Galatians 3:16

Gal. 3:16. "Now to Abraham and his seed was the promise made. He saith not, And to seeds, as of many, but as of one, And to thy seed, which is Christ." This Mr. Locke paraphrases thus: "God doth not say, 'And to seeds,' as if he spake of more seeds than one that were entitled to the promise on different accounts, but only of one sort of men, who upon one sole account, were that seed of Abraham which was alone meant and concerned in the promise, so that unto thy seed, designed Christ, and his mystical body, i.e. those that became members of him by faith." And Mr. Locke adds in his notes, "By seeds, Paul here visibly means the ?? e? p?ste??, those of faith; and the ?? e? e????, those of the works of the law, spoken of above, Galatians 3:9; Galatians 3:10, as two distinct seeds or descendants claiming from Abraham. Paul's argument to convince the Galatians that they ought not to be circumcised, or submit to the law from their having received the Spirit from him, upon their having received the gospel which he preached to them, verses 2 and 5, stands thus, The blessing promised to Abraham and to his seed, was wholly upon the account of faith, Galatians 3:7. There were not different seeds who should inherit the promise, the one by the works of the law, and the other by faith: for there was but one seed, which was Christ, verse 16, and those who should claim in and under him by faith. Among those there was no distinction of Jew and Gentile. They, and they only who believed, were all one and the same true seed of Abraham, and heirs according to the promise, Galatians 3:28; Galatians 3:29, and therefore the promise made to the people of God of giving them the Spirit under the gospel, was performed only to those who believed in Christ: a clear evidence that it was not by putting themselves under the law, but by faith in Jesus Christ, that they were the people of God, and heirs to the promise."

Galatians 3:16. "Now to Abraham and his seed were the promises made. He saith not, And to seeds, as of many; but as of one, And to thy seed, which is Christ." The passage in Genesis here referred to, is doubtless that Genesis 22:17; Genesis 22:18, "That in blessing I will bless thee, and in multiplying I will multiply thy seed as the stars of the heaven, and as the sand which is upon the sea shore; and thy seed shall possess the gate of his enemies: and in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed; because thou hast obeyed my voice." For the promise made to Abraham that the Apostle is here speaking of, is, that all the families of the earth should be blessed, and this is expressly predicted of his seed, in anything that God says to Abraham, nowhere else but there; and the seed that is there spoken of, is spoken of in such a manner that it is most naturally understood not as a noun of multitude, or as containing a plurality, but only an individual, because the singular word possess, and the singular pronoun his, are used, "Thy seed shall possess the gate of his enemies," where the same seed is doubtless to be understood, as in the words immediately following, "And in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed." It is not usual in Scripture that a singular pronoun is thus annexed to the word "seed," when it is a noun of multitude. Christ, the seed of Abraham, in whom all the families of the earth should be blessed, is spoken of elsewhere in the Old Testament as a single pronoun, as in Psalms 72:17, "His name shall endure for ever: His name shall be continued as long as the sun; and men shall be blessed in Him: all nations shall call Him blessed;" and the words seed, as used in the Old Testament, is sometimes understood of a particular person. Thus Eve says, on the occasion of the birth of Seth, Genesis 4:25, "And Adam knew his wife again, and she bare a son, and called his name Seth: for God, said she, hath appointed me another seed instead of Abel, whom Cain slew." So Hannah says, 1 Samuel 1:11, "And she vowed a vow, and said, O Lord of hosts, if thou wilt indeed look on the affliction of thine handmaid, and remember me, and not forget thine handmaid, but wilt give unto thine handmaid a man child, then I will give him unto the Lord all the days of his life, and there shall no razor come upon his head." "If thou wilt give thine handmaid seed of men," as it is in the original, meaning a man child.

Gal. 3:17-18