_The State of Adoption contrasted with the State of Slavery under the Law_. The Apostle proceeds to give a fuller exposition of the divine sonship and heirship, ch. Galatians 3:29, and shows that the believers under the old dispensation, though sons and heirs in principle and prospect, were yet act... [ Continue Reading ]
Galatians 4:1. BUT WHAT I WOULD SAY IF THIS, THAT TO LONG AS THE HEIR IS AN INFANT (A MINOR), HE DIFFERETH NOTHING FROM A SLAVE, THOUGH HE IS LORD OF ALL, owner of the whole patrimony or inheritance by right and prospectively, but not in actual possession. In human relations the taking possession of... [ Continue Reading ]
Galatians 4:2. UNDER GUARDIANS (including the tutor or pedagogue) AND STEWARDS, who control the person and the property of the minor till he becomes of age, which the Hebrew law fixed at thirteen years and one day, the Roman law at the twenty-fifth year. UNTIL THE DAY PRE-APPOINTED, or day fixed b... [ Continue Reading ]
Galatians 4:3. SO WE ALSO, WHEN WE WERE MINORS, the Jewish Christians before their conversion, comp. Galatians 3:23. In a wider sense the words are applicable to the heathen Christians also, whose former religion was still more childish, though not divinely appointed as a preparatory school. ENSLA... [ Continue Reading ]
Galatians 4:4. WHEN THE FULNESS OF THE TIME CAME, _i.e.,_ when the period appointed by the Father (Galatians 4:2) till the coming of Christ and the age of manhood was filled up or completed. This period was fixed in the eternal counsel of God with reference to the development of the race. The words... [ Continue Reading ]
Galatians 4:5. TO REDEEM, to buy off from the curse and the slavery of the law. This he did by His perfect obedience and the bestowal of the spirit of love and freedom. RECEIVE, not _recover,_ for the redemption by Christ infinitely transcends the original child-like innocence lost by Adam. THE S... [ Continue Reading ]
Galatians 4:6. GOD SENT FORTH THE SPIRIT OF HIS SON INTO OUR HEARTS. Comp. Romans 8:9; Romans 8:14-17. The gift of the Spirit seems here to succeed the act of adoption, while in Romans 8:14-16 it is made to precede it. But there is between both an inseparable connection and mutual dependence, and th... [ Continue Reading ]
Galatians 4:7. SO THAT THOU ART NO LONGER A SLAVE, BUT A SON, etc. Inference from Galatians 4:5-6. The second person individualizes and Brings it home to each reader. ‘Son,' in opposition to ‘slave,' but not, of course, to the exclusion of daughter. For the Apostle had distinctly declared, Galatians... [ Continue Reading ]
Galatians 4:8. Here the Apostle evidently addresses Gentile Christians. But some may have been before their conversion proselytes to Judaism. But formerly (before your conversion, comp. Galatians 4:7) WHEN YE KNEW NOT GOD. A description of the heathen state, which, compared with the knowledge of the... [ Continue Reading ]
Galatians 4:9. BUT NOW TUNING COME TO KNOW (or, to discern, to recognize) GOD, OR RATHER BEING KNOWN OF GOD, recognized and adopted as His own, as His children; comp. 1 Corinthians 8:2. Formerly the Galatians were left to themselves and, as it were, ignored by God. Then their knowledge of God was no... [ Continue Reading ]
Galatians 4:10. DO YE (SCRUPULOUSLY) OBSERVE DAYS, AND MONTHS, AND SEASONS, AND YEARS? The interrogative form gives more vicacity to the passage and more weight to Galatians 4:11. If it is not a question, it must be taken as an exclamation of painful surprise: ‘Is it possible that you should observe... [ Continue Reading ]
Galatians 4:11. I AM APPREHENSIVE OF YOU, LAST HAPLY I HAVE TOILED FOR YOU IN VAIN. This verse is, as it were, bathed in tears, and betrays the deep and painful solicitude of a faithful pastor for his stray sheep, or a tender father for his erring children. It leads to the affectionate appeal, Galat... [ Continue Reading ]
