| Geneva Study Bible Which things are an allegory: for {z} these are the {a} two covenants; the one from the mount {b} Sinai, which gendereth to bondage, which is Agar. (z) These represent and symbolize. (a) They are called two covenants, one of the Old Testament, and another of the New: which were not two indeed, but in respect of the times, and the diversity of the manner of ruling. (b) He makes mention of Sinai, because that covenant was made in that mountain, of which mountain Hagar was a symbol. People's New Testament 4:24 Which things are an allegory. Though literally true, the facts had an allegorical interpretation. The two women and their children were types. For these are the two covenants. One, the bondwoman, represents the covenant given at Sinai, the covenant of bondage. The other, the freewoman, represents the covenant of Christ, the gospel. Wesley's Notes 4:24 Which things are an allegory - An allegory is a figurative speech, wherein one thing is expressed, and another intended. For those two sons are types of the two covenants. One covenant is that given from mount Sinai, which beareth children to bondage - That is, all who are under this, the Jewish covenant, are in bondage. Which covenant is typified by Agar. King James Translators' Notes covenants: or, testaments Sinai: Gr. Sina Scofield Reference Notes Margin Agar Hagar. Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary 24. are an allegory-rather, "are allegorical," that is, have another besides the literal meaning. these are the two covenants-"these [women] are (that is, mean; omit 'the' with all the oldest manuscripts) two covenants." As among the Jews the bondage of the mother determined that of the child, the children of the free covenant of promise, answering to Sarah, are free; the children of the legal covenant of bondage are not so. one from-that is, taking his origin from Mount Sinai. Hence, it appears, he is treating of the moral law (Ga 3:19) chiefly (Heb 12:18). Paul was familiar with the district of Sinai in Arabia (Ga 1:17), having gone thither after his conversion. At the gloomy scene of the giving of the Law, he learned to appreciate, by contrast, the grace of the Gospel, and so to cast off all his past legal dependencies. which gendereth-that is, bringing forth children unto bondage. Compare the phrase (Ac 3:25), "children of the covenant which God made . saying unto Abraham." Agar-that is, Hagar. Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary 4:21-27 The difference between believers who rested in Christ only, and those who trusted in the law, is explained by the histories of Isaac and Ishmael. These things are an allegory, wherein, beside the literal and historical sense of the words, the Spirit of God points out something further. Hagar and Sarah were apt emblems of the two different dispensations of the covenant. The heavenly Jerusalem, the true church from above, represented by Sarah, is in a state of freedom, and is the mother of all believers, who are born of the Holy Spirit. They were by regeneration and true faith, made a part of the true seed of Abraham, according to the promise made to him. | 
