GALATIANS 4:21-5:1

 

John Stott (The Message of Galatians) feels that this is the most difficult passage in the book since it (a) presupposes a knowledge of the Old Testament and (b) uses allegory. We will deal with each issue first before turning to the passage.

A. Knowledge of Bible 

It is interesting that Paul assumes that the Galatians (recent Gentile converts) have a thorough knowledge of an obscure story in the Old Testament. Are we as demanding of new Christians today, and do we provide resources for them to grow in their familiarity with the Bible?

B. Use of Allegory

We are generally unfamiliar with this type of literature unless we have read Pilgrim's Progress. This literary form is used very little in the Bible. The Song of Songs may be an exception. The problem is that there are no controls on how to properly assign meanings to each detail in the book. One might say that it is not Bible interpretation at all. As an example, consider Song of Songs 2:6: “O that his left hand were under my head and that his right hand embraced me.” Various commentators have given the following interpretations to the left hand and right hand, respectively:

First tablet of the law and second tablet of the law

Fringes and Phylacteries

The Shema and the eighteen benedictions

            Temporal support and eternal life

Holy Spirit and heaven

Old law and new gospel

Meditation and union with God

Christ's manhood and the Godhood of Jesus

Mitigating factors in Paul's usage of allegory:

1. He only used allegory to confirm what he has already established by straightforward interpretation earlier (Galatians 3:6-14).

2. Use of an allegory was an acceptable way to end a debate in ancient world.

3. Even though Paul uses allegory, it is not fanciful; it conforms to the historical meaning and gives full strength to the historical meaning (does not deny historicity). It is more like typology.

4. Paul is using the Judiazers' own method and turning it against them. Genesis 16-17, 21 is the basis for both of their allegorical arguments, which can be reconstructed as follows:

Judiazers                                                                                 Paul

Hagar, bondmaid = the present Jerusalem                              Old Testament

Sarah, free woman = Jerusalem above, our mother               New Testament

Ishmael, child of flesh                                                          Those in bondage to the law

Isaac, child of promise                                                         We, Christians

Ishmael persecuted Isaac                                                      Legalists persecute Christians

Genesis: “Cast out the bondmaid                                          I say: “Do not be

and son”                                                                                entangled in bondage.”

Verses 19-21. Introduction “Having called his readers children [vs. 19], he proceeds to tell them a story (R. K. Harrison).” If they wanted to be under the law, let them hear what the law (Torah) had to say. Two extremes are demonstrated in this verse: not knowing the OT and only following the OT.

Verse 23. “According to the flesh” does not mean lustfully, but not according to faith in God's promise. Contrast Isaac's birth – Hebrews 11:11 (By faith Sarah received the power to conceive). There are many similarities in language between the birth narratives of Isaac and Ishmael. However, compare Genesis 16:15 (born to Hagar) and 21:3,5 (born to Abram).

Verses 24-25. From Mt. Sinai bearing children for slavery = just as Hagar's children were born in a condition of slavery, so the law at Mt. Sinai could only produce slaves.

The text in v. 25 is uncertain – either Mt. Sinai or Hagar or both are of Arabia (i.e., outside the land of promise). In Arabic, the word for rock or stone is hadjar. Or there is a possible allusion to a group of nomads called Hagarenes who lived near Mt. Sinai.

Corresponds to = lines up in the same military ranks. It refers to a table of correspondences such as are known from ancient writings (as in the figure above).

The Jerusalem of that day did not mean the Jerusalem church but the city with its center of worship there. Slavery refers to political slavery of Jews under Romans and bondage to the laws of the Pharisees.

Verse 26. Heavenly Jerusalem is not that of the future, but a present spiritual reality for believers (see Ephesians 1:3; Philippians 3:20; Hebrews 12:22).

Verse 27. Isaiah 54:1 is quoted in his prophecy of Israel triumphing on the basis of the work of the suffering servant. The contrast here is between the childless Jerusalem in exile with her later predicted glory.

Paul applies it to his present situation: The universal Church was growing at a rapid rate while Israel was barren, or actually losing ground to Christianity. This is a clear example of prophecy that was later fulfilled.

Verse 28. For Christians as inheritors of the promise, see other Scriptures (Galatians 6:16; Philippians 3:3, Hebrews 12:22, etc.).

Verse 29. Ishmael was about 17 when Isaac was 3. Persecution of Isaac by Ishmael was a rabbinical tradition. The Hebrew text merely says laughing/playing. The Septuagint adds “at/with Isaac.” One rabbi speculated that Ishmael was shooting arrows at Isaac in a pretend playful manner. Stott: “The greatest enemies today of the evangelical faith are not unbelievers, but our so-called brothers, official church leaders who mock true faith.”

Verse 30. The Jews applied this OT event to the rejection of the Gentiles by God, Paul turns it around and applies it to God's rejection of Judaism as a religion. It was actually Sarah who asked that they be sent away, not God. However, God confirmed that idea. The original story seems harsh in casting out Hagar and her son.  But we are to be just as ruthless in casting out all vestiges of legalism from our Christian beliefs. No compromise.

Galatians 5:1. This is a transitional sentence. In some ways it is easier to live as a slave than to make right use of one's freedom (example of the Jews in the wilderness wanting to be back in Egypt).

Concluding comments

Is the persecuted one always the Christian today? We are accused of being the persecutor.

Scot McKnight: “If toleration is the keynote of social, political, and religious policies, then it becomes clear that Christians face a stacked deck. While they may be loving, they do not agree that toleration is the keynote, nor do they think that tolerating sin and false truth claims is proper.”