“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?”
You foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you? Before your very eyes Jesus Christ was clearly portrayed as crucified. — Paul's opening rebuke ('anoetoi' — foolish, senseless) addresses not intellectual deficiency but spiritual deception; 'bewitched' (baskainō — evil eye) suggests occult-like power, and the reference to Christ 'portrayed as crucified' (proegraph ē staurōmenos) indicates that the cross was central to Paul's foundational preaching, making the Galatians' lapse into legalism a repudiation of what they already knew.
Church Fathers on Galatians 3:1
Here he passes to another subject; in the former chapters he had shown himself not to be an Apostle of men, nor by men, nor in want of Apostolic instruction. Now, having established his authority as a teacher, he proceeds to discourse more confidently, and draws a comparison between faith and the Law. At the outset he said, “I marvel that you are so quickly removing;” Galatians 1:6 but here, “O foolish Galatians;” then, his indignation was in its birth, but now, after his…
Nicene & Post-Nicene / Ante-Nicene Fathers translations · public domain
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