Глава IV

The condition of the Jews before the coming of Christ. Falling away to the Law of Moses is the same as returning to paganism (1-11). Personal appeal of the Apostle to the Galatians (12-20). Allegorical proof of the proposition that the Galatians are free from subjection to the law (21-31) Gal.4:1–11. The Apostle already showed in the previous chapter that Israel was kept under the guardianship of the law because it needed such protection due to its spiritual immaturity. Now the Apostle reveals this position more fully and clearly, comparing the lawful Israel with a minor heir who does not have the right to independently dispose of the estate left to him by his father. But when the time appointed by the father arrives, the heir takes actual possession of his estate. So God enslaved Israel until the time of “the elements of the world,” and then, when Israel was ripe to accept the Messiah and receive the promises of Abraham, God sent the Messiah - His Son to redeem those under the law from the oath, and the elements lost their meaning. At the same time, the Apostle also refers to the own experience of the Galatians, who feel that they have already become, in the true sense, sons of God and possessors of the benefits of the messianic kingdom. That is why they should not again turn to the elements of the world that have lost their significance for humanity. Gal.4:1. I will also say: the heir, while in childhood, is no different from a slave, although he is the master of all: Gal.4:2. he is subordinate to trustees and stewards until the term appointed by his father. The Apostle said in Gal.3:29 that Gentile Christians became heirs of the promise given to Abraham. Now he wants to explain in what sense the Jews were called and were the heirs of Abraham. After all, they, in fact, even before Christ were called and were sons of God (Deut. 32:19), and, as such, were already the owners of very significant benefits that the pagans lacked (Rom. 9:4; Eph. 2:12). Readers might ask: haven’t the Jews already received those benefits that were promised to Abraham and which, according to the Apostle, were intended for pagan believers? The Judaizers, of course, answered this question in the affirmative to the Galatians. They said that in this way the sonship of God and the possession of the inheritance of Abraham was very conveniently connected with the Law of Moses and was even inseparable from it. That is why the Apostle speaks about the nature of Jewish inheritance. He generally depicts to us a son who was left an orphan after the death of his father (the fact that the boy is thought of by the Apostle as an orphan is clearly indicated by the expression: “even though he is the lord of all.” It was impossible to talk about the boy in this way while his father was alive, who, legally and in reality, alone was the master of the “entire” house). – “While he is in childhood” (νήπιος – actually: “not speaking”, in the further meaning: “minor”). Such a son is no different in rights from a simple slave. He cannot freely dispose of his person and property, for example. sell it, but is subject to law or custom (the Apostle hardly here has in mind the rulings of Roman law) to trustees (επίτροποι - among the Greeks and tutores and curatores among the Romans), who generally monitored the behavior of their ward until he reached puberty, and to housekeepers ( οικονόμοι - housekeepers, according to Latin actores, agentes), who, in fact, were in charge of the property of the ward. This took place before the period specified by the father in the will (the usual legal period for this among the Romans was the achievement of the ward at 25 years of age, but sometimes provincial residents made deviations from this rule). Gal.4:3. So we, as long as we were children, were enslaved to the material principles of the world; Gal.4:4. but when the fulness of the time had come, God sent forth His (Only Begotten) Son, who was born of a woman, made subject to the law, Gal.4:5. to redeem those under the law, that we might receive adoption as sons. Here is an explanation of the parable speech about the orphan heir. But who does the Apostle mean here? Who is this “we”? Most consistent with the train of thought and especially the meaning of verse 5 is the interpretation that sees here an indication of the Jews. They, indeed (cf. Gal. 3:23-25), before the coming of Christ, were like young sons or immature children, and, as such, were considered slaves ( Rom. 8:15) and did not exercise their rights of sonship with God. - “They were enslaved to the material principles of the world.” What does the expression τὰ στοιχεῖα τοῦ κόσμου mean? Already from the connection of the expression τά στοιχεῖα with the word τοῦ κόσμου one can confidently conclude that interpretations that understand by “elements” either the letters of the alphabet, or the elements and first principles of religion and religious knowledge, or the so-called celestial bodies, stars, or angels as spirits that control the luminaries 4 are unfair. It is most natural to see in these elements matter and the individual material things that make up the world, and the world itself, since it consists of such things. The apostle obviously means to say that the Mosaic law binds religion, or at least all its manifestations in life, to matter and the material things of which the world is composed. Not only the order of the holidays is determined by the course of the moon, not only the celebration of Saturday from evening to evening depends on the position of the sun: all the commandments about food and purity, sacrificial laws and other regulations about worship relate to material objects, to certain localities, times, bodily states, etc. All these were “decrees concerning the flesh” (Heb. 9:10). From this, religious life received a character of connectedness, which was felt the more strongly the more the Jews placed meaning in the law, and the more they wanted to strengthen the specific character of the theocratic community and religion by the exact and punctual execution of the letter of the law. In the end, pious people felt extremely dejected and depressed - of course, if a feeling of true spiritual freedom lived in their souls. However, the Apostle says this not about the law itself, which he placed, as revealed by God, at its proper height (see Rom. 7:12), but about the character this law received in the life of the Jews. At the same time, he does not blame the Jews themselves for not rising to the level of understanding the idea of ​​the law: according to him, everything was as it should have been. God, as the father of the people, subjected them during their immaturity to the care of trustees - the immaturity of the people is the only reason for their position, which did not correspond to their ideal dignity as the son of God. - “But when the fullness of time came,” that is, the full measure (πλήρωμα) of time - the time of the boy’s growing into a mature man. God predetermined a certain amount of time for this, so that, at the end of the period appointed by Him, His son could be freed from the subordination of the trustees who had previously controlled him. - “God sent.” The Greek word εξαπέστειλεν means sending someone from the place where the sender is (cf. Luke 20:10 et seq.; Luke 24:49). From here it is necessary to draw the following conclusion: the one who was sent, before his message, was near the one who sent it. It is clear that the Apostle wants to designate by this the true sonship of Christ, which is very different from the sonship of God that the Jews possessed and Christians now possess. In other words, here is given the concept of the eternal existence of Christ as the Son of God. - “Who was born of a woman” - more correct: originated (γενόμενον, and not γεννώμενον) from (εκ) “wife” or woman. This expression is a definition of another nature of Christ - human. By mentioning only the mother of Christ, the Apostle, obviously, like all the evangelists, wants to speak about the unmarried conception of Christ. – “He submitted to the law” - more precisely: being under the law (γενομενον υπό νυμον). As the son of a woman from a Jewish family, Christ naturally came under the yoke of the Law of Moses. It is remarkable that the Apostle calls Christ the Son of God both in the state of His incarnation and in the state of subordination to the law (the aorist γενόμενος designates a state coinciding with that indicated by the verb εξαπέστειλεν: it was the “Son of God” who was born from a wife, and was subject to the law “Son of God”). – “To redeem those under the law,” that is, the Jews - cf. Gal.3:13, 4:3. – “That we may receive adoption” is an explanation for the previous expression. By “adoption” the Apostle understands not a legal act, not only the expression of the Divine will (this is how adoption usually occurs in 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 et seq., where the indwelling of the Spirit of Christ in the hearts of believers seems to be an undoubted sign of the adoption of God by believers). That the Jews already partly had this sonship of God does not prevent Paul from calling their new position in Christ the adoption of God, since in fact the Old Testament sonship of God was more nominal and ideal than real. The apostle uses the expression “to us” here, and not “to you,” as above, because he means to move on to depicting the state of the Galatians, who for the most part came from pagan families. Gal.4:6. And since you are sons, God sent the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying: “Abba, Father!” Gal.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 filial relationship with God. - “And how are you sons” - more precisely: “and what are you sons” (ότι δέ εστέ υιοί). The apostle wants to say that the main thing is sonship to God. What kind of sonship the Galatians already have is clear from the fact that God 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), which is therefore thought of as belonging to Him. The Apostle here also has in mind the descent of the Holy Spirit on the day of the first Christian Pentecost (Acts 2) and the subsequent distribution of the Spirit to each believer individually (1 Cor. 2:12; Acts 10:47). - “Egregious.” The Holy Spirit cries out to God through man, but the very mood in which a person cries out to God is created by the Holy Spirit, which is why, according to the Apostle, the Spirit Himself cries out. – Abba is an Aramaic word for father, derived from Heb. "av". The Apostle uses it as such as the Jewish and Syrian Christians used in their prayers. – “Father” – about πατήρ Greek. father's designation. This is how pagan Christians turned to God: Greeks or Greeks, as the majority of the Galatians were. - “Therefore you...”