Galatians 2:5Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

But since the conduct of the Apostles was immediately spoken against him, some naturally could say: how, then, do they command this?

See how wisely he resolves this objection. He does not indicate the true reason, namely that the Apostles did this by condescension and for a special purpose, because this might have harmed the hearers.

Those who are to receive some benefit from an action do not need to know the cause of the action. If the reason for what is done becomes known, everything collapses.

Therefore only the one who acts should know the reason for the action. Those for whom benefit is being prepared through it should not know this reason.

To make clearer what I am saying, I will give an example from this very matter. This blessed Paul himself abolished circumcision. Yet when he wished to send Timothy as a teacher to the Jews, he first circumcised him and then sent him, Acts 16:3.

He did this so that the hearers would have greater trust in Timothy. Timothy came to them circumcised in order to abolish circumcision.

Paul himself, and Timothy also, knew the reason for this action, but he did not tell the disciples.

Indeed, if they had learned that he was circumcised in order to abolish circumcision, they would not have listened to his preaching at all, and all the benefit would have perished.

As it was, their ignorance brought them the greatest benefit. Thinking, of course, that he had done this as a keeper of the law, they received him and his teaching favorably and readily.

Receiving his teaching little by little and being confirmed in it, they abandoned the old things. This would not have happened if they had known the reason at the beginning.

Indeed, if they had learned this, they would have turned away from him. Turning away, they would not have listened. Not listening, they would have remained in their former error.

So that this would not happen, he did not reveal the reason. This is why here also he does not reveal the reason for such action, but leads his discourse by another path, speaking thus:

Or what truth of the Gospel is this, to yield to the hypocrisy of the Jews? Is it truth to observe what you formerly counted as refuse, σκύβαλον, and despised as worthy of condemnation? Is it truth to see something in what is in reality nothing?

Finally, the very sense of this epistle plainly contradicts the idea that the Apostle is summoning the Galatians to circumcision. By the whole structure of his discourse he wishes to show that he despises everything by the grace of Christ.

He is a Hebrew of Hebrews. He once observed the works of the Law and was circumcised on the eighth day according to the law of the Pharisees. Yet by Christ’s grace he despises all.

When he went to Jerusalem, the false brethren, believers in Christ from the circumcised, wanted him to circumcise Titus. Neither Paul nor Titus yielded to force, in order to preserve the truth of the Gospel.

Therefore, if he says that he was compelled by necessity to circumcise Titus, how does he turn the Galatians away from that circumcision from which he could not free Titus in Jerusalem, though Titus was from the Gentiles?

Either we must follow the reading of the Greek codices of the sacred books: “To them we did not submit even for a time.” Then the saying follows coherently: “that the truth of the Gospel might remain unchanged among you.”

Or, if one chooses to trust some Latin copy, we must follow the meaning indicated above. The temporary submission consisted not in circumcising Titus, but in going to Jerusalem.

Thus Paul and Barnabas submitted to the desire to go to Jerusalem when division arose in Antioch over the question of the Law. Their judgment was to be confirmed by a letter from the Apostles.

Then the truth of the Gospel would remain firm among the Galatians. This truth is not in the letter, but in the spirit. It is not in the carnal sense, but in spiritual understanding. It is not in manifest Judaism, but in the hidden (occulto).

One should know that the conjunction “but” (autem) is superfluous in the words, “but because of the false brethren who slipped in.” Even if it is read, there is no corresponding word to complete it.

The order and sense of the passage are as follows: “But not even Titus, though he was of Gentile origin, was compelled to be circumcised.” Immediately after this he adds the reason why he could have been compelled against his will to circumcision.

He says, “Because of the false brethren who slipped in, who slipped in to spy upon our freedom which we have in Christ Jesus, so that they might bring us into bondage.”

Since they frightened us by plots and wished by their number to bring us from the freedom of Christ into bondage to the Law, we did not yield to them even for a time by circumcising Titus.

This was especially so when a certain necessity for the sake of ecclesial peace might have excused us. We did all this so that you would have no occasion to depart from the grace of the Gospel.

Therefore, if in Jerusalem, among the Jews, there were so many threatening false brethren, and if those who were elders resisted them only in part, yet we could not be induced by any force or persuasion to observe circumcision, which we knew had ended.

