Galatians 3

You foolish Galatians! Who has put a spell on you, so that you no longer obey the truth? Jesus Christ was pictured plainly before your own eyes as the one who was crucified.

1O foolish Galatians, who hath bewitched you, that ye should not obey the truth, before whose eyes Jesus Christ hath been evidently set forth, crucified among you?

NoteThe Galatians were mostly non-Jewish converts living in Galatia, a Roman province in what is now central Turkey. "Bewitched" translates a word associated with the evil eye, a spell cast by a hostile look; Paul is using it as a sharp figure of speech for how a sensible group could suddenly stop thinking straight. "Evidently set forth" does not mean "obviously" in the modern sense: the Greek word is used of a public notice posted up in the open where everyone could read it, so the sense is that the crucified Christ had been placarded in front of them.

2I want to learn just one thing from you. Did you receive the Spirit by doing what the law says, or by hearing the message and believing it?

2This only would I learn of you, Received ye the Spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith?

Note"The law" throughout this chapter means the law of Moses, the body of commands Israel received at Mount Sinai and preserved in the first five books of the Hebrew scriptures. "Works of the law" means keeping those commands, and in this letter the argument centers on the practices that visibly marked out Jews from everyone else: circumcision, food rules, and the sacred calendar.

3Are you really that foolish? You began with the Spirit. Are you now trying to be brought to the finish by your own human effort?

3Are ye so foolish? having begun in the Spirit, are ye now made perfect by the flesh?

Note"Flesh" in the King James does not mean the body as opposed to the soul. It stands for human capacity and effort, life lived out of one's own resources. There is probably also a pointed edge here, since the specific thing being urged on the Galatians, circumcision, is a cutting of literal flesh.

4Did you go through so much suffering for nothing? If it really was for nothing.

4Have ye suffered so many things in vain? if it be yet in vain.

NoteThe Greek verb behind "suffered" means simply to experience or undergo something, and only takes on the sense of suffering from context. It can be read either as "went through so much hardship" or, more neutrally, "had so much happen to you," and both readings have long been defended.

5So think about the one who gives you his Spirit and does miracles among you. Does he do it because you do what the law says, or because you hear the message and believe it?

5He therefore that ministereth to you the Spirit, and worketh miracles among you, doeth he it by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith?

6It is the same as with Abraham. He believed God, and God counted that faith as making him right with himself.

6Even as Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness.

NoteThe quotation is Genesis 15:6. "Accounted" is a bookkeeping word: an amount entered in someone's ledger, credited to their account. "Righteousness" is not primarily an inward quality here but a standing, being in the right in a relationship or before a court.

7So understand this: the people who have faith are the true children of Abraham.

7Know ye therefore that they which are of faith, the same are the children of Abraham.

NoteBeing a child of Abraham was not a sentimental phrase. Physical descent from Abraham defined who belonged to the covenant people and who inherited the promises made to him, so the claim that faith rather than birth makes someone Abraham's child was a claim about who counts as family.

8Scripture saw ahead of time that God would make the non-Jewish nations right with himself through faith. So it announced the good news to Abraham in advance: "Through you all nations will be blessed."

8And the scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the heathen through faith, preached before the gospel unto Abraham, saying, In thee shall all nations be blessed.

Note"The heathen" in the King James simply translates the ordinary Greek word for the nations, that is, everyone who is not Jewish. It carries none of the modern overtones of savagery or irreligion. The quotation is from Genesis 12:3 and 18:18. The Greek verb is ambiguous in the same way the Hebrew is: it can mean "all nations will be blessed through you" or "all nations will pronounce blessings on themselves by naming you."

9So then, those who have faith are blessed along with Abraham, the man who believed.

9So then they which be of faith are blessed with faithful Abraham.

10But all who depend on doing what the law says are under a curse. For it is written: "Cursed is everyone who does not keep on doing everything written in the book of the law."

10For as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse: for it is written, Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them.

