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.
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Ambrosiaster
AD 400
Once the promise had been established, the law was given subsequently, not so that it could undermine the promise but so that it might point to what was to be fulfilled and when it would come.
If the law justifies, Abraham was not justified, since he lived long before the law. Since they cannot say this, they are forced to admit that a man is justified not by works of the law but by faith. And he compels us to understand that all the ancients who were justified were justified from the same faith. For as we are saved by believing partly in a past event, that is, the first coming of the Lord, and partly in a future one, that is, his second coming, they believed the whole of it, that is, both comings as events. The Holy Spirit reveals this for their salvation.
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 Mou...
