Galatians 1:9Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

And Paul, when I say Paul I mean Christ together with him, since He Himself acted in Paul's soul, prefers Scripture even to angels descending from heaven. This is entirely just. For although the angels are great, they are servants and ministers. But all Scripture has been sent down to us, written not by servants, but by the Master and God of all. Therefore he says, "If anyone preaches to you a gospel contrary to what we preached to you." He did not say, "this person or that person," which is very wise and not burdensome. Indeed, why would one who possessed such superiority need to mention names, when he embraced all, both those above and those below? By pronouncing a curse upon evangelists and angels, he embraced every dignity. By pronouncing a curse even upon himself, he embraced every tie of kinship and friendship. "Do not tell me," he says, "that your fellow-apostles and friends preach this. I would not spare even myself if I preached what is contrary." Yet he says this not to condemn the other apostles, as though they corrupted the evangelical preaching. No, he says, "whether it was I or they, so we preach" (1 Cor 15:11). He wished only to show that the dignity of persons is not taken into account when truth is at stake. The divine Chrysostom, interpreting the words, "If anyone preaches to you beyond what you received, let him be anathema" (Gal 1:9), says this: "He did not say, if they announced to you something contrary, or completely distorted it. Rather, if they preached even something small besides what you received, or perhaps changed anything, let them be anathema." This interpretation of Chrysostom also concerns Gal 1:8, according to St. Mark of Ephesus in the Confession of the Right Faith.

Thus the Apostle, writing to the Galatians, said, "If anyone preaches to you beyond what you received, let him be anathema." But may God unite even those who err to His Church. He says through the prophet, "As I live, says Adonai the Lord, I do not desire the death of the sinner, but that he turn and live" (Ezek 33:11).

If so, then what is mentioned later in the same epistle was also prescribed only for the Galatians: "If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit. Let us not become conceited, provoking one another and envying one another" (Gal 5:25-26). But this is absurd. These moral commandments are equally binding upon all. Therefore the warning cited above concerning the faith is likewise equally binding upon all. Just as no one is allowed to provoke another or envy another, so no one is allowed to receive anything which the catholic Church has not always preached. Or perhaps the command to anathematize those who announce anything other than what was announced at the beginning was given only then, and is no longer commanded now? If so, then the following words of the Apostle in the same place were also commanded only then, and are no longer commanded now: "I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not fulfill the desires of the flesh" (Gal 5:16). But to think this is impious and destructive. It necessarily follows that, if the latter commandment must be observed at all times, then the law concerning the immutability of the faith was also established for all times. Therefore it has never been permitted, is not permitted, and never will be permitted to announce to Orthodox Christians anything they had not received before. It has always been necessary, is necessary, and always will be necessary to anathematize those who announce anything besides what was received once for all. If this is so, who will be so bold as to dare announce anything that was not previously announced in the Church? Or who will be so frivolous as to receive anything besides what he received from the Church? The chosen vessel (Acts 9:15), the teacher of the Gentiles (Gal 2:9), the apostolic trumpet, the herald of the world, the initiate of heavenly mysteries, the Apostle Paul, cries out in his writings. He cries out to all, for all times and all places, and repeats his voice again: whoever announces a new dogma, let him be anathema. On the other hand, certain contemptible men like the Pelagians buzz at the Orthodox: we are founders, we are establishers, we are interpreters. Condemn what you held. Hold what you condemned. Reject the ancient faith, the decrees of the fathers, and the testament of the ancestors. Instead receive... and what should you receive? It is terrible to utter, because all this is so arrogant that it seems one cannot even refute it without somehow defiling oneself.

It is a turn of speech used to express with greatest force the immutability of the divine teaching of the Christian faith. Chrysostom notes that the Apostle expressed himself in this way to show that "the dignity of persons, however exalted, is not taken into account when truth is at stake."

