“This only would I learn of you, Received ye the Spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith?”
I would like to learn just one thing from you: Did you receive the Spirit by observing the law, or by believing what you heard? — Paul's rhetorical question is pedagogical: the Galatians' own experience of Spirit reception ('lambano pneuma') through faith ('akoe pisteos' — hearing of faith) is the empirical refutation of the Judaizers' claim that law-observance is necessary for Christian standing; their conversion was manifestly grace-powered, not law-achieved.
Church Fathers on Galatians 3:2
“This only would I learn from you, Did you receive the Spirit by the works of the Law, or by the hearing of faith?” As you do not attend, says he, to long discourses, nor are willing to contemplate the magnitude of this Economy, I am desirous, (seeing your extreme ignorance,) to convince you by concise arguments and a summary method of proof. Before, he had convinced them by what he said to Peter; now, he encounters them entirely with arguments, drawn not from what had…
Nicene & Post-Nicene / Ante-Nicene Fathers translations · public domain
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