The Law versus Grace and the Power of Baptism
To Antioch and to the whole inhabited world. Therefore, it is improper to teach these things to others, from whose care he has turned away and has settled on his own doctrine.
The law of bodily things has the work and the enjoyment: eat this and do not eat that, keep the Sabbath, circumcision (Gal 2:19–21). Grace does not wish to be pleased in you through these things. I have been crucified with these, he says. What need have I of law? I live no longer, but Christ lives in me. What I was living to myself, I was under law. But since Christ lives in me—he who is no longer under law but is in the heavens at the right hand of the Father—he does not negate the one living in me. But what I now live in the flesh, I live in faith. For I believe into the Son of God. And if the Son of God, whom I believe, is at the right hand of the Father, I live as a citizen in the heavens; but the law had the observances for those on earth. Therefore, I am not subject to law.
The law was more burdensome, and a ministry of death was named because of this (Gal 3:19–22). How then was it added because of transgressions, he says? In a short word, it is this: before the law, the mind of men, along with the flesh, served sin and cherished evil; when the law was given, the mind was disciplined, but the flesh was still held captive. Therefore, since the one ignorant of sin, knowing it was sin, treated impiety as piety and attended to it more eagerly, but the one having known that it is evil, this one indeed gains the conscience that it transgresses, and desires to obey God. Because of this, the law was given, which is able to vivify, instead of 'if the law had been given, it would not have been given,' he says, according to the promises of God, but it was not even able to hold fast.
Even if the law provided nothing else, but provided the knowing of God (Gal 3:23). And the knowing of God made ready for the reception of grace.
Not the observance of the law, he says, makes those who believed better than the Gentiles than the Jews, but the power of baptism, providing to clothe oneself with Christ, makes the grace common to all together: barbarians, Greeks, Jews, female, male (Gal 3:27–28). And the female and the male were not merely mixed—insofar as one sought through the word toward what was set before him—but if baptism brings the male and the female differing into one grace, how much more the Greek and the Jew.
Now he wishes to show that after the grace has come, even if someone seems to keep the Sabbath, new moons, and feasts according to the law, just as if a Gentile, being a worshiper of idols, were worshipping the elemental things, he is serving otherwise (Gal 4:8–10). And not
