Chapter Four

The state of Jews before the coming of Christ. Falling away to the law of Moses is the same as returning to paganism (1–11). The Apostle’s personal address to the Galatians (12–20). An allegorical proof of the position that the Galatians are free from subjection to the law (21–31)

Gal 4:1-11. The Apostle has already in the preceding chapter shown that Israel was kept under the guard of the law because it needed such protection due to its spiritual immaturity. Now this position the Apostle reveals more fully and clearly, comparing Israel under the law to an underage heir who does not have the right to independently manage the property left to him by his father. But when the time appointed by the father arrives, the heir enters into actual possession of his property. So also God enslaved Israel until a time “to the elements of the world,” and then when Israel matured for the acceptance of the Messiah and the reception of Abraham’s promises, God sent the Messiah—His Son—to redeem those under the law from the curse, and the elements lost their significance. In this the Apostle also appeals to the Galatians’ own experience, who feel that they have already become in the true sense sons of God and possessors of the blessings of the messianic kingdom. Therefore they should not again return to the elements of the world that have lost their significance for humanity.

Galatians 4:1. I mean that the heir, as long as he is a child, is no different from a slave, though he is the owner of all; Galatians 4:2. but he is under guardians and managers until the date set by his father. The Apostle said in Gal 3:29 that Christians from the nations became heirs of the promise given to Abraham. Now he wishes to clarify in what sense the Jews too were called heirs of Abraham and were such. Indeed they were called and were sons of God (Deut 32:19) even before Christ, and as such were already in possession of very significant goods which the pagans lacked (Rom 9:4; Eph 2:12). The readers could ask: have not the Jews already received those goods which are promised to Abraham and which, according to the Apostle, were intended for believing pagans? The Judaizers, of course, answered the Galatians affirmatively to this question. They said that in this way the divine sonship and possession of Abraham’s inheritance were very conveniently connected with the law of Moses and were even inseparable from it. That is why the Apostle speaks of the character of Jewish inheritance. He depicts for us a son in general who has been orphaned by the death of his father (the fact that the boy is thought of as an orphan by the Apostle is clearly indicated by the expression: “though he is owner of all.” One could not speak thus of a boy while his father was alive, according to law and in reality the one being the master “of all” the house). “As long as he is a child” (νήπιος—literally: “not speaking,” in broader meaning: “underage”). Such a son is not different in rights from an ordinary slave. He cannot himself freely dispose of his person and property, for example sell it, but is subject by law or custom (the Apostle hardly has here in mind the provisions of Roman law) to guardians (επίτροποι—among the Greeks tutores and curatores among the Romans), who in general supervised the conduct of their ward until he reached puberty, and to managers (οικονόμοι—stewards, in Latin actores, agentes), who properly managed the property of their ward. This continued until the date which the father indicated in his will (the usual legal date for this among the Romans was when the ward reached twenty-five years of age, but sometimes provincial residents made deviations from this rule).

