Lecture 3 — Circumcision attempts to avoid the cross

^6:11^ See what a letter I have written to you with my own hand. [n. 365]

^6:12^ For those who desire to please in the flesh constrain you to be circumcised, only that they may not suffer the persecution of the cross of Christ. [n. 367]

^6:13^ For neither they themselves who are circumcised keep the law: but they will have you be circumcised, that they may glory in your flesh. [n. 369]

365. After admonishing the Galatians how to behave towards men who are upright and just, the Apostle here teaches them how to act toward heretics and the perverse.

First, he insinuates the way he is writing the admonition;

second, he sets forth the admonition, at for those who.

366. As to the first, it should be noted that heretics were wont to distort and falsify the canonical Scriptures and append things that savored of heresy. Because of this, whenever the Apostle wrote anything against them, he followed the practice of writing something at the end of the epistle, so that it could not be distorted. In this way it could be known that it came from him with full knowledge of its contents. Thus in 1 Corinthians he says: the salutation of me, Paul, with my own hand (1 Cor 16:21). For he allowed the entire epistle to be written by someone else at his dictation; then, at the end, he added something in his own hand. According to this procedure, then, whatever followed from that place on, Paul wrote in his own hand. Hence he says; see what a letter I have written to you with my own hand; to the end, namely, that you might firmly hold to the foregoing, and that knowing this epistle is sent by me, you might obey better.

In this way, then, prelates ought to write in their own hand, so that what they teach by word and script, they may show by example. Hence it is said in Isaiah: I have graven you in my hands, i.e., works (Isa 49:16); and it is said of Moses that he descended carrying two stone tablets written by the finger of God (Exod 32:15).

367. He then follows with the admonition, saying, for those who desire to please in the flesh constrain you to be circumcised.

First, he exposes the intention of the seducers;

second, he shows that his intention is contrary to theirs, at but God forbid that I should glory (Gal 6:14);

third, he adds his warning to those who are subject to him, at **and whoever shall follow this rule **(Gal 6:16).

Regarding the first, he does two things:

first, he discloses the evil intention of the seducers;

second, he proves what he says, at for neither they themselves.

368. Concerning the first, he lays down one fact and two intentions that are mutually related. The fact concerns those who urged circumcision, from which they intended two things, one for the sake of the other; namely, that they might thereby please the Jews for having introduced the observances of the law in the Church of the gentiles. And this is what he says: those who desire to please, namely, the unbelieving Jews, they constrain you to be circumcised not by absolute force, but, as it were, by placing a condition, saying: unless you are circumcised after the manner of Moses, you cannot be saved (Acts 15:1).

They further intended to derive some security from this. For the Jews persecuted the disciples of Christ, because of the preaching of the cross: but we preach Christ crucified, unto the Jews, indeed, a stumbling-block, and unto the gentiles, foolishness (1 Cor 1:23). And this because through the preaching of the cross the works of the law were made void. For if the apostles had preached, along with the cross of Christ, that the legal ceremonies were to be observed, the Jews would not have persecuted the apostles. Hence he said: and I, brethren, if I yet preach circumcision, why do I yet suffer persecution? (Gal 5:11). Therefore, in order to escape persecution from the Jews, some urged circumcision. So he says: and they do this for the only reason that they may not suffer the persecution of the cross of Christ, a persecution which is inflicted because of the cross of Christ.

Or they did this to escape the persecution not only of the Jews but of the gentile unbelievers. For the Roman emperors, Gaius Caesar and Octavius Augustus, promulgated laws that wherever there were Jews, they might observe their own rite and ceremonies. Consequently, anyone who believed in Christ and was not circumcised was subject to persecution from the gentiles and Jews. Therefore, in order that they might not be troubled because of their faith in Christ and that they might live in peace, they constrained them to be circumcised, as is mentioned in a Gloss.

369. But because the false brethren might say that they urged circumcision not for that reason, but solely because of their zeal for the law, then excluding this, he proves his proposition thus, when he says: for neither they themselves who are circumcised keep the law.

For it is obvious that if through zeal for the law they urged certain ones to observe the law, they should also command the law to be fulfilled in other matters. But neither those who are circumcised nor the false brethren keep the law in other matters, namely, in moral matters, which are more important in the law, and in other observances: none of you keeps the law (John 7:19). Therefore it was not from zeal for the law that they urged circumcision: circumcision profits, indeed, if you keep law (Rom 2:25). But the reason why they will have you be circumcised is that in your flesh, i.e., in your fleshly circumcision, they may glory among the Jews for making so many proselytes: woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites; because you go round about the sea and the land to make one proselyte; and when he is made, you make him the child of hell twofold more than yourselves (Matt 23:15).