Slavery and freedom 1 Now I say, as long as the heir is a child, he differs nothing from a servant, though he be lord of all; 2 But is under tutors and governors until the time appointed by the father: 3 So we also, when we were children, were serving under the elements of the world. 4 But when the fulness of the time came, God sent his Son, made of a woman, made under the law: 5 That he might redeem them who were under the law: that we might receive the adoption of sons. 6 And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying: Abba, Father. 7 Therefore now he is not a servant, but a son. And if a son, an heir also through God.
No return to slavery 8 But then indeed, not knowing God, you served them, who, by nature, are not gods. 9 But now, after that you have known God, or rather are known by God: how can you turn again to the weak and needy elements, which you desire to serve again? 10 You observe days, and months, and times, and years. 11 I am afraid of you, lest perhaps I have labored in vain among you.
Paul warns against straying from Christianity 12 Brethren, I beseech you, become as I am, for I also have become as you are. You have not injured me at all. 13 And you know, how through infirmity of the flesh, I preached the gospel to you at first: and your temptation in my flesh, 14 You despised not, nor rejected: but received me as an angel of God, even as Christ Jesus. 15 Where is then your blessedness? For I bear you witness, that, if it could be done, you would have plucked out your own eyes, and would have given them to me. 16 Am I then become your enemy, because I tell you the truth? 17 They are zealous in your regard not well: but they would exclude you, that you might be zealous for them. 18 But be zealous for that which is good in a good thing always: and not only when I am present with you. 19 My little children, of whom I am in labour again, until Christ be formed in you. 20 And I would willingly be present with you now, and change my voice: because I am ashamed for you.
Ismael and Isaac 21 Tell me, you that desire to be under the law, have you not read the law? 22 For it is written that Abraham had two sons: the one by a bondwoman, and the other by a free woman. 23 But he who was of the bondwoman, was born according to the flesh: but he of the free woman, was by promise. 24 Which things are said by an allegory. For these are the two testaments. The one from mount Sina, engendering to bondage; which is Agar: 25 For Sina is a mountain in Arabia, which has affinity to that Jerusalem which now is, and is in bondage with her children. 26 But that Jerusalem, which is above, is free: which is our mother. 27 For it is written: Rejoice, you barren, that bear not: break forth and cry, you that travail not: for many are the children of the desolate, more than of her that has a husband. (Is 54:1) 28 Now we, brethren, as Isaac was, are the children of promise. 29 But as then he, that was born according to the flesh, persecuted him that was after the spirit; so also it is now. 30 But what does scripture say? Cast out the bondwoman and her son; for the son of the bondwoman shall not be heir with the son of the free woman. (Gen 21:10) 31 So then, brethren, we are not the children of the bondwoman, but of the free: by the freedom wherewith Christ has made us free.
