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Gal_3:8. Δέ ] marks the transition from the sonship of Abraham pertaining to believers to the participation in his blessing.
προϊδοῦσα ] personification. Comp. Gal_3:22; Rom_4:3; Rom_9:17; Joh_7:38. The Scripture foresaw and the Scripture announced beforehand, inasmuch as whatever God foresaw and announced beforehand—in reference, namely, to that which is at present taking place—formed an element of Scripture, and was expressed in it. Comp. the frequent λέγει ἡ γραφή ; likewise Siphra, f. 186. Galatians 2 : Quid vidit ( øàä ) scriptura, etc.
ἐκ πίστεως ] is the main point of the participial sentence: of faith, not of the works of the law as the causal condition on the side of man.
δικαιοῖ ] present, for the time foreseen ( προϊδοῦσα ) was the Christian present.
τὰ ἔθνη ] the Gentiles (comp. Gal_3:14), so that the latter have not to subject themselves to the law in order to become righteous.
προευηγγελίσατο ] pre-announced the glad tidings. προ refers, as in προϊδοῦσα , to the future realization in Christian times. This promise was a gospel before the gospel. The word does not occur elsewhere in the New Test., in the LXX., or the Apocrypha; but it is found in Philo, de opif m. p. 7 A, de rum. mut. p. 1069 D; also Schol. Soph. Trach. 335.
ὅτι ἐνευλογηθήσ . ἐν σοὶ πάντα τὰ ἔθνη ] Gen_12:3, quoted according to the LXX. with the recitative ὅτι , but so that, instead of πᾶσαι αἱ φυλαὶ τῆς γῆς , πάντα τὰ ἔθνη is adopted from Gen_18:18 (comp. also Gen_22:18); and this not accidentally, but because Paul is dealing with Gentile Christians, whom it was desired to subject to the law. Hence (and see Gal_3:14) it is not to be explained (with Winer, Matthias, Schott, Baumgarten-Crusius, following earlier expositors) of all nations, both Jews and Gentiles.
The emphasis in this utterance of promise is to be laid, not on πάντα (Schott), but on the prefixed ἐνευλογηθήσονται . For if the Scripture had not foreseen that faith would justify the Gentiles, it would not have promised blessing in Abraham to all the Gentiles; from which it follows (Gal_3:10) that it is believers who receive this blessing, and not those of the law, on whom indeed the Scripture pronounces not blessing, but curse (Gal_3:10). The characteristic ἐνευλογ . can only be meant to apply to those who are of faith, and not to those who are of the law. What it is that in Paul’s view is expressed by ἐνευλογεῖσθαι , Gen_12:3, in its Messianic fulfilment, is evident from the preceding ὅτι ἐκ πίστεως δικαιοῖ τὰ ἔθνη , namely, God’s gracious gift of justification (the opposite of the κατάρα , Gal_3:10-11), which, because it is promised as blessing, can only be shared by believers, and not by those of the law who are under curse.[122] The correctness of this view is certainly confirmed by Gal_3:14, where to the reception of the blessing there is annexed, as a further reception, that of the Holy Spirit, so that the bestowal of the Spirit is not included in the idea of the εὐλογία , but this idea is limited in conformity with the context to the justification, with which the whole reception of salvation begins.
ἘΝ ΣΟΊ is not: per tuam posteritatem, i.e. Christum (Jerome, Oecumenius, Menochius, Estius, Calovius, Rambach, Morus, Borger, Flatt, Schott; comp. also Bengel), by which interpretation the personal σοί (and how much at variance with Gal_3:9!) is entirely set aside, as if ἘΝ Τῷ ΣΠΈΡΜΑΤΊ ΣΟΥ (Gal_3:16) were used. But it is: in thee; that is, in the fact that thou art blessed (art justified) is involved (as a consequence) the blessedness of all the Gentiles, in so far as all the Gentiles are to attain justification by faith, and it is in the blessing of Abraham, the father of all the faithful (Romans 4.), that the connection between faith and justification is opened and instituted for all future time. Comp. Ellicott. On ἐνευλογεῖσθαι , to be blessed in the person of any one, a word which does not occur in Greek authors, comp. Act_3:25, Sir_44:21.
[122] De Wette, who is followed by Wieseler, understands the blessing to be “the whole salvation of the kingdom of God,”—an idea too comprehensive for the context. Bähr (in Stud. u. Krit. 1849, p. 920) erroneously concludes from Gal_3:14, that by the blessing is meant the reception of the Spirit. See on Gal_3:14. This reception, as well as the Messianic salvation generally,—or, “the good which is intended for mankind,” as Hofmann puts it,—ensues as a consequence of the εὐλογία , as the Messianic ἀπώλεια ensues as a consequence of the κατάρα , if the latter, as in the case of those who adhere to the works of the law, is not cancelled (Gal_3:10). The εὐλογία , therefore, is not yet the blessing of Messianic salvation itself, the κληρονομία , but, as Hunnius (in Calovius) aptly explains it, “Benedici in hac promissione est liberari maledictione legis aeternae et vicissim haeredem scribi justitiae et bonorum coelestium.” Grotius is much too indefinite: “Summa bena adipiscentur.” Also Ewald’s paraphrase, “the blessing of the true religion,” is too general. Beza, Usteri, Rückert, take the right view; comp. also Möller (on de Wette) and Reithmayr.