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Here in the phrase "the word should not be spoken to them any more" we have the
word prostithemi "added" as used in Gal. 3: 19. Dr. Weymouth renders the passage
"entreated that no more should be added". Moses Stuart says of Heb. 12: 19 "the exact
shade of the writer's meaning is the hearers of which (voice) refused that a word should
be added to them, viz. autois rhemasi, to those commands". Now the Scriptures referred
to in Heb. 12: 18, 19 are Exod. 20: 19; Deut. 5: 5, 25; and 18: 16. A consultation
of these passages shows that after the actual giving of the ten commandments, the people
pleaded that the rest of the law should be given through the mediation of Moses. Moses
reminded the people of this, when reviewing the past in Deut. 5::
"The LORD our God made a covenant with us in Horeb. The LORD made not this
covenant with our fathers, but with us, even us, who are all of us here alive this day. The
LORD talked with you face to face in the mount out of the midst of the fire (I stood
between the LORD and you at that time, to show you the word of the LORD; for ye were
afraid by reason of the fire, and went not up into the mount)" (Deut. 5: 2-5).
Enlarging upon this in chapter 18:,
Moses brings forward his own typical
mediation as prophetic of the work of Christ.
"The LORD thy God will raise up unto thee a Prophet from the midst of thee, of thy
brethren, like unto me; unto Him ye shall hearken; according to all that thou desiredst of
the LORD thy God in Horeb in the day of the assembly, saying, Let me not hear again the
voice of the LORD my God, neither let me see this great fire any more, that I die not.
And the LORD said unto me, They have well spoken that which they have spoken. I will
raise them up a Prophet from among their brethren, like unto thee, and will put my words
in His mouth . . . . ." (Deut. 18: 15-18).
The "added" words are explained:
"commandments, and the statutes, and the judgments, which thou shalt teach them, that
they may do them in the land which I give them to possess it . . . . . all the ways . . . . .
that ye may live . . . . . now these are the commandments, the statutes and the judgments
. . . . ." (Deut. 5: 31-33; 6: 1).
The rehearsal of these "added" laws occupies the bulk of Deut. 6: 1-23. We cannot
therefore limit the law that was "added" in Gal. 3: 19 to the ceremonial law alone,
although the words "because of transgressions" do focus our attention upon that part of
the added law, that had to do with sin and sacrifice, circumcision and ablution. Neither is
it possible to exclude Moses from the office of mediator, that Gwynne in his exposition
does, for Heb. 12: and Deut. 18: settle that matter. What is true however, is that
under the law, the mediation of Moses was not sufficient, the high priest also is a
mediator, a type of Christ as the Mediator of the new covenant (Heb. 8: 6; 9: 15).
Returning to Gal. 3: let us note that in verse fifteen the Apostle said of the Galatian
will "no man . . . . . added thereto". In verse nineteen he says the law was "added". If
we interpret this to mean that the law of Moses was added to the promise made to
Abraham, we shall compel the Apostle to contradict himself. If we, in the light of
Heb. 12:, teach that the "added" law was that part of the law of Moses which was given
to him as a mediator subsequent to the ten commandments, all is Scriptural and clear.