Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Galatians 4:10
Ye observe days, and months, and times, and years.
10. Perhaps this verse should be read interrogatively, ‘Do ye observe &c.?’ or the construction may be carried on from the preceding verse, ‘How is it that ye are turning, that ye are observing &c.?’
Ye observe ] The whole meaning of the verse depends on the sense attached to this word. It is compounded of a verb which means to observe and a preposition which implies that either the purpose or the method of observation is bad. The simple verb and corresponding noun are commonly used in N. T. in a good sense, e.g. “He that hath my commandments and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me”. Joh 14:21, ‘Circumcision is nothing, and uncircumcision is nothing; but the keeping of the commandments of God.” 1Co 7:19. But the compound is never so used. Mar 3:2; Luk 6:7; Luk 16:1; Luk 20:20; Act 9:24. Comp. for the noun, Luk 17:20. St Paul is not condemning the observance of ‘days and months and times and years’ but their mis -observance. Jewish Christians might continue to keep them as hallowed customs of divine origin, but not as grounds of justification. These were not to be sharers with Christ in the great work of salvation. Bondage to these rudiments forfeited the liberty of the Gospel. Gentile believers were never bound to such observances, and if they yielded to the Judaizing teachers and submitted to the yoke of the Jewish ceremonial, they were no longer partakers of the liberty of Christ.
Compare Col 2:16, where not the simple observance is condemned, but the slavery which is involved in its being required for salvation, and the dishonour which is done to Christ by adding to His perfect righteousness. See note on ch. Gal 5:2.
days ] ‘sabbaths and fasts’. There is clearly no exemption here from the obligation of the observance of ‘the seventh day’. ‘The law of the Sabbath, i.e. of one weekly day of holy rest in God (the seventh in the Jewish, the first in the Christian Church) is as old as the Creation, it is founded on the moral and physical constitution of man, it was instituted in Paradise, incorporated in the Decalogue on Mount Sinai, put on a new foundation by the Resurrection of Christ, and is an absolute necessity for public worship and the welfare of man’. Dr Schaff. What St Paul condemns is the observance of the day in a legal spirit, in compliance with the minute and childish prohibitions of the Rabbinic system and as a matter of merit with God.
months ] As marked by the ‘new moons’. Comp. Isa 1:13; Num 28:11 &c., or possibly the ‘seventh month’, Lev 23:24 foll.
times ] Better, seasons, the great annual festivals, which lasted several days, as the Passover, the Feast of Tabernacles, &c.
years ] Every seventh year was a sabbatical year and every fiftieth year a Jubilee. See Lev 25:2-17.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Ye observe – The object of this verse is to specify some of the things to which they had become enslaved.
Days – The days here referred to are doubtless the days of the Jewish festivals. They had numerous days of such observances, and in addition to those specified in the Old Testament, the Jews had added many others as days commemorative of the destruction and rebuilding of the temple, and of other important events in their history. It is not a fair interpretation of this to suppose that the apostle refers to the Sabbath, properly so called, for this was a part of the Decalogue; and was observed by the Saviour himself, and by the apostles also. It is a fair interpretation to apply it to all those days which are not commanded to be kept holy in the Scriptures; and hence, the passage is as applicable to the observance of saints days, and days in honor of particular events in sacred history, as to the days observed by the Galatians. There is as real servitude in the observance of the numerous festivals, and fasts in the papal communion and in some Protestant churches, as there was in the observance of the days in the Jewish ecclesiastical calendar, and for anything that I can see, such observances are as inconsistent now with the freedom of the gospel as they were in the time of Paul. We should observe as seasons of holy time what it can be proved God has commanded us, and no more.
And months – The festivals of the new moon, kept by the Jews. Num 10:10; Num 28:11-14. On this festival, in addition to the daily sacrifice, two bullocks, a ram, and seven sheep of a year old were offered in sacrifice. The appearance of the new-moon was announced by the sound of trumpets. See Jahn, Archae. 352.
And times – Stated times; festivals returning periodically, as the Passover, the Feast of Pentecost, and the Feast of Tabernacles. See Jahn, Archae. chap. 3. 346-360.
And years – The sabbatical year, or the year of jubilee. See Jahn as above.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Gal 4:10
To observe days and months
The observance of days and seasons
I.
Natural. When days are observed according to the course of the sun and moon. Thus night follows day, and every year hath four seasons.
II. Civil. When set times are observed in husbandry, for household affairs, for matters of the commonwealth, and for business.
III. Ecclesiastics. When set days are observed for orders sake, as days of thanksgiving, and days of humiliation.
IV. Superstitious.
1. Jewish: when made compulsory on the conscience.
2. Heathen: when good and bad success are dependent on them. From this last the Sabbath is excluded because
(1) it is the Lords day, and
(2) a moral commandment.
Apply against–
1. Romish festivals.
2. Lucky or unlucky periods. (W. Perkins.)
St. Paul is not here dealing with the Sabbath
The apostle is dealing with some of the difficulties which had arisen out of their former heathenism. The Galatian had worshipped them which by nature were no gods, the powers of nature and celestial objects, which indicate and influence the changes of seasons, months, and days, and were returning to these weak and beggarly elements. They were in danger not only of taking up with the Judaistic doctrine of justification by works, but also of relapsing into the heathen custom of calculating lucky and unlucky days and auspicious seasons by methods of astrology. Against this the apostle enters his protest. There is no evidence that he had any idea of the Jewish Sabbath in his mind. (W. Spiers, M. A.)
Christian festivals not prohibited
If it be objected that we are accustomed to observe certain days–as, e.g., the Lords Day, the Preparation, the Passover, or Pentecost, I have to answer that, to the perfect Christian–who is ever in his thoughts, words, and deeds, serving Christ–all his days are the Lords, and he is always keeping the Lords Day. He, also, who is unceasingly preparing himself for the true life, such an one is always keeping the Preparation day. Again, he who considers that Christ our Passover was sacrificed for us, and that it is of his duty to keep the feast by eating of the flesh of the Word, never ceases to keep the Paschal feast. And, finally, he who can truly say: We are risen with Christ, and He hath exalted us, and made us sit with Him in heavenly places in Christ is always living in the season of Pentecost. But the majority of believers are not of this advanced class; but from being either unable or unwilling to keep every day in this manner, they require some sensible memorial to prevent spiritual things from passing altogether from their minds. (Origen.)
