GALATIANS 4:1-7, 4:21-5:1

I have already written posts on “Galatians 4:8-20” and “Galatians 4:21-5:1."  Now I would like to complete the picture with some comments on the first seven verses of Galatians 4 as well as including a few additional comments on 4:21-5:1. As an introduction, it should be pointed out that the whole of this section is put together in an ABA sort of organization:

    A. We are children of God and no longer in slavery (3:39-4:7)

        B. Paul's personal note (4:8-20)

    A'. We are children of God and no longer in slavery (4:21-5:1)

Confirmation of this general breakdown is seen in the fact that “child/children” appears four times in Section A, only once in B, and 13x in A'. Language found only in A and A' includes “slave” (2x in A and 5x in A'), and “heir/inheritance”” (twice in A and once in A'). Appearing once each in A and A' are “promise,” “Abraham, and “born.”

Galatians 3:39-4:7

3:39 Paul transitions from one subject to the next sometimes without clear breaks in between. Thus, this verse could easily belong with the rest of ch. 3 as well as introducing the material in ch. 4.

4:1-2 The “date” set may have been the child's 17^th or 18^th birthday. Until that time, Paul characterizes the heir as a child who is no better than a slave, under the control of guardians..

4:3 The disputed phrase “elemental spirits” also appears several times in Paul's Colossian letter. Some of the suggested meanings are: the basic elements making up creation, evil spirits, Old Testament customs and laws, angels who mediated the law, or basic truths (i.e. the ABC's). Esser says that this phrase “covers all the things in which man places his trust apart from the living God revealed in Christ.”

4:4 This order of events may come from Luke 1:262:24: God sent his son in the fullness of time (Luke 1:26-38), born of a woman (Luke 2:1-20), born under the law (Luke 2:21-24). (Bornhauser)

4:4,6 The parallels between God sending his Son and sending the Spirit of his Son gives clear evidence “that for Paul the Spirit is not thought of as 'it,' but as 'person.'” (Fee)

4:5 This verse may imply that Jesus' earthly ministry was to be directed mainly to the Jews in contrast to Paul's primary ministry to the Gentiles.

“When Galatians 4:1-2 is properly understood not as an illustration from Greco-Roman law but as an allusion to the Old Testament, it is clear that Galatians 4:5 is set within a context framed by Exodus typology (Gal 4:1-7).” (J.M. Scott)

4:5-6 Fee says in regard to our adoption, “Here we note that vv. 5 and 6 together give solid evidence of the distinctions made about the objective and subjective dimension of conversion.”

4:6 The Aramaic word “Abba” used by Paul is commonly translated as “Daddy.” Its more familiar occurrence is in Jesus' model prayer given during the Sermon on the Mount. Hofius suggests that Paul may have actually been thinking of the Lord's Prayer at the time he wrote.

“In Gal 4:6 the introductory conj. hote is ambiguous: It could mean 'the fact that' and describe the factual ontological status of Christians...; or it could mean 'because' and thus state that the gift of the Spirit is the basis of adoptive sonship. Here in Romans 8 [v. 14] Paul clears up that ambiguity: Spirit-led Christians are children of God. The gift of the Spirit constitutes the sonship, and it is thus the basis of huiothesia [adoption].” (Fitzmyer)

Galatians 4:21-5:1

4:21 Paul basically alludes to two different aspects of the “law,” commandments from God and the Pentateuch.

4:21-31 Hanson, quoted by Peisker, discusses the controversy as to this passage, whether it constitutes an allegory or a type. Hanson “concludes that the 'allegory' is 'rather an elaborate piece of typology.'”

Calvert feels that “Paul's apparently arbitrary exegesis in this allegory may indicate this was not his choice of text.” Thus, Turner explains that “it is now generally accepted that Paul's allegory...is a rejoinder to an argument of his Judaizing opponents, who were appealing to the same scriptural examples.” But he admits that “their precise argument is unavailable to us.”

4:24-25 Paul associates the slave Hagar with the location where the law was given and with Jerusalem where the temple sacrifices were still being carried out. Thus, she and her children are those still in bondage to the OT laws and customs taught by the Judaizers who are troubling the Galatian church.

4:26 Sarah, the free woman, is associated with the New Jerusalem, the goal for all Christians who accept God's grace through Christ instead.

F.F. Bruce: “Both in Jewish and in Christian thought the heavenly counterpart of the earthly Jerusalem is familiar – the rabbis inferred the existence of the heavenly archetype from the words of Ps. 122:3, which they rendered: 'Jerusalem which is built like the city that is its fellow' – the oldest datable reference to it being Paul's words in Gal. 4:26.” Also see Hebrews 12:18-24.

4:27 Paul breaks into song at this point by quoting Isaiah 54:1. Silva notes that outside of Genesis, Sarah is only mentioned in the OT in Isaiah 51 where it says that she gave birth to those who do what is right (or “pursue righteousness”) and seek God. “Indeed, it has been argued that in the book of Isaiah the themes of Sarah's barrenness is transformed from a past story of a child to the future story of the birth of a people.” Jobes explains that this “development made it exegetically possible for Paul to dissociate the Isaiah proclamation from ethnic Israel exclusively.”

Although Calvert's negative assessment of Paul's interpretive method is quoted above, Oswalt does not agree. He states, “While Paul's use of Isa 54:1 in connection with his exposition of the meaning of Hagar and Sarah manifests a greater freedom than most modern exegetes feel comfortable with, his interpretation is still well within the fundamental sense of the verse.

4:28 For the second time in the chapter (see v. 12), Paul addresses the audience as “beloved.”

4:29 Hamilton: “Paul does not contrast flesh with Spirit, as elsewhere in Galatians, until v. 29; rather he contrasts flesh with promise.” R.E. Brown refutes the suggestion that the Jews considered Isaac born of the Spirit without the action of Abraham (as in Jesus' birth).

Ross says that Paul's “choice of words [persecute] to describe what Ishmael was doing is interpretive – it attempts to express what Sarah perceived to be the real threat to Isaac...to supplant this new heir.” For more on this subject, see my post “What Did Ishmael Do to Isaac? (Genesis 21:9).”

4:29-30 Wagner notes that this negative judgment on Israel is shared in I Thessalonians 2:16 but somewhat contradicted in Paul's later writings in Romans 9-11 by which time Paul had changed his mind and now saw a future for Israel in God's plan. This remains a supposition since other commentators feel that Paul's message here in Galatians is not for the Jews at all but for those Gentiles who want to be under the Jewish law.

4:30 Wilk points out that “will inherit” in Galatians 4:30 also frames Isaiah 53:12-54:3.

5:1 Just as Galatians 3:9 can be considered as part of either chapter 3 or 4, so this verse could be seen as either the end of chapter 4 or the introduction to chapter 5.