{"author":null,"canonical_references":[],"database_sha256":"8cfbe7284c6936871d57c02dc6aa63ebbdfd4722422d539dd9f716e46e91112e","date_end":null,"date_start":null,"edition_year":null,"id":"sermonindex-ecf-5456","native_reference":{"book_number":550,"chapter_from":3,"chapter_to":3,"system":"MyBible module coordinates (mapping unverified)","verse_from":13,"verse_to":13},"public_import_allowed":false,"record_kind":"verse-keyed-module-record","review_required":["English edition and exact text","author/work attribution","dating","verse mapping and citation kind","reuse and attribution","split author quotations and deduplicate"],"review_status":"unreviewed","source_html":"<p><b>Ambrosiaster</b>: Since no one could obey the law, all were convicted by the curse of the law, so that it was right to punish them. But Christ, born as a man and offered for us by his Father, redeemed us from the devil. He was offered for those who were liable to the curse of the law. Jesus was made a curse in the way that under the law a victim offered for sin is said to be sin.… Thus he did not say \"cursed for us\" but \"made a curse.\"<br/><i>— EPISTLE TO THE Galatians 3.13.1-2</i></p><p><b>Epiphanius of Salamis</b>: The holy apostle, revealing again how the appearance in the flesh and the cross fulfilled the plan for the loosing of the curse and how this was written beforehand in the law and prophesied as coming, then fulfilled in the Savior, has clearly proved that the law is not alien to the Savior.<br/><i>— PANARION 42.12.3, SECOND REFUTATION OF MARCION</i></p><p><b>Gregory of Nazianzus</b>: It is not that the Lord was changed into these things—for how could that be?—but because he underwent them, \"taking up our transgressions and bearing our sicknesses.\"<br/><i>— LETTER 101.61</i></p><p><b>Irenaeus</b>: And everywhere, when [referring to] the passion of our Lord, and to His human nature, and His subjection to death, he employs the name of Christ, as in that passage: \"Destroy not him with thy meat for whom Christ died.\" And again: \"But now, in Christ, ye who sometimes were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ.\" And again: \"Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us: for it is written, Cursed is every one that hangeth upon a tree.\" And again: \"And through thy knowledge shall the weak brother perish, for whom Christ died;\" indicating that the impassible Christ did not descend upon Jesus, but that He Himself, because He was Jesus Christ, suffered for us; He, who lay in the tomb, and rose again, who descended and ascended,-the Son of God having been made the Son of man, as the very name itself doth declare. For in the name of Christ is implied, He that anoints, He that is anointed, and the unction itself with which He is anointed. And it is the Father who anoints, but the Son who is anointed by the Spirit, who is the unction, as the Word declares by Isaiah, \"The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because He hath anointed me,\"-pointing out both the anointing Father, the anointed Son, and the unction, which is the Spirit.<br/><i>— Against Heresies Book III</i></p><p><b>Jerome</b>: (Verse 13.) Christ redeemed us from the curse of the Law, becoming cursed for us. In this passage, Marcion sneaks in the power of the Creator, whom he slanders as bloody, cruel, and a punisher (or judge), asserting that we are redeemed through Christ, who is the Son of another good God. If he understood the difference between buying and redeeming (because one who buys buys someone else's, but one who redeems properly buys what was his own and ceased to be his), he would never twist the simple words of Scripture to the detriment of his own dogma. Therefore, Christ redeemed us from the curse of the Law, which was established for sinners, whom He Himself reproaches through the prophet, saying: Behold, you are sold for your sins, and I have dismissed your mother for your iniquities (Isa. 50:1). And the apostle repeats this very thing, saying: But I am carnal, sold under sin (Rom. 7:14). The curses of the Law which are written in Leviticus and Deuteronomy are not fulfilled by the authority of God, but by the prophetic spirit, they are announced to those who were going to sin, the things that were going to happen to them. But if the apostles wanted to restrict us by their testimony, saying: Whoever of the works of the Law there are, they are under a curse, for it is written: Cursed is everyone who does not remain in all the things that are written in the book of the Law, to do them (Deut. XXVII, 26), and to assert that all those who were under the Law were cursed, let us ask him whether those who are under the Gospel of Christ and do not follow his commandments are cursed or not. If he speaks evil, he will have in the Gospel what we have in the Law. If he denies the cursed, therefore the precepts of the Gospel will be in vain, and those who fulfill them will be without reward. Both are solved in this way: just as Christ Jesus freed us from the curse of the Law, by becoming a curse for us, so he also delivers us from the curse of the Gospel which is imposed on those who do not fulfill its precepts, by becoming a curse for us himself, knowing not to withhold even the smallest portion of talent, and to demand the last quarter (Matthew 5 and Mark 12).