Cornelius a Lapide
Table of Contents
Synopsis of the Chapter
He pursues what he said at the end of chapter III, namely that the Jews were as little children and servants under the law as under a guardian and tutor; but that Christians, as sons now grown up, are led not by the law, but by the Spirit of adoption, and cry, Abba Father; and consequently it is unworthy of them if they turn back to the weak and beggarly elements of the law.
Secondly, at verse 13, he shows with what eagerness, zeal, and reverence the Galatians had formerly embraced him and his preaching, so that they ought to be ashamed if they so lightly fall away from it.
Thirdly, at verse 21, he brings a new argument from the allegory of Abraham, whose son and heir Isaac, born of the freewoman Sarah, signified Christians as freeborn sons of God, free from the old law, and to be heirs of the blessing of Abraham; while Ishmael, begotten of the bondwoman Hagar and cast out, signified the Judaizers as those to be excluded from the blessing of Abraham and of God.
Vulgate Text: Galatians 4:1-31
1. Now I say: As long as the heir is a little child, he differs nothing from a servant, though he be lord of all; 2. but is under tutors and governors until the time appointed by the father: 3. so we also, when we were children, were serving under the elements of the world. 4. But when the fullness of time came, God sent His Son, made of a woman, made under the law, 5. that He might redeem them who were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons. 6. And because you are sons, God hath sent the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying: Abba, Father. 7. Therefore now he is not a servant, but a son. And if a son, an heir also through God. 8. But then indeed, not knowing God, you served them who, by nature, are not gods. 9. But now, after that you have known God, or rather are known by God: how turn you again to the weak and beggarly elements, which you desire to serve again? 10. You observe days, and months, and times, and years. 11. I am afraid of you, lest perhaps I have laboured in vain among you. 12. Be ye as I, because I also am as you: brethren, I beseech you: you have not injured me at all. 13. And you know how, through infirmity of the flesh, I preached the Gospel to you heretofore: 14. and your temptation in my flesh you despised not, neither rejected: but received me as an angel of God, even as Christ Jesus. 15. Where is then your blessedness? For I bear you witness, that, if it could be done, you would have plucked out your own eyes, and would have given them to me. 16. Am I then become your enemy, because I tell you the truth? 17. They are zealous in your regard not well: but they would exclude you, that you might be zealous for them. 18. But be zealous for that which is good in a good thing always: and not only when I am present with you. 19. My little children, of whom I am in labour again, until Christ be formed in you. 20. And I would willingly be present with you now, and change my voice: because I am ashamed for you. 21. Tell me, you that desire to be under the law, have you not read the law? 22. For it is written that Abraham had two sons: the one by a bondwoman, and the other by a free woman. 23. But he who was of the bondwoman, was born according to the flesh: but he of the free woman, was by promise. 24. Which things are said by an allegory. For these are the two testaments. The one from mount Sina, engendering unto bondage: which is Agar. 25. For Sina is a mountain in Arabia, which hath affinity to that Jerusalem which now is, and is in bondage with her children. 26. But that Jerusalem, which is above, is free: which is our mother. 27. For it is written: Rejoice, thou barren, that bearest not: break forth and cry, thou that travailest not: for many are the children of the desolate, more than of her that hath a husband. 28. Now we, brethren, as Isaac was, are the children of promise. 29. But as then he, that was born according to the flesh, persecuted him that was after the spirit: so also it is now. 30. But what saith the scripture? Cast out the bondwoman and her son: for the son of the bondwoman shall not be heir with the son of the free woman. 31. So then, brethren, we are not the children of the bondwoman, but of the free: by the freedom wherewith Christ has made us free.
Verse 1: Now I Say: As Long as the Heir Is a Little Child
4. 1. Now I say. — He returns to what was said in the preceding chapter, verses 24 and 25, where he said: "The law was our schoolmaster in Christ; but when faith came, we are no longer under a schoolmaster." He proves and pursues this more broadly here, and begins with the example of a little child who is under tutors: for in Greek, instead of "I say moreover," there is legō de, which can be more clearly rendered, What I say is this; or, This is what I say: for thus Paul is wont to speak when he begins to interpret his own sayings, and says legō de.
As long as the heir is a little child (in Greek nēpios, that is, an infant, that is, one who as yet has no understanding because of his age) differs nothing from a servant. — Because he is governed like a servant by a tutor and pedagogue, nor can he make use of the dominion of his inheritance, just as if he were a servant, not a master; nay, he is subject to a servant, namely his pedagogue, and is under tutors and governors.
Verse 2: But Is Under Tutors and Governors
2. Governors. — Oikonomois, that is, stewards and dispensers, who manage the affairs and goods of the child; the Syriac, procurators.
Until the time appointed. — The Greek prothesmia signifies, as Budaeus testifies, the day prescribed, until which the right and administration of guardians lasted, and which expired upon its arrival, namely when the child was twenty-five years old: as is still the custom and law in many places.
Verse 3: So We Also, When We Were Children, Were Serving Under the Elements of the World
3. So we also. — Namely the Jews, of whom he said in the preceding chapter, verse 25: "We are no longer under a schoolmaster"; for he returns to that point, as I said on this chapter, verse 1.
When we were little children, — rude and imperfect children, both in knowledge and consequently in the love of God, of righteousness, and of salvation. So Anselm.
We were serving under the elements of the world, — that is, under the letter, and as it were the alphabet of the old law: for the imperfect law was first given to the world, that is to the Jews, and through the Jews to all the nations of the world, that it might teach the men of the whole world the rudiments of faith and piety; but the Gospel, which succeeded the law, teaches the perfection of these. So Jerome. Just as Justinian therefore calls his Institutes the elements of law, that is, the principles and rudiments; and as we call the principles of these arts the elements of Grammar, Philosophy, Music: so here the Apostle calls the elemental, introductory, and instructional law "elements." For just as children, says Anselm, learn the letters and the joining of the letters, but do not yet understand the very words and sentences formed from those letters, until they advance to higher disciplines, to which they would not have attained had they not been given the elements first: so the Jews had the elements of their ceremonies, the meaning of which they did not understand, until through these elements as a kind of stepping-stones they came to the faith of Christ.
Note: He calls "the world" the men of the world, primarily the Jews and then all others, by metonymy: for God willed to open in one corner of the world, namely Judaea, a school where He would teach men the rudiments of faith and piety, until He should open the most learned schools of truth through Christ throughout the whole world.
Secondly, more properly and naturally, those things are called "elements of the world" which he explains in verse 10, saying: "You observe days (namely the Jewish feast days), and months, and times, and years": for he calls these days, months, and years "the elements of the world," both because he alludes to Genesis 1, where through seven days God created and produced the elements of the world, and finally on the seventh day, that is the sabbath, He rested, and therefore in memory of that creation and rest commanded the sabbath to be observed and kept by the Jews: so that these days might be called elements; both because in those days the elements were created, and the sabbath day metonymically represents their creation; and because by days, months and years — as it were elements — all the times of the world, and all generation, corruption, and succession of the things that are in the world, and the world itself, runs its course, is governed, and is brought to perfection. Hence in memory of and thanksgiving for the divine providence and governance of God, by which God arranges, rules, governs, and perfects each of the times and the whole world through the alternations of sun and moon, through days, months and years, He willed that sabbaths, new moons, and other feast days and months be observed by the Jews, that through these as bodily rudiments they might learn to acknowledge and worship God as creator and governor of all, until being better instructed through the Gospel, and advanced and promoted higher, they might know how to worship God in spirit and in truth.
