Ver. 28. Having now established the temporary and subordinate function of the Law, the Apostle finally repudiates every claim, whether on that or any other ground, on behalf of any distinct class to superior sanctity in Christ. All Christians, whatever their antecedents, are one in Christ.—otx« ἔνι. Distinctions of creed or race are incompatible with true membership of Christ: the legal barriers and social cleft which severed freeman from slave, even natural divisions as deep-seated as those of sex, disappear in presence of the all-absorbing unity of the body of Christ. ἔνι is a strengthened form of ἐν used for ἔνεστιν, as πάρα, πέρι,
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ἐν Χριστῷ Ἰησοῦ 29. εἰ δὲ ὑμεῖς Χριστοῦ, dpa τοῦ ᾿Αβραὰμ σπέρμα
ἐστὲ, κατ᾽ ἐπαγγελίαν κληρονόμοι.
IV. 1. Λέγω δὲ, Ἐφ᾽ ὅσον
χρόνον ὁ κληρονόμος νήπιός ἐστιν, οὐδὲν διαφέρει δούλου, κύριος
πάντων ὦν 2. ἀλλὰ ὑπὸ ἐπιτρόπους ἐστὶ καὶ οἰκονόμους, ἄχρι τῆς
προθεσμίας τοῦ πατρός.
Ὁ ss ο) μι 3 / ς ἈΝ 3. οὕτω καὶ ἡμεῖς, OTE HEV νήπιοι ὑπὸ τὰ
leore και FGKLP; om. και NABCDE 17, etc,
μέτα are for πάρεστιν, περιέστιν, μέτεσ- τιν.--ὑμεῖς. Special stress is laid on this pronoun by its insertion with πάντες : the Galatians were themselves a signal instance of the power of the Gospel to make men one in Christ: for their Churches were gathered out of the most diverse elements: Jew and Gentile, slave and freeman, male and female, had all contributed to their composition.
Ver. 29. ὑμεῖς. The emphatic in- sertion of ὑμεῖς before Χριστοῦ in pre- ference to Χριστοῦ ἐστέ lays stress apparently on the wonderful transforma- tion of men who had been aliens from the people of God into members of Christ.
CHAPTER IV.—Vv. 1-7. THERE WERE IN THE GENTILE WORLD ALSO BEFORE CHRIST CHILDREN OF GOD IN BONDAGE TO HUMAN RULE, THAT KNEW NOT THE UNSEEN FATHER IN HEAVEN WHO WAS ORDERING THEIR LIVES. THEY WERE LIKE ORPHAN CHILDREN, WHOM A ΡΕ- PARTED FATHER HAS WITH LOVING CARE CONSIGNED DURING CHILDHOOD TO THE CHARGE OF GUARDIANS AND STEWARDS. IN DUE TIME, HOWEVER, GOD SENT FORTH His SON TO REDEEM THEM ALSO FROM BONDAGE, AND HAS MADE US SONS AND HEIRS, SENDING FORTH THE SPIRIT oF His SON INTO OUR HEARTS.—In dealing with the relation of the Mosaic Law to the antecedent covenant and with its subsequent fulfilment in Christ, the Apostle necessarily limited his view of the seed of Abraham, who were cove- nanted heirs of salvation between Moses and the Advent, to Israel. He likened these accordingly to children growing up in their father’s house under domestic control. But as most of those to whom he wrote had been converts from heathen- ism, he now extends his view of the world before Christ so as to embrace Gentiles also within its scope. Amidst the heathen were other children of God,a faithful seed, potential heirs of salvation, who passed through a like stage of spiritual childhood under different conditions. They were like orphan children committed by the watchful care of an unseen and un-
known father to the custody of others. For they were subject to human systems of religion, government and law, neither knowing their Heavenly Father nor com- prehending His love forthem. The con- ception of a dead father providing by his will for the due education of his orphan children serves admirably to illustrate the mutual relations between God and the Gentile world, and to set forth the com- bination of steadfast love on one side with utter ignorance on the other. The illustration is obviously borrowed from testamentary systems prevailing among Greeks and Romans (not among He- brews) which enabled a father to appoint guardians for his orphan children dur- ing their minority. These testamentary powers differed considerably in different parts of the Roman world according to the municipal laws of various Cities. Whereas Roman citizens became wards of the state at fourteen, so that the powers of testamentary guardians were strictly limited, the discretion of the father was allowed a wider range in Greek cities. At Athens, for instance, the guardians of Demosthenes retained control over his property till he became a full citizen after eighteen; and in Asiatic Greece the custody of property was sometimes prolonged to twenty-five, though the personal authority ceased at fourteen. The dependent position of an orphan is described in popular language without legal precision; νήπιος is not a legal term, but an appropriate description for a child of tender years, naturally sub- ject to the control of guardians (ἐπιτρό- πους) and subordinate agents whom they might employ for household management or care of property (οἰκονόμους). It can hardly be right to identify the latter with the Roman curatores, for the special function of these officers was custody of property and not personal.