Fragments on the Letter to the Galatians · §2 · Gennadius of Constantinople

The law as a protective wall until justification by faith

Click or tap any sentence to jump there. The side buttons skip a paragraph.

Gennadius is explaining why the law was given, arguing that it was not meant to nullify the blessings but to restrain sin until the justification by faith was revealed.

It is not possible, then, nor even reasonable, to say that the law was given to nullify the blessings (Galatians 3:21). Since it was not from the beginning but later that God saw fit for us to enjoy justification by grace, Paul says, our nature was for a time being walled around by laws, hindered and held back from every activity of sin, so that, fit and ready, we might be released from the fortress of the law for the justification being opened up through faith (Galatians 3:23).

Greek

{Gal 3,21} Οὐ τοίνυν ἐνδεχόμενον ἀλλ' οὐδὲ εὔλογον ἐπ' ἀναιρέσει τῶν εὐλογιῶν

δεδόσθαι φάναι τὸν νόμον. {Gal 3,23}Ἐπειδὴ τοίνυν, φησίν, οὐκ ἐξ ἀρχῆς ἀλλ'

ὕστερον. χάριτι τῆς δικαιώσεως ἡμᾶς ἦν θεῷ δοκοῦν ἀπολαῦσαι, εἰκότως τέως

νόμοις ἡ φύσις ἡμῶν περιετειχίζετο κωλυομένη τε καὶ ἀναχαιτιζομένη πρὸς ἑκάστης

ἁμαρτίας ἐνέργειαν, ἵνα εἰς τὴν διὰ πίστεως ἀναπεταννυμένην δικαίωσιν εὐτρεπεῖς

ἐκ τοῦ φρουρίου τοῦ κατὰ νόμον ἀπολυθείημεν.

About this text

A few notes on Galatians: Christ as the one mediator for all nations, the Law as a wall until faith came, and what the "elemental principles" are.

Gennadius of Constantinople (d. 471) was patriarch from 458. This file holds his fragments on the Letter to the Galatians, not a full commentary.

Moses mediated the law for one nation. The mediator for every nation is Christ, truly God and truly human, who makes the two one. The law was not given to cancel the promise. It walled people in until justification by faith.

Paul's elemental principles are not the sun and the moon. They are the first lessons of the law, or the observances of days, water, and fire. Gennadius notes a strange remark of Eusebius in the fourth book of the Proof of the Gospel, then Paul's warning that some welcome the Galatians only to shut them out.

Printed text used

Translated from PG 85 (Greek)

This work has passed this project's source check. This is an AI-assisted study translation. Source fidelity and completeness have not been independently certified. Open Greek on each section for the source text. This is not a complete critical edition.