Galatians 4:25

τὸ γὰρ. The variety of readings in the MSS., το Αγαρ, το γαρ Αγαρ, το δε Αγαρ, το γαρ, indicates some primitive error of transcription. It is hardly possible to extract any reasonable sense from the three first: for τὸ Ἅγαρ cannot mean Hagar herself: it denotes the name Hagar, and Stanley's attempt to connect this name with Sinai proved futile. How then can the statement be understood that the name Hagar is Sinai, or that it answers to Jerusalem? How again can the superfluous description of Sinai as a mountain in Arabia be explained? Moreover, the reading τὸ Ἅγαρ without any connecting particle is intolerable in Greek language, and δέ or γάρ was probably added to correct the solecism. Hence I conclude that Ἅγαρ was probably an error in transcription for the original γάρ, suggested by its occurrence immediately before.

The statement in the text on the contrary, For Sinai is a mountain in Arabia, is full of meaning when it is remembered that Hagar had no connection with Sinai itself, but that she found a home for herself and her children in Arabia. συστοιχεῖ. The previous clause τὸ γὰρ … Ἀραβίᾳ is a parenthesis, ἥτις is therefore the subject of συστοιχεῖ. The Apostle finds in the actual state of Jerusalem and her children the same characteristic feature of slavery as in the covenant of Sinai.