Commentary on Galatians 4
4:1-7 Although the Apostle had certainly stated that there is no longer any task for the pedagogue to perform see 3:24-25, he had not explained why there was ever a pedagogue in the first place. So he addresses this here, saying that even if you are now one in Christ and no longer need the pedagogue, I tell you that there was a time when you really needed such a pedagogue. (St. Bruno)
4:3 so we also: That is the Jews, whom he so describes in 3:25. (Cornelius a Lapide) elements of the world: The Apostle calls the sacraments of the Old Law "weak and needy elements" (Gal. 4:9) because they neither contained nor caused grace. Hence the Apostle says that those who used these sacraments served God "under the elements of this world": for the very reason that these sacraments were nothing else than the elements of this world. But our Sacraments of the New Law both contain and cause grace. (St. Thomas Aquinas Sum Theo 3.61.4 r2)
4:4 fullness of time: This is when it was decreed by God the Father to send His Son. (Glossa Ordinaria) Two reasons are given why that time was pre-ordained for the coming of Christ. One is taken from His greatness: for since He that was to come was great, it was fitting that men be made ready for His coming by many indications and many preparations… The other is taken from the role of the one coming: for since a physician was to come, it was fitting that before his coming, men should be keenly aware of their infirmity, both as to their lack of knowledge during the Law of nature and as to their lack of virtue during the written Law. Therefore it was fitting that both, namely, the Law of nature and the written Law, precede the coming of Christ. (St. Thomas Aquinas) made of a woman: It is significant that Saint Paul does not call the Mother of Christ by her own name "Mary", but calls her "woman": this coincides with the words of the Proto-evangelium in the Book of Genesis 3:15. She is that "woman" who is present in the central salvific event which marks the "fullness of time": this event is realized in her and through her. (Pope John Paul II Mulieris Dignate 1) The Latin word for woman 'mulier,' is here used instead of 'femina,' according to the custom of the Hebrew tongue: which applies the term signifying woman to those of the female sex who are virgins. (Glossa Ordinaria) made under the law: Because He lived under the law and fulfilled the Law when a sacrifice was offered on His behalf Lk 2:24. (St. Bruno)
4:5 the adoption of sons: In Christ, the Holy Spirit makes us God’s beloved children. The Incarnation of the Son of God happened once, and is unrepeatable. Divine adoption goes on all the time, through the Church, the Body of Christ, and particularly through the Sacraments, through Baptism, Penance, the Eucharist, and of course the Sacrament of Pentecost that we call Confirmation... This new condition of ours as Christians, that is, our transformation through grace and our sharing in divine life itself, will reach its fulfillment in eternity. Then we shall share the happiness with which God himself is happy, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. (Pope John Paul II Euch. Cel. NY 4)
4:6 Spirit of his son: The Holy Spirit, who is called the Spirit of the Son and of the Father because the Holy Spirit proceeds from both. Abba Father: The two terms Abba and Father are placed next to each other here so as to signify the same thing. Abba is Hebrew or, more precisely Syriac, for that was the language that the Hebrew people commonly spoke at the time… Father ‘ο πατηρ’ is Greek, although the Latin people also use it to signify the fact that God the Father unites in faith concerts from both Judaism and paganism. (Nicholas of Lyra)
4:9 weak and needy elements: What are these? 1. Augustine and Ambrosiaster understand by the phrase the sun and moon, and the idols formerly worshipped by the Galatians... 2. The explanation of Chrysostom, Theophylact, and Oecumenius is better. According to them, these elements are the sun and moon, to which the Galatians wished to return, not to serve them as gods, as they had been used to do before they embraced Christianity, but to determine by their courses the Sabbaths, New Moons, and other Jewish feasts... 3. But the best explanation is that of Jerome, Theodoret, Anselm, and Tertullian (contra Marcion, v. 4), who understand by these elements the Sacraments, and feast-days, and other ceremonies of the Old Law, which were given to the Jews, as the first rudiments of faith and piety, and through them to the whole world, and which were, symbols of the creation and government of the world. (Cornelius a Lapide)
4:10 days months times and years: As St. Augustine (Ep. 119 and Enchirid. 79) and Anselm understand the elements to be the sun, moon, and idols, so do they understand this verse to mean days that were lucky or unlucky, according as astrology made them so. But Chrysostom and Jerome and others explain the days to be the Jewish Sabbaths; the months to be the new moons, and the seventh month, which was held sacred throughout; the times to be the stated feasts of the four seasons—the Passover, Pentecost, the Day of Atonement, and |
