{"author":null,"canonical_references":[],"database_sha256":"8cfbe7284c6936871d57c02dc6aa63ebbdfd4722422d539dd9f716e46e91112e","date_end":null,"date_start":null,"edition_year":null,"id":"sermonindex-ecf-5405","native_reference":{"book_number":550,"chapter_from":1,"chapter_to":1,"system":"MyBible module coordinates (mapping unverified)","verse_from":6,"verse_to":6},"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>Augustine of Hippo</b>: If it were another gospel other than the one that the Lord has given through himself or through some other, it would not be a gospel.<br/><i>— EPISTLE TO THE Galatians 4 [1B.1.6-9]</i></p><p><b>Cyprian</b>: Finally, this seditious practice has already begun to appear; for in our province, through some of its cities, an attack has been made by the multitude upon their rulers, and they have compelled that peace to be given to them immediately which they all cried out had been once given to them by the martyrs and confessors. Their rulers, being frightened and subdued, were of little avail to resist them, either by vigour of mind or by strength of faith. With us, moreover, some turbulent spirits, who in time past were with difficulty governed by me, and were delayed till my coming, were inflamed by this letter as if by a firebrand, and began to be more violent, and to extort the peace granted to them. I have sent a copy to you of the letters that I wrote to my clergy about these matters, and, moreover, what Caldonius, my colleague, of his integrity and faithfulness wrote, and what I replied to him. I have sent both to you to read. Copies also of the letter of Celerinus, the good and stout confessor, which he wrote to Lucian the same confessor-also what Lucian replied to him,-I have sent to you; that you may know both my labour in respect of everything, and my diligence, and might learn the truth itself, how moderate and cautious is Celerinus the confessor, and how reverent both in his humility and fear for our faith; while Lucian, as I have said, is less skilful concerning the understanding of the Lord's word, and by his facility, is mischievous on account of the dislike that he causes for my reverential dealing. For while the Lord has said that the nations are to be baptized in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, and their past sins are to be done away in baptism; this man, ignorant of the precept and of the law, commands peace to be granted and sins to be done away in the name of Paulus; and he says that this was commanded him by Paulus, as you will observe in the letter sent by the same Lucian to Celerinus, in which he very little considered that it is not martyrs that make the Gospel, but that martyrs are made by the Gospel; since Paul also, the apostle whom the Lord called a chosen vessel unto Him, laid down in his epistle: \"I marvel that ye are so soon removed from Him that called you into the grace of Christ, unto another gospel: which is not another; but there be some that trouble you, and would pervert the Gospel of Christ. But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed. As we said before, so say I now again, If any man preach any other gospel unto you than that ye have received, let him be accursed.\"<br/><i>— Epistle XXII</i></p><p><b>Jerome</b>: Not another gospel, because all that is false is insubstantial, and that which is contrary to truth finally has no existence.<br/><i>— EPISTLE TO THE Galatians 1.1.6</i></p><p><b>Jerome</b>: The word for \"being carried away\" is first found in Genesis where God carries Enoch away and he is not found. … The one whom God carries away is not found by his enemies … but he whom the devil carries away is carried into that which appears to be but is not.<br/><i>— EPISTLE TO THE Galatians 1.1.6</i></p><p><b>Jerome</b>: (Verse 6) I am amazed that you are so quickly shifting away from him who called you into the grace of Christ Jesus, to a different gospel which is not another. There are some who are confusing you and want to pervert the gospel of Christ. We read about the word 'translation' first in Genesis (Gen. 5), where Enoch was translated by God and was not found. And in the books of Kings afterwards (1 Kings 21), when Ahab turned his wife Jezebel from the worship of God to the worship of idols, to do all that the Amorites did, whom the Lord destroyed before the face of the children of Israel. But since there are two translations, one is from God, the other from the devil. Whoever is translated by God is not found by his enemies: nor can the deceiver ambush him. For I think that this signifies and is not found. But whoever is translated by the devil, in this he is translated because he appears to be, but is not. Moreover, the wise men of the world call those who are translated from one teaching to another, translated, like that Dionysius (whose opinion was that pain is not evil: after being overwhelmed by misfortunes and pain of torment, he began to affirm that pain is the greatest of all evils) was called Transposed by them, or Translated, because departing from his previous decree, he fell into the opposite. And so Paul marvels, first because they have been transferred from the freedom of the Gospel to the servitude of legal works. Secondly, because they have been transferred so quickly: for it is not easy to be transferred away from someone's guilt, and to be transferred quickly; just as in martyrdom, not the same punishment is inflicted on one who