Robertson Word Pictures - Galatians 4:9 - 4:9

Online Resource Library

Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com

Robertson Word Pictures - Galatians 4:9 - 4:9


(Show All Books | Show All Chapters)

This Chapter Verse Commentaries:

Now that ye have come to know God (nun de gnontes). Fine example of the ingressive second aorist active participle of ginōskō, come to know by experience through faith in Christ.

Rather to be known of God (mallon de gnōsthentes hupo theou). First aorist passive participle of the same verb. He quickly turns it round to the standpoint of God’s elective grace reaching them (Gal 4:6).

How (pōs). “A question full of wonder” (Bengel). See note on Gal 1:6.

Turn ye back again? (epistrephete paliṅ). Present active indicative, “Are ye turning again?” See metatithesthe in Gal 1:6.

The weak and beggarly rudiments (ta asthenē kai ptōcha stoicheia). The same stoicheia in Gal 4:3 from which they had been delivered, “weak and beggarly,” still in their utter impotence from the Pharisaic legalism and the philosophical and religious legalism and the philosophical and religious quests of the heathen as shown by Angus’s The Religious Quests of the Graeco-Roman World. These were eagerly pursued by many, but they were shadows when caught. It is pitiful today to see some men and women leave Christ for will o’the wisps of false philosophy.

Over again (palin anōthen). Old word, from above (anō) as in Mat 27:51, from the first (Luk 1:3), then “over again” as here, back to where they were before (in slavery to rites and rules).