WHAT SENSELESS FOLLY IS IT FOR YOU, WHO HAD THE CRUCIFIXION OF CHRIST SET PLAINLY BEFORE YOUR EYES, TO RESORT NOW TO CIRCUMCISION! THINK ONLY HOW IT WAS THAT YOU RECEIVED THE SPIRIT: WAS IT BY OBEDIENCE TO LAW OR BY LISTENING IN FAITH? CAN YOU COMPLETE A SPIRITUAL WORK BY AN ORDINANCE OF THE FLESH?... [ Continue Reading ]
ἐβάσκανεν. This word denoted either the fascination of an evil eye or some malignant influence akin to it; the infatuation of some Galatians at this crisis is attributed to the baneful effect of some mysterious powers of evil. The reading ἐβάσκηνεν has probably found its way into some MSS. from cla... [ Continue Reading ]
The Apostle appeals with confidence to the personal experience of his converts. They were themselves conscious of having received on their conversion gifts of the Spirit. Whence then came the inward change? Was it the result of fulfilling law, or of listening in faith? The question needs no answer:... [ Continue Reading ]
πνεύματι … σαρκὶ. These two datives denote the two internal spheres susceptible of moral influence. Conversion had brought about a spiritual change as its immediate result: it was folly to look for a consummation of this change from an ordinance of the flesh like circumcision. This was to exalt fles... [ Continue Reading ]
The persecutions endured by the Galatian converts had all been due to the jealous animosity of the Jews: if they were now to accept the Law after all, they would proclaim their former resistance to have been wanton caprice on their part, which had led them to provoke persecution to no purpose (εἰκῆ)... [ Continue Reading ]
ἐπιχορηγῶν. The verb χορηγεῖν acquired its meaning from the function of the χορηγός whose duty it was to supply the members of his chorus with all necessary equipment in the course of their training and performance. As men took pride in the liberal fulfilment of this duty, the word came to denote a... [ Continue Reading ]
The faith of the Galatians is likened to that of Abraham, in that it found the same acceptance with God. The quotation of Genesis 15:6 _was reckoned_ follows the LXX, whereas our version, following the Hebrew text, refers to God, _he counted it_. This passage is repeatedly commented on by Philo as w... [ Continue Reading ]
Γινώσκετε : _Ye perceive_. The emphatic admonition, _Know ye_, adopted in our versions, would require an aorist imperative γνῶτε, as in Hebrews 8:11. This verse contains a deduction from the former, as is suggested by the inferential ἄρα. Since faith was the ground of Abraham's justification, it fol... [ Continue Reading ]
BY FAITH MEN BECOME SONS OF ABRAHAM AND INHERIT HIS BLESSING, WHEREAS THOSE WHO CLAIM IT ON THE SCORE OF OBEDIENCE TO LAW ARE SUBJECT TO THE CURSE OF A BROKEN LAW; FROM WHICH CHRIST REDEEMED US, GENTILES AS WELL AS JEWS, BY BEARING THE CURSE HIMSELF.... [ Continue Reading ]
δικαιοῖ : _justifieth_. The present tense is used because justification by faith, though not revealed to the Gentiles till Christ came, was an eternal truth of God's dealings with man, to be revealed in due time. There were in Genesis anticipations of this truth, and Abraham himself, the father of t... [ Continue Reading ]
οἱ ἐκ πίστεως. See note on Galatians 3:7.... [ Continue Reading ]
The Apostle here proceeds to deal with the rival claim to a special blessing on the score of obedience to Law. Jews maintained that their knowledge of the Law entitled them to the blessings attached to the sons of Abraham. He urges on the contrary that this entailed on them the curse of a broken Law... [ Continue Reading ]
The failure of the Law to justify is further established by a comparison of Habakkuk 2:4 with Leviticus 18:5 : the latter embodies the spirit of the Law: for it demands obedience as a necessary condition antecedent to the gift of life from God (_cf._ Romans 10:5). The prophet on the contrary makes l... [ Continue Reading ]
The Law pronounced a blessing and a curse; but since it made no allowance for human infirmity, the blessing proved barren in result; while the curse, which invoked the just wrath of an offended God for the punishment of the guilty, proved, on the contrary, fruitful in condemnation. From this hopeles... [ Continue Reading ]
