Galatians 4:22

For it is written, that Abraham had two sons, the one by a bondmaid, the other by a freewoman.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(22) For.—This particle would naturally not be expressed in English. It was a reason for the question which had been asked just before: “For the Law does supply a case in point.”

The one by a bondmaid.—Hagar, it seems from Genesis 16:1, was an Egyptian. The word for “bondmaid” was not confined to this sense in earlier Greek, but was used for any young girl.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

4:21-27 The difference between believers who rested in Christ only, and those who trusted in the law, is explained by the histories of Isaac and Ishmael. These things are an allegory, wherein, beside the literal and historical sense of the words, the Spirit of God points out something further. Hagar and Sarah were apt emblems of the two different dispensations of the covenant. The heavenly Jerusalem, the true church from above, represented by Sarah, is in a state of freedom, and is the mother of all believers, who are born of the Holy Spirit. They were by regeneration and true faith, made a part of the true seed of Abraham, according to the promise made to him.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

For it is written - Genesis 16; 21.

Abraham had two sons - Ishmael and Isaac. Abraham subsequently had several sons by Keturah after the death of Sarah; Genesis 26:1-6. But the two sons by Hagar and Sarah were the most prominent, and the events of their lives furnished the particular illustration which Paul desired.

The one by a bond-maid - Ishmael, the son of Hagar. Hagar was an Egyptian slave, whom Sarah gave to Abraham in order that he might not be wholly without posterity; Genesis 16:3.

The other by a free woman - Isaac, the son of Sarah; Genesis 21:1-2.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

22. (Ge 16:3-16; 21:2).

Abraham—whose sons ye wish to be (compare Ro 9:7-9).

a bond maid … a free woman—rather, as Greek, "the bond maid … the free woman."

Matthew Poole's Commentary

The substance of this is written, Genesis 16:1-16, where we read of Abraham’s having Ishmael by Hagar his bondwoman; and Genesis 21:2, where we read of the birth of Isaac, whom he had by Sarah, who was his wife.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

For it is written,.... In Genesis 16:15

that Abraham had two sons, not two sons only; for besides the two referred to, he had six more, Genesis 25:2 but it being only pertinent to the apostle's purpose to take notice of these two, he mentions no more, though he does not deny that he had any more. These two sons were Ishmael and Isaac:

the one by a bondmaid. Ishmael was by Hagar, Sarah's servant, who represented the covenant the Jewish nation was under the bondage of.

The other by a free woman. Isaac was by Sarah, Abraham's proper and lawful wife, who was mistress of the family, and represented in figure the covenant, and Gospel church state, and all believers, Gentiles as well as Jews, as under the liberty thereof.

Geneva Study Bible

For it is written, that Abraham had two sons, the one by a bondmaid, the other by a freewoman.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Meyer's NT Commentary

Galatians 4:22. Γάρ] now gives the explanation of and warrant for that question, by citing the history, narrated in the law, of Ishmael and Isaac, the two sons of the ancestor of the theocratic people. See Genesis 16:15 f., Genesis 21:2 f.

ἐκ τῆς παιδίσκης] by the (well-known) bondswoman, Hagar. See Genesis 16:3. As to the word itself (which might also denote a free maiden), see Wetstein, I. p. 526 f.; Lobeck, ad Phryn. p. 259 f.

ἐκ τῆς ἐλευθ.] Sarah.

Expositor's Greek Testament

Galatians 4:22. γέγραπται ὅτι. The statement which follows is not a quotation, but a summary of recorded facts.

Hagar and Sarah are entitled the handmaid and the freewoman because they are accepted types of each class in Scripture. In the LXX παιδίσκη denotes any young woman (e.g., Ruth) as it does in Attic Greek, but in the N.T. παιδίσκη, a handmaid, corresponds to παῖς, a male servant.

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

22. it is written] This is not a quotation of any particular passage. ‘It is recorded in Scripture’.

a bondmaid] Lit. ‘the bondmaid’, Hagar; so ‘the free woman’, Sarah. Hagar was an Egyptian slave in the house of Abraham. God having promised to Abraham that in his seed all nations should be blessed, Sarah, becoming impatient because the fulfilment of the promise was delayed, gave Hagar as a concubine to her husband. This resulted in the birth of Ishmael (Genesis 16:1-3; Genesis 16:15.) Thirteen years later the Lord promised that Abraham should have a son by Sarah when she was past the age of child-bearing. This was fulfilled in the birth of Isaac.

The marked features of contrast in this narrative, which have their counterparts in the antitype are:

The bond maid and her son.

  The free woman and her son.

Birth in the ordinary course of nature (‘after the flesh’).

  Birth out of the course of nature, ‘through the promise’.

Ishmael, born a slave.

  Isaac, born free.

Hagar and her son driven forth into the desert.

  Sarah and her son abiding in the home.

To these correspond

  

The Old Covenant (or dispensation) given on Mt Sinai.

  The New Covenant, the Gospel.

The earthly Jerusalem.

  The Heavenly Jerusalem.

Natural birth into bondage.

  Spiritual birth to freedom.

Persecuting.

  Persecuted.

Expulsion.

  Inheritance.

Bengel's Gnomen

Galatians 4:22. Γέγραπται, it is written) Genesis 21—Ἀβραὰμ, Abraham) whose sons you wish to be.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 22 - For it is written (γέγραπται γάρ); for the Scripture saith. The phrase does not here, as it does usually, introduce the citation of a text, but prefaces a brief summary of facts; these facts being recited in words gathered out of the Septuagint Version of Genesis 16. and 21, in much the same way as the story of Melchisedec is sketched in Hebrews 7:1-4. That Abraham had two sons (ὅτι Ἀβραὰμ δύο υἱοὺς ἔσχεν); that Abraham had gotten two sons; for ἔσχεν is not exactly equivalent to εϊχεν. Attention has been drawn to other sons born of Keturah (Genesis 25:1, 2), who both in ancient and in modern days (see Windisch-mann) have been very plausibly interpreted as analogously pointing forward allegorically to those heretical bodies, now vanished, which threatened such danger to the Church in the first centuries. But the apostle's concern here is exclusively with the posture of affairs subsisting at the time of Hagar's and Ishmael's expulsion from the patriarch's family, quoted in ver. 30 from Genesis 21. Even if he had seen fit by allegorical exposition to apply Scripture to those dire forms of utterly perverted Christianity, which he certainly did look forward to as about to arise, it is very questionable whether he would have conceded to them so venerable a parentage as having Abraham for their forefather. Mosaism in its place was a thing of Divine origin, even as Christianity itself was, both of them "covenants" of God; not so the monstrous forms of Gnostic and Manichean teaching which horrified the primitive Church. In fact, typology, that is to say, the interpretation of Old Testament Scripture as bearing a designed allegorical sense, requires very cautious handling. The tracing of analogies is an interesting and pleasing exercise of theological ingenuity; but it is one thing to trace a parallelism, and a quite different thing to detect a latent predictive sense intended by the Holy Spirit. The one by a bondmaid (e%na e)k th = paidi/skh); one by the handmaid; the expression pointing to the individual mother known from the sacred history. The word παιδίσκη in classical Greek means a girl either slave or free. In the Septuagint it is generally a slave (not, however, in Ruth 4:12, where it renders the Hebrew na'arah); in the New Testament it is always a maidservant. St. Paul borrows the word from the Septuagint of Genesis 15. and 21, where it renders the Hebrew shiphehah. Hagar was the personal property of Sarah. The other by a freewoman (καὶ ἕνα ἐκ τῆς ἐλευθέρας); and one by the freewoman. The word "freewoman" is never applied to Sarah in the story in Genesis; not even in the passage freely quoted in ver. 30; but it was an obviously true description, and with perfect fairness introduced in antithesis to Hagar. As applied to one holding so princessly a position in the story as Sarah, the idea of a freewoman stands coloured with a deep tincture of dignity. Galatians 4:22

Vincent's Word Studies

For (γάρ)

Your determination to be under the law is opposed by Scripture, if you will understand it, for it is written, etc.

A bondmaid (τῆς παιδίσκης)

The bondmaid, indicating a well known character, Hagar, Genesis 16:3. The word in Class. means also a free maiden; but in N.T. always a slave. So almost always in lxx; but see Ruth 4:12; Judith 12:13.