Galatians 4:31

31 Wherefore, brethren, we are not children of a handmaid, but of the freewoman.

Galatians 4:31 Meaning and Commentary

Galatians 4:31

So then, brethren
This is the conclusion of the whole allegory, or the mystical interpretation of Agar and Sarah, and their sons:

we are not children of the bondwoman;
the figure of the first covenant, which gendered to bondage, and typified the Jews in a state, and under a spirit of bondage to the law; New Testament saints are not under it, are delivered from it, and are dead unto it:

but of the free;
of Sarah, that was a type of the new and second covenant; and answered to the Gospel church, which is free from the yoke of the law; and whose children believers in Christ are, by whom they are made free from all thraldom and slavery; so the children of the mistress and of the maidservant are opposed to each other by the Jews ^F11. The Vulgate Latin version adds to this verse from the beginning of the next chapter, "with the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free"; and the Ethiopic version, "because Christ hath made us free"; and begin the next chapter thus, "therefore stand, and be not entangled" and so the Alexandrian copy, and three of Stephens's.

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FOOTNOTES:

F11 Tzeror Hammor, fol. 152. 1.

Galatians 4:31 In-Context

29 But as then he that was born after the flesh persecuted him [that was born] after the Spirit, so also it is now.

30 Howbeit what saith the scripture? Cast out the handmaid and her son: for the son of the handmaid shall not inherit with the son of the freewoman.

31 Wherefore, brethren, we are not children of a handmaid, but of the freewoman.