Galatians 4:10Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

He observes days such as Sabbaths, new moons, and the period from the tenth to the fourteenth day of the first month, when the bodily lamb was prepared for sacrifice.

He also observes the period from the fourteenth to the twenty-first day of the same month. Then unleavened bread was eaten, not of sincerity and truth, but in the leaven of ancient malice and Pharisaic iniquity.

He who counts seven weeks according to the Jewish rite of unleavened bread and honors the day of Pentecost also observes these things. So too with the trumpet blasts in the seventh month on its first day.

Likewise, on the tenth day of the same month, those who keep Jewish days observe purification and fasting, and also the booths. They observe the first and seventh months, not understanding the mystery of truth.

Those also honor days who, appearing yearly three times in Jerusalem, imagine that they fulfill the commandment of the Lord, Who says: “Three times in the year keep a feast to Me: the feast of unleavened bread, the feast of first harvest, and the feast of the end at the outgoing of the year” (Ex 23:14-16).

And elsewhere: “Three times in the year shall all your males appear before the face of the Lord your God” (Ex 23:17).

His words “and years,” in my judgment, refer to the seventh year of the release of slaves and to the fiftieth year, which they call the Jubilee.

The Apostle explains this passage more fully in the Epistle to the Colossians, saying: “Therefore let no one judge you in food or drink, or with regard to part of a feast, a new moon, or Sabbaths, which are a shadow of things to come” (Col 2:16-17).

He used “part of a feast” here to distinguish it from an unbroken celebration. We should not, so to speak, spend only some small particle of the whole body, but the whole course of our life, in continual festivity in Christ.

To connect what precedes with what follows, I shall say that immediately afterward, in the same epistle, he adds what he thinks about the Law of Moses and about excessive concern in choosing foods.

He says: “If you died with Christ to the principles of this world, why, as though living in the world, do you submit to decrees: Do not touch this or that, do not taste, do not handle? These things perish in the very use of them, and are according to the commandments and teachings of men.”

But someone will say: “If it is not permitted to observe days, months, times, and years, then we too do something unlawful. We observe fasting on Wednesday, quartam sabbati, and Friday. We celebrate the Lord’s Day and fast during the Forty Days.

We solemnize Pascha and rejoice on Pentecost. Finally, according to various lands, we honor the different times established in them in honor of the martyrs.”

Whoever answers this simply will say: “The days of Jewish celebration are not the same as ours. We solemnize not the Pascha of unleavened bread, but the Pascha of the death on the Cross and Resurrection.

In Pentecost we do not see, according to the custom of the Hebrews, the end of seven weeks, but honor the descent of the Holy Spirit.

Certain days have been established so that an unusual gathering of the people may not diminish faith in Christ. For this reason we all gather together alike.

This is not because the day on which we gather is more glorious, but because on the day appointed for gathering, greater joy arises from the mutual sight of one another.”

Whoever tries to answer the objection more keenly should stand firmly on this: all days are equal. This is not because Christ was crucified on Friday or because He rose from the dead on the Lord’s Day.

Rather, every day, semper, is a day of resurrection, and every day let a man partake of the Lord’s flesh.

Fasts and assemblies, however, were established by wise men for those who are more free for serving the world than God. They cannot, or at least do not wish to, gather in church at every time of life and offer God the sacrifice of their prayers before human affairs begin.

Indeed, how great is the number of those who always observe at least these few times established for fasting or prayer?

Thus it is permitted to us both to fast and to pray always, and in joy to celebrate the Lord’s Day unceasingly by communion of the Lord’s body. But the Jews are not permitted at every time to slaughter the lamb, hold Pentecost, set up booths, and fast daily.

Having the dignity of an Apostle, Paul in fact cautiously and with the meekness of a holy man moderated his words, saying: “I fear for you, lest perhaps I have labored among you in vain.”

If he had wished to pronounce a decisive judgment, he would certainly have said: “I fear for you, for I have labored among you in vain.”

Now, seeing that they have zeal for God, but not according to knowledge, he does not cast doubt on the salvation of those drawn away by a pious deception. Yet neither does he leave them without rebuke, lest he give them occasion for stubbornness in error, and others occasion for a similar error.

He uses the expression “I fear you” instead of saying, “I fear for you.” A teacher labors in vain, sine causa, when he calls disciples to what is higher, but through a fall they are cast back to what is lesser and lower.

Years are observed when they say, "On the first day of January it is the new year," as though every day did not enter into the year.

