Now Paul attempts to show that one subsequent covenant cannot violate the provisions of a previous covenant (3:15–18). Specifically, another agreement, made some 430 years later (3:17), cannot alter the provisions of the covenant made earlier with Abraham. The NIV’s “let me take an example from everyday life” (3:15) is a rather free rendering of the Greek “I speak as a man”; yet the idea that Paul is drawing an illustration from human relationships is a valid description of these verses. Covenantal agreements were made under the most sober circumstances, calling for a life-and-death commitment from the participants. They were not easily entered into or easily altered.

Simply put, Paul is arguing that no one acquainted with the Abrahamic covenant could mistake the Mosaic law as its fulfil…