D. PAUL TO THE GALATIANS. CHAP. I.

It is shameful to fall from what has been acknowledged. The cause of the most shameful fall is cast back upon the malice and fraud of the pseudo-apostles. 1. The sin of the pseudo-apostles is to disturb the church and wound the consciences of the nations. 2. The sin of the pseudo-apostles is to remove the gospel of Christ; the grace of Christ is annulled: which blasphemy pertains to the insult of God the Father and the Son Jesus Christ. He proves by three reasons that there is no other gospel than that which he himself handed down. 1. The reason is derived from an execration or a cursed devotion. 1 Cor. 4. σῖγμα βαγναταω περιήμα the filth of the world / the offscouring of all things. 4. The Apostle Paul calls it a reason. Anathema accursed/devoted to destruction is the extreme for the Jews and from the testimony:

(Unless there are some who disturb you and wish to invert the gospel of Christ.) Through rhetorical transposition, he casts the blame for the error of the Galatians upon the pseudo-apostles. And this seems to be a place of benevolence, since he does not impute the fall to the Galatians primarily, but rather to the pseudo-apostles. There is a certain contempt present when he says, "some," not naming them pseudo-apostles or marking them in another way. He rightly says that the pseudo-apostles disturb and move others who had been at rest: for indeed, in Acts 15, certain such men—against whom this epistle is argued—contending that salvation could not reach men unless they were circumcised, stirred up marvelous disturbances and seditions. Where once the evangelical doctrine has been rightly handed down, through which consciences are properly tranquilized, and afterwards others arrive who, using probable arguments, bring forward certain other things and propose them as if they were necessary for salvation, it cannot be that the inexperienced will not be disturbed. By the same reason today, through those who condemn the evangelical doctrine of justification by faith, and attempt to obtrude their own dogmas of justification by works, marvelous disturbances are stirred up in the church; even they themselves impute the cause of all disturbances to us who bring forward justification by faith. But furthermore, from their false doctrine, a huge disturbance of consciences also arises. For when the law or works are urged, and a man sees that he can in no way sufficiently perform what he ought, and what would suffice to satisfy for sins, what else is he driven to than to finally despair with a disturbed mind? From which it is clear what the distinction is between evangelical doctrine and false doctrine: the latter disturbs minds and moves seditions; the former tranquilizes and calls back to peace. But he says the same ones invert the gospel of Christ. He shows here that there is no other gospel, but that they want to invert, change, distort, and snatch into something different that which had been handed down pure and perfect. But this was done by those who contended that the law was necessary for salvation, which was clearly to remove the grace of Christ offered in the gospel. To assert that works are necessary where faith suffices, or to permit the law or human philosophy alongside the gospel, is to invert the gospel. Furthermore, the same thing is done by those who, with great injury to the Holy Spirit, deprave Scripture or distort it to confirm false dogmas, or even now attempt to introduce into the church the same doctrine that the pseudo-apostles were attempting to introduce at that time.

(But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach a gospel to you besides that which we have preached to you, let him be anathema.) He confirms with great authority and an added horrible devotion or execration that there is no other gospel than what he himself handed down. He uses an Enthymema a rhetorical argument based on a logical premise against the adversaries, from the greater to the less, in this way: You ought not to hear myself or an angel from heaven preaching something else than what I have hitherto taught. Therefore, much less should you hear those whom we admit. There is a reason of increment in what he adds about an Angel, so that he might signify most fully that nothing can be brought forward by anyone, however excellent, for a true gospel which would fight with that doctrine which he himself had previously handed down. And perhaps he notes the pseudo-apostles, who dared to confirm their own vain dogmas by saying that they had been taught by some angel and ordered to bring them into the public light. This is truly done with modesty—although all things were said with a more ardent affection—that the apostle does not say hatefully, "If this one or that one preaches another thing to you," by touching upon the names of the pseudo-apostles (which he could have done by right), but places himself in the first place, wishing himself to be made anathema if he were to sin in that part. Anathema, as we have noted elsewhere, is devoted, sacred, reprobated, rejected, which they receive through a curse. Thus in the last chapter of Leviticus. Men are accustomed to be called sacred whose heads are dedicated and devoted to the gods of the underworld. The ancient Latins, in this manner, called a person devoted to evil, "sacred," that he may be killed and not permitted to live. The sentence of Paul is therefore: Whoever shall have taught otherwise, even I myself would do it, let him be cursed, devoted to all curses.

(As we have said before, and now I say again: If anyone preaches to you a gospel besides that which you have received, let him be anathema.) That he might inculcate it the more strongly, and not seem to have spoken so from his mind in a minor way, he repeats the sentence with great ardor through an Anadiplosis the repetition of the last word of a line or clause to begin the next. But a change of persons is to be noted here. For in the previous sentence he said: "besides that which we preached"; here, however, he says, "besides that which you have received." But that seems to have been done on purpose, lest the Galatians say that they were not hearing a different gospel, but only understanding it more clearly than before the testimony.

3. The reason confirming the asseveration, constant by repetition. We repeat those things which we wish to be held as ratified and certain, which it is a sin to contradict. This manner of asserting is familiar in the speech of men.