Galatians 1:7Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

Their words deserve great laughter. Yet, though they are ridiculous, it is necessary to expose their falsehood for the sake of those who are easily scandalized.

What shall we say? Even if very many wrote Gospels, if they wrote one and the same thing, then the many Gospels would present one Gospel. The multitude of writers would in no way prevent it from being one.

Likewise, conversely, even if one person wrote, but began to say what was contrary, what he wrote would not be one.

Indeed, whether the Gospel is one or not one is determined not by the number of writers, but by the sameness or difference of the content.

From this it is clear that the four Gospels present one Gospel. When four men say one and the same thing, it is not different because of the difference of persons. It is one by virtue of the agreement of what they wrote.

Here Paul is not speaking about the number of those who preach, but about the disagreement in what is preached.

Therefore, if by the force of what is written and by the correctness of the dogmas Matthew’s Gospel presents one thing and Luke’s another, the Marcionites rightly cite Paul’s words.

But if these Gospels present entirely one and the same thing, let them cease their madness. Let them stop pretending not to know what is perfectly clear even to little children.

‘Only there are some who trouble you and wish to pervert the Gospel of Christ’ (v. 7).

This means: so long as you are sound in mind and attend only to what is right, not to what is distorted, inventing what does not exist, you will not acknowledge another Gospel.

As a damaged eye sees one thing instead of another, so the mind, agitated by a flood of evil thoughts, usually suffers the same disease.

Those suffering madness also imagine one thing instead of another. But this madness is more dangerous. It causes harm in the knowledge not of sensible things, but of spiritual things.

It produces disorder not in the pupil of the bodily eyes, but in the eyes of the mind.

‘And wish to pervert the Gospel of Christ.’ True, they have added only one or two commandments, reestablishing the commandment about circumcision and the observance of days.

Yet, wishing to show that even a slight transgression of the law destroys everything, he said that the Gospel is overturned.

If someone damages even slightly the stamp on royal coins, he makes the whole coin worthless. Likewise, whoever distorts even the smallest dogma of the right faith has already subjected all of it to destruction.

He passes gradually from one damage to another, worse one.

Where, then, are those who accuse us of contentiousness because we disagree with heretics? Where are those who say that there is no difference between us and them, and that the existing division arises from love of rule?

Let them hear what Paul says: even those who introduce into the Gospel something new and small overturn the Gospel.

But they introduce nothing small. Can it be small when they call the Son of God a creature?

Have you not heard how, in the Old Testament, a man who gathered wood on the Sabbath and thus violated one commandment, and not the most important one, underwent severe punishment (Num 15:32-36)?

Or have you not heard that Uzzah, wishing to support the ark of the covenant when it seemed about to fall, died at once because he assumed a ministry that did not belong to him (2 Kgs 6:6-7)?

If violation of the Sabbath and touching the falling ark brought God to such indignation that those who dared these things received no mercy, will one who distorts the fearful and ineffable dogmas of the faith receive justification and mercy?

There is no mercy for him, none at all.

This very thing is the cause of all evils: we are not troubled over small transgressions. More grievous sins have arisen because small ones remain without proper correction.

As with bodies, those who neglect the treatment of wounds thereby produce fevers, decay, and death. So it is with souls. Those who pay no attention to slight faults fall into great ones.

‘Such a man,’ they say, ‘sins against the fast, and there is nothing important here.’ Another is firm in the Orthodox faith, but through hypocrisy, to suit the time, does not confess it with such boldness.

‘This too,’ they say, ‘does not constitute a very great evil.’ Another, being irritated, threatened to fall away from the right faith.

Yet even this supposedly deserves no punishment, ‘because,’ they say, ‘he sinned in anger and irritation.’

Anyone can see countless sins of this kind invading the Church every day.

Therefore we have become worthy of ridicule in the eyes of Jews and Greeks, who see the Church divided into countless parts.

If those who attempted to depart from the divine laws and make some small change in them had been subjected to proper rebuke, the present contagion would not have appeared. Such a great storm would not have embraced the Church.

See, then, why Paul calls circumcision an overturning of the Gospel.

Now many among us fast on the same day as the Jews, and likewise observe Sabbaths. We endure this with courage, or rather with humiliation.

But why do I speak of Jewish customs? Some among us even observe many pagan customs: sorceries, divinations, omens, the observance of days, superstitious signs at birth, and writings filled with every impiety.

To their misfortune, they place these upon the heads of newborn children. From the first days of life they teach them to despise labors for virtue. They subject their lot to the deceitful dominion of fate, as though it governed them.

But if Christ will be of no profit to those who are circumcised (Gal 5:2), can faith serve at all for the salvation of those who introduce such impiety?

True, circumcision was established by God. Yet because it harmed the Gospel when observed out of season, Paul did everything to abolish it.

Since Paul took such care to abolish Jewish customs merely because their observance was untimely, shall we not destroy pagan customs? What justification shall we have?

This is why everything among us is now in such disturbance and confusion. Those being instructed are filled with great pride. They have overthrown order, and everything has been distorted.

Now if anyone rebukes them even a little, they despise their superiors, because we brought them up badly.

