Galatians 3

I who hath bewitched you? Or, “who fascinated you?” as with the power which the Orientals ascribe to what they call “the evil eye.”

crucified [among you]. (The bracketed words “among you,” are omitted by the best authorities.) “Paul represents his previous preaching of Christ as crucified, as a writing which he had previously written, προεγράφη” (Meyer). In the ministry and ordinances of the gospel they had so clear and affecting a representation of our Lord’s death, that nothing but some strange fascination could so soon have diverted their minds from Him.

3 in the Spirit. Rather, “by the Spirit,” the Author of the new life. Beginning with the spiritual, ending with the carnal!

4. Have ye suffered, etc.? Rather, “Did ye experience so many things in vain? If indeed it be in vain.” Is all your Christian life, with its varied experience, its joys and trials, to have no result, or rather, perhaps worse than none? Cp. Heb. vi. 4-6.

5 among you. Perhaps rather, “in you” (R.V. marg.); see 1 Cor. xii. 6.

9 faithful. In whom faith was the prominent feature. They who share his faith shall “be blessed with” him: cp. Luke xvi. 20, and note.

10. Sursed is every one, etc. That is, all who hope to be justified by works of law must render constant and perfect obedience, or there will come upon them, not a blessing, but the curse which the Scripture expressly denounces.

11. The just shall live by faith. See note on this quotation in Rom. i. 17. Scripture says faith is essential to justification. But faith is excluded by law, which says only, “He who deeds,” etc. Therefore, according to Scripture, law cannot justify a man; it can only curse him. And (13) it is Christ who alone delivers from that curse, having endured it Himself; and confess upon believing Gentiles the blessing promised to believing Abraham (14), even “the Spirit,” which “we” (Jews and Gentiles alike) have received (see ver. 2).

13 being made a curse for us. “He had undergone that punishment which under the law be tokened the curse of God.”

15. I speak after the manner of men. Employing a human analogy, as in the case of an engagement from one man to another.

16. He saith not, “And to seeds,” etc., Gen. xiii. 15 (Sept.). “The meaning of the argument is, that the recipients of God’s promises are not to be looked upon as an aggregate of different individuals, or of different races, but are all one body, whereof Christ is the head. Cp. “you are the seed,” ver. 29 (Compeare and Howson).

17. And (Now) this I say, etc. Referring to what is to follow: the application of what has gone before. This promise to Abraham cannot be annulled by the subsequent introduction of a Law.

four hundred and thirty years after. It is not necessary to the apostle’s argument that the popular computation of time which he here follows should be correct, although it probably is so: see notes on Gen. xv. 13; Exod. xii. 40; Acts vii. 6.

18 gave. Rather, “hath freely given,” as that which is the fulfilment of a “promise,” not a reward of “law.” On the “inheritance,” see Heb. xi. 8-10, 13-16.

19. Wherefore then [serveth] the law? Rather, as R.V., “What then is the law?”

added. “Superadded.” This view of the Mosaic law is also presented in Rom. v. 20, where see note. This law was, so to speak, a step in the moral education of mankind, being brought in “for the sake of,” or because of “the transgressions”; it instructed the people symbolically in moral distinctions, and by the expiations which it provided aroused a sense of the guilt of sin.

ordained by angels. Or, “enjoined through angels.” On the ministry of angels and of Moses (the “mediator” here spoken of) at the giving of the law, see Acts vii. 38, 44, 53; Heb. ii. 2; iii. 2.

20. Now a mediator is not [a mediator] of one. The idea of mediator could not arise if there were only one party; it belongs to a contract which implies reciprocal engagements, in regard to which the two parties have a kind of equality. “But God is one,” standing alone, in unapproachable supremacy. This supremacy is more prominently brought out in His sovereign promise than in a mediated covenant; so that the employment of angels and of Moses in the Hebrew economy marks it as in this respect inferior to “the promise.” In the promise there are not two contracting parties.

22 the Scripture hath concluded all. Rather, “the Scripture shut up all things,” as in ver. 23. It is the same Greek verb as is used in Rom. xi. 32. “Scripture” is here represented as doing what it declares to be done.

24 schoolmaster (“tutor,” R.V.). The Greek word properly means the slave who had charge of the boys of a family, to conduct them to school, to watch over their morals, and to punish their faults. So the law, by its teachings and threatenings, was to convince men of their sinfulness (see Rom. vii. 7), and to train them for the salvation of Christ.

26 children. Rather, “sons,” grown up; wards no longer.

27 put on. Cp. Rom. xiii. 14, and note. 28 for ye are all one (person) in Christ Jesus. This nullifies all earthly distinctions (28), and gives a common title to all the blessings of God’s great promise (29).