Galatians 4

Here is what I mean. As long as the heir is still a child, he is no different from a slave, even though he owns everything.

1Now I say, That the heir, as long as he is a child, differeth nothing from a servant, though he be lord of all;

NoteThe KJV's "servant" here means a slave, not a hired worker. The picture is an ordinary legal one from the Greek and Roman world: a boy who has inherited an estate owns it in law from the moment his father dies, but until he comes of age he has no more say over it than the household slaves do.

2He is under guardians and property managers until the time his father has set.

2But is under tutors and governors until the time appointed of the father.

Note"Tutors and governors" are two different officials. The first supervised the child himself; the second managed the property and accounts. Roman law normally fixed the end of guardianship at set ages, but a father could name the date in his will, which is what Paul's phrase "the time appointed of the father" points to.

3It was the same with us. When we were children, we were slaves to the basic rules and forces of the world.

3Even so we, when we were children, were in bondage under the elements of the world:

Note"Elements" translates the Greek word stoicheia, which had a range of senses and is genuinely disputed here. It could mean the ABCs, the basic first lessons of a subject; it could mean the physical elements the world was thought to be made of, earth, water, air and fire; and it could mean the spiritual powers believed to stand behind the heavenly bodies and the calendar. Paul does not say which he means, and the rendering keeps the ambiguity.

4But when the time had fully come, God sent out his Son. He was born of a woman, and born under the law,

4But when the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law,

Note"Made of a woman, made under the law" uses "made" in its older sense of born. The phrase "born of a woman" was a common Jewish way of saying simply that someone was a human being.

5in order to buy freedom for those who were under the law, so that we could be adopted as sons.

5To redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons.

Note"Redeem" is a commercial word. It meant buying a person out of slavery or captivity by paying a price. "The adoption of sons" is a legal term as well: in Roman law an adopted son took his new father's name, his debts were cancelled, and he became heir with the same standing as a son born in the house.

6And because you are sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls out, "Abba, Father!"

6And because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father.

Note"Abba" is Aramaic, the everyday language Jesus spoke, and it is the ordinary family word for father, used by children and grown sons alike. Paul leaves it untranslated and then gives the Greek for it, which suggests the Aramaic word was already fixed in the prayers of Greek-speaking congregations. Manuscripts differ here between "your hearts" and "our hearts"; the KJV follows the first, most modern editions the second.

7So you are no longer a slave but a son. And if you are a son, then God has made you his heir through Christ.

7Wherefore thou art no more a servant, but a son; and if a son, then an heir of God through Christ.

NoteThe ending of this verse varies in the manuscripts. Some read "an heir through God," some "an heir of God," and some "an heir of God through Christ," which is the reading the KJV follows.

8In the past, when you did not know God, you served as slaves to things that by their very nature are not gods at all.

8Howbeit then, when ye knew not God, ye did service unto them which by nature are no gods.

9But now you know God, or rather God knows you. So how can you turn back again to those weak and worthless basic rules? Do you want to be their slaves all over again?

9But now, after that ye have known God, or rather are known of God, how turn ye again to the weak and beggarly elements, whereunto ye desire again to be in bondage?

Note"Beggarly" in 1611 English meant destitute, bankrupt, having nothing to give. "Known of God" means known by God. Paul's "turn again" is pointed: his readers are not Jews returning to their own past, so he is classing a move toward law-keeping with the pagan religion they left.

10You are carefully keeping special days and months and seasons and years.

10Ye observe days, and months, and times, and years.

NoteThe list points to a religious calendar: weekly sabbaths, new moon festivals at the start of each month, the annual feasts, and the sabbatical years that came every seventh year. The verb can be read as a statement or as an exclamation of dismay.

11I am afraid for you. I am afraid that all the work I did for you was wasted.

11I am afraid of you, lest I have bestowed upon you labour in vain.

12Brothers and sisters, I beg you, become like me, because I became like you. You have done me no wrong at all.

12Brethren, I beseech you, be as I am; for I am as ye are: ye have not injured me at all.

NoteThe Greek is extremely compressed, with no verb in the second half: literally "become as I, because I also as you." What Paul means by having become like them is not spelled out and has been read in more than one way, most often as his having lived like a Gentile rather than keeping the requirements that set Jews apart.

13You know that it was because I was sick in body that I first told you the good news.

13Ye know how through infirmity of the flesh I preached the gospel unto you at the first.

Note"Infirmity of the flesh" means bodily illness. "At the first" is ambiguous in the Greek: it can mean on the first of two visits, or simply originally, when he first came. Paul never says what the illness was.

14My physical condition was a hard test for you, but you did not look down on me or turn me away. You welcomed me as if I were an angel of God, as if I were Christ Jesus himself.

14And my temptation which was in my flesh ye despised not, nor rejected; but received me as an angel of God, even as Christ Jesus.

Note"Temptation" in 1611 English meant a trial or test, not an enticement to do wrong. The word behind "rejected" literally means spat out; spitting was a common gesture to ward off the evil thought to lie behind a disease or a disfigurement, so Paul is saying they did not treat his condition as something to be warded off. "Angel" means messenger, a being sent by God.

15So what happened to the happiness you talked about? I can say this about you: if it had been possible, you would have pulled out your own eyes and given them to me.

15Where is then the blessedness ye spake of? for I bear you record, that, if it had been possible, ye would have plucked out your own eyes, and have given them to me.

Note"Blessedness" here is the Greek makarismos, the act of calling someone fortunate, so the sense is the congratulation or self-congratulation they once expressed. "I bear you record" means I testify on your behalf. Tearing out one's eyes and handing them over was a way of naming the most precious thing a person could give; some readers connect it to the illness of verse 13, but Paul does not.