Greek
Ἀντιοχεῦσι καὶ πάσῃ τῇ οἰκουμένῃ. ἀπρεπὲς οὖν ταύτα διδάσκειν ἑτέρους, ὧν τῆς ἐπιμελείας ἀπέστης καὶ ἰδίῳ κατέλυσας δόγματι. Gal 2,19– Ὁ νόμος τῶν σωματικῶν ἔχει τὴν ἐργασίαν καὶ τὴν ἀπόλαυσιν, τόδε φάγε καὶ τόδε μὴ φάγῃς, σάββατον τήρησον, περιτομήν. ἡ χάρις οὐ βούλεταί σε διὰ τούτων εὐδοκιμεῖν. ἐνεκρώθην οὖν, φησί, τούτοις. τί χρείαν ἔχω νόμου; Ζῶ δὲ οὐκέτι ἐγώ, ζῇ δὲ ἐν ἐμοὶ Χριστός. ὃ ἐγὼ ἔζων ἐμαυτῷ, ὑπὸ νόμον ἤμην. ἐπειδὴ δὲ Χριστὸς ζῇ ἐν ἐμοί, ὁ μηκέτι ὑπὸ νόμον ἀλλ' ἐν οὐρανοῖς ἐκ δεξιῶν τοῦ πατρός, οὐκ ἀθετῶ τὸν ἐν ἐμοὶ ζῶντα. Ὃ δὲ νῦν ζῶ ἐν σαρκί, ἐν πίστει ζῶ. πιστεύω γὰρ εἰς τὸν υἱὸν τοῦ θεοῦ. εἰ δὲ ὁ υἱὸς τοῦ θεοῦ ᾧ πιστεύω, ἐν δεξιᾷ τοῦ πατρός, ἐν οὐρανοῖς πολιτεύομαι· ὁ δὲ νόμος ἐν τοῖς ἐπὶ γῆς εἶχε τὰς τηρήσεις. οὐκ ἄρα ὑπόκειμαι νόμῳ. 301 Gal 3,19–22 Ἐβάρει πλέον ὁ νόμος, καὶ διακονία θανάτου διὰ τοῦτο ὠνόμασται. πῶς οὖν τῶν παραβάσεων χάριν προσετέθη, φησίν; ἐν συντόμῳ ῥήματι τοιοῦτόν ἐστιν· πρὸ νόμου καὶ ὁ νοῦς τῶν ἀνθρώπων μετὰ τῆς σαρκὸς ἐδούλευσε τῇ ἁμαρτίᾳ καὶ ἔστεργε τὸ κακόν, δοθέντος τοῦ νόμου ὁ μὲν νοῦς ἐπαιδεύθη, ἡ δὲ σὰρξ ἔτι κατείχετο. ἐπεὶ οὖν ὁ μὲν ἀγνοῶν τὴν ἁμαρτίαν ὅτι ἁμαρτία ἦν, τὴν ἀσέβειαν ὡς εὐσέβειαν μετιὼν καὶ σπουδαιότερον αὐτῇ προσέχει, ὁ δὲ γνοὺς ὅτι κακόν, τοῦτο γοῦν κερδανεῖ τὸ συνειδέναι ὅτι παραβαίνει, καὶ ἐπιθυμεῖ τῷ θεῷ ὑπακοῦσαι. διὰ τοῦτο ἐδόθη νόμος ὁ δυνάμενος ζωοποιῆσαι, ἀντὶ τοῦ εἰ ἐδόθη νόμος, οὐκ ἐδόθη, φησί, κατὰ τῶν ἐπαγγελιῶν τοῦ θεοῦ, ἀλλ' οὐδὲ διὰ παντὸς κρατεῖν ἐδύνατο. Gal 3,23 Εἰ καὶ μηδὲν ἕτερον κατώρθου ὁ νόμος, ἀλλὰ τὸ τὸν θεὸν εἰδέναι παρεῖχεν. τὸ δὲ τὸν θεὸν εἰδέναι ἕτοιμον ἐποίει πρὸς τὴν τῆς χάριτος ὑποδοχήν. Gal 3,27–28 Οὐχ ἡ τοῦ νόμου τήρησις, φησί, βελτίονας ποιεῖ τοὺς πιστεύσαντας τῶν ἀπὸ τῶν ἐθνῶν τοὺς Ἰουδαίους, ἀλλ' ἡ δύναμις τοῦ βαπτίσματος τὸ Χριστὸν ἐνδύσασθαι παρέχουσα, κοινὴν ποιεῖ τὴν χάριν πάντων ὁμοῦ, βαρβάρων, Ἑλλήνων, Ἰουδαίων, θήλεος, ἄρρενος. οὐχ ἁπλῶς δὲ παρέμιξε τὸ θῆλυ καὶ τὸ ἄρρεν–ὅσον γὰρ εἷς τῷ ῥήματι ἐζήτει πρὸς τὸ προκείμενον–, ἀλλ' εἰ τὸ ἄρρεν καὶ τὸ θῆλυ διαφέρον εἰς μίαν χάριν συνάγει τὸ βάπτισμα, πόσῳ μᾶλλον Ἕλληνα καὶ Ἰουδαῖον. Gal 4,8–10 Νῦν βούλεται δεῖξαι ὅτι μετὰ τὸ τὴν χάριν ἐλθεῖν, κἂν δοκῇ τις κατὰ νόμον σάββατον τηρεῖν καὶ νεομηνίας καὶ ἑορτάς, ὥσπερ εἰδωλολατρεῖ τοῖς στοιχείοις οἷς ἐθρήσκευεν ἐθνικὸς ὤν, ἄλλως δουλεύων. καὶ οὐ
About this text
Severian on Galatians: why Christians are free from the law, and what freedom is for.
Original English Translation of Severianus of Gabala’s Fragmenta in epistulam ad Galatas — new OET from PG 65 Greek.
Catalogue & scope
Khazarzar scan
Witnesses
- Copy-text PG 65 (Khazarzar) (Greek)
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.