Galatia 4:17

4:17 They court you eagerly, ¹  but for no good purpose; ²  they want to exclude you, so that you would seek them eagerly. ³ 

Galatia 5:16

5:16 But I say, live ⁴  by the Spirit and you will not carry out the desires of the flesh. ⁵ 

Galatia 3:17

3:17 What I am saying is this: The law that came four hundred thirty years later does not cancel a covenant previously ratified by God, ⁶  so as to invalidate the promise.

Galatia 3:19

3:19 Why then was the law given? ⁷  It was added ⁸  because of transgressions, ⁹  until the arrival of the descendant ¹⁰  to whom the promise had been made. It was administered ¹¹  through angels by an intermediary. ¹² 

Galatia 4:1

4:1 Now I mean that the heir, as long as he is a minor, ¹³  is no different from a slave, though he is the owner ¹⁴  of everything.

Galatia 4:18

4:18 However, it is good ¹⁵  to be sought eagerly ¹⁶  for a good purpose ¹⁷  at all times, and not only when I am present with you.

Galatia 6:12

6:12 Those who want to make a good showing in external matters ¹⁸  are trying to force you to be circumcised. They do so ¹⁹  only to avoid being persecuted ²⁰  for the cross of Christ.

Galatia 1:7

1:7 not that there really is another gospel, ²¹  but ²²  there are some who are disturbing you and wanting ²³  to distort the gospel of Christ.

Galatia 4:5

4:5 to redeem those who were under the law, so that we may be adopted as sons with full rights. ²⁴ 

Galatia 5:3

5:3 And I testify again to every man who lets himself be circumcised that he is obligated to obey ²⁵  the whole law.

Galatia 3:16

3:16 Now the promises were spoken to Abraham and to his descendant. ²⁶  Scripture ²⁷  does not say, “and to the descendants,” ²⁸  referring to many, but “and to your descendant,” ²⁹  referring to one, who is Christ.

Galatia 4:27

4:27 For it is written:

“Rejoice, O barren woman who does not bear children; ³⁰ 

break forth and shout, you who have no birth pains,

because the children of the desolate woman are more numerous

than those of the woman who has a husband.” ³¹ 

Galatia 2:2

2:2 I went there ³²  because of ³³  a revelation and presented ³⁴  to them the gospel that I preach among the Gentiles. But I did so ³⁵  only in a private meeting with the influential people, ³⁶  to make sure that I was not running – or had not run ³⁷  – in vain.

Galatia 2:9

2:9 and when James, Cephas, ³⁸  and John, who had a reputation as ³⁹  pillars, ⁴⁰  recognized ⁴¹  the grace that had been given to me, they gave to Barnabas and me ⁴²  the right hand of fellowship, agreeing ⁴³  that we would go to the Gentiles and they to the circumcised. ⁴⁴ 

[4:17]  ¹ tn Or “They are zealous for you.”

[4:17]  ² tn Or “but not commendably” (BDAG 505 s.v. καλῶς 2).

[4:17]  ³ tn Or “so that you would be zealous.”

[5:16]  ⁴ tn Grk “walk” (a common NT idiom for how one conducts one’s life or how one behaves).

[5:16]  ⁵ tn On the term “flesh” (once in this verse and twice in v. 17) see the note on the same word in Gal 5:13.

[3:17]  ⁶ tc Most mss (D F G I 0176 0278 Ï it sy) read “ratified by God in Christ” whereas the omission of “in Christ” is the reading in Ì⁴⁶ א A B C P Ψ 6 33 81 1175 1739 1881 2464 pc co. The shorter reading is strongly supported by the ms evidence, and it is probable that a copyist inserted the words as an interpretive gloss. However, this form of the “in Christ” expression is somewhat atypical in the corpus Paulinum (εἰς Χριστόν [ei" Criston] rather than ἐν Χριστῷ [en Cristw]), a fact which tempers one’s certainty about the shorter reading. Nevertheless, the expression is used more in Galatians than in any other of Paul’s letters (Gal 2:16; 3:24, 27), and may have been suggested by such texts to early copyists.

[3:19]  ⁷ tn Grk “Why then the law?”

