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teaching out of past events, while prophecy tells us events that are yet to come."
(Figure of Speech Used in the Bible.--Dr. E. W. Bullinger).
No.73. (31) GALATIANS.
Gal. 4: 21 - 5: 10 --- The call to Freedom.
"To the liberty stand fast" (5: 1).
pp. 51 - 54
In the last two articles we were considering the allegory of the two sons of Abraham
which occupies Gal. 4: 27 - 5: 1, but did not get so far as to include Gal. 5: 1 in our
study. This verse concludes the allegory by a call to stand fast to the freedom which
Christ has given, the concluding member of this section being Gal. 5: 2-10 which is
Paul's testimony to those placing themselves under law.
The call to stand fast cannot be passed over without careful examination, for it
crystallizes much of the desire of the Apostle and the standing of the believer. It is a call
to us as well as to them, and upon our response to this call our peace and experimental
growth in grace depends.
A considerable variety of readings are presented by the manuscripts, which, in the
language of Lightfoot `are the more perplexing, in that they seriously effect the
punctuation, and thereby the whole texture of the passage'. The reader who could follow
any indication of the way in which these various readings occur and are distributed,
would be already independent of any help we could give in these pages, and to those
unacquainted with the subject, mere citations of manuscripts Aleph, A, B, C, F, G, P,
etc., would prove of little value. The various readings found, may be summarized under
three headings:
(1)
The position of oun `therefore'.
(a) Before "stand" (b) After "liberty" (c) omitted altogether.
(2)
The position of hemas `us'.
(a) Before "Christ", (b) After "Christ", (c) After "made free".
(3)
A third and more complicated variation is the presence or absence of he `which' after
the word `liberty'.
With this analysis of the different readings of the Manuscripts, we place together for
comparison the A.V. and the R.V. of this verse and pass on to its exposition.
"Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not
entangled again with the yoke of bondage" (Gal. 5: 1 A.V.).
"With freedom did Christ set us free: stand fast therefore, and be not entangled again
in a yoke of bondage" (Gal. 5: 1 R.V.).