Galatians 1:6-9

Occasion of the Letter

1:6 I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting the one ¹  who called you by the grace of Christ ²  and are following ³  a different ⁴  gospel – 1:7 not that there really is another gospel, ⁵  but ⁶  there are some who are disturbing you and wanting ⁷  to distort the gospel of Christ. 1:8 But even if we (or an angel from heaven) should preach ⁸  a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, ⁹  let him be condemned to hell! ¹⁰  1:9 As we have said before, and now I say again, if any one is preaching to you a gospel contrary to what you received, let him be condemned to hell! ¹¹ 

Romans 11:6

11:6 And if it is by grace, it is no longer by works, otherwise grace would no longer be grace.

Hebrews 6:4-6

6:4 For it is impossible in the case of those who have once been enlightened, tasted the heavenly gift, become partakers of the Holy Spirit, 6:5 tasted the good word of God and the miracles of the coming age, 6:6 and then have committed apostasy, ¹²  to renew them again to repentance, since ¹³  they are crucifying the Son of God for themselves all over again ¹⁴  and holding him up to contempt.

Hebrews 10:38-39

10:38 But my righteous one will live by faith, and if he shrinks back, I ¹⁵  take no pleasure in him. ¹⁶  10:39 But we are not among those who shrink back and thus perish, but are among those who have faith and preserve their souls. ¹⁷ 

Hebrews 12:15

12:15 See to it that no one comes short of the grace of God, that no one be like a bitter root springing up ¹⁸  and causing trouble, and through him many become defiled.

Hebrews 12:2

12:2 keeping our eyes fixed on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of our faith. For the joy set out for him he endured the cross, disregarding its shame, and has taken his seat at the right hand of the throne of God. ¹⁹ 

Hebrews 2:1

Warning Against Drifting Away

2:1 Therefore we must pay closer attention to what we have heard, so that we do not drift away.

Hebrews 3:17-18

3:17 And against whom was God ²⁰  provoked for forty years? Was it not those who sinned, whose dead bodies fell in the wilderness? ²¹  3:18 And to whom did he swear they would never enter into his rest, except those who were disobedient?

Revelation 2:5

2:5 Therefore, remember from what high state ²²  you have fallen and repent! Do ²³  the deeds you did at the first; ²⁴  if not, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place – that is, if you do not repent. ²⁵ 

¹ sn The one who called you is a reference to God the Father (note the mention of Christ in the following prepositional phrase and the mention of God the Father in 1:1).

² tc Although the majority of witnesses, including some of the most important ones (Ì⁵¹ א A B F^c Ψ 33 1739 1881 Ï f vg sy^p bo), read “by the grace of Christ” (χάριτι Χριστοῦ, cariti Cristou) here, this reading is not without variables. Besides alternate readings such as χάριτι ᾿Ιησοῦ Χριστοῦ (cariti Ihsou Cristou, “by the grace of Jesus Christ”; D 326 1241^s pc sy^h**) and χάριτι θεοῦ (cariti qeou, “by the grace of God”; 327 pc Thret^lem), a few mss (Ì^46vid F* G H^vid ar b Tert Cyp Ambst Pel) have simply χάριτι with no modifier. Internally, the reading that seems best to explain the rise of the others is the shortest reading, χάριτι. Indeed, the fact that three different adjuncts are found in the mss seems to be a natural expansion on the simple “grace.” At the same time, the witnesses for the shortest reading are not particularly impressive, being that they largely represent one textual strand (Western), and a less-than-reliable one at that. Further, nowhere else in the corpus Paulinum do we see the construction χάρις (cari", “grace”) followed by Χριστοῦ without some other name (such as κυρίου [kuriou, “Lord”] or ᾿Ιησοῦ). The construction χάρις θεοῦ is likewise frequent in Paul. Thus, upon closer inspection it seems that the original wording here was χάριτι Χριστοῦ (for it is difficult to explain how this particular reading could have arisen from the simple χάριτι, in light of Paul’s normal idioms), with the other readings intentionally or accidentally arising from it.

³ tn Grk “deserting [turning away] to” a different gospel, implying the idea of “following.”

⁴ tn Grk “another.”

⁵ 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.

⁶ tn Grk “except.”

⁷ tn Or “trying.”

⁸ tc ‡ Most witnesses have ὑμῖν (Jumin, “to you”) either after (א² A [D* ὑμᾶς] 6 33 326 614 945 1881 Ï Tert^pt Ambst) or before (Ì^51vid B H 0278 630 1175 [1739* ἡμῖν]) εὐαγγελίζηται (euaggelizhtai, “should preach” [or some variation on the form of this verb]). But the fact that it floats suggests its inauthenticity, especially since it appears to be a motivated reading for purposes of clarification. The following witnesses lack the pronoun: א* F G Ψ ar b g Cyp Mcion^T Tert^pt Lcf. The external evidence admittedly is not as weighty as evidence for the pronoun, but coupled with strong internal evidence the shorter reading should be considered original. Although it is possible that scribes may have deleted the pronoun to make Paul’s statement seem more universal, the fact that the pronoun floats suggests otherwise. NA²⁷ has the pronoun in brackets, indicating doubt as to its authenticity.

⁹ tn Or “other than the one we preached to you.”

¹⁰ tn Grk “let him be accursed” (ἀνάθεμα, anaqema). The translation gives the outcome which is implied by this dreadful curse.

¹¹ tn See the note on this phrase in the previous verse.

¹² tn Or “have fallen away.”

¹³ tn Or “while”; Grk “crucifying…and holding.” The Greek participles here (“crucifying…and holding”) can be understood as either causal (“since”) or temporal (“while”).

¹⁴ tn Grk “recrucifying the son of God for themselves.”

¹⁵ tn Grk “my soul.”

¹⁶ sn A quotation from Hab 2:4.

¹⁷ tn Grk “not…of shrinking back to perdition but of faith to the preservation of the soul.”

¹⁸ tn Grk “that there not be any root of bitterness,” but referring figuratively to a person who causes trouble (as in Deut 29:17 [LXX] from which this is quoted).

¹⁹ sn An allusion to Ps 110:1.

²⁰ tn Grk “he”; in the translation the referent (God) has been specified for clarity.

²¹ sn An allusion to God’s judgment pronounced in Num 14:29, 32.

²² tn Grk “from where,” but status is in view rather than physical position. On this term BDAG 838 s.v. πόθεν 1 states, “from what place? from where?…In imagery μνημόνευε πόθεν πέπτωκες remember from what (state) you have fallen Rv 2:5.”

²³ tn Grk “and do” (a continuation of the previous sentence in the Greek text). For stylistic reasons in English a new sentence was started here in the translation. The repeated mention of repenting at the end of the verse suggests that the intervening material (“do the deeds you did at first”) specifies how the repentance is to be demonstrated.

²⁴ tn Or “you did formerly.”

²⁵ tn Although the final clause is somewhat awkward, it is typical of the style of Revelation.