Galatians 3:10-13

3:10 For all who ¹  rely on doing the works of the law are under a curse, because it is written, “Cursed is everyone who does not keep on doing everything written in the book of the law.” ²  3:11 Now it is clear no one is justified before God by the law, because the righteous one will live by faith. ³  3:12 But the law is not based on faith, ⁴  but the one who does the works of the law ⁵  will live by them. ⁶  3:13 Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming ⁷  a curse for us (because it is written, “Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree”) ⁸ 

Galatians 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, ⁹  so as to invalidate the promise.

¹ tn Grk “For as many as.”

² tn Grk “Cursed is everyone who does not continue in all the things written in the book of the law, to do them.”

³ tn Or “The one who is righteous by faith will live” (a quotation from Hab 2:4).

⁴ tn Grk “is not from faith.”

⁵ tn Grk “who does these things”; the referent (the works of the law, see 3:5) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

⁶ sn A quotation from Lev 18:5. The phrase the works of the law is an editorial expansion on the Greek text (see previous note); it has been left as normal typeface to indicate it is not part of the OT text.

⁷ tn Grk “having become”; the participle γενόμενος (genomenos) has been taken instrumentally.

⁸ 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.

⁹ 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.