But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed.
All Commentaries on Galatians 1:8 Go To Galatians 1
Cornelius a Lapide
AD 1637
But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed. Understand. If that can be done; for, as a matter of fact, it is impossible, for the angels are established as in bliss so in all truth. It is an hyperbole, like that in1Cor13:i.: "Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels." S. Jerome quotes here a happy remark of Tertullian directed against Apelles and his virgin Philumena, which latter was filled by some perverse angel with an evil spirit, to the effect that this was an angel who, long before Apelles was born, was described as accursed by the Holy Spirit, speaking through, the Apostle. Such was the angel who taught Luther, and instructed Zwingli on the Eucharist, and about whom the latter writes, that he did not know whether it was black or white. But it is certain that it was a black angel, and that against it was directed the Apostle"s anathema, as against one introducing a new Gospel, a new faith, and new dogmas, contrary to the accepted creed.
Observe how great is the certainty of the faith preached by the Apostles, confirmed by God by so many signs and miracles, and transmitted to us by the continuous tradition of so many centuries, and reflect how firm and constant in it we should be. So much so that we may better deny the evidence of our senses, of our reason, of the authority of all men and angels—even if they should work miracles as proof,—impossible though this really is—then deny the teaching of faith. For faith rests on the original revelation of God, who is the First and Incommutable Truth; all else may deceive and he deceived. Nay, to state an impossibility, if God were to reveal a faith contrary to that which we have received, and which He originally revealed Himself, we should be bound to believe the first, and not the second. For if He should reveal one contrary, He would be changed and would cease to be God, and the First and Infallible Truth; but since this is impossible, it follows that God cannot give a contrary Revelation , and hence that those who teach contrary doctrine get it not from God but from their own heads, or else by revelation from devils.
We have here, then, a canon of faith given us by the Apostle, to this effect. If a new dogma arise anywhere, let it be examined to see whether it agree with the ancient, received faith of the Catholic Church, first preached by Paul and the Apostles; if it be found discordant, let it be regarded as heretical and accursed. This is a canon followed by all the Fathers.
"If any dispute arise," says Irenus, "about any, even a small question, will it not be our duty to have recourse to the oldest churches, and to gather from them what is clear and certain with reference to the question in dispute?" (Adv. Hr. lib. iii. c. x.).
So Tertullian: "I will lay it down as a canon that what the Apostles preached, what Christ revealed, ought not to be proved except by the same churches which the Apostles themselves founded. If this is Song of Solomon , it is clear that all doctrine which agrees with those Apostolic churches, being the very wombs and originals of the faith, must be put down as true, and all the rest condemned as false, without further examination "(de Prs. xxi.).
And again: "What is earlier in tradition is shown by its very date to be the Lord"s and to be true; what has come in later is an importation and false" (Ibid. c. xxxi.). So Origen "Every one is to be counted a heretic who, while professing to believe in Christ, believes in a matter of faith otherwise than the traditional definition of the Church declares." (Hom. in S. Matthew 19)
This same rule is supported by Vincent of Lerins in his golden treatise on Præscription, against the impious novelties of heretics. "Antiquity is to be followed, novelty spurned. When certain innovators were going throughout provinces and cities, offering their errors for sale, and had arrived among the Galatians; and when the Galatians had given them a hearing, and were taken with a distaste for the truth, so much so that they, as it were, vomited the manna of apostolic and Catholic teaching, and were delighted with the filth of heretical novelty, then the authority of the apostolic power made itself heard in these stern words. "Though we or an angel from heaven preach any other Gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed." What is this that he saith: "Though we?—why not rather, "Though I?" He means: "Though Peter, though Andrew, though John—indeed, though the whole college of Apostles preach unto you anything beside what we have preached, let them be accursed." An awful pronouncement! It is but a little thing to spare neither himself nor the other Apostles, so as to secure the firm continuance of the faith first preached. But he adds: "Though an angel from heaven preach any other Gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed." It was not enough to bind men to preserve the faith delivered them—he must also bind angels. "Though we," he says, "or an angel from heaven." Not that the holy and heavenly angels can sin; but supposing it were possible that they should, if any one of them were to attempt to change the faith once delivered, let him be accursed" (lib. i. c12).