Galatians 4:3. In the same way we also, when we were children, were enslaved to the elementary principles of the world; Galatians 4:4. but when the fullness of time had come, God sent His Son (the only-begotten), Who was born of a woman, who came under the law, Galatians 4:5. so that he might redeem those under the law, so that we might receive adoption. Here is given an explanation of the figurative speech about the heir who is an orphan. But whom does the Apostle have in mind here? Who is this “we”? It is most consistent with the course of thought and especially with the meaning of verse 5 to interpret this as referring to the Jews. They, indeed (cf. Gal 3:23-25), before the coming of Christ resembled minor sons or immature children, and as such were reckoned as slaves (Rom 8:15) and did not enjoy their rights of divine sonship. “Were enslaved to the elementary principles of the world.” What does the expression τά στοιχεῖα τοῦκόσμου mean? Already from the context of the expression τά στοιχεῖα with the word τοῦ κόσμου one can confidently conclude that interpretations are unjust which understand by “elements” or letters of the alphabet, or elements and first principles of religion and religious knowledge, or so-called heavenly bodies, stars, or angels as spirits which govern the lights. It is most natural to see in these elements matter and separate material things of which the world consists and the world itself as it consists of such things. The Apostle apparently wishes to say that the law of Moses binds religion or at least all its manifestations in life to matter and material things of which the world consists. Not only is the order of festivals conditioned by the course of the moon, not only is the celebration of the Sabbath from evening to evening dependent on the position of the sun: all commandments about food and purity, sacrificial laws and other prescriptions about worship relate to material objects, to definite places, times, bodily states and so forth. All of this were “regulations concerning the flesh” (Heb 9:10). From this religious life acquired a character of constraint, which was felt all the more strongly the more the Jews placed significance in the law and the more they wanted to strengthen the specific character of the theocratic community and religion through precise and punctilious fulfillment of the letter of the law. In the end, pious people felt themselves extremely burdened, oppressed—of course if in their souls lived a sense of true spiritual freedom. However, the Apostle speaks of this not of the law itself, which he placed, as divinely revealed, on its proper elevation (see Rom 7:12), but of the character which this law received in the life of the Jews. He does not blame along with this the Jews themselves because they did not rise to understanding the idea of the law: according to his representation everything was as it was supposed to happen. God, as the father of the nation, subjected it during its immaturity to the guidance of guardians—the immaturity of the nation and is the only cause of such position which did not correspond to its ideal worth as a son of God. “But when the fullness of time had come,” that is, the full measure (πλήρωμα) of time—the time of the boy’s growth into a mature man. God predetermined for this a certain amount of time so that, after the completion of the time He appointed, His son could be freed from subjection to those previously governing him. “God sent.” The Greek word εξαπέστειλεν denotes the sending of someone from the place in which the sender abides (cf. Luke 20:10 and following; Luke 24:49). From this it is necessary to draw the conclusion that before his sending the one sent was in the place of the sender. It is clear that the Apostle wishes by this to designate the true divine sonship of Christ, quite distinct from that divine sonship which the Jews possessed and now possess—Christians. In other words, the eternal existence of Christ as the Son of God is presented here. “Who was born of a woman”—more correctly: who came forth from (εκ) a “woman.” This expression represents a determination of Christ’s other nature—the human. By mentioning only the mother of Christ, the Apostle apparently, like all the evangelists, wishes to say that there was no father in Christ’s conception. “Came under the law”—more precisely: who came to be under the law (γενομενον υπό νυμον). As the son of a woman from the Hebrew race, Christ naturally came under the yoke of the law of Moses. Remarkably, in the Apostle Christ is called the Son of God both in the state of His incarnation and in the state of His subjection to the law (the aorist γενόμενος denotes the state coinciding with that denoted by the verb εξαπέστειλεν: He was born of a woman precisely “as the Son of God,” He came under the law “as the Son of God”).—

