Galatians 3:14Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

Pointing precisely to this, the Apostle said: "That we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith." Since the grace of the Spirit cannot be poured out upon one who is ungrateful and in enmity, they are first blessed through the removal of the curse. Then, justified through faith, they receive the grace of the Spirit.

Thus the Cross destroyed the curse, faith brought in justification, and justification brought down the grace of the Spirit.

For this reason, he says, the Gentiles were deemed worthy of blessing: that they might receive the Spirit through faith. Those who are still under the curse could not receive the Spirit. Therefore they receive blessing after Christ has destroyed the curse, and then, justified by faith, they receive the promise of the Spirit.

For what God promised Abraham, according to Paul's understanding, are the spiritual gifts that have plainly now been given to us, such as blessing and the rest.

Aquila says: "And when there is on a man a sin subject to a sentence of death, or a death sentence, and he is put to death, and you hang him on a tree, his corpse shall not remain long on the tree.

Rather, bury him that day, because the curse of God is upon the one who is hanged. You shall not defile your land, which the Lord your God has given you as an inheritance."

Symmachus says: "If a man's sin is worthy of death, and he is put to death, and you hang him on a tree, his corpse shall not remain on the tree overnight. Rather, bury him on that very day, because he has been hanged for blasphemy against God.

You shall not defile your land, which the Lord your God has given you as an inheritance."

Theodotion says: "And when there is on a man a sin deserving a sentence of death, and he dies, and you hang him on a tree, let his corpse not sleep on the tree. Therefore you must bury him that very day.

For the one hanged is the curse of God. You shall not defile your adama, which the Lord your God has given you as an inheritance." Adama in Hebrew means earth or soil.

In the place where Aquila and Theodotion translated alike, "for the one hanged is the curse of God," the Hebrew has chi calaluth eloim thalui. Ebion, the well-known half-Christian and half-Jew, translated these words thus: οτι ύβρις Θεού δ κρεμάμενος, that is, "because the one hanged is an insult to God."

I remember that in the dispute of Jason and Papiscus, written in Greek, I found this translation: λοιδορία Θεού δ κρεμάμενος, that is, "the one hanged is a reproach to God."

A Hebrew who instructed me somewhat in Scripture told me that this passage may also be read in this sense: "Because God has been hanged in dishonor."

We have gathered all this because it contains a very important question. The Jews usually set it forth against us as a dishonor, namely, that our Savior and Lord became a curse in the eyes of God.

Therefore we must first note that not everyone hanging on a tree became a curse before God. Only the man who sinned, was condemned for a transgression worthy of death, and was lifted up on the cross became such.

He is cursed not because he was crucified, but because he fell under such liability that he deserved death by crucifixion. Then one must also answer that the reason for death on the cross is explained more fully below.

For Scripture says that such a transgressor was crucified for cursing and blasphemy against God. Symmachus translated this more clearly with the words, "because he has been hanged for blasphemy against God."

Finally, let us ask them this. If Hananiah, Azariah, and Mishael, who refused to worship Nebuchadnezzar's idol, were hanged on a tree (Dan 3), and likewise the ninety-year-old Eleazar under Antiochus king of Syria, and the renowned mother with her seven sons (2 Macc 7), must they be regarded as cursed, or rather as worthy of every blessing?

Certainly, if Haman had not deservedly gone up upon the cross that he had prepared for Mordecai, then in my judgment Mordecai would have gone up upon it not as one cursed, but as a holy man.

By these and similar considerations it is shown that the cursed one is he who committed a crime worthy of the gallows. The one crucified through the injustice of judges, the violence of enemies, the cries of the black crowd, envy of his virtues, or royal anger, is not cursed.

Once Naboth was condemned to death by the whole city of Jezebel through Jezebel's letter (3 Kgs 21:8-11). Yet his blood, as a type of Christ, was avenged many centuries later.

For the Lord says to Hosea: "Call his name Israel, for yet a little while, and I will avenge the blood of Jezreel upon the house of Jehu" (Hos 1:4). This is against the Jews.

Returning, however, to our own difficulty, I cannot say why the Apostle either omitted or added something in the words of Scripture: "Cursed by God is everyone who hangs on a tree" (Deut 21:23).

If he was following the opinion of the Seventy, he should have added the name of God, as we have done. But if, as a Hebrew of Hebrews, he considered most reliable what he read in his own language, he should not have added the words "everyone" and "on a tree," which are absent from the Hebrew copy.

Therefore it seems to me either that the Hebrew books once contained something other than what they now contain, or that the Apostle, as I have already said, expressed only the sense of the Scriptures and not their words.