Otherwise Erasmus: He calls "world," he says, by a catachresis whatever is visible, transient, temporary, namely the visible and bodily ceremonies of the old law: for these he calls "elements of the world," Colossians II, 20, in which the superstition of the Judaizers consisted, who said: Taste not, touch not, handle not, as the Apostle reports there. But the word "world" is not so taken, nor is the Apostle wont so to abuse it; and in Colossians chapter II he takes "elements of the world" in another sense, as I shall there show. I shall also say more about these elements at verse 9.
We were serving. — In Greek dedoulōmenoi, reduced to servitude. Theophylact here adapts the parable of the little child who is under tutors, as if to say: As the little child differs nothing from a servant, and serves and is governed by his tutors and managers: so we also, when we were little children in the knowledge of Christ and the love of God and salvation, were serving as it were as slaves under the elements of the world already mentioned, and under the old law as our tutors and managers.
Verse 4: But When the Fullness of Time Came, God Sent His Son
4. But when the fullness of time came, — which is as it were the appointed time from the Father, as he said in the parable at verse 2, as if to say: When the time was fulfilled which had been fixed by God the Father for the end of the law and the beginning of grace and the Gospel, by which we should be transferred from the law as schoolmaster, tutor, and manager — that is, from a servile state and condition — into the freedom of faith and adoption as sons of Christ. So Anselm, Theophylact, and others. Otherwise St. Bernard, Sermon 1 On the Advent: "When," he says, "the fullness of time came, God sent His Son. Doubtless the fullness and abundance of temporal things had brought about forgetfulness and want of eternal things. Opportunely therefore did eternity come, when temporality more prevailed." But this is symbolical, not literal. For literally the fullness of time is not the abundance of temporal things, but the fulfillment of the appointed time.
Sent (in Greek it is not epempse, but exapesteilen, that is, sent forth, dispatched as a legate or Apostle with His commands) God (the Father commissioning and sending) His Son — to men: He sent the Son, then, not that the Son should change place, leave heaven, come to earth; but that, remaining where He previously was — both in earth and in heaven — He might assume a new person, namely that of a man and a legate from God to men.
Made of a woman. — St. Augustine, Book III On the Trinity, reads, "born of a woman, made under the law": and so the Royal Greek manuscripts have, gennōmenon ek gynaikos, genomenon hypo nomou; but Our translator, with Theophylact and other Greeks, reads both with genomenon spelled with omicron, that is "made," and this is better, as I said on Romans 1:3.
Note: "Woman" here does not signify corruption, but the female sex, and applies to a virgin, such as was the most blessed Virgin Mary. Secondly, "made of a woman" signifies that Christ was conceived without the seed of a father and formed from the mother's substance alone and from her most pure blood. Hence thirdly it is clear that Christ did not take a body from heaven, which by passing through the blessed Virgin as through a channel He brought down to earth, as the Valentinians of old taught, and now the Anabaptists; but that Christ's body was made and formed from the Virgin.
Made under the law, — for although Christ even as man was not subject to the law, since He persisted in the person of the Son of God, who was the giver and founder of the law; nevertheless He kept it of His own will, and of His own accord submitted and subjected Himself to circumcision and to other ceremonies prescribed by the law: "made," then, signifies not obligation, but use; not law, but fact. So Anselm.
Verse 5: That He Might Redeem Them Who Were Under the Law
5. That He might redeem them who were under the law. — Exagorasē, that is, He would purchase, says Erasmus; by buying He would deliver, and at the price paid would claim into Christian liberty, and, as Our translator renders, redeem not from sin, but from the servitude of the old law, of which he spoke before.
That we might receive the adoption of sons. — Note the little word "that," as if to say: For this reason the Son of God was made of a woman the son of man, that He might make sons of man and adopt them as sons of God. "Therefore," says Bernard, "God was made man, that man might be made God."
Note secondly: This adoption is made through grace, by which we obtain not only a right to the inheritance of God the Father, but also a participation in the divine nature, and the Holy Spirit Himself and adoption as sons of God, as I said on Romans 8:15.
Note thirdly, that all the just, even before Christ, were adoptive sons of God; nevertheless the Apostle calls all those before Christ servants. First, because although the just were truly sons of God, yet they did not have the status of sons, but of servants, since they were under the law, and consequently under the spirit of fear and servitude. Secondly, because they did not have the right of sonship from the law, but from the faith and grace of Christ to come, and thus they belonged more to the new law than to the old, as St. Augustine teaches at length and elegantly, Book III Against the Two Epistles of the Pelagians, chapter IV. Thirdly, because for that state they were lacking the fruit of adoption: for they could not behold the heavenly inheritance before Christ opened it. Fourthly, because Christ, by freeing us from the yoke and servitude of the law, substituted in the new law for them the one Spirit of adoption and love. So Chrysostom, Anselm, and Augustine.
Verse 6: And Because You Are Sons, God Hath Sent the Spirit of His Son
6. And because you are sons, God hath sent the Spirit of His Son, — that is, the Holy Spirit, who proceeds from the Son just as from the Father.
Note: It is an argument from sign or effect to cause, or rather to the showing of the cause, as when I say: "Because there is smoke there, there is fire there": for although fire is prior and the cause of smoke, yet smoke shows itself to us first, so that from it we may infer that there is fire there: so here it is prior that God should send into us His Spirit, than that we should be sons of God, because through the Spirit we are made sons: yet from the fact that we are sons, we rightly conclude as it were a posteriori that God already before sent into us His Spirit. Therefore the word "because," or "since," does not signify the cause in itself, but the cause of knowing, or rather a necessary consequence and connection.
Secondly and more simply, "because" properly signifies the cause not of sonship, but of the cry, as if to say: Because you are sons of God, God sent His Spirit, not to make you sons, but to teach you, who are already made sons, to cry: "Abba, Father." Otherwise Maldonatus in his manuscript Notes translates this from the Greek: for hoti, that is "because," he takes for "that"; so therefore he renders, "Now that you are sons, (hence it appears that) God has sent (into you) the Spirit of His Son." But thus many things must be supplied and added, which are not in the text — namely everything here enclosed in parenthesis. Better, then, does Our translator more properly translate hoti as "because."
Crying, — that is, making us cry (that is, to pray with great devotion of a pious mind), so that we may devoutly, ardently, and confidently, with filial affection, call upon God the Father: for this is not so much the cry of the mouth as of the mind, of which the Lord said to Moses, though silent: "Why," He says, "dost thou cry to Me?" Exodus 14:15. So Theodoret, Anselm, and others.
Abba. — In Hebrew אב ab, in Chaldaic and Syriac Abba, and with the Latin and Greek termination Abbas, is the same as "father." See what is said on Romans 8:15. As this passage strikes terror in the sluggish and lukewarm, who rarely experience this spirit of sonship and the filial cry; so it consoles the pious and fervent, who feel it deeply, and lifts them up to the hope of salvation and of beholding the paternal — namely the divine — inheritance.
Verse 7: Therefore Now He Is Not a Servant, but a Son
7. Therefore now he is not a servant, — namely anyone among you, O Christian Galatians! It is an enallage of person, for he passes from the second to the third, and this is familiar to the Apostle, as I said on Canon 38. Some Greek manuscripts however have it in the second person, but singular, ouketi ei doulos, you are no longer (namely whoever through Christ has been made a son of God) a servant, but a son.
And if a son, an heir also through God. — So also SS. Augustine and Ambrose read; but Jerome reads, "heir through Christ"; while the Greek and Syriac have, klēronomos Theou dia Christou, "heir of God through Christ"; and this is fuller: for through Christ, into whom we are grafted, the eternal inheritance of God and all good things come to us from God, and from the grace and mercy of God.
Verse 8: But Then, Not Knowing God, You Served Them Who Are Not Gods
8. But then, — when you were infidels and pagans: for this the Apostle leaves to be understood from the following antithesis and from the past tense, in which they were dwelling in the ignorance of God.
