Galatians 4:21

The Allegory of the two Covenants, pointing to liberty only in Christ

21. The final argument is an appeal to Scripture, to that very lawto which the Galatians were desiring to subject themselves. If they would but listen to the teaching of the law they would hear it declaring its own inferiority to the Gospel, the bondage of its children as compared with the liberty of those who are the children of God through faith in Jesus Christ and heirs of the promise. Calvin says that St Paul in these verses employs a very beautiful illustration of the doctrine on which he has been insisting, but that viewed merely as an argumentit has no great force. But he seems to forget that the cogency of an argument is relative to the habits of thought of the persons addressed. Some of those employed by our Lord seem to us inconclusive, because we find it difficult to put ourselves in the place of the Jews who heard Him. To themHis words carried conviction or at least provoked no answer, e.g. Luke 11:47-48; Matthew 22:31-33; Matthew 22:41-46.

under the law perhaps -under (i.e. subject to) law", legal observances, used in a wider and less definite sense than - thelaw" which here refers to the Pentateuch. St Paul adopts the well-known Jewish division of the O.T. Scriptures, the Law (or Pentateuch), the Prophets, the Hagiographa (or rest of the sacred writings).

do ye not hear Either -do ye not listen to its teaching?" or -is it not read in your hearing?" Acts 15:21. Some copies have -do ye not read the law", i.e. aloud in the Synagogues? Comp. Luke 4:16-17. The first is probably the meaning.