Sons and Heirs

1But I say that, so long as the heir is a child, he differs in nothing from a slave, though he is lord of all; 2but is under guardians and stewards, until the time appointed by the father. 3So we also, when we were children, were held in bondage under the elements of the world. 4But, when the fulness of the time came, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under law, 5that He might redeem those under law, that, we might receive the adoption of sons. 6And, because ye are sons, God sent forth the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying, "Abba," Father. 7So that you are no longer a slave, but a son; and, if a son, also an heir through God.

Paul’s Concern for the Galatians

8But then, indeed, when ye knew not God, ye served those which by nature are no gods; 9but, after having known God, or rather having been known by God, how are ye turning back again to the weak and beggarly elements, to which ye desire to be in bondage again? 10Ye are scrupulously observing days, and months, and seasons, and years! 11I am afraid of you, lest by any means I have toiled for you in vain.

12Brethren, I beseech you, become as I am; because I also was as ye are. Ye wronged me in nothing; 13but ye know that through weakness of the flesh I proclaimed the Gospel to you formerly; 14and my trial in my flesh ye despised not, nor spurned; but ye received me as an angel of God, as Christ Jesus. 15Where, then, is your benedictions for me? For I bear you witness that, if possible, plucking out your eyes, ye would have given them to me! 16So, then, have I become your enemy, because I tell you the truth? 17They are zealously seeking you, not nobly; they are wishing to shut you out, that ye may zealously seek them. 18But it is good to be zealously sought in a good thing at all times, and not only when I am present with you, 19my little children, for whom I am in travail again, until Christ be formed in you! 20And I was wishing to be present with you now, and to change my voice; because I am perplexed about you.

Hagar and Sarah

21Tell me, ye who are wishing to be under law, do ye not hear the law? 22For it has been written that Abraham had two sons, one by the bond-woman, and one by the free-woman. 23But the one by the bond-woman has been born after the flesh; and the one by the free-woman, through promise. 24Which things are an allegory; for these women are two covenants; one, indeed, from mount Sinai, bringing forth into servitude, which is Hagar 25(for the word Hagar is mount Sinai in Arabia), and corresponds to the present Jerusalem; for she is in bondage with her children. 26But the Jerusalem which is above is free, which, indeed, is our mother;

27for it has been written, "Rejoice, O barren, that bear not! Break forth and cry, you that travail not! because many are the children of the desolate, rather than of her who has the husband."

28But ye, brethren, after the manner of Isaac, are children of promise. 29But, just as then, the one born after the flesh kept persecuting him born after the Spirit, so also is it now.

30But what says the Scripture? "Cast out the bond-woman and her son; for the son of the bond-woman shall in nowise inherit with the son of the free-woman."

31Wherefore, brethren, we are not children of a bond-woman, but of the free-woman.