be the children of God, and heirs of the promise by faith in Christ, yet they both of them were left in bondage, the Jews to the law, ver. 3, and the Gentiles to false gods, ver. 8, until Christ in due time came to redeem them both; and, therefore, it was folly in the Galatians, being redeemed from one bondage, to go backwards, and put themselves again in a state of bondage, though under a new master. TEXT. 1 Now I say, that the heir, as long as he is a child, differeth nothing from a servant, though he be lord of all; 2 But is under tutors and governors, until the time appointed of the father. 3 Even so we, when we were children, were in bondage under the elements of the world: 4 But when the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law; 5 To redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons. 6 And, because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father. PARAPHRASE. 1 Now I say, that the heir, as long as he is a child, differeth 2 nothing from a bondman, though he be lord of all; But is under tutors and guardians, until the time prefixed by 3 his father. So web Jews, whilst we were children, were in 4 bondage under the law. But when the time appointed for the coming of the Messias was accomplished, God sent forth 5 his Son, made of a woman, and subjected to the law; That he might redeem those who were under the law, and set them free from it, that we, who believe, might be put out of the state of 6 bondmen, into that of sons. Into which state of sons, it is evident that you, Galatians, who were heretofore Gentiles, are NOTES. 1 Bondman; so douxos signifies; and unless it be so translated, ver. 7, 8, Bondage, ver. 3, 7, will scarcely be understood by an English reader: but St. Paul's sense will be lost to one, who, by Servant, understands not one in a state of bondage. 3b We. It is plain, St. Paul speaks here in the name of the Jews, or Jewish church, which, though God's peculiar people, yet was to pass its nonage (so St. Paul calls it) under the restraint and tutorage of the law, and not to receive the possession of the promised inheritance until Christ came. The law, he calls here sox Tou nooμou, "Elements, or rudiments of the world." Because the observances and discipline of the law, which had restraint and bondage enough in it, led them not beyond the things of this world, into the possession, or taste, of their spiritual and heavenly inheritance. TEXT. 7 Wherefore thou art no more a servant, but a son; and if a son, then an heir of God, through Christ. 8 Howbeit, then, when ye knew not God, ye did service unto them, which by nature are no gods. 9 But now, after that ye have known God, or rather are known of God, how turn ye again to the weak and beggarly elements, whereunto ye desire again to be in bondage? PARAPHRASE. put; forasmuch as God hath sent forth his Spirit into your 7 hearts, which enables you to cry, Abba, Father. So that thou art no longer a bondman, but a son; and if a son, then an 8 heir of God, or of the promise of God through Christ. But then, i. e. before ye were made the sons of God, by faith in Christ, now under the Gospel, ye, not knowing God, were in 9 bondage to those, who were in truth no gods. But now, that ye know God, yea rather, that ye are known and taken into favour by him, how can it be that you, who have been put out of a state of bondage, into the freedom of sons, should go d NOTES. 6 The same argument, of proving their sonship from their having the Spirit, St. Paul uses to the Romans, Rom. viii. 16. And he that will read 2 Cor. iv. 17-v. 6, and Eph. i. 11-14, will find, that the Spirit is looked on as the seal and assurance of the inheritance of life, to those "who have received the adoption of sons," as St. Paul speaks here, ver. 5. The force of the argument seems to lie in this, that as he, that has the spirit of a man in him, has an evidence that he is the son of a man, so he, that hath the Spirit of God, has thereby an assurance that he is the son of God. Conformable hereunto, the opinion of the Jews was, that the Spirit of God was given to none but themselves, they alone being the people or children of God; for God calls the people of Israel his sons, Exod. iv. 22, 23. And hence, we see, that when, to the astonishment of the Jews, the Spirit was given to the Gentiles, the Jews no longer doubted that the inheritance of eternal life was also conferred on the Gentiles. Compare Acts x. 44-48, with Acts xi. 15-18. e 7 St. Paul, from the Galatians' having received the Spirit, (as appears chap. iii. 2) argues, that they are the sons of God, without the law; and consequently heirs of the promise, without the law; for, says he, ver. 1-6, the Jews themselves were fain to be redeemed from the bondage of the law, by Jesus Christ, that, as sons, they might attain to the inheritance. But you, Galatians, says he, have, by the Spirit that is given you by the ministry of the Gospel, an evidence that God is your Father; and, being sons, are free from the bondage of the law, and heirs without it. The same sort of reasoning St. Paul uses to the Romans, ch. viii. 14-17. 9 Known. It has been before observed, how apt St. Paul is to repeat his words, though something varied in their signification. We have here another instance of it having said, "Ye have known God," he subjoins," or rather are known of him," in the Hebrew latitude of the word known; in which language it sometimes signifies knowing, with choice and approbation. See Amos iii. 2. 1 Cor. viii. 3. TEXT. 10 Ye observe days, and months, and times, and years. 