They honor the memory of Janus and hold to such superstitions, which are wholly unfitting for the servants of God.

But if God is loved with the whole heart and He is near, there can be no fear or suspicion concerning such things.

Vulcan is the Roman god of fire, Hephaestus among the Greeks. Special solemnities, called the Vulcanalia, were held in his honor on August 23.

Janus is the Roman god of turning cycles, doors, and gates. The beginnings of each month and day were dedicated to him, and from his name came the name January, Januarius.

The Apostle equates the observance of times with idolatry. He finds that, like idols, the days, months, and years observed by the Galatians are weak and beggarly elements.

For this reason he says that the Galatians "turn back again." That is, as they formerly served what does not give salvation, so now they wish to serve what is weak (άσϑενη) and beggarly (πτωχά), deprived of saving power.

It is clear that the Apostle wished to establish his children in faith in the one saving merit of Christ. He wished to uproot in them the vain hope that service to any material elements could save.

It was necessary for the Galatians to hold fast to the Head, Christ. They were not to be deceived or puffed up by self-willed and useless worship (Col 2:18-22).

Here especially he has in view the keeping of sacred times according to Old Testament ordinances. Only there were years observed, the sabbatical and jubilee years.

But the Orthodox Church, in establishing her own sacred times, in no way sought to limit the saving power of Christ's merits. She sought only closer union with Christ.

At one time she is crucified with Him through abstinence. At another she rises with Him through festive rejoicing.

Therefore, undoubtedly, already in the apostolic age there existed a fast on Wednesday and Friday, in memory of Christ's betrayal and death. There was also the celebration of the first day of the week in memory of the Resurrection.

We do not base our hope of salvation on fasts and feasts. That would indeed be a turning to weak and evil elements.

Rather, we use fasts and feasts for the fullest conformity to Christ, so that with Him we may suffer and with Him we may triumph.

Let us add here the following text from the same chapter:

"The meaning of his words is this. Then you were so bound to the earth because you lived in darkness and error. But now, having known God, or rather having been known by Him, do you not deserve greater and harsher punishment?

"For after despising so much care shown for you, you voluntarily subject yourselves again to the same sickness from which you formerly suffered."

"You did not find God by your own efforts, for you lived in error. Rather, He Himself found you and drew you to Himself" (cf. 2 Tim 2:19).

Blessed Jerome writes: "The weak and beggarly elements are the law. The law became such for those who turn to it now, after the grace of the Gospel has appeared.

"Before the coming of the time appointed by the Father, and before the preaching of the Gospel in all the world, the legal ordinances had their radiance.

"But after the greater light of Gospel grace shone forth, and the Sun of Righteousness rose over the whole world, the light of the stars was hidden, and their rays grew dim.

"The Law of Moses was rich, abundant, and bright before the Gospel. After the coming of Christ the Lord, it became weak, diminished, and wholly abolished by Him Who is greater than Solomon, Jonah, and the temple."

"But how, then, do Christians have their own days which they honor? Among Christians everything is spiritual, and everything is done in the spirit of freedom."

Adding to this his own extensive and most excellent judgment, Bishop Theophan concludes: "We who are bound by time and space cannot be without outward rites. In them everything has its own time, place, and order.

"Only in the spirit can service to God be unceasing. It is not limited by time, place, or condition."

Why did the Apostle touch only on religiously honored times, and not on anything else? Either because all the rest is defined by these times. In saying this, the Apostle said in effect, “You observe days, and of course everything connected with their honor, that is, the whole Law.” Or it is because the Galatians, while inclining toward Judaism, had so far only begun to observe days, without touching the rest. These words define the measure of their seduction, and how far the seducers had already succeeded.

Circumcision had not yet been accepted. The Galatians lacked the courage to accept anything else. But the observance of times presented no great difficulty, and so it was accepted. Perhaps the Galatians had only managed to offer Jewish religious honor to Sabbaths and new moons, or to some other feast that had come round. Yet the Apostle already lists the whole cycle of Jewish times that were religiously honored.

Blessed Jerome asks here: But Christians also have their own days which they honor. What then? Are they subject to the same reproach? He answers that among Christians everything is spiritual, and everything is done in the spirit of freedom.

Let us add to this that Christians have not only religiously honored days, but also their own sacred rites, their own sacred persons, and their own places of worship. Everything pertaining to this is determined by rule. Is this not a bond, a fetter, a slavery? Christians have all this because we cannot express our reverent relation to God without outward forms. This is so whether one person pours out his soul before God, or many gather for this in one place, in churches.

