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Gal_5:23. Just as τὰ τοιαῦτα in Gal_5:21 (haec talia: see Engelhardt, ad Plat. Lach. p. 14; Kühner, ad Xen. Mem. i. 5. 2), τῶν τοιούτων in this passage is also neuter, applying to the virtues previously mentioned among the fruits of the Spirit (Irenaeus, Jerome, Augustine, Pelagius, Calvin, Beza, yet doubtfully, Castalio, Cornelius a Lapide, and most expositors), and not masculine, as it is understood by Chrysostom, Theodoret, Theophylact, Oecumenius, Erasmus, Luther, Grotius, Bengel, and many of the older expositors; also by Koppe, Rosenmüller, Rückert, Hofmann.[244] It is, moreover, quite unsuitable to assume (with Beza, Estius, Rosenmüller, Flatt, and others) a μείωσις (non adversatur, sed commendat, and the like; so also de Wette); for Paul wishes only to illustrate the οὐκ ΕἾΝΑΙ ὙΠῸ ΝΌΜΟΝ , which he has said in Gal_5:18 respecting those who are led by the Spirit. This he does by first exhibiting, for the sake of the contrast, the works of the flesh, and expressing a judgment upon the doers of them; and then by exhibiting the fruit of the Spirit, and saying: “against virtues and states of this kind there is no law.” Saying this, however, is by no means “more than superfluous” (Hofmann), but is intended to make evident how it is that, by virtue of this their moral frame, those who are led by the Spirit are not subject to the Mosaic law.[245] For whosoever is so constituted that a law is not against him, over such a one the law has no power. Comp. 1Ti_1:9 f.
[244] So also Bäumlein, in the Stud. u. Krit. 1862, p. 551 f. The objection that the singular ὁ καρπός in ver. 22 forbids the neuter interpretation (Hofmann), is quite groundless both in itself and because καρπός is collective.
[245] The fundamental idea of the whole epistle—the freedom of the Christian from the Mosaic law—is thus fully displayed in its moral nature and truth. Comp. Sieffert, in the Jahrb. f. D. Theol. 1869, p. 264.