Ambrosiaster : Once the promise had been established, the law was given subsequently, not so that it could undermine the promise but so that it might point to what was to be fulfilled and when it would come. — EPISTLE TO THE Galatians 3.17 Augustine of Hippo : If the law justifies, Abraham was not justified, since he lived long before the law. Since they cannot say this, they are forced to admit that a man is justified not by works of the law but by faith. And he compels us to understand that all the ancients who were justified were justified from the same faith. For as we are saved by believing partly in a past event, that is, the first coming of the Lord, and partly in a future one, that is, his second coming, they believed the whole of it, that is, both comings as events. The Holy Spirit reveals this for their salvation. — EPISTLE TO THE Galatians 23 [1B.3.15-18] Oecumenius : "Now this I say: a covenant." For the sake of clarity he continues the discourse. "by God in Christ." For the promise was to Christ. For he said, "In your seed all the nations shall be blessed." For this is, "in you." And the seed of Abraham according to the flesh is Christ. — [PHOTIUS] "which came four hundred and thirty years later." Four hundred and thirty years are therefore gathered: from Abraham's seventy-fifth year to the one hundredth (when Isaac was born) are counted twenty-five years; Isaac was sixty years old (when Jacob was born); Jacob was ninety-five years old (when he begot Joseph); Joseph was one hundred and ten years old; the years spent in Egypt were one hundred and forty-four (from Joseph's death, according to the translation of the Seventy Translators, as appears in Exodus 12): together four hundred and thirty-four. [end of the excerpt by Photius] — — Commentary on Galatians