Or, what is more probable, someone added the name of God both in the Hebrew and in our collections of sacred books. This was done to cover us with disgrace because we believe in Christ, supposedly cursed by God.

Therefore I enter this contest boldly. Appealing to the books, I affirm that no one was cursed by God, and that where a curse is laid, the name of God is never added.

To the serpent it is said: "Cursed are you above all the beasts of the earth" (Gen 3:14). To Adam it is said: "Cursed is the ground in your works" (Gen 3:17). To Cain: "Cursed are you from the earth" (Gen 4:11).

Elsewhere it is said: "Cursed be the child Canaan. He shall be a servant to his brothers" (Gen 9:25). Again elsewhere: "Cursed be their anger, for it is fierce, and their wrath, for it is cruel" (Gen 49:7).

It would take very long if I were to enumerate all the curses described in Leviticus, Deuteronomy, and Joshua. Yet in none of them is the name of God added.

Even Satan himself, when he gives assurance concerning Job that Job will blaspheme under the pressure of the greatest sufferings, expresses the highest degree of this with the words: "If he does not bless You to Your face" (Job 1:11).

In the book of Kings, Naboth is shown as stoned because he blessed God and the king (3 Kgs 21:10). Yet no one should be troubled that Christ became a curse for our sake.

For God is also presented as having made Him a curse. He Himself made Him sin for us, though Christ knew no sin. Christ, proceeding from the fullness of the Father's essence, humbled Himself, taking the outward form of a servant (Phil 2:7).

He was dead according to life, and the Wisdom of God was called foolishness, so that the foolishness of God was wiser than men (1 Cor 1:25). In the sixty-eighth Psalm He says of Himself: "O God, You know my foolishness, and my sins are not hidden from You" (Ps 68:6).

Therefore the reproach of the Lord is our glory. He was put to death that we might live. He descended into Hades that we might ascend to heaven. He became foolishness that we might become wisdom.

He put off the form and fullness of the Godhead so that the fullness of the Godhead might dwell in us, and that we, from being servants, might become lords.

He hung on the tree so that, being nailed to it, He might destroy by the tree the sin that we committed through the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

His Cross changed the bitter waters into sweetness and raised to the surface the axe head that had been lost and sunk in the waves of the Jordan (4 Kgs 6:5-7).

Finally, He became a curse. I say "became," not "was born," so that the blessings promised to Abraham might be handed on to the nations by the Creator Himself and the Leader.

Thus the promise of the Spirit would be fulfilled in us through faith in Him. This may be understood in two ways: either as the spiritual gifts of virtues, or as the spiritual understanding of Scripture (1 Cor 9).

The impossibility of attaining justification by the way of the law does not yet give a man the right to refuse observance of the law. That impossibility lies in man himself, not in the law.

The Apostle finds other grounds for setting aside the law, namely in its temporary purpose. It is known that Christ, the Messiah, appeared according to the promise, or as if according to a testament, given by God to Abraham long before. To Him, as the chief meaning of the testament, all the other promises given to Abraham and his posterity referred.

Among men also, no one has the right either to annul or to add anything to a testament once made. The same must be observed with regard to the covenant given by God to Abraham.

The law, which appeared 430 years after the covenant concerning Christ, could not annul it or take away from Israel the right to the inheritance, that is, to Christ (Gal 3:15-18).

Why, then, was the law given? The Apostle answered: in order to point out their transgressions to men and guide them until the time of Christ's coming. It was by no means given to provide them with justification, which could be given only by faith in Christ (Gal 3:19-23).

From this it followed of itself that, after the coming of Jesus Christ, the law, as a tutor, had to lose its force over those whom it had educated and prepared for faith (Gal 3:24-25).

All who believed in Christ became Christ's, and ceased to be distinguished by nations, conditions, or even by sexes. Therefore, as belonging to Christ, the descendant of Abraham, they themselves became descendants of Abraham and heirs of the promises given to him (Gal 3:26-29).

Therefore, in order to receive the rights of inheritance to Abraham's blessing, the Gentiles first had to be joined through circumcision to Abraham's posterity according to the flesh. Then they had to bear upon themselves all the rest of the Old Testament yoke.

Thus one may say that the Mosaic Law, with its promises and blessings as well as its curses, also weighed upon the Gentiles.

St. John Chrysostom says of this blessing of Abraham upon the Gentiles: "It is clear that all this was said of Christ. For He was the seed of Abraham, and all nations are blessed through Him and receive the promise of the Spirit. Pointing to this, the Apostle also says: 'That we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith.' Since the grace of the Spirit cannot be poured out upon those without grace and under the curse, they are first blessed through the removal of the curse. Then, justified through faith, they receive the grace of the Spirit. Thus the Cross destroyed the curse, faith brought in justification, and justification brought down the grace of the Spirit."