Superstition respecting days
The superstitious belief in good and evil days has prevailed in all ages and countries. No season of the year, no month, no week, has been free from them. From Egypt unlucky days have received the name of Egyptian days. The Romans had their dies atri, which were pointed out on the calendar with a black character denoting a day of bad luck, and their dies albi, pointed out with a white character denoting good luck. In commenting on the text Augustine says: Those whom the apostle blames are those who say I will not set forward on my journey because it is the next day after such a time or because the moon is so; or Ill set forward that I may have luck, because such is just now the position of the stars. I will not traffic this month because a star presides, or I will because it does. Lodge (1596) tells us of those who would not eat their dinner before they have lookt in their almanacke. Aubrey, the antiquarian, later on, in dealing with the same subject, says: I shall take particular notice here of November 3rd, both because tis my own birthday, and for the remarkable accidents that have happened thereupon. Constantius, son of Constantine the Great, died on this day, Exveteri calendaris penes me. Thomas Montacute, Earl of Salisbury, that famous commander under Henries IV., V., and VI., died this day from a cannon shot received at Orleans. So also did Cardinal Borrhomes, and Sir John Perot, Lord deputy of Ireland, son to Henry VIII., and extremely like him; grief of the fatality of the day killed him. Stow in his annals says, November 3rd, 1099, the sea broke in on Scotland and England, drowning divers towns, and much people and cattle, submerging the lands once belonging to Earl Godwin in Kent, now called Godwin Sands, My father died in 1643, and within a year and a half of his decease such changes came upon my marsh lands in Kent by the influence of the sea that it was never worth one farthing to me; so that I often think this day being my birthday hath the same influence upon me that it had five hundred and eighty years since upon Earl Godwin and others. The Parliament so fatal to Romes concerns here in Henry VIII.s time began on November 3rd. The 3rd of November, 1640, began that Parliament so direfully fatal to England and its King. After the Reformation the unlucky day seems to have been Friday; fishermen and sailors would not go forth on that day, or servants take a place. No one on that day would get married, or begin a journey, or open a house of business on that day A similar superstition prevails among the Brahmins. In Japan a particular table is employed by travellers, which, it is said, has been observed to hold true by a continued experience of many ages, and wherein are set down all the unfortunate days of every month. A copy of this table is printed in all their road books. The Siamese observe the feasts of the new and full moon, and think the days that from the change precede the full are more fortunate than those that follow it. Their almanacks are marked with lucky and unlucky days. Neither prince nor any one who has means of applying to the astrologers will undertake anything without consulting them The Mexicans predicted the good or bad fortunes of infants from the sign under which they were born, and the happiness or misfortune of marriages, the success of wars; and of nearly everything from the day on which they were undertaken Nor are these notions confined to heathen countries. The newspapers frequently bring to light the credulity of Englishmen. Such an extravagant cast of mind, truly says The Spectator, engages multitudes of people not only in needless terrors but in supernumerary duties, and arises from that fear and ignorance which are natural to the soul of man. Wise men concern themselves to retrench the evils of life by the reasonings of philosophy; fools seek to multiply them by the sentiments of superstition. Gods providence overrules all things. We should do our part faithfully, and leave the event with Him.
The advantages of a fixed Sabbath
There are two distinct grounds on which works in religion are appraised at a low or rather worthless valuation in the Bible, and either rejected or denounced accordingly. The first is when they are offered as the price of our justification in the sight of God; as an equivalent upon which the Lawgiver is challenged for the honour and the regard that are due to righteousness; then does the Bible utterly hold at nought the most laborious, and, perhaps, when looked to in another view, the most holy and estimable of all human performances. The other ground on which works are computed at a low valuation in the Bible, is where, either in themselves they are devoid of tree moral excellence, or serve not in their tendencies to refine and to strengthen the principles of our moral nature. But let a good work be delivered of both these ingredients–let there be neither an arrogated merit nor an inherent meanness in it–free of all pettiness and abject timidity–And we say of works like unto this, that, so far from the gospel lifting a voice of hostility or casting a look of discountenance towards them, the very aim of the gospel is to raise and to multiply them over the face of a new moral creation. Now, in the text there is a certain scrupulous observation referred to by the apostle, which his converts adhered to as a duty, but which he charges them with as if it were a delinquency. They observed days and months and times and years, annexing a religious importance to the stated acts and exercises of stated periods; and we have no doubt, labouring under distress of conscience, at any misgiving from the prescribed and wonted regularity. It is likely enough, that both of those ingredients which go to vilify a work, and to render it null and worthless, entered into this outward formality of the Galatians–that it gave them a feeling of security as to their meritorious acceptance with God, which nought but the Redeemers merits ought to inspire; and that it further degraded the character of man, by reducing morality to the level of mechanism, and substituting for the obedience of a rightly strung and rightly actuated heart, an obedience like that of a galley-slave who plies at his unvaried oar, and moves in the one and unvaried circuit that is assigned to him. But there is another side to this question, which must not be left out of sight; for, though it be true that man was not made for the Sabbath, yet let it never be forgotten that the Sabbath was made for man. Man was not made to move in a precise orbit of times and seasons; yet times and seasons may be arranged, so as to subserve his use, and be the ministers of good both to his natural and moral economy. Were the keeping of the Sabbath a mere servitude of the body, which left the heart no better than before, it would be a frivolous ceremonial and ought to be exploded. But if it be true that he who sanctifies the Sabbath sanctifies his own soul, then does the Sabbath assume a spiritual importance, because an expedient of spiritual cultivation It is not that the virtue of man consists in these things, but that these things are devices of best and surest efficacy for upholding the virtue of man. If it be true of man, that he can attain a loftier communion with his God, at those hours when the din and urgency of the world are away from him; and that a season of reading, and contemplation, and prayer acts as a restorative to the embers of his decaying sacredness; and that the voice of a minister, when prompted by the Spirit from on high, and aided by the sympathies of all who are around him, can often send the elevation of heaven into his soul; and that it is on those evenings of deep and lengthened tranquility which the footstep of intruding companion-ship does not violate, when the nurture and admonition of the Lord can descend more abundantly on the hearts of His children, and when the calm and the unction of a holy influence may be most felt in His dwelling-place–then Sabbath, which, from one end to the other of it, teems with these very opportunities, instead of ranking with the holidays of idle superstition, will be dear as piety itself to every enlightened Christian; and to it, in the most emphatic sense of the term, will he award the obeisance of a Divine and spiritual festival. And on this principle, too, may the Sabbath be rescued from that contempt which the text, in denouncing the observation of days and of times, would appear to cast on it. It is true, that it is a periodic festival, and that man was not made for periods. But this does not hinder that periods may be made for man. Does sacredness so keep at all times its undisturbed place and pre-eminence, amid the turmoil of those many secularities by which you are surrounded, that any one set and specific time is not needed, on which, at a distance from the besetting world, you might relume that lamp of heaven in the soul which was ready to expire? Or if the time were left to your own discretion, are such your longings after a spiritual atmosphere, that you would be ever sure to make your escape to it, when like to be lulled or overborne in an atmosphere of earthliness? It is true you may lift up your hearts to God when you please–and even amid the thickening occupations of the market and the counting-house, is it possible that many a secret aspiration may arise to Him. But how often is it that you would so please; and tell us, on your experience of the past what, if all days were alike, would be the fervour or the frequency of such aspirations? To whom much is given, of them much will be required; and on this principle your Sabbaths, these precious gifts of God to man, will have to be accounted for. And oh, forget not, that if these have been nauseated in time, heaven, if you eer were admitted there, would be nauseated through all eternity. Sabbath is that station on the territory of human life, from which we can descry with most advantage and delight the beauties of the promised land; and it is there, as if at the gate of the upper sanctuary, where we can command one of the nearest approaches whereof our nature is capable, to the contemplations and the doings of the saints in blessedness. (T. Chalmers, D. D.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 10. Ye observe days] Ye superstitiously regard the Sabbaths and particular days of your own appointment;
And months] New moons; times-festivals, such as those of tabernacles, dedication, passover, &c.
