Galatians 3:10Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

In the previous paragraph Jerome compares the translations of this passage in the Septuagint and in Aquila, Symmachus, and Theodotion, Greek proselytes to Judaism of the second century who translated the Hebrew Bible into Greek.

LXX: Επικατάρατος πάς άνθρωπτς, ός ούκ έμμενεί έν πάσιν τοίς λόγοις τού νόμου τούτου τού ποιήσαι αύτούς: "Cursed is every man who does not continue in all the words of this law, to do them." Compare the Synodal translation: "Cursed is he who does not fulfill the words of this law and does not act according to them."

And "it is written: Cursed is everyone who does not continue in all things written in the book of the law." Consequently, all men fell under the curse as transgressors of the law. By force of the curse, all should have been handed over to eternal punishment and torment. For this is what the law requires, which curses the lawless.

A natural perplexity may arise because of the many Old Testament righteous known to us. Was there really no righteous man in the Old Testament, under the law, who acquired holiness by strict and exact fulfillment of the law? The Apostle firmly affirms that there was not one, again basing himself on Scripture.

These punishments are spoken of with particular expressiveness in Deuteronomy. Through sacrifices, ways were also appointed for avoiding the penalty of the law.

For this reason many sacrifices were prescribed, in great variety. Yet the essence of the teaching concerning sacrifices lay in their typological relation to the sacrifice that Christ offered by Himself.

The one offering sacrifice was saved by believing in Him. Thus here also faith was saving, while the law was only the measure of recompense.

It was a heavy yoke laid upon the chosen people, not because of their faith, but because of their unbelief. In other words, it was imposed on account of their frequent experiences of apostasy.

Even now the power of sin is the same. It takes away blessing and brings punishment. Yet the essence of the New Testament institution is this: Jesus Christ, by being crucified for us, took upon Himself responsibility for the sins of believers.

Therefore sacrifices and all the rites connected with them are now unnecessary. Now, “if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the Righteous,” which the law did not give.

For this reason the law was formerly powerless, and now it is entirely unnecessary (1 Jn 2:1).

Blessed Jerome writes: “Christ alone died for all” (2 Cor 5:14). If for all, then also for Moses and for all the prophets.

None of them could destroy the ancient handwriting written against us and nail it to the Cross (Col 2:14). They too were justified and saved by faith.”

“One may be righteous and yet not be alive until he receives faith in Christ, who says, ‘I am the life’ (Jn 11:25).

Just as it is said, ‘The righteous shall live by faith,’ so also the pure shall live by faith, the wise shall live by faith, the courageous shall live by faith.

This stands against those who, not believing in Christ, think themselves strong, wise, temperate, and in general righteous. Let us know that no one can be alive without Christ, without whom every virtue is not blameless.”

“And no one should be troubled that Christ became a curse for us. From the fullness of the Godhead, the Savior humbled Himself to the taking of the form of a servant (Phil 2:7).

But the humiliation of our Lord is our glory. He died that we might live. He became a curse so that blessing might descend upon us and rest in us.”

And St. John Chrysostom says: “As someone not subject to condemnation, deciding to die for one condemned to death, thereby delivers him from death, so Christ acted.

He took the curse upon Himself and freed us from it. The law said, ‘Do this and you shall live.’ Yet because no one could fulfill everything prescribed in the law, all were subject to punishment.

Christ came to free them from this punishment through faith in Him, as the Savior sent by God the Father.”

For this reason it is written: "The man who does them shall live in them" (cf. Ezek 20:11). Great promises were given to those who would keep the law (cf. Deut 28). The history of Israel shows this clearly. When Israel was faithful to the law, God showed him favor. When he departed from it, he was subjected to punishments from God.

Under what conditions, then, were those under the law subjected to the curse? Before the coming of Christ, those were subjected to the curse who did not fulfill the law. Having violated it in some point, they did not repent and did not hasten to be cleansed by the means indicated in the law itself.

The law itself foresaw transgressions and itself determined how reconciliation with it was to be made. Whoever did not use these means remained under the curse. He remained there as a transgressor of the law and as one stubborn in that transgression. He did not hasten to amend himself and blot out his guilt lawfully.

Further, these means for blotting out guilt had power to do this not in themselves, but through faith in that of which they were a shadow and reflection. Therefore he was under the curse who used the lawful means, but without proper faith.

Finally, since the whole law was permeated with prefigurations of the Coming One and led every man under the law up to Him, even a faithful fulfiller of the law was not wholly faithful to the law. As soon as he did not sanctify his life by faith in this Coming One, he did not abide in all that the law prescribed.

