Galatians 3:20

"Then why is there the law? It was added because of transgressions, until the offspring should come to whom the promise has been made. It was ordained through angels by the hand of a mediator."

Key Reflection

Galatians 3:20 reveals that the law, though necessary, served as a temporary guardian until the promised Messiah would come. The law, given through angels and mediated by a human (Moses), functioned to highlight sin and point towards the need for redemption. This passage underscores the limited nature of the Mosaic law, which was not meant as an ultimate solution but rather as a preparatory stage leading to Christ.

From the Scholars: Barnes' Notes

Verse 20. Now a mediator is not a mediator of one, etc. This verse has given great perplexity to commentators. "There is, unquestionably," says Bloomfield, "no passage in the New Testament that has so much, and to so little purpose, exercised the learning and ingenuity of commentators as the present, which seems to defy all attempts to elicit any satisfactory sense, except by methods so violent as to be almost the same thing as writing the passage afresh." In regard, however, to the truth of the declarations here--that "a mediator is not a mediator of one," and that "God is one"--there cad be no doubt, and no difficulty.

Related Verses

More from Galatians 3

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30

Go deeper with Bible.talk - your AI Bible study companion