Galatians 4:12. BECOME AS I (am), FOR I ALSO (became) AS YOU (are). Paul asks the Galatians to imitate his example, that is, to cast off their Judaizing tendency and to become simple, decided, and consistent Christians, as he had done himself when he cast off his former Judaism, and when he placed h... [ Continue Reading ]
2. _Affectionate Appeal to the Galatians._ Paul interrupts his argument for a moment by an affectionate appeal to the feelings of the Galatians. He reminds them of their former enthusiastic love and veneration for him, and seeks thus to regain their confidence. He wishes to force a passage through... [ Continue Reading ]
Galatians 4:13. BUT YE KNOW THAT ON ACCOUNT OF AN INFIRMITY OF THE FLESH I PREACHED THE GOSPEL UNTO YOU THE FORMER TIME. ‘On account of' or ‘because of' is the only correct translation of the Greek text, [1] not ‘through' (as in the E. V.), nor ‘in,' nor ‘amid.' The infirmity, whatever it was, is he... [ Continue Reading ]
PAUL'S THORN IN THE FLESH. _Excursus on Chap. Galatians 4:13. Comp. 2 Corinthians 12:7_. [1] [1] Comp. Dean Stanley, _Com. on Corinth,_ (a Cor. 12:1, pp. 547-552 (4th ed. 1876). Bp. Lightfoot, _Com. on Gal_., Excursus, pp. 183-188. Thomas Lewin, _Life and Epistles 0f St. Paul, (_ 1875) i. 186-189.... [ Continue Reading ]
Galatians 4:14. AND YOUR TRIAL IN MY FLESH YE DID NOT SCORN, NOR LOATHE (lit. ‘spit out,' comp. Revelation 3:16). ‘ _Your_ trial' is better supported than ‘ _my_ trial.' The infirmity of Paul tried the patience and love of the Galatians and tempted them to scorn and reject both him and the gospel wh... [ Continue Reading ]
Galatians 4:15. WHERE [1] IS NOW YOUR SELF-CONGRATULATION (OR, YOUR FELICITATION OF YOURSELVES)? What has become of the boasting of your blessedness, of your rejoicing in my teaching, since you turned away from the freedom of the gospel to the slavery of the law? Have you the same reason now to cong... [ Continue Reading ]
Galatians 4:16. SO THEN HAVE I BECOME YOUR ENEMY BY TELLING YOU THE TRUTH? He puts the conclusion politely and delicately in the form of a question instead of direct assertion. Others translate: ‘Therefore (because ye loved me so much) I have become (in the opinion of the Judaizing teachers) your en... [ Continue Reading ]
Galatians 4:17. Warning against the errorists on account of their selfish exclusiveness and party spirit. THEY COURT YOU, the Judaizers (Galatians 1:7; Galatians 5:10) pay you every attention and are very busy to win you over to their party and their creed, but NOT WELL, in no good, honest way, not... [ Continue Reading ]
Galatians 4:18. IT IS GOOD TO BE ZEALOUSLY COURTED IN A GOOD CAUSE AT ALL TIMES, AND NOT ONLY WHEN I AM PRESENT WITH YOU. I do not object to kind attentions and zealous devotion, provided it be from pure motives and in an honorable cause; I myself received your warmest affection during my personal p... [ Continue Reading ]
Galatians 4:19-20. Affectionate appeal to the feelings of the Galatians. Galatians 4:19 may be connected with Galatians 4:18, and a comma put after ‘you,' or with Galatians 4:20 (in which case it is difficult to explain the particle δέ in Galatians 4:20), or may be taken as an independent sentence,... [ Continue Reading ]
Galatians 4:20. BUT (OR, YEA) I COULD WITH TO BE PRESENT WITH YOU NOW, AND TO CHANGE MY VOICE, to adapt my speech more fully to your present condition and wants, to use severity or gentle persuasion as may be best (comp. 1 Corinthians 4:21). Others: to change my present tone from severity to gentlen... [ Continue Reading ]