In the present place the holy Apostle Paul could have had in view only these last. Before this he said that those who are of faith are blessed with faithful Abraham, apart from the law, neither knowing it nor sharing in it.

Now he says the opposite. Those under the law, as soon as they remain with the law alone and without faith, are under the curse. They do not fulfill that to which the law leads them by its prescriptions.

This thought satisfactorily explains the connection of the verses, if the law is taken here abstractly, without relation to the particular occasion on which the discussion of the law arose.

But if this is taken into account, one must accept that the Apostle speaks of the law from the New Testament point of view, that is, after the coming of Christ the Savior, of Whom the law was the shadow.

Those against whom Saint Paul wrote were believers in Christ. Yet along with faith in Him they also required the fulfillment of the shadow-written, old law. Therefore the thought expressed just before cannot strike them or convince the Galatians of the wrongness of their new steps.

It must therefore be supposed that Saint Paul meant to say that those under the law are under the curse after the coming of Christ the Lord. In this case the proposition expressed by him is unconditional.

The Lord Himself said that the law and the Prophets were until John, that is, until the coming of the promised Lord Himself. This was also traced beforehand in the law itself, understood as the Old Testament guidance of God.

Therefore whoever still holds to the law as a condition of salvation after the coming of Christ the Savior goes against the law. Whoever goes against the law is subject to the curse. Consequently, those under the law are under the curse, the very men who were leading the Galatians astray.

As the reason why those who are of the law are subject to the curse, Saint Paul adduces the fact that every violator of anything written in the law is threatened with a curse.

It is not difficult to see that the reason does not directly correspond to the stated proposition. The proposition says that those under the law are under the curse. The reason says that transgressors of the law are threatened with a curse.

If it had been said that those who hold to the law are subject to the curse, the reason would be direct. Here, however, he speaks of transgressors of the law. They are, of course, apostates from it whenever and in whatever way they violate it.

If one accepts directly that those who are of the law are under the curse because transgressors of the law are threatened with a curse, then in this respect the New Testament institution differs in nothing from the Old Testament one.

Threats are also written in the New Testament, and they are still more terrible than the ancient ones. The same Apostle, writing to the Hebrews, says: "If the word spoken by angels was steadfast, and every transgression and disobedience received a just recompense, how shall we escape if we neglect so great a salvation?" (cf. Heb 2:2-3).

Elsewhere he says: "A man who rejected Moses' law dies without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses. Of how much worse punishment, do you suppose, will he be thought worthy who has trampled the Son of God underfoot, counted the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified unclean, and insulted the Spirit of grace?" (cf. Heb 10:28-29).

And again: "The earth which drinks in the rain that often comes upon it, and bears herbs useful for those by whom it is cultivated, receives blessing from God. But if it bears thorns and briers, it is rejected and near to a curse, whose end is to be burned" (cf. Heb 6:7-8).

And at the dread judgment, what will the Lord say to the transgressors of His New Testament commandments? "Depart from Me, you cursed" (Mt 25:41).

If we set these threats parallel to the Apostle's words in the passage of Galatians now before us, we shall reach a similar proposition. Those who are of faith are also under the curse, because those unfaithful to the faith are threatened with a curse, and an eternal one.

What, then, is to be done? We must allow for additional thoughts implied in the holy Apostle's speech. It is not only the thought that no one could fulfill the law. For even in the new grace, "If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us" (1 Jn 1:8).

Especially implied is this thought: when the law is violated, it does not present in itself anything for the cleansing of the sinner. It had cleansing sacrifices, but they received their power from faith in the Lord. Therefore this power was not in the law, but outside it.

When the law remains alone, it leaves those who hold to it without any help in the case of its violation. It only weighs upon them with the whole weight of its judgment.

In the New Testament institution the power of sin is the same. It takes away blessing and brings the curse. Yet the very essence of the New Testament consists in the covering of all sins that befall the believer through the mediation of Christ the Lord, Who was crucified for us.

"If anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the Righteous" (cf. 1 Jn 2:1). The law does not have this mediating covering of sins when it remains alone without faith.

Nor does it have this covering when, after the coming of the Mediator, it is kept as a condition of salvation together with faith. In such a case, faith is not faith. The man who at the same time relies on the law diminishes the Mediator. For this he is deprived of the power of His mediation.

Thus the thought of the holy Apostle rests on this: the law alone, without faith, leaves those who hold to it under the full severity of its curse.

That this is precisely the Apostle's thought is evident from the following verse. There the saving power of the law is placed under the condition of faith. The law justified, but only by faith. Without faith, no one was justified even in the law. There were righteous men in the Old Testament, but all of them appeared as such for the sake of faith.