[3:19]  ⁸ tc For προσετέθη (proseteqh) several Western mss have ἐτέθη (eteqh, “it was established”; so D* F G it Ir^lat Ambst Spec). The net effect of this reading, in conjunction with the largely Western reading of πράξεων (praxewn) for παραβάσεων (parabasewn), seems to be a very positive assessment of the law. But there are compelling reasons for rejecting this reading: (1) externally, it is provincial and relatively late; (2) internally: (a) transcriptionally, there seems to be a much higher transcriptional probability that a scribe would try to smooth over Paul’s harsh saying here about the law than vice versa; (b) intrinsically: [1] Paul has already argued that the law came after the promise (vv. 15-18), indicating, more than likely, its temporary nature; [2] the verb “was added” in v. 19 (προσετέθη) is different from the verb in v. 15 (ἐπιδιατάσσεται, epidiatassetai); virtually all exegetes recognize this as an intentional linguistic shift on Paul’s part in order not to contradict his statement in v. 15; [3] the temper of 3:1–4:7 is decidedly against a positive statement about the Torah’s role in Heilsgeschichte.

[3:19]  ⁹ tc παραδόσεων (paradosewn; “traditions, commandments”) is read by D*, while the vast majority of witnesses read παραβάσεων (parabasewn, “transgressions”). D’s reading makes little sense in this context. πράξεων (praxewn, “of deeds”) replaces παραβάσεων in Ì⁴⁶ F G it Ir^lat Ambst Spec. The wording is best taken as going with νόμος (nomo"; “Why then the law of deeds?”), as is evident by the consistent punctuation in the later witnesses. But such an expression is unpauline and superfluous; it was almost certainly added by some early scribe(s) to soften the blow of Paul’s statement.

[3:19]  ¹⁰ tn Grk “the seed.” See the note on the first occurrence of the word “descendant” in 3:16.

[3:19]  ¹¹ tn Or “was ordered.” L&N 31.22 has “was put into effect” here.

[3:19]  ¹² tn Many modern translations (NASB, NIV, NRSV) render this word (μεσίτης, mesith"; here and in v. 20) as “mediator,” but this conveys a wrong impression in contemporary English. If this is referring to Moses, he certainly did not “mediate” between God and Israel but was an intermediary on God’s behalf. Moses was not a mediator, for example, who worked for compromise between opposing parties. He instead was God’s representative to his people who enabled them to have a relationship, but entirely on God’s terms.

[4:1]  ¹³ tn Grk “a small child.” The Greek term νήπιος (nhpios) refers to a young child, no longer a helpless infant but probably not more than three or four years old (L&N 9.43). The point in context, though, is that this child is too young to take any responsibility for the management of his assets.

[4:1]  ¹⁴ tn Grk “master” or “lord” (κύριος, kurios).

[4:18]  ¹⁵ tn Or “commendable.”

[4:18]  ¹⁶ tn Or “to be zealous.”

[4:18]  ¹⁷ tn Grk “But it is always good to be zealous in good.”

[6:12]  ¹⁸ tn Grk “in the flesh.” L&N 88.236 translates the phrase “those who force you to be circumcised are those who wish to make a good showing in external matters.”

[6:12]  ¹⁹ tn Grk “to be circumcised, only.” Because of the length and complexity of the Greek sentence, a new sentence was started with the words “They do so,” which were supplied to make a complete English sentence.

[6:12]  ²⁰ tc ‡ Grk “so that they will not be persecuted.” The indicative after ἵνα μή (Jina mh) is unusual (though not unexampled elsewhere in the NT), making it the harder reading. The evidence is fairly evenly split between the indicative διώκονται (diwkontai; Ì⁴⁶ A C F G K L P 0278 6 81 104 326 629 1175 1505 pm) and the subjunctive διώκωνται (diwkwntai; א B D Ψ 33 365 1739 pm), with a slight preference for the subjunctive. However, since scribes would tend to change the indicative to a subjunctive due to syntactical requirements, the internal evidence is decidedly on the side of the indicative, suggesting that it is original.

[1:7]  ²¹ tn Grk “which is not another,” but this could be misunderstood to mean “which is not really different.” In fact, as Paul goes on to make clear, there is no other gospel than the one he preaches.

