Galatians 3:16

-Now to Abraham were the promises spoken, and to his seed".

and his seed These words are emphatic. Had the promise been made to Abraham only, it would have determined with his own life. But it was the precious heritage of his descendants, not disannulled or superseded by the law given on Mount Sinai.

the promises Used, as in Romans 9:4, of that group of promises made to the patriarchs, which were regarded by their descendants as their title deeds to the land of Israel and all the privileges of the chosen race. But herewith special reference to Genesis 13:15; Genesis 17:7-8. At first sight these two promises seem to refer only to the land. But they include far more. The chief blessing promised is contained in the words, "I will establish my covenant between me and thee and thy seed after thee in their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be a God unto thee, and to thy seed after thee … and I will be their God." Comp. Hebrews 11:16. It is interesting to notice how thispromise was appropriated by the seed. On the Cross He cried, -My God, My God." After His resurrection He said, -I ascend … to My God, and your God".

made Lit. - spoken ", as in R.V. They were made orally, not, like the law, written on tables of stone.

He saith not Rather, -it (the promise) saith not". It does not run, -And to thy seeds", &c. This clause is parenthetical, illustrative of, but not necessary to the argument.

Exception has been taken to the emphasis which St Paul attaches to the use of the singular -seed", on the ground that in the Hebrew the plural -seeds" would not bear the sense which he seems to attribute to it, viz. several lines of descent. The same may be said of our own language, in which -seeds" can only mean grains, or kinds of grain not lines of human descent. But, without insisting on the fact that in Hellenistic Greek (which St Paul was writing), the plural, no less than the singular, is employed in the sense here required, we may observe that the import of the passage is not dependent on rigid conformity to linguistic usage. The Apostle pauses to point out, that, though the promise was given to Abraham's seed, yet it was restricted to one line. The descendants of Hagar and Keturah and the posterity of Esau were not included in the covenant. Similarly in Romans 9:7-8, we read, "Neither because they are a seed (i.e. one of the lines of descendants) of Abraham, are they all children, but (so ran the promise), In Isaac shall thy seed be called", i.e. the title of -seed" par excellenceto thee shall be in the line of Isaac.

but as of one One line of descent, the spiritual seed, who are gathered up into and blessed in their One Head and Representative.

which is Christ Which is Messiah. The seed to Whom the promise was made is the seed of the woman (Genesis 3:15), the second Adam, Who is at once the Saviour and the Head of the body. It is only as we are in Him, united to Him by living faith, that we are in the bond of the covenant, the true seed of Abraham, heirs according to the promise, partakers of the blessing justification, life, glory.