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. ‘Persecuted him.' According to the Hebrew text, Genesis 21:9, Ishmael was simply ‘laughing' or ‘mocking' at the festival in honor of the weaning of Isaac; whereupon Sarah said unto Abraham: ‘Cast out this bondwoman and her son.' But the Jewish tradition expanded the word, so as to mean an assault of Ishmael upon Isaac. This insolence was repeated in the aggressions of the Arab tribes, especially the Hagarenes on the Israelites (Psalms 83:7; 1 Chronicles 5:10; 1 Chronicles 5:19), and on a still grander scale in the persecutions of the Mohammedans against Jews and Christians. ‘Even so (it is) now.' So now the Christian church which is born of the Spirit, is persecuted by the Jewish synagogue which is born after the flesh. And this same conduct is repeated also by the bigoted Judaizing party against the free evangelical church of the Gentiles.

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Old Testament