the New Year; and the years to be the seventh year of remission of debts, and the fiftieth year of jubilee. (Cornelius a Lapide)
4:13 infirmity of the flesh: Some modern commentators assume that Paul had a problem with his eye sight based upon other passages Gal 3:15 and 6:11. But this could very well have been the same thing that Paul mentions in 2 Cor. 12:7, calling it a thorn in the flesh. (John Litteral) Anselm, Bede, Sedulius, and Jerome think it was bodily illness, as constant headache (St. Jerome), or colic (St. Thomas), or costiveness,
or gout (Nicetas, commenting on Orat. 30 of S. Gregory Nazianzen), or some internal disorder... Chrysostom, Theophylact, Theodoret, Oecumenius, Ambrose, Erasmus think that this thorn refers to the persecutions Paul endured from his adversaries... others, with more probability, think that this thorn in the flesh consisted in blows and beatings, often given to Paul by Satan, as to Antony and others, so that pain remained in his body, as a thorn, from the blows he had received. (Cornelius a Lapide Com 2 Cor 12:7)
4:14 as an angel of God: Paul is speaking figuratively in order to display an even greater expression of reverence for what they have done for him. (Nicholas of Lyra)
4:19 The Apostle here speaks of a mother’s anxiety over her children. You see the feelings of a mother rather than of a father; you see his nervousness, and the cry of pain, much more agonising than that of a woman in travail. (St. John Chrysostom)
4:22 Abraham had two sons: In fact he had more than two, because after Sara’s death, he fathered other sons of Cetura, as is stated in Genesis 25. But the Apostle does not mention them because they have no role in this allegory. (St. Thomas Aquinas)
4:23 Ismael according to natural birth. Isaac was by natural birth too but also with the help of God since Sara was sterile. She was ninety years old when she conceived. (Nicholas of Lyra)
4:24 allegory: For an allegory is a figure of speech or a manner of narrating, in which one thing is said and something else is understood... Here it should be noted that “allegory” is sometimes taken for any mystical meaning: sometimes for only one of the four, which are the historical, allegorical, mystical and the anagogical, which are the four senses of Sacred Scripture, all of which differ in signification. (St. Thomas Aquinas)
4:24-25 The Christian Church, typified by Sarah, the mistress, is contrasted with the Jewish synagogue, typified by Hagar. (Cornelius a Lapide) which is from above: It is said to be from above allegorically because it proclaims and promises heavenly goods. (Nicholas of Lyra)
4:27 The Church then, is the sterile city which, because of the bad condition of the waters before the coming of Christ [that is to say, because of the sacrilege of the Gentile peoples], was unable to conceive children for God in its sterility. But when Christ came, taking on a human body like a clay vessel, He cleansed the bad condition of the waters; that is to say, He cut off the sacrileges of the peoples, and immediately the Church, which used to be sterile, began to be fruitful. (St. Maximus of Turin Serm 84.4)
4:29 But this raises a difficulty. First, because it is not recorded that Ishmael persecuted Isaac, but only that they played together: “When Sara had seen the son of Hagar, the Egyptian, playing with Isaac her son, she said to Abraham: Cast out this bondwoman and her son” (Gen 21:9). I answer that the Apostle calls this playing a persecution, because there is deception when an older person plays with a younger one; since the older person, in playing with the younger, intends to deceive him. Or, as some say, Ishmael compelled Isaac to adore the clay images he fashioned. By this he was teaching him to be turned from the worship of the one God; and this was a considerable persecution, since it is a greater evil to cause spiritual death than bodily. Furthermore, in Genesis this is called a game because he did this under the guise of a game. There is another difficulty, namely, how the children according to the flesh persecuted and do persecute the children according to the spirit? The answer is that from the beginning of the early Church the Jews persecuted Christians, as is obvious in the Acts of the Apostles, and they would do the same even now, if they were able. Now, however, those who are carnal persecute spiritual men in the Church even as to the body; those, namely, who seek glory and temporal gain in the Church. (St. Thomas Aquinas)
4:30 By this we are given to understand that the Jews and persecutors of the Christian religion, as well as carnal and evil Christians, will be cast out from the kingdom of heaven. (St. Thomas Aquinas) |
Catechism Cross-Reference
4:1-7 1972; 4:4-5 422; 4:4 484, 488, 527, 531, 580, 702; 4:5-7 1265; 4:6 683, 689, 693, 742, 1695, 2766; 4:19 526, 562, 793; 4:21-31 1972; 4:26-28 723; 4:26 757
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