What does this quote from the Bible mean to you?"?

Question

From Galatians 4 "Be happy, you childless woman! Shout and cry with joy, you who have never felt the pains of childbirth! For the woman who was deserted will have more children than the woman whose husband never left her."

Answer 1

It's actually a re-quote from Isaiah 54:1. In Galatians, Paul is comparing the Jews living under the Mosaic Law (or Sinai Covenant) to Hagar, the servant who bore Abraham's first child Ishmael. He contrasts this image with the Christians under the "New Covenant" of Christ's sacrifice, whom he compares to Abraham's wife Sarah, who eventually bore a single son Isaac, the heir of God's covenant with Abraham.

Since Ishmael was not the promised heir, his prior birth did not matter. Sarah was old and considered barren, so Isaac's unlikely birth showed God's intervention and approval. Even though he was only one son, his descendants eventually comprised the nation of Israel.

The allegory is to the Jews and the Christians. Even though the Jewish Covenant was older, it was no longer the covenant of God's promise, as the Christian covenant was. Paul implies that the Jews are "enslaved" to an outmoded Law and that the unimpressive followers of Christ will eventually outnumber them, with God's support.

The analogy is a little stretched. Sarah and Hagar effectively switch roles in Paul's reinterpretation. This didn't earn Paul high marks for Jewish outreach.

Answer 2

It's a quote from the Old Testament when not having children was the equivelent of not having contributed anything to the world at all - a source of great shame.

Paul (the guy who wrote Galatians) saw himself as existing so that non-Jewish people could know this God who had made himself known to the Jewish people as Jesus.

Paul is talking to the non-Jewish (Gentile) people who so far (through no fault of their own) hadn't contributed anything to the Kingdom of God. Paul is saying "Don't feel ashamed because you haven't seen God use you like the Jewish people, because God will use you in a more powerful way than even the Jewish people" - and you can see this - Now more people have come to know God through non-Jews than through Jews but this would have been unthinkable a couple of decades after Jesus was on earth.

I love the book of Galatians because it talks so much about how it's not about the good stuff we do or don't do, but God loves to include us and make us good just because he loves us. We can never do enough good stuff - but that's ok because if we're up for it, God will do all the work - he will transform us to be like him and we just have to let it happen...

Martin Luther loved it so much for this reason he called it his Katie von Bora (the name of his wife!)

Hope you find answers to your other questions and see how cool this book is...
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Answer 3

We have to put this into historical context. For the woman of ancient Galatia, giving her husband children, especially boys, was viewed as the highest contribution she could make to society. This was a way to give comfort to childless women that in the next life they would have the opportunity to be mothers. This is a very good example of the rhetoric with which Christianity was able to appeal to the masses of disenfranchised persons within the Roman Empire.

Answer 4

I think it means that the woman that has no child should be happy that she has never had to go through the pain of childbirth and that she will be a mother to all the children in the villiage, town, or where ever she lives. Kind of like a aunt that helps mother her nefews and nieces.

Answer 5

This is a quote from the Old Testament Book of Isaiah, Chapter 54:1, and is interpreted by the Apostle Paul as referring to the Gentiles (Non-Jews), who would be converted and reconciled to God through the Gospel, even though they were barren and unmarried previously to the Lord. The People of Israel are often spoken of figuratively as being married to the Lord.
It is saying that the converts among the Gentiles would exceed the number of believers among God's Jewish People.

Answer 6

The entire quote from Mark 12:30-31 reads: "Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength. The second is this: Love your neighbor as yourself. There is no commandment greater than these.” Note, the last word "these" is plural, referring to the two verses, not just the one. In a nutshell, it is the 10 Commandments. The first four refer to our relationshp with God; the last six our relationship with our neighbor, who is everyone n the planet. In both cases we should not regard ourselves more favorably than anyone else, especially God.

Answer 7

It simply means that there are way too many children who only have a mother because the father didn't stay with the mother and it's speaking to the childless woman who has a husband and telling her that she can help other women who do have many children.

Answer 8

we were babes continued enslaved be the elmentary things belongling to the world but when the full limit of the time arrived god sent forth his son .that we in turn might receive the adoption as sons .abraham acquired two sons one by a servant girl and one by a free woman through a promise. ones are from the servant girl and the others are free to the woman that is barren

Answer 9

I am one of those who was married and ended up raising my kids. The funny thing is that I was an only child and had three kids.
My best friend was one of thirteen kids, married a single dad and raised his kids and when they were out of school the husband left her.So she ended up a single person with no kids and went travel ling to Israel and all over,then came home and was told that she would have to have a hysterectomy.
She kept whining and complaining about never having her own kids complaining that God never answered her prayers..
I finally got fed up with her and told her lovingly that God had blessed her all her life, surrounding her with kids to take care of starting with her younger siblings. And she had the privilege of raising two boys that loved her as though she were their real mom. I had three kids, and never had been around kids my whole life until I had them and I had to do it alone and go to work
while worrying about what they were doing when I wasn't home.
She was a housewife while I was working two jobs plus coming home and cooking and cleaning also.
Which do you think had an easier life? I asked her?
She hasn't spoken to me since. We had been best friends since 1st grade. And we were in our 40's when this question came up.
I still love her though.

Answer 10

No thats not in Galatians 4. Try again