Galatians 3:7

They which are of faith. A Græcism for they who are faithful, who imitate Abraham's faith.

The same are the children of Abraham. Not by blood, but by imitation; to them, therefore, belongs the blessing pronounced on Abraham. Ver. 8. Preached before the gospel unto Abraham. Gave him this most joyful news of the blessing to be conferred by Christ on His descendants, i.e., on the faithful. In other words, the Gospel about Christ and His righteousness is not new, but is as old as the days of Abraham.

In thee shall all nations be blessed. Cajetan observes, in his notes or Genesis 12., that when God called Abraham from his home in Chaldea, and from his kindred, to go to a land to be shown him, He promised him a sevenfold blessing. Seven is the number of completeness. (1.) He promised him that he should be the head or father of a great nation, in the words, " I will make of thee a great nation ;" (2.) abundant riches, in the words, " I will bless thee ;" (3.) fame and wide renown, in the words, " And make thy name great ;" (4.) the sum of all blessings and honours, in the words, " Thou shalt be a blessing." The exact force of the Hebrew here is that thou shalt be so filled with blessings as to seem to be a blessing itself, so that when men may wish to bless any one, they shall put you forward as an example, saying, "May God bless thee as He blessed Abraham." In a similar way the Romans saluted their Cæsar: "May you be more fortunate than Augustus, more virtuous than Trajan." (5.) "The Lord promised His blessing, not to Abraham only, but to his friends, in the words, " I will bless them that bless thee." (6.) He promised that He would avenge him on his adversaries, in the words, " I will curse him that curseth thee." (7.) The preceding six are temporal only, but the seventh and the chief is spiritual and eternal, " In thee shall all families of the earth be blessed."

1. Observe that in thee, i.e., in thy seed, as is explained in Genesis 22:17, is to he understood as in Christ, who was born of Abraham, according to the Apostle's interpretation in Galatians 3:16. Through thy seed, Christ, and through faith in Him, all nations shall be blessed, i.e., be justified and made sons and friends of God, and consequently heirs of God's kingdom, and entitled to hear the blissful words, " Come, ye blessed of My Father, receive the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world." Abraham's blessing, therefore, was that he should be the father of the justified.

2. But in thee can be also rendered like thee. As thou art justified by faith, so by faith shall all nations be justified, and not by the works of the law. So say Chrysostom, Augustine, Theophylact, Œcumenius, and S. Thomas.

Notice, too, that with God to speak is as efficacious as to do, for, " Ye spake the word and they were made."

Similarly, to pronounce a blessing with Him is the same as to confer a blessing (benedicere = benefacere). The greater the blessing promised, the greater the blessing given. But the greatest good we can receive is that grace by which we become sharers of the Divine nature, and the word blessing, therefore, denotes this great gift.

Hence the Fathers rightly interpret, they shall be blessed, as they shall be justified : they shall receive the blessing of justification, than which no greater gift can be given to man by God.

From this is evident the error of Paginus, in rendering the phrase before us, In thee shall all nations bless themselves. The Hebrew voice of the verb is the Niphal, which is purely passive, not reflexive; moreover, S. Paul's use of the passage is against him. Ver. 9. So then they which be of faith are blessed with faithful Abraham. This is the conclusion from the premisses of the three preceding verses. God promised to Abraham that in him, i.e., in his seed, i.e., in Christ, all nations should be blessed, i.e., justified. But the promise of God cannot fail; therefore the consequence contained in this verse follows.

If the second sense of in thee, given above, is preferred, the argument is the same. In thee, i.e., like thee, all nations shall be blessed. But thou, 0 Abraham, wast justified by faith; therefore, the Gentiles too shall be justified in the same way. And from this it follows that they who are of faith shall be blessed, i.e., justified with faithful Abraham. This last phrase rather favours the second rendering of in thee, and hints that the Gentiles shall be justified by faith like faithful Abraham.

Observe again the Græcism, they who are of faiih, i.e., who are faithful. Similarly, he speaks of those who are of the circumcision, i.e., the Jews, followers of the law. Elsewhere he calls them those who are of the works of the law, i.e., those who rely on it and hope for justification from it.