To them who by nature are not gods (but by the fiction and false opinion of men, namely idols), you served, — that is, you worshipped them with latria and sacrifices.
Verse 9: How Turn You Again to the Weak and Beggarly Elements?
9. But now, after that you have known God, or rather are known by God: how turn you again to the weak and beggarly elements? — Note, "are known by God," namely as sons known and loved by a father. So St. Augustine and Jerome. "God," he says, "is ignorant of no one, but yet He is said to know those who have changed error for piety." Secondly and better, "known," that is, made to know, taught by God; for it is a hebraism, or the meaning of the passive participle hophal; for הודיע hodia in hiphil signifies "he caused to know, he taught"; in the passive hophal, however, הודע huda signifies "caused to know," that is, taught. Now Latins and Greeks, since they cannot translate the same verb through hiphil and hophal in such an active and passive signification, often express it by their verb or participle in the neuter or passive voice; but they cannot match its force and energy. Similar in 1 Corinthians 8:3. So elsewhere God is said to know, when He makes us know. So the Holy Spirit is said to cry, to ask, when He makes us cry and ask, Romans 8:26. For these words are of the hiphil signification, as if to say: When you have been taught by God Himself, who inwardly through the illumination of His grace, and outwardly through our mouth taught you the faith of Christ, the way of righteousness, and salvation; how do you turn again to the rudiments of the law, that you may be taught by them? So Chrysostom, Ambrose, St. Thomas. Hence the Royal Greek copies have for the next verse, eis palin anōthen, "to whom anew from on high," that is, from the beginning, you wish to serve — as if a man should become a child again, return to his pedagogue, and serve and submit to him; or as if a metaphysician should descend from Metaphysics to the first class of Grammar, or as a runner should run back from the goal to the starting-gate, as if to say: You were near the goal, that is, near to righteousness and salvation; how do you run back to the starting-gate? You were Theologians taught by God; how do you return to the law, as it were to the elements of Grammar, by way of postliminium?
You turn. — Epistrephete, you turn, you return, you reverse your step and course, you go backward.
To the weak and beggarly elements. — It is asked, what are these? I answer: First, Augustine and Ambrose understand sun, moon, and idols, which the Galatians once worshipped when they were Gentiles: for he treated of idols and their false gods in the preceding verse. Hence Tertullian, Book On Prescription, chapter XXXIII: "The Apostle," he says, "marks Hermogenes, who, by introducing matter as not begotten, compares it to the unbegotten God, and thus making the mother of the elements a goddess, is able to serve her whom he compares to God." But it is against this view that the Galatians did not wish to return to paganism, but to Judaism, and that throughout the whole epistle the Apostle treats not against idols but against Jewish ceremonies.
Secondly and more probably, Chrysostom, Theophylact, and Œcumenius say that these "elements" are the sun and moon, to which the Galatians wished to be converted, not so as to serve them as gods, as they had once done before they accepted Christianity; but so that by their course they might mark out and observe sabbaths, new moons, and other Jewish feasts. He calls these "weak and beggarly" in respect of God, on whose power and continual influx they need to depend in order to stand firm, and without whom they are weak, beggarly, indeed vanishing: for if God should withdraw His preserving hand, they would at once fall back into the nothingness from which they came. That he speaks of the sun and moon is clear: these are properly the "elements of the world," that is, the first parts of the world, as he called them in verse 3. Secondly, because he says: "How do you turn again," namely to those things which before you worshipped); but the Galatians, being Gentiles, had never before worshipped Jewish ceremonies, but sun and moon.
But thirdly and best of all, Jerome, Theodoret, Anselm, and Tertullian, Book V Against Marcion, chapter IV, by these "elements" understand the Sacraments and observances of days and months, of feasts, and of other ceremonies of the old law, which were given as it were as the first rudiments of religion and piety to the Jews, and through them to the whole world; which are the elements, principles, and symbols of the creation and governance of the world, as I said on verse 3. These are "beggarly," as Tertullian reads, "begging," because they do not contain or confer grace, sanctity, the worship and religion of God, but for this they need the faith of Christ, grace, and the Sacraments. They are also "weak," because they are of themselves ineffectual to justify, so as to make men just, pious, holy, endowed with spirit and virtue: for without the faith of Christ they could justify no one; nay, even with it they did not justify of themselves and ex opere operato, as the Sacraments of the new law, but only ex opere operantis — that is, from the faith and devotion of him who looked up to them: hence too as weak they have been abolished through the death and law of Christ.
This sense is clearly evident from what follows: for in explaining these Jewish ceremonies he adds: "You observe days, and months, and times, and years," as if to say: These are the elements which you serve and worship, namely Jewish days, months, and years. Secondly, because this sense is plain and proper: for they were keeping and observing these elements — namely these days made festal by the law — and not the sun and moon: for it is very improper to say that one who keeps the first day of the month as a feast worships the moon and the new moon; or that one who keeps the Lord's Day worships the sun, to which as the first and most noble planet the first and most noble day is assigned, namely the Lord's Day, which is therefore called the day of the Sun.
You will say: Against this sense stands the word "again," when he says: "You turn again to the weak and beggarly elements, which you wish to serve anew"; because the Galatians, being Gentiles, had not before served Jewish rites and sacrifices, but had served sun, moon, and idols: hence they could be said to convert again to these, but not to those.
I answer: "You turn again," that is, by your conversion and worship, you wish to re-establish the now-abolished Jewish rites: for he looks back to the state of the law, of which he said in verse 2 indiscriminately that all had been under the law as under a pedagogue, as if to say: We were first under the law; now Christ has abolished it, how then do you wish to re-establish it again and to turn yourselves to it?
Secondly and better Adam answers: The word "again" does not refer to the whole sentence, but only to a part of it, for it signifies only repeated servitude in general, though in species it may have been one thing and then another. First they had served idols; secondly they were now serving Judaism: hence in chapter V, verse 1, he says generally: "Be not held again under the yoke of bondage," as if to say: Do not become servants again — you served demons, do not again serve the legal shadows. So to a Lutheran converted to the Catholic faith, if afterwards he should slip into Calvinism, we can say: How do you slip back again into Calvinism — that is, back again into errors? for the word "again" does not qualify or denominate "Calvinism," but the word "slip back"; for it is a relapse into heresy, though one and another, because first he was a Lutheran, now having become a Catholic he relapses into heresy, and becomes a Calvinist.
Verse 10: You Observe Days, and Months, and Times, and Years
10. You observe days, and months, and times, and years. — St. Augustine, epistle 119, and Enchiridion LXXIX, and Anselm, as they understood by "elements" sun, moon, and idols, so they consequently understand by these days, days lucky or unlucky according to judicial astrology or Gentile superstition. Secondly and better, Chrysostom, Jerome and others above explain it thus: "You observe days," namely Jewish days, like the sabbaths; secondly, "and months," that is, new moons or novilunia, and the seventh month, which was almost wholly sacred and festal in the old law; thirdly, "and times," namely the fixed feasts of the four seasons of the year — the feast of spring, namely Passover; the feast of summer, namely Pentecost; the feast of autumn, namely the feast of Expiation; the feast of winter, namely the Encaenia; fourthly, "and years," namely the seventh year of remission, and the fiftieth of jubilee: for these were festal years. Note the synecdoche: by the observances of days, months, and years he means all the ceremonies of the old law, as a part for the whole.