Galatians 3:13. “So that he might redeem those under the law,” that is, Jews—cf. Gal. 3:13, 4:3. “So that we might receive adoption”—this is an explanation of the preceding expression. The Apostle understands by “adoption” not a juridical act, not only a manifestation of God’s will (as adoption typically occurs—adoptio among people) but an actual impact on a person’s life, namely a certain physical process of rebirth (cf. Gal 4:6 and Rom 8:14 and following, where the dwelling of Christ’s Spirit in the hearts of believers is presented as an undoubted sign of the divine adoption of believers). That the Jews already in part had this divine sonship—this does not prevent Paul from calling their new position in Christ divine adoption, for in fact Old Testament divine sonship was more nominal and ideal than actual. The Apostle uses here the expression “we” rather than “you,” as above, because he intends to move toward a description of the state of the Galatians who in their majority came from pagan races. Galatians 4:6. And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba, Father! Galatians 4:7. Therefore you are no longer a slave but a son; and if a son, then an heir of God through Jesus Christ. The Apostle points to the Galatians’ own experience, which tells them that they too have come into a son’s relationship to God. “And because you are sons”—more precisely: “and that you are sons” (ότι δέ εστέ υιοί). The Apostle wishes to say that the main thing is divine sonship. That the Galatians already have this sonship is evident from the fact that God has sent into the hearts of the Galatians the “Spirit of His Son,” that is, the Holy Spirit, Whom the Lord Jesus Christ promised to send to His Apostles (John 14:16), Who therefore is thought of as belonging to Him. The Apostle here has in mind both the descent of the Holy Spirit on the day of the first Christian Pentecost (Acts 2) and the subsequent bestowing of the Spirit on believers each individually (1 Cor 2:12; Acts 10:47). “Crying.” The Holy Spirit cries out to God through a person, but the very mood in which a person calls out to God is created by the Holy Spirit, which is why the Spirit Himself cries out according to the Apostle. Abba is an Aramaic word denoting father, derived from Hebrew “av.” The Apostle uses it as something which Hebrew and Syrian Christians used in their prayers. “Father”—ο πατήρ is the Greek designation for father. Thus did Christians from the nations address God: Greeks or Hellenized, such as the Galatians were in their majority. “Therefore you”—the Apostle addresses Christians from the nations, whom the Judaizers until now still regarded as having incorrectly appropriated the title of sons of God. According to the Apostle they became such by the will of God Himself, not by usurping this title. But could they in their former pre-Christian state be called slaves? Since they were not “sons,” which is undoubted, then apparently they were “slaves”: in the Apostle’s case there is only a dilemma—either slave or son.

Galatians 4:8. But at that time, not knowing God, you were enslaved to things that by nature are not gods. The Apostle wishes to clarify to the Galatians that they before their conversion to Christianity were just as much slaves to their gods as the Jews were slaves to their law. “You”—says the Apostle—“were enslaved” or more precisely: were slaves (εδουλεύσατε) “to your gods which by their nature are not gods at all.” They did what they should never have done (cf. Rom 1:18 and following). Their position moreover was much worse than that of the Jews because the Jews, although slavishly, served the true God, while the Galatians slavishly served gods who are not gods by nature but—one could complete—unclean demonic powers, as the Apostle spoke of in other places (cf. 1 Cor 8:5).

Galatians 4:9. But now that you have come to know God, or rather to be known by God, how can you turn back again to the weak and impoverished elementary principles and want to be enslaved to them again? But still, in those far-off times their service to non-gods was in part excused by the fact that they did not know the true God. But now, when they have come to know the true God or rather have been known by Him (γνωσθέντες υπό θεοῦ—known and loved by God cf. 2 Tim 2:19), it is shameful for them to return to enslaved service to the elements. The word “elements” although it does not have here the addition “of the world” means the same as the expression Gal 4:3. The Apostle of course could not put on the same level the Mosaic cult and pagan worship of idols, but he apparently found something in common between one and the other—namely the striving of both cults to subject those seeking communion with the Divinity to a multitude of legal prescriptions of a purely external character, of a purely material nature. It suffices to recall for example that the smallest blemish in a sacrificial animal made the entire sacrifice unfit, despite the disposition which perhaps the offerer had. God is high above such externality and those who in truth serve Him (John 4:20-24). These elements are “weak” because they cannot bring a person into actual communion with God, and “impoverished”—in comparison with the wealth which God granted people in Christ (2 Cor 8:9). “And want to be enslaved to them again.” The Galatians by beginning to serve the elements were falling again to that low level on which they stood while in paganism: they were again becoming slaves—now to Jewish “elements,” as before they had pagan “elements.”