So S. John Damascene, who, like a roaring lion, attacked the iconoclastic Emperor Leo the Isaurian: "Hearken, ye peoples, tribes, tongues—men, women, boys, old men, young men, infants, the whole army of Christian saints: "Though any one preach unto you anything beside that which the Catholic Church has received from the Holy Apostles, from the Fathers and Councils, and has preserved to this day, hear him not, nor follow the counsel of the serpent, as Eve did, who thereby drew upon herself death. Though an angel, though a king preach unto you anything beside what you have received, stop your ears. For I fear lest the warning of Paul be fulfilled, "Let him be accursed"" (Orat2de Imagin.). He ends thus because he knew that it was the prerogative of Bishops, not of monks, of whom he was one, to pronounce anathema, as Baronius acutely notes (Ann. A.D730 , in fine). So S. Augustine: "I do not accept what the Blessed Cyprian held on the baptism of heretics, because the Church, for whom Cyprian shed his blood, does not accept it" (contra Cresconiuin, lib. ii. c31 , 32). And the other Fathers follow him, and the reason they do so is clear. It is because the Church is the pillar and ground of the truth ( 1 Timothy 3:15). Whoever, therefore, following his own imaginations, teaches any new thing against her mind and doctrines, errs and strays from the home of truth and from truth itself, as S. Augustine urges in a fine dilemma. "Answer," he says—"Did the Church come to an end or not?" (i.e, when Donatus arose). "Choose which you like. If she had come to an end, who was the mother who bore Donatus? If on the other hand, she could not have come to an end while so many had been gathered into her without your baptism, tell me, I pray you, what madness was it which induced the followers of Donatus to withdraw themselves from her, as if they were so avoiding communion with the wicked" (contra Gaudentium, lib. ii. c8).
In the same way I will now conclude as follows: On the rise of Luther, Calvin, Menno, and other Protestants, either the Church and the true faith came to an end or they did not. For these two—the true Church and the true faith—are necessarily connected, so much so that if in a single point, say the Invocation of Saints, the Church were to leave the track of the true faith, she must become heretical, and the Church, not of God but of Satan; just as any individual who maintains a single heresy, even though he be otherwise orthodox, is a heretic. I repeat therefore, when Calvin arose, either the Church came to an end or she did not; if she did, and had not existed since the time of Gregory the Great, as the Protestants say, then the Church had been extinct for900 years, that is to say, the world for900 years was without true faith, true religion, sacraments, Church, and salvation; therefore for900 years Christ deserted His Bride; therefore the Eternal Kingdom of Christ had fallen, for Christ reigns in His Church; therefore the gates of hell had prevailed against His Church; therefore Calvin was born outside the Church, was no member of the Church, but an unbeliever, a heretic, or a pagan; therefore he had not claim to be received by the people, by the world, and listened to as one of the faithful, but he should have been despised and rejected as an unbeliever not belonging, to the Church. If, however, the Church had not come to an end, and Calvin was born, baptized, educated, and brought up in the true Church—then, since he was born, baptized, educated, and brought up in the Catholic, Apostolic, Roman Church, that Church was clearly a true Church, holding the true faith. Therefore, when he withdrew from her, and shut himself up in his new dogmas, he separated himself from the true faith and from the Church, and became an apostate. Therefore, when he established another and a reformed Church, it was not a true, apostolic, but an apostate, schismatical, heretical Church that he founded—a mistress and school, not of the faith, but of new doctrines and heresies. Let a fair-minded reader, who sincerely seeks in ignorance the true faith, outside which no one can be saved, consider and weigh the force of this dilemma, and ask himself whether there is any escape from its conclusions, whether the rule here given is not a touchstone of what is true in doctrine and in faith.
Any other gospel than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed. The Protestants hence conclude: Therefore the decrees of councils and the canons of pontiffs are accursed, because they contain many things not in the Gospel, and are consequently a Gospel other than that preached.
I reply: Other (prterquam) is here what is contrary to the accepted faith, such as are the doctrines of heretics.
1. This appears, firstly, because Paul is writing against the Judaisers, who were trying to introduce Judaism beside (prter), that Isaiah , against the Gospel. It was just as if any one were to try to add Calvinism or Mohammedanism to Christianity. He would be introducing a new law and society beside, i.e, against Christianity. Accordingly, in ver6 , he calls this another Gospel, and in ver7 he says that the preachers of it pervert, or, as Chrysostom styles it overturn the Gospel of Christ.
2. It is clear and certain that not only an angel but Paul himself knew more, and consequently might have preached more truths than he did ( 2 Corinthians 12:1 and 2 Corinthians 12:6).
3. Paul constantly orders, as Christ did, the commands of Apostles and superiors to be obeyed ( Acts 16:4; Hebrews 13:I7).
4. Moreover, Jerome, Augustine, Ambrose, Chrysostom, Å’cumenius explain the phrase as I have done. In1Cor2the Apostle uses παÏά (præter) in the sense of against, when he writes: "Other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ;" for he would set up another Christ, just as one who makes another Pope sets up an, anti-Pope, or he who invites another king into a kingdom sets up an enemy of the true king and a tyrant. Similarly, in Romans 11:24: "If thou wert grafted contrary to nature into a good olive-tree"—contrary to nature is παÏά φÏσιν (præter naturam).Even in Latin we often use the same meiosis. For example, Terence (Andria) says, "Præter civium morem atque legem," i.e, against law and custom. Song of Solomon , too, in Greek, as, e.g, Aristotle (de Cælo, lib. i. c. i) says παÏά φÏοιν, beside, i.e, against nature; παÏά νόμον, beside, i.e, against law.
With this compare Deut. iv. "Ye shall not add unto the word which I command you, neither shall ye diminish aught from it." Ye shall not add to the precepts which I shall give you anything contradictory of them, especially, ye shall not add the worship of some new deity, for this the whole chapter, and indeed the whole Book of Deuteronomy , intends to forbid. Nor shall ye add, in the sense of saying that your words are mine; for to no one is it allowed to put forth his own writings or commands, as the commands of God or as the Holy Scriptures.
There is a similar phrase in Revelation 22:18: "I testify unto every man that heareth the words of the prophecy of this book, If any man shall add unto these things, God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this book." As a matter of fact, prophets and Apostles have added many things to this Scripture. Nay, Moses, in Deut. iv2 , would contradict himself in Deuteronomy 17:12, where he orders the words of the priest to be obeyed. Accordingly S. Augustine excellently explains this passage: "The Apostle does not say, "More than you have received," but, "Beside that which you have received." For if he had used the former phrase, he would condemn himself for saying that he wished to come to the Thessalonians to supply what was wanting to their faith. But he who supplies what is lacking merely adds, he does not take away what is already there. Hebrews , however, who oversteps the rule of faith does not approach the goal in the road, but departs from the road" (Tract. in Joan99).
You will say perhaps: "Why, then, did the Apostle not say against instead of beside?" Chrysostom"s answer is that he wanted to make it clear that any is accursed who even indirectly undermines the least important doctrine of the Gospel. But there is another reason, and that Isaiah , the Judaisers, against whom this passage is primarily directed, were introducing their Judaism beside the Gospel, i.e, their Jewish rites and sacraments, which by this very attempt became contrary to the Gospel and the New Law of Christ, as I said before.
We preach. I.e, by word or by writing. He does not, therefore, exclude, but rather includes traditions given by word of mouth only, for these he expressly orders to be observed in 2 Thessalonians 2:14.
Accursed. Heb. cherem. See comment on this word under Romans 9:3.
