Why could Paul say Hagar speaks of the Law given at Sinai when writing to the Galatians?
Paul could identify Hagar with Mount Sinai because Sinai represents the giving of the Ten Commandments, and the Law remained tied to Jerusalem’s Temple worship. Writing around A.D. 60, a decade before the Temple’s destruction, Paul addressed a time when sacrifices and Temple-centered Judaism were still active and binding.
Les explains that Paul is using the same analogy that the Law was the flesh, and it was like a yoke that only brought bondage. Hagar is typically Mount Sinai in Arabia, and Sinai is associated with the Ten Commandments; thus Hagar is a picture of the giving of the Ten Commandments on Mount Sinai. Les emphasizes chronology and history: Galatians was written about A.D. 60, and the Temple was destroyed in A.D. 70. So ten years before the Temple’s destruction, Temple worship and daily sacrifices, hundreds of them, were still going on in Jerusalem. The Temple was the very center of all Jewish activity when Paul wrote Galatians. That is why Paul could say Hagar speaks of the Law as it was given at Sinai, which was still indicative of Temple worship at the time Paul was writing his letter to the Galatians.
For this Agar is mount Sinai in Arabia, and answereth to Jerusalem which now is, and is in bondage with her children.
More Questions
What does Hagar represent in Galatians 4?
Hagar represents the covenant from Mount Sinai, which is the Mosaic Law, and that covenant produces bondage.