Galatians 4:10. You observe days, months, seasons, and years. This proposition is fragmentary. The Apostle, not connecting the new thought that has presented itself to his mind with what precedes, clothes it in the form of an exclamation: “you observe days and months.” “Days”—these are first the sacred Sabbath and also perhaps the two days on which the Pharisees fasted each week (cf. Luke 18:12) and the day of the 14th of Nisan which had to be “observed” or calculated, and finally the day of the new moon (cf. Col 2:16). “Months”—this is of course first Tishrei, which began the civil year and which almost entirely consisted of festivals, and then Nisan, in which the Passover festival was celebrated. “Seasons”—these are longer festivals, such as the Feast of Booths—from the 15th to the 21st of Tishrei and the Feast of Unleavened Bread from the 14th to the 21st of Nisan. “Years”—the Sabbatical (every seventh year) and the Jubilee (every fiftieth). Of course, the Galatians did not yet have the opportunity to actually celebrate “years” because only a few months had passed since they began to observe Jewish festivals. But they could already celebrate Passover with the Jews and eat unleavened bread, which greatly troubled the Apostle.

Galatians 4:11. I fear for you, lest I have labored in vain concerning you. The Apostle fears that all such labors of his (the verb κοπιᾶν points to the weight of his labors), accomplished by him in bringing the Galatians to the true path, may prove fruitless. In fact if the Galatians become established in the thought that they can achieve righteousness before God only by fulfilling the precepts of the law of Moses, then they will lose that possession of Christian freedom which they acquired with such effort. Gal 4:12-20. The Apostle now appeals to the Galatians not with proofs but with fervent exhortation. Let them remember how they received Paul when he came to them, what bliss they felt then. How can they now look on him as their enemy? Their enemies are the Judaizers who wish for themselves only glory, thinking not at all of the harm they are causing the Galatians.

Galatians 4:12. I beg you, brothers, become like me, for I also have become like you. You have done me no wrong; The Apostle begs the Galatians to be like him in relation to the law of Moses, just as he became like them when he proclaimed the Gospel to them. At that time he completely renounced his former Jewish habits in order, according to his principle (1 Cor 9:19-22), in no way to offend those among whom he had to work (the expression “and I also have become” requires the addition: “like you”—εγενόμην). The Galatians now, in gratitude to the Apostle for his condescension to them, ought themselves to renounce the fulfillment of the precepts of the law of Moses to which they have begun to become accustomed. The Apostle hopes that the Galatians will obey him and will not wrong him, because before they had not wronged him in any way.

Galatians 4:13. And you know that it was because of a physical ailment that I first proclaimed the good news to you, Galatians 4:14. and though my condition was a trial to you, you did not scorn or despise me, but welcomed me as an angel of God, as Christ Jesus. Moreover, not only did the Galatians do him no wrong—they received him with extraordinary kindness. This was when the Apostle first visited Galatia (Acts 16:6). He actually did not intend to remain here long but became ill (δι ασθένειαν τ. σαρκός) and was forced to stay in Galatia for some time, where he began to proclaim the Gospel (about the second visit of Paul to Galatia see Acts 18:23. The Galatians did not scorn, did not spurn the “trial” which the Apostle’s illness presented to them (instead of: “my trial” it is necessary, following more reliable texts, to read: “your trial”), but received Paul as a heavenly messenger—an angel, even as Christ Himself. About the Apostle’s illness cf. 2 Cor 12:7-9.

Galatians 4:15. How blessed you were! I testify concerning you that, if it had been possible, you would have torn out your eyes and given them to me. Galatians 4:16. So have I become your enemy by telling you the truth? At that time the Galatians considered themselves truly blessed, happy (τίς οῦν ῆν ο μακαρισμός υμῶν) from the fact that Paul was among them. They in a feeling of rapture were ready for Paul to sacrifice the organ most dear to a person—their own eyes (cf. Ps 16:8; Matt 18:9). And so the situation of things has changed so much that Paul has become their enemy (ώστε εχθρός υμῶν γέγονα) because he speaks and continues to speak only the truth. It is evident that hostile feelings in the Galatians toward Paul were already aroused during the second residence of the Apostle in Galatia, and with such feelings the Galatians remain at the time the letter was written (cf. Gal 1:9). “The truth”—that is, the truth about the danger threatening the Galatians from the Judaizers and about the law in general.

