The Pulpit Commentary — Galatians — Section 221

15. "Ye rccri'<'cd not the spirit of bondl\gc where it would seem to.be much more ol\Iled ngnin unto fe6r; but ye received the S)'hit for. The apparently nominatival form of or adoption, whereby we crv, Abb(\, Father." 6 na.,.11p lends no <'ountenanell to this view, Crying ( ,cpd (ov) ; crying out aloud. The ~ is shown by the comparieon of M11tt. wnrd expressing loud utteranoe betokens in :x1. 26, va(, ~ IlaTt]p : Luke viii. 54, ~ ,ra.,s, this c,ase undoubting aseuranoe. No mint l-y«p• : and in the Septuagint, Ps: viii. 1, 9, wliispcr this of e.n inner consciousness, shy, K6p« oJ K6p1os r,p./;,v: P~. vii. 1, K6p1~, 6 retir<>nt. because afraid to &.."Sure itself of e,&s p.ov. Another hypothesis that the so glorions, so blissful a relation ; no hesi- twofold compell11.tive w11s meo.nt to intim11te tnti ng half-hope; it is n strong, unwavering that God wo.s now Father alike to Jewish con-riction, bold, though humbly bold, to believers and to Gentile, is wrecked upon thns address the e.11-holy Supreme himself. its occurrence in St. Ml\rk. The present 'I'he "cry" is here attributed to the Spirit writer ventures to surmise th11t the con- himself; in Rom. viii. 15 to believers, these joined phrase origiu11ted thus: 'Xhe Lord being the Spirit's organs of utterance; Jesus, being wont very commonly. to sub- presently after in the Romans, vers. 26, 27, stitute for the name " God " the designation the 8pirit himself is so.id to "intercede with of" Father," may be supposed to have used Kroanings which cannot he uttered, ... e.ccord- for this designation the word "Abbe. " os ing to the will of God." Analogously, in the the honorific form of the dhaldaio noun for Gospels, evil spirits in demoniacs at times "father,'' in _much the same way as the are said to " cry out " (Mark i. 26 ; ix. 26), Jews regularly substituted the noun .Adonai, while in other passages the cry is attri- an honorific form of .Adonim, "lord," 'or buted to the possessed person. Abba, Father "master," for the unutterable tetragram- CAf3fJo., ~ na.,-tip). In ac!,dition to Rom. viii. maton, 1"11il'. Instead of .Adonai, Christ 15, just cited, the same remarkable words (it may be supposed) oustomarily employed e:re found once only besides, in Mork xiv. the word "Abba," as· an almost proper 36, as uttered by our Lord in the garden. name of the Supreme Being. When our St. Luke (xxii. 42) gives only " Father" Lord had occasion to apply the word (ll,£,.,p) ; St. Matthew (xxvi. 39, 42), "my "Father" as a common noun to God, whether Father" (m,,.,p µ.ou: in ver. 39, however, in addressing him or in speaking of him, p.ou is omitted by Tischendorf, though he we may infer· from the Peshito-Syriac Ver- rctrtins it in ver. 42). St. Matthew, by eion of Mark xiv. 36 that he added another e.<lding p.ou to n&.,.,p here, which he does form of the so.me original noun "Abj," or not add in xi. 25, 26, seems to indicate that "Obj," instead of or in addition to" Abba." the form of address which our Lord then The n&.,.,p of :tuke xxii. 42 may have' been employed bespoke more than nsual of fer- used to represent "Abba; " St: Matthew'e vency or of intimacy of communion. Ac- TiaT<p p.ou to represent "Abj" or ·" Obj." c,,rd!ng to Fiil'st ('Concordance'), "Abba," The use of "Abba, b Ilci:T11P". by believers, i<:;~, occurs freqnently in the Targums probably quite an exceptional ·'use,· •was "sensu proprio et honori.fico;" in the Jeru- adopted, both as a conscious reminiscence salem Targum taking the form "Ibba," of Christ's utterance in the garden~they, i-:~i:t- In consequence, we may assnme, of by conjoining themselves thus 'with their the "honorific" oomplexion of this form Lord, pleading, as it w:ere, his Name· as of the word, it we.s in Chaldee the form their warrant for claiming this ·filial re1ation usually employed in compellation, or for with the Most High-11nd also ·as ~, in- the vocative. The hypothesis that either tensely emphatic description of God's father- illc Divine Sneaker,or the Eve.ngelist Mark, hood, by conjoining together. the almost or the Apostle Pe:u.J. added 6 nrzT11P as l!,D proper name denotiog his general father- explanatofy adjunct to the .An.maic "Abba,'' hood by which (supposably) Obrist was used for the benefit of such as might need the to designate God, and the common noun by expl=tion, is resisted (l) by the three- which Christ's disciples had by him been fold recurrence of the conjoined phrases in taught to address him in prayer, and which just ihe same form; (2) by the absence of embodied their sense of his especial fe.ther- e.ny such i.lltimation of a translation as we hood to those who serve him. The apostle find given in ?ther ~sages w:here an is not to be understood e.s intimating that .Aramaic word 1s explarned, as in Mark the Holy Spirit does o.ctuo.lly produce in v. 41; vii. 11, 34; John i. 38, 41, 42; xx. every heart in which he dwells the defini~ 16; Acts ix. 36; (3) by the addition of consciousness of sonship. It is enough fqr ~ Il«T'r1P being .made by St. Paul in the his purpose that the nisus, the endeavour llomans, when writing with e. glowing and tendency of his spiritual ope111tiou, i8 ardour or strong feeliog wholly repug:oant in all cases in that direction, though throug4 to the didactic ca.lmness of a tranelat10nal slackness on their own part so many Chris- gloBB: he docs not pa use io add such a tians fail of conquering for themselves the gfo,;jj to "Mllllln athe." iD 1 Cor. xvL 22, full possession of their inheritance. 'But, OH, IV, 1-31.J 'fIIE EPIS'l'U TO TBE GALATIAKS. 