Hence it is clear against the heretics that Christian feasts are not here condemned: for thus the Lord's Day too would be condemned, which yet the heretics themselves keep; but only the feasts of the Jews are condemned, which St. Nazianzen beautifully distinguishes from those of Christians, in his Oration on Holy Pentecost, saying: "The Jew keeps feast days, but only according to the letter; for following a bodily law, he does not arrive at the spiritual law: the Gentile also keeps feasts, but according to the body, namely with luxury and feasting" (whence Lucian, in the Saturnalia: "Do nothing within the time of the feast, neither public nor private, except what pertains to play, what pertains to pleasure and the delight of the mind"; indeed often the feasts and rites of the Gentiles were obscene, like the rites of Venus, Priapus, Bacchus, in which they practised every shameful thing). "We Christians keep feast days, but as is pleasing to the spirit." So Nazianzen.
And Jerome plainly: "Someone may say," he says, "If it is not lawful to observe days, and months, and times, and years, we too incur a like crime by observing the fourth day of the sabbath [Wednesday], and the parasceve [Friday], and the Lord's Day, and the fast of Lent, and the festival of Easter, and the joy of Pentecost, and the various times set apart according to the variety of regions in honor of the Martyrs. To which whoever shall answer simply, will say that the days of Jewish observance are not the same as ours; for we do not celebrate a Passover of unleavened bread, but of the resurrection and the cross; nor do we number seven weeks at Pentecost according to the custom of Israel, but we venerate the coming of the Holy Spirit": so he. Where note: that in the time of St. Jerome the feasts of the Martyrs were customarily celebrated by the Church, and they are praised by St. Jerome.
Verse 11: I Am Afraid of You
11. I am afraid of you, — that is, for you, or concerning you. It is a Hebraic antiptosis, according to Canon 20.
Verse 12: Be Ye as I, Because I Also Am as You
12. Be ye as I, — that, as you see me neglecting and not observing Jewish feasts and ceremonies, by the Evangelical liberty: so also you should not observe them, but use the same liberty with me, as if to say: Although I am a Jew, I offer myself to you as a leader of liberty; therefore follow me without fear, whatever other Jews may suggest and boast to you about the necessity of the old law.
Because I also am as you, — I, by living as a Gentile, accommodate myself to you Gentiles as much as I can with a safe conscience. So Jerome.
You have not injured me at all, — but you have injured yourselves, as if to say: I say these things not in anger, but loving you and pitying you. Jerome notes that the Apostle softens here with caresses and entreaty the rebuke he made in chapter III, verse 1.
Verse 13: Through Infirmity of the Flesh I Have Preached the Gospel to You
13. Through infirmity of the flesh I have preached the Gospel to you. — First, St. Jerome explains thus, as if to say: I gave you only the first and weak rudiments of the faith, and through these rudiments I, rude myself, instructed you only rudely. Secondly, the same Jerome takes by "infirmity of the flesh" Paul's diseases and his headache. Thirdly, best of all, the same takes it as persecutions, labors, poverty, hardships, afflictions, dangers, so that the Apostle seemed altogether abject, vile, infirm, and miserable. He calls the same here "temptation in the flesh," because thence the Galatians might have been tempted, and to cast away Paul with his Gospel. So also Chrysostom, Theophylact, and others.
Verse 14: And Your Temptation in My Flesh You Despised Not
13 and 14. And your temptation in my flesh you despised not, — peirasmon mou, my temptation, or of myself. "Temptation" actively takes Erasmus, namely that by which I, Paul, tempted you Galatians with humble and unpolished speech; but it is better taken passively, so that "temptation" is the same as the object of temptation, by metonymy, according to Canon 30, as if to say: "Your temptation," that is, me, burdened with so many insults, harassed by persecutions, beaten with stripes, poor, afflicted and abject, who could be to you an object of temptation, that you might despise me and my Gospel, you did not despise, but received as an angel, indeed as Christ Himself.
Verse 15: Where Is Then Your Blessedness?
15. Where is then. — In Greek tis ēn oun, "what then was"; but ours, as also the Syriac, reads pou, and this is better and more significant, and easily could have been turned and corrupted into tis by the close slip of the letters.
Your blessedness? — In Greek makarismos, that is, your beatification, by which you proclaimed me — suffering for so great a cause of faith — blessed, and yourselves on my account blessed, and were so proclaimed by others. So Theophylact. Doubtless you were saying: O blessed are we, who have such an Apostle! O happy are we, to whom it has fallen to see and hear Paul! As St. Augustine is said to have had three things in his vows, namely first, to see Christ conversing in the flesh; secondly, to see Rome triumphing in the flower of empire; thirdly, to see Paul preaching and thundering from the chair.
Verse 16: Am I Then Become Your Enemy, Because I Tell You the Truth?
It is as though he were saying: Where are your former voices, praises, judgments toward me, O Galatians? How have you so quickly, so rashly changed your dispositions toward me and the Gospel? You used to be so devoted to me that, if it had been possible, you would have given me your eyes; where has that love and ardor gone? "Have I therefore become your enemy by telling you the truth?" — namely that no one ought to seek justification from the Law, but all from faith in Christ.
Verse 17: They Are Zealous in Your Regard Not Well
17. They are zealous after you. — The Judaizers are infatuated with you, court you, strive to win you over to themselves and to subject you to the Law. It is a metaphor drawn from suitors, who court brides with zeal and jealousy: for in Greek it is zēlousin, "they are zealous after you," of which I spoke at 2 Cor. 11:2.
Not well (because not unto your good and progress), but they wish to exclude you, — from Christ and Christian liberty. Our Vulgate and others commonly read in the Greek ekkleisai, that is, to exclude; some however, like the Regia, read enkleisai, that is, to enclose; which reading has a fitting and apt sense, for it alludes to crafty suitors who, when they court wealthy brides, honor them as if mistresses, serve them, accommodate themselves to them in every way; but once they have gained possession of them and have entered marriage with them, they enclose them in chambers, set guards over them, and treat them as captive slaves. As though to say: Just as those suitors, so the Judaizers by flattery, by promising marvelous and great things, court you, in order to subject you to Judaism; and to enclose you in the Law and in the bondage of the Law as in a prison-house and custody, and so to deprive you of liberty and to exclude you from Christianity.
That you may emulate them, — as though to say: They do not court you, do not pursue you, with the love of friendship, that they may take counsel for you, but with the love of concupiscence, namely so as to entice you to themselves and to love of themselves, that you may follow after them, that they may boast about you among the people as their disciples and adherents. As though to say: They are zealous for their own glory, not for your salvation, and therefore they wish to shut you out from Christ, that you may emulate and follow not Christ, but them.
Verse 18: But Be Zealous for That Which Is Good in a Good Thing Always
18. But be emulated in the good always. — The Greek now reads, kalon de to zēlousthai en kalō pantote, that is, "It is good to be zealously sought in a good thing always." So read Augustine and the Syriac. As though to say: It is good to imitate and follow others, but not in any matter whatsoever, only in what is good. Or, by a simpler Hebraism, "it is good to emulate in good," that is, the good, with beth of contact: for thus the Hebrews say to touch, to strike on the hand, meaning to touch, to strike the hand; so here "to emulate in good" means "to emulate the good." Our Vulgate reads (zēloute) with epsilon in the imperative: "emulate the good," that is, court and ardently follow, but in what is good.
Note: "Good" can be taken either in the neuter, as though to say: Be zealous for what is good and honorable, but only insofar as it is good, insofar as it is done well and honorably. Secondly, and aptly to what precedes and follows, "good" can here be taken in the masculine, as though to say: Do not be zealous after the Judaizers in evil, namely in Judaism: for these do not emulate you well, since they wish to shut you out from Christ; but imitate and emulate good men and Christians, namely me and those like me. Just as you emulated me, living not as a Jew but as a Gentile, in good — that is, in liberty and Christian life (for here "a good" must be taken in the neuter, namely in good, that is, in a good thing) — when I was present with you, do the same when I am absent; for the good must always be followed, even if he who taught it is absent. The Apostle hints that his absence was the cause of their slipping away elsewhere and being led off into Judaism. So says Chrysostom.
