Galatians 3:17Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

Indeed, what I am about to say I speak according to man, and not according to God. I do not speak in a manner proportioned to revealed wisdom, nor to the powers of those who can be fed with solid food. I speak to those who, because of the tenderness of their stomach, are fed with the moisture of milk and are wholly unable to digest what is great (1 Cor 3:2).

Therefore, when addressing the Corinthians, among whom fornication had been reported, and such fornication as is not even found among the Gentiles, he said: “I say this, not the Lord” (1 Cor 7:12). In the second epistle to the same people he says: “What I speak, I speak not according to the Lord, but as it were in foolishness” (2 Cor 11:17).

Some think that the Apostle said, “Brethren, I speak according to man,” with human testaments in view. They refer this to the death of the testator and to other examples taken from human life.

It seems to me, however, that these words are placed first both for the reason they themselves indicate and especially because of what follows: “He did not say, ‘to seeds,’ as of many, but as of one, ‘and to your seed,’ which is Christ.”

Passing in mind and memory through all the Scriptures, I have nowhere found it written “seeds,” that is, in the plural. It is always in the singular, whether in a good sense or in a bad one.

Likewise, concerning his words, “Now this I call a covenant confirmed by God,” anyone who carefully compares the Hebrew scrolls and the other editions with the translation of the Seventy will find something. Where “covenant” is written, there is a word that means not covenant or testament, but agreement. In Hebrew this is expressed by the word Berith (הידב).

From this it is evident that the Apostle did what he promised. He used not a hidden meaning inaccessible to the Galatians, but an ordinary and simple one. Had the Apostle not warned that he was speaking according to man, this might have displeased intelligent people.

In this place one must understand the years that passed from the time when the Lord said to Abraham, “And in your seed all nations shall be blessed” (Gen 22:18), until the time when Moses the lawgiver appeared.

Did four hundred years actually pass? Or how is it that in Genesis the Lord promises Abraham himself that after four hundred years his descendants would come out of Egypt? This is no small question. It has been investigated by many, though I do not know whether anyone has fully solved it.

The account in the same book concerning Tamar and her two infants agrees with this place (Gen 38). The first, named Zarah, put his hand out from his mother’s womb, and the midwife tied a scarlet thread on it. Then, when that hand drew back, the second, named Phares, put forth his hand.

This means that Israel put forth his hand in the fulfillment of the works of the law. Then, after staining it with the blood of the prophets and of the Savior Himself, he withdrew it. After this the Gentile people came forth.

Scripture very often says of this people that through it the barrier separating Jews and Gentiles was broken down and overthrown. Thus there would be one flock and one shepherd. Thus there would be glory, honor, and peace for everyone who does good, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.

The simple meaning of this passage is as the Apostle teaches. The promise given to Abraham before the law cannot be destroyed by the law given afterward. The later must not be preferred to the earlier.

For four hundred and thirty years earlier the promise was given to Abraham that in him all nations would be blessed. The observance of the law, by which, if anyone fulfills it, he lives in it, was prescribed thirty years later by Moses on Mount Sinai.

Here one may also say the reverse. Why was it necessary to give the law so many years after the promise? After the law was proclaimed, suspicion could arise that the promised agreement had been set aside. Conversely, if the meaning of the promise is preserved, one might think that the law has no importance.

Foreseeing this objection, the Apostle in what follows raises it against himself and gives the answer.

For the divine Apostle says this: "He does not say, 'and to seeds,' as of many, but as of one: 'and to your Seed,' Who is Christ."

Consequently, they are called Abraham's seed not because they too trace their lineage from Abraham, but because Christ properly bears this name. He alone, according to the promise, was to grant blessing to the nations.

God said: "In your seed all the nations of the earth shall be blessed" (Gen 22:18). But the nations received this blessing from no one else. Therefore the divine Apostle proves that the promise is stronger than the law, and says:

Therefore, according to the Apostle's indication, it is correct in this reckoning to follow the Greek translation of the Seventy and our Slavonic. In that translation it reads: "The dwelling of the sons of Israel, which they dwelt in the land of Egypt and in the land of Canaan, they and their fathers, was four hundred and thirty years" (Ex 12:40).

