Galatians 3:29

εἰ δὲ ὑμεῖς Χριστοῦ. A few “western” authorities assimilate these words to the form of Galatians 3:28.

29. εἰ δὲ ὑμεῖς Χριστοῦ. Observe the emphasis on ὑμεῖς. If ye, ye Galatians, Gentiles though you are, are Christ’s, then etc. If you belong to Christ, as surely you do after the close relation implied in your faith in Him (Galatians 3:26), your baptism into Him, your putting of Him on (Galatians 3:27), your union in Him (Galatians 3:28), then we must conclude that you are Abraham’s seed, with all that this implies of promise and heirship. St Paul insists once more that the blessing of Abraham is only to be obtained in Christ, and is obtained in Him.

ἄρα (Galatians 2:21) τοῦ Αβραὰμ σπέρμα ἐστέ. οὐχ οἶόν τε τὴν μὲν κεφαλὴν ἐκείνον (Abraham) νομίζεσθαι, τὸ δὲ σῶμα ἂλλου τινός (Theodoret).

κατʼ ἐπαγγελίαν. The phrase occurs absolutely elsewhere in Acts 13:23, and with the addition of ζωῆς, 2 Timothy 1:1[112]. According to promise (not “the promise,” A.V.) in contrast to the Law and its deeds.

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

κληρονόμοι. The closing and emphatic word, implying possession actually received, not merely in expectancy. St Paul has mentioned heirship definitely only in Galatians 3:18, where see note, though he has implied it in Galatians 3:24-26. You want to be heirs of all that true relationship to Abraham brings—you have obtained it in Christ.

Then, characteristically enough, St Paul takes up this word κληρονόμος, and makes it a starting-point for further thoughts about God’s dealings with us in the past and present.

Note on Galatians 3:16

Dr Driver has been kind enough to call my attention to an article in the Expositor for January, 1889, in which he adopts an explanation of this passage proposed by Abraham Geiger, and accepted by Delitzsch. It is to the effect that we find in the Mishna and the Targum of Onqelos derivatives of the root zera’ which must be translated “seeds,” and mean successive generations of men. So in the Mishna, Sanh. IV. 5 (11), “his own blood, and the blood of his seeds (zar‘iyyothayw) to the end of the world.” Thus of Cain: “  ‘the bloods of thy brother cry unto me from the ground.’ The text does not say ‘blood,’ but ‘bloods’; i.e. Abel’s own blood, and the blood of his seeds (zar‘iyyothayw).” Similarly in the Targum of Onqelos on Genesis 4:10 : “the blood of the seeds (zera‘ayan) which were destined to spring from thy brother.” [See also Jastrow, Talmudic Dictionary, 1903, p. 414b.] Hence it is probable (Dr Driver thinks) that to St Paul the use of the plural of substantives formed from the root zera‘, in the sense of successive generations of men, seemed to be nothing extraordinary, and, regardless of the usage of the Hebrew Bible, the Apostle therefore called attention to the fact that the actual wording of the passage in Genesis 22:18 excluded, strictly speaking, the performance of the promise in successive generations of Israelites, and required its fulfilment in one generation, which was summed up in Christ.