"The death on the Cross made unnecessary all the justificatory rites under the law. With their change, the whole Old Testament institution was dissolved. The blessing hidden in it, in faith in the Coming One, became accessible to the whole world through faith. For the blessing of Abraham concerned his seed, that is, Christ Jesus, Who according to the flesh came from his seed. Faith in Him constituted the mystical essence of the Old Covenant" (Theophan).

The law was a wall between the nations and the Jews. In itself this is not so significant. It is significant because, through this separation, the Gentiles were also separated from the blessing hidden in the law through faith in the Coming One.

By this hidden treasure the law was powerful before God and men. Abraham was promised that the nations would be blessed through him, but this blessing was not to pass to them through the air.

It was hidden in the law so that, in its time, it might be revealed and poured out upon them. Thus the law both fenced off the Gentiles and contained the seed of blessing for them.

How, then, would they taste the blessing? In no other way than through the abolition of the law as law. By this, the barrier of the law was broken down, and the blessing hidden in it became accessible to the nations.

The death of the Lord on the Cross accomplished this work. It made all the rites under the law unnecessary, because they were the shadow of the truth now manifested in deed.

But this death had such power because it was redemption from the curse of the law. Properly, this means both the written and unwritten law, but with respect to the Jews, the written law, since that is what is being discussed.

This is how it came about that the extension of Abraham’s blessing to the Gentiles was joined to redemption from the curse of the law.

This redemption was accomplished by the Lord’s death on the Cross. The death on the Cross made all justificatory rites under the law unnecessary.

With their abolition, the whole Old Testament institution was broken down. The blessing hidden in it, in faith in the Coming One, became accessible through faith to the whole world.

For Abraham’s blessing concerned his seed, that is, Christ Jesus the Lord, who according to the flesh came from his seed. Faith in Him constituted the mystical essence of the Old Testament.

“That we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith.” This explains wherein the power of Abraham’s blessing lies. Abraham was told only that all would be blessed in his seed.

The prophets later explained that this blessing is not fleshly, but spiritual, and would consist in the pouring out of the Spirit upon all flesh (cf. Isa 44:3; Joel 2:28; Zech 12:10).

St. Peter confessed and proclaimed this aloud to all Jerusalem at the very hour of the descent of the Holy Spirit.

The receiving of the Holy Spirit and the tangible manifestation of His action in souls then became the distinguishing mark of those who truly believe in Christ.

Speaking generally, the essence of Christianity consists in the renewal of our fallen nature by the grace of the Holy Spirit.

Where there is no such renewal, there is no Spirit. Where there is no Spirit, there is no Christ. Where there is no Christ, there are falsehood and perdition.

This renewal must be the aim of a Christian’s seeking. Faith in the Lord, with the resolve to follow His will, is the exclusive condition for receiving the Holy Spirit through the mysteries.

But by this only the seed of renewal is laid. Renewal itself is accomplished by the Spirit through man’s labors in fulfilling the commandments and taking up the ascetic struggles at hand according to his strength.

There is no other path. Those who turn aside from this last condition cannot attain renewal, however cleverly they may reason about Christianity.

As for the connection of these words with what precedes, the Apostle had the Jews in view when he spoke of redemption from the curse of the law.

When he spoke of the extension of Abraham’s blessing to the Gentiles, he had these latter in view. There is therefore nothing improper in accepting that, when he speaks of receiving the Spirit, he has both in view.

At the word “we might receive,” he means: we Christians from Jews and Gentiles. The holy Fathers do not attend to the grammatical flow of the speech, but to the relation of the truths expressed here.

“Since,” writes St. John of Damascus, “the grace of the Holy Spirit could not descend upon one who was unclean and under divine displeasure, they are first blessed through the removal of the curse.

Then, having been justified by faith, they draw the grace of the Spirit. Thus the Cross destroyed the curse, faith brought justification, and justification drew the grace of the Holy Spirit.”

For, “in order to receive the promise of the Spirit,” according to Theophylact, “it was necessary to be justified by faith.”

Concerning Abraham’s blessing upon the nations, St. Chrysostom says: “It is clear that all this was said of Christ. He was the seed of Abraham, and all nations are blessed through Him and receive the promise of the Spirit.

Indicating this, the Apostle also says: ‘that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith.’ Since the grace of the Spirit cannot be poured out upon those without grace and under a curse, they are blessed first through the removal of the curse.

Then, justified through faith, they receive the grace of the Spirit. Thus the Cross destroyed the curse, faith introduced justification, and justification brought down the grace of the Spirit.”