Vincent Word Studies - Galatians 4:9 - 4:9

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Vincent Word Studies - Galatians 4:9 - 4:9


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This Chapter Verse Commentaries:

Rather are known of God

Rather corrects the first statement, have known God, which might seem to attach too much to human agency in attaining the knowledge of God. The divine side of the process is thrown into the foreground by are known, etc. Known does not mean approved or acknowledged, but simply recognized. Saving knowledge is doubtless implied, but is not expressed in the word. The relation of knowledge between God and his sons proceeds from God. The Galatians had not arrived at the knowledge of God by intuition nor by any process of reasoning. “God knew them ere they knew him, and his knowing them was the cause of their knowing him” (Eadie). Comp. 1Co 13:12; 2Ti 2:19; Mat 7:23. Dean Stanley remarks that “our knowledge of God is more his act than ours.” If God knows a man, that fact implies an activity of God which passes over to the man, so that he, as the subject of God's knowledge, comes into the knowledge of God. In N.T. γινώσκειν often implies a personal relation between the knower and the known, so that knowledge implies influence. See 1Co 2:8; Joh 1:10; Joh 2:24; Joh 17:3. For a parallel to this interchange between the active and the passive, see Phi 3:12.

How (πῶς)

“A question full of wonder” (Bengel). Comp. I marvel, Gal 1:6.

Turn ye again (ἐπιστρέφετε πάλιν)

Better, the continuous present, are ye turning, as of a change still in progress. Comp. Gal 1:6. Πάλιν again, according to N.T. usage, and corresponding with πάλιν ἄνωθεν in the following clause. Not back, which is the earlier sense and the usual classical meaning.

Weak and beggarly elements (ἀσθενῆ καὶ πτωχὰ στοιχεῖα)

For elements see on Gal 4:3. For πτωχὰ beggarly, see on Mat 5:3. The two adjectives express the utter impotence of these “elements” to do and to bestow what was done and given by God in sending his Son into the world. Comp. Rom 8:3; Heb 7:18.

Again (πάλιν ἄνωθεν)

Ἄνωθεν (ἄνω above) adds to πάλιν the idea of going back to the beginning. Its primary meaning is from above; thence, from the first, reckoning in a descending series. So Luk 1:3; Act 26:5. Such combinations as this are not uncommon in N.T. and Class. See, for instance, Act 18:21; Mat 26:42; Act 10:15; Joh 21:16. But these additions to πάλιν are not pleonastic. They often define and explain it. Thus, Joh 21:16, πάλιν marks the repetition of Jesus' question, δεύτερον the number of the repetition. He asked again, and this was the second time of asking.

Ye desire (θέλετε)

It was more than a mere desire. They were bent on putting themselves again into bondage. See on Mat 1:19.