Galatians 4:25

25. For To give proof of this correspondence.

This Agar The this is the Greek article in the neuter gender, and can agree with Hagar only as a thing; that is, as an element or factor in this allegory.

Is Represents. The neuter verb often implies representation; as “the candlesticks are the seven Churches,” “the stars are the angels of the Churches.” And in Christ’s words, this bread is my body.

Answereth Co-ordinates with, or stands in parallel row with.

Jerusalem St. Paul here uses the old Hebrew word for Jerusalem, not the modern Greek form, indicating thereby that he speaks not so much of the present concrete Jerusalem of walls and houses as of the conceptual Jerusalem, symbolized by this material Jerusalem, namely, fallen Judaism, the obsolete theocracy.

Now is Not the Jerusalem of the holy old past, nor of the future; but the faded Jerusalem of the present, deserted by God, effete and enslaved, and bound to a speedy destruction.

In bondage Bound in the fetters of the law, after the grace and glory in the law have departed.

Her children The Judaistic apostles and their Galatian converts. Of the clause this Agar is mount Sinai in Arabia, we have given what we conceive to be the true interpretation.

But, 1. By another reading, adopted by Lightfoot, the first words of the verse are, For the mountain Sinai is in Arabia. The phrase in Arabia, is then made to signify that the connexion between Hagar and Sinai is, that both are Arabian. To the Sinaitic peninsula, apparently, Hagar fled, Genesis 16:7-14. The Arabians are called sons of Hagar, ( Bar 3:23 ;) Hagar’s name is illustrious in Arabian legends; and Arab tribes are called Hagarenes, Psalms 83:7, and Hagarites, 1 Chronicles 5:19. Hence Hagar represents Sinai, as both being Arabian. All this is far-fetched and feeble. 2. Chrysostom is quoted as saying that Hagar means rock, and thus Sinai is named Hagar rock in the Arabic language. Hence it is said, that in Arabia, means in the language of Arabia; and so St. Paul identifies Hagar and Sinai here by oneness of name. But, first, there is no sufficient proof that Sinai was called Hagar in Arabic, and the word Hagar does not etymologically signify rock, but one who flees, being cognate with hegira, the term for the flight of Mohammed. The word for rock is not Hagar, but Chagar. See Lightfoot’s learned dissertation.