Galatians 3:24
23 Now before faith came we were held in custody under the law, being kept as prisoners until the coming faith would be revealed. 24 Thus the law had become our guardian until Christ, so that we could be declared righteous by faith. 25 But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a guardian. 26 For in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God through faith. 27 For all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. 28 There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female—for all of you are one in Christ Jesus. 29 And if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s descendants, heirs according to the promise.
Genesis Rabbah 1
AggadahThe great Rabbi Hoshaya opened [with the verse (Mishlei 8:30),] “I [the Torah] was an amon to Him and I was a plaything to Him every day.” Amon means “pedagogue” (i.e., nanny). Amon means “covered.” Amon means “hidden.” And there is one who says amon means “great.” Amon means “nanny,” as in (Bamidbar 11:12) ‘As a nanny (omein) carries the suckling child.’ Amon means “covered,” as in (Eichah 4:5) ‘Those who were covered (emunim) in scarlet have embraced refuse heaps.’ Amon means “hidden,” as in (Esther 2:7) ‘He hid away (omein) Hadassah.’ Amon means “great,” as in (Nahum 3:8) ‘Are you better than No-amon [which dwells in the rivers]?’ which the Targum renders as, ‘Are you better than Alexandria the Great (amon), which dwells between the rivers?’ Alternatively, amon means “artisan.” The Torah is saying, ‘I was the artisan’s tool of Hashem.’ In the way of the world, a king of flesh and blood who builds a castle does not do so from his own knowledge, but rather from the knowledge of an architect, and the architect does not build it from his own knowledge, but rather he has scrolls and books in order to know how to make rooms and doorways. So too Hashem gazed into the Torah and created the world. Similarly, the Torah says, ‘Through the reishis Hashem created [the heavens and the earth],’ and reishis means Torah, as in ‘Hashem made me [the Torah] the beginning (reishis) of His way’ (Mishlei 8:22).”
Notes and References
"... The custom of having a pedagogue was so common in Paul's day that any of his readers would have well understood his meaning. "When Paul depicts the Law as a 'pedagogue' in the period of history before Jesus Christ came as 'the offspring' of Abraham, and those 'under the Law' as children 'under a pedagogue,' he introduces a conceptual field behind which there is a wealth of virtually universal experience in antiquity." References to a παιδαγωγός are found frequently in Jewish rabbinic writings, "where the Hellenistic origin of the concept is shown by the fact that pedagogue is a Greek loan word." A number of parables in the Genesis Rabbah use the word "pedagogue." Also Josephus referred to a παιδαγωγός a number of times in his writings and even wrote of his own son being under such an arrangement. Paul, however, introduced a new concept in using παιδαγωγός as a metaphor for the Law ... From such a collection of Greek and Jewish references it can be seen that Paul's use of pedagogue in Galatians 3:24-25, though creatively applied, is not an isolated phenomenon ..."
Smith, Michael J. The Role of the Pedagogue in Galatians (pp. 197-214) Bibliotheca Sacra, 2006