Galatians 3:17-19
New American Bible (Revised Edition)
17 This is what I mean: the law, which came four hundred and thirty years afterward,[a] does not annul a covenant previously ratified by God, so as to cancel the promise.(A) 18 For if the inheritance comes from the law,(B) it is no longer from a promise; but God bestowed it on Abraham through a promise.[b]
19 [c]Why, then, the law? It was added for transgressions, until the descendant[d] came to whom the promise had been made; it was promulgated by angels at the hand of a mediator.(C)
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- 3:17 Four hundred and thirty years afterward: follows Ex 12:40 in the Greek (Septuagint) version, in contrast to Gn 15:13 and Acts 7:6, for chronology.
- 3:18 This refutes the opponents’ contention that the promises of God are fulfilled only as a reward for human observance of the law.
- 3:19–22 A digression: if the Mosaic law, then, does not save or bring life, why was it given? Elsewhere, Paul says the law served to show what sin is (Rom 3:20; 7:7–8). Here the further implication is that the law in effect served to produce transgressions. Moreover, it was received at second hand by angels, through a mediator, not directly from God (Gal 3:19). The law does not, however, oppose God’s purposes, for it carries out its function (Gal 3:22), so that righteousness comes by faith and promise, not by human works of the law.
- 3:19 The descendant: Christ (Gal 3:16). By angels: Dt 33:2–4 stressed their presence as enhancing the importance of the law; Paul uses their role to diminish its significance (cf. Acts 7:38, 53). A mediator: Moses. But in a covenant of promise, where all depends on the one God, no mediator is needed (Gal 3:20).
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