“For I testify again to every man that is circumcised, that he is a debtor to do the whole law.”
Again I declare to every man who lets himself be circumcised that he is obligated to obey the whole law. — Paul's legal logic is unforgiving: circumcision ('peritemnō') obligates ('opheiletes' — bound as debtor) the one circumcised to keep 'holos nomos' (the whole law), every commandment, an impossible burden that circumcision sets in motion.
Church Fathers on Galatians 5:3
“Yea, I testify again to every man that receives circumcision that he is a debtor to do the whole Law.” That you may not suppose that this is spoken from ill-will , I say not to you alone, he says, but to every one who receives circumcision, that he is a debtor to do the whole Law. The parts of the Law are linked one to the other. As he who from being free has enrolled himself as a slave, no longer does what he pleases, but is bound by all the laws of slavery, so in the case…
Nicene & Post-Nicene / Ante-Nicene Fathers translations · public domain
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