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, ¹  so as to invalidate the promise.

Galatians 3:1

Justification by Law or by Faith?

3:1 You ²  foolish Galatians! Who has cast a spell ³  on you? Before your eyes Jesus Christ was vividly portrayed ⁴  as crucified!

Colossians 1:29

1:29 Toward this goal ⁵  I also labor, struggling according to his power that powerfully ⁶  works in me.

¹ 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.

² tn Grk “O” (an interjection used both in address and emotion). In context the following section is highly charged emotionally.

³ tn Or “deceived”; the verb βασκαίνω (baskainw) can be understood literally here in the sense of bewitching by black magic, but could also be understood figuratively to refer to an act of deception (see L&N 53.98 and 88.159).

⁴ tn Or “publicly placarded,” “set forth in a public proclamation” (BDAG 867 s.v. προγράφω 2).

⁵ tn The Greek phrase εἴς ὅ (eis Jo, “toward which”) implies “movement toward a goal” and has been rendered by the English phrase “Toward this goal.”

⁶ tn The prepositional phrase ἐν δυνάμει (en dunamei) seems to be functioning adverbially, related to the participle, and has therefore been translated “powerfully.”