Years.] Annual atonements, sabbatical years, and jubilees.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
If we had any evidence that these Galatians were relapsed to their Gentile superstitions, these terms might be understood of such days, &c. as they kept in honour to their idols. But the apostle, throughout the whole Epistle, not reflecting upon them for any such gross apostacy (as returning to the vanities of the heathen in which they formerly lived); but only for Judaizing, and using the ceremonies of the Jewish law, as necessary to be observed, besides their believing in Christ, for their justification; it is much more probable that he meaneth by days the Jewish festivals, such as their new moons, &c.; by months, the first and the seventh month, when they religiously fasted; by times, their more solemn times, such as were their feasts of first-fruits, tabernacles, &c.; and by years, their years of jubilee, the seventh and the fiftieth year. His meaning is, that they took themselves to be under a religious obligation to observe these times as still commanded by God.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
10. To regard the observance ofcertain days as in itself meritorious as a work, is alien to the freespirit of Christianity. This is not incompatible with observing theSabbath or the Christian Lord’s day as obligatory, though not as awork (which was the Jewish and Gentile error in the observance ofdays), but as a holy mean appointed by the Lord for attaining thegreat end, holiness. The whole life alike belongs to the Lord in theGospel view, just as the whole world, and not the Jews only, belongto Him. But as in Paradise, so now one portion of time is neededwherein to draw off the soul more entirely from secular business toGod (Col 2:16). “Sabbaths,new moons, and set feasts” (1Ch 23:31;2Ch 31:3), answer to “days,months, times.” “Months,” however, may refer to thefirst and seventh months, which were sacred on accountof the number of feasts in them.
timesGreek,“seasons,” namely, those of the three great feasts, thePassover, Pentecost, and Tabernacles.
yearsThe sabbaticalyear was about the time of writing this Epistle, A.D.48 [BENGEL].
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
Ye observe days, and months, and times, and years. Lest the apostle should be thought to suggest, without foundation, the inclination of these people to be in bondage to the ceremonies of the law, he gives this as an instance of it; which is to be understood, not of a civil observation of times, divided into days, months, and years, for which the luminaries of the heavens were made, and into summer and winter, seedtime and harvest, which is not only lawful, but absolutely necessary; but of a religious observation of days, c. not of the lucky and unlucky days, or of any of the festivals of the Gentiles, but of Jewish ones. By “days” are meant their seventh day sabbaths for since they are distinguished from months and years, they must mean such days as returned weekly; and what else can they be but their weekly sabbaths? These were peculiar to the Israelites, and not binding on others; and being typical of Christ, the true rest of his people, and he being come, are now ceased. By “months” are designed their new moons, or the beginning of their months upon the appearance of a new moon, which were kept by blowing trumpets, offering sacrifices, hearing the word of God, abstaining from work, and holding religious feasts; and were typical of that light, knowledge, and grace, the church receives from Christ, the sun of righteousness; and he, the substance, being come, these shadows disappeared. By “times” are intended the three times in the year, when the Jewish males appeared before the Lord at Jerusalem, to keep the three feasts of tabernacles, passover, and pentecost, for the observance of which there was now no reason; not of the feast of tabernacles, since the word was made flesh, and tabernacled among us; nor of the passover, since Christ, our passover, is sacrificed for us; nor of pentecost, or the feast of weeks, or of the first fruits of the harvest, since the Spirit of God was poured down in a plenteous manner on that day upon the apostles; and when the firstfruits of a glorious harvest were brought in to the Lord, in the conversion of three thousand souls. And by “years” are to be understood their sabbatical years; every seventh year the land had a rest, and remained untilled; there were no ploughing and sowing, and there was a general release of debtors; and every fiftieth year was a jubilee to the Lord, when liberty to servants, debtors, c. was proclaimed throughout the land: all which were typical of rest, payment of debts, and spiritual liberty by Christ and which having their accomplishment in him, were no longer to be observed; wherefore these Galatians are blamed for so doing; and the more, because they were taught to observe them, in order to obtain eternal life and salvation by them.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
Ye observe (). Present middle indicative of old verb to stand beside and watch carefully, sometimes with evil intent as in Lu 6:7, but often with scrupulous care as here (so in Dio Cassius and Josephus). The meticulous observance of the Pharisees Paul knew to a nicety. It hurt him to the quick after his own merciful deliverance to see these Gentile Christians drawn into this spider-web of Judaizing Christians, once set free, now enslaved again. Paul does not itemize the “days” (Sabbaths, fast-days, feast-days, new moons) nor the “months” (Isa 66:23) which were particularly observed in the exile nor the “seasons” (passover, pentecost, tabernacles, etc.) nor the “years” (sabbatical years every seventh year and the Year of Jubilee). Paul does not object to these observances for he kept them himself as a Jew. He objected to Gentiles taking to them as a means of salvation.
Fuente: Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New Testament
Ye observe [] . See on Mr 3:2, and Joh 18:12, and comp. Joseph. Ant 3:5, 5, parathrein tav eJbdomadav to watch the weeks. The word denotes careful, scrupulous observance, an intent watching lest any of the prescribed seasons should be overlooked. A merely legal or ritual religion always develops such scrupulousness. Days. Sabbaths, fast – days, feast – days, new moons. Comp. Rom 14:5, 6; Col 2:16.
Months. Sacred months. Comp. Isa 66:23. In the preexilic time the months were mostly not named but numbered first, second, third, etc., and this usage appears also in the post – exilic writings of the O. T. Only four months had special names : the first, Abib, the ear month, which marked the beginning of harvest (Exo 13:4; Exo 23:15; Exo 34:18) : the second, Sif or Z? the flower month (1Ki 6:1, 37) : the seventh, Ethanum, the month of streaming rivers fed by the autumnal rains (1Ki 8:2) : the eighth, Bul, the month of rain (1Ki 6:38). In the post – exilic time names for all the months came into use, the most of which appear in the Palmyrene inscriptions and among the Syrians. According to the Talmud, the returning Jews brought these names from Babylon. The names of all are found in a month table discovered at Nineveh. N?n corresponds to Abib (Neh 2:1; Est 3:7), answering to the latter part of March and April. Jjar answered to Ziv (Targ. 2Ch 30:2), our May. Tisri to Ethanim, the seventh month of the ecclesiastical, and the first of the civil year, corresponding to October. Marcheschwan (see Joseph. Ant 1:3, 3) answered to Bul and November. Tisri, being the seventh or sabbatical month, was peculiarly sacred, and the fourth [, ] , fifth (Ab, August), and tenth (Tebeth, January) were distinguished by special fasts. Times [] . Better, seasons. See on Mt 12:1; Eph 1:10, and comp. Lev 23:4. The holy, festal seasons, as Passover Pentecost, Feast of Tabernacles. See 2Ch 8:13.
Years [] . Sabbatical years, occurring every seventh year. Not years of Jubilee, which had ceased to be celebrated after the time of Solomon.
Fuente: Vincent’s Word Studies in the New Testament
1 ) “Ye observe days,” (heneras paratereisthe) “You all observe days,” ceremonially, with a bad implication; Religious, ceremonial observances, with the wrong motive, is offensive to God. To observe any ordinance of God with the wrong motive or for the wrong purpose displeases God. Salvation is neither obtained or retained by media of outward observance of Divine laws.
2) “And months, and times, and years:” (kai menas kai kairos kai emiautous) “And (even) months, and special seasons, and years;” It is not the observance but misobservance of these times Paul condemns, Rom 14:5; Col 2:16. In like manner, people who think to acquire or retain pardon from sin and Salvation by baptismal observance, the Lord’s Supper, and or tithing observance every Lord’s day are wrong in motive, as the Pharisees and Sadducees, Mat 5:20; Rom 9:31; Rom 10:3.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
10. Ye observe days. He adduces as an instance one description of “elements,” the observance of days. No condemnation is here given to the observance of dates in the arrangements of civil society. The order of nature out of which this arises, is fixed and constant. How are months and years computed, but by the revolution of the sun and moon? What distinguishes summer from winter, or spring from harvest, but the appointment of God, — an appointment which was promised to continue to the end of the world? (Gen 8:22.) The civil observation of days contributes not only to agriculture and to matters of politics, and ordinary life, but is even extended to the government of the church. Of what nature, then, was the observation which Paul reproves? It was that which would bind the conscience, by religious considerations, as if it were necessary to the worship of God, and which, as he expresses it in the Epistle to the Romans, would make a distinction between one day and another. (Rom 14:5.)
When certain days are represented as holy in themselves, when one day is distinguished from another on religious grounds, when holy days are reckoned a part of divine worship, then days are improperly observed. The Jewish Sabbath, new moons, and other festivals, were earnestly pressed by the false apostles, because they had been appointed by the law. When we, in the present age, intake a distinction of days, we do not represent them as necessary, and thus lay a snare for the conscience; we do not reckon one day to be more holy than another; we do not make days to be the same thing with religion and the worship of God; but merely attend to the preservation of order and harmony. The observance of days among us is a free service, and void of all superstition.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(10) Ye observe.A compound word, signifying not only to observe, but to observe scrupulously. The word is used by Josephus in his paraphrase of the fourth commandment: Remember the sabbath day to keep it holy (Ant. iii. 5, 5).
Daysi.e., in the first instance and especially, the Jewish sabbaths; but other fasts or festivals which occupied a single day may be included.
Months.The description mounts in an ascending scaledays, months, seasons, years. The months, however, mean really the first day of the month, the new moon. (See Lev. 23:24; Num. 28:11; Psa. 81:3.)
Times.Seasons: such as the Passover, Pentecost, and the Feast of Tabernacles.
Years.Such as the sabbatical year and the year of jubilee. The Apostle is giving a list which is intended to be exhaustive of all Jewish observances, so that it would not necessarily follow that the Galatians had actually kept the year of jubilee, or even that it was kept literally by the Jews at this time.
As to the bearing of this passage on the general question of the observance of seasons, it is to be noticed that the reference is here to the adoption by the Galatians of the Jewish seasons as a mark of the extent to which they were prepared to take on themselves the burden of the Mosaic law. It does not necessarily follow that the observance of Christian seasons is condemned. At the same time, it is quite clear that St. Paul places all such matters under the head of elements or rudiments. They belong to the lowest section of Christian practice, and the more advanced a Christian is the less he needs to be bound by them. This, again, is qualified by the consideration that it is dangerous for any one individual to assume his own advanced condition, and to think himself able to dispense with the safeguards which his brother-Christians require. It is safest to follow the general rule of the Church, so long as it is done intelligentlyi.e., with a consciousness of the reason and expediency of what is done, and not in a spirit of mere mechanical routine. The comparison between the literal and the spiritual observance of seasons, and the superiority of the latter as the more excellent way, is well brought out by Origen in some comments upon this passage: If it be objected to us on this subject that we are accustomed to observe certain daysas, for example, the Lords Day, the Preparation, the Passover, or PentecostI have to answer that, to the perfect Christianwho is ever in his thoughts, words, and deeds serving his natural Lord, God the Wordall his days are the Lords, and he is always keeping the Lords Day. He, also, who is unceasingly preparing himself for the true life, and abstaining from the pleasures of this life which lead astray so many, such a one is always keeping the Preparation Day. Again, he who considers that Christ our Passover was sacrificed for us, and that it is his duty to keep the feast by eating of the flesh of the Word, never ceases to keep the Paschal Feast. And, finally, he who can truly say: We are risen with Christ, and He hath exalted us, and made us sit with Him in heavenly places in Christ, is always living in the season of Pentecost . . . But the majority of those who are accounted believers are not of this advanced class; but from being either unable or unwilling to keep every day in this manner, they require some sensible memorial to prevent spiritual things from passing away altogether from their minds (Against Celsus, viii. 22, 23).
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
10. Observe days The sabbaths of Judaism, the ritual days of paganism. That the heathen also observe days we have a striking illustration from the fact that the days of our Christian week bear each the name of a pagan divinity, as, indeed, do some of our months.
Months The feasts of new moons.
Times Seasons, as passover, pentecost, etc.
Years The sabbatic, or seventh year; the jubilee, every fiftieth year. Wieseler reckons that the then passing year was a sabbatic. But the jubilee was then truly no longer observed. Paul enumerates all these, not as being actually kept, but because the Galatians were making up with puerile system their whole ritual calendar. It seems, perhaps, strange that Paul does not name circumcision as one of the beggarly elements. But against that he warns them in Gal 4:2; in words implying that they had not yet gone so far as that.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Gal 4:10 . Facts which vouch the . . . just expressed.
