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33 They answered him, “We are descendants of Abraham and have never been enslaved to anyone.[a] How can you say, ‘You will become free’?”(A)

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Footnotes

  1. 8:33 Have never been enslaved to anyone: since, historically, the Jews were enslaved almost continuously, this verse is probably Johannine irony, about slavery to sin.

39 [a]They answered and said to him, “Our father is Abraham.” Jesus said to them,(A) “If you were Abraham’s children, you would be doing the works of Abraham.

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Footnotes

  1. 8:39 The works of Abraham: Abraham believed; cf. Rom 4:11–17; Jas 2:21–23.

nor are they all children of Abraham because they are his descendants; but “It is through Isaac that descendants shall bear your name.”(A) This means that it is not the children of the flesh who are the children of God, but the children of the promise are counted as descendants.(B)

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21 Tell me, you who want to be under the law, do you not listen to the law? 22 For it is written that Abraham had two sons, one by the slave woman and the other by the freeborn woman.(A) 23 The son of the slave woman was born naturally, the son of the freeborn through a promise.(B) 24 Now this is an allegory. These women represent two covenants. One was from Mount Sinai, bearing children for slavery; this is Hagar.(C) 25 Hagar represents Sinai,[a] a mountain in Arabia; it corresponds to the present Jerusalem, for she is in slavery along with her children. 26 But the Jerusalem above is freeborn, and she is our mother.(D) 27 For it is written:

“Rejoice, you barren one who bore no children;(E)
    break forth and shout, you who were not in labor;
for more numerous are the children of the deserted one
    than of her who has a husband.”[b]

28 Now you, brothers, like Isaac, are children of the promise.(F) 29 But just as then the child of the flesh persecuted the child of the spirit, it is the same now. 30 But what does the scripture say?

“Drive out the slave woman and her son!
    For the son of the slave woman shall not share the inheritance with the son”(G)

of the freeborn. 31 Therefore, brothers, we are children not of the slave woman but of the freeborn woman.(H)

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Footnotes

  1. 4:25 Hagar represents Sinai…: some manuscripts have what seems a geographical note, “For Sinai is a mountain in Arabia.”
  2. 4:27 Is 54:1 in the Septuagint translation is applied to Sarah as the barren one (in Gn 15) who ultimately becomes the mother not only of Isaac but now of numerous children, i.e., of all those who believe, the children of the promise (Gal 4:28).