Galatians 3:10

10. So far is it from all nations sharing with Abraham in blessing by the deeds of the Law, that they themselves who are under the Law are under a curse. Thus to obtain the blessing through the Law is impossible to human nature (see Theodore).

ὅσοι (Galatians 3:27; Galatians 6:12; Galatians 6:16; Romans 2:12 bis) γὰρ ἐξ ἔργων νόμου εἰσὶν. More emphatic and, as it were, inclusive than οἱ ἐξ ἔργ. νόμ. It includes, at first sight, all Jews and such Gentiles as accepted the Law as a means of salvation. Yet both phrases are able to exclude those, whether Jews or Gentiles, who, though living under the Law, were not of it, but had faith like that of Abraham.

ὑπὸ κατάραν. In St Paul’s Epp., Galatians 3:13 bis[96]. It implies separation and departure from God, Matthew 25:41. In Deuteronomy 11:26-28 ἡ εὐλογία and ἡ κατάρα are contrasted.

[96] Is affixed to a word it means that all the passages are mentioned where that word occurs in the New Testament.

εἰσίν. Verbum hoc iteratur magna vi (Bengel).

γέγραπται γὰρ ὅτι κ.τ.λ. From Deuteronomy 27:26, LXX. The only important difference is the insertion of ἐν τῷ βιβλίῳ. The slight differences from the Hebrew are noticed under the separate words. It is the closing verse of the curses to be pronounced on Ebal. Requiritur obedientia perfecta, in omnibus, et perpetua, permanet. Hanc nemo praestat (Bengel). On the burden of the Law and St Paul’s attitude to it see Galatians 2:16 note.

ἐπικατάρατος, Galatians 3:13[97]. Frequent in LXX., and found also in the Inscriptions (Deissmann, Licht vom Osten, pp. 61, 219).

[97] Is affixed to a word it means that all the passages are mentioned where that word occurs in the New Testament.

πᾶς. Not in the Hebrew, but a fair expansion of its meaning. Jerome thinks that it was there originally.

ὅς οὐκ ἐμμένει. So Acts 14:22; Hebrews 8:9, and of abiding in a place, Acts 28:30[98]. It is followed by the dative (without ἐν) in Acts 14:22 and generally in the LXX. On its use in legal forms with the dative of a participle see Deissmann (Bible Studies, pp. 248 sq.) and Moulton and Milligan (Expositor, VII. 6, 1909, p. 94). The Hebrew has “confirmeth not.”

[98] Is affixed to a word it means that all the passages are mentioned where that word occurs in the New Testament.

πᾶσιν τοῖς γεγραμμένοις. Heb. “the words”; LXX. “all the words.”

ἐν τῷ βιβλίῳ. Not in Heb. or LXX. The word means properly the. papyrus-roll (“Byblos” is probably only another form of “Papyros”), but later, in both its ordinary (βίβλος) and its diminutive (βιβλίον) forms, may mean a book of the ordinary shape. On the subject see Kenyon in Hastings, D. B. IV. 945 sqq. St Paul seems purposely to have employed words which would exclude the Oral Law.

τοῦ ποιῆσαι αὐτά. More than merely epexegetic. It marks the aim of the continuance in the things written etc., cf. Romans 6:6; Philippians 3:10. On this infinitive see Ellicott in loco, and Moulton, Proleg., 1906, pp. 216 sqq.