Commentary on 2 Corinthians 3:1-5

Text in red are my additions. 

A SUMMARY OF THE SECOND, OR DOGMATIC PART OF THE EPISTLE 

A Summary of Galatians 3:1-5:12~Since Christ was the fulfillment of the promise made to Abraham, and since the entire revelation of the Old Testament was a preparation for, and a leading up to Christ, it could most reasonably occur to the Galatians that the ancient Scriptures, including the Law of Moses, were sacred, and that the Gospel, with its perfect revelation, had grown out of them, like the fruit out of the vine. Would it not follow, then, that the observance of the Law was necessary to salvation also for Christians, and that thus only is justification to be obtained?

It is beyond doubt that the Gentiles were partakers of the salvation foreshadowed in the Old Testament, but as heirs of the promise and blessing made to Abraham long centuries before the Law was given. The Law was only an intermediate measure for the Jewish people, a special help to lead them to Christ and to the fruition of those blessings which were promised to the father of their race. To return to the Law after having found Christ would be to go backwards; it would be to give up the end and return to a particular means which were intended for a particular people.

St. Paul, therefore, after having reviewed the history of his divine call and mission, and having shown the conformity of his Gospel with that of the other Apostles, passes on now, in the second part of his letter, to prove that the doctrine and fact of justification are not dependent on the works of the Law, but only on faith in Jesus Christ (Gal 3:1-5:12). 

THE IMPORTANCE OF FAITH AS THE MEANS OF JUSTIFICATION SHOULD BE EVIDENT TO THE GALATIANS FROM THEIR OWN PERSONAL EXPERIENCE

 A Summary of Galatians 3:1-5~The Apostle had just said (Gal 2:21) that to seek salvation through the Law was to render null the death of Christ; and reflecting now on the situation in Galatia, where there was imminent danger of an attempt to do this very thing, he breaks forth in holy indignation, exclaiming, “O senseless Galatians, who hath bewitched you?” He asks if Christ crucified, whom he had preached to them, was not power and charm enough to keep them from error, and if their own experience in receiving the Holy Spirit through faith, independently of the Law, was not sufficient proof that their justification was from faith and not from the Law.

Gal 3:1. O senseless Galatians, who hath bewitched you that you should not obey the truth, before whose eyes Jesus Christ hath been set forth, crucified among you?

Senseless, i.e., dull of mind, slow to penetrate the mystery of Christianity and to perceive things of deep spirituality. Galatians.

Hath bewitched you, i.e., has cast about you a spell or charm, thus inducing you to turn your eyes away from the crucified Christ and fix them upon the doctrine of the Judaizers.

St. Chrysostom, Theodoret and other Greek Fathers have understood in “bewitched” (βασκαίνω = baskainō) an allusion to the “evil eye” of folk-lore, especially in Babylon and Assyria. But in both the Old and the New Testaments it usually has the meaning of “envy.” St. Jerome understands the term in the sense of fascination that is exercised on children.

That you should not obey the truth. These words are wanting in the best MSS. and in some versions. As St. Jerome observed, they are doubtless a gloss from Gal 5:7. Modern translations omit the words here.

Before whose eyes, etc. So vivid, so definite had been the preaching of St. Paul to the Galatians that Christ crucified was made to appear before their very eyes as if actually existing in the flesh. Such a picture ought never to fade from their minds, and should ever protect them against attractions of a contrary sort.

Set forth, i.e., pictured, depicted (προγράφω = prographō). The literal meaning is to placard, post in public; or, as the Greek Fathers think, to paint.

Among you (Vulg., in vobis) is not found in the best MSS. It was added in the Received Text. Some of the Latin Fathers, following the old Latin version, read proscriptus (banned, condemned), instead of praescriptus (prefixed, ordered). This is difficult to understand unless we add et (and), thus: proscriptus est, et in vobis crucifixus, “(Christ) condemned anew and crucified among you.”

Gal 3:2. This only would I learn of you: Did you receive the Spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith?

To bring out more plainly the folly of their conduct St. Paul reminds the Galatians of their own experience. They themselves know that their reception of the Holy Spirit, with His sanctifying grace, His manifest special gifts (Gal 3:5), was when they received by faith the truths of Christ crucified which had been preached to them, and not by the observing of the Law which they, as Gentiles, did not know.

The hearing of faith (ακοης πιστεως) means the hearing which led to faith and was accompanied by faith.

Works are here contrasted with hearing; and law with faith, i.e., believing. That Christ was the object of their faith and belief is evident (Gal 2:16-21).

Gal 3:3. Are you so foolish, that, whereas you began in the Spirit, you would now be made perfect by the flesh?

St. Paul reduces the conduct of the Galatians to an absurdity. They would go from the law of grace and liberty to that of works and slavery; they would begin with the Holy Spirit, and attain to their end and perfection by the flesh (St. Chrys., Cornely).

The Spirit means the Holy Ghost, the principle of the new life of grace, whom the Galatians had received with faith (see Gal 3:2).

Flesh stands for Judaism, which was embraced through circumcision. In the one there is the action of the Spirit; in the other, the use of certain corporal rites. Spirit and flesh are the respective characteristics of Christianity and Judaism (Theodoret, Lagr.).

The spiritu of the Vulgate ought to be capitalized, because there is question of the Holy Ghost.

Gal 3:4. Have you suffered so great things in vain? If it be yet in vain.

Have you suffered, etc. Can it be that the Galatians, who had suffered so many persecutions for their faith, would now be so foolish as to lose all the merit and reward of their trials by renouncing the Gospel and going back to Judaism? What these sufferings were we do not know, since no record of them has come down to us. We have in Acts 13:50; 14:2, 5, 6 accounts of persecutions endured by the Lycaonians, but this does not prove the identity of the Lycaonians and the Galatians.

In vain, i.e., to no purpose, without hope of reward, which would certainly be the case if the Galatians renounced the Gospel.

If it be yet in vain (ει γε και εικη = ei ge kai eike), i.e., “If indeed it be to no purpose.” St. Paul is not expressing apprehension, but the hope that the Galatians will not have suffered to no purpose (Theodoret, Comely, Light., Zahn, etc.). This interpretation corresponds to the Galatian situation, where apostasy was menacing rather than actually committed. But ειγε with και usually means, “If, as I believe,” or “if, as I fear”; and this is the sense in which it is here understood by Lagrange, Lipsius and Sieffert.

Some theologians draw from the last phrase of this verse an argument for the reviviscence (an act of reviving or the state of being revived), through Penance, of merits lost by mortal sin. However sound or weak the inference from this text might otherwise be, it is rendered of little value by the fact that it is not at all certain that the Galatians had actually turned from Christ.

Gal 3:5. He therefore who giveth to you the Spirit, and worketh miracles among you; doth he do it by the works of the law, or by the hearing of the faith? 

The Apostle returns to the question proposed in Gal 3:2.

Giveth to you . . . worketh. These verbs, in the present tense, show that the situation among the Galatians was not altogether hopeless; some, doubtless, had gone farther than others. The gifts of the Spirit here referred to were experienced internally, in the souls of the faithful, such as, science, wisdom, etc. (1 Cor 12:6-11); whereas miracles (δύναμις = dunamis) were exterior manifestations of the Spirit within, such as, prophecy, the gifts of tongues, and the like (1 Cor 12:10). All these gifts, internal and external, had been received through faith, independently of the works of the Law.

The in vobis of the Vulgate (εν υμιν) means among you.