Why then do you, who are from the Gentiles and live in Galatia, voluntarily pass from grace to the already abolished antiquity of the Law? No force could have been brought against you.

If he circumcised Timothy, it was not for the sake of the false brethren among the Judaizing Christians, but for the sake of the Jews themselves.

They would not have even admitted an uncircumcised man among them, nor would they have listened to his preaching. That is, they would have barred his access to them.

As soon as Saint Paul believed, he left the law. In this same freedom he raised up all believers through his Gospel, not only Gentiles but also Jews. Therefore they could become an object of curiosity for everyone.

But it was not curiosity alone that drew the false brethren there. They had a hidden thought: 'that they might bring them into bondage.' It is evident that the pressure from their side was considerable.

But they achieved nothing. This did not happen without effort on the Apostle's part.

All this was done for you, Galatians, says the Apostle. He views them as representatives of the Christians from among the Gentiles.

Through this steadfastness of the Apostle, it was soon decreed at the Apostolic Council not to trouble the Gentiles turning to God by requiring circumcision and the other rites of the Law of Moses, Acts 15:19, 24, 28.

There Paul and Barnabas were acknowledged as beloved men who had risked their lives for the name of the Lord, Acts 15:25-26.

According to Blessed Jerome, the Apostle here speaks to the Galatians as though saying: if we, while in Jerusalem, surrounded by such a multitude of Jews and false brethren, and amid the concession of the elder Apostles. Could not by any force be compelled to fulfill the rite of circumcision, then how have you, Gentiles living in Galatia, whom no powerful compulsion could reach, conceived the idea of departing from grace and submitting to the obsolete law?

Their aim was not merely to argue, but in action to subject them to the Law. Saint Chrysostom says, “Observe the height and force of these words. He did not say, ‘we did not yield to the word,’ but ‘to submission,’ that is, to their effort to subdue.

For they did this not in order to teach anything useful, but in order to subject and enslave.” Saint Damascene says: “We did not yield to them for a minute, that is, to those who slipped in, lest we appear to say one thing and do another.”

“That the truth of the Gospel might remain among you,” that is, that the truth of salvation in the one Lord Jesus Christ, or Christianity as a whole in its full order, might remain pure and unmixed among you who believed from the Gentiles.

Among the Jews, its appearing in such purity was still hindered by many points of contact. Prudence compelled the higher directors of the work of Christ to take these into account.

If Saint Paul had yielded here and agreed to accept even something from Judaism, this admixture would have spread throughout the whole Church from the Gentiles. The truth of the Gospel would not have remained on earth as it ought to remain.

“Among you” is addressed to the Galatians insofar as they are believers from the Gentiles. In this case he looks upon them as representatives of Gentile Christians and, in their person, speaks of all such believers.

Chrysostom says: “In order to confirm by deeds what we taught in words, namely, that old things have passed away and all things have become new, and that if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation (cf. 2 Cor 5:17), and that Christ will profit those who are circumcised nothing (cf. Gal 5:2), we did not yield to them for an hour, establishing this truth.”

Theophylact adds: “Let what we preached to you remain firm and unchangeably true. By resisting them, we showed that we truly proclaimed to you the abolition of the Law. Therefore do not depart from this truth.”

Blessed Jerome directs his interpretation toward the aims of the epistle and draws from the Apostle’s words a strong lesson for the Galatians.

“Among such a multitude of Jews, his enemies, who out of zeal for the Law would have wished to drain all his blood, neither he himself nor Titus yielded through any fear or necessity.

They might have been excused if they had not endured the hatred of so many and such men, and had yielded. He speaks as if to say: They terrified us with threats, and by their numbers they pressed us down.

They wished to cast us from the freedom of Christ back under the yoke of the Law. But we did not yield to them for a minute, though the necessity of preserving the peace of the Church might have excused us in this case.

We did this so that we might give you no occasion to depart from grace. Therefore, if we, while in Jerusalem, were surrounded by such a multitude of Jews and false brethren, and with the elder Apostles acting with concession, could not be compelled by any force to perform the rite of circumcision. Which we recognized as having already lost its force, how have you, who are from the Gentiles and live in Galatia, that is, far from the Jews, thought of submitting to the aged Law? No influential pressure could have been placed upon you, yet you depart from grace.”