The holy Apostle Paul rejected all outward Jewish ordinances not because nothing outward is needed in Christianity. He rejected them because the Jewish outward form no longer corresponded to the spirit of the new faith in Christ, and therefore had to be rejected. Saint Paul, like all the Apostles, rejected Jewish elemental worship and everywhere established his own Christian worship, a service of the word, rational and spiritual.

The first outline of our entire outward order was given by the Apostles. The details were determined later, and time sanctified them. This is the rule. Yet this too is a bond. Where, then, is Christian freedom? It is here. Although the rule determines that one must act in this way and that, it does not say that, when you have fulfilled everything as written, you have done the matter and that is enough. On the contrary, it commands one to enter into the spirit of what has been established, so as to act from the spirit, as from oneself, with one’s own understanding and willingness, and therefore freely.

Outward action alone is indeed a bond and a fetter. But when that for which the action was established is received by mind and heart, the action ceases to bind. It unfolds freely from the spirit. And all our Christian outward form has proceeded from the spirit. Judaism went from the outward to the inward. Christianity proceeds from within and clothes itself in a comely outward form, as a plant full of life clothes itself with leaves and flowers.

The fact that all this has become established in a definite form does not prevent it from being alive in every place and in every person, proceeding from the spirit and free. One need only keep one law. Enter into the spirit of what has been established, make it akin to mind and heart, and, while always fulfilling it, you will act freely from yourself, feeling no bondage to outward form.

Thus the rule does not bind Christian freedom, for it obliges us to fulfill all that is appointed in the spirit. But it does not bind because in Christian outward rites there is nothing of which one could say, as of Jewish rites, “Do not touch, do not taste, do not handle,” except for the unchangeable form of the seven divine mysteries.

We have outward form because, as human beings, we cannot be without outward form. We reverently honor the established outward rites because they have been sanctified by antiquity. Their dignity and usefulness have been testified by the fact that they formed and guided into the heavenly dwellings so many assemblies of saints.

At the same time, the rites established among us are not such that the Church is bound by them as by fetters of slavery, unable to change or abolish anything in them. The Church, Christianity, is completely free in relation to them. If She finds that something has ceased to be useful, She can abolish it entirely or replace it with something new. Likewise, She can introduce anew what is absent but what She recognizes as necessary.

Whoever were to assert that our rites are entirely untouchable, apart from the manner of celebrating the mysteries, would fall into Judaism with its “Do not touch.” The Church of God has always used, and still uses, such freedom, though not in the sense that today there is one thing and tomorrow another.

Every appointed action, reading, singing, and movement, must be performed reverently, with fear and trembling. Yet this is not because of the action as such, for another could stand in its place, but because it is directed toward God. But he who does the work of God negligently is accursed. Whoever were to assert that fear and trembling must be directed to the actions themselves, and that they must be performed in this spirit, would show in himself a Judaizing spirit.

In reverently performing the appointed rites, we believe that we draw upon ourselves God’s regard and God’s good pleasure toward us. Yet this is not because we have performed precisely this rite. The power is not in the rite, but in the filial elevation of mind and heart, full of faith and devotion to God. Whoever were to ascribe a special power to the rites themselves, as such, apart from the divine mysteries, would be Judaizing.

Some people wish, and such sects exist, to strip Christianity of every outward form. They think they justify this desire by the teaching of the Apostle Paul about the uselessness of the Jewish Law for Christians. They have not duly considered that the same Saint Paul who set aside all Jewish rites everywhere established his own Christian rites.

They imagine that the least outward thing is already Judaism, and they cry out, “Judaism! Merit!” Yet they do not wish to understand that Judaism does not consist in the presence of outward form. It consists in performing and honoring this outward form in a Jewish manner.

They dream that they have stripped themselves of everything outward and serve God in spirit, purely in a Christian manner. Meanwhile, when they turn to God, they assume a certain posture and use a special speech toward God. What is this if not a rite? It is a rite, only one devised by themselves.

Such wise men cannot have common assemblies. They do not even recognize them as necessary, and they cannot contain the concept of the Church of God as one body. It is notable that they never even sign their forehead with the cross. Is it not evident that the spirit which teaches them and lives in them fears the Cross, which crushed all the power of the enemy?

We, being subject to time and space, cannot be without outward rites. The angels have their own orders. In the age to come there will be its own. In all of them there is their own time, place, and order. Only in the spirit can and must the service of God be unceasing, limited neither by time, nor place, nor position.