Verse 19: My Little Children, of Whom I Am in Labour Again
19. My little children (for I begot you to Christ through the Gospel), whom (having relapsed from Christ and His adoption back into Judaism) I am again in travail of (that I may recall you from Judaism and bring you forth again to Christ) until Christ is formed (that is, the faith, hope, and liberty of Christ) in you, — namely so that you may expect every grace, righteousness, and salvation not from the Law, but from Christ and faith in Christ. "The Apostle here," says Chrysostom, "speaks like a mother trembling for her children: you see paternal, indeed maternal bowels of compassion, you see anxiety, you see what kind of cry he sends forth, far sadder than that of women in childbirth." As though to say: As the Blessed Virgin bore Christ bodily, but without pain, so I, as it were a spiritual mother of Christ, bring forth — nay, with immense labor and pain I am in travail and strive, that I may form Christ and the faith and Spirit of Christ in you, that Christ may be all in all in you.
Excellently and piously St. Ambrose, in his book On Isaac and the Soul, chapter VIII: "There (on the cross and in baptism)," he says, "thy mother bore thee in travail, there did she who begot thee bring thee forth. For there are we born, where we are reborn; and they are travailed for in whom the image of Christ is being formed. Whence, because Christ had been formed in the bride, He says: Set Me as a seal upon thy heart, as a seal upon thine arm. Christ as a seal on the forehead, that we may always confess Him; on the heart, that we may always love Him; on the arm, that we may always work for Him; that, if it be possible, His whole likeness may be expressed in us. He Himself is our seal, whom the Father, God, hath sealed," etc.
Let those who strive to convert souls and to bring them forth to Christ note that they must labor and sweat as a woman in travail. Hence that passage of Job 39:1 and 3: "Hast thou considered the hinds in travail? They bow themselves to bring forth, and they bring forth, and they emit a cry" (for the bringing forth of hinds, of which he speaks literally, is most difficult, as Aristotle and Pliny attest, and therefore the hinds use the herb seseli to assist them) — St. Gregory mystically takes this passage of Job, in the place cited, of preachers who, like hinds in pain, bring forth offspring to Christ with tears and groaning. "I see Paul," he says, "as a certain hind sending forth a roar of great pain in his travail of some; for he says: My little children, whom I am again in travail of, etc. Let us consider what pain he had, what toil; she who, after she was able to bring forth what she had conceived, was again compelled to revive what had been extinguished." So St. Gregory, Moralia book 30, chapter 21.
Again, let bishops and prelates learn from St. Paul to show themselves not so much fathers as mothers to their subjects. Beautifully St. Bernard, addressing prelates in Sermon 25 on the Canticle: "Learn," he says, "that you ought to be mothers of your subjects, not lords. Study to be loved more than feared: and if at times severity is needed, let it be paternal, not tyrannical."
Verse 20: I Would Willingly Be Present With You Now, and Change My Voice
20. But I could wish to be present with you now, and to change my voice, — that I might express by the living voice the affections which a written letter does not contain; namely so that as a mother I might now flatter, now groan, now beseech, now rebuke you, as natural mothers are wont to turn themselves to all affections, now to pray, now to weep, now to groan, now to chide, that they may move their children and persuade them of what they desire: for the living voice is far more effective than dead letters. So St. Jerome, Chrysostom, and St. Thomas.
Behold to what love stoops: Paul, as a father, here seems to become a child and to grow young again with his children. King Agesilaus, in order to caress his little son, used to lay aside his purple robe and scepter and play with him and ride on a reed; and when on this account he was reproached for levity by one of his courtiers, he replied: "Now be silent; but when you yourself have children, then through me it will be permitted you to mock the madness of a king." Paul would say the same here: maternal love knows no measure, no shame, no labor; it counts nothing childish, nothing unbecoming for itself.
I am confounded in you, — I am suffused with shame, I blush. So some, but wrongly; for in Greek it is aporoumai en hymin, that is, I am at a loss, I am bereft of counsel, I am perplexed, not knowing how I ought to write fittingly to you so as to move you — which our Vulgate aptly renders confundor. For it is one thing to feel shame and to blush, another to be confounded, that is, to be troubled in mind so that you do not know what is to be done. Maldonatus in his manuscript notes brings forward two further explanations. The first is, "I am confounded in you," that is, I have not obtained the fruit of my preaching that I expected, and so I am confounded. The second: aporoumai, that is, I hesitate and doubt whether you are Christians or Jews.
Verse 21: Have You Not Read the Law?
21. Have you not read the law? — Nomon ouk akouete, do you not hear the Law? This is of greater force, as though to say: If you have not heard me, hear the Law itself which you court; it itself will direct you away from itself to Christ.
Verse 22: Abraham Had Two Sons
22. Abraham had two sons, one (namely Ishmael) by a bondwoman (namely Hagar, who, being a bondwoman, was a secondary wife of Abraham), one (namely Isaac) by a free woman, — namely Sarah, who was the principal wife of Abraham, mistress and matron of the household, whose son alone was heir: for the sons of concubines, such as Hagar was, were not heirs, but the father gave them gifts as he willed, as is said in Gen. 25:5 and 6.
Verse 23: But He Who Was of the Bondwoman Was Born According to the Flesh
23. But he who was of the bondwoman was born according to the flesh. — Ishmael was begotten naturally, namely by the powers of the flesh, by carnal and natural generation, which is such that Abraham, though old, could from a young woman like Hagar raise up offspring.
But he of the free woman, by promise. — Isaac was begotten not by carnal and natural power, since this had failed in the aged and barren Sarah, so that Abraham, himself old, could not naturally raise up offspring from her; but he was begotten "by promise," namely by the divine and supernatural power of God, who had promised to Abraham the begetting of Isaac from Sarah above nature, Gen. 17:18.
Verse 24: Which Things Are Said by an Allegory
24. Which things are said by allegory. — Allegory, with the rhetoricians, is a continuous metaphor, and consists in words and expressions; here however, and commonly among ecclesiastical writers, it signifies a type and figure by which not words, but things and deeds in the Old Testament signified the realities and sacraments of the New Testament. Whence he adds:
For these (in Greek autai, they themselves, namely Sarah and Hagar) are (that is, by allegory, signify) two testaments, — namely the new and the old. So Jerome, Chrysostom, Theodoret, Anselm. See Canon 6, where I said that in this passage there are four senses of Scripture. The first, the literal, is the plain sense of the letter, namely that Abraham begot Ishmael naturally from Hagar, and Isaac supernaturally from Sarah. The second, the allegorical, when he says: "Which things are spoken by allegory; for these are the two testaments." The third, the tropological, when he says, verse 29: "But as then he that was born according to the flesh persecuted him that was born according to the spirit: so also now." The fourth, the anagogical, when he says, verse 26: "But that Jerusalem which is above is free, which is the mother of us all."
There are two testaments, — two pacts, two covenants: for this is what the Greek diathēkai signifies, as I said at 1 Cor. 11:25. The earlier pact and covenant was entered into with Moses and the Hebrews on Sinai, by which God promised that He would be the God, guardian, and protector of the Hebrews, and would give them the land of Canaan: the Hebrews in turn, accepting so kindly a covenant of God and consenting to it, promised that they would keep the Decalogue and the other judicial and ceremonial laws of God, Exodus 24. The second pact and covenant was entered into with Christ and Christians in Jerusalem and on Zion, by which God promised Christ that He would be the God, friend, and Father of Christians, and would give them, as if to sons, His heavenly inheritance: Christians in turn, through Christ and the Apostles, tacitly embracing so liberal a covenant of God and consenting to the will, sayings, promises, and precepts of Christ, promised that they would keep the faith and precepts of Christ, as is plain from the whole Gospel, but especially from the Last Supper of Christ, which St. John writes in chapter XIII and following, in which by His blood in the Eucharist He ratified and confirmed this covenant, as Sts. Matthew, Mark, Luke, and Paul relate.