Galatians 4:17. They make much of you, but not in a good way; they want to exclude you, so that you might be zealous for them. The Judaizers strive only to gain the favor of the Galatians but are guided by motives far from pure: they care nothing for the salvation of the Galatians but only care for their own glory. They want to “exclude” or separate the Galatians from other churches of the pagans and in particular from Paul.

Galatians 4:18. Good to be sought after with good purpose at all times and not only when I am present with you. Now the Apostle speaks of the Galatians themselves and their relation to Paul. “To be sought after with good purpose”—thus one can render the first half of the verse—“is something beautiful,” to be the object of zealous love (ζηλοῦσθαι has the meaning of passive voice. In the Bible there is no case where this verb is equivalent to ζηλοῦν). The Apostle does not decline to receive manifestations of affection from the Galatians but expresses only the thought that it is pleasant to be loved “at all times” and not only when you are before the eyes of the one who loves.

Galatians 4:19. My children, for whom I am again in the pain of childbirth until Christ is formed in you! Galatians 4:20. I wish I could be with you now and change my tone, because I am perplexed about you. “My children”—more precisely: “my little children” (τεκνία μου). “I am again in the pain of childbirth” (ωδίνω), that is, again feel the pains that a woman in labor feels. The Apostle indeed suffered much in converting the Galatians to Christianity (cf. Gal 4:11). Now after their falling away to Judaism he again needs to convert them with such pains. “Until Christ is formed in you,” that is, until Christ receives an external form or external appearance in you so as to become visible in you (cf. Rom 2:20, 1 Cor 4:6). Christians represent the image of Christ, just as the unconverted are the image of Adam (1 Cor 15:49). “Change my tone”—that is, speak differently, in a different tone than before I have spoken to the Galatians, because he does not know what else to resort to in such difficulty. Gal 4:21-31. Here the Apostle again appeals to the Galatians with proof of the thought that they, as Christians, are completely free from the fulfillment of the law of Moses. The law of Moses itself, that is, the Pentateuch written by Moses, already indicated the annulment of the law. Namely, there in the book of Genesis is contained the account of Abraham’s deed with his son born from the handmaid Hagar—Ishmael. Since Isaac was born according to the promise and Ishmael was born according to the flesh, then for the good of the first Abraham, by God’s command, drove Ishmael out of his house along with his mother. The Apostle applies this history to contemporary circumstances of the Christian Church and says that Christians—children of the promise—are not in slavery under the law.

Galatians 4:21. Tell me, you who want to be under the law, do you not listen to the law? The Apostle appeals not to a certain minority of Galatians who already fulfill the law but to the entire Galatian community in which he sees sympathy for the direction which some of the Galatian Christians have already taken (you who “want” to be under the law). “Do you not listen to the law?” Both Jews and Christians became acquainted with the content of the book of the law (here by “the law” the book of the law of Moses is understood—Torah) in religious assemblies where the book of the law was read by special readers (cf. John 12:34; 2 Cor 3:14 and following).

Galatians 4:22. For it is written: Abraham had two sons, one by a slave woman and the other by the free woman. “For”—in the sense of: precisely. In the book of the law of Moses, namely in its first part—Genesis—it is said that Abraham had (more correctly: received έσχεν) two sons: Ishmael from Hagar (an Egyptian by birth, the handmaid of his wife (Gen 16:1)) and Isaac from his free wife Sarah.

Galatians 4:23. But the son of the slave was born according to the flesh; the son of the free woman was born through the promise. It might have seemed that both sons of Abraham should occupy the same position in their father’s house. But such was not the case. On the one hand the social position of their mothers was not equal, and on the other Abraham became the father of Isaac differently than he became the father of Ishmael. In Ishmael’s birth everything occurred in the usual order of human life. Meanwhile Isaac was born only by virtue of the promise given by God to Abraham when it was no longer possible to hope for a child from Sarah and when Abraham himself had reached one hundred years of age.

