Vincent Word Studies - Galatians 3:26 - 3:26

Online Resource Library

Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com

Vincent Word Studies - Galatians 3:26 - 3:26


(Show All Books | Show All Chapters)

This Chapter Verse Commentaries:

For ye are all the children of God (πάντες γὰρ υἱοὶ θεοῦ ἐστὲ)

Better, ye are all sons of God. Note 1. The change of person, ye are. Comp. we, our, us, Gal 3:23, Gal 3:24, Gal 3:25. He now addresses the Galatians, who were mostly Gentiles, and includes all Christians, Jewish and Gentile. 2. The emphasis is on sons of God rather than on all; for his object is to show that, after the coming of faith, they are no more under the care of a guardian. Ὑιοὶ signifies sons of full age (comp. Gal 4:1) who have outgrown the surveillance of the guardian; so that sons is emphasized as against children. Paul describes Christians both as τέκνα θεοῦ children of God (Rom 8:16, Rom 8:21; Rom 9:8; Phi 2:15), and υἱοὶ θεοῦ sons of God (Rom 8:14, Rom 8:19; Rom 9:26). Both τέκνον and υἱός signify a relation based on parentage. The common distinction between τέκνον as emphasizing natural relationship, and υἱός as marking legal or ethical status, should not be pressed. In lxx both words are applied ethically to Israel as God's beloved people. See Isa 30:1; Wisd. 16:21; Joe 2:23; Zec 9:13; and Isa 63:6; Deu 14:1; Wisd. 9:7; 12:19. John never uses υἱός to describe the relation of Christians to God; but he attaches both the ethical relation and that of conferred privilege, as well as that of birth, to τέκνον. See Joh 1:12; 1Jo 3:1, 1Jo 3:10; Joh 1:13; Joh 3:3, Joh 3:7; 1Jo 3:9; 1Jo 4:7; 1Jo 5:1, 1Jo 5:4, 1Jo 5:18. Paul often regards the Christian relation from a legal point of view as υἱοθεσία adoption, a word used only by him. See Rom 8:14, Rom 8:17, we have both υἱοὶ and τέκνα, and both in the ethical sense. In Rom 9:8; Eph 5:1, the ethical sense. 3. In Christ Jesus. Const. with faith. The article before πίστεως faith may point back to the faith previously mentioned, or may have, as so often, a possessive force, your faith.