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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comVincent Word Studies - Galatians 3:24 - 3:24
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This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
Wherefore (ὥστε)
Better, so that. Theological consequence of the previous statements.
Our schoolmaster (παιδαγωγὸς ἡμῶν)
Our. Paul speaks as a Jew of Jews especially. Schoolmaster (παιδαγωγὸς P) is an error. The word means an overseer or guardian. See on 1Co 4:15. Tutor (Rev.) is defensible on the ground of etymology, tueri to look upon, thence to guard. In civil law a tutor is a person legally appointed for the care of the person and property of a minor. So Bacon (Adv. of Learning, ii. 19): “the first six kings being in truth as tutors of the state of Rome in the infance thereof.” The later use of the word, however, in the sense of instructor, has so completely supplanted the earlier, that the propriety of the Revisers' rendering is questionable. The law is here represented, not as one who conducts to the school of Christ; for Christ is not represented here as a teacher, but as an atoner; but rather as an overseer or guardian, to keep watch of those committed to its care, to accompany them with its commands and prohibitions, and to keep them in a condition of dependence and restraint, thus continually bringing home to them the consciousness of being shut up in sins, and revealing sin as positive transgression.