Cambridge Greek Testament Commentary

Galatians 6:8

8. St Paul defines what he means by sowing, but leaves the thought of strict identity of the seed, and, like our Lord in Matthew 13, regards the difference of soil into which the seed is cast.

ὃτι. The reason for the statement ὃ γὰρ ἐὰν κ.τ.λ.

ὁ σπείρων εἰς τὴν σάρκα ἑαυτοῦ. For σπείρειν with εἰς, marking the ground into which seed is sown, see Mark 4:15; Mark 4:18 (||Matthew 13:22). This is more natural than to understand εἰς only as “with a view to,” or “for the indulgence of.”

ἑαυτοῦ lays stress on the selfishness of the man.

ἐκ τῆς σαρκὸς. So out of that ground will come his harvest. τῆς is probably possessive, though there is no stress laid on “his own.” But possibly ἡ σάρξ in this clause means the whole of the anti-spiritual world of which ἡ σάρξ ἑαυτοῦ was but a part.

θερίσει φθοράν. The dissolution that marks all created things (Romans 8:21), nowhere more apparent than in “flesh.” But as ἡ σάρξ here is primarily moral, so also it is moral dissolution of which the Apostle is chiefly thinking; cf. Ephesians 4:22; Jude 1:10.

ὁ δὲ σπείρων εἰς τὸ πνεῦμα. Not the personal Spirit of God, but the Divine Spirit generally, precisely as in Galatians 5:17; Galatians 5:22. Yet no ἐαυτοῦ here for “per nos sumus carnales, non spirituales” (Bengel).

ἐκ τοῦ πνεῦματος θερίσει ζωὴν αἰώνιον. The true side of the doctrine of “merit.” αἰώνιον: see Moulton and Milligan in Expositor VII. 5, 1908, p. 174 for interesting quotations from the Papyri.

Continues after advertising

BibliaPlus

Cambridge Greek Testament Commentary

Galatians 6:8

Old Testament

New Testament