The New Testament · The Letters of St. Paul · Book 55 of 73
Prophecy in Galatians
Galatians is Paul's urgent letter on freedom in Christ. To make his case he goes back to Abraham and shows that Scripture “saw in advance” what God would do: bless all the nations through one descendant, born of a woman when the time was full.
In progress: 5 passages so far
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The book at a glance
Paul wrote to churches he had founded in Galatia, in central Asia Minor, when other teachers were telling Gentile converts they must be circumcised and keep the Mosaic law to belong to God's people. Paul answers with his own story (chapters 1–2), an argument from Scripture (3–4), and a call to live by the Spirit (5–6).
The letter looks forward through the promise to Abraham, which Paul shows kept in Christ and still widening to the nations, and through a type: Hagar and Sarah, two women who stand for two covenants and two Jerusalems.
Key to the labels
How a passage stands
Fulfilled Accomplished in history, above all in Christ.
Unfolding Being worked out now in the life of the Church.
Future Clearly still to come at Christ's return.
Mystery Its meaning or moment is not yet settled.
What kind of passage it is
Prophecy God's word through a prophet, or Christ, about what will come.
Promise A pledge God makes, kept over generations.
Type A person or event that foreshadows Christ or the Church.
Image A picture Scripture returns to and completes at the end.
Apocalypse A vision unveiling history from heaven's side, in symbols.
More on the labels
| Passage | Subject | Standing |
|---|
| 3:6–9 | All the nations blessed in Abraham | Fulfilled Unfolding |
| 3:16, 29 | To your descendant, who is Christ | Fulfilled |
| 4:4–5 | The fullness of time; born of a woman | Fulfilled |
| 4:21–31 | Hagar and Sarah; the Jerusalem above | Unfolding Future |
| 6:7–9 | We shall reap in due time | Future |
The passages
“Scripture, which saw in advance that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, foretold the good news to Abraham, saying, ‘Through you shall all the nations be blessed.’”
- Reading
- Paul calls God's promise to Abraham (Genesis 12:3) the Gospel announced ahead of time. Abraham believed, and it was credited to him as righteousness (3:6); those who believe are his children, whether Jew or Gentile.
- Why two labels
- The promise is fulfilled in Christ, and Gentiles were already coming to faith as Paul wrote. Its reach to “all the nations” is still unfolding in the Church's mission (Matthew 28:19).
- See also
- Prophecy in Genesis.
“Now the promises were made to Abraham and to his descendant… ‘And to your descendant,’ who is Christ.”
- Reading
- Paul reads the promise to Abraham's “descendant” (Genesis 12:7; 22:17–18) as pointing to one person, Christ. Then he widens it again: “if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham's descendant, heirs according to the promise” (3:29). The Catechism draws on these verses: the promise to Abraham is fulfilled in Christ, who gathers God's scattered children into one (CCC 706).
- Note
- Paul's argument turns on a singular noun. Scholars note that the Hebrew word can mean one descendant or many; Paul's point is that the many are blessed in the One.
“But when the fullness of time had come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to ransom those under the law, so that we might receive adoption.”
- Reading
- History had a fullness, a moment God prepared. Paul's one mention of Christ's mother names her only as “a woman,” a phrase the Christian tradition has read in the light of the woman of Genesis 3:15. The Catechism opens its teaching on Jesus with these verses (CCC 422) and cites them on the Annunciation and on Mary's calling (CCC 484, 488).
- See also
- The woman of Genesis 3:15 and of Revelation 12:1–5, who gives birth to the son destined to rule the nations. See Revelation 12.
“But the Jerusalem above is freeborn, and she is our mother.”
- Reading
- “Now this is an allegory” (4:24). Abraham's two sons, by Hagar the slave and Sarah the free woman (Genesis 16; 21), stand for two covenants: one of slavery, linked with Sinai and “the present Jerusalem,” and one of freedom, the Jerusalem above. Christians are children of the promise, like Isaac. The Catechism takes up this image of the Church as “that Jerusalem which is above,” our mother (CCC 757).
- Why two labels
- The Jerusalem above is already the mother of the baptized. It comes down in its fullness at the end, “the holy city, a new Jerusalem” (Revelation 21:2).
- Note
- Paul is contrasting slavery and freedom in Christ, not two peoples. Romans 11 shows that he did not think God had rejected Israel; see Prophecy in Romans.
“Let us not grow tired of doing good, for in due time we shall reap our harvest, if we do not give up.”
- Reading
- “a person will reap only what he sows” (6:7): to sow to the flesh is to reap corruption, to sow to the Spirit is to reap eternal life (6:8). The harvest is the judgment and the life to come.
- For now
- The promise is meant to give heart, not to frighten: what is sown in love is not lost. Paul's last word on what matters is “a new creation” (6:15).
Still to come on this pageFurther passages to add: Christ who rescues us “from the present evil age” (1:4), the law as a guardian until Christ came (3:23–25), the promise of the Spirit (3:14; 4:6), and the hope of righteousness awaited through the Spirit (5:5).
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