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Translation
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What the Fathers say
Eastern Fathers
John Chrysostom
The word "child" in this place denotes not age but understanding; meaning that God had from the beginning designed for us these gifts, but, as we yet continued childish, He let us be under the elements of the world, that is, new moons and sabbaths, for these days are regulated by the course of sun and moon. If then also now they bring you under law they do nothing else but lead you backward now in the time of your perfect age and maturity. …
Oecumenius
For what reason? Because it was decided by the father that he should manage nothing until the lawful age. And he rightly produced the example of the infant. For just as that child, though master of all things, is prevented by his infancy from exercising control over his possessions, so we too, because our mind has long been youthful, are hindered from being deemed worthy of adoption as children of God. …
Clement of Alexandria
"Since, when we were children," says the same apostle, "we were kept in bondage under the rudiments of the world. And the child, though heir, differeth nothing from a servant, till the time appointed of the father." Philosophers, then, are children, unless they have been made men by Christ. "For if the son of the bond woman shall not be heir with the son of the free," at least he is the seed of Abraham, though not of promise, receiving what belongs to him by free gift.
Western Saints
Jerome
However, I say that as long as the heir is a child, he is no different from a slave, even though he is the Lord of all, but he is under guardians and managers until the appointed time by the father. This little heir, who is no different from a slave even though he is the Lord of all, is under guardians and managers until the appointed time by the father, represents the whole human race until the coming of Christ, and, to say more, until the end of the world. …
Thomas Aquinas
After pointing out the shortcoming of the Law, the Apostle then shows here the dignity of grace. First, with a human example; secondly, with an example from Scripture (v. 21). Regarding the first he does three things: First, he shows the pre-eminence of grace over the primitive state of the Old Law by a simile taken from human law; Secondly, he shows that they have been made partakers of this pre-eminence through faith (v. 6); Thirdly, he censures them for disdaining this pre-eminence (v. 8). …
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