And this I say, that the covenant, that was confirmed before by God in Christ, the law, which was four hundred and thirty years after, cannot disannul, that it should make the promise of no effect.
All Commentaries on Galatians 3:17 Go To Galatians 3
Cornelius a Lapide
AD 1637
The covenant that was before of God in Christ. If, as was said in verse15 , no one annuls the testament of a Prayer of Manasseh , still less can the law, which came430 years afterwards, annul the promise of God confirmed to Abraham in Christ.
Note that the Hebrew berith, the Greek diathèkè, and the Latin testamentum, have all the same meaning of covenant, and that the diathèkè, of the LXX. is identical with sunthèkè,according to Jerome, Chrysostom, Theophylact, and Å’cumenius. Budæus proves the same from Demosthenes and Aristophanes. Cf. notes to 1 Corinthians 11:25. But S. Augustine understands the term of a will. "Because," he says, "the death of the testator has the effect of confirming his will, so the unchangeableness of God has the effect of confirming His promise."
An important question is here raised as to the date from which these430 years should be reckoned, for the terminus ad quem alone is clearly defined in this passage, viz, the year when the law was given on Mount Sinai. S. Paul"s computation seems in conflict with Exodus 12:40, which speaks of the sojourning of the children of Israel in Egypt as lasting430 years, or, in other words, which represents the time between the going down of Jacob into Egypt and the Exodus as430 years; but the Apostle seems to count the interval between Abraham and the Exodus as430 years. But from Abraham to Jacob"s descent was200 years, and therefore if Exod. xii40 is to be followed, the Apostle should have said630 years.
I reply briefly with S. Augustine (qu47 in Exod.); with Athanasius, or rather Anastasius, in his "Synopsis of Holy Scripture" (in loco) with Eusebius, in his Chronicon; with Rupert, Tostatus, Cajetan (in Exod.), that the computation of S. Paul is identical with that of Moses in Exod. xii40 , and that both begin to reckon, not from the descent of Jacob into Egypt, but from the seventy-fifth year of Abraham"s life, when he was called from his country to go into Canaan. It was in that year that he received the blessings S. Paul is referring to, as is evident from the beginning of Gen. xii.
1. This appears from the obvious fact that the Hebrews did not dwell in Egypt430 years; for Kohath went down with his grandfather, Jacob ( Exodus 6:18). But Kohath lived133years, and his, son Amram137 years. When Moses, Amram"s Song of Solomon , went out of Egypt with the Hebrews , he was in his eighty-first year; and if all these three are added together, we get351only. But we must deduct from this total the years that Kohath lived after begetting Amram, and that Amram lived after begetting Moses. From this it follows that the number of430 must be reckoned from a date long anterior to the descent into Egypt, viz, from the migration of Abraham from Haran, and this the LXX. expressly say in their rendering of Exodus 12:40: "But the sojourning of the children of Israel, which they and their fathers made in the land of Egypt and Canaan, was430 years."
2. Moreover, the Apostle says here that the law was given430 years after, not the descent of Jacob, but the promise to Abraham; but the law was given in the same year that the Hebrews left Egypt, in the third month after their departure. Cf. Exodus 19:1, and the notes to Exod. xii40.