. The Apostle addresses the pagan Christians, whom the Judaizers had hitherto recognized as having wrongly appropriated to themselves the title of sons of God. According to the Apostle, they became such by the will of God Himself, and did not usurply appropriate this title to themselves. But could they in their previous, pre-Christian state be called slaves? Since they were not “sons,” which is certain, then, obviously, they were “slaves”: the Apostle has only a dilemma - either a slave or a son. Gal.4:8. But then, not knowing God, you served gods who are not gods in essence. The Apostle wants to explain to the Galatians that before they converted to Christianity they were the same slaves of their gods as the Jews were slaves of their law. “You,” says the Apostle, “served” or more precisely: you were slaves (εδουλεύσατε) “of your gods, who by their nature are not gods at all.” They did what they should never do (cf. Rom. 1:18 et seq.). Their position, moreover, was much worse than the position of the Jews, because the Jews still, albeit slavishly, served the true God, and the Galatians slavishly served gods who are not gods by nature, but - one could add - unclean demonic forces, as the Apostle spoke about this in other places (cf. 1 Cor. 8:5, 10:19-22). Gal.4:9. Now, having come to know God, or, better yet, having received knowledge from God, why do you return again to the weak and poor material principles and want to enslave yourself to them again? But still, even in those distant times, their service to non-gods was essentially excused partly by the fact that they did not know the true God. Now that they have come to know the true God, or, better yet, are known by Him (γνωσθέντες υπό θεοῦ - known and loved by God cf. 2 Timothy 2:19), they are ashamed to return to slavish service to the elements. The word “elements”, although it does not have the addition of “world” here, means the same as the expression Gal.4:3. The ap., of course, could not put the Mosaic cult and pagan service to idols on the same level, but he obviously found something in common between both - namely, the desire of both cults to subordinate those seeking communication with the Divine to many legal prescriptions of a purely external nature, a purely material nature. It is enough to remember, for example, that the slightest flaw in a sacrificial animal rendered the entire sacrifice unsuitable, despite the disposition that the bearer of the sacrifice may have had. Above such appearances stands high God and those who serve Him in truth (John 4:20–24). These elements are “weak” because they cannot bring a person into real communion with God, and they are “poor” in comparison with the wealth that God gave people in Christ (2 Cor. 8:9). - “Again again.” The Galatians, beginning to serve the elements, through this again fell to the same low level at which they stood while in paganism: they again became slaves - now of the Jewish “elements”, as before they had pagan “elements”. Gal.4:10. You observe days, months, times and years. This sentence is fragmentary. Ap., without connecting the new thought that presented itself to his consciousness with the previous one, puts it in the form of an exclamation: “You observe the days and months.” - “Days” are, firstly, the Holy Saturday, and there may also be two days on which the Pharisees fasted every week (cf. Luke 18:12), and the day of the 14th Nisan, which was precisely required to be “observed” or calculated, and, finally, the day of the new moon (cf. Col. 2:16). - “Months” are, of course, first of all Tisri, which began the civil year and which almost entirely consisted of holidays, and then Nissan, on which the Easter holiday was celebrated. – “Times” are longer holidays, such as. the Feast of Tabernacles - from the 15th to the 21st of Tisri and the Feast of Unleavened Bread from the 14th to the 21st of Nissan. “Years” are Sabbath, (every seventh year) and Jubilee (every fiftieth). Of course, the Galatians had not yet had the opportunity to actually celebrate the “years,” because only a few months had passed since they began to observe the Jewish holidays. But they could already celebrate Passover with the Jews and eat unleavened bread, which greatly worried the Apostle. Gal.4:11. I am afraid for you, whether I worked for you in vain. The apostle is afraid that all such labors (the verb κοπιᾶν indicates the severity of labor) performed by him in converting the Galatians to the true path would turn out to be in vain. In fact, if the Galatians become firmly established in the idea that they can achieve righteousness before God only by fulfilling the requirements of the Mosaic Law, then they will lose the property of Christian freedom that they acquired with such difficulty. Gal.4:12–20. The apostle now turns to the Galatians not with evidence, but with fervent exhortation. Let them remember how they received Paul that time, how he came to them, what bliss they themselves felt then. How can they now look upon him as their enemy? Their enemies are the Judaizers, who want only glory for themselves, without thinking at all about the harm they are causing to the Galatians. Gal.4:12. I ask you, brothers, to be like me, because I am like you. You didn't offend me in any way: The Apostle asks the Galatians to be like him in relation to the law of Moses, just as he was like them when he preached the Gospel to them. Then he completely renounced his former Jewish habits, so that, according to his rule (1 Cor. 9:19-22), he would not offend in any way those among whom he had to act (to the expression “like me” one must add: was - εγενόμην). The Galatians now, in gratitude to the Apostle for his condescension towards them, must themselves renounce the fulfillment of the prescriptions of the Mosaic Law, to which they have already begun to get used. The apostle hopes that the Galatians will obey him and not offend him, because they had not offended him in any way before. Gal.4:13. you know that although I preached the gospel to you the first time in the weakness of the flesh, Gal.4:14. but you did not despise my temptation in my flesh and did not abhor it, but accepted me as an Angel of God, as Christ Jesus. Not only did the Galatians not offend him in any way, they received him with extreme cordiality. This was when the Apostle visited Galatia for the first time (Acts 16:6). He actually did not intend to stay here for a long time, but fell ill (δι ασθένειαν τ . σαρκός) and was forced to stay in Galatia for some time, where he began to preach the Gospel (Paul’s second visit to Galatia is spoken of in Acts 18:23. The Galatians did not despise, did not disdain that “temptation I eat,” which the Apostle’s illness represented for them (instead of “my temptation,” one should, following more reliable texts, read: “your temptations”), but they accepted Paul as a heavenly messenger-angel, even as Christ himself - On the illness of the Apostle, cf. Gal.4:15. How blessed you were! I testify about you that, if it had been possible, you would have plucked out your eyes and given them to me. Gal.4:16. So, have I really become your enemy by telling you the truth? At that time, the Galatians considered themselves truly blessed, happy (τίς οῦν ῆν ο μακαρισμός υμῶν) because Paul was among them. They, in a feeling of delight, were ready to sacrifice for Paul that organ that is most precious to a person - their eyes (cf. Ps. 16:8; Matt. 18:9). And so, the state of things changed so much that Paul became their enemy (ώστε εχθρός υμῶν γέγονα), because he spoke and speaks only the truth. It is obvious that hostile feelings in the Galatians towards Paul awoke already during the Apostle’s second stay in Galatia, and the Galatians remained with such feelings at the time of writing the epistle (cf. Gal. 1:9, 5:3, 21). - “The Truth” - that is, the truth about the danger that threatened the Galatians from the Judaizers, and about the law in general. Gal.4:17. They are uncleanly jealous of you, but they want to excommunicate you so that you will be jealous of them. The Judaizers are trying only to gain the favor of the Galatians, but they are guided by far from pure motives: the salvation of the Galatians is not dear to them, but only the glory of successful preachers. They want to "excommunicate" or separate the Galatians from the other Gentile churches and from Paul in particular. Gal.4:18. It is always good to be jealous in good things, and not only in my presence with you. Now the Apostle speaks of the Galatians themselves and their relation to Paul. “It is something beautiful - this is how the first half of the verse can be conveyed - to be the object of zealous love” (ζηλοῦσθαι has the meaning of the passive voice. There is no case in the Bible that this verb is equivalent to the verb ζηλοῦν). The apostle does not refuse the manifestations of affection on the part of the Galatians, but expresses only the idea that it is pleasant to be loved “always,” and not only when you are in front of the one who loves. Gal.4:19. My children, for whom I am again in the throes of birth, until Christ is portrayed in you! Gal.4:20. I wish I could be with you now and change my voice, because I am at a loss about you. “My children” - more precisely: “my little children” (τεκνία μου). – “I am again in the throes of birth” (ωδίνω), that is, I again feel the pain that a woman in labor feels. The apostle really suffered a lot while converting the Galatians to Christianity (cf. Gal. 4:11, 13). Now, after they fell away to Judaism, he again needs to convert them again with the same torment. - “Until it is depicted.” that is, until Christ receives in you an outward appearance or outward form to become visible in you (cf. Rom. 2:20, 1 Cor. 4:6, 9:15). Christians represent the image of Christ, just as those who are not converted to Christ represent the image of Adam (1 Cor. 15:49). - “Change the voice” - that is, speak differently, in a different tone than he previously spoke to the Galatians, because he does not know what else he can resort to in such a difficulty. Gal.4:21–31. Here the Apostle again turns to the Galatians with proof of the idea that they, as Christians, are completely free from fulfilling the law of Moses. The Law of Moses itself, i.e., the Pentateuch written by Moses, already foreshadowed the abolition of the law. It was there, in the book. Genesis contains a story about the act of Abraham with his son, born of the slave 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 the command of God, removed Ishmael from his house along with his mother. The Apostle applies this story to the present circumstances of the Christian Church and says that Christians are children of the promise and are not in bondage to the law. Gal.4:21. Tell me, you who want to be under the law: do you not listen to the law? The apostle is not addressing a certain minority of Galatians who are already keeping the law, but rather the entire Galatian community, in which he sees sympathy for the direction that some of the Galatian Christians (you who “desire” to be under the law) have already begun to follow. - “Don’t you listen to the law?” Both Jews and Christians became familiar with the contents of the book of the law (here by “law” we mean the book of the law of Moses - the Torah) in liturgical meetings, where the book of the law was read by special readers (cf. John 12:34; 2 Cor. 3:14 et seq.). Gal.4:22. For it is written: [Abraham had two sons, one by a bondwoman, and the other by a freewoman. “For” – in the sense: exactly. In the book of the Law of Moses, precisely in its first part - Genesis, it is said that Abraham had (more correctly received έσχεν) two sons: Ishmael from Hagar, (Egyptian by birth, his wife's servant (Gen. 16:1)), and Isaac, from his free wife, Sarah. Gal.4:23. But he who is of a slave is born according to the flesh; and the one who is free, the one according to the promise. It seemed that both sons of Abraham should occupy the same position in their father's house. But that wasn't really the case. On the one hand, the social position of their mothers was not equal, on the other hand, Abraham became the father of Isaac differently than the father of Ishmael. At the birth of Ishmael, everything happened according to the usual orders of human life. Meanwhile, Isaac was born only by virtue of the promise given to Abraham from God, when it was no longer possible to expect fruit from Sarah and when Abraham himself was one hundred years old. Gal.4:24. There is an allegory in this. These are two covenants: one from Mount Sinai, who gives birth to slavery, which is Hagar, In these events, the Apostle Paul finds something educational in relation to the time that the Church was experiencing. - “Allegory”. The Greek word αλληγορεῖν (hence αλληγορούμενα allegory) originally means: to speak differently than to think, that is, to give one’s thought an expression that, in its literal meaning, would give or contain a completely different thought. Then this verb means: to interpret, to explain a well-known event or saying, on the assumption that it contains an allegory. All ancient translators and interpreters understood the verb αλληγορεῖν here in the first meaning. Ap., without the slightest hint questioning the historicity of what is reported in the Old Testament, only indicates that in the Old Testament events can be recognized as a foretelling of the future, that there is something in them that outlines in advance the plans and ways of the divine economy for human salvation. In the present case, he finds it possible to see in the two wives of Abraham 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 nature of their origin, so both covenants impress each with their own character on the peoples who owe their origin to them. One of these covenants is the covenant concluded under Moses on Mount Sinai and given to the people of Israel. Like a mother, this covenant gives the children born from her its stamp and precisely the stamp of slavery. That is why the servant Hagar is the prototype (type) of this covenant (“who is Hagar.”) Gal.4:25. for Hagar signifies Mount Sinai in Arabia, and corresponds to what is now Jerusalem, because he and his children are in bondage; Gal.4:26. and Jerusalem above is free: she is the mother of us all. Before speaking about the “other” covenant, the Apostle considers it necessary to clarify the first part of the comparison. But here we have to choose between two readings. According to one, which the Russian and Slavic text adheres to, the beginning of the verse reads like this: “for Hagar means Mount Sinai in Arabia.” In another way, the expression “Τό Αγάρ” - “Hagar” is thrown out and only the phrase remains: “for Mount Sinai lies precisely in Arabia.” The first reading cannot be accepted because there is little ancient patristic evidence for it: only the fathers of the Antiochian school have such a reading, in the West and in Egypt such a reading appears at a relatively late time (not earlier than the second half of the third century), while the first reading is found in Origen, in the most ancient Egyptian manuscripts, in Latin and Gothic translations, then in the Codex Sinaiticus, Ephraim (Paris), Epiphanius, Ambrose and others. Finally, the first reading is actually incomprehensible, Hagar is a woman and, therefore, the expression Τό Αγάρ can only be conveyed this way: “the word Hagar.” This leads to the following idea: among the Arabs (in Arabia), the word Hagar refers to Mount Sinai. But this interpretation has absolutely no basis. True, there is a word in Arabic “hajar” - rock, but in Hebrew it should be written hagar, not loon (Hagar). Paul himself could hardly have been mistaken in this case and considered the word “Hajar” to be consonant with the word Hagar. Therefore, it is better to read here like this: “Mount Sinai lies in Arabia.” The Apostle speaks about this in order to characterize the place where the law was given. And he needed this in order to show that this place was not at all what was meant, as a place of rest in the promise given to Abraham. The readers themselves, no doubt, already knew that the promise given to Abraham spoke of the inheritance of the land of Canaan and, of course, they understood that the giving of the law not in Palestine, but in the Arabian desert did not at all bring with it the fulfillment of the promise given to Abraham. There is, therefore, no point in striving to fulfill the law, which was given in such a situation, which did not at all resemble what was contained in the promise given to Abraham. It is necessary, therefore, to look for another covenant in which this promise would come to fruition, and such a covenant is the new, Christish, Testament, about which the Apostle speaks further. – “Corresponds to today’s Jerusalem.” Συνστοιχεῖ - that is, it stands in the same row (moves in the same direction) with the present Jerusalem, that is, with the center of Jewish legalism, which is the opposite of the future Jerusalem, which will come down from heaven to earth and in which holy Christians will dwell (cf. Rev. 20:9, 21:2-22, 7; Phil.3:20). This heavenly Jerusalem still exists in heaven, and all the dying saints redeemed by Him rush there after Christ. But at the same time, those inhabitants of the earth who have a high Christian mood also belong to this heavenly city, to this heavenly residence. Forces rush towards them from the sky, reviving and strengthening them. In this sense, she is called by the Apostle “the mother of us all.” Meanwhile, earthly, Jewish Jerusalem stands at the same level of imperfection as the mountain of legislation: it, too, with its children - the Jews - is in slavery, from which the Mosaic law or covenant will not free them (Gal. 3:21). - “He is the mother of us all.” So, the Jerusalem above also gives birth to children, just like the earthly one, and these children are all Christians. Gal.4:27. For it is written: Rejoice, O barren, unbearable; shout and shout, you who did not suffer from childbirth; because the one who is abandoned has many more children than the one who has a husband. The Apostle confirms the thought expressed at the end of verse 26 with a quotation from the Old Testament (Is. 54:1 to 70). The prophet depicts Jerusalem in features most suitable to Sarah. He is just as barren as Sarah, abandoned by her husband, but then receiving more children than the woman who had them from her husband. In a historical sense, this prophecy could relate to the restoration of Jerusalem after the captivity of Babylon, but in addition, as Apostle interprets, it predicted the rise of the true Church. The Church or Jerusalem above before the coming of Christ was barren and had no children. But after the coming of Christ, it became much more populous than Judean Jerusalem, although the latter had not yet been abandoned by its husband, Jehovah. But God treated His wife, earthly Jerusalem, as Abraham treated Hagar, while He treated the Church or Jerusalem on high as Abraham treated Sarah. Gal.4:28. We, brothers, are the children of the promise according to Isaac. Christians, as free citizens of this high Jerusalem, correspond to the son of free Sarah, who therefore can be called the mother of all of us Christians. Gal.4:29. But just as then he who was born according to the flesh persecuted him who was born according to the Spirit, so it is now. Gal.4:30. What does Scripture say? Cast out the slave and her son, for the son of the slave will not be an heir along with the son of the free woman. But just as the son of Hagar, according to Jewish tradition, persecuted Isaac, jealous of his privileged position in his father’s house (cf. Gen. 21:9. Some ancient translators translate this passage as follows: “Ishmael mocked Isaac”), so now the descendants of Hagar, Judah, (descendants, of course, by similarity of position and character), are persecuting the descendants of Sarah, the Christians. What should Christians in Galatia do now with these people hostile to them? Drive them away from you, just as God in Scripture commanded Abraham to drive out his slave wife along with her son. Gal.4:31. So, brothers, we are not the children of slaves, but of a free woman. This verse forms the conclusion to everything that the Apostle said about the law and faith. We Christians are not the children of slaves, but of free women. The conclusions that can be drawn from this position are in the next chapter. Only after the apostolic times “verses and” began to mean the stars, especially the planets (for example, in Justin dial. XXIII). In the Apostle Paul in the last. to Col. (Col.2:20) this expression is used as a synonym for the expression κόσμος = world, and liberation from the “element” is understood as liberation from the world itself (cf. Gal.6:14). Further, the description of Jewish and pagan external ritual life, which the Apostle gives in verses 3 and 9, does not in any way fit 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 the contrast that the Apostle obviously wants to make between the liberation of the Jews through the Son and Spirit sent from God and between their enslavement to the elements. The spirit, as such, constitutes a sharp contrast to the elements, with the inclusion of the luminaries, which are also thought of as bodies (1 Cor. 15:39 et seq.) You might be interested in: