The Great Commentary of Cornelius a Lapide: the Epistle to the Galatians
Ver. 15. — I speak after the manner of men. Cf. Job xxxi. 33, and Hos. vi. 7. S. Paul’s meaning is that in dealing with spiritual things he uses material illustrations, as, e.g., that of a testator and his testament , to prove that we inherit Abraham’s blessing, not through the law, but through faith in Christ, according to the covenant made with Abraham, and that, therefore, the Galatians should feel shame for attributing less to God than to the testaments and covenants of men. This is his fifth proof, that we are justified by faith and not by the law.
Though it be but a man's covenant. No one adds to or subtracts from a man’s testament when once it is duly drawn up.
Ver. 16. — To Abraham and his seed were the promises made. This refers to Gen. xxii. 16. From this we conclude that by his readiness to obey God in sacrificing his son he merited that from his own seed should Christ be born as a blessing to the Gentiles, and to fulfil the promises. The Apostle, therefore, rightly lays it down that these promises were made to Abraham and his seed, i.e., to Christ, who should spring from his loins ; although the word of Genesis speaks of these promises being made to Abraham in his seed only, and not to his seed. Yet the very fact that they were to be fulfilled in his seed shows that they were made rather to his seed than to Abraham. Just as if a king should promise one of his nobles to exalt his family in his son, by making him a duke or a prince, and thereby makes a promise to the son rather than to the father, so did God to Abraham. It was in Christ, as the seed of Abraham, that the promise , “In thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed,” has been fulfilled, and justification assured to all who believe in Christ.
To thy seed which is Christ. This may be said to meet a possible objection that seed is equivalent to posterity or descendants , and is therefore a noun of multitude, and that S. Paul here denies this interpretation. But seed is sometimes used as a collective term, as for example, in the promise, “ Thy seed shall be as the stars of heaven,” and sometimes as a particular term ; e.g., in Gen. xxi. 13 : “ Of the son of the bondwoman will I make a nation,” because he is thy seed.” S. Paul, in interpreting the word here in the latter sense, might have appealed to the practice of the Rabbinical expositors, who all understood it of Christ. Moreover, if it were to be taken in the former sense, the prophecy would have failed of fulfilment, for all the nations of the earth have not been blessed in Abraham's posterity, we are to understand the Jewish people; on the contrary, the Jews are for a reproach, and a curse among the Gentiles.
Ver. 17. — The covenant that was before of God in Christ. If, as was said in verse 15, no one annuls the testament of a man, still less can the law, which came 430 years afterwards, annul the promise of God confirmed to Abraham in Christ.
Note that the Hebrew berith, the Greek diatheke , and the Latin testamentum , have all the same meaning of covenant, and that the diatheke , of the LXX. is identical with sunthēkē, according to Jerome, Chrysostom, Theophylact, and Œcumenius. Budaeus proves the same from Demosthenes and Aristophanes. Cf. notes to 1 Cor. xi. 25.
But S. Augustine understands the term of a will. “ Because,” he says, “ the death of the testator has the effect of confirming his will, so the unchangeableness of God has the effect of confirming His promise .”
An important question is here raised as to the date from which these 430 years should be reckoned, for the terminus ad quem alone is clearly defined in this passage, viz., the year when the law was given on Mount Sinai. S. Paul’s computation seems in conflict with Exod. xii. 40, which speaks of the sojourning of the children of Israel in Egypt as lasting 430 years, or, in other words, which represents the time between the going down of Jacob into Egypt and the Exodus as 430 years; but the Apostle seems to count the interval between Abraham and the Exodus as 430 years. But from Abraham to Jacob’s descent was 200 years, and therefore if Exod. xii. 40 is to be followed, the Apostle should have said 630 years.
I reply briefly with S. Augustine (qu. 47 in Exod.); with Athanasius, or rather Anastasius, in his “Synopsis of Holy Scripture” (in loco) ; with Eusebius, in his Chronicon; with Rupert, Tostatus, Cajetan (in Exod.), that the computation of S. Paul is identical with that of Moses in Exod. xii. 40, and that both begin to reckon, not from the descent of Jacob into Egypt, but from the seventy-fifth year of Abraham’s life, when he was called from his country to go into Canaan. It was in that year that he received the blessings S. Paul is referring to, as is evident from the beginning of Gen. xii.
1. This appears from the obvious fact that the Hebrews did not dwell in Egypt 430 years ; for Kohath went down with his grandfather , Jacob (Exod. vi. 18). But Kohath lived 133 years, and his son Amram 137 years. When Moses, Amram’s son, went out of Egypt with the Hebrews, he was in his eighty-first year ; and if all these three are added together, we get 351 only. But we must deduct from this total the years that Kohath lived after begetting Amram, and that Amram lived after begetting Moses. From this it follows that the number of 430 must be reckoned from a date long anterior to the descent into Egypt, viz., from the migration of Abraham from Haran, and this the LXX. expressly say in their rendering of Exod. xii. 40 : “ But the sojourning of the children of Israel, which they and their fathers made in the land of Egypt and Canaan , was 430 years.”
2. Moreover, the Apostle says here that the law was given 430 years after, not the descent of Jacob, but the promise to Abraham ; but the law was given in the same year that the Hebrews left Egypt, in the third month after their departure. Cf. Exod. xix. 1, and the notes to Exod. xii. 40.
Ver. 18 . — If the inheritance be of the law. If our heritage of righteousness be of the law of Moses, then it is not of the promise. But this is false, for God promised this righteousness to Abraham and to his seed, which is Christ If it is of the promise of Christ, then it is through faith in Christ, and not through the law of Moses, that all nations are to be blessed.
Ver. 19. — Wherefore then serveth the law? Why was the law introduced after the promise ? Is it that God does not fulfil His promise? The answer is that the law was given by God to restrain and punish transgressions. This was its direct purpose, but indirectly it served as a means whereby transgressions might be made manifest. A self-willed people would, on hearing the law, recognise their sins as such, and feel the need of Christ’s grace if they were to keep it. In this way the law sent men to Christ.
Till the seed should come. Till the birth of Christ, to whom God had promised that by Him all nations should be blessed, i.e., justified , and so be able to live uprightly and to keep the law. The law was given as a pedagogue till Christ should come; therefore when Christ has come it has done its work, and the Jews are foolish in wishing to prolong its power.
Because of transgressions. The Greek word rendered added denotes put in its place, as a soldier is assigned his post by his general. So the law was assigned its rank, place, time, and method of promulgation.
1. It was given its rank between the law of nature and the Gospel, being more perfect than the one but inferior to the other. It was a road from one to the other.
2. It was given its fitting time, in being promulgated to a people still uncouth, when it was about to form itself into a nation and a Church, to prevent it from falling into idolatry and heathen license.
3. It had its due place, for being given at Sinai before the entrance into Canaan, it formed a sort of condition to the covenant. God promised that He would lead the Hebrews into Canaan, and put them in possession of it, if they would follow the law as their guide, and observe it as a condition attached to His promise.
4. It had its proper mode of promulgation, for it came from an angel on Mount Sinai, with the sound of a trumpet, with a terrible earthquake, with thunder and lightning, as a law of fear to restrain the rebellious Jews, like slaves, by fear of punishment. In these four ways the law was externally ordered.
5. But it was also internally disposed in due order. Its precepts bade the Hebrews (a) worship God by appointed ceremonies and sacrifices; (b) refrain from injury to their neighbour, or if injury had been inflicted, it bade them offer fitting satisfaction; (c) it regulated the inner man by the moral precepts of the Decalogue.