The Pulpit Commentary — Galatians — Section 169

ma.de a.oovenant wit.h Abmm, saying, Unto one ooutemplated by the Almighty ae dee- thy seed have I gi rnn this land," etc. ; but tine~ to _in~cri~ the promise. This principle most particularly, since on this oooasion of dtscrimme.tion among several lines of circumcision was appointed e.s the "sign of descendants he has himself drawn marked the covenant," the words in Gen. xvii. 7, 8, attention to in Rom, ix. 7, 8, by quoting the "I will establish my co,•ena.nt between me words, "In Isaac sho.11 thy seed be called," and thee a.nd thy seed after thee in their and adding the gloss, " Tho.t is, it is not t!Jo generations for a.n evcrlru;iing covenant, to children of the flesh that a.re children of he a God unto thee, and to tlly seed after God ; but the children of the , promise thee: and I will give unto thee, a.nd to thy nre 1-eckoued for a seed." And so here, seed after thee, the land wherein thou art Among Abraho.m's descendants one pur- & stranger, all the land of Canaan, for an ticular head of a race wa.s beforehand everl1LSting possession; and I will be their selected in the counsels of God, whose God." In the present connection the refer- issue alone should inherit. A13 the principle ence is not so obvious to the important pro- of discriminative predestination was applied mise in Gen. xxii. 17, 18, on which such with respect to the inhe1iting of the promises. stress is la.id in Heh. vi. 13-18. These viewed in their secular m~e.ning, so also was passages, in their primary a.nd plain obvious it applied with respect to the inheriting of sense, point to a covenant established by the them spiritually : to only one branch of Lord between himself on the one hand, and Abraham's descendants did the Divine Abrah&m and Abraham's natural seed on Disposer guarantee the promised grant; the other; ratified on the persons of Abra- that which ~hould originate from Abraham's h&m and his offspring by the seal of circum- great Descendant, Christ, and which wa.s to cision, and collating to them the gift of the be in him and by his name to be called, land of Cane.an. But the apostle teaches Which is Christ (5, iu-r, Xp,u-ros); that is, UB to read these passages mystically: in which seed is Qhrist;_ the gender of place of Abraham's natural seed substituting the relative prononn, which logically, ns "Christ," a. spiritual seed; and in place of reciting a neuter noun, u,repµa., should be the land of Cane.an substituting a spiritual neuter, being according to a very common inherit.ance. For "covenant," to which usage of the lnnguage made masculine by term the apostle reverts in the next verse, the attraction of the predicate Xpur-r&,. we have here" promises; " thus also in Heb. The word "seed '1 still l'etains its signifi- vii. 6, Abraham is described e.s " he that cation of e. collective noun, and does not had the promises." Re saith not, And to even here denote a single descendant-a. seeds, as of many ; but as of one, And to thy sense which usage would not justify us iu seed ( oo 'A.E'f••· Ka.l -ro'is rnrepµ.a.rnv, ws brl assigning to it; for even in Gen. iv. 25 ,ro>.lvi,v· tr.,\'A.', ... trp' hos· Ka.l -r,ii rnrepµa.Tl zera' acher means "other offspring," and uov). The UBe of the preposition brl with not" another off•pring." The word "Christ" >..i-y••• as meaning "of," not found elsewhere is itself employed by the· apostle ns e. col- in the New Testament, occurs repeatedly in lective, as in l Cor. i. 13, "Christ is di- Pla!.o (see Ellicott and Alford, e.u<l Winer's vided!" or, "Is Christ divided?" xii. 12, • Gram.,' 47, g). With ''many" and "one," "As the body is. one, and hatll runny mem- we are, of course, to supply "seeds" and bers, . . . so al~o is Christ." It is usual in "seed." It has been que,tioned whether the Hebrew idiom to apply to, a. people the such a form of expression e.s "to thy very name, unmodified, of the head from seeds" would have been possible in the which they derive; e.s "Israel," "Jacob," Hebrew. Certainly we do not in the ••Ephraim,"" Judah," and e. large multitucle Hebrew Bible find a plural of the noun of instances. It is certain from vers. 27-29 zera' when lli!ed for "offspring," but only that St. Paul has in view those wl:o,e.re "in when .used for a grain of seed. But still, Christ" as being in and with him the such a plural may not have been un½now_n " seed" to whom the "inher_itance" was by to St. Paul in the Hebrew spoken m his that covenant given. Jesus, viewed in his time· for it occurs, De Wette tells us, i1.1 own solitary personality, has nq place in tho the Chaldee Pe.raphrast for " races " in apostle's present argument: he it was not Josh. vii. 14; Jer. :o::xiii. 24; Gen. x. 18. that was to inherit the blessing, save only Such e. grammatical cavil to his observation, with, or rather in, that multitude of human however, the apostle might well have beings for whose sake he is there at all. brushed aside by giving his objector to Perhaps it is on thnt oocount that his understand that it was not npon a nicety official title " Christ" is o.lono named, in of lingual critioism that he was taking his preference to "Jesus" his appellation as an stand, but upon a fa.et which Wfill not to be individual man. Having thuM ascertained called in question; namely, that of !he as definitely as we may what it is thnt the many branches of descendants owmng apostle bore states, we nre n11turnlly led to .Abraham e.s their progenitor, there we.s only consiclcr on what ground~ ho is justified iu on. w. 1-29,] THE EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS.