Galatians 4:10

Perhaps this verse should be read interrogatively, -Do ye observe &c.?" or the construction may be carried on from the preceding verse, -How is it that ye are turning, … that ye are observing &c.?"

Ye observe The whole meaning of the verse depends on the sense attached to this word. It is compounded of a verb which means to observeand a preposition which implies that either the purpose or the method of observation is bad. The simpleverb and corresponding noun are commonly used in N. T. in a goodsense, e.g. "He that hath my commandments and keepeththem, he it is that loveth me". John 14:21, -Circumcision is nothing, and uncircumcision is nothing; but the keepingof the commandments of God." 1 Corinthians 7:19. But the compoundis never so used. Mark 3:2; Luke 6:7; Luke 16:1; Luke 20:20; Acts 9:24. Comp. for the noun, Luke 17:20. St Paul is not condemning the observance of -days and months and times and years" but their mis-observance. Jewish Christians might continue to keep them as hallowed customs of divine origin, but not as grounds of justification. These were not to be sharers with Christ in the great work of salvation. Bondage to these rudiments forfeited the liberty of the Gospel. Gentile believers were never bound to such observances, and if they yielded to the Judaizing teachers and submitted to the yoke of the Jewish ceremonial, they were no longer partakers of the liberty of Christ.

Compare Colossians 2:16, where not the simple observance is condemned, but the slavery which is involved in its being required for salvation, and the dishonour which is done to Christ by adding to His perfect righteousness. See note on ch. Galatians 5:2.

days -sabbaths and fasts". There is clearly no exemption here from the obligation of the observance of -the seventh day". -The law of the Sabbath, i.e. of one weekly day of holy rest in God (the seventh in the Jewish, the first in the Christian Church) is as old as the Creation, it is founded on the moral and physical constitution of man, it was instituted in Paradise, incorporated in the Decalogue on Mount Sinai, put on a new foundation by the Resurrection of Christ, and is an absolute necessity for public worship and the welfare of man". Dr Schaff. What St Paul condemns is the observance of the day in a legal spirit, in compliance with the minute and childish prohibitions of the Rabbinic system and as a matter of merit with God.

months As marked by the -new moons". Comp. Isaiah 1:13; Numbers 28:11 &c., or possibly the -seventh month", Leviticus 23:24 foll.

times Better, seasons, the great annual festivals, which lasted several days, as the Passover, the Feast of Tabernacles, &c.

years Every seventh year was a sabbatical year and every fiftieth year a Jubilee. See Leviticus 25:2-17.