before all things.” … He says this about those who obeyed the law by custom. For since it was likely that the Galatians would say that even the first of the apostles also kept the law, and the divine apostle knew that they were forced to do this in deference to believers from among the Jews who were still weak, he was caught in the middle. It would have been highly perverse to condemn them, yet he did not wish to reveal their aim, in case he might do harm to the new dispensation. So he steers a middle course. And while he does indeed profess to be angry at what occurred, he is nonetheless not disposed to say anything more about them. So he commits everything to the verdict of God.

EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS 2.5

Galatians 2:9

They knew this from the facts; for [he says] “just as divine grace worked with Peter for the preaching to the Jews, so it collaborated with me for the salvation of the Gentiles.”

EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS 2.8

Galatians 2:12

While active in Judea the holy apostles were forced to live according to the law on account of the weakness of the believers from Jewish backgrounds, for they held fast to the regulations of the law. But when they shifted to the cities of the Gentiles they had no need of such an accommodation but lived according to the freedom of the gospel. This is what the godly Peter did when he arrived in Antioch. He ate freely with the Gentiles. But when some of the Jews came he separated from the Gentiles, so that he might not give those who came from the Jews any pretext for doing harm. This is the meaning of “fearing those of the circumcision.” For he who did not fear the whole host of the Jews did not succumb to fear of men, but he did not wish to furnish them with a pretext for scandal.

EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS 2.12-13

Galatians 2:16

The necessary commandments of the law were taught even by nature. That is, “You shall not commit adultery, you shall not murder, you shall not steal, you shall not bear false witness against thy neighbor, honor your father and mother, and the rest of this kind.” But the commandments about the sabbath and circumcision and lepers and menstruation and sacrifice were peculiar to the [Jewish] law, since nature taught nothing about these matters. These are what he now calls “works of the law.” The transgression of these is sin, yet the mere keeping of them is not the way of maintaining perfect righteousness. For these were symbols of other things. Nonetheless they were appropriate to the Jews in their due time.

EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS 2.15-16

Galatians 2:17

Paul says in effect: “We have forsaken the law and come over to Christ, expecting to enjoy righteousness through faith in him. But suppose that this itself is counted as a transgression. The fault would then pertain to Christ the Lord himself. For it was he who gave us the New Testament. Far be it from us to tolerate such blasphemy!”

EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS 2.17

Galatians 3:1

This indicates their previous zeal for piety and manifests the fatherly affection of the apostle. He grieves over them for their loss of wealth accumulated.

EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS 3.1

Galatians 3:9

Paul has thus eulogized faith and shown what fruits it has from the gracious gifts of the Spirit. He also has shown that it is older than the law from the witness of the law itself—for the Old Testament describes the events concerning Abraham. Finally, he sets the law alongside faith, showing how it differs.

EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS 3.7-9

Galatians 3:16

The promise made to Abraham is called a testament in the ancient Scripture and so cannot suffer addition, subtraction or dissolution through the imposition of the Mosaic law, which was given a very long time after Abraham. Now the promise was that the God of all would bless the nations through the offspring of Abraham. And this offspring is Christ the Lord, since the promise found its destination in him through whom the nations received a blessing. But all the others, such as Moses, Samuel, Elijah and in a word all who traced their descent from Israel, were called his offspring according to nature, but [this genetic fact] is not what brought the fount of blessings to the nations.… The fact that those men too trace their race to Abraham does not mean that they are rightly called his offspring, but this man has that appellation in the proper sense, as being the only One through whom, according to the promise, God has bestowed blessing on the nations.

EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS 3.16-17

Galatians 3:19

It was imposed through the ministry of angels, and Moses assisted in this imposition. For Moses is the one that is called an intermediary. … For the God of all set Michael over them, as taught by the blessed Daniel. And to the great Moses he promised to send with him an angel to the people.

EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS 3.19

Galatians 3:19

This question should be read as a personification. “What you want to know,” he says, “is why the law was imposed. I shall tell you.… It was imposed for the tutelage of the race from which that offspring was going to sprout according to the flesh.”

EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS 3.19

Galatians 3:20

For [Moses] mediated between God and the people. But God is the one who both gave the promise to Abraham and imposed the law, and he has shown us the destination of the promise. For it was not one God who dispensed the former and another who dispensed the latter.

EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS 3.20

Galatians 3:24

Now it was necessary that the law be given, as it fulfilled our need of a custodian. And it freed us from our previous impiety, taught us knowledge of God and then brought us to Christ the Lord as though to some wise teacher, so that we might be instructed by him in perfect learning and acquire the righteousness that is through faith.

EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS 3.24