but is under guardians and stewards until the day appointed by the father.
Parallel Translations
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but is under guardians and stewards until the day appointed by the father.
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but is vnder tuters and governers vntill the tyme appoynted of the father.
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But is vnder tutours and gouernours, vntil the time appointed of the Father.
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Explain this verse (14 sources)
Historical commentary, presented as a primary source — not an endorsement.
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Martin Luther 1535 · Public Domain VERSE 2. But is under tutors and governors until…
VERSE 2. But is under tutors and governors until the time appointed of the father.
The Apostle had apparently finished his discourse on justification when this illustration of the youthful heir occurred to him. He throws it in for good measure. He knows that plain people are sooner impressed by an apt illustration than by learned discussion.
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"I want to give you another illustration from everyday life," he writes to the Galatians. "As long as an heir is under age he is treated very much like a servant. He is not permitted to order his own affairs. He is kept under constant surveillance. Such discipline is good for him, otherwise he would waste his inheritance in no time. This discipline, however, is not to last forever. It is to last only until ’the time appointed of the father.’"
Martin Luther — Commentary on the Epistle to the Galatians (1535), English translation by Theodore Graebner (Zondervan, 1939) — public domain (U.S. copyright not renewed). Text from a community e-Sword module.
Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain This is added, because he that is always under…
This is added, because he that is always under a tutor or governor, may hardly be counted a freeman.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain 2 But is under tutors and governors until the…
2 But is under tutors and governors until the time appointed of the father.
Ver. 2. But is under tutors] Those under the law were but alphabetaries (rudimentaries) in comparison of those under the gospel. {a} The sea about the altar was brazen, 1Ki 7:23, and what eyes could pierce through it? Now our sea about the throne is glassy, Rev 4:6, like to crystal, clearly conveying the light and sight of God to our eyes.
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{a} ο μηδε τον Αισωπον πεπατηκως. Aristophanes.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain The heir, (mentioned in the former verse), though he…
The heir, (mentioned in the former verse), though he be an heir of a great estate, yet is not presently possessed of it; but he is by his father kept under tutors and governors, until the time which he hath appointed when he will be pleased to release him from his pupillage, and settle some part of his inheritance upon him.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain But is under tutors and governors,.... The word rendered…
But is under tutors and governors,.... The word rendered "tutors", is adopted by the Jewish Targumists and Rabbins into their language; and by the former is used (x) for any ruler and governor, civil or domestic; and by the latter, for such as are guardians of infants, fatherless children, and such as are under age, as it is here used; and who were either appointed by the will of the deceased, or by the sanhedrim, of whom they say (y), , "we do not appoint a tutor or guardian for a bearded person"; that is, an adult person, one that is grown up to man's estate; but , "we appoint a guardian for an infant"; and they had not used to appoint women or servants, or such as were minors themselves, or any of the common people; but men of substance, integrity, and wisdom (z); a fatherless child had two tutors (a); the power that guardians so appointed had, is at large described by Maimonides (b). Governors were such as acted under the tutors or guardians, and were employed by them for the improvement of their estates and minds, as stewards, schoolmasters, &c. until the time appointed of the father; by his last will and testament, which might be sooner or later, as he pleased; but if he died intestate, the time of minority, and so the duration of tutors and guardians, were according to the laws of the nation; which with the Romans was until a man was twenty five years of age; and with the Jews, for a male, was until he was thirteen years of age and one day; and for a female, until she was twelve years of age and one day, if the signs of ripeness of age appeared; but if they did not, the time was protracted until they were twenty, and even sometimes till they were thirty five years of age, before the matter was determined (c).
(x) Targum Jon. ben Uzziel in Gen. xxxix. 4. & xli 34, 35. & xliii 15. Targum in Esther i. 8. & 2. 3. (y) T. Bab. Bava Metzia, fol. 39. 1, 2. (z) Maimon. Hilch. Necabot, c. 10. sect. 6. (a) Bartenora in Misn. Pesachim, c. 8. sect. 1. (b) Hilch. Nechalot, c. 11. (c) Ib. Hilch. Ishot, c. 2. sect. 1, 2.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain But is under tutors - As to his person.…
But is under tutors - As to his person. And stewards - As to his substance.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain Verse 2. But is under tutors] επιτροπους. Guardians and…
Verse 2. But is under tutors] επιτροπους. Guardians and governors; οικονομους. those who have the charge of the family. These words are nearly similar; but we may consider the first as executor, the last as the person who superintends the concerns of the family and estate till the heir become of age; such as we call trustee.
Until the time appointed of the father.] The time mentioned in the father's will or testament.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain But is under - Is subject to their control…
But is under - Is subject to their control and direction.
Tutors - The word tutor with us properly means instructor. But this is not quite the sense of the original. The word (επίτροπος epitropos); properly means a steward, manager, agent; Mat 20:8; Luk 8:3. As used here, it refers to one - usually a slave or a freedman - to whose care the boys of a family were committed, who trained them up, accompanied them to school, or sometimes instructed them at home; compare the note at Gal 3:24. Such a one would have the control of them.
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And governors - This word (οἰκόνομος oikonomos) means a house-manager, an overseer, a steward. It properly refers to one who had authority over the slaves or servants of a family, to assign them their tasks and portions. They generally, also, had the management of the affairs of the household, and of the accounts. They were commonly slaves, who were entrusted with this office as a reward for fidelity; though sometimes free persons were employed; Luk 16:1, Luk 16:3,Luk 16:8. These persons had also charge of the sons of a family, probably in respect to their pecuniary matters, and thus differed from those called tutors. It is not necessary, however, to mark the difference in the words with great accuracy. The general meaning of the apostle is, that the heir was under government and restraint.Until the time appointed of the father - The time fixed for his entering on the inheritance. The time when he chose to give him his portion of the property. The law with us fixes the age at twenty-one when a son shall be at liberty to manage for himself. Other countries have affixed other times. But still, the time when the son shall inherit the father’s property must be fixed by the father himself if he is living, or may be fixed by his will if he is deceased. The son cannot claim the property when he comes of age.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain tutors and governors--rather, "guardians (of the person) and stewards…
tutors and governors--rather, "guardians (of the person) and stewards (of the property)." Answering to "the law was our schoolmaster" or "tutor" (Gal 3:24).
until the time appointed of the father--in His eternal purposes (Eph 1:9-11). The Greek is a legal term, expressing a time defined by law, or testamentary disposition.
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain 2. But—The items of his servile external conditions.
2. But—The items of his servile external conditions.
Under tutors—The guardians of his person.
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And governors—The trustees of his property. He is thus a prisoner in his own domains, a servant in his own lordship.
Time appointed—His close of twenty-five years’ minority—the time appointed by law.
Of the father—This does not mean that the father appoints the time; but it is the time by which the father is limited, and grants him the rights of majority.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain 2. tutors and governors] guardians and stewards, the one…
2. tutors and governors] guardians and stewards, the one having the charge of his person, the other the management of his estate.
the time appointed of the father] the time fixed before by his father for the coming of age. It is not necessary, as has been stated already, to refer this to any special law or custom. It is clearly what might have often happened; and it is mentioned because of its typical import. The ‘fulness of the time’ is the antitype to ‘the time appointed’, and ‘the father’ of the minor has his counterpart in Him to whom we cry, ‘Abba, Father’.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain (2) Under tutors and governors.—The distinction between these two…
(2) Under tutors and governors.—The distinction between these two terms is that between guardians of the person and stewards of the property. It would be better to translate, guardians and stewards.
Until the time appointed of the father.—From this it would appear that the length of the minority was determined by the father. This, however, was not the case either in Greek or Roman law; and the suggestion that the father may have had larger powers in Galatia than elsewhere, though supported by some remote indications, seems to be one of those subtleties in which learning sometimes overreaches itself; it being unlikely that the short sojourn of the Apostle in Galatia would have been enough to make him acquainted with the technicalities of the Galatian code. It is more probable that the application of the analogy has here come in to modify the statement of the analogy itself. The minority of the human race is fixed by the heavenly Father, though the earthly father, in disposing of his children, has to conform to another law than his own will.
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain But is under tutors and governors (ajlla uJpopouv ejsti…
But is under tutors and governors (ajlla uJpopouv ejsti kaimouv) but is under guardians and stewards. jEpitropov is, in Greek, the proper designation of a minor"s guardian; as, for example, is shown by Demosthenes"s speeches against Aphobus, who had been his ejpitropov. These speeches also show that the ejpitropov was entrusted with the handling of the property of his ward. Yet, as oijkonomov more especially denotes one entrusted with the management of property, it should seem that St. Paul uses the former term with more especial reference to the guardian"s control over the person of his ward. The ward has to do what the ejpitropov, guardian, thinks proper, with no power of ordering his actions according to his own will; while, on the other hand, the youth is not able to appropriate or apply any of his property further than as the "steward" thinks right; between the two he is bound hand and foot to other people"s control. The plural number of the two nouns indicates the rough and general way in which the apostle means to sketch the case; speaking in a general way, one may describe a minor as subject to "guardians and stewards." Until the time appointed of the father (acri thv proqesmiav tou patrov). The noun proqesmia, properly an adjective, wra or hJmera being understood, m used very commonly to denote, either a determined period during which a thing is to be done or forborne, which is its most ordinary sense (see Reiske"s "Lexicon to Demosthenes"); or the further limit of such a period, whence Symmachus uses it to render the Hebrew word for "end" in Job_28:3; or, lastly, aspecified time at which a certain thing was to take place, as, for example, Josephus, "Ant.," 7:4, 7, "When the (proqesmia) day appointed for the payment came." This last seems to be the meaning of the word here, though it admits of being taken in the second sense, as describing the limit of the child"s period of nonage. The somewhat loosely constructed genitive, tou patrov, "of the father," may be compared either with the didaktoi tou Qeou, "taught of God", (Joh_6:45) or, in a somewhat different application, "the chastening and admonition of the Lord". (Eph_6:4) In reference to the whole case as stated by the apostle, it has been asked Is the father to be conceived of as dead, or as only gone out of the country, or how? It is sufficient to reply that "the point of the comparison to use Bishop Lightfoot"s words not in the circum stances of the father, but of the son;" and, further, that to supplement the description which the apostle gives by additional particulars not relevant for the purpose of the comparison would only tend to cloud our view of its actual import. In fact, any image taken from earthly things to illustrate things spiritual will inevitably, if completely filled out, be found to be in some respects halting. Another inquiry has engaged the attention of commentators, as to how far the particular circumstance, that the period of nonage is made dependent upon the father"s appoint meat, can be shown to agree with actual usage as it then obtained. It would seem that no positive proof has hitherto been alleged that such a hypothesis was in strict conformity with either Greek or Roman or Hebrew law. And hence some have had recourse to the precarious and far-fetched supposition that St. Paul founds his thesis on Galatian usage, arguing that such would have been in accordance with that purely arbitrary control which, according to Caesar ("Bell. Gall.," 6:19), a paterfamilias exercised over wife and children among the kindred tribes in Gaul. The scruple, how ever, now referred to arises from supposing that we know more about the facts than we really do know. So far as has been shown, we cannot tell what was really the precise rule of procedure which, in the case described by the apostle, prevailed either in Judaea, or in Tarsus, or in Galatia; nor again from what region of actual experience St. Paul drew his illustration. We, therefore, have no possible right to say that the case which he supposes was not fairly supposable. On the contrary, when we reflect how open the apostle"s mind was for taking note of facts about him, and how wide and varied his survey, we may safely rest assured that his supposed case was in reality framed in perfect accordance to the civil usage, to which the Galatians would understand him to refer. At the same time, it must be conceded that, amongst different modes of arranging a minor"s case which actual usage permitted or may be imagined to have permitted, the apostle selected just that particular mode which would best suit his present immediate purpose.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
J. W. McGarvey 1914 · Public Domain but is under guardians and stewards until the day…
but is under guardians and stewards until the day appointed of the father.
J. W. McGarvey (with Philip Y. Pendleton), Commentaries on the New Testament (The Fourfold Gospel, 1914; Acts; and the epistles) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.