[1:7]  ²² tn Grk “except.”

[1:7]  ²³ tn Or “trying.”

[4:5]  ²⁴ tn The Greek term υἱοθεσία (Juioqesia) was originally a legal technical term for adoption as a son with full rights of inheritance. BDAG 1024 s.v. notes, “a legal t.t. of ‘adoption’ of children, in our lit., i.e. in Paul, only in a transferred sense of a transcendent filial relationship between God and humans (with the legal aspect, not gender specificity, as major semantic component).” Although some modern translations remove the filial sense completely and render the term merely “adoption” (cf. NAB), the retention of this component of meaning was accomplished in the present translation by the phrase “as sons.”

[5:3]  ²⁵ tn Or “keep”; or “carry out”; Grk “do.”

[3:16]  ²⁶ tn Grk “his seed,” a figurative extension of the meaning of σπέρμα (sperma) to refer to descendants (L&N 10.29).

[3:16]  ²⁷ tn Grk “It”; the referent (the scripture) has been specified in the translation for clarity. The understood subject of the verb λέγει (legei) could also be “He” (referring to God) as the one who spoke the promise to Abraham.

[3:16]  ²⁸ tn Grk “to seeds.” See the note on “descendant” earlier in this verse. Here the term is plural; the use of the singular in the OT text cited later in this verse is crucial to Paul’s argument.

[3:16]  ²⁹ tn See the note on “descendant” earlier in this verse.

[3:16]  sn A quotation from Gen 12:7; 13:15; 17:7; 24:7.

[4:27]  ³⁰ tn The direct object “children” is not in the Greek text, but has been supplied for clarity. Direct objects were often omitted in Greek when clear from the context.

[4:27]  ³¹ tn Grk “because more are the children of the barren one than of the one having a husband.”

[4:27]  sn A quotation from Isa 54:1.

[2:2]  ³² tn Grk “I went up”; one always spoke idiomatically of going “up” to Jerusalem.

[2:2]  ³³ tn Or “in accordance with.” According to BDAG 512 s.v. κατά B.5.a.δ, “Oft. the norm is at the same time the reason, so that in accordance with and because of are merged…Instead of ‘in accordance w.’ κ. can mean simply because of, as a result of, on the basis of…κ. ἀποκάλυψιν Gal 2:2.”

[2:2]  ³⁴ tn Or “set before them.”

[2:2]  ³⁵ tn Grk “Gentiles, but only privately…to make sure.” Because of the length and complexity of the Greek sentence, a new sentence was started with “But” and the words “I did so,” an implied repetition from the previous clause, were supplied to make a complete English sentence.

[2:2]  ³⁶ tn L&N 87.42 has “important persons, influential persons, prominent persons” for οἱ δοκοῦντες and translates this phrase in Gal 2:2 as “in a private meeting with the prominent persons.” The “prominent people” referred to here are the leaders of the Jerusalem church.

[2:2]  ³⁷ tn Here the first verb (τρέχω, trecw, “was not running”) is present subjunctive, while the second (ἔδραμον, edramon, “had not run”) is aorist indicative.

[2:9]  ³⁸ sn Cephas. This individual is generally identified with the Apostle Peter (L&N 93.211).

[2:9]  ³⁹ tn Or “who were influential as,” or “who were reputed to be.” See also the note on the word “influential” in 2:6.

[2:9]  ⁴⁰ sn Pillars is figurative here for those like James, Peter, and John who were leaders in the Jerusalem church.

[2:9]  ⁴¹ tn The participle γνόντες (gnontes) has been taken temporally. It is structurally parallel to the participle translated “when they saw” in v. 7.

[2:9]  ⁴² tn Grk “me and Barnabas.”

[2:9]  ⁴³ tn Grk “so,” with the ἵνα (Jina) indicating the result of the “pillars” extending the “right hand of fellowship,” but the translation “they gave…the right hand of fellowship so that we would go” could be misunderstood as purpose here. The implication of the scene is that an agreement, outlined at the end of v. 10, was reached between Paul and Barnabas on the one hand and the “pillars” of the Jerusalem church on the other.

[2:9]  ⁴⁴ tn Grk “to the circumcision,” a collective reference to the Jewish people.