11 I am afraid of you, lest I have bestowed upon you labour in vain. PARAPHRASE. backwards, and be willing to put yourselves under the weak and beggarly elements of the world into a state of bondage 10 again? Ye observe days, and months, and times, and years, 11 in compliance with the Mosaical institution. I begin to be afraid of you, and to be in doubt, whether all the pains I have taken about you, to set you at liberty, in the freedom of the Gospel, will not prove lost labour. NOTES. The law is here called weak, because it was not able to deliver a man from bondage and death, into the glorious liberty of the sons of God, Rom. viii. 13. And it is called beggarly, because it kept men in the poor estate of pupils, from the full possession and enjoyment of the inheritance, ver. 1—3. The apostle makes it matter of astonishment, how they, who had been in bondage to false gods, having been once set free, could endure the thoughts of parting with r liberty, and of returning into any sort of bondage again, even under the mean and beggarly rudiments of the Mosaical institution, which was not able to make them sons, and instal them in the inheritance. For St. Paul, ver. 7, expressly opposes bondage to sonship; so that all, who are not in the state of sons, are in the state of bondage. Ian, again, cannot here refer to raua, elements, which the Galatians had never been under hitherto, but to bondage, which he tells them, ver. 8, they had been in to false gods. SECTION VIII. CHAPTER IV. 12-20. CONTENTS. He presses them with the remembrance of the great kindness they had for him, when he was amongst them; and assures them that they have no reason to be alienated from him, though that be it which the Judaizing seducers aim at. TEXT. 12 Brethren, I beseech you, be as I am; for I am as ye are : ye have not injured me at all. 13 Ye know how, through infirmity of the flesh, I preached the Gospel unto you at the first. 14 And my temptation, which was in my flesh, ye despised not, nor rejected; but received me as an angel of God, even as Christ Jesus. 15 Where is then the blessedness ye spake of? for I bear you record, that if it had been possible, ye would have plucked out your own eyes, and have given them to me. 16 Am I therefore become your enemy, because I tell you the truth? 17 They zealously affect you, but not well; yea, they would exclude you, that ye might affect them. 18 But it is good to be zealously affected always in a good thing, and not only when I am present with you. one. PARAPHRASE. 12 I beseech you, brethren, let you and I be as if we were all Think yourselves to be very me; as I, in my own mind, put no difference at all between you and myself; you 13 have done me no manner of injury: On the contrary, ye know, that through infirmity of the flesh, I heretofore preached 14 the Gospel to you. And yet ye despised me not, for the trial I underwent in the flesh, you treated me not with contempt and scorn: but you received me as an angel of God, 15 yea, as Jesus Christ himself. What benedictions did you then pour out upon me? For I bear you witness, had it been practicable, you would have pulled out your very eyes, and 16 given them me. But is it so, that I am become your enemy 17 in continuing to tell you the truth? They, who would make you of that mind, show a warmth of affection to you; but it is not well for their business is to exclude me, that they may 18 get into your affection. It is good to be well and warmly affected towards a good man, at all times, and not barely с NOTES. 14 a What this weakness, and trial in the flesh, was, since it has not pleased the apostle to mention it, is impossible for us to know: but may be remarked here, as an instance, once for all, of that unavoidable obscurity of some passages, in epistolary writings, without any fault in the author. For some things necessary to the understanding of what is writ, are usually of course and justly omitted, because already known to him the letter is writ to, and it would be sometimes ungraceful, oftentimes superfluous, particularly to mention them. 15 The context makes this sense of the words so necessary and visible, that it is to be wondered how any one could overlook it. 16 Your enemy. See chap. i. 6. 18 d That by xxx here, he means a person and himself, the scope of the context evinces. In the six preceding verses he speaks only of himself, and the change of their affection to him, since he left them. There is no other thing TEXT. 19 My little children, of whom I travail in birth again, until Christ be formed in you, 20 I desire to be present with you now, and to change my voice; for I stand in doubt of you. PARAPHRASE. 19 when I am present with you, My little children, for whom I have again the pains of a woman in child-birth, until Christ be formed in you, i. e. till the true doctrine of Christianity 20 be settled in your minds. But I would willingly be this very moment with you, and change my discourse, as I should find occasion; for I am at a stand about you, and know not what to think of you. NOTES. mentioned, as peculiarly deserving their affection, to which the rule given in this verse could refer. He had said, ver. 17, cu pas," they affect you; and iva aulous (nhours, “that you might affect them;" this is only of persons, and therefore λoubas e nane, which immediately follows, may be best understood of a person; else the following part of the verse, though joined by the copulative xai, and, will make but a disjointed sense with the preceding. But there can be nothing plainer, nor more coherent than this, which seems to be St. Paul's sense here: "You were very affectionate to me, when I was with you. You are since estranged from me; it is the artifice of the seducers that have cooled you to me. But if I am the good man you took me to be, you will do well to continue the warmth of your affection to me, when I am absent, and not to be well affected towards me, only when I am present among you." Though this be his meaning, yet the way he has taken to express it is much more elegant, modest, and graceful. Let any one read the original, and see whether it be not so. 19 If this verse be taken for an entire sentence by itself, it will be a parenthesis, and that not the most necessary, or congruous, that is to be found in St. Paul's epistles; or de, but, must be left out, as we see it is in our translation. But if τεκνία 66 μου, my little children," be joined, by apposition, to iuas, you, the last word of the foregoing verse, and so the two verses, 18 and 19, be read as one sentence, ver. 20, with de, but, in it, follows very naturally. But, as we now read it in our English Bible, da, but, is forced to be left out, and ver. 20 stands alone by itself, without any connexion with what goes before, or follows. 20 Arraĝas pornv, "to change the voice," seems to signify the speaking higher or lower; changing the tone of the voice, suitably to the matter one delivers, v. g. whether it be advice, or commendation, or reproof, &c. For each of these have their distinct voices. St. Paul wishes himself with them, that he might accommodate himself to their present condition and circumstances, which he confesses himself to be ignorant of, and in doubt about. f |