Galatians 4:21. TELL ME. This makes the question more urgent and compels the Judaizing Galatians to an evangelical answer. YE THAT DESIRE TO BE UNDER LAW, DO YE NOT HEAR THE LAW? Ye who are so anxious to live under the power and authority of the legal dispensation, will ye not listen to the lesson... [ Continue Reading ]
The Apostle resumes his argument for the superiority of the gospel over the law, and illustrates the difference of the two by an allegorical interpretation of the history of Sarah and Hagar, and their sons. _Excursus on Allegorical and Typical Interpretation._ We have here an ingenious specimen of... [ Continue Reading ]
Galatians 4:22. ABRAHAM HAD TWO SONS, ONE BY THE BONDMAID, THE OTHER BY THE FREEWOMAN. See Genesis 16:1 ff; Genesis 21:1 ff. The ‘bondmaid' is Hagar, the ‘freewoman' is Sarah. In the national legends of the Mohammedan Arabs who derive their descent from Ishmael, Hagar is represented as the lawful wi... [ Continue Reading ]
Galatians 4:23. BUT THE SON FROM THE BONDMAID WAS BORN AFTER THE FLESH, in the regular course of nature. (Used somewhat differently in Romans 1:3; Romans 9:5.) BUT THE SON OF THE FREEWOMAN IS THROUGH THE PROMISE, by virtue of supernatural influence, by the Spirit of God working through the word of p... [ Continue Reading ]
Galatians 4:24. WHICH THINGS ARE ALLEGORIZED, allegorically expounded, have an allegorical signification. The story of Hagar and Sarah has another (namely, a figurative, typical) meaning, besides (not, instead of) the literal or historical. Paul does not deny the fact, but makes it the bearer of a g... [ Continue Reading ]
Galatians 4:25. A difficult passage. The reading of the first clause is disputed. The longer text (which is supported by the Vatican MS. and adopted by Westcott and Hort) reads: BUT (or, Now) THIS HAGAR IS MOUNT SINAI IN ARABIA. [1] This implies that the name Hagar was an Arabic designation for Moun... [ Continue Reading ]
Galatians 4:26. BUT THE JERUSALEM WHICH IS ABOVE (OR, THE UPPER JERUSALEM) IS FREE; AND SHE IS OUR MOTHER (MOTHER OF US). The reading of the E. V. ‘of us _air_ is not sufficiently supported, and arose probably at an early time from Romans 4:16, ‘the father of us all,' or from a loose quotation of th... [ Continue Reading ]
Galatians 4:27. ‘REJOICE, THOU BARREN THAT BEAREST NOT,' etc. An illustration of the allegory by a passage from Isaiah 54:1, which prophesies the deliverance of God's afflicted nation from the foreign bondage of the Babylonian exile, and her restoration to freedom and prosperity, so that from a mour... [ Continue Reading ]
Galatians 4:28. BUT YE, BRETHREN, AS ISAAC WAS (OR, AFTER THE MANNER OF ISAAC), ARE CHILDREN OF PROMISE. Resumes the main subject; comp. Galatians 4:23. Christian believers are born, like Isaac, of the unfruitful Sarah, contrary to the ordinary course of nature, by the supernatural power of the divi... [ Continue Reading ]
Galatians 4:29. BUT AS THEN HE THAT WAS BORN AFTER THE FLESH PERSECUTED HIM _(that was born)_ AFTER THE SPIRIT, EVEN SO NOW. The history of Isaac and Ishmael was typical also in another respect, inasmuch as it foreshadowed the hostility of the carnal, unbelieving Judaism against Christianity. ‘Perse... [ Continue Reading ]
Galatians 4:30. NEVERTHELESS WHAT SAITH THE SCRIPTURE? ‘CAST OUT THE BONDMAID AND HER SON; FOR THE SON OF THE BONDMAID SHALL IN NO WISE INHERIT WITH THE SON OF THE FREEWOMAN.' Words of Sarah to Abraham on the occasion of the mocking of Ishmael, Genesis 21:10, but approved and confirmed by God, Galat... [ Continue Reading ]
Galatians 4:31. WHEREFORE, BRETHREN, WE ARE NOT CHILDREN OF A (_i.e.,_ any) BONDWOMAN, BUT OF THE FREEWOMAN. The pith of the typological illustration, Galatians 4:21 ff., and the final result of the whole discussion of the fourth chapter. The change of the definite and indefinite article (so often o... [ Continue Reading ]