THE EPISTLE OF PAUL THE APOSTLE TO THE GALATIANS - Chapter 4 - Verse 30

Verse 30. Nevertheless. But, (alla.)

What saith the Scripture? What does the Scripture teach on the subject? What lesson does it convey in regard to the bondman?

Cast out the bond-woman and her son. This was the language of Sarah, in an address to Abraham, requesting him to cast out Hagar and Ishmael, Ge 21:10. That was done. Paul uses it here as applicable to the case before him. As used by him, the meaning is, that everything like servitude in the gospel is to be rejected, as Hagar and Ishmael were driven away. It does not mean, as it seems to me, that they were to expel the Jewish teachers in Galatia, but that they were to reject everything like servitude and bondage; they were to adhere only to that which was free. Paul cannot here mean that the passage in Ge 21:10 originally had reference to the gospel, for nothing evidently was farther from the mind of Sarah than any such reference; nor can it be shown that he meant to approve of or vindicate the conduct of Sarah; but he finds a passage applicable to his purpose, and he conveys his ideas in that language as exactly expressing his meaning. We all use language in that way wherever we find it.

{f} "what saith the Scripture" Ge 21:10,12