Commentary on Galatians

“Commentary on the Epistle to the Galatians” (6 chapters) is one of the voluminous Commentaries on the 14 letters of the Apostle Paul, written by Bl. Theodoret of Cyrus later than all his other comments. In the preface, Bl. Theodoret briefly reveals the purpose of the apostolic letter. It is addressed to the Galatian communities who came under the influence of the Jews and began to adhere to the Law of Moses. The Apostle Paul defends his apostolic dignity and denounces the teaching of the Judaizers. True freedom in Christ does not imply anarchy, but rather requires responsibility and life in the spirit. With the coming of Christ, believers become children of God and heirs of the promise. One of the central ideas is the theme of justification by faith. Blzh. Theodoret writes that salvation comes not through works of the law, but through faith in Jesus Christ. The uncultivated and unsown tribe of the Galatians was cultivated by the blessed Paul and sowed in them the seeds of piety. When these seeds grew and promised a bountiful harvest, some of the Jews who believed, came, tried to instill excessive respect for the law, boasting that they had the divine apostles Peter, James and John and all the others as teachers, and boasted that they were doing what was pleasing to them. They slandered the God-wise Paul and said that he was not worthy of the Master’s teaching, but, Having become a disciple of the apostles, he distorts the rule of teaching and, contrary to the apostolic definition, breaks the law. By affirming this and similar things, they convinced many Galatians to love living under the law and to accept circumcision. Therefore, having learned about this, the divine Apostle wrote this epistle, exposing in it the lies of the slander brought against him and showing that after grace, living under the law is unnecessary. And first of all, he speaks about himself, announcing that he, too, received a calling from above, convinced not by human teaching, but by the Master’s voice. Paul speaks about this, not humiliating the apostles, but with decent benefits, healing the disease that had crept into the Galatians. For those who read the epistles know that Paul calls himself a monster, the last of the apostles and the first of sinners, and calls himself a blasphemer, a persecutor and a troublemaker. But here, in order to prevent harm caused to the Galatians, he was forced to speak about himself frankly, both to expose the lies of those who attempted to distort the Gospel, and to heal the illness of those who obeyed the first. You might be interested in: