Commentary on Galatians Ephesians Philippians Colossians Thessalonians Timothy Titus and Philemon John Calvin (continued)
Chapter
Galatians 3:1-5
Galatians 3:1-5
1. O foolish Galatians, who hath bewitched you, that ye should not obey the truth, before whose eyes Jesus Christ hath been evidently set forth, crucified among you?
1. O stulti Galatae, quis vos fascinavit, ut non obediatis veritati? quibus ante oculos Iesus Christus depictus est inter vos crucifixus.
2. This only would I learn of you, Received ye the Spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith?
2. Hoc solum volo discere a vobis: Ex operibus Legis Spiritum accepistis, an ex praedicatione fidei?
3. Are ye so foolish? having begun in the Spirit, are ye now made perfect by the flesh?
3. Ita stulti estis, ut, exorsi a Spiritu, nunc carne eonsummemini? 4. Have ye suffered so many things in vain? if it be yet in vain. 4. Tanta passi estis frustra? si tamen etiam frustra. 5. He therefore that ministereth to you the Spirit, and worketh miracles among you, doeth he it by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith?
5. Qui ergo subministrat vobis Spiritum, et operatur in vobis virtutes; ex operibus legis, an ex praedieatione fidei id (facit)?
1. O foolish Galatians. An expostulation is here interwoven --- I should rather say, inserted --- amidst his doctrinal statements. Some will wonder that he did not delay it to the close of the Epistle, but the very serious nature of the errors which he has brought forward unquestionably roused him to a burst of passion. When we hear that the Son of God, with all his benefits, is rejected, that his death is esteemed as nothing, what pious mind would not break out into indignation? He therefore declares that those who allowed themselves to be involved in so heinous a crime must have been {ἀνόητοι}, that is, ``disordered in mind.'' He accuses them not only of having suffered themselves to be deceived, but of having been carried away by some sort of magical enchantment, 67 which is a still more serious charge. He insinuates that their fall partook
67"{Βασκαίνειν}, `to enchant, to fascinate, to delude by magical charms,' --- -rather an uncommon word, {ἃπαξ} {λεγόμενον} in the New Testament. It may amuse to notice the etumon of the word. Some grammarians have strangely thought it derived from {φάεσι} {καίνειν}, `to kill with the eyes.' Its true etymology obviously is, {βάω}, {βάσκω}, {βασκάω} {βασκαίνω}. {βάσκω} (equivalent to {φάσκω},), `to say, to speak,' comes, in the form {βασκαίνω}, to signify {κακολογεῖν}, `to calumniate,' then `to deceive,' then `to deceive