One indeed from Mount Sinai (so the Greek, the Syriac, and commonly the Latin texts and Latins, Jerome, Ambrose and others; some however read "on Mount Sinai," but the sense is the same, as if to say: The Old Testament was delivered and promulgated from Mount Sinai) begetting unto bondage, — that is, begetting slaves, namely the Jews, who serve the shadows of manifold, burdensome, and exceedingly heavy ceremonies, and that out of fear of punishments and hope of earthly goods, namely the abundance of grain, wine, and oil, which God promised to the Jews if they would keep the Law and the covenant.
Which is Hagar. — Augustine and Ambrose read a little more clearly, "which is Hagar," as though to say: That the old and servile testament is signified by the bondwoman Hagar. So Jerome, Chrysostom, Anselm.
Verse 25: For Sinai Is a Mountain in Arabia
25. For Sinai is a mountain in Arabia. — The Greek adds "Hagar"; for thus they have, to gar Hagar Sina oros estin en tē Arabia, that is, "For Hagar is Mount Sinai in Arabia"; and so read the Syriac, Chrysostom, Theophylact, Oecumenius, who teach that Hagar is Mount Sinai; for Mount Sinai was called Hagar by the Arabs, as though to say: Hagar the bondwoman aptly signifies Mount Sinai and the testament established at Sinai for slaves, whence also the Arabs call Sinai "Hagar." But this is forced and distorted: for in the preceding verse he said that Hagar is, that is, signifies, the Old Testament; how then would he immediately subjoin that Hagar is Mount Sinai? The Greek therefore here, as elsewhere, seems to be corrupted, and we should read as our Vulgate reads, as Beza himself confesses: for this reading is plain, true, and certain.
In Arabia, — as though to say: The Arabs too signify this Jewish servitude; for they themselves were accustomed to serve: whence the adage "Arab piper," of which Julius Pollux makes mention, because formerly only slaves practiced music, and they were mostly brought from Arabia. Whence fittingly in Arabia, namely on Sinai, God issued the old testament of slaves.
Chrysostom adds: "Hagar in Hebrew signifies dwelling, Sinai temptation, Arabia setting/decline; Ishmael is the same as the hearing of God. It is signified therefore," says St. Jerome, "by Hagar, that the Old Testament will not be perpetual; by Sinai, that there will be temptation; by Arabia, that it will set; by Ishmael — a man living in Arabia, who only hears the precepts of God and does them not, namely a rustic and bloody man who is hostile to his brethren — are signified the hard, fierce Jews, enemies of Christians, who hear the Law and do not keep it."
Tropologically, the same Jerome: "Christians born of Hagar are those who pursue only the bark of Sacred Scripture and serve in fear; born of Sarah, however, are those who pursue the spirit and allegory of the Old Law and serve from love." See St. Augustine discussing this matter in book III Against Two Letters of the Pelagians, chapter IV, where he teaches that Abraham, Noah, Moses, and all the just in the Old Testament are sons of the New Testament; because they were justified by the same faith in the incarnation and passion of Christ, lived by the same Spirit, the same grace, the same love of Christ; on the other hand, Christians who now keep the Law from fear of punishment and under compulsion are sons of the Old Testament, not the New.
Which is joined to her who now is Jerusalem, — as though to say: Mount Sinai is bordering, conterminous, and neighboring to Jerusalem. So Jerome, Chrysostom, the Syriac. And this firstly and properly with regard to place: because, as Borchard, Adrichomius, Ziegler in their Descriptions of the Holy Land hand down, Judaea, in which Jerusalem is, borders on the desert in which Sinai is; for only the mountain of Idumaea lies between. But this mountain is all Idumaea, which is mountainous and quite large, and therefore Judaea seems rather to be far disjoined from Sinai than joined to it.
Secondly, St. Thomas: Sinai is joined to Jerusalem not by neighborhood of place, but by continuity of journey, because the Hebrews from Egypt by a direct and continuous route through Sinai went into Judaea. But this too is more remote: for thus the Red Sea and Egypt itself, that is, the limits and borders of Egypt, which the Hebrews crossed on their way into Canaan, would be said to be joined to Judaea.
Whence thirdly and better, Theophylact, Vatablus, and others commonly take the conjunction not of place, but of similarity.
Hence the Ordinary Gloss says, "joined," that is, similar. For in Greek it is systoichei, that is, has affinity and similarity; for stoichos is to proceed in order, or to stand in a series. Hence grammarians call letters stoicheia, because they are joined one to another in a fixed series; philosophers call the elements of things stoicheia, namely earth, water, air, and fire, because each of these stands in its own order and is bound to the others. Verses are likewise called stoichoi, and battle-lines drawn up in order are called stoichoi. Hence systoicha, says Budaeus, are called akin, and systoichia is a series and arrangement of things akin to and like one another. So therefore Mount Sinai systoichei, that is, has affinity and similarity, and is in the same series, proportion, and order of things, as it were, with Jerusalem: because, namely, with a certain fitting agreement and allegory it signifies and represents her.
First, because just as Mount Sinai is barren in the desert, so Jerusalem is barren and dry in ceremonies. Again, on Sinai the Law was given, in Jerusalem it was kept. Secondly, just as Sinai is outside the land of promise, so this legal Jerusalem is outside the Church of Christ, both militant and triumphant. Thirdly, and more to the Apostle's mind, just as Sinai begot and nourished slaves, both Arabs and Jews — who on Sinai received the servile law with trumpet, thunder, earthquake, that they might be terrified by them as slaves and be driven by the fear of these and other punishments to keep the Law — so now Jerusalem in respect of its Sinaitic and legal life and doctrine begets Jewish slaves, who serve shadows and are compelled by fear of punishments, just as those Sinaitic ones, to keep the Law. Finally, Sinai has affinity with Jerusalem, because those Sinaitic Jews who received the Law on Sinai were the parents of the Jews who now live in Jerusalem; and just as in nature, so also in servile disposition and Jewish customs the two agree.
It is a metonymy, by which Sinai and Jerusalem signify their inhabitants and citizens, namely the Jews, as though to say: Just as Hagar the bondwoman signified the servile testament of the Jews, so also Mount Sinai, begetting Jews into slavery, signified Jerusalem begetting Jews into slavery: for this is what the word "for" implies, namely so as to prove that the old testament of the Jews, whose metropolis was Jerusalem, took its rise from Sinai unto bondage, that is, to beget slaves. He proves it thus: Such as Sinai was, so also was Jerusalem; but Sinai begot slaves, as has just been declared: therefore Jerusalem too has begotten and begets slaves, namely of the Old Testament.
Take this diagram of the systoichia (co-ordination), and likewise of the antistoichia (opposite-ordination) opposed to it.
antistoicha — systoicha.
Two wives: Hagar the bondwoman — Sarah the free woman.
Two sons: Ishmael, of the flesh, a slave — Isaac, by promise, freeborn.
Two testaments: the Law on Sinai — the Gospel on Zion.
Two cities: the earthly Jerusalem, the Synagogue of the Jews, in bondage — the heavenly and divine Jerusalem, by grace the mother of all the faithful, free.
Two sets of sons: the Jews who remain in the ceremonies and shadows of the Law — the faithful who embrace the grace of Christ.
Take a similar diagram in the elements.
systoicha (correspondent) — Water / Fire. antistoicha (opposite) — Earth / Air.
Hence the physicists call antistoicha elements symbola (combinable), and asystoicha they call asymbola (uncombinable).
