Galatians Journal: Chapter 4, Verse 24

Galatians 4:24 These things may be taken figuratively, for the women represent two covenants. One covenant is from Mount Sinai and bears children who are to be slaves: This is Hagar.

“taken figuratively” Hagar and Sarah were real, historical people. But Paul is going to use these two woman, who were such a significant part of Abraham’s life (and therefore of Jewish cultural history), as a living allegory of the two covenants. Also, by using the word “covenant” here, Paul is revisiting the legal metaphors he started using back in Galatians 3:15. The issue of viewing these events from Abraham’s life as “figurative” would not be a new concept to the Jews of Paul’s time. Many of the great teaching rabbis of that era interpreted the life of Hagar as a kind of “imperfect training” – almost like the first draft of a term paper, or spring training for a baseball team. Sarah, however, was seen as the embodiment of perfect virtue. Paul chooses instead to emphasize the connection with slavery. The parallel becomes clear – Hagar was a slave herself, and with Abraham, she produced a child in the expected way, according to human biology, planning and effort. There is a direct parallel between the slave and the results produced, with those who seek to please God and fulfill the law’s righteousness by similar means – according to the flesh. In the case of both Hagar and the Judiazers, the ultimate result is the same. It cannot be done. We are slaves, and remain slaves. Hagar was from Egypt, where the Israelites had been in slavery. Mt. Sinai was just outside of Egypt’s borders. There is a thin line between freedom and slavery in God’s Kingdom.