Paul now concludes his discussion with a statement of what he had been trying to say to the Galatians through this rather complicated and involved allegorical argument. Appropriately, he starts with so then, marking what follows as a conclusion of what has been said (Knox “you see, then”; New American Bible “therefore”).

Once more there is a shift in pronouns from the second person plural you of verse 28 to a first person plural we. This we should be understood as inclusive, referring to all members of the Christian community, including Paul himself.

Paul maintains the figure of sonship. He denies that we are … the children of a slave woman and affirms that we are children of a free woman. One should note that there is no definite article before slave woman, thus emphasizing that slavery is not a monopoly of the Jewish system. What Paul is saying is that we are not children of any slave woman, whether it be Judaistic legalism or any form of heathen ritual and practice. The statement we are not the children of a slave woman must be marked as a simile in some languages, for example, “we are not, so to speak, the children of a woman who was a slave.” In this context it may be necessary in certain languages to translate a free woman as “a wife who is free” or “a wife who is not a slave.” This is required since in this type of context a free woman could be misconstrued as a woman of “free morals.”

Quoted with permission from Arichea, Daniel C. and Nida, Eugene A. A Handbook on Paul’s Letter to the Galatians. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1976. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .