# Vos and Calvin on Galatians and the Allegory of Two Covenants



## PuritanCovenanter (Jun 8, 2015)

This is a question I have due to a Reformed Forum Blog about Vos' view on the Mosaic Covenant. In this post the allegory of Two Covenants in Galatians is mentioned. 
Has anyone reading this compared Vos's view with that of Calvin's view in his Commentary on Galatians? It seems they have differing opinions as I understand things. I just want to make sure I am understanding both theologians. The following is part of Calvin's comments on Galatians 4:24



> “But all this may, at first sight, appear absurd; for there are none of God’s children who are not born to freedom, and therefore the comparison does not apply. I answer, what Paul says is true in two respects; for the law formerly brought forth its disciples, (among whom were included the holy prophets, and other believers,) to slavery, though not to permanent slavery, but because God placed them for a time under the law as “a schoolmaster.” (Galatians 3:25.) Under the vail of ceremonies, and of the whole economy by which they were governed, their freedom was concealed: to the outward eye nothing but slavery appeared. “Ye have not,” says Paul to the Romans, “received the spirit of bondage again to fear.” (Romans 8:15.) Those holy fathers, though inwardly they were free in the sight of God, yet in outward appearance differed nothing from slaves, and thus resembled their mother’s condition. But the doctrine of the gospel bestows upon its children perfect freedom as soon as they are born, and brings them up in a liberal manner.
> 
> …What, then, is the gendering to bondage, which forms the subject of the present dispute? It denotes those who make a wicked abuse of the law, by finding in it nothing but what tends to slavery. Not so the pious fathers, who lived under the Old Testament; for their slavish birth by the law did not hinder them from having Jerusalem for their mother in spirit. But those who adhere to the bare law, and do not acknowledge it to be “a schoolmaster to bring them to Christ,” (Galatians 3:24,) but rather make it a hinderance to prevent their coming to him, are the Ishmaelites born to slavery.
> 
> ...



The main question I have is do Calvin and Vos differ? If so, how do they differ as you see it?
Thanks to anyone who takes the time to help out in this query.
( Vos' view can found here http://feedingonchrist.com/geerhardus-vos-mosaic-covenant-covenant-grace/ )


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## mvdm (Jun 9, 2015)

Vos said:



> And by this misuse, the covenant of grace of Sinai was in fact made into a Hagarite covenant, a covenant giving birth to servitude, as Paul describes it in Gal 4:24. There he has in view not the covenant as it should be, but as it could easily become through misuse.



It appears to me that Vos and Calvin similarly follow the traditional interpretation of the Sinai/Jerusalem analogy as referring to the "misuse" of the law as one engendering "servitude".


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