Galatia 4:21

An Appeal from Allegory

4:21 Tell me, you who want to be under the law, do you not understand the law? ¹ 

Galatia 3:13

3:13 Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming ²  a curse for us (because it is written, “Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree”) ³ 

[4:21]  ¹ tn Or “will you not hear what the law says?” The Greek verb ἀκούω (akouw) means “hear, listen to,” but by figurative extension it can also mean “obey.” It can also refer to the process of comprehension that follows hearing, and that sense fits the context well here.

[3:13]  ² tn Grk “having become”; the participle γενόμενος (genomenos) has been taken instrumentally.

[3:13]  ³ sn A quotation from Deut 21:23. By figurative extension the Greek word translated tree (ζύλον, zulon) can also be used to refer to a cross (L&N 6.28), the Roman instrument of execution.