<br/><i>— Commentary on Galatians</i></p><p><b>John Chrysostom</b>: In reality, the people were subject to another curse, which says, \"Cursed is every one that continueth not in the things that are written in the book of the Law.\" To this curse, I say, people were subject, for no man had continued in, or was a keeper of, the whole Law; but Christ exchanged this curse for the other, \"Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree.\" As then both he who hanged on a tree, and he who transgresses the Law, is cursed, and as it was necessary for him who is about to relieve from a curse himself to be free from it, but to receive another instead of it, therefore Christ took upon Him such another, and thereby relieved us from the curse. It was like an innocent man's undertaking to die for another sentenced to death, and so rescuing him from punishment. For Christ took upon Him not the curse of transgression, but the other curse, in order to remove that of others. For, \"He had done no violence neither was any deceit in His mouth.\" And as by dying He rescued from death those who were dying, so by taking upon Himself the curse, He delivered them from it.<br/><i>— Homily on Galatians 3</i></p><p><b>Justin Martyr</b>: Then I replied, \"Just as God commanded the sign to be made by the brazen serpent, and yet He is blameless; even so, though a curse lies in the law against persons who are crucified, yet no curse lies on the Christ of God, by whom all that have committed things worthy of a curse are saved.</p><p>For the whole human race will be found to be under a curse. For it is written in the law of Moses, 'Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things that are written in the book of the law to do them.' And no one has accurately done all, nor will you venture to deny this; but some more and some less than others have observed the ordinances enjoined. But if those who are under this law appear to be under a curse for not having observed all the requirements, how much more shall all the nations appear to be under a curse who practise idolatry, who seduce youths, and commit other crimes? If, then, the Father of all wished His Christ for the whole human family to take upon Him the curses of all, knowing that, after He had been crucified and was dead, He would raise Him up, why do you argue about Him, who submitted to suffer these things according to the Father's will, as if He were accursed, and do not rather bewail yourselves? For although His Father caused Him to suffer these things in behalf of the human family, yet you did not commit the deed as in obedience to the will of God. For you did not practise piety when you slew the prophets. And let none of you say: If His Father wished Him to suffer this, in order that by His stripes the human race might be healed, we have done no wrong. If, indeed, you repent of your sins, and recognise Him to be Christ, and observe His commandments, then you may assert this; for, as I have said before, remission of sins shall be yours. But if you curse Him and them that believe on Him, and, when you have the power, put them to death, how is it possible that requisition shall not be made of you, as of unrighteous and sinful men, altogether hard-hearted and without understanding, because you laid your hands on Him?\"<br/><i>— Dialogue with Trypho, Chapters XCIV-XCV</i></p><p><b>Oecumenius</b>: Paul removes a prevailing contradiction. Abraham, he says, was justified by faith for the very reason that he was among those who existed before the law, not being subject to the yoke of the law. For, he says, faith indeed justifies, let us be persuaded, but those who did not become subject to the law, just like Abraham. But we, having already become subject to the law, if we abandon it and rely on faith alone, who will redeem us from the curse of the law, because it is written, he says, \"Cursed are those who do not remain faithful to the law\"? (Gal. 3:10) This therefore resolves it, showing Christ to have ransomed us from the curse of the law by his own curse.</p><p>And rightly it says, \"Christ redeemed us.