187 ------------------------------ ---- however, we need not (he implies) go bnck Acts xv. 1); no observance of ccremonfol to MosCLio coremouialism to seek there for rites, whether of the Law or of such freaks our aesumd eonehip. We have it already 6f heretical "will-worship" as are referred bore-here, in Obrist, and in the indwelling to in Col. ii. 23. Thy faith in Christ preeenc11 of hie Spirit. (says in effect the apostle) gives thee Ver. 7.-Wherefore thou art no more a now for good and all an uaured place in servant, but a Bon (liuTTE •~" fr, e1 BoiiAos, 6-M' whatever inheritance God designs to give ulos); eo then, no longer att thou a bond- hie people. The manuscripts and other eervant, but a son. ''no-n, properly "so authorities for the text present considerable that," is frequently used by St. Paul for" so variety in the reading of the last words of then " or "wherefore," to state a final con- this clause. The reading adopted by L. T. clusion (cf. ver. 16, below; eh. iii. 2-1; Rom. Tr., Meyer, Alford, Lightfoot, and Hort and vii. 4, etc.). It here marks the conclusion Westcott, namely, ,c>.11pov6µ.os 6111 e,oii, is resulting from the statements of the pre- that found in the three oldest uncials, and ceding six verses, viz. of God having sent presents a form of expression which WBB forth his Son to do away with the Law, sub- likely so greatly to surprise the copyist as jection to which ho.d marked the nonage of to set him naturally upon the work of revi- his people, and to raise them to their com- sion; whereas that of the Received Text, plete filial position, and of hie then sending 1<>-11pov&µ.os 0,ou B,a Xp1tr'Toii, would have forth his Spirit into their hearts loudly seemed to him so perfectly natural and easy protesting their son ship. "No longer art that he would never have thought of alter- thou;" by this individualizing address the ing it. The words, "heir through God," apostle strives to awaken each individual taken in connection with the foregoing con- believer to the consciousness of the filial text, insist upon the especial appointment position belonging to him in particular. of the supreme God himself; his interven- B_elieve it : in Christ J esue, thou, thine tion displayed in the most conspicuous own very self, art a son I The phrase, "no manner conceive.ble, through the incamaied longer," marks the position of God's servant Son and the aen I-forth Spirit. The belieTer now, as compared with what it would have is here said to be a son and an heir "through been before Christ bad wrought hie emanci- God," in the ea.me sense aa St. Paul affirms pat:i,ng work and the Holy Spirit had been himself to be an apostle " through J esue sent forth as; the Spirit of adoption; then Christ and God the Father," and "through he would have still been a bond-servant ; the will of God" (eh. i. 1; 1 Cor. i. 1); for he is not that now. Thie abrupt singling "of him and through him and unto him out one individual as a sample of all tl;ie a.re all things," and most manifestedly so, members of ·a class is an instance of the the things composing the economy of grace a..v&-r11s of St. Paul's style (comp. Rom. xi. which the gospel announces (Rom. xi. 36). 17; xii. 20; xiii. 4; xiv. 4; 1 Cor. iv. 7). The apostle hBB thus brought be.ck his dis- The individual cited by the "thou" is course to the same point which it had neither a Gentile convert only nor a Jewish reached before in eh. iii. 29. The reader believer only; it is any member of God's will do well to carefully compare this sec- kingdom. "A son," a member of God's tion of the Epistle (vers. 3-7) with Rom. fu.mily, an oi,ce,os -rov eeou (Eph. ii, HJ), vii. 25-viii. 4 and viii. 14-17. With one free of all le.w of bondage and in full great similarity in the forms of expression, possession of a son's privileges; no sinner, the difference of the apostle's object in the now, under bis Father's frown; but oc- two Epistles is clearly discerned. There he cepted, beloved, cherished,· honoured with is discoursing the more prominently of the his Father's confidence. And if a son, then believer's emancipation from the controlling an heir of God through Christ ( e! B1' ulds, ,cal power of a sinful nature, which, under the 1<1'.11pov&p.os Bur. 0eoi) [Rcceptus, K1'11pov&p.os Law, viewed under its moral aspect rather Seoii 6,a. Xp10--roii)); and if a son, an heir also than its ceremonial, was rather fretted into through God. So Rom. viii. 17, "Aud if yet more aggravated disobedience than C'hildren (-r/,cva), heirs also; heirs of God, quelled or overpowered. Here bis subject joint-heirs with Christ.'' The inheritonce is more prominently the believer's emanci- here meant is the possession of every bless- pation from the thraldom of the Law's cere- ing which the theocratic kingdom entitles monicilism, which in the present Epistle, its members to look forword to. And the relative to the troubles in the Galstian point of this added clause is that no further Churches, he has more occasion to deal with. qualiflcotion is needed for our hnving n Both the one deliverance, however, and the vested right in that inheritance, than thot other we.a necessary for the believer's full which is supplied by faith in Christ, uniting consciousness of adoptive sons)lip; e.nd each us to him and me.king us eh11rers with him ; wos, in foot, involved iu the other. no such qualificotion, for exomplo, as the Ver. 8.-Howbeit (~Ad.); a stTongly ad- ·Mosnizing reo.otionnrios insisted upon (see versative conjunction, belonging to tha  188 THE EPISTLE TO 'l'HE GALA.'.l'IANS. [ell, IV. 1-31.