Take a similar example in numbers.
systoicha — Even: 10. Odd: antistoicha. — Even: 14. Odd: 18.
For even numbers are antistoicha (opposite) to odd numbers; even numbers are systoichoi (correspondent) to even numbers, just as odd numbers are correspondent to odd numbers.
Which now is Jerusalem, — as though to say: Which is now called Jerusalem, although formerly it was called Jebus and Salem, then by a vocable composed as it were from both it was called Jerusalem, as if Jebusalem, which name it still retains; afterwards, by Aelius Hadrian, it was called Aelia. So Erasmus.
Secondly and better, "which now is Jerusalem," that is, the present Judaic Jerusalem: for he contrasts this Jerusalem with that one which is above, in the following verse — that is, with the Church of Christ.
Thirdly, "which now is," that is, which is mortal, perishable, and soon to pass away.
Add: the name Jerusalem is not (as Erasmus and others wish) compounded from "Jebus" and "Salem," but from יראה ireh, that is "He shall see," and the ancient name of the city Salem: because when Abraham in Gen. 22 was about to immolate his son Isaac on Mount Zion, he answered Isaac, who asked where was the victim of the holocaust to be sacrificed: "God will see and will provide for Himself a victim, my son"; hence that mountain was called "The Lord will see," or Moriah, that is "vision of God," as is plain from Gen. 22:3, 8, and 14, and consequently the city subject to this mountain, Zion or Moriah, was called Jerusalem. It is therefore compounded from ireh, that is "He shall see," and Salem, that is "peace," as though to say "vision of peace." So Andreas Masius on Joshua 10. Whence it is plain that one should write Jerusalem, not Hierusalem — that is, with I, as the Hebrew origin requires, not with H.
And is in bondage with her children, — namely Hagar, for the Greek feminine pronoun autēs requires this. Whence the most accurate Louvain Bibles place those words, "For Sinai is a mountain in Arabia, which is joined to her who now is Jerusalem," in parentheses, so that what follows, "And is in bondage with her children," refers back to the end of the preceding verse, "Which is Hagar." As though to say: As Hagar the bondwoman begets Ishmael and his posterity as slaves, so allegorically she signifies that the Old Testament begets slaves. On the contrary, as Sarah the free woman begot Isaac and his posterity as free (for the offspring follows the womb), so allegorically she signifies that the New Testament begets free children, as follows.
Note: The servitude of the Old Law and Testament consisted especially in two things: first, that it compelled men by fear of punishment, not by love of righteousness, to obey God and the Law; secondly, that under that Law the Jews were occupied with gross and bodily ceremonies useless for righteousness and salvation, and were as it were burdened and oppressed by the multitude and weight of them, like slaves.
On the contrary, the liberty of the Gospel and of the Christian Law consists in this: first, that it leads us by love and the Spirit to serve God and the Law; secondly, that it teaches us to worship God in spirit and in truth, and although it too has its own ceremonies, these nevertheless serve the spirit and stir up and sharpen it.
Verse 26: But That Jerusalem Which Is Above Is Free, Which Is the Mother of Us All
26. But that Jerusalem which is above is free, which is the mother of us all. — Thus he calls the present Church of the New Testament. For which note: The Christian Church, which Sarah signifies (i.e., "princess" or "mistress"), and which is contrasted with the Synagogue of the Jews, signified by Hagar the bondwoman, is marked by these four characteristics: first, that she is from above; secondly, that she is Jerusalem; thirdly, that she is free; fourthly, that she is a fruitful mother.
It is asked first, how is she from above? I answer: First, because Christ her Head descended from heaven and again ascended into heaven, and from there governs the Church. Secondly, because the perfection of the Church is in things above and heavenly, namely in faith, hope, and charity. Thirdly, because the power of her Sacraments comes from above, and she has God Himself present in the Church as it were coming from above. Fourthly, because her discipline and manner of life is in the heavens; she has her heart and treasure in heaven with her Spouse. Fifthly, because she pants and tends toward the eternal crown and rest in heaven. So Jerome, Ambrose, Anselm. See Apocalypse 21:4.
It is asked secondly, why is she called Jerusalem? I answer: because Jerusalem, as I said in the preceding verse, is the same as "vision of peace": for God provides and procures this for the Church, namely that she may rejoice in peace — not earthly, but spiritual and heavenly; which Christ at His departing, John 14:27, bequeathed to her saying: "Peace I leave with you, My peace I give unto you"; this is the peace of conscience with God, with self, and with all men so far as in her lies.
Secondly and more literally, because, just as on Sinai the Old Law was promulgated, so on Zion and in Jerusalem the New Law was promulgated, and there the new and Christian Church began. Hence the Prophets commonly call the Christian Church Zion or Jerusalem.
It is asked thirdly, why is she called free? Note: Liberty is fourfold. First, civil, which is opposed to the civil servitude of slaves. Second, moral, which excludes the bondage of cupidities and vices and the fear of adverse things, in which the Stoics placed perfection and beatitude — namely if anyone could truly say of himself: "Even if the broken world should fall in upon him, the ruins will strike him unafraid." Third, spiritual, arising from perfect charity, which casts out fear; through which God is served not with servile fear but with filial love and reverence, and that not by bodily ceremonies but in spirit and in truth, as I said in the preceding verse — and this is what the Apostle properly has in view here. Fourth, heavenly, which excludes every servitude of body and soul which is subject to any troubles of body and soul whatever, and is the consummate happiness of man. I say therefore: The Church now has moral and spiritual liberty; but in hope and desire she anticipates and foretastes the heavenly liberty, which she will obtain in reality after the resurrection.
It is asked fourthly, why is she called a fruitful mother? I answer: because the Church of Christ, gathered out of the barren Gentile world that served demons, has borne and bears to Him many spiritual sons; not from the Jews alone, as the Synagogue, but from all, both Jews and Gentiles, and sends them to Christ in heaven. Whence follows:
Verse 27: Rejoice, Thou Barren, That Bearest Not
27. Rejoice (O Church called and gathered from the Gentiles, who wast) barren (formerly, and forsaken by God, faith, and the Law), that bearest not (who hitherto wast not wont to bear sons to God; now espoused to God), break forth and cry aloud. — So the Septuagint, whom Paul follows; and, as Isaiah literally has it, sing forth praise, or, as in Hebrew, jubilation and ringing cry, because through Christ and faith in Christ thou hast been made fruitful, that thou mayest bear many spiritual sons to Him, more than she that hath a husband — that is, more than the Synagogue, whose husband was the Law, or God Himself, not as a kind Father, but as a terrible Lawgiver and avenger. For the Synagogue as to the flesh begot only Jews; but the Church as a mother has embraced all the Gentiles believing in Christ; as to the spirit, however, the Synagogue bore far fewer to God — namely the Prophets, Patriarchs, and a few other holy men — and that not by her own powers, but by the grace and power of Christ, who is the parent of the New Testament. So Jerome, Anselm, Theophylact.
The Apostle cites Isaiah chapter 54, which although the Jews interpret of the restoration of the earthly Jerusalem, and the Chiliasts or Millenarians of the thousand years of happiness that they imagine the Saints will pass on earth after the day of judgment in every fleshly pleasure, as Jerome there witnesses: nevertheless from this passage of Paul it is clear that Isaiah speaks of the happiness and fruitfulness of the Christian Church. Of which St. Ambrose beautifully, in book I On Virgins: "The holy Church," he says, "undefiled in conception, fruitful in childbirth, is a virgin in chastity, a mother in offspring: she therefore brings us forth as a virgin, filled not by a man, but by the Spirit: she bears us as a virgin, not with the pain of bodily members, but with the joy of angels; she nourishes us as a virgin, not with the milk of the body, but with the milk of the Apostles; she is a virgin in Sacraments and in virtues, she is mother to peoples, whose fruitfulness Scripture attests: For more are the children of her that is desolate than of her that hath a husband and spouse; because both the Church among peoples, and the soul in individuals, weds the eternal Word of God as a spouse, without any flow of shame." And St. Jerome here: "The Church," he says, "long barren did not bring forth before Christ was born of the Virgin: but when she bore Christ — as it were Isaac, that is laughter — to the world from Abraham, that is from the elect father resounding with the voice of sublime teachings, she bore very many children to God." For Abraham, according to Jerome, is in Hebrew as it were אב בר המון ab bar hamon, that is, father chosen with sound.
