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4. ὅτε δὲ ἦλθεν κ.τ.λ. The coming of Christ marks the beginning of the change in our personal relation to God.
τὸ πλήρωμα τοῦ χρόνου. On πλήρωμα see Col 1:19 note. The full phrase occurs here only in the Greek Bible. Compare Eph 1:10 τοῦ πληρώματος τῶν καιρῶν; and especially Mar 1:15 πεπλήρωται ὁ καιρός, with Dr Swete’s note. Pre-Christian time was like an unfilled measure, which each year filled, as it were drop by drop, until the fulness of it came. St Paul here speaks only of the lapse of time; he does not make any suggestion as to what determined that time, e.g. conviction of sin etc.; cf. Gal 3:19; Gal 3:24.
ἐξαπέστειλεν, “ex caelo a sese” (Bengel). Gal 4:6, Lukequater, Ac.septies[118]. Here only with Christ for the object. Used of the word (i.e. message) of salvation in St Paul’s speech at Antioch of Pisidia (Act 13:26), wherein are other thoughts even more typical of our epistle, centring round the words πληρόω, ἐπαγγελία, ξύλον, δικαιόω. See Introduction, p. xxix.
[118] Is affixed to a word it means that all the passages are mentioned where that word occurs in the New Testament.
γενόμενον ἐκ γυναικός, γενόμενον ὑπὸ νόμον. Not a mere parenthesis, but to show that “His Son” had likeness of nature with us, and likeness of condition under the Law (Gal 2:16 note); even Christ passed through the stage of a νήπιος (Gal 4:1), for only thus could He accomplish his object. Moulton and Milligan illustrate this, the “most original meaning, to be born,” from a papyrus of the 3rd cent. B.C.: κόρον ἔτεκε, δς εὐθὺς γενόμενος αὐτὸς ἀπὸ τὰς κράνας ἐλοῦτο, and refer also to Joh 8:58 (Expositor, VII. 6, 1908, p. 382). ὑπὸ νόμον. “As friend and Redeemer of ‘sinners’ he must go where the sense of sin was most acute” (B. W. Bacon).