16Have I now become your enemy simply because I tell you the truth?

16Am I therefore become your enemy, because I tell you the truth?

17Those people are eager to win you over, but not for a good purpose. They want to shut you off from us, so that you will be eager for them.

17They zealously affect you, but not well; yea, they would exclude you, that ye might affect them.

Note"Zealously affect" uses "affect" in its old sense of courting someone, seeking their favor, paying eager attention to them. The word Paul uses for what these rivals want, "exclude you," is the word for shutting someone out, as of locking a door.

18It is good to be eager, as long as the cause is a good one, and to be eager all the time, not only when I am there with you.

18But it is good to be zealously affected always in a good thing, and not only when I am present with you.

NoteThe same verb from verse 17 runs through this sentence. Paul is granting that being courted, or being eager, is not wrong in itself; it depends on the cause and on whether it lasts when he is away.

19My little children, I am going through the pains of childbirth for you all over again, until Christ is formed in you.

19My little children, of whom I travail in birth again until Christ be formed in you,

20I wish I could be with you right now and speak in a different tone, because I do not know what to make of you.

20I desire to be present with you now, and to change my voice; for I stand in doubt of you.

21Tell me, you who want to live under the law: do you not hear what the law itself says?

21Tell me, ye that desire to be under the law, do ye not hear the law?

NoteThe word "law" is used in two senses in one sentence. First it means the law's requirements, which his readers want to take on; then it means the books of Moses as a written text, the first five books of the Bible, which is what he is about to quote from.

22It is written that Abraham had two sons, one by the slave woman and one by the free woman.

22For it is written, that Abraham had two sons, the one by a bondmaid, the other by a freewoman.

NoteThe story is in Genesis 16 and 21. Abraham, promised a son but still childless, fathered Ishmael by Hagar, an Egyptian slave in the household, at Sarah's own suggestion. Isaac was born later to Sarah herself, Abraham's wife and a free woman, when both parents were long past the age of having children.

23The son of the slave woman was born in the ordinary human way. The son of the free woman was born because God had promised him.

23But he who was of the bondwoman was born after the flesh; but he of the freewoman was by promise.

Note"After the flesh" means by the ordinary workings of human arrangement and human biology. The contrast is not between a sinful birth and a pure one but between a son produced by the household's own planning and a son who arrived only because God had said he would.

24These things stand for something beyond themselves. The two women stand for two covenants, two binding agreements. One covenant comes from Mount Sinai and gives birth to children who are slaves. That covenant is Hagar.

24Which things are an allegory: for these are the two covenants; the one from the mount Sinai, which gendereth to bondage, which is Agar.

Note"Allegory" translates a Greek verb meaning to speak so that one thing stands for another; it was the standard term for the method by which teachers found a second level of meaning in old texts. "Gendereth" is 1611 English for gives birth to. A covenant is a formal binding agreement between two parties, the word used throughout the Hebrew Bible for the terms on which God and Israel were bound to each other; the agreement at Mount Sinai is the one where Moses received the law.

25This Hagar stands for Mount Sinai in Arabia, and she matches the Jerusalem that exists now, because that city is a slave along with her children.

25For this Agar is mount Sinai in Arabia, and answereth to Jerusalem which now is, and is in bondage with her children.

Note"Agar" is the KJV's spelling of Hagar, taken from the Greek form of the name. Arabia here means the desert region east and south of Judea, where Hagar's descendants were held to live. The manuscripts differ over whether the name Hagar appears in the first clause at all. "Answereth to" means corresponds to, lines up with, in the way one column of a table matches another.

26But the Jerusalem that is above is free, and she is the mother of us all.

26But Jerusalem which is above is free, which is the mother of us all.

Note"The Jerusalem which is above" was a familiar idea in Jewish writing of the period: a heavenly city, existing already with God, which the earthly Jerusalem imperfectly copies. Some manuscripts read "the mother of us all," others simply "our mother."

27For it is written: "Be glad, you woman who cannot have children and gives birth to none. Break out and shout, you who never went through labor. For the woman left alone has far more children than the woman who has a husband."

27For it is written, Rejoice, thou barren that bearest not; break forth and cry, thou that travailest not: for the desolate hath many more children than she which hath an husband.

NoteThe quotation is Isaiah 54:1, in its Greek version. In Isaiah it is addressed to Jerusalem, pictured as a woman abandoned and childless during the exile, and promised more children than she had when her husband was with her. "Travailest not" means has not gone through labor; "the desolate" is the wife who has been deserted or widowed.

28Now we, brothers and sisters, are children who come from God's promise, just as Isaac was.

28Now we, brethren, as Isaac was, are the children of promise.

29Back then, the son born in the ordinary human way treated the son born by the Spirit badly. It is the same now.

29But as then he that was born after the flesh persecuted him that was born after the Spirit, even so it is now.

NoteGenesis 21:9 says only that Sarah saw Ishmael "mocking" or laughing, and the Hebrew is unclear about what he was doing. Jewish interpretation of Paul's day commonly read the scene as mistreatment of Isaac, which is the reading Paul assumes here.

30But what does the scripture say? "Send the slave woman and her son away, because the slave woman's son will never share the inheritance with the free woman's son."

30Nevertheless what saith the scripture? Cast out the bondwoman and her son: for the son of the bondwoman shall not be heir with the son of the freewoman.

NoteThe quotation is Genesis 21:10, where these are Sarah's words to Abraham demanding that Hagar and Ishmael be sent away. Paul quotes it with small changes, most notably ending with "the son of the freewoman" where Genesis has "my son, with Isaac."

31So then, brothers and sisters, we are not children of the slave woman. We are children of the free woman.

31So then, brethren, we are not children of the bondwoman, but of the free.