NoteThe quotation is Deuteronomy 27:26, the closing line of a ceremony in which the tribes of Israel stood on two mountains and called out curses on anyone who broke the covenant terms. "The book of the law" is the written law of Moses itself. The Greek version Paul quotes includes the words "all" and "everything," which the Hebrew text leaves implicit.

11It is clear that no one is made right with God by the law, because scripture says, "The person who is right with God will live by faith."

11But that no man is justified by the law in the sight of God, it is evident: for, The just shall live by faith.

NoteThe quotation is Habakkuk 2:4. "The just" is an older English way of saying "the righteous," the person who is in the right. The Greek phrasing is genuinely ambiguous about which words go together: it can mean "the righteous person will live by faith" or "the one who is righteous by faith will live." The word translated "faith" can also mean faithfulness or steady loyalty, which is closer to the sense in the Hebrew original.

12The law is not based on faith. Instead it says, "The person who does these things will live by them."

12And the law is not of faith: but, The man that doeth them shall live in them.

NoteThe quotation is Leviticus 18:5, where the commands are given with the promise that the person who keeps them will live by them.

13Christ bought us back from the curse that the law brings, by becoming a curse for us. For it is written: "Cursed is everyone who is hung on a tree."

13Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us: for it is written, Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree:

Note"Redeemed" is a commercial word: to buy something back, or to pay the price that frees a slave or a prisoner of war. The quotation is Deuteronomy 21:23, a law about the corpse of an executed criminal hung up on a wooden post as a public display; the body had to be taken down before nightfall because it was under God's curse. The Greek word translated "tree" also means wood or a wooden stake, which is how early Christians could apply this line to a Roman cross.

14He did this so the blessing given to Abraham could come to the non-Jewish nations through Jesus Christ, and so that by faith we could receive the promised Spirit.

14That the blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through Jesus Christ; that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith.

15Brothers and sisters, let me use an example from ordinary human life. Even an agreement between people, once it has been made official, cannot be canceled or added to by anyone.

15Brethren, I speak after the manner of men; Though it be but a man’s covenant, yet if it be confirmed, no man disannulleth, or addeth thereto.

NoteThe Greek word here covers both a covenant, a binding agreement, and a will or testament, the legal document disposing of a dead person's estate. Paul is trading on both senses. "Confirmed" means formally ratified, made legally binding; "disannulleth" is simply the older English for cancels or sets aside.

16Now the promises were spoken to Abraham and to his seed. Scripture does not say "and to seeds," as if it meant many people. It says "and to your seed," meaning one, who is Christ.

16Now to Abraham and his seed were the promises made. He saith not, And to seeds, as of many; but as of one, And to thy seed, which is Christ.

NoteThe promises are quoted from Genesis, where God repeatedly tells Abraham that the land will go "to your seed" (Genesis 12:7, 13:15, 17:8, 24:7). In Hebrew and in Greek, as in the older English word "seed," the noun is a collective singular meaning offspring or descendants, and normally refers to a whole line of descent rather than one individual. Paul is pressing the fact that the word is grammatically singular, a style of close argument from the exact wording of scripture that was familiar in the Jewish interpretation of his day.

17Here is my point. God had already put a covenant into effect in Christ. The law, which came 430 years later, cannot cancel that covenant and make the promise worthless.

17And this I say, that the covenant, that was confirmed before of God in Christ, the law, which was four hundred and thirty years after, cannot disannul, that it should make the promise of none effect.

NoteThe 430 years comes from Exodus 12:40, which gives that figure for how long Israel lived in Egypt before the exodus and the giving of the law. Other ancient texts and traditions count the span differently, but Paul's point does not depend on the exact number, only on the law coming long after the promise.

18For if the inheritance depends on the law, then it no longer comes from a promise. But God gave it to Abraham through a promise.

18For if the inheritance be of the law, it is no more of promise: but God gave it to Abraham by promise.

Note"Inheritance" continues the legal picture from verse 15. What was promised to Abraham was an estate in the ordinary sense: land, descendants, and blessing reaching the nations. An inheritance comes to an heir because of who the giver is and what the giver decided, not as payment for work done.