That is, the period of 430 years includes not only the time of the Hebrews' dwelling in Egypt. It also includes the time of the sojourning of the patriarchs Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the land of Canaan, from the time of Abraham's migration from Chaldea (Gen 12:4).

Thus, after subtracting from the 430 years the time that passed from this migration from Chaldea to the migration into Egypt, only 215 years remain for the Hebrews' dwelling in Egypt.

This number of years is supported by the fact that between Levi, who entered Egypt with Jacob, and Moses, who led the Hebrews out of Egypt, there were only two persons, Kohath and Amram (Ex 6:16-20). The latter was married to Jochebed, the daughter of Levi, that is, to his aunt (Num 26:59).

The Samaritan text, the Targum of ben Jonathan, and Josephus (Antiquities 2.15.2) reckon in agreement with the translation of the Seventy. In this way they confirm the Apostle Paul's reckoning.

After this, one may only ask whether the Apostle Paul counted the 430 years from Abraham's coming into the land of Canaan, or from the confirmation of the covenant. In the latter case, the chronological inaccuracy would be twenty-four years. In the former, there is none.

"Brethren, I speak according to human reasoning: even a human testament, once confirmed, no one annuls or adds to it" (Gal 3:15). Therefore the Mosaic Law, given during the interval between the promise spoken to Abraham, 430 years after it according to Gal 3:17, and its fulfillment in Christ, could neither assist this fulfillment nor weaken the promise.

"For if the inheritance is by the law, it is no longer by promise. But God granted it to Abraham by promise."

Second objection: if the law did not change the conditions of justification by faith, why was it given?

In answering this question, the holy Apostle speaks first of the comparative dignity of the law and the promise. Then he explains the significance of the law in the history of salvation through Jesus Christ.

First: the comparative dignity of the law and the promise.

The similarity between the divine and human covenants is, of course, incomplete. Therefore in verse 15 the Apostle adds the qualification that he speaks of the immutability of the covenant's force according to the ordinary order.

According to Augustine: "The death of the testator finally makes the testament confirmed, because after this there is no longer any possibility for him to change his intention. In God this is replaced by the immutability of His determinations. For all the promises of God are in Him Yes, and in Him Amen" (2 Cor 1:20).

Explaining the content of the promise, the Apostle, in the words of Bishop Theophan, gives "an all-sufficient explanation of its meaning."

"God promised to bless the nations of all things by the seed of Abraham. This seed is Christ the Master Himself, for by Him this promise was brought to fulfillment, and the nations received the blessing. This is what the Apostle declares" (blessed Theodoret).

Everything the Apostle wrote was plainly written with possible objections from the false teachers in mind. Therefore, having affirmed the force of the promise positively, he affirms it also from the other side, negatively. To do this, he shows that the law, which appeared 430 years after the promise (Ex 12:40), could not destroy so ancient a force of the promise.

"How can the law annul this covenant or promise, so that the nations receive blessing not through Christ, but through the commandments of the law? This would be nothing other than the destruction of the promise, which is absurd," says Theophylact.

To this one may add the following words of blessed Augustine: "When the promise was given, the law had not yet been given. After so many years, it could not be given in such a sense as to make the preceding promise to Abraham void."

The law "does not annul," ουκ ακυροι. This stands in contrast to προκεκυρωμενην, "confirmed beforehand." It does not annul "so as to make the promise void," καταργησαι. Applied to buildings, this expresses our usual phrase: to level with the ground, to destroy to the foundation. The meaning is to destroy the promise completely, to make it as though nonexistent.

In this conclusion it would have been enough simply to say: therefore no one can annul or change the promise to Abraham. But the holy Apostle surrounds it with all related concepts, in order to present a fully rounded thought according to his purposes.

God Himself determined the 430 years when He gave the promise concerning Isaac. How these years were fulfilled in actual history is not important. In Exodus 12:40, this number of years determines the time of the dwelling of the sons of Israel in the land of Egypt and in the land of Canaan, before the migration into Egypt.