The Pulpit Commentary — Galatians — Section 239

very existence, 11e well 11e her outward-acting when these a.re most material for the ar!ru- power, in hie pervading, actuating Spirit. ment; as e.g. in Heb. vi. 13, 14, the" oath." Dond11ge, constmint, the;re cannot be; for all fnlly recorded in Gen. xxii. 16, is not itself volitions are thore harmonized, absorbed, by contained in the citation made by the writer. the Spirit of love uniting her component The above-named, then, we may aBsume to elements both with e11Ch other ancl with have been points which the apostle regarded God. Whioh is the mother of ue all (lp-,s as contained in the p~ssage he refers to, i,nl µ11"1JP 11µow [Receptus, ...&now 71µwv ]) ; because they are contamecl in the section which is our mother. Here again, as in ver. of which the cited worcls are an integral 24, *"" means "which, being such ae she ie, portion. Whatever may be thought of the is our mother," We look at the Jerusalem applicability, in a measure, of the prophet's that is above, and in her princely freedom language in the section alludecl to, to the we recognize what we her children are. case of Israel restored from the Babylonian The ...&.nwv, which the Textus Receptus hae captivity, yet that such an application fur- before 71µwv, and which is by the general ~ishes no complet_e explanation of its import consent of critics rejected, is with much 1s clear from the cucumstance th"t this jubi- probability supposed to have come into the lant prophesying follows immediately upon text by the copyist's recollection of the the delineation in the preceding chapter of similar sentence in Rom. iv. 16, 17, 'A/3pa.d.µ, the sufferings of Christ--a delineation which 3s E<TT, 1ra:d1p 1rd.11-rw11 .;,µ.~11. But wciv--rwv, ended with the intimation of the results which there belongs to the essential thought which should follow in the triumph over of the context that God had made Abraham mighty powers opposing the Sufferer, and in "the father of many nations," is unnecessary the work of justification which he would here, where the apostle is chiefly concerned accomplish upon" many" (Isa. liii. 10-12). with the freedom which characterizes the That the section was understood by our Lord family of promise. If documentary evidence to refer to the new economy which he was prnved it to be genuine, it wouicl find its himself to introduce, is eviclenced by his justification in the notion of the fruitful- citing the words, "All thy children shall be ness which now at length, as the apostle taught of the Lord" (ver 13), as pointing to presently shows, is given to the supernal the spiritual illumination which should at Jerusalem. the time referred to characterize the people Ver. 27.-For it is written ('y,-ypa.=a.• of God universally, so universally that none -yd.p). The points indicated in the section would be numbered amongst God's true of Isaiah (liv.) referred to by the quota- people, that is, amongst the disciples of his tion which is made of the first verse, and Son, who had not "heard from the Father" which amply make good what the apostle (John vi. 45). We have, then, in this section has been stating and implying, are these: of Isaiah a distinctly predictive description that a new economy was to appear; that by of a condition of spiritual well-being which this economy 1t multitude of ser,1tnts of was to result from Christ's mediation; that God should be called into' being; that this is, of the illumination, peace and joyful multitude should in numbers far surpass sense of God's love which then should be those called into being heretofore; that this the" heritage of the servants of the Lord." economy, though newly manifested, had This, construed in the apostle's imagery, been in existence before, but comparatively connecting itself with that of the words unblest with offspring ; that it was to be which he expressly quotes, is the large known as an economy of forgiving, adopt- multiplication of the children of the free- ing love, involving a principle of spiritual woman, bringing forth her offspring into a life and of spontaneous, no longer con- state of freedom and adoption in the great strained and servile, obedience. We need F11ther's family. The Greek rendering of not hesitate in asserting that the last-named the passage given by the apostle is identi- features of the new economy were, in the citl with that of the Vatican text of the apostle's view, included in the prediction he Septuagint. The Alex.11ndrian text varies means to refer to, although not contained in only in adding Ka.I ,,.,p,rov, "and be glad," those words of the prophet which he has to the word /3&11a-ov, "cry," apparently to expressly quoted. For it is one of the explain what kind of crying out was in- characteristics of a Jewish religious tellOher's tended. Rejoice, thou ba.rren that bee.rest mt:thod of citing Scripture, noted by the not ( ebq,pa.v011T• trreipa. 71 ob ,,.[KToua-a.). The learned Dr. Biesenthal, himself a. Jew, in Authorized Version as well as the Revised his • Commentary on the Epistle to the He- thus renders the Greek here; but ,in the brews' (' Einleitung,' p. 54), that he is wont original pnssage in Isai1th the former renders, to omit in his express citation more or less "that didst not bear," the Hebrew having of the passage referred to, leaving it to his the preterite indicative; and similarly, the hearer or reader to supply the omitted " travailest not" in the next olause here ii portions from his own knowledge, even "didst not travail" there. The participles,  206 THE EPISTLE TO THE GALA'l'IANS. [en, 1v. 1-81.