The Children of the Barren Woman: Galatians 4:27 and the Hermeneutics of Justification

Abstract

In Gal 4:27, Paul offers a citation from Isa 54:1 as proof for his assertion in v. 26 that it is “the Jerusalem above” that is “our mother.” The citation poses an obvious hermeneutical riddle: on what basis does Paul include uncircumcised Gentiles in Galatia among the children born to the restored Jerusalem? This article proposes a solution to that riddle, based on a reading of the salvation-historical hermeneutical framework constructed in the preceding chapters of the letter and suggests some implications for how we are to understand the relationship between Gentile inclusion and salvation by grace within the grand narrative that informs Paul's theology of justification.