SEV Biblia, Chapter 4:21
¶ Decidme, los que queréis estar bajo la ley, ¿no habéis oído la ley?
Clarke's Bible Commentary - Galatians 4:21
Verse 21. Ye that desire to be under the law] Ye who desire to incorporate the Mosaic institutions with Christianity, and thus bring yourselves into bondage to circumcision, and a great variety of oppressive rites. Do ye not hear the law?] Do ye not understand what is written in the Pentateuch relative to Abraham and his children. It is evident that the word law is used in two senses in this verse. It first means the Mosaic institutions; secondly, the Pentateuch, where the history is recorded to which the apostle refers.
John Gill's Bible Commentary
Ver. 21. Tell me, ye that desire to be under the law , etc..] Not merely to obey it, as holy, just, and good, from a principle of love, and to testify subjection and gratitude to God; so all believers desire to bc under the law: but these men sought for justification and salvation by their obedience to it: they desired to be under it as a covenant of works, which was downright madness and folly to the last degree, since this was the way to come under the curse of it; they wanted to be under the yoke of the law, which is a yoke of bondage, an insupportable one, which the Jewish fathers could not bear; and therefore it was egregious weakness in them to desire to come under it: wherefore the apostle desires them to answer this question, do ye not hear the law ? meaning either the language and voice of the law of Moses, what it says to transgressors, and so to them; what it accused them of, and charged them with; how it declared them guilty before God, pronounced them accursed, and, ministered sententially condemnation and death unto them; and could they desire to be under such a law? or rather the books of the Old Testament, particularly the five books of Moses, and what is said therein; referring them, as Christ did the Jews, to the Scriptures, to the writings of Moses, and to read, hear, and observe what is in them, since they professed so great a regard to the law; from whence they might learn, that they ought not to be under the bondage and servitude of it. The Vulgate Latin version renders it, “have ye not read the law?” and so one of Stephens's copies; that is, the books of the law; if you have, as you should, you might observe what follows.
Matthew Henry Commentary
Verses 21-27 - The difference between believers who rested in Christ only, and thos who trusted in the law, is explained by the histories of Isaac an Ishmael. These things are an allegory, wherein, beside the literal an historical sense of the words, the Spirit of God points out somethin further. Hagar and Sarah were apt emblems of the two differen dispensations of the covenant. The heavenly Jerusalem, the true churc from above, represented by Sarah, is in a state of freedom, and is the mother of all believers, who are born of the Holy Spirit. They were by regeneration and true faith, made a part of the true seed of Abraham according to the promise made to him.
Greek Textus Receptus
λεγετε 3004 5720 μοι 3427 οι 3588 υπο 5259 νομον 3551 θελοντες 2309 5723 ειναι 1511 5750 τον 3588 νομον 3551 ουκ 3756 ακουετε 191 5719
Vincent's NT Word Studies
21. Tell me. He plunges into the subject without introduction, and with a direct appeal.Desire (qelontev). Are bent on being under the law. See on verse 9. Under the law (upo nomon). For nomov with and without the article, see on Rom. ii. 12. Here, unquestionably, of the Mosaic law.
Hear (akouete). (Do ye not) hear what the law really says: listen to it so as to catch its real meaning? Comp. 1 Cor. xiv. 2; LXX, Genesis xi. 7; Deut. xxviii. 49. 75 The law (ton nomon). In a different sense, referring to the O.T. For a similar double sense see Rom. iii. 19. For nomov as a designation of the O.T. generally, see 1 Cor. xiv. 21; John x. 24; xi. 34; xv. 25.
Robertson's NT Word Studies
4:21 {That desire to be under the law} (hoi hupo nomon qelontes einai). "Under law" (no article), as in #3:23; 4:4, legalistic system. Paul views them as on the point of surrender to legalism, as "wanting" (qelontes) to do it (#1:6; 3:3; 4:11,17). Paul makes direct reference to these so disposed to "hear the law." He makes a surprising turn, but a legitimate one for the legalists by an allegorical use of Scripture.
