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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadHeinrich Meyer Commentary - Galatians 3:7 - 3:7
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Gal_3:7. Know ye therefore (since Abraham’s faith was counted to him for righteousness) that those who are of faith, etc.
γινώσκετε is taken as indicative by Cyprian, ep. 63 ad Caecil., Jerome, Ambrose, Luther, Erasmus, Beza, Menochius, Piscator, Semler, Rosenmüller, Rückert, Reithmayr, and others. The tone of the passage is more animated by taking it as imperative.[121]
οἱ ἐκ πίστ .] designates believers, according to this their specific peculiarity, under the point of view of origin. It is faith from which their spiritual state of life proceeds. Comp. Rom_2:8; Rom_3:26; Rom_4:14; Joh_18:37, et al.
οὕτοι ] has the emphasis (comp. Rom_8:14; Rom_9:6): these, and no others. The contrast here is usually supposed to be: not the bodily descendants of Abraham. But how foreign to the context is a comparison between the bodily and spiritual children of Abraham! The only interpretation in harmony with the context is: “these, and not those who are ἐξ ἔργων νόμου .” See Gal_3:8-10. So also, correctly, Rückert and Wieseler.
ΥἹΟῚ ἈΒΡ .] children of Abraham in the true sense. For the true υἱοί can have no nature different from the essential nature of the father. Comp. Joh_8:8; Joh_8:39; Rom_4:11 f.
[121] The Vulgate has in Lachmann’s text, cognoscite. So also Castalio, Calvin, and others, as well as most modern expositors.