The interrogative view, which Griesbach, Koppe, Lachmann, Tischendorf, Hilgenfeld, following Battier ( Bibl. Brem . VI. p. 104), take, has been again abandoned by Usteri, Schott, and Wieseler; and Hofmann prefers the sense of sorrowful exclamation . But the continuance of the reproachful interrogative form (Gal 4:9 ) corresponds better to the increasing pitch of surprise and amazement, and makes Gal 4:11 come in with greater weight.
] Do ye already so far realize your ? Ye take care, sedulo vobis observatis , namely, to neglect nothing which is prescribed in the law for certain days and seasons. Comp. Joseph. Antt . iii. 5. Galatians 5 : ; also Dio Cass. liii. 10 (of the observance of a law). The idea superstitiose (Winer, Bretschneider, Olshausen, and others) is not implied in , nor the praeter fidem which Bengel finds in it.
] Sabbaths, fast and feast days. Comp. Rom 14:5-6
] is usually referred to the new moons . But these, the feast-days at the beginning of each month, come under the previous category of . In keeping with the other points, must be the observance of certain months as pre-eminently sacred months . Thus the seventh month ( Tisri ), as the proper sabbatical month, was specially sacred (see Ewald, Alterth . p. 469 f.; Keil, Archol . I. p. 368 ff.); and the fourth, fifth, seventh, and tenth months were distinguished by special fasts.
] , Lev 23:4 . The holy festal seasons, such as those of the Passover, Pentecost, and the Feast of Tabernacles, are meant; “quibus hoc aut illud fas erat aut nefas,” Erasmus.
] applies to the sabbatical years (see, as to these, Ewald, p. 488 ff.; Keil, p. 371 ff.), which occurred every seventh year, but not to the jubilee years, which had, at least after the time of Solomon, fallen into abeyance (Ewald, p. 501). But that the Galatians were at that time in some way actually celebrating a sabbatical year (Wieseler), cannot be certainly inferred from ., which has in reality its due warrant as belonging to the consistency and completeness of the theory. On the whole passage, comp. Col 2:16 , and Philo, de septenar. p. 286.
From our passage, moreover, we see how far, and within what limits, the Galatians had already been led astray. [190] They had not yet adopted circumcision , but were only in danger of being brought to it (Gal 5:2-3 ; Gal 5:12 , Gal 6:12-13 ). Nothing at all is said in the epistle as to any distinction of meats (comp. Col. l.c ), except so far as it was implied in the observance of days, etc. Usteri (comp. Rckert) is of opinion that Paul did not mention circumcision and the distinction of meats, because he desired to represent the present religious attitude of his readers as analogous to their heathen condition. But, according to the comprehensive idea of the , even the mention of circumcision and the distinctions of meats would have been in no way inappropriate to the . Olshausen quite arbitrarily asserts that the usages mentioned stand by synecdoche for all .
[190] De Wette very arbitrarily considers that the present tense denotes, not the reality then present, but only the necessary consequence of the . and . , conceived as being already present.
Fuente: Heinrich August Wilhelm Meyer’s New Testament Commentary
10 Ye observe days, and months, and times, and years.
Ver. 10. Ye observe days ] The Christian Church knows no holy days, besides that honourable Lord’s day, Isa 57:14 ; Rev 1:10 , and such holy feasts, as upon special occasions the Church shall see fit to celebrate, as Novemb. 5, &c. (Guy Fawkes Day and the gunpowder plot)
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
10 .] The affirmative form seems best, as (see Ellic.) supplying a verification of the charge just brought against them interrogatively: explaining , Thdrt. Wishing to shew to them in its most contemptible light the unworthiness of their decadence, he puts the observation of days in the forefront of his appeal, as one of those things which they already practised. Circumcision he does not mention, because they were not yet drawn into it, but only in danger of being so (ch. Gal 5:2 , al.): nor abstinence from meats, to which we do not hear that they were even tempted.
, emphatic, as the first mentioned, and also as a more general predication of the habit, under which the rest fall. The days would be sabbaths, new moons, and feast days: see Col 2:16 , where these are specified.
. ] There does not seem to be any meaning of superstitious or inordinate observance (as Olsh., Winer, &c.), but merely a statement of the fact: see ref. Joseph., where, remarkable enough, the word is applied to the very commandment (the fourth) here in question. “When is ethical, i.e. when the verb is used in a bad sense, e.g. . , Polyb. xvii. 3. 2, the idea conveyed is that of hostile observation .” Ellicott.
] hardly new moons, which were days : but perhaps the seventh month, or any others which were distinguished by great feasts.
] any festal seasons: so Lev 23:4 , , .
] can hardly apply to the sabbatical or jubilee years, on account of their rare occurrence, unless indeed with Wieseler, Chron. der Apost. Zeitalt. p. 286 note, we are to suppose that they were then celebrating one: perhaps those observations may be intended which especially regarded the year , as the new year. But this is not likely (see above on ): and I should much rather suppose, that each of these words is not minutely to be pressed, but all taken together as a rhetorical description of those who observed times and seasons. Notice how utterly such a verse is at variance with any and every theory of a Christian sabbath , cutting at the root, as it does, of ALL obligatory observance of times as such : see notes on Rom 14:5-6 ; Col 2:16 . “These periodical solemnities of the law shewed, by the fact of their periodical repetition, the imperfection of the dispensation to which they belonged: typifying each feature of Christ’s work, which, as one great and perfect whole, has been performed once for all and for ever, and were material representations of those spiritual truths which the spiritual Israel learn in union with Christ as a risen Lord. To observe periods then, now in the fulness of time, is to deny the perfection of the Christian dispensation, the complete and finished nature of Christ’s work: to forsake Him as the great spiritual teacher of His brethren, and to return to carnal pdagogues: to throw aside sonship in all its fulness, and the spirit of adoption: and to return to childhood and the rule of tutors and governors.” Bagge: who however elsewhere maintains the perpetual obligation of the Sabbath.
Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament
Gal 4:10 . The observance of Sabbaths and new moons, of feasts and fasts, of sabbatical and jubilee years, was clearly enjoined by the ceremonial Law; and Paul admitted the obligations of that Law for himself and for all the Circumcision. He continued to frequent the Sabbath-worship of the synagogue, attended the feasts, bound himself under voluntary vows. What he condemns is the adoption of these practices by baptised Gentiles: for this imputed to them an inherent sacredness incompatible with the true freedom of the Spirit.
Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson
observe. Greek. paratereo. See Act 9:24. Compare Col 2:16.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
10.] The affirmative form seems best, as (see Ellic.) supplying a verification of the charge just brought against them interrogatively: explaining , Thdrt. Wishing to shew to them in its most contemptible light the unworthiness of their decadence, he puts the observation of days in the forefront of his appeal, as one of those things which they already practised. Circumcision he does not mention, because they were not yet drawn into it, but only in danger of being so (ch. Gal 5:2, al.):-nor abstinence from meats, to which we do not hear that they were even tempted.
