Galatians 3:16

Galatians 3:16 introduces the new idea that the covenant of promise was not made with Abraham only, but with his whole seed which centres in Christ, and was therefore still waiting its fulfilment at the time when the law was given; so that it could not be abolished by the law. The emphasis lies on the words: ‘and to his seed,' which look beyond the law of Moses and to Christ's coming.

And to thy seed, Genesis 13:15; Genesis 17:8: ‘And I will give unto thee, and thy seed after thee, the land wherein thou art a stranger, all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession; and I will be their God.' The promised inheritance refers evidently in its next and literal sense to the land of Canaan, but in its deeper spiritual sense to the kingdom of Christ. The seed of Abraham comprehends, therefore, not only the Israelites under Moses and Joshua, but above all Christ and his people as the true spiritual Israel who enter into that heavenly rest, of which the rest of the earthly Canaan was only an imperfect type (comp. Hebrews 4:8).

He saith not, ‘And to seeds' as of many, but as of one, ‘And to thy seed.' There arises a difficulty here from the stress which Paul lays on the singular of the word ‘seed' inasmuch as this is a collective noun in Hebrew (sera) as well as in the Greek (sperma), and modern languages, and includes the whole posterity. It is singular in form, but plural in meaning. The plural (seraim, spermata) occurs in the sense of ‘grains of wheat' or ‘grains of seed' (or crop, produce of the field, 1 Samuel 8:15), but never in the sense of ‘offspring' or ‘posterity.' Hence it has been said that Paul, after the ‘manner of man' (Galatians 3:15), accommodates himself merely to the prevailing rabbinical method of interpretation, or (as St. Jerome thought) to the capacity of the ‘foolish Galatians.' Luther remarks: ‘My dear brother Paul, this argument won't stick.' But Paul under stood Hebrew and Greek as well as his ancient and modern interpreters, and he himself uses the word sperma, ‘ offspring,' in the sense of plurality (Romans 4:18; Romans 9:7), and the plural spermata in the sense of ‘various kinds of grain' (1 Corinthians 15:38). He reads as it were between the lines of the text. It is not a question of grammar, but of spiritual meaning. The grammatical form (sperma and spermata) serves merely as a vehicle of his idea for the Greek reader. The main point is that the collective word seed is used instead of children or descendants, and that this word seed denotes an organic unity of true spiritual Abrahamites, and not all the carnal descendants of Abraham, as the Jews imagined (comp. Galatians 3:28-29; Romans 4:16; Romans 4:18; Romans 9:8). The promise refers to Christ par excellence, and to all those and only those who are truly members of His body and united to Him by a living faith. If all the single descendants of Abraham as such were meant, the children of Hagar and Ketura, and subsequently Esau with his posterity would have to be included also; and yet they are plainly excluded. We must, therefore, look to the believing posterity, which is comprehended in Christ as the living head, the same Christ, in whom as the true seed of Abraham, God had promised to bless all the nations of the earth (Genesis 22:18; Genesis 26:4; Genesis 18:14.)

Which is Christ, i.e., Christ, not as a single individual, but as the head of the church, which is ‘His body, the fulness of Him who filleth all in all' (Ephesians 1:23). In Him the whole spiritual race of Abraham is summed up, and in Him it fulfilled its mission to the whole world. He is the representative and embodiment of all true Israelites, and without Him the Jewish people has no meaning. The seed includes, therefore, all true believers who are vitally united to Christ. The key to the passage is in Galatians 3:28-29: ‘Ye are all one in Christ Jesus. And if ye be Christ's, then are ye Abraham's seed, heirs according to the promise.' Comp. 1 Corinthians 12:12: ‘As the body is one and hath many members, and all the members of that one body, being many, are one body: so also is Christ.'