Note: Abraham was first called Abram, as it were אב רם ab ram, that is "exalted father": and then from Hagar he begot Ishmael. Then, entering into a covenant with God and receiving the promise concerning Isaac to be begotten by him and the land of Canaan to be possessed by him, his name was changed by God, and instead of Abram, as in Gen. 17:5, he was called Abraham, as if אב רב המון ab rab hamon, that is "father of a great multitude," namely of those to be born from Isaac according to the flesh and from Christ according to the spirit and to descend from Abraham. This is the genuine reason and signification of the name Abraham. St. Jerome, however, wishes to allude also to another etymology of the name Abraham, namely to אב בר המון ab bar hamon, that is "father chosen with sound and tumult," or "with crowd and multitude"; for hamon signifies all these.
Note secondly: Symbolically, Abraham is God; this God from Hagar the bondwoman, that is, from the Synagogue, begot Ishmael the slave, that is, Moses and the Jews, slaves of the Old Law, and to them He was Abram, that is, exalted father, who from on high thundered forth the Law from Sinai, and showed Himself to them as a Lord to be revered in majesty and terrible in vengeance: but Abraham, that is, the same God, from Sarah, that is, the Church, free, begot Isaac (that is, laughter and joy) as a free son and heir, namely Christ and Christians, and to them He was Abraham, that is, father of a great multitude, namely of all the Gentiles to be regenerated through Christ, and through faith in Christ and baptism; or, as Jerome has it, He was Abraham, that is, father chosen with sound, because through John the Baptist, Christ, and the Apostles He proclaimed the kingdom of God with a great voice, and called all believers thither, and chose to that kingdom all who persevere in the faith and obedience of Christ, in which they were baptized and reborn.
Note thirdly: Isaac, that is, Christ, is said to be born of Sarah, that is, of the Church — not as though the Church were in reality the mother of Christ, or prior to Christ, since she began and was founded by Christ; but that in the mind of God and in the divine idea the Church was in some way prior, and the mother of Christ. For God willed first that the Synagogue should exist, then to substitute for her the Church: and so God had first in mind and intention the idea of the Synagogue, then of the Church; and from this will, decree, and intention He willed and decreed, as it were in a second instant and sign of reason, as the Scholastics say, to create and produce Moses as the first son of this idea, who would carry out the rest of the idea and inaugurate and establish the Synagogue itself. In like manner, from the will and decree of founding the Church, He willed to create and produce Christ as the first son of this idea, that is, of the Church, as she was in the mind of God, who would carry out the rest of the idea and inaugurate, found, and build up the Church Himself as her first and cornerstone. Thus Christ and Christians are called in the following verse, and elsewhere, sons of the promise and predestination of God: because their production, like that of their mother, that is, of the Church, was purely and merely the work and creation of God alone, of the divine will and predestination as of a father, and of the divine conception and idea as of a mother.
Verse 28: Now We, Brethren, as Isaac Was, Are the Children of Promise
28. Now we, brethren, as Isaac was (after the manner of Isaac, who was born not by the power of the flesh, but by the divine promise from the aged and barren Sarah), are the children of promise.
Verse 29: But as Then He That Was Born According to the Flesh Persecuted Him That Was Born According to the Spirit
29. But as then he who was born according to the flesh (that is, Ishmael, sprung by carnal power and generation from Hagar) persecuted him who was born according to the Spirit, — that is, Isaac, who was born of the promise and power of the Holy Spirit above nature from Sarah, as it were a type of the faithful and spiritual children of the New Law. So Anselm.
Note: The Apostle alludes to, or rather cites, the event of Gen. 21:8, where it is said: "The child (Isaac) grew therefore and was weaned, and Abraham made a great feast on the day of his weaning: and when Sarah had seen the son of Hagar the Egyptian (Ishmael) playing with Isaac her son, she said to Abraham: Cast out this bondwoman and her son; for the son of the bondwoman shall not be heir with my son Isaac."
Notice that this play of Ishmael with Isaac was mockery, derision, vexation, indeed persecution, as the Apostle here interprets it; so dogs play with cats, and cats with mice: so the duel of Joab with Abner is called play, 2 Sam. 2:14: "Let the young men arise, said Abner, and play before us," that is, fight, contend, duel before us. The reason why Ishmael mocked and persecuted Isaac, Jerome and others think, was that he envied the feast celebrated at Isaac's weaning, and consequently the primogeniture and inheritance of Isaac, and likewise the promise of the blessed seed, that is, Christ, to be born of Isaac. But Hagar did not restrain her son Ishmael when he mocked, whence Sarah grew angry against both her and Ishmael, and willed both Hagar and Ishmael to be cast out.
And so now, as if to say: As of old Ishmael ironically mocking made sport of Isaac, vexing and persecuting him, so now the Jews mocked Christ the King of liberty, harassed Him with derisions, crucified Him, and with persistent hatred persecute His freedmen the Christians, just as they now vex and persecute you Galatians, in order to subject you to themselves, to ruin and pervert you. So Ambrose, Anselm. See Jerome and most clearly Rupert on Gen. 21:9.
Note: In place of what Paul has — "The son of the bondwoman shall not be heir with the son of the free woman" — Sarah in Genesis said: "The son of the bondwoman shall not be heir with my son Isaac." Therefore Paul renders not the words but the sense of sacred Scripture, and this for greater force and antithesis: for Isaac alone remained as heir, because he was free and the son of a free woman; Ishmael however was cast out, because he was a slave and the son of a slave, envying and persecuting his free brother, and therefore the heir Isaac.
Thus allegorically Christians, because they are free, are heirs of the blessing and righteousness of Abraham; the Jews however are repelled from it, because they are envious slaves, and persecutors of Christ and Christians, who are free and therefore heirs; and this is what Paul wished to signify here, and therefore he did not call Isaac "Isaac," but "the son of the free woman."
Verse 30: But What Saith the Scripture? Cast Out the Bondwoman
30. But what saith the Scripture? Cast out the bondwoman. — These are the words of Sarah, Gen. 21, by which she asks of Abraham her husband that he cast out Hagar with Ishmael who was vexing her Isaac; which, although Abraham took grievously, yet God approves these words and demands of Sarah, and commands Abraham to obey Sarah in them, both because in themselves they were equitable and just, and because of the type and signification of things to come: for by this casting out of Hagar and Ishmael from the house and inheritance of Abraham, God wished to signify that in like manner the Synagogue with the Jews was to be repudiated by God, and that they were to be cast out from the blessing, righteousness, friendship, Church and inheritance of God, because they persecute Christ and Christians. So the Fathers already cited.
Verse 31: With Which Liberty Christ Has Set Us Free
31. With which liberty Christ has set us free. — In place of "set free" (liberavit) Tertullian reads "manumitted" (manumisit), as if to say: It is not to our merits, lineage, or talents, but to the grace of Christ that it must be ascribed, that we are sons of the New Testament and of the Church as of a free woman — free, and freed from the servitude of the old Law, Testament, and Synagogue as of a bondwoman.