That (va). In order that. That which is represented through a personification as the act of Scripture, is the act of God, according to a definite purpose that the promise should be inherited by believers only, through faith in Jesus Christ.
Cu. IIL] THE EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS. 12h
The promise (% émayyed/a). That is, the thing promised ; the inheritance, ver. 18.
By faith (逫 wiotews). Const. with the promise, not with might be given. The promised gift which is the result of faith. The false teachers claimed that it was the result of works.
To them that believe (trois muctevovow). Not tautologi- eal. Even the Judaisers held that salvation was intended for believers, but also that legal obedience was its procuring cause; against which Paul asserts that it is simply for those that believe.
23. But the office of the law as a jailer was designed to be only temporary, until the time when faith should come. It was to hold in custody those who were subjected to sin, so that they should not escape the consciousness of their sins and of their liability to punishment.
Faith (riv mictw). The subjective faith in Christ which appropriates the promise. See on ch. i. 23.
We were kept (é¢povpovpeOa). Better, kept in ward, con- tinuing the figure in shut up, ver. 22. The imperfect tense indicates the continued activity of the law as a warder.
Under the law (to vopov). Const. with were kept im ward, not with shut up. We were shut up with the law as a warder, not for protection, but to guard against escape. Comp. Wisd. xvii. 15. The figure of the law as pedagogue (ver. 24) is not anticipated. The law is conceived, not as the prison, but as the warder, the lord or despot, the power of sin (see 1 Cor. xv. 56; Rom. vii.), by whom those who belong to sin are kept under lock and key — under moral captivity, without possibility of liberation except through faith.
Shut up unto the faith (cuvercicpevor eis THY wictw). Eis unto or for expresses the object of keeping in ward. It is not
128 WORD STUDIES IN THE NEW TESTAMENT. (Cz. IIL
temporal, until, which is a rare usage in N. T., but with a view to our passing into the state of faith.
Which should afterwards be revealed (uéAdAoveav — arro- karvo@jvat). The position of wérAovcav emphasises the future state of things to which the earlier conditions pointed. The faith was first revealed at the coming of Christ and the gospel.
24. Wherefore (Go7e). Better, so that. Theological con- sequence of the previous statements.
Our schoolmaster (vratdaywyos judy). Our. Paul speaks as a Jew of Jews especially. Schoolmaster (aratdaywyos P°.) is an error. The word means an overseer or guardian. See on 1 Cor. iv. 15. Tutor (Rev.) is defensible on the ground of etymology, tuert to look upon, thence to guard. In civil law a tutor is a person legally appointed for the care of the person and property of a minor. So Bacon (Adv. of Learning, ii. 19): “the first six kings being in truth as tutors of the state of Rome in the infancy thereof.” The later use of the word, however, in the sense of instructor, has so completely sup- planted the earlier, that the propriety of the Revisers’ ren- dering is questionable. The law is here represented, not as one who conducts to the school of Christ; for Christ is not represented here as a teacher, but as an atoner; ‘but rather as an overseer or guardian, to keep watch of those committed to its care, to accompany them with its commands and prohibi- tions, and to keep them in a condition of dependence and restraint, thus continually bringing home to them the con- sciousness of being shut up in sins, and revealing sin as positive transgression.*
26. For ye are all the children of God (advres yap viol Oeod éoré). Better, ye are all sons of God. Note 1. The change of person, ye are. Comp. we, our, us, vv. 238, 24, 25.