Galatians 4:24. These things are to be understood as an allegory. These women are two covenants. One is from Mount Sinai bearing children for slavery, which is Hagar, In these events the Apostle Paul finds something prefiguring with respect to the time then, which the Church was experiencing. “Allegory.” The Greek word αλληγορεῖν (from which αλληγορούμενα—allegory) originally means: to speak differently than one thinks, that is to give one’s thought such an expression which by its literal meaning would give or contain a completely different thought. Then this verb means: to interpret, to explain a known event or saying under the assumption that it contains an allegory. All ancient translators and interpreters understood here the verb αλληγορεῖν in the first meaning. The Apostle, without the slightest hint putting into question the historicity of what is reported in the Old Testament, only points out that in Old Testament events one can recognize a foreshadowing of the future, that in them there is something which in advance outlines the plans and paths of God’s economy concerning human salvation. In this case he finds it possible to see in Abraham’s two wives a foreshadowing of two covenants. The point of contact for comparison lies in the fact that just as Hagar and Sarah were the mothers of two descendants of Abraham who occupied different places in history due to the difference in the position of their mothers and the character of their origin, so both covenants imprint on each people which owes its origin to them each its own character. One of these covenants is the covenant concluded by Moses on Mount Sinai and given to the nation of Israel. Like a mother, this covenant imprints on the children born from it its seal and precisely the seal of slavery. Therefore the handmaid Hagar is and the type of this covenant (“which is Hagar.”)

Galatians 4:25. For Hagar is Mount Sinai in Arabia, and corresponds to the present Jerusalem, because she with her children is in slavery; Galatians 4:26. but the Jerusalem above is free; she is our mother. Before speaking of the “other” covenant the Apostle considers it necessary to clarify the first part of the comparison. But here we face a choice between two readings. According to one, which the Russian and Slavic text follows, the beginning of the verse reads: “for Hagar means Mount Sinai in Arabia.” According to another the expression “Τό Αγάρ”—“Hagar” is removed and only the phrase remains: “for Mount Sinai is indeed a mountain lying in Arabia.” The first reading cannot be accepted because few ancient patristic testimonies support it: only fathers of the Antiochian school have such a reading, while in the West and in Egypt such a reading appears at a comparatively late time (not before the second half of the third century), whereas the second reading is found in Origen, in the most ancient Egyptian manuscripts, in Latin and Gothic translations, then in the Sinai and Ephraemi codices, in Epiphanius, Ambrose and others. Finally, the first reading is properly incomprehensible. Hagar is a woman and consequently the expression Τό Αγάρ can be rendered only thus: “the word Hagar.” From this we get such a thought: among Arabs (in Arabia) the word Hagar designates Mount Sinai. But this interpretation has absolutely no basis. It is true there is an Arabic word “hajjar”—rock but in Hebrew it would need to be written hajjar, not gagra (Hagar). Paul himself could hardly have made such a mistake and taken the word “hajjar” to be cognate with the word Hagar. Therefore it is better to read here: “Mount Sinai is in Arabia.” The Apostle speaks of this to characterize the place where the law was given. And this was necessary for him in order to show that this place is altogether not what was indicated as the place of rest in the promise given to Abraham. The readers themselves undoubtedly already knew that the promise given to Abraham spoke of inheriting the land of Canaan and of course understood that the giving of the law not in Palestine but in the Arabian desert in no way brought with it the fulfillment of the promise given to Abraham. There is no need therefore to strive for the fulfillment of the law which was given in such circumstances as would not at all remind of what was contained in the promise given to Abraham. It is necessary therefore to seek another covenant in which this promise came to fulfillment and such a covenant is the new, Christ’s Covenant of which the Apostle speaks further. “Corresponds to”—Συνστοιχεῖ—that is stands in one row (moves in one direction) with the present Jerusalem, that is with the center of Jewish legalism which constitutes the opposite of the future Jerusalem which will descend from heaven to earth and in which the holy Christians will dwell (cf. Rev 20:9; Phil 3:20). This heavenly Jerusalem exists now in heaven and there all those dying in Christ, the redeemed by Him, the saints proceed. But at the same time to this heavenly city, to this heavenly dwelling belong also those inhabitants of earth who have high Christian disposition. Upon them descend from heaven the powers that regenerate and strengthen them. In this sense he is called by the Apostle “mother of us all.” Meanwhile the earthly Jewish Jerusalem stands on the same level of imperfection with the mount of legislation: it also with its children—the Jews—is in slavery from which neither the law of Moses nor the covenant will free them (Gal 3:21). “She is our mother.” The Jerusalem above also gives birth to children like the earthly Jerusalem, and these children are all Christians.