19Then what was the law for? It was added because of the wrong things people do, and it lasted until the seed came, the one the promise was about. It was put in place through angels, by a go-between.

19Wherefore then serveth the law? It was added because of transgressions, till the seed should come to whom the promise was made; and it was ordained by angels in the hand of a mediator.

NoteJewish tradition in this period held that angels were present and active when the law was given at Sinai, a detail drawn from texts such as Deuteronomy 33:2 in its Greek version. The "mediator" or go-between is Moses, who stood between God and the people and carried the law from one to the other. The phrase "because of transgressions" is open at both ends in the Greek: it can mean the law was added to hold wrongdoing in check, or added to expose wrongdoing for what it is.

20Now a go-between is not needed when there is only one party involved; but God is one.

20Now a mediator is not a mediator of one, but God is one.

NoteThis is one of the most disputed sentences in the letter, and interpreters have proposed hundreds of readings of it. The bare argument seems to be that a go-between by definition stands between two parties, whereas the promise to Abraham was made by God alone, with no second party and no intermediary.

21Does the law then work against God's promises? Absolutely not. If a law had been given that could give life, then being right with God really would come through the law.

21Is the law then against the promises of God? God forbid: for if there had been a law given which could have given life, verily righteousness should have been by the law.

NoteThe King James "God forbid" translates a stock Greek expression of strong denial that contains no word for God at all. It is closer to "absolutely not" or "out of the question."

22But scripture has declared that everything is locked up under the power of sin. That way the promise could be given, through faith in Jesus Christ, to those who believe.

22But the scripture hath concluded all under sin, that the promise by faith of Jesus Christ might be given to them that believe.

Note"Concluded" here does not mean reached a conclusion. In 1611 English it could mean to shut in or confine, and that is the sense of the Greek: everything is locked up, penned in, with sin as the jailer. The word translated "all" is grammatically neuter and means "all things," a wider sweep than "all people."

23Before this faith came, we were held in custody under the law. We were locked up until the faith that was coming would be made known.

23But before faith came, we were kept under the law, shut up unto the faith which should afterwards be revealed.

NoteThe verbs are from guarding and imprisonment: the first is used of a garrison holding a city under watch, the second of locking someone up. The picture is protective custody as much as punishment, a holding pattern until the appointed time.

24So the law was the guardian who took us to Christ, so that we could be made right with God by faith.

24Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith.

Note"Schoolmaster" is misleading. The Greek word is paidagogos, and he was not a teacher. He was a household slave assigned to a boy of a well off family, responsible for walking him to and from school, minding his manners and keeping him out of trouble until he came of age. The role was temporary by design and often resented, which is exactly the point of the comparison.

25But now that this faith has come, we are no longer under that guardian.

25But after that faith is come, we are no longer under a schoolmaster.

26For you are all children of God through faith in Christ Jesus.

26For ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus.

NoteThe Greek says "sons." The word is not merely a synonym for children here: sonship carried the legal right to inherit, which is where the argument goes in verse 29. Since verse 28 says the distinction between male and female no longer applies, the term covers everyone in the community.

27All of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ.

27For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ.

Note"Put on" is the ordinary word for putting on clothes, and it was also used of taking on a role or a character, the way an actor puts on a costume. Early Christian baptism involved going down into water, and in some places new believers were dressed in fresh clothing afterward, which may lie behind the image.

28There is no Jew or Greek, no slave or free person, no male or female. You are all one in Christ Jesus.

28There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus.

NoteThese are the three fundamental divisions of the ancient social world: ethnic and religious (Jew and Greek, Greek here standing for everyone who is not Jewish), legal (slave and free, in a society where a large share of the population was owned property), and sexual. The last pair does not use the word "nor" like the others but says "male and female," the exact wording of Genesis 1:27 in its Greek version.

29And if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham's seed, and you are heirs according to the promise.

29And if ye be Christ’s, then are ye Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.