The Pulpit Commentary — Galatians — Section 215

w11y in which tlH' npostle mcnns to sketch we cannot tell what "·as really tho precise t.be cnse; spenking in II general way, one rule ofproceduro which, in the case ,lescribod rnny describe a minor as subject to "gun.r- by the apostle, prevailed either in J ndroa or di,rns nn,l ~tewnrds." Until the time e.ppointed in Tarsus, or in Galatia; nor age.in from who.t of the father (lxp, .,.,is 1rpo8«,µlas 'Toii ,..,,.,.p6s). region of actunl experience St. Paul drew The noun 1rpo8er,µ{a., properly 11n adjective, his illustration. We, therefore, have no wpa or 71/J-Jpa being understood, is used very possible right to say that the case which he commonly to denote, either a determined supposes was not fairly supposable. On the· period during which n thing is to be done contrary, when we reflect how open the or forborne, which is its most ordinary sense apostle's mind was for taking note of fo.cts (see Reiske's 'Lexicon to Demosthenes'); or about him, and how. wide and vo.ried his the further limit of such a period, whence survey, we may safely rest assured thnt bis S,·mmachus uses it to render the Hebrew supposed case was in reality framed in per- w0rd for " end " in Job xx"fiii. 3; or, lastly, fect accordance to the civil usage, to whioh a specified time at which a certain thing was the Galatians would understand him to refer. to take place, as, for example, Josephus, At the same time, it must be conceded that, 'Ant.,' vii. 4, 7, "When the (1rpo8«,µia) day amongst different modes of arranging a appointed for the payment came." This last minor's case which actual usage permitted seems to be the meaning of the word here, or may be imagined to have permitted, the though it admits of being taken in the second apostle selected just that particular mode sense, as describing the limit of the child's which would best suit his present immediate pEoriod of nonage. The somewhat loosely purpose. • • constructed genitfre, .,-oii ..-a.,-p&s, "of the Ver. 3.-Even so we (oi/.,.., 1<al 71µ,is); so father," may be compared either with the we also. ThiA '' we" represents the same o,oanol 'Toii 0,oii, "taught of God" (John persons as before in eh. iii. 13, 24, 25 (see vi. 45), or, in a somewhat different applica- notes), namely, the people of God; a society tion, " the chastening and admonition of the preserving a continuous identity through Lord" (Eph. vi. 4). In reference to the successive ate.gee of development, till now whole case as st.ated by the apostle, it has appearing- as the Church of Christ: The been asked-Is the fe.ther to be conceived of plural pronoun recites, not individuals, but as dead, or as only gone out of the country, the community viewed as a whole, having or how? It is snfficient to reply that " the the now subsisting " us " as its .present point of the comparison "-to use BiJ;hop representatives. Individually, Christians in. Light.foot's words-" lies, not in the circum- genero.l now, and many of those who then stances of "the father, but of the son ; " and, when the apostle wrote belonged to the further, that to supplement the description Church, never were in the state of nono.ge or which the apostle gives by additional par- hondo.ge here referred to. It is, however, tieulars not relevant for the purpose of the notwithstanding this, quite supposable that· comparison would only tend to clond our St. Paul's account of the history of the whole ,iew of its actual import. In fact, any image society is in some degree tinted by the recol- fo.ken from earthly things to illUBtrate things lection of bis own personal experiences. ~piritual will in~vitably, if completely filled When we were children (8.,., ;Jµ,11 111!1r10,}; out, be found to be in some respects halting. that is, when we were in our nonage. The Another inqniry has engaged the attention phrase is not meant to point to a sto.te of of commentators, as to how far the particule.r immaturity in personal development, but circumst.ance, that the period of nonage is simply to the ·period of our being withheld made dependent upon the father's appoint- from the full possession of our inheritance, ment, can be shown to agree with actual This is all that the course of thought now usage as it then obtained. It would seem pursued requires; and we only create for that no positive proof has hitherto been ourselves superfluous embarrassment by alleged that such an hypothesis was in strict carrying further the parallel between the conformity with either Greek or Roman or figuring persons and the figured. The spiri- Hebrew law. And hence some have had tual illumination enjoyed by the Christian recourse to the precarious and far-fetched Church, compared with that of the pre- supposition that St. Paul founds his thebis Christian society, presents as great a contra.et on Galatian usage, arguing that such would as that of a man's knowledge compared with have been in accordance with that purely a child's; but that is not the point here. arbitrary control which, according to Ciese.r Were in bondage under the elements (or, (' Bell. Gall.,' vi 19), a paterfamilias exer- rudiments) of the world ( o,rl, .,.;. u,-o,x•ia Toii cibed over wife and children among the 1<&0-µov ;J/J-EI' oeBoul\o,µ/110,); Wll'feheldinbond· kindred tribes in Gaul. The scruple, how- age under the rudiments of the world; or, ever, now referred to arises from supposing were undll't the rudiments of the world brought that we know more about the facts than we into bond-serf/ice. This latter wo.y of con- really do know. So far as has been shown, struing, separatin~ ;Juw from the partioiple OH, n:, 1-31.] 'l'HE EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS. 181