Yet even if the superiors were truly worthless and filled with countless vices, the disciple would still not be permitted to disobey them.

Indeed, concerning the Jewish teachers it was said that, as those sitting on Moses’ seat, they deserved to be heard by those instructed. Their deeds were so evil that the Lord commanded His disciples not to imitate them or emulate them (Mt 23:2-3).

What excuse, then, will those deserve who mock and despise the presidents of the Church, who by the grace of God live piously?

If it is not permitted to judge one another, much less is it permitted to judge teachers.

The Marcionites seized upon this saying and claimed that, on this basis, one should receive not four Gospels, but one. This was the one they composed, accepting some things and rejecting others. They say, "Paul himself affirms that there is one Gospel." What does this mean? Just as we say that the four Gospels form one, surely because of their agreement, so Paul speaks here not about number, but about discord. Since the preaching of these deceivers is not in agreement, he says, it is not a Gospel. If it were in agreement, then it would be a Gospel, that is, apostolic preaching. Thus Marcion's opinion is empty chatter.

Those who think contrary to us offer you nothing divine, but undertake to distort what is divine. Then, aflame at the remembrance of his opponents and boiling with righteous indignation, he calls alien to piety the man who attempts to preach another gospel. He cries out, "But even if we, or an angel from heaven, should preach to you a gospel contrary to what we preached to you, let him be anathema."

It seemed convenient to them to add circumcision to these. But the Apostle says that this additional teaching does not constitute the Gospel. On the contrary, it even distorts the true Gospel. What the false teachers offer is not the Gospel of Christ, that is, the teaching concerning Christ. It is another gospel, which not only has nothing in common with it, but destroys and distorts it. Yet this is in vain, for those who wish to distort it cannot attain their purpose. As blessed Jerome says, "they wish to, but are unable."

Saint John of Damascus also gives the foundation for this: ‘As Saint Peter says, There is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved’ (Acts 4:12).

Blessed Theodoret adds: ‘If you abandon this Gospel, you will not find another. The Master does not preach one thing through us and another through the other Apostles. We all preach one and the same thing, we who have loved the truth. Those who think contrary to us offer you nothing divine, but attempt to distort what is divine.’

Both explanations, however, are essentially one and the same. You are turning aside to another gospel, which is not another gospel, because there is no other Gospel. It is one.

Saint Chrysostom needed to explain a difficulty: how then do we have four Gospels? He does not set this forth directly. Rather, he enters into dispute with the Marcionites, who accepted only one Gospel, that of Luke, and even that not in its complete form.

He says: ‘As the sick are harmed even by wholesome food, so the Marcionites suffered harm here. Using these words, they say, Behold, Paul also said that there is no other Gospel. Though they are ridiculous, their falsehood must be exposed.

What then shall we say? Even if very many write Gospels, if they write one and the same thing, the many are no more than one Gospel. The multitude of writers does not prevent it from being one.

On the other hand, even if only one man wrote, but wrote what was contrary, what he wrote would no longer be one. Whether a Gospel is one or not one is known not by the number of writers, but by the sameness or difference of what is written.

From this it is clear that the four Gospels are one Gospel. When four speak one and the same thing, there is not one thing and another, nor something diverse because different men speak. There is one thing through the agreement and unity of what they wrote.

Here Paul is not speaking about the number of those who preach, but about the disagreement and contradiction in what is preached.’

‘Only there are some who trouble you,’ and so on. From the course of the discourse, one expects an answer to the following question. If the teaching of these newly arrived teachers is not good tidings, and if there is no other good tidings at all, what then is their teaching?

Saint Paul answers: it is nothing but a troubling of minds, a confusion of concepts, and a perversion of the Gospel.

Yet in expressing this thought, he sets forth not the phenomenon and its action, but the persons who act. In the same way the Savior Himself, explaining the parable of the seed of the word, said, ‘These are the ones sown,’ instead of the seed sown, or the Gospel preached (see Mk 4:15-20).

Saint Paul did this because he wished quickly to cast a shadow over these new teachers. He calls them agitators, troublers of minds, and perverters of the truth.

‘Troubling,’ tarassontes, is a word used both of disturbance among the people on some occasion, and of inward agitation from intrusive thoughts and the stirring of passions.

The Apostle does not mention disorder among the believers or disturbances between them. Yet surely there was some such disorder. Not all would have consented at once.

Saint Paul did not give special attention to this, perhaps because the disturbance was slight. More likely, he was occupied exclusively with their inward disturbance, the agitation of their faith and inner peace. From these all outward disorders also arise.

By setting this inner disturbance before them, he gives the Galatians a sign by which they may understand the badness of the new teaching they have accepted.

After mentioning the disturbance caused by false teaching, he recalls to their memory the blessed state in which they were when they received the true Gospel (see 4:15).

It is as though he says to them: compare that consolation with this disturbance, and you yourselves will understand where truth is and where falsehood is.

By the same word Saint Paul also explains how those men succeeded in turning them from the way. They interpreted to them no one knows what, confused their concepts, and stirred up fears. Then they began to see one thing in place of another.

The eye of the mind was darkened. It began to see truth where there was nothing but falsehood and deceit.

The holy interpreters chiefly attend to this state of soul in this word. Thus Theophylact says: ‘Those men, wishing to pervert the Gospel of Christ, trouble the eyes of your souls and throw dust into them. They make you see one thing instead of another.’

Saint Chrysostom says: ‘As an eye troubled by something sees one thing instead of another, so the mind, agitated by a flood of perverse thoughts, suffers the same disease. Those suffering madness also imagine one thing instead of another.

But that disease, false teaching, is more dangerous. It harms a man in the knowledge not of sensible things, but of spiritual things. It produces distortion not in the pupil of the eye, but in the eyes of the mind.’

‘Wishing to pervert the Gospel of Christ.’ The troubling of minds was in the hands of the false teachers as a means. Their aim was the perversion of the Gospel of Christ.

So far they have produced and are producing disturbance only among the Galatians. Yet their aim is to pervert the true Gospel everywhere. This is their chief intention. It moves them to undertake such journeys and sow their perverse teaching everywhere.

By this word they are shown as malicious destroyers of the most essential good on earth, salvation in the Lord. Their intention cannot be fulfilled. Yet their guilt is not made less grave by this.

Blessed Augustine says that these false teachers wish to pervert the Gospel of Christ, but it remains unchangeably firm. Let the Galatians have agreed to exchange the spiritual for the fleshly. By this the Gospel has been perverted only in their minds. In itself it is unchangeable.

Blessed Jerome expresses in a general proposition wherein this perversion of the Gospel consists. Augustine did the same in the thoughts cited above.

‘Everyone who interprets the Gospel in a sense and spirit other than it was handed down by the Apostles troubles the faithful and perverts the Gospel of Christ. He pushes back what should stand in front and places in front what should remain behind.

Whoever agrees with the interpretations of the Judaizers pushes back what, by its meaning, ought to stand in front.’

Saint Chrysostom expresses this perversion more precisely: ‘Even if they added only one or two commandments, such as circumcision and the observance of days, yet because even a small admission contrary to the law corrupts everything, he said, to pervert the Gospel.

In royal coins, if someone damaged the stamp on the coin, he would make the whole coin worthless. Likewise, whoever perverts even the smallest dogma of the right faith subjects all of it to the same distortion. From the first damage he passes gradually to another, worse one.’

We think it not superfluous to cite also the lesson Saint Chrysostom gives on this perversion of the Gospel. It will find application among us as well.

‘So long as you are sound in mind and seek with the eyes of your mind only what is right and unperverted, without inventing what does not exist, you will not acknowledge or accept another Gospel.

But hear what Paul says. Even those pervert the Gospel who introduce into it something that may be small, yet is contrary to the Gospel.

Have you not heard what happened in the Old Testament? A certain man gathered wood on the Sabbath. By transgressing one commandment, and not a great one, he underwent the severest punishment (see Num 15:32-36).

Uzzah wished to support the ark of the covenant, which in his opinion was about to fall. He died on the spot because he wished to help Him who has no need of his help (see 2 Kgs 6:6-7).

If violation of the Sabbath and touching the falling ark so angered God that those who dared these things received no mercy, how will one who distorts the fearful and ineffable dogmas of the faith be justified? What mercy will he receive?

There is no mercy for him, none at all.

This is the very cause of all evils: we are not troubled over small transgressions. We have fallen into grave sins because small ones remain without proper correction.

It is the same as with bodies. When those who suffer bodily illness leave bodily wounds without treatment, they produce fevers, decay, and the very death of the body.

The same must be said of souls. Those who neglect their small faults fall into greater ones.

Someone sins against the fast, and they say that there is nothing important here. Another is firm in the Orthodox faith, but, pretending to yield to the times, sometimes speaks loosely and boldly about the faith. They say this too is not very important.

Another, irritated by something, threatens to fall away from the right faith. They say this too deserves no punishment, because he sinned in anger and heat.

One may encounter daily countless other sins of this kind, forcibly invading the Church. Therefore we have become worthy of ridicule, mercilessly cutting the Church into countless parts.

If all who ever attempted to depart from the divine laws, or to make even a small change in them, had been restrained from the beginning by prohibition, the present contagion would not have appeared. Such a storm would not have embraced the Church.

Some among us observe even many pagan customs. Such are sorceries, divinations, predictions, the observance of days, superstitious signs at birth, and writings filled with every impiety.

To make the evil greater, they place these writings on the heads of newborn children. From the first days of life they teach them to despise labors for the acquisition of virtue and subject them to the false authority of fate.

But if Christ profits nothing even those who are circumcised (cf. 5:2), can faith serve at all for the salvation of those who introduce such impiety?

Circumcision was established by God. Yet because, when observed out of season, it harmed the Gospel, Paul used every means to abolish it.

If Paul took such care to abolish Jewish customs merely because the time for observing them had passed, how can we fail to care for the destruction of pagan customs? What justification shall we have?

This is why everything among us is now in disturbance and confusion. Those who are instructed have become filled with many proud thoughts and have overturned the order. The higher have become lower.

Now, if someone gives them even a slight rebuke, they spit upon such superiors and despise them. This is because we taught them badly in childhood.’