meat, drink, and other sublunary matters, all these being only material and external objects, iii. 28. — Comp. Col. ii. 8, 16, 20, etc. They are called tutors in the concrete, elements in the abstract. The Son of God, sent down from heaven, and the Spirit of the Son of God, iv. 6, are opposed to these worldly things. - dedovhu/t'evoiy reduced to slavery [in bondage]) This an swers to, He differs nothing from a slave [servant], ver. 1.
4. To -rX^w/xa rov %povou, the fulness of the time) This has reference to as long as, and to the time appointed, ver. 1 [" as long as he is"] ; 2, [" until the time appointed"] : for the Church also has its own ages. — i^aKsffreifav, sent forth) Out of heaven, from Himself, as He had promised. The same verb is repeated, ver. 6, concerning the Holy Spirit. [The infinite love of the Father ! — V. g.] Comp. Is. xlviii. 16, where Castellio and others give this interpretation : The Lord Jehovah sent me and His Spirit. Be fore this visitation men did not seem to be so much the object of God's care ; Heb. viii. 9 : afterwards a new appearance of things was presented. — rbv vibv auroD, His (own) Son) The Author of liberty, auroD, in a reciprocal sense, His own. What that means is evident from the train of thought in this passage, for we have received first adoption, then the Spirit of adoption. Therefore Christ Himself is not the Son of God, merely because He was sent and anointed by the Father.
5. "Iva ro-jc, %.r.X. — JVa rqv, that — that) An Anaphora.1 The first that is to be referred to made under the law: therefore the second has respect to born of a woman. There is a Chiasmus very much resembling this, at Eph. iii. 16, v. 25, 26, which see with the annot. Christ, in the similitude of our condition, made our condition good ; in the similitude of our nature, He made us the sons of God : ytvQptvQv is repeated, giving force to the mean ing, He might have been born of a woman (yeveffQai s
and yet not have been made under the law (ysvsffdai but yet He w as born of a woman (iy'zvtro sx ywaixbg), that He might be made under the law. The first yevopevov, made, with the addition of ex ywaixbc, of a woman, takes (adopts) the mean ing, being born. — e^ayopaffvi, might redeem) from slavery to liberty. — rqv v/oQetiav, the adoption) the dignity of sons, a privilege
1 Append. The frequent repetition of the same words to mark beginnings. —ED.