Galatians 4:1

The word -heirs" at the end of the preceding chapter suggests another illustration. In human affairs the condition of a minor is antecedent to the enjoyment of the liberty and the civil rights which accrue to him on coming of age. He is a son and an heir, but during minority his position is that of a slave.

Now I say This is my meaning, comp. ch. Galatians 3:17.

a child lit. -an infant", the legal term to designate -a minor".

differeth nothing from a servant rather, from a slave. It is doubtful whether this description (continued in Galatians 4:2) applies to a minor under Roman or Jewish or Colonial (Galatian) law. Cæsar says that among the Gallic tribes a father had power of life and death over wife and children (B. G.vi. 9). It would seem from a passage in Gaius (Inst. 1. 55 [28]) that by a local law a Galatian father had this exceptional power. We may however regard St Paul's description as generally applicable to the condition of a minor without reference to any particular code.

[28] Bp Lightfoot considers that -this view seems to rest on a mistaken interpretation" of the words of Gaius. It is however maintained by an eminent living jurist.

though he be lord of all Though, unlike the slave, he is lord of all, lord, by right of ultimate succession, whether his father be living or dead. Our Lord uses a similar figure, John 8:35, -The slave abideth not in the house for ever; but the son abideth ever. If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed".

"He is the free man whom the truth makes free,

And all are slaves besides." Cowper.