Galatians 4:27. For it is written: “Rejoice, barren woman who does not give birth; break forth and shout, you who are not in labor; for the children of the desolate woman are more than those of the one who has a husband. The thought expressed at the end of verse 26 the Apostle confirms with a quotation from the Old Testament (Isa 54:1 according to the Seventy). The prophet depicts Jerusalem in features most fitting for Sarah. It appears as barren like Sarah, abandoned by its husband but then receiving more children than the woman who had them from her husband. In the historical sense this prophecy could refer to the restoration of Jerusalem after the Babylonian exile but besides that, as the Apostle interprets it, it foretold the exaltation of the true Church. The Church or the Jerusalem above before the coming of Christ was barren, had no children. But after the coming of Christ it became much more fruitful than the Jewish Jerusalem although the latter had not yet been abandoned by its husband—Jehovah. But God treated His spouse—the earthly Jerusalem—as Abraham treated Hagar, while toward the Church or the Jerusalem above He acts as Abraham did toward Sarah.

Galatians 4:28. Now you, brothers, like Isaac, are children of the promise. Christians as free citizens of this heavenly Jerusalem correspond to the son of the free woman Sarah who therefore can be called the mother of us all Christians.

Galatians 4:29. But just as at that time the one born according to the flesh persecuted the one born according to the Spirit, so it is now as well. Galatians 4:30. But what does Scripture say? “Send out the slave woman and her son; for the son of the slave woman will not inherit along with the son of the free woman. But just as the son of Hagar persecuted Isaac according to Jewish tradition envying his privileged position in his father’s house (cf. Gen 21:9. Some ancient translators translate this place thus: “Ishmael mocked Isaac”), so now the descendants of Hagar—the Jews (descendants of course by the similarity of position and character) persecute the descendants of Sarah—Christians. What then should Christians in Galatia do with these people hostile to them? Drive them away from themselves as God in Scripture commanded Abraham to drive away the handmaid together with her son.

Galatians 4:31. Therefore, brothers, we are not children of a slave woman but of the free woman. This verse constitutes the conclusion to everything said by the Apostle about the law and faith. We, Christians, are children not of a slave woman but of a free woman. The conclusions which follow from this position are found in the following chapter. * * * Notes Only after apostolic times did “elements” come to mean stars, especially planets (for example in Justin Dialogue XXIII). In the Apostle Paul himself in the letter to the Colossians (Col 2:20) this expression is used as a synonym for the expression κόσμος = world and the freeing from “elements” is understood as freeing from the world itself (cf. Gal 6:14). Furthermore the description of Jewish and pagan external ritualistic life which the Apostle gives in verses 3 and 9 in no way fits the narrow definition of “elements” as stars which some find here. Finally the position that the Apostle here understands the entire material world finds support in that opposition which the Apostle apparently wishes to make between the freeing of the Jews through the Son sent by God and the Spirit and their enslavement to the elements. The Spirit as such constitutes a sharp opposition to the elements with the inclusion of the lights which are thought of as bodies as well (1 Cor 15:39 and following)