What Does Galatians 3:24 Mean?

(24) **The law was our schoolmaster.**—Not quite a satisfactory translation; yet it is difficult to suggest a better. The Greek word is that from which is derived the English “pedagogue.” Originally it meant the slave who was placed in charge of a child, and whose duty it was to conduct it to school. The idea is that of moral rather than of intellectual discipline. The care of the “pedagogue” ceased where that of the school-master began, but it was he who had more especially to form the character of the child. Horace notes as a peculiar advantage of his own that his father himself had taken the place of pedagogue to him (*Sat.* i. 6, 81, 82). **To bring us unto Christ.**—The words “to bring us,” it will be seen, are supplied. They may be retained, provided that the metaphor is not pressed to the extent of supposing that Christ represents the schoolmaster proper to whom the child is led by the pedagogue slave. The work of Christ as a *Teacher* is not what the Apostle has in mind. It is rather a higher kind of guardianship, which is to succeed that of the Law, and to which the Law *hands over* its pupil. Once brought within the guardianship of Christ, and so made a member of the Messianic kingdom, the Christian is *justified by faith,* he receives an amnesty for his past sins, and is accounted righteous before God. (See Epistle to the Romans, *Excursus E: On the Doctrine of Justification by Faith and Imputed Righteousness.*)