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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadJohn Bengel Commentary - Galatians 3:17 - 3:17
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Gal 3:17. Τοῦτο δὲ λέγω, but this I say) He shows to what the comparison, Gal 3:15, refers.-διαθήκην) The word is taken here in a sense a little more extensive than that of a testament, for ὁ διαθέμενος, the party entering into an arrangement, who is referred to here, is the immortal[24] [undying] God. And yet the term testament is more consonant with this passage than covenant, Gal 3:18, at the end. Comp. note on Mat 26:28.-προκεκυρωμένην,[25] confirmed before) Confirmed, Gal 3:15, corresponds to this: but πρὸ, before, is added on account of those four hundred and thirty years. The testament was confirmed by the promise itself, and that promise repeated, and by an oath, and that too many years before: ἔτι, in Gal 3:18, agrees with this word before.-μετὰ, after) It will be said: The epistle to the Hebrews (Heb 7:28, note) everywhere prefers to the law those things which were confirmed μετὰ, after the law; how then is that preferred here, after which the law was given? Ans. Those things are noticed there, in which the new confirmation [thing confirmed, covenant] was expressly derogatory to the old confirmation [thing confirmed, covenant]: but that the law was derogatory to the promise, which is here urged, was added neither in the time of Abraham, nor of Moses. Τὸ ἀπʼ ἀρχῆς, that which was from the beginning, is preferred in both cases: comp. Mat 19:8. Everywhere Christ prevails.-ἔτη, years) The greatness of the interval increases the authority of the promise.-γεγονὼς, which was, came into existence) This also has the effect of attributing inferiority to the law, and of imparting elegance to the personification. He does not say, given, as if the law had existed before it was given; nor does he add, by God, as he had said concerning the testament or covenant. There is another reason for these words, Joh 1:17.-νόμος, the law) He speaks in the nominative case; so that God who promises, and the law which does not detract from that promise, may be distinctly opposed to each other, and the hinge of this antithesis is the personification previously noticed.-οὐκ ἀκυροῖ, does not make void) A metonymy of the consequent [for the antecedent], i.e. the law does not confer the inheritance.-εἰς τὸ καταργῆσαι) to make of no effect the promise. But it is rendered vain or of no effect, if the power of conferring the inheritance be transferred from it to the law.
[24] Whereas a testament implies the death of the testator; Heb 9:16-ED.
[25] The words following εἰς Χριστὸν by the margin of the larger Ed. had been judged as deserving rather to be omitted, but by the excellent decision of the 2d Ed. they have been received into the Germ. Ver.-E. B.
DGfg Vulg. and both Syr. Versions support the addition in Rec. Text εἰς Χοιστόν. But ABC, some of the best MSS. of Vulg., Memph., and Syr. reject the addition.-ED.