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Gal_3:17. Result of Gal_3:15-16, emphatically introduced by τοῦτο δὲ λέγω , but this which follows (see on 1Co_1:12) I say as the conclusion drawn from what is adduced in Gal_3:15-16 : A covenant which has been previously made valid (ratified) by God, the law … does not annul. What covenant is here intended, is well known from the connection, namely, the covenant made by God with Abraham, through His giving to him, and to his σπέρμα included along with him, the promises in Gen_12:3; Gen_18:18 (Gen_3:8), Gen_13:15, Gen_17:8 (Gen_3:16). The κύρωσις (comp. on Gal_3:15) is not any separate act following the institution of the covenant, but was implied in the very promises given: through them the covenant became valid. The προ in προκεκυρ . is correlative with the subsequent μετα , and therefore signifies: previously, ere the law existed.
ὁ μετὰ τετρακόσια κ . τ . λ .] cannot be intended to denote a comparatively short time (Koppe), which is not suggested by the context; but its purport is: The law, which came into existence so long a time after, cannot render invalid a covenant, which had been validly instituted so long previously by God and consequently had already subsisted so long. “Magnitudo intervalli auget promissionis auctoritatem,” Bengel. According to Hofmann, the statement of this length of time is intended to imply that the law was something new and different, which could not he held as an element forming part of the promise. But this was obvious of itself from the contrast between promise and law occupying the whole context, and, moreover, would not be dependent on a longer or shorter interval. With regard to the number 430, Paul gets it from Exo_12:40 (in Gen_15:13 and Act_7:6 the round number 400 is used); but in adopting it he does not take into account that this number specifies merely the duration of the sojourn of the Israelites in Egypt. Consequently the number here, taken by itself, contains a chronological inaccuracy; but Paul follows the statement of the LXX., which differs from the original text—the text of the LXX. being well known to and current among his readers—without entering further into this point of chronology, which was foreign to his aim. In Exo_12:40 the LXX. has ἡ δὲ κατοίκησις τῶν υἱῶν Ἰσρ . ἣν κατῷκησαν ἐν γῇ Αἰγ . καὶ ἐν γῇ Χαναάν (the words κ . ἐ . γ . Χ . are wanting in the Hebrew), ἔτη τετρακόσια τριάκοντα . This text of the LXX. was based upon a different reckoning of the time—a reckoning which is found in the Samaritan text and in Joseph. Antt. ii. 15. 3. See Tychsen, Exc. X. p. 148. The interval between God’s promise to Abraham and the migration of Jacob to Egypt—an interval omitted in the 430 years—cannot indeed be exactly determined, but may be reckoned at about 200 years; so that, if Paul had wished to give on his own part a definition of the time, he would not have exceeded bounds with 600 years instead of 430. The attempts to bring the 430 years in our passage into agreement with the 430 years in Exo_12:40 are frustrated by the unequivocal tenor of both passages.[138]
γεγονώς ] is not said ad postponendam legem, (see, on the contrary, Joh_1:17), as Bengel thinks (“non dicit data, quasi lex fuisset, antequam data sit”); for every law only comes into existence as law with the act of legislation.
On ἀκυροῖ , invalidates, overthrows, comp. Mat_15:6; Mar_7:13; 3 Esr. 6:32; Diod. Sic. xvi. 24; Dion. H. vi. 78; and ἄκυρον ποιεῖν , in more frequent use among Greek authors.
εἰς τὸ καταργ . τὴν ἐπαγγ .] Aim of the ἀκυροῖ : in order to do away the promise (by which the διαθήκη was completed), to render it ineffective and devoid of result. Comp. Rom_4:14. “Redditur autem inanis, si vis conferendae haereditatis ab ea ad legem transfertur,” Bengel. Observe once more the personification of the law.
[138] E.g. Grotius: The time in Exo_12:40 is reckoned from Abraham’s journey to Egypt. Perizonius, Orig. Aeg. 20; and Schoettgen, Hor. p. 736 The 430 years do not begin until after the period of the promises, that is, after the time of the patriarchs, and of Jacob in particular. Bengel, Ordo temp. 162: The terminus a quo is the birth of Jacob. Comp. Olshausen: Paul reckons from Jacob and his journey into Egypt. In like manner Hofmann: The terminus a quo is the time “at which the promise given to Abraham was at all repeated;” also Hauck: “From Jacob, as far as the pure, genuine σπέρμα Ἀβρ . reached.”