Then he presents the strongest, and even impossible, examples of another preaching distinct from the true evangelical preaching. He speaks of some holy heavenly angel, and says that anathema would have to fall even upon him. The heavenly angels, being immutable in good, of course cannot preach contrary to the true Gospel. Yet one can conceive this impossibility in thought. And since the false teachers dared to do what the good angels do not even dare to imagine doing, the Apostle pronounces anathema upon them. He does so because they preach "beyond," "in addition to," and "contrary to" what constitutes true evangelical teaching. This means circumcision, unnecessary for Christians, and observance of the other Old Testament rites of the law. The Apostle's strict attitude toward the Judaizers is explained by the great danger with which they threatened the truth of evangelical teaching. They also threatened the purity of its practice in the life of the first Christians. It is also explained by the rapid spread of the false teaching, to which a firm boundary had to be set. Finally, one must also bear in mind that the Apostle had earlier warned them personally during his last stay in Galatia. He warned them of the great danger of error and of the unavoidable need to guard against it by anathema, cf. verse 9 and Acts 16:4.

Blessed Augustine adds: "This repetition strongly arouses the saving intention to hold firmly the faith that is commanded with such insistence."

It is not important to determine with exactness what Saint Paul meant by the word "we said before": whether the preceding verse, or similar words spoken by him when he was among the Galatians.

Saint Chrysostom, as is clear, understood the preceding verse. Blessed Augustine and Jerome understand both. The latter thought is much weakened by the fact that, in that case, Saint Paul would have expressed himself somewhat as he did in the Epistle to the Thessalonians: "Do you not remember that while I was still with you I told you these things?" (cf. 2 Thess 2:5).

The other differences in the expressions do not make any change in the force of the apostolic decree. There, in verse 8, it says, "we, or an angel from heaven." Here it says, "if anyone." Speaking generally, as blessed Jerome says, the Apostle wants to say: whoever distorts the truth, the judgment upon him is the same.

There it says, "should preach," euangelizetai, meaning, should begin to preach. Here it says, euangelizetai, "preaches." This points to the continuing effort of the false teachers to lead them astray.

There it says, "besides what we preached." Here it says, "besides what you received." This is one and the same thing, for from the Apostle they received nothing other than what he preached to them.

Yet here one also hears a reproach. You received it; and now what? It is not only a reproach, but also an indication of the way to return to the truth. One who hears the gospel may be convinced or not convinced, may receive it or not receive it.

But one who receives it does so, of course, because he is convinced of its truth. The Apostle hints: you accepted my gospel with mind and heart and found rest in it. Restore these convictions, and you yourselves will find in yourselves the strength to resist those who distort the truth.

Or, to put it this way: rouse yourselves to drive them away and cast them out of your fellowship.

The words "we preached" and "you received" embrace everything: dogmas, rules of life, and the whole order of the Christian Church. The Apostle's judgment falls upon corrupters of teaching, not only written teaching, but chiefly teaching handed down orally.

The Apostle strikes the seducers with anathema. Yet it is evident that the seduced also fall under the same anathema as soon as they refuse exhortation and do not come to their senses. For by holding to false teaching they become one with the false teachers.

The anathematizing established by the Apostle, "let him be anathema," has served and still serves the Church as rule and guide. It shows how to deal with those who preach beyond, or rather who preach evil, and with those who willingly follow them.

The meaning of anathema is that the one subjected to it is cast out of the Church. Standing outside her, he is not only deprived of her grace, but is also subjected to all the graceless conditions that are outside her. He is rejected by God and lies under His wrath.

This is enough to inspire horror at anathema, and at the same time to make one take every possible care not to be subjected to it.

More than all others, scholars ought to carry this horror within themselves. As they delve into the realm of the sciences, they often forget that they bear a duty before God and the Lord Jesus Christ not to speak beyond what was preached by the Apostles.

They ought rather to suspect the correctness of their own conclusions than attempt to affirm anything that smells of speaking beyond the apostolic, heavenly, and divine gospel.

The Apostle only laid the beginning of anathematizing. Afterward the Church marked out all views worthy of this punishment. At the present time there is no need to await a special act of the Church to strike evil preachers with this judgment. They themselves place their heads beneath this sword as soon as they invent opinions contrary to the truth and stubbornly begin to stand in them.