immediately jumps to denial without struggle and torture, and on one who, between stakes, ropes, and fires, distorted and compelled, denies what he believed. The preaching of the Gospel was still recent, not much time had passed since the Apostle had led the Galatians from idols to Christ. He wonders how quickly they have turned away from Him, to whom they had recently become Christians. And the place itself is remarkable, which can be read in its proper order: I wonder that you are so quickly transferring yourselves from Christ Jesus, who called you by his grace, saying: I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance (Mark 2:17). For by grace you have been saved, through faith; and this is not of yourselves, it is the gift of God. (Ephesians 2:8) But, he says, you have been transferred to another Gospel, which is not another: because everything that is false does not stand, and what is contrary to the truth does not exist, like this: 'Do not give, O Lord, your scepter to those who are not.' (Esther 14:12) And the things that were not, God called into being, in order to make what is not. But if this is said about those who believed in the same God and had the same Scriptures, that they have been transferred to another Gospel, which is not the Gospel, what should we think about Marcion and other heretics, who reject the Creator and falsely pretend to be followers of another God, Christ? Those who do not adhere to the interpretation of the law and letter, or engage in the battle between flesh and spirit, fall and crumble, but they are in discord with the entire authority of the Church. But beautifully he says: Unless there are some who trouble you and want to pervert the Gospel of Christ. They want, he says, to change, pervert, and trouble the Gospel of Christ: but they are not able. For it is the nature of this Gospel that it cannot be anything other than true. Everyone who interprets the Gospel with a different spirit and mind than what is written, disturbs and perverts the Gospel of Christ, turning what is in front into what is behind, and what is behind into what is in front. If someone follows only the letter, they put the later things in the face. If someone relies on Jewish interpretations, they send behind those things which are established in their nature in the face. Moreover, it is appropriately said that the word 'translation' is adapted to the Galatians: for Galatia in our language means 'translation'.<br/><i>— Commentary on Galatians</i></p><p><b>John Chrysostom</b>: \"I marvel that ye are so quickly removing from Him that called you in the grace of Christ, unto a different Gospel.\"</p><p>Like the Jews who persecuted Christ, they imagined their observance of the Law was acceptable to the Father, and he therefore shows that in doing this they displeased not only Christ, but the Father also, for that they fell away thereby not from Christ only, but from the Father also. As the old covenant was given not by the Father only, but also by the Son, so the covenant of grace proceeded from the Father as well as the Son, and Their every act is common: \"All things whatsoever the Father hath are Mine.\" By saying that they had fallen off from the Father, he brings a twofold charge against them, of an apostasy, and of an immediate apostasy. The opposite extreme, a late apostasy, is also blameworthy, but he who falls away at the first onset, and in the very skirmishing, displays an example of the most extreme cowardice, of which very thing he accuses them also saying: \"How is this that your seducers need not even time for their designs, but the first approaches suffice for your overthrow and capture? And what excuse can ye have? If this is a crime among friends, and he who deserts old and useful associates is to be condemned, consider what punishment he is obnoxious to who revolts from God that called him.\"<br/><i>— Homily on Galatians 1</i></p><p><b>John Chrysostom</b>: He says, \"I marvel,\" not only by way of reproof, that after such bounty, such a remission of their sins, such overflowing kindness, they had deserted to the yoke of servitude, but also in order to show, that the opinion he had had of them was a favorable and exalted one. For, had he ranked them among ordinary and easily deceived persons, he would not have felt surprise. \"But since you,\" he says, \"are of the noble sort and have suffered much, I do marvel.\" Surely this was enough to recover and lead them back to their first expressions. He alludes to it also in the middle of the Epistle, \"Did ye suffer so many things in vain? if it be indeed in vain.\" \"Ye are removing;\" he says not, \"ye are removed,\" that is, \"I will not believe or suppose that your seduction is complete;\" this is the language of one about to recover them, which further on he expresses yet more clearly in the words, \"I have confidence to you-ward in the Lord that ye will be none otherwise minded.\"<br/><i>— Homily on Galatians 1</i></p><p><b>John Chrysostom</b>: \"From Him that called you in the grace of Christ.\"</p><p>The calling is from the Father, but the cause of it is the Son. He it is who hath brought about reconciliation and bestowed it as a gift, for we were not saved by works in righteousness: or I should rather say that these blessings proceed from Both; as He says, \"Mine are Thine, and Thine are Mine.\" He says not \"ye are removing from the Gospel\" but \"from God who called you,\" a more frightful expression, and more likely to affect them. Their seducers did not act abruptly but gradually, and while they removed them from the faith in fact, left names unchanged. It is the policy of Satan not to set his snares in open view; had they urged them to fall away from Christ, they would have been shunned as deceivers and corrupters, but suffering them so far to continue in the faith, and putting upon their error the name of the Gospel, without fear they undermined the building employing the terms which they used as a sort of curtain to conceal the destroyers themselves. As therefore they gave the name of Gospel to this their imposture, he contends against the very name, and boldly says, \"unto a different Gospel.\"<br/><i>— Homily on Galatians 1</i></p><p><b>John Damascene</b>: This, he says, has raised within me much surprise, because those who were taught the mystery of grace in such a way that they could become teachers of others, were so easily persuaded by deceivers.</p><p><b>John Damascene</b>: Just as Peter says, that \"there is no other name under heaven given to men, whereby we must be saved\" (Acts 4:12).</p><p><b>Oecumenius</b>: Two sins: transferring blame, and doing so quickly, as if deceivers needed no time. Observe carefully. Since they thought to appease the Father by holding to the law, he showed that one who departs from Christ and the Gospel also departs from the Father. For the Father himself, he says, has called us to the grace of his Son. For the Son bestows remission by his blood, by grace and not by merit, for the Father calls to this; truly the Spirit consents. Indeed, it is a common benefit toward us of the holy and blessed Trinity.</p><p>\"to a different gospel.\" For they called their deception a \"gospel\", persuading the Galatians to observe things like Sabbaths and circumcision, using the name as bait.<br/><i>— Commentary on Galatians</i></p><p><b>Tertullian</b>: They bear in mind how the churches were rebuked by the apostle: \"O foolish Galatians, who hath bewitched you? \" and, \"Ye did run so well; who hath hindered you? \" and how the epistle actually begins: \"I marvel that ye are so soon removed from Him, who hath called you as His own in grace, to another gospel.\" That they likewise (remember), what was written to the Corinthians, that they \"were yet carnal,\" who \"required to be fed with milk,\" being as yet \"unable to bear strong meat; \" who also \"thought that they knew somewhat, whereas they knew not yet anything, as they ought to know.<br/><i>— The Prescription Against Heretics</i></p><p><b>Tertullian</b>: When, again, he mentioned \"certain false brethren as having crept in unawares,\" who wished to remove the Galatians into another gospel, he himself shows that that adulteration of the gospel was not meant to transfer them to the faith of another god and christ, but rather to perpetuate the teaching of the law; because he blames them for maintaining circumcision, and observing times, and days, and months, and years, according to those Jewish ceremonies which they ought to have known were now abrogated, according to the new dispensation purposed by the Creator Himself, who of old foretold this very thing by His prophets.<br/><i>— Against Marcion Book I</i></p><p><b>Tertullian</b>: Since also he makes mention of no other god (and he could have found no other opportunity of doing so, more suitable than when his purpose was to set forth the reason for the abolition of the law-especially as the prescription of a new god would have afforded a singularly good and most sufficient reason), it is clear enough in what sense he writes, \"I marvel that ye are so soon removed from Him who hath called you to His grace to another gospel\" -He means) \"another\" as to the conduct it prescribes, not in respect of its worship; \"another\" as to the discipline it teaches, not in respect of its divinity; because it is the office of Christ's gospel to call men from the law to grace, not from the Creator to another god.<br/><i>— Against Marcion Book V</i></p><p><b>Tertullian</b>: Is he then the same God as He who gave Satan power over the person of Job that his \"strength might be made perfect in weakness? \" How is it that the censurer of the Galatians still retains the very formula of the law: \"In the mouth of two or three witnesses shall every word be established? \" How again is it that he threatens sinners \"that he will not spare\" them -he, the preacher of a most gentle god? Yea, he even declares that \"the Lord hath given to him the power of using sharpness in their presence!\" Deny now, O heretic, (at your cost, ) that your god is an object to be feared, when his apostle was for making himself so formidable!<br/><i>— Against Marcion Book V</i></p><p><b>Theodoret of Cyrus</b>: He is saying, \"You have not departed from this teaching to that but from the one who called you.… The very Father who gave the law is the one who called you to this gospel.… And if you desert this gospel, you will not find another. For the Lord does not preach some things through us and others through the other apostles.\"<br/><i>— EPISTLE TO THE Galatians 1.6-7</i></p>","source_html_sha256":"79c9e92f6a3870182ed237eda326bb523fe2ad121b34948b80cbef9b71a14c81","source_module":"ECF","source_row_id":5405,"source_url":"https://www.sermonindex.net/commentary/ecf/","text_sha256":"ed408580649d225e06bfbc0acc0a3c0b7fe2b65c59b1e9e233da40c48431e082","translator":null,"work":null}