148 WORD STUDIES IN THE NEW TESTAMENT. [Cu. IV.
21-31. Paul now defends the principle of Christian free- dom from the law by means of an allegorical interpretation of the history of Abraham’s two sons. He meets the Juda- isers on their own Old Testament ground, going back to the statement of ch. iii. T.
21. Tell me. He plunges into the subject without intro- duction, and with a direct appeal.
Desire (Oédovres). Are bent on being under the law. See on ver. 9.
Under the law (é7ro vépuov). For véuos with and without the article, see on Rom. ii. 12. Here, unquestionably, of the Mosaic law.
Hear (axovere). (Do ye not) hear what the law really says: listen to it so as to catch its real meaning? Comp. 1 Cor. xiv. 2; LXX, Gen. xi. 7; Deut. xxviii. 49.*
The law (rov vépov). Ina different sense, referring to the O. T. For a similar double sense see Rom. ili. 19. For vowos as a designation of the O. T. generally, see 1 Cor. xiv. 2s). xk. 24> xii. $43 xv 2a.
22. For (yap). Your determination to be under the law is opposed by Scripture, if you will understand it, for it is written, etc.
A bondmaid (ris maidicxns). The bondmaid, indicating a well-known character, Hagar, Gen. xvi. 3. The word in Class. means also a free maiden; but in N. T. always a slave. So almost always in LXX; but see Ruth iv. 12; Judith xii. 13.
23. Was born (yeyévvntar). Has been born, or zs born: perfect tense, treating the historical fact as if present.
* Others: ‘¢‘Do ye not hear it as it is read in your worshipping assem-. blies??? The reading dvayiwidoxere read aloud, read publicly, is found in DFG, and is followed by the Vulg., non legistis.
Cu. IV.] THE EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS. 149
After the flesh (cata odpxa). According to the regular course of nature. Very common in Paul.
By promise (& émayyedias). Most editors retain the article, the promise of Gen. xvii. 16,19; xviii. 10. Comp. Rom. ix. 9. Jn virtue of the promise; for according to natural conditions he would not have been born.
24. Are an allegory (écrwv adrAnyopovmeva). N.T.°. Lit. are allegorised. From ado another, ayopeverv to speak. Hence, things which are so spoken as to give a different meaning from that which the words express. For parable, allegory, fable, and proverb, see on Matt. xiii. 8. An allegory is to be dis- tinguished fromatype. An O. T. type isa real prefiguration of aN.T. fact, as the Jewish tabernacle explained in Heb. ix., or the brazen serpent, J. iii. 14. Comp. Rom. v. 14; 1 Cor. x. 6,11. An allegory exhibits figuratively the ideal character ofafact. The type allows no latitude of interpretation. The allegory lends itself to various interpretations. This passage bears traces of Paul’s rabbinical training. At the time of Christ, Scripture was overlaid with that enormous mass of rabbinic interpretation which, beginning as a supplement to the written law, at last superseded and threw it into contempt. The plainest sayings of Scripture were resolved into another sense ; and it was asserted by one of the Rabbis that he that renders a verse of Scripture as it appears, says what is not true. The celebrated Akiba assumed that the Pentateuch was a continuous enigma, and that a meaning was to be found in every monosyllable, and a mystical sense in every hook and flourish of the letters. The Talmud relates how Akiba was seen by Moses in a vision, drawing from every horn of every letter whole bushels of decisions. The oral laws, subsequently reduced to writing in the Talmud, completely overshadowed and superseded the Scriptures, so that Jesus was literally justified in saying: “Thus have ye made the commandment of God of none effect through your tradition.” ~ Paul had been trained as a Rabbi in the school of Hillel, the founder of the rabbinical system, whose hermeneutic rules