himself did not bless, but received the blessing ; how much less can his posterity bless, who only receive with him the blessing by faith. Therefore the blessing is accomplished in Christ, who is the one Seed most excellent and most desired, who in and by Himself bestows the blessing. But yet, because all the posterity of -Abraham are akin to Him [Christ], therefore, the blessing is said to be accomplished in the seed of Abraham in common, but to come to the Gentiles, ver. 14. The promise of the earth, and therefore of the inheritance, was given to Abraham and his seed, i.e. to his numerous posterity, ver. 19, 22, not, however, to Christ, but in relation to Christ [in Christum, "until Christ should come," ver. 19 ;" with a view to Christ," ver. 24, tig Xptarbv, and ver. 17 in Rec. Text]. — og sffri Xpiffrbg, who is Christ) og, who, is not to be restrictedly referred to the expression, to the seed, but to the whole of the foregoing words in this sense : [all of which God says in reference to Christ] that which God says is wholly in reference to [with a view to] Christ.1 [i.e. to Abraham and his seed belong the promises, or, in other words, the blessing promised in Christ. — V. g.] For Christ upholds all the promises, 2 Cor. i. 20. In Greek and Latin the gender of the pronoun often corresponds to the substantive that follows. Cic. Ignes quce (attracted to the gender of sidera, instead of that of ignes) sidera vocatis. [So here og, attracted to the gender of Xpiffroc, instead of o, referring to the whole antecedent dis course.]
17. ToDro de \syu, but this I say) He shows to what the com parison, ver. 15, refers. — Siadyjx^v) The word is taken here in a sense a little more extensive than that of a testament, for o diade/tsvog, the party entering into an arrangement, who is referred to here, is the immortal2 [undying] God. And yet the term testament is more consonant with this passage than covenant, ver. 18, at the end. Comp. note on Matt. xxvi. 28. — vpoxexvpu- confirmed before) Confirmed, ver. 15, corresponds to this :
1 Beng. seems to take o?, who or which, i.e. as the subject of the whole pre vious discussion, and of all the promises, just mentioned, Avhich God has made, is Christ.— ED.
2 Whereas a testament implies the death of the testator : Heb. ix. 16.— ED.
3 The words following ti; Xptvrov by the margin of the larger Ed. had been