Galatians 4:26

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 this passage by Polycarp. The other covenant, that which is represented by Sarah and her believing offspring, is the true or heavenly Jerusalem, that is not (as the rabbinical teachers imagined) an actual material city in heaven (the exact counterpart of the earthly Jerusalem), which was to be let down in the Messianic age, but a spiritual city, the Messianic theocracy, the kingdom of heaven, to which all true Christians belong, even here on earth, Philippians 3:20. The word ‘above,' therefore is not local, but ethical and spiritual; as in the phrase, ‘the kingdom of heaven,' to be born ‘from above.' Comp. the ‘heavenly Jerusalem,' Hebrews 12:22 (where it is contrasted with mount Sinai, Galatians 4:18), the ‘new Jerusalem,' Revelation 3:12; Revelation 21:2. ‘And she is our mother,' the mother of us Christians. This passage and the concluding Chapter s of Revelation struck the keynote to the hymn ‘Mother dear, Jerusalem,' and the other New Jerusalem hymns in Latin, English, and German, which express so touchingly the Christian's longing after his eternal home in heaven.