The Pulpit Commentary — Galatians — Section 234

Mosllic legislation and the historice.l record from the saored history. The word rra,3/tTl(I! in which it is embedded, is remarkable. in classical Greek means a girl either slave The Jews were accustomed to designate the or free. In the Septuagint it is generally Pentateueh by this term ( oomp. Matt. v. 17 ; e. slave (not, however, in Ruth iv. 12, where Luke xvi. 16 ; uiv. 44); and whoever it renders the Hebrew na'arak) ; in the would fain subject themselves to the posi- New Teste.ment it is always a maidservant. tive enactments of the Mosaio Law as St. Paul borrows the word from the Sep- possessing Divine authority, would of oourse tuagint of Gen. xv. and xxi., where it feel themselves bound also to accept the renders the Hebrew skipkchak. Hagar was teaching of the historical reoord a.s clothed the personal property of Sa.rnh. The other with the like e.uthority. The apostle him• by a freewoman (,cal lva '" .-,is h,,uBlpas); self also e.ocepted both e.s alike coming and one by tke freewoman. The word from God; only Le required that the Divine "freewoman" is never applied to Sa.rah in purpose in both should be clearly ur.der- the story in Genesis ; not even in the pas- stood and be suitably complied with. sage freely quoted in ver. 30; but it was an Yer. 22.-For it is written (-y,-ypa1r.-a, obviously true description, and with perfect -yci.p) ; for tke S~pture saitk. The phrase fairness introduced in antithesis to Hagar. does not here, as ,t does usus.lly, introduce As applied to one holding so princessly a the cite.tion of a text, but prefaces a brief position in the story as Sarah, the idea of summary of facts ; these facts being recited a freewoman stands cololll'ed with a deep in words gathered out of the Septuagint tinctlll'e of dignity. Version of Gen. xvi. and xxi., in much the Ver. 23.-But he who :was of the bond- same way as the story of Melchisedec is woman was bom after the flesh (&.M.' d µ.~v sketched in Heh. vii. 1-4. That Abraham '" .-ijs 1ra,6ltT1<7/s, ICUTO. a&p,ca 'Y•'Y<IIV7/Tal); had two sons (0,-L ,A~pa.tl.µ 61/o vfoVs luxEJ,); kowbeit tke son by tke kandmaid is shown as that Abraham kad gotten two som; for lax•v born (or, begotten) after the flesk. The Mll.l. is not exactly equivalent to •Ix.•v. Atten- is strongly adversative; both, indeed, were tion has been drawn to other sons born of sous of Abraham, but there was a marked Ketlll'ah (Gen. xxv. 1, 2), who both in distinction in the way in which they ancient and in modem days (see Windisch- severally came into being. The apostle has mann) ha'l"e been very plausibly interpreted evidently in his eye the ane.logy presented rus analogously pointing forward allegorically by the natural birth of the Jewish de- to those heretical bodies, now vanished, scendants from Abraham, as contrasted with wLich threatened such danger to the Chlll'ch the birth of Abraham's spiritual seed in the first centuries. But the apostle's through faith in the promises of the gospel. concern here is exclusively with the postlll'e This point, however, he is content with of affairs subsisting at the time of Hagar's merely, in vers. 28, 29, glancing at. His and Ishme.el's expul.eion from the patriarch's main point is the condition of both mother family, quoted in ver. 30 from Gen. xxi. and child in each case, as being either both Even if he had seen nt by allegorical free or both in bondage. It is not clear exposition to apply Scripture to those dire whether the apostle by 'Y•"fElll'1/Ta1 meant forms of utterly perverted Christianity, "born " or "begotten," the verb being used which he certainly did look forward to as in both senses : but neither is it material. about to arise, it is very questionable The perfect tense of the verb eitker sup- whether he would have conceded to them poses us to be as it were present at the time so venerable a parentage as having Abra-- of Ishmael's expulsion, in which case it ham for their forefather. Mosaism in its would mean, " bath been born," or is used place was a thing of Divine origin, even with reference to the record iu the history, as Christianity itself was, both of them meaning in this case "appears in the story " covenants" of God; not so the monstrous as having been born." So the perfect tense forms of Gnostic and Manichean teaching is used also in Heb. vii. 6, lie6el(tf.,,.,.,,c,, which horrified tile primitive Church. In EUJ\.o-y711«, and Heb. x. 18, l-y,ce1<al111tT'l'a1, fact, typology, that is to say, the interpre• "According to the flesh " does not precisely te.tion of Old Testament Scripture as bear- mean "in the common course of nature; " ing a deai,gned allegorical sense, requires the word " flesh " rather contrasts the very cautious handliug. The tracing of present visible sphere of human life with analogies is an interesting and pleasing the invisible spiritual world, iu much the exerci,,e of theological ingenuity; but it is same way e.s " flesh " is so often contrBBted one tiling to trace a parallelism, and a quite with "spirit." Ishme.el was bom "after the different thing to detect a latent predictive flesh," because he was bom in the common aense intended by the Holy Spirit. The course of nature; Ieo.ao was born (ver. 28) one by a bondmaid (,va ;,, .-ijs 1ra,liltT/C1/S); " after the Spirit,'' because his birth was one by the kandmaid ; the expression connected with the invisible spiritual world pointing to the individual mother known "through· the promise," which on the one err. 1v, 1-31.J ·rnE EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS. 201