ἵνα … ἵνα … Two gracious purposes of the Redeemer are here coupled together: (1) the extension of the blessing to Gentiles as well as Jews; (2) the outpouring of the Spirit upon those that embraced the faith of Christ.... [ Continue Reading ]
κ. ἄνθρωπον λέγω. This preface indicates that the argument which it introduces is founded on the principles of human law and custom. διαθήκην. The meaning _testament_ affixed to this word in classical Greek belongs to the Greek practice of testamentary disposition, other covenants being designated b... [ Continue Reading ]
GOD'S WORD WAS PLIGHTED TO ABRAHAM THAT HE WOULD BESTOW THE INHERITANCE ON HIS SEED (NOT ON ALL HIS DESCENDANTS, BUT ON ONE PARTICULAR SEED), AND COULD NOT THEREFORE BE SET ASIDE BY SUBSEQUENT STIPULATIONS IN THE LAW.... [ Continue Reading ]
The clause καὶ τῷ σπέρματι αὐτοῦ is quoted from God's promises to Abraham in Genesis 13:15; Genesis 17:8 with only the necessary change of the second person σου into αὐτοῦ. The original promise was limited to the possession of the promised land, but was coupled with a perpetual covenant between God... [ Continue Reading ]
The inviolate sanctity of God's earlier covenant in presence of the subsequent promulgation of the Law is here affirmed in virtue of the principle established in Galatians 3:15. Had the inheritance been made contingent on obedience to Law, the previous promise would have been thereby invalidated. Th... [ Continue Reading ]
THE LAW WAS A TEMPORARY ENACTMENT ORDAINED TO DEAL WITH THE OFFENCES WHICH IT DENOUNCES UNTIL THE COMING OF THE PROMISED SEED. THE GOD FROM WHOM IT PROCEEDED WAS THE GOD OF ABRAHAM, BUT HE PROMULGATED IT THROUGH ANGELS AND AN APPOINTED MEDIATOR TO ALL THE CHILDREN OF ABRAHAM AFTER THE FLESH, NOT TO... [ Continue Reading ]
The rendering of the first clause in our versions, _Now a mediator is not a mediator of one_, reduces it to an unmeaning truism. The author is not treating of mediators in the abstract, but writes of Moses the mediator of the Law that he was not mediator of one chosen family; and so contrasts God's... [ Continue Reading ]
In view of the continuity of divine providence the suggestion that the Law contravened or nullified the previous covenant of God with Abraham and the patriarchs is dismissed as monstrous. It was incompatible with the faithfulness of God to His pledged word, and is therefore repudiated with the custo... [ Continue Reading ]
The real function of the Law was not to justify but to convict of sin, that men might the more readily turn in humble faith to Christ for relief from the burden of an accusing conscience. ἡ γραφὴ. The Old Testament was always designated by the plural γραφαί in apostolic times, for the several books... [ Continue Reading ]
THE POSITION OF THE TRUE CHILDREN OF GOD BEFORE THE COMING OF CHRIST IS ILLUSTRATED BY THE CONTROL EXERCISED OVER CHILDREN IN THEIR FATHER'S HOUSE BY MEMBERS OF HIS HOUSEHOLD. These verses explain the position of the faithful under the Law. They are here associated with Christians by the use of the... [ Continue Reading ]
BUT NOW WE ARE NO LONGER CHILDREN. YE ARE ALL SONS OF GOD: AT YOUR BAPTISM YE PUT ON CHRIST, AND WERE INVESTED WITH SPIRITUAL MANHOOD: ALL PREVIOUS DISTINCTIONS OF CREED OR RACE, OF POSITION OR NATURE, WERE DONE AWAY: YE ARE ALL ONE IN CHRIST. The sudden change from the first to the second person pl... [ Continue Reading ]
Having now established the temporary and subordinate function of the Law, the Apostle finally repudiates every claim, whether on that or any other ground, on behalf of any distinct class to superior sanctity in Christ. All Christians, whatever their antecedents, are one in Christ. οὐκ ἔνι. Distincti... [ Continue Reading ]
ὑμεῖς. The emphatic insertion of ὑμεῖς before Χριστοῦ in preference to Χριστοῦ ἐστέ lays stress apparently on the wonderful transformation of men who had been aliens from the people of God into members of Christ.... [ Continue Reading ]