\" For having paid the price, himself to become a curse, he has bought us from the curse of the law. See then: we were under a curse because we did not fulfill the law. Christ was not under this curse; for he fulfilled it; and yet he accepted a curse which he did not owe, namely that of being hung on a tree, (quoting Deut. 21:23) in order to free us from our curse. Just as if someone were to ransom those ordered to die by choosing death for them.<br/><i>— Commentary on Galatians</i></p><p><b>Tertullian</b>: Concerning the last step, plainly, of His passion you raise a doubt; affirming that the passion of the cross was not predicted with reference to Christ, and urging, besides, that it is not credible that God should have exposed His own Son to that kind of death; because Himself said, \"Cursed is every one who shall have hung on a tree.\" But the reason of the case antecedently explains the sense of this malediction; for He says in Deuteronomy: \"If, moreover, (a man) shall have been (involved) in some sin incurring the judgment of death, and shall die, and ye shall suspend him on a tree, his body shall not remain on the tree, but with burial ye shall bury him on the very day; because cursed by God is every one who shall have been suspended on a tree; and ye shall not defile the land which the Lord thy God shall give thee for (thy) lot.<br/><i>— An Answer to the Jews</i></p><p><b>Tertullian</b>: On the subject of His death, I suppose, you endeavour to introduce a diversity of opinion, simply because you deny that the suffering of the cross was predicted of the Christ of the Creator, and because you contend, moreover, that it is not to be believed that the Creator would expose His Son to that kind of death on which He had Himself pronounced a curse. \"Cursed,\" says He, \"is every one who hangeth on a tree.\" But what is meant by this curse, worthy as it is of the simple prediction of the cross, of which we are now mainly inquiring, I defer to consider, because in another passage we have given the reason of the thing preceded by proof.<br/><i>— Against Marcion Book III</i></p><p><b>Tertullian</b>: You cannot establish a diversity of authors because there happens to be one of things; for the diversity is itself proposed by one and the same author. Why, however, \"Christ was made a curse for us,\" is declared by the apostle himself in a way which quite helps our side, as being the result of the Creator's appointment.<br/><i>— Against Marcion Book V</i></p><p><b>Tertullian</b>: But yet it by no means follows, because the Creator said of old, \"Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree,\" that Christ belonged to another god, and on that account was accursed even then in the law.<br/><i>— Against Marcion Book V</i></p><p><b>Tertullian</b>: Nay, but you do blaspheme; because you allege not only that the Father died, but that He died the death of the cross. For \"cursed are they which are hanged on a tree,\" -a curse which, after the law, is compatible to the Son (inasmuch as \"Christ has been made a curse for us,\" but certainly not the Father); since, however, you convert Christ into the Father, you are chargeable with blasphemy against the Father.<br/><i>— Against Praxeas</i></p><p><b>Tertullian</b>: But when we assert that Christ was crucified, we do not malign Him with a curse; we only re-affirm the curse pronounced by the law: nor indeed did the apostle utter blasphemy when he said the same thing as we. Besides, as there is no blasphemy in predicating of the subject that which is fairly applicable to it; so, on the other hand, it is blasphemy when that is alleged concerning the subject which is unsuitable to it.<br/><i>— Against Praxeas</i></p><p><b>Tertullian</b>: The Lord Himself was \"cursed\" in the eye of the law; and yet is He the only Blessed One.<br/><i>— Of Patience</i></p><p><b>Tertullian</b>: Why, in this very standing of yours there was a fleeing from persecution, in the release from persecution which you bought; but that you should ransom with money a man whom Christ has ransomed with His blood, how unworthy is it of God and His ways of acting, who spared not His own Son for you, that He might be made a curse for us, because cursed is he that hangeth on a tree, -Him who was led as a sheep to be a sacrifice, and just as a lamb before its shearer, so opened He not His mouth; but gave His back to the scourges, nay, His cheeks to the hands of the smiter, and turned not away His face from spitting, and, being numbered with the transgressors, was delivered up to death, nay, the death of the cross.<br/><i>— On Flight in Persecution</i></p>","source_html_sha256":"986158ea77b0a7187048cd3030e1a9b8a889d62465f38459e0f9dfebd5a96650","source_module":"ECF","source_row_id":5456,"source_url":"https://www.sermonindex.net/commentary/ecf/","text_sha256":"985744b3520030bfabec7ac668ba9b00040f5640f0d50bfd9706e3c4c5ffedfb","translator":null,"work":null}