The life and work of St. Paul

436 THE LIFE AND WOSK OF ST. PATTL.
obligations ; vet this death is life not mine, however, but the life of Christ in me \
and so far as I now live in the flesh, I live in faith on the Son of God who loved me,
and gave Himself up for me. I am not. therefore, Betting at nought the grace of
God by proclaiming my freedom from the Levitical Law ; you are doing that, not I ;
" for had righteousness been at all possible by Law, then it seems Christ's death wag
superfluous." 1
He hag now sufficiently vindicated his independent Apostleship, and since
this nullification of the death of Christ was tho practical issue of the Gal at ia a
retrogression into Jewish ritualism, he passes naturally to the doctrinal truth
on which he had also touched in his greeting, and he does eo with a second
burst of surprise and indignation :
.
" 2 Dull Galatians ! who bewitched you with his evij eye, you before whcss eyes
Jesus Christ crucified was conspicuously painted ? 3 This is the only thing I vrarit
to learn of you; received ye the Spirit as a result of works of Law, or of faithful
hearing ? Are ye so utterly dull ? After beginning the sacred rite spiritually, will
ye complete it carnally ? Did ye go through so many experiences ia vain ?* ii it beindeed
iu vain. He then that abundantly supplieth to you the Spirit, and worketh
powers in you, does he do so as a result of works of Law or of faithful hearing ? Of
faith surely just as ' Abraham believed God and it was accounted to him for righteousness.'
Eecogniae then that they who start from faith, they are sons of Abraham.
5 And the Scripture foreseeing that God justifies the Gentiles as a result of faith,'
preached to Abraham as an anticipation of the Gospel, ' In thee shall all the Gentiles
be blessed.' So they who start from faith are blessed with the faithful Abraham.
For as many as start from works of law are under a curse. For it stands written,
'
Cursed is every one who does not abide by all the things written in tho book of the
Law to do them.' But that by Law no man is justified with God is clear because
' The just shall live by faith.' But the Law is not of faith, but (of works, for
its formula is) he that doth these things shall live by them. Christ ransomed us
from the curse of the Law, becoming on our behalf a curse, since it is written.
' Cursed is every one who hangeth on a tree '
7 that the blessing of Abraham may
by Christ Jesus accrue to the Gentiles, that we may receive the promise of the Spirit
by means of faith."'
Then came some of the famous arguments by which he establishes these
weighty doctrines arguments incomparably adapted to convince thcsa to
1 ii. 1121. For an examination of this paragraph, v. supra-, pp. 250, 251.
2 iii. 1, avdjjToii as in Luke xxiv. 25. So far from being dull in things not spiritual,
Themistius calls them 6| *ol ayxiVot xal cVfia&aTopot ruv ayai 'KAXrji/wv (Plat. 23).
3 If irpaypdtjxa has here tho same sense as in Rom. xv. 4, Eph. iii. 3, Jude 4, it :nuai
"
mean "prophesied of ; but this gives far weaker turn to the clause.
a_
4 iii. 4, eTro&re seems here to have its more general sense, as in Mark v. 28 ; if iha
common sense " suffered " be retained, it must cllude to troubles caused by Judaisers.
* A Hebraic personification. "What saw the Scripture?" is a Rabbinic formula
Schottg. ad loc.). The passages on which the argument is founded are Gen. xv. 6 ;
(xii. 3 5 Deut. xxvii. 26 ; xxi. 23 ; Lev. xviii. 5 ; Hab. ii. 4. The reasoning will be t jttc.
understood from 2 Cor. v. 1521 ; Rom. vi. 323.
9
IK wiVrctoT, "from faith " as a cause ; or SiA rrjs irurreut, per filler^ "by means of
"
faith aa an instrument ; never Sia. wlimv, propter Jidem, " on account of faith " as a
merit.
7 The original reference is to the exposure of the body on a stake after death (Deut.
xxi. 23; Josh. x. 26). St. Paul omits the words "of God" after "cursed," which
would have
required long explanation, for the notion that it meant " a curse, or insuli
%gainst God " is a later uoss. Hence the Talmud speaks of Christ as "the hung " %
v
(