, emphatic, as the first mentioned, and also as a more general predication of the habit, under which the rest fall. The days would be sabbaths, new moons, and feast days: see Col 2:16, where these are specified.
.] There does not seem to be any meaning of superstitious or inordinate observance (as Olsh., Winer, &c.), but merely a statement of the fact: see ref. Joseph., where, remarkable enough, the word is applied to the very commandment (the fourth) here in question. When is ethical, i.e. when the verb is used in a bad sense, e.g. . , Polyb. xvii. 3. 2, the idea conveyed is that of hostile observation. Ellicott.
] hardly new moons, which were days: but perhaps the seventh month, or any others which were distinguished by great feasts.
] any festal seasons: so Lev 23:4, , .
] can hardly apply to the sabbatical or jubilee years, on account of their rare occurrence, unless indeed with Wieseler, Chron. der Apost. Zeitalt. p. 286 note, we are to suppose that they were then celebrating one: perhaps those observations may be intended which especially regarded the year, as the new year. But this is not likely (see above on ): and I should much rather suppose, that each of these words is not minutely to be pressed, but all taken together as a rhetorical description of those who observed times and seasons. Notice how utterly such a verse is at variance with any and every theory of a Christian sabbath, cutting at the root, as it does, of ALL obligatory observance of times as such: see notes on Rom 14:5-6; Col 2:16. These periodical solemnities of the law shewed, by the fact of their periodical repetition, the imperfection of the dispensation to which they belonged: typifying each feature of Christs work, which, as one great and perfect whole, has been performed once for all and for ever,-and were material representations of those spiritual truths which the spiritual Israel learn in union with Christ as a risen Lord. To observe periods then, now in the fulness of time, is to deny the perfection of the Christian dispensation, the complete and finished nature of Christs work: to forsake Him as the great spiritual teacher of His brethren, and to return to carnal pdagogues: to throw aside sonship in all its fulness, and the spirit of adoption: and to return to childhood and the rule of tutors and governors. Bagge: who however elsewhere maintains the perpetual obligation of the Sabbath.
Fuente: The Greek Testament
Gal 4:10. ) days: Rom 14:5, i.e. Sabbaths, Col 2:16, note. The time of the Sabbath was held the most sacred of all. Therefore the order of gradation is to be observed, comp. 1Ch 23:31; 2Ch 31:3 : , , , Sabbaths, new moons, feast days, in an affirmative sentence; but in a prohibition, the order is inverted, as in the passage quoted from Colossians above.-) you observe, as if there were anything beside[37] faith.- , and times) longer than months, shorter than a year, i.e. feasts , which the LXX. frequently translate .-, years) anniversary solemnities, for example, the commencement of the year with the month Tisri; for it cannot be said that the sabbatical years, which had been fixed for the land of Canaan, were observed by the Galatians, although this epistle was written about the time of the sabbatical year, which ended (Dion. era) A.D. 48; see Ord. Temp. (arrangement of dates), p. 281, 423 [Ed. ii. p. 242, 364].
[37] The in the compound verb is evidently understood by Beng. in this sense, as often is used elsewhere, sc. of something added incidentally, besides what is really essential. So , the law entered stealthily, and as something superadded incidentally, Rom 5:20.-ED.
Fuente: Gnomon of the New Testament
Gal 4:10
Gal 4:10
Ye observe days, and months, and seasons, and years.-They kept these Jewish feasts and observances which all found fulfillment in Christ. God, in the Mosaic law, had appointed the daily offering, the feast of the new moon, the feast of the Passover, the feast of weeks, the feast of trumpets, the feast of ingathering, and quite a number of others. They had all found their fulfillment in Christ, and the law of Moses was done away. [While it is probable that these were the occasions in the mind of Paul when he wrote, still they need not be taken too literally, as though the Galatians had already actually observed all these, and had been observing the year of jubilee. If they observed the least of them they acknowledged the principle. It was as though they observed all. Heretofore he had mentioned circumcision only as indicative of the declension of these believers, but of course they could now draw the line at that; once they put themselves under the law, they became debtors to do all the law enjoined (Gal 5:3).]
Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary
Lev 23:1-44, Lev 25:1, Lev 25:13, Num 28:1 – Num 29:40, Rom 14:5, Col 2:16, Col 2:17
Reciprocal: Num 28:11 – in the beginnings Rom 14:6 – regardeth 2Co 12:15 – will Gal 2:4 – bring
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Gal 4:10. , , , -Ye are observing days, and months, and seasons, and years. The force of the middle voice cannot be expressed in English, but it deepens the sense = religious assiduity. Many give this verse an interrogative form, as Koppe, De Wette, Hilgenfeld, Meyer, Bisping, and Trana; as also the editors Griesbach, Knapp, Tischendorf, and Lachmann. But the form of solemn statement is in better harmony with the context. The question had been put already, -how comes it? It may appear incredible, but alas it is true-Ye are observing days, etc. And the statement lays foundation for the mournful declaration of the following verse- . The compound verb in its original sense is to watch carefully, as being , near to, Act 9:24; next to watch closely, Psa 129:3, and with evil purpose, Mar 3:2, Luk 6:7; and then, as here, to observe carefully, to keep in a religious spirit,-not however superstitiously, as Sardinoux, Winer, and Olshausen assert, for the verb is applied to the keeping of the seventh day or Sabbath by Josephus, Antiq. 3.3, 5. The observance may appear superstitious to the onlooker, but the idea is not contained in the verb, nor that of praeter fidem (Bengel, Wessel, Wordsworth). Days ye are observing, the moment being on , as their observance would of course be more characteristic in its frequency. The days were the Jewish Sabbath, with other times of religious observance appointed by the law. The months were probably the new moons-days indeed, but observed with periodical exactness: Isa 66:23. The seventh month had a sacredness attached to it like the seventh day. The were the seasons of festival, as the passover, pentecost, and feast of tabernacles: Lev 23:4; 2Ch 8:13. The , years, may be the seventh or sabbatic year and the year of jubilee. Compare Jdt 8:6; Philo, De Septen. p. 286. The two last terms do not stand for (Borger, Wahl).
The order of the terms is progressive-days, months, seasons, years. The last, supposing it to refer to the sabbatic year, they could not have observed more than once; and to infer from the present tense of the verb that they were then in the act of observing such a year, is in the highest degree precarious. Wieseler so calculates it, that from autumn 54 to autumn 55 there was a sabbatic year, within which period the epistle was written during the apostle’s sojourn at Ephesus. Chronologie des Apostolischen Zeitalters, p. 287. But the epistle may have been written from Macedonia two or three years later. Michaelis, from the allusion to a sabbatic year in 1Ma 6:53, which he places 162 years B.C., finds that the 49th year after Christ was the thirtieth sabbatic year from that period, and therefore he dates this epistle in 49. But he admits his ignorance as to the Jewish mode of calculation, whether they uniformly adhered to the seventh year on its recurrence, or began a new reckoning from the year of jubilee; as in the former case the 56th year would be the sacred year, and in the other it would be the 57th. Introduction by Marsh, vol. iv. p. 11. The sabbatic year and that of jubilee applied only to Canaan, its soil and the people on it; and it is not easy to see how it could be kept in other countries where Jews might own no land, nor engage in its cultivation. The reconstitution of society every fiftieth or jubilee year belongs also to the promised land, as really as the sacrifices to the central altar in Jerusalem, and its arrangements could not have been to any extent carried out among foreigners. If the statement in 2Ch 36:21, Until the land enjoyed her sabbaths, for as long as she remained desolate she kept sabbath to fulfil threescore and ten years, mean that those years of desolation are a penalty chronologically parallel to a series of neglected sabbatic years, then the neglect must have extended backward 490 years, dating from the time of Solomon. These sabbatic years might be early neglected; for a nation that could subsist without cultivation of the soil for a year must either store up with cautious forethought, or enjoy a signal blessing from the God of the seasons. Such storing was not enjoined, as direct fulness of blessing was promised; but during so many periods of apostasy the promise of temporal abundance would be suspended, and the observance of the sabbatic year fall into desuetude. Lev 25:18-22. But the year of jubilee, fraught with so many kind provisions to the slave, the debtor, and the poor, and involving so many changes of social relation to rural property, was more likely to be partially observed, for those to be especially benefited by it would naturally clamour for it. The prophets do not upbraid the nation for neglecting it; Josephus asserts that it was kept; and there is no ground for Michaelis and Winer to question its observance, or for Kranold and Hupfeld to deny it. Diodorus also makes allusion to the strict entail of Jewish property, and the testimony of Jewish tradition is unanimous on the point. Saalschtz, Das Mosaische Recht, xiii.; Keil, Handbuch d. Bib. Archol. vol. i. p. 374. No such stress can be laid, as Ginsburg does, on Eze 46:17 as to the uniform keeping of the jubilee; for the chapter is an ideal sketch of a re-distribution of the territory, and the re-organization of the national worship. Art. Jubilee, Kitto, Bib. Cyclop. 3d edition.
It is going too far on the part of Bullinger and Olshausen to affirm, that in this verse by synecdoche a part is put for the whole, i.e. the customs mentioned stand for all the customs. Nor can it be, as Rckert says, that only such customs are mentioned as were common to Jews and Gentiles; for, as Olshausen remarks, no relapse to Gentilism is apprehended. The apostle does not certainly speak of two of the Jewish elements-distinction of meats and drinks, and circumcision. There is no substantial evidence for saying that, as proselytes, those Galatians had been circumcised already; for it may be, as Meyer observes, that they had not yet relapsed so far as to be circumcised:5:2, 3, 12, Gal 6:12-13. The accumulation of terms of time, not meant to be exhaustive, may denote generally sacred periods, or it may be a rhetorical description of those who observed times and seasons (Alford). Dean Alford adds, Notice how utterly such a verse is at variance with any and every theory of a Christian Sabbath, cutting at the root, as it does, of ALL obligatory observance of times as such. This generalization is far too sweeping; for,
1. It makes assertion on a subject which is not before the mind of the apostle at all. Nothing is further from his thoughts, or his course of rebuke and expostulation, than the Christian Sabbath and its theme-the resurrection of Christ.
2. The apostle is not condemning the obligatory observances of times as such, but he is condemning the observance only of the times which the Galatians, in their relapse into Judaism, kept as sacred; for their keeping of such Jewish festivals was the proof and result of their partial apostasy.
3. Nor is it even Jewish festivals as such which he condemns, for both before and after this period he observed some of them himself.
But, first, he condemns the Galatian Gentiles for observing sacred Jewish seasons, which, not being intended for them, had therefore no authority over them. The Gentile keeping of Jewish sabbaths, or of passovers, pentecosts, new moons, and jubilees, was in itself a wrong thing-a perilous blunder then as it would be a wretched anachronism now. And secondly, he condemns the observance of these times, because the Galatians regarded such observance as essential to salvation, and as supplementing faith in the atoning work of Christ. These limitations are plainly supplied by the context, and the true theory of a Christian Sabbath, or rather Lord’s day, is not in the least involved in the discussion.
The apostle having described their perilous and unsatisfactory condition, adds in sorrowful tone-
Fuente: Commentary on the Greek Text of Galatians, Ephesians, Colossians and Phillipians
Verse 10. Paul specifies some of the elements to which he referred in the preceding verse, namely, the observance of days, and months, and times, and years. This refers to the holy days and seasons that were required of the Jews under the Mosaic law, but which had ceased to be in force for religious purposes even to Jews; the Gentiles had no connection with them at any time for any purpose.
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
Gal 4:10. Do ye (scrupulously) observe days, and months, and seasons, and years? The interrogative form gives more vicacity to the passage and more weight to Gal 4:11. If it is not a question, it must be taken as an exclamation of painful surprise: Is it possible that you should observe! The Apostle means a Judaistic, slavish, and superstitious observance which ascribes an intrinsic holiness to particular days and seasons (as if the other days and seasons were in themselves profane), and which makes such observance a necessary condition of justification (as if faith in Christ were not sufficient for justification). Such observance virtually derives salvation in some sense from the elements of nature, like the sun and the moon, which regulate the festival seasons. The polemic of Paul is equally applicable to a Judaizing, that is, slavish, superstitious, and self-righteous observance of Sunday or any other Christian festival. But there is also a free, evangelical, and spiritual observance of holy days and seasons, which is essential to proper order in social worship, and which the Apostle was far from condemning, since he himself distinguished in some way the first day of the week in commemoration of the resurrection (Act 20:7; 1Co 16:2), and also the Passover and Pentecostal seasons (Act 18:21; Act 20:6; Act 20:16; 1Co 5:7-8).Days, the weekly sabbaths, and other single holy days and fast days. Some English commentators would exclude the weekly Sabbath, since it is enjoined in the Decalogue; but this is arbitrary and contrary to the parallel passage, Col 2:16 (sabbath days). Paul denounces the Pharisaic Sabbatarianism, as Christ Himself had done by word and example. It was a pedantic, mechanical, slavish observance which worshipped the letter and killed the spirit. Even Rabbi Gamaliel, Pauls teacher, and one of the most liberal of the Pharisees, was unwilling to unload his ass laden with honey on a sabbath day, and let the poor animal die. This was considered a proof of great piety. But it is a serious error to inter from this passage (and Col 2:16; Rom 14:5) that the Sabbath is abolished in the Christian dispensation. The law of the Sabbath, i.e., of one weekly day of holy rest in God (the seventh in the Jewish, the first in the Christian Church) is as old as the creation, it is founded in the moral and physical constitution of man, it was instituted in Paradise, incorporated in the Decalogue on Mount Sinai, put on a new foundation by the resurrection of Christ, and is an absolute necessity for public worship and the welfare of man. The Sabbath is made for man, that is, instituted by God for mans spiritual and temporal benefit. So marriage is made for man, government is made for man. But the Judaizers reversed the order and made the Sabbath an end instead of a means, and a burden instead of a blessing.Months, the new moons (comp. Col 2:16), which were kept as joyful festivals by the Jews (Num 28:11-15, especially those of the seventh month, which had the same sacredness among the months of the year as the sabbath among the days of the week.Seasons, the festival seasons, which lasted several days, as the Passover, Pentecost, and the Feast or Tabernacles (Lev 23:4).Years, sabbatical (i.e., every seventh) and jubilee (every fiftieth) years (Lev 25:2-17). This does not necessarily imply that the Galatians were then actually celebrating a sabbatical year according to the Mosaic ritual; the plural speaks against such a supposition. But this point belonged to their theory, which consistently must have led them to a corresponding practice as soon as the occasion presented itself.
Fuente: A Popular Commentary on the New Testament
St. Paul here gives instances to the Galatians, wherein it did appear, that they brought themselves under an unnecessary bondage to the rites of the ceremonial law; he tells them plainly, that they kept the ceremonial sabbaths, feasts and fasts, as if that law was obligatory, and still binding: “Ye observe days, that is, the Jewish sabbath days, and new moons; and months, as the feast of the first month, and of the seventh month; and times, that is, the times of their solemn festivals for going up to Jerusalem, as the Passover, Pentecost, and feast of tabernacles; and years, as the sabbatical years, and years of Jubilee. This, says the apostle, makes me afraid of you, that I have preached the gospel, and the doctrine of free justification by faith, in vain to you; because you leave the doctrine I taught you, and put your confidence in observing those legal ceremonial rites.”
Learn hence, 1. That the work of the ministry is a laborious work; I have bestowed upon you labour, says St. Paul. A minister’s life is not a life of ease, but of much toil and pains, a labouring unto faintness and weariness, as the word here used doth import and signify.
Learn, 2. That the most laborious ministers and lively preachers may sometimes see so little fruit of their labours and endeavours, that they may have just cause to fear that few are savingly converted by their ministry: St. Paul here was afraid lest he had laboured in vain among the Galatians.
Learn, 3. That in order to the success of our ministry, we must not content ourselves with a reproof of sin in general, but must descend to particulars, and give instances of those several and distinct sins which our people are guilty of, and ought to fall under our reproof for. Thus the apostle here gives particular instances of the sins formerly reproved, in their observing days, and months, and times, and years. Generals, we say, do not affect; but particular reproofs are more piercing, and more convincing; When we say to the sinner, as Nathan to David, Thou art the man; this, if anything, will stick close to the conscience.
Fuente: Expository Notes with Practical Observations on the New Testament
Ye observe days, and months, and seasons, and years.
Fuente: McGarvey and Pendleton Commentaries (New Testament)
Verse 10
Ye observe; that is, religiously; depending upon such observances for acceptance with God.
Fuente: Abbott’s Illustrated New Testament
Ye observe days, and months, and times, and years.
They not only had taken on part of Judaism, but they must have been adhering to the days and celebrations of the law. They were returning to those elemental things of Jewish life rather than rejoicing in the freedoms of grace.
Times means an unspecified amount of time as opposed to the other terms in the verse which specify specific amounts of time.
Most commentaries relate this to the Jewish days that were to be observed in the law. It may relate to the overemphasis and critical attitude of some today that almost require church attendance anytime the doors of the church are open.
Church attendance is important, but to miss now and then is not going to hinder your entrance into heaven nor your walk with God. We need to remember this. Most pastors relate someone missing one of their sermons as close to rejecting all truth. Yes, the messages are important, but not quite salvation keeping important.
I once made the comment that I was not going to a church service, due to the fact that they were having some music special that did not appeal to me – I was a marked man, I was an unspiritual man, I was a man that didn’t support my church, I was a man that didn’t support my pastor – ya, right!
Fuente: Mr. D’s Notes on Selected New Testament Books by Stanley Derickson
The Judaizers had urged Paul’s readers to observe the Mosaic rituals. Here the annual feasts are in view. Paul despaired that they were going backward and that much of his labor for them was futile. They were not acting like heirs of God.
". . . Paul was always against any idea of soteriological legalism-i.e., that false understanding of the law by which people think they can turn God’s revelatory standard to their own advantage, thereby gaining divine favor and acceptance. This, too, the prophets of Israel denounced, for legalism so defined was never a legitimate part of Israel’s religion. The Judaizers of Galatia, in fact, would probably have disowned ’legalism’ as well, though Paul saw that their insistence on a life of Jewish ’nomism’ for his Gentile converts actually took matters right back to the crucial issue as to whether acceptance before God was based on ’the works of the law’ or faith in what Christ had effected. . . .
"Yet while not legalistic, the religion of Israel, as contained in the OT and all forms of ancient and modern Judaism, is avowedly ’nomistic’-i.e., it views the Torah, both Scripture and tradition, as supervising the lives of God’s own, so that all questions of conduct are ultimately measured against the touchstone of Torah and all of life is directed by Torah. . . .
". . . Judaism speaks of itself as being Torah-centered and Christianity declares itself to be Christ-centered, for in Christ the Christian finds not only God’s law as the revelatory standard preeminently expressed but also the law as a system of conduct set aside in favor of guidance by reference to Christ’s teachings and example and through the direct action of the Spirit." [Note: Longenecker, pp. 176, 177.]
Paul himself observed the Jewish feasts after his conversion (cf. 1Co 16:8; Act 20:16). However he did so voluntarily, not to satisfy divine requirements. He did not observe them because God expected him to do so but because they were a part of his cultural heritage. He also did so because he did not want to cast a stumbling block in the path of Jews coming to faith in Christ (1Co 9:19-23; cf. Rom 14:5-6). In other words, he did so to evangelize effectively, not to gain acceptance from God.
"In recent years some have argued that all or at least most of the laws that these interlopers were pressing on the Galatians were the legislative pieces that established ’boundary markers’-the practices that differentiated Jews from other people, in particular circumcision, food laws, and Sabbath. Paul wants those things dropped because he wants to build a unified church composed of Jew and Gentile alike, and the boundary markers inevitably provoke division. Certainly Paul is constantly at pains to unite Jewish Christians and Gentile Christians. Nevertheless, this ’new perspective’ on Paul is too narrow. Paul cast the function of the law in more sweeping terms than boundary markers (esp. chap. 3), not least its capacity to establish transgression (Gal 3:19), and he ties the heart of his debate to the exclusive sufficiency of the cross of Christ to see a person declared ’just’ before God." [Note: Carson and Moo, p. 466. See also pp. 470-72.]