Galatians 4:31

31 And so, brethren, we be not sons of the servant, but of the free wife, by which freedom Christ hath made us free. [+And so, brethren, we be not sons of the handmaiden/handmaid, but of the free, by which liberty Christ hath made us free.]

Galatians 4:31 Meaning and Commentary

Galatians 4:31

So then, brethren
This is the conclusion of the whole allegory, or the mystical interpretation of Agar and Sarah, and their sons:

we are not children of the bondwoman;
the figure of the first covenant, which gendered to bondage, and typified the Jews in a state, and under a spirit of bondage to the law; New Testament saints are not under it, are delivered from it, and are dead unto it:

but of the free;
of Sarah, that was a type of the new and second covenant; and answered to the Gospel church, which is free from the yoke of the law; and whose children believers in Christ are, by whom they are made free from all thraldom and slavery; so the children of the mistress and of the maidservant are opposed to each other by the Jews F11. The Vulgate Latin version adds to this verse from the beginning of the next chapter, "with the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free"; and the Ethiopic version, "because Christ hath made us free"; and begin the next chapter thus, "therefore stand, and be not entangled" and so the Alexandrian copy, and three of Stephens's.


FOOTNOTES:

F11 Tzeror Hammor, fol. 152. 1.

Galatians 4:31 In-Context

29 but now as this that was born after the flesh pursued him that was after the Spirit, so now. [+but as then he that was born after the flesh pursued him that was born after the Spirit, so and now.]
30 But what saith the scripture? Cast out the servant and her son, for the son of the servant shall not be heir with the son of the free wife. [+But what saith the scripture? Cast out the handmaiden and her son, for the son of the handmaiden/handmaid shall not be heir with the son of the free wife.]
31 And so, brethren, we be not sons of the servant, but of the free wife, by which freedom Christ hath made us free. [+And so, brethren, we be not sons of the handmaiden/handmaid, but of the free, by which liberty Christ